MoL - Chapter 5: Deliverance
Title: Misappropriation of Lives
Author: Milena D.
Rating: T+ for now
Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Action/Romance, etc. Daniel/Vala eventually
SPOILERS: Prometheus Unbound (8x12), Insiders (10x04), Threads (8x18) for Jacob, uhh Dominion (10x19) I guess but not really.
Disclaimer: Own my plot, that’s it!
Summary: The past will always find you, especially if you have something it wants.
Author’s Note #1: Don’t have much to say this time :P Just hope you like it!
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
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Chapter 5: Deliverance
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Qetesh was absolutely thrilled. Ba’al had finally brought her back into his activities, not entirely but it was a start. She’d been informed that they would be landing on Jris today, it was a small desert planet but it had potential. He also told her they were expecting worshippers and that always excited her. She had picked out a minimal outfit that would be sure to please her Lord and had met him in his throne room; there he sat in all his glory, confident and powerful, as always.
“My lord.” she greeted him with a bowed head and heated eyes. He expelled a loud sigh of tolerance and beckoned her to him.
“My queen, I trust all goes well?” he asked pulling her to him for a ravenous kiss. He released her roughly and she schooled her features not to reflect her discontent.
“Yes, my lord, all is well. I have heard nothing from the host in days, I firmly believe she’s been conquered.” she enthused.
“I’m sure.” he said skeptically as a Jaffa entered the throne room.
“My lord,” he said as he kneeled “the Tok’ra have arrived.”
“Show our guests in.” Ba’al smirked.
“Tok’ra?” Qetesh asked incredulously “What are they doing here?”
“They’ve come to worship us, my dear.” he answered her delightedly. He seemed confident in the situation but she couldn’t shake off a deep sense of unease.
“We will kill them, won’t we?” she asked hopefully and he gave her a look of disdain.
“Eventually, perhaps, but not today.” he returned unconcerned. Her teeth ground together in an effort to keep her rage from showing.
“If it’s all the same to you, my lord, I’d prefer to return to my quarters for the duration of their stay. They were among those responsible for my extraction from this host and my imprisonment for many years.” she reminded with a tense smile. She would rather face them all and have them massacred in the throne room but Ba’al obviously had a plan and she couldn’t afford to cause anymore friction between them.
Ba’al gave her a long look but nodded.
“You may.” he dismissed her with a wave of his hand and she backed away with a bow.
“Thank you, my lord.” she spoke as she backed out of the room.
Once the doors closed behind her, she dropped the dismissive act with a disgusted shake and turned around to come face to face with the very people she was trying to avoid. There were over fifty Tok’ra standing subdued before her and the urge to lift her ribbon device and splatter them all over the walls of the ha’tak was powerful but she somehow got a rein on it and passed them with only a deep glower.
Qetesh was halfway to her quarters when her ears picked up on soft footsteps behind her. She kept her pace and rounded the corner to turn swiftly on her heels and wait for her followers with her ribbon device active and ready. She didn’t have to wait long.
A Tok’ra operative turned the corner cautiously and she surprised him with a blast that threw him violently against the opposing wall. Another one sprinted across the corridor and she trained her weapon on him thereby missing the third male Tok’ra who shot her with a zat’n’ktel. Before she could swear her bloody revenge, her vision faded and she slumped to the ground as all went dark.
“Grab her and let’s go.” the dark haired Tok’ra ordered another who silently complied. They headed for the ring system but before they could reach it, a loud alarm blared through the halls.
“We need to inject her before we go any further.” the red-headed Tok’ra told the leader who agreed and motioned him to do so. He took out a syringe with a clear liquid and carefully emptied the substance into Qetesh’s bloodstream while she lay limp in the blonde Tok’ra’s arms. The red-head returned the depleted syringe to his pocket and they took off again.
They hadn’t taken two steps when staff blasts flew past their heads. They ran past the corner and prepared themselves for a fire fight.
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--Two hours earlier--
“Special delivery.” Jacob greeted as he crossed the event horizon to Earth with four other Tok’ra and four prisoners gagged and bound following reluctantly behind them. The gate room’s SFs stepped forward and each took a prisoner.
“Thanks, guys.” he said as they led the men to Level 23.
“Those were the men?” General Landry asked as he stepped into the room.
“Yep,” Jacob answered cheerfully “four of the several turncoat Tok’ra that we captured during their rebellion, at your service.”
