SG1: Undertow (2/10): Sam/Baal [PG]
Fandom: Stargate SG1
Pairing: Sam Carter/Baal
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,915
Written for: 10_fics
Table: #4
Prompt: #8, Recall
Summary: AU post-The Quest. Sam's late-night experiment session is interupted by Baal, who still wants her to help him defeat the Ori. Making a deal that means saving Daniel first, Sam finds herself onboard Baal's Al'kesh and in danger of breaking every rule in the book.
Unconsciousness is cloying, choking. Sam fights through, struggling to breathe. Comes to, gasping for air, tangled in the silk sheets of Baal’s bed. It takes her a moment to realise that; her memories are shattered, disjointed. There’s a recall of his voice and an odd, weightless sensation. Her throat aches.
Her memories snap back like an elastic band and anger surges, mixing with adrenaline, and she’s out of bed and at the door in a moment. She slams her hand against the metal.
“Baal! Baal! Get in here, you slimy bastard!”
The door slides open. A Jaffa stands on the other side, dressed in the black-and-gold of Baal’s new uniform. He is unarmed and inclines his head in deference.
“Colonel Carter, Lord Baal wishes you to accompany me.”
“Does he now?” She folds her arms and glances around, looking for him. “To where, exactly?”
“To see Doctor Jackson.”
Shock washes through her. “H-He’s here?”
“Lord Baal secured his release,” the Jaffa says, as if going aboard an Ori Mothership and rescuing a prisoner is of little consequence. “Doctor Jackson has been informed of your presence and is waiting to see you.”
Sam waves an impatient hand. “Alright, I’m coming.”
She follows the guard down the corridor. They make a few turns and then the Jaffa opens a door. The quarters are significantly smaller than Baal’s, but still palatial. More importantly, Daniel sits on the bed, clearly expecting her arrival.
“Daniel,” she says and dashes to embrace him. He returns the hug fiercely. She pulls back and looks at him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, surprisingly so, given I was kidnapped by an Ori and rescued by a Goa’uld.” He frowns at her. “What’s going on, Sam?”
She shakes her head. “I’m not sure. He said something about defeating the Ori, which is the same damn story he came out with when we were hunting clones.”
“Is he another clone or are we dealing with the real Baal?”
“I don’t think it matters,” she says, then realises that she’s quoted the Goa’uld’s words and pulls a face. “What matters is what happens now.”
“Which is what, exactly?”
Sam steps away from Daniel and looks around. Other than them, the room appears empty but that doesn’t mean that Baal isn’t listening.
“How should I know?” she sighs. “Has he told you anything?”
“He said that he’d gone to Earth to... well, exact revenge was the term he used, then he realised that you might be persuaded to help him with his Ori problem. Which is funny, since I thought Baal was all-knowing and didn’t need any Tau’ri help.”
“Except for accessing our database,” Sam noted wryly. She knows Daniel’s wondering why she’s here, but she’s not sure herself. Other than being Baal’s new plaything, and she’s not prepared to mention that. “There must be something that we’re missing.”
Daniel doesn’t get a chance to respond: the door opens again and Baal strolls into the room. He’s dressed all in black, though the long coat is loose enough to reveal a gold lining. He has, Sam realises her holster strapped to one thigh and she snorts.
“Covert ops?” she asks icily.
He grins at her, then coughs and adopts a more serious air. Nods his head at Daniel. “Doctor Jackson. I hope you’re satisfied that I have not harmed Colonel Carter.”
“Harmed, no. But did you tell him that you’d drugged me?”
“Ah.” Daniel shoves his hands in his pockets. “That’s why I demanded to see you.”
“Perhaps, Doctor Jackson, you would be so good as to tell the Colonel what I told you.”
Sam wonders why she has a feeling that she’s been kept out of a loop and arches an eyebrow at Daniel. He sighs and shrugs.
“We know that Adria can access our minds. Okay, she does it best with Vala, but since I’m a returned Ascendant, there is a good chance that she can manipulate me. In fact, she intended to. Her plan was to turn me into a Prior and use me as... an emissary I guess you’d call it, to the SGC.”
She looks from Daniel to Baal. “You can’t have known that.”
“Divide and conquer isn’t solely a human tactic,” he says, his voice soft. “It occurred to me that Adria would except an assault from SG1 and have prepared measures. Once I had, I knew that to take you aboard her Mothership would undoubtedly result in failure of the mission and possibly your death.”