“Excellent.” the General smiled at the four Tok’ra accompanying Jacob “Gentlemen, welcome to Earth and thank you for your help in this matter. If you’ll follow me.” The six men made their way out of the gate room to follow their prisoners and meet up with SG-1 and Jack.
Yesterday, Level 23 had been refitted with the mimic devices from P3X-118 like it had been during the foothold situation seven years ago and the four Tok’ra prisoners were already in line at the mimic processor. The machine would copy and save the memory of their characteristics as their bodies passed through.
“Colonel, how’s it coming?” General Landry asked, eyeing the harnesses hanging from the ceiling with discomfort.
“Very well, sir, we should know how Tok’ra physiology responds to the technology soon.” Sam answered as she supervised the body processing. The first Tok’ra to enter the machine came out on the other side and was forcibly escorted into one of the harnesses. The General picked up a few devices from the table on the side of the room.
“What about these?” he asked, holding a Y-shaped piece and a red egg-shaped one.
“Ah, those are the memory devices, the small red one allows you to access the memory of the person wearing the brain interlink device in the harness. In exchange for use of the prisoners’ physical characteristics, we’re allowing the Tok’ra here to use these devices to gather intel on the Tok’ra rebellion.” she explained, nodding to the extra Tok’ra that had entered with her father.
“You sure it wouldn’t be prudent to wear the memory devices yourselves? What if they ask you questions?” Jack asked warily.
“We have a cover story for how ‘we’ escaped the Tok’ra but if all goes well we won’t have to use it, we plan to get in and out without detection.” she answered as the second Tok’ra prisoner was placed in a harness.
“Okay, it might be a little late in the game to be askin’ but won’t Ba’al just shoot us on sight?” Cameron asked.
“That’s why we’re going in looking like these Tok’ra rebels.” Daniel answered edgily as he pointed to the prisoners, he was more than ready to get underway.
“No, that’s what I mean. How do we know that Ba’al won’t just shoot the rebel Tok’ra on sight? Isn’t that what evil masterminds do when their enemies come crawlin’?” he asked with a touch of trepidation as he eyed the limp Tok’ra swinging in the harnesses.
“Ba’al would not act so rashly.” Teal’c answered “It would give him much more satisfaction to lord his power over his former enemy than to kill them immediately.”
Cameron sighed as the third body was hoisted into a harness.
“So how does this thing work exactly? People are gonna think we’re Tok’ra?” he asked.
“No, we’re going to look exactly like these men in the harnesses by attaching this mimic device on our chests.” Sam said holding up one of the round pieces on the table. “Let’s see if it works.”
She placed the technology on her chest and the air around her fluctuated before she disappeared and was replaced by a brown haired man in Tok’ra uniform.
“Woah.” Cameron said.
“Alright, it works, can we get on with this?” Daniel asked trying to keep his nerves under control. Sam took off the device and looked like herself again.
“I just want to make sure they all work, we don’t want any nasty surprises when we’re deep inside Ba’al’s mothership.” Sam said as the fourth prisoner was securely attached to his own harness.
“Okay, all the mimic devices should now be active so try them on.” she said, handing Daniel, Cam and Teal’c their own round mimic devices.
They each attached a device to their chest and instantly transformed into one of the men in the harnesses. They took a quick look at each other and took them off.
“We’re good to go, sirs.” Sam told the Generals proudly.
“Good work, Colonel.” General Landry said and gestured to the other Tok’ra operatives “If you’ll just explain to these gentlemen how the memory devices work so they can start their research, then suit up and join SG-1 in the gate room in half an hour. The mission is a go as soon as you’re ready.”
“Yes, sir.” she replied as the Generals and SG-1 left the room. Jacob followed the team into their locker when Jack and General Landry split off.
“Daniel.” he called, making sure none of his Tok’ra associates were around. Daniel turned from his corner, pulling on his flak vest.
“Take this.” Jacob said, placing a syringe filled with a clear liquid in Daniel’s hands “But don’t let the other guys I brought know you have it, it kind of goes against our agreement.”
“What is it?” Cameron asked as Sam joined them.
“It’s an neutralizer for most toxins a symbiote can release. Inject her as soon as you can, it’ll stay inactive in her blood stream until it comes into contact with certain poisons, that’s when it’ll become active and neutralize the harmful effects.” Jacob explained.
“Thank you.” Daniel breathed, many of his fears suddenly allayed.
“Why does this go against our agreement with the Tok’ra?” Sam asked.
“Because we’re officially refusing to help you with anything concerning the extraction of the symbiote and I kind of smuggled this right out of one of our kits, so if we could keep this our little secret…” Jacob said.
“You can trust us.” Daniel said gratefully as they finished suiting up and headed for the gate room. He stared at the blue event horizon with his heart in his throat, this was possibly the most important mission he’d ever been on and they couldn’t afford any mistakes. As one, they all took out their mimic devices and attached them to their chests transforming their military team into a small group of unarmed Tok’ra as they stepped through the gate to Jris.
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--Present Time--
“Teal’c, how far are we from the rings?” the dark haired Tok’ra yelled back to the blonde one.
“Only three corridors.” he responded, getting another shot off at Ba’al’s Jaffa.
“Alright, here’s the plan. Sam take point, clear the way for Teal’c and Vala. Jackson, you and me are taking the rear. Let’s go.” Cam ordered them and they quickly complied, moving away from the ever firing Jaffa. They shuffled their way slowly down the three last corridors to run into a few Jaffa guarding the rings.
“Okay, ideas?” Cam said as they paused against the wall to catch their breath.
“Yeah, we should have brought a ship.” Daniel said sarcastically as Teal’c crouched down with Vala.
“Nice hindsight, Jackson, anything useful? And any idea why there are so few Jaffa after us? Not that I’m complaining or anything.” Cam retorted.
“Well they must have realized that four Tok’ra have kidnapped Ba’al’s queen so they’re probably busy shooting at the rest of the defected Tok’ra.” Sam pointed out and none of them could complain at the thought. “And the mimic devices kind of resemble our flash bombs so I’m thinking we could just slide them across the floor and while they scramble away from the ‘blast’, we zat them.”
“That’s…creative.” Daniel noted but took off his mimic device. He, Sam and Cam peeked around the corner and Daniel chucked the round, flashy device down the hall. While the Jaffa apprehensively watched the trinket slide towards them, SG-1 got off all their zat shots and the rings were freed.
“Let’s go, Teal’c.” Cam said as Daniel pocketed his ‘flash bomb’ and Sam set the ring crystals so they’d reappear in the Jrisian forest near the stargate. They took their position within the circle on the floor and with a flash of light they were all free of Ba’al’s clutches.
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A few hours later, Daniel was busy studying the thread count in the commissary table linens when Jack interrupted him.
“Daniel.”
“Jack.”
“You sulking alone?” Jack asked him as he placed a hot cup of coffee in front of his friend.
“I’m not sulking.” Daniel sighed as he raised his head and sat properly “And Cam was here two minutes ago.”
“So what’s up? You found her, you got her, she’s back. Why the morose look?” he pressed as he took in his friend’s troubled eyes.
“We found her, we got her,” Daniel agreed reluctantly “but she’s not back yet.”
“Carter and Lam are finishing up their high-tech scans and the whole extraction thing is happening in a little while.” he replied.
“I know, but…I just can’t help but feel like the other shoe is poised to come crashing down on me…” Daniel divulged before taking a swallow of his coffee. They sat in silence for some time, just nursing their drinks.
“This whole…situation,” Jack started “it’s kind of familiar, isn’t it?”
Daniel had to smile at Jack’s attempt at subtlety.
“Oh? Is it?” he answered sardonically before sobering. “But it’s different this time right? We saved her this time.”
“Right.” Jack said quietly.
‘Saved’ was a relative term and they both knew it. Vala had been returned to Earth and would soon be free of the symbiote that controlled her but whether or not they’d been in time to ‘save’ her remained to be seen.
Daniel swallowed the rest of his coffee in one gulp and stood up quickly.
“I’m gonna go check on their progress.” he said and left for the infirmary.
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Vala’s body had been returned to its private room in the infirmary after numerous scans of her head and Daniel walked in to see Dr. Lam connecting yet another wire to her patient.
“What’s that?” he asked quietly, not wanting to startle her.
“I’m changing the sedative, the symbiote has begun to process the old one before it can do its job so I need to give her something stronger.” the doctor replied succinctly. “As it is she’s not completely out, you can see her twitch every once in a while.”
“Are you sure that’s Qetesh and not Vala trying to break free?” Daniel asked frowning. Dr. Lam walked around to the other side of the bed and tapped one of the screens.
“These aren’t Vala’s brainwaves. I can only assume they’re Qetesh’s.” she said simply and he nodded though he felt slightly disappointed, it had been a small hope anyway.
“It’s okay if you want to stay.” she told him as she left. He didn’t answer but pulled a chair a bit closer to the bed. He simply looked at her for the longest time, completely lost in thought. A few minutes later, she did as Dr. Lam had mentioned, her fingers twitched and it made his heart skip a beat until he remembered that it was Qetesh trying to wake up, not Vala. He saw her lips move as well but no sound came out for several minutes.
“What - what…you done…to me, Tok’ra?” Qetesh whispered pathetically through Vala’s lips while her eyes remained closed. Hearing the gravely, metallic voice coming out of familiar lips made him angry.
“You don’t recognize me? I think I’m hurt.” he retorted snidely. At his voice, he could see her eyes begin to crinkle as if she was trying to frown.
“Not…Tok’ra.” she whispered with confusion.
“Nope, one hundred percent Tau’ri.” he replied. The corner of Vala’s lips jumped upward for half a millisecond.
“Daniel.” she said, barely audible but confident of her visitor’s identity before demanding “What have…you done to me?”
“We’ve pumped you full of sedatives, you’re fighting the last round but the newest dose should kick in at any time now.” he informed the snake without concern. She was silent for a long time and Daniel thought she’d lost consciousness again.
“I warned you - I would kill her…before you could do anything…to me.” she whispered in a way he was sure was meant to sound menacing but was actually pretty pitiful. He saw a miniscule smile come over her face and he realized she was trying to hurt Vala. Daniel leaned back in his chair and evened out his breathing so she wouldn’t pick up on his fear but he could do nothing against his wildly beating heart, he just had to put his faith in the serum Jacob had given him and that he’d injected Vala with himself. After a several minutes and a strong fixation on Vala’s vital monitors, Daniel finally saw her lips purse.
“Can’t do it, can you?” he taunted her quietly. Her brow tried to wrinkle into a frown but it seemed that the new round of sedatives had finally taken hold and just in time as Sam and Dr. Lam reappeared suddenly. Sam gave him a tentative smile and he understood that it was time. Before the next hour rolled by, he’d either have her back or have lost her forever. He took a shaky breath and stood from the chair.
“I’ve finished the calculations and the Oddysey’s beaming technology has been completely focused so instead of beaming out everything attached to the object, the beams will serve more like a precision cut around Qetesh, removing only her. We just need to get Vala back into the scanner to make sure the symbiote hasn’t move since the beams were reconfigured.” Sam explained, trying to put Daniel at ease.
“We’re taking her to the scanning rooms and the ship will beam the symbiote out from there. Will you be accompanying us?” Dr. Lam asked straight-forwardly.
“I’ve already told the others,” Sam added “they’ll be watching from the observation room above the scanners.”
“Um…no.” Daniel said “I just need to run by the commissary. I uh…I need some coffee I think. I’ll meet you guys there, don’t start without me.”
And with that, Daniel sped out of the room and Dr. Lam’s nurses began unhooking the bed to roll it out of the room.
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“The symbiote hasn’t moved, we’re good to go.” Dr. Lam declared, looking up from the scans.
“Where’s Daniel?” Jack asked Cameron and Teal’c from the observation window.
“Sam said he needed to stop for coffee.” Cam replied, his tone clearly making his bafflement known. Judging by their frowns, General O’Neill and Teal’c felt the same.
Finally, Daniel appeared below them, in the scanner room, without coffee. They looked at each other but turned their faces back to the scene below as General Landry and Jacob joined them in the observation room.
“Are we about to start?” General Landry asked.
“Yes, sir, they’ve just confirmed that the symbiote hasn’t moved and I think they’re just waiting on the Odyssey now.” Cam replied. The man nodded and they all watched intently. Sam approached the microphone and spoke.
“Alright, we’re ready to start. The Odyssey’s beaming technology isn’t able to perform transfers from small enough distances to beam the symbiote directly from Vala’s head to the tray here so they’ll beam Qetesh up to their ship and then beam her back down.” she explained.
“Very well, Colonel, you have a go.” General Landry answered her. Sam nodded and picked up her walkie-talkie to tell the Odyssey they were ready. She, Dr. Lam and Daniel then stood at the side of the room and they all watched as Vala’s head and neck was suddenly engulfed in a bright, blue light. The light disappeared and they all held their breaths until it reappeared a few moments later on the tray Sam had specified. As soon as brightness vanished, the men moved for the door to join the others in the room.
When they reached the scene, Sam and Dr. Lam had moved to their patient to check her vitals while Daniel remained at the wall, staring at the tray with a completely dazed expression. Jack motioned the others to stay back as he approached his friend.
“Daniel? You okay?” he asked from about a foot away. As soon as he spoke, Daniel’s awareness returned somewhat.
Daniel looked to the side to see Vala and only Vala lying prone on the gurney, then he looked before him at the snake twitching on the tray and was steadily consumed by absolute fury. Before anyone could move to stop him, Daniel took long strides towards the tray and removed from his uniform jacket the large chef’s knife he’d procured from the commissary. He threw his arm back and viciously swung it down on the symbiote, cutting it clean in half but he couldn’t stop there.
He hacked at it again and again as he remembered how scared Vala’s eyes had been when she’d broken free and how her hand had curled tightly around his as they tried to escape. His entire world narrowed to the feel of the heavy knife’s wooden handle in his hand, the burn of his bicep contracting to deliver the blows, the recoil from his powerful swings shooting up his arm and the horrible shrieks of the dying snake. Someone tried to stop him but he shoved them back forcefully with his free arm. He swung twice more before he was thrown to the ground, they couldn’t pry the knife from his hand but someone’s foot pinned his arm down. As the ceiling came into his focus, sound also crept back into his awareness.
“Daniel! Stop. Struggling!” Jack yelled at him “Ow, son of a bitch!”
Daniel figured it was probably Jack’s face his hand had just connected with. A firm hand locked on his jaw and the ceiling was replaced with Teal’c’s face.
“Do not fight us, DanielJackson.”
His friend’s solid face was something he could focus on and Daniel felt his blood settle as his rage slowly left him. Teal’c’s fingers let go of his chin and Daniel raised his head to see Cameron sitting on his legs and Sam pinning down his arm.
“Let go of the knife, Doctor.” General Landry ordered. Daniel looked past Sam’s boot and saw how tightly clenched his fingers were around the bloody knife. He made a conscious effort and his hand eventually released his weapon allowing Dr. Lam to scurry forward and take it away.
“You alright now?” Jack asked slowly. Daniel swallowed but nodded.
“Yeah, I’m okay now. Sorry.” he said without remorse for his actions against the symbiote but for his violence against his friends.
Jack gave him a long look but finally deemed him sane enough and motioned to the others to let him go. Sam’s boot left an imprint on his forearm and she bent down quickly to brush off the dust apologetically. Cameron patted his legs firmly before getting up off of them and Teal’c released his iron grip of Daniel’s left shoulder. Jack helped him up and Sam quickly ran to the tray to put a sheet over the massacred body of the symbiote to prevent another blowout.
“Is she alright?” he asked quietly as he moved past them and gently picked up Vala’s hand from the bed. Dr. Lam looked at him like he was more than a bit disturbed but discretely handed the knife to Cameron and answered his question.
“Her vitals are stable and her brainwaves have reappeared. We’ll scan her again to make sure everything went well and then we’re going to move her back into her private room and let the sedative wear off, that’s when we’ll really be able to assess if the operation was a success.” she said in what she hoped was a soothing tone. He nodded.
“I’ll just stay here, if that’s okay.” he said and Dr. Lam nodded quickly.
“Yeah, sure, fine, no problem.” she tried to smile and cautiously stepped forward to position the scanner over Vala. Daniel heard the symbiote’s tray wheels squeaking as someone rolled it away.
“Don’t get rid of that.” he told them firmly without turning around.
“You want to put it in garbage bags and bury it in your backyard? The jig is kind of up, you have a fair number of witnesses.” Jack asked sarcastically but Daniel didn’t rise to the bait.
“It’s Vala’s to do with what she wants.” he informed them.
“Don’t think there’s much left to do with it.” Cam mumbled but they rolled the cart to the corner of the room and looked for a container to put the symbiote’s remains in.
Daniel ignored him and stroked the soft skin of Vala’s hand. He was just glad to be able to touch her without a doubt of her identity. The scans were finished and her brain was declared to be fully intact so she was wheeled back to her room and there Daniel stayed, determined to be present when Vala woke up.
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Please review! Hope you liked it!
Next - Chapter 6: Delight