Her head hurts. She rubs her forehead and sits on the bed. “But you said that you needed my help.”
“In defeating the Ori, not in recovering Doctor Jackson. I was... protecting my assets.”
Oh, you need to protect your ass alright, Sam thinks sourly. She looks at Daniel. He shrugs, hands still in his pockets.
“Unfortunately, he’s right: Adria was expecting you and a direct assault. However, she wasn’t expecting a Goa’uld to use an Asgard beam, mainly because I wasn’t.”
“Your presence would have jeopardised the mission,” Baal adds. She glares at him.
“And you couldn’t explain this rather than drugging me?”
“You’d have argued,” he replies, and rightly too. “There was a slim window of opportunity and... it was the easier solution to the problem.” He grimaces. “Abet a temporary one; since I’ve no doubt that you’re going to shout at me now.”
Sam opens her mouth, then sighs, defeated. He’s done what he promised to do, so shouting seems a little pointless. And he wouldn’t pay attention to her anyway.
Lifting her head, she meets his gaze. “So now what?”
Baal’s gaze shifts to Daniel briefly, then he gives a small shrug.
“My original plan was put on hold while I secured Doctor Jackson. As such, I was forced to let the Mothership escape us.” He waves a hand. “For the moment, since we are directly on the trail. We will take them over in a day or so. However, in order to accomplish that, I can afford no diversions.”
She blinks. “What about Daniel?”
Daniel looks understandably concerned. “I need - we need - to get back to the SGC.”
Sam bites her lip. She can feel Baal’s eyes on her.
“I-I can’t,” she says. When she lifts her head, it’s Daniel she looks at. “I made a promise.”
He blinks. “To-”
“Yes.” Cutting in before he says the obvious, Sam pauses to take a deep breath. “The war against the Ori is here, now. We have an advantage that we can’t overlook, Daniel, no matter what.”
Daniel purses his lips and stares at Baal for a moment, then turns back to her.
“Sam...”
“Daniel, please.” She sees a chance, and looks at Baal. “A small diversion,” she says. “To a planet with a Stargate so he can get back and let the SGC know. It wouldn’t hurt to have back-up.”
Baal’s eyes narrow, but his express remains impassive. He glances at Daniel.
“I could allow that, depending on what, exactly, Doctor Jackson is letting them know.”
She glances from him to Daniel and back again. Daniel is scowling, as if he suspects something untoward is going on. Sam is not convinced that there isn’t. A small smile flickers over Baal’s face.
“Maybe I should let you two discuss it,” he says and, without another word, sweeps out the room again. She stares at the closed door and realises that she’s shaking.
Daniel sits next to her, places a hand over hers. “Sam?”
She shakes her head, unable to speak. He pats her hand and then goes to the sideboard. She watches him pour water into a glass and bring it over. It’s clear, but she’s not sure it’s clean and she doesn’t trust it.
Daniel takes a sip and then hands her the glass. She smiles and drinks, assured that at least he’ll follow her into the darkness if it is drugged.
“You don’t owe him anything, you realise that, yeah?”
“He said that he’d save you and he did.” Sam wipes her eyes. “I can’t let that pass, Daniel.”
“But it’s Baal.” His voice is sharp and he stares at her in disbelief. “He’s a Goa-“
“I know!” Her own voice cracks and she’s on her feet before she realises. Forcing herself to calmness, she tries again. “I know what he is, Daniel, but if I go back on my word…”
“You know he would.”
“Then I have to be different, don’t I? Otherwise I’m no better.”
Daniel sighs and comes over to her. She screws up her eyes to stop from crying as he puts his arms around her.
“Do you really think this is the only chance we’ll have?” he asks.
“I don’t know, but I’m not sure that we should ignore it just because Baal’s in charge.”
“What’s in it for him, apart from a galaxy free of the Ori that he can pick over as he chooses? Does he expect our undying gratitude?”
He expects me in his bed, Sam thinks and it’s possible he sees her as Qetesh’s new host. She shudders at the thought. “I don’t know. He says he wants us to be allies, but we’ve heard that before.”
“Once the Ori are gone, there’d be nothing stopping him re-establishing himself as a System Lord.”
“The Jaffa are free,” she reminds him. Then she remembers something else. “His Jaffa are free.”
Shock washes over Daniel’s face. “Uh. Well, that’s new. I wondered what the uniforms were about. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
“I-I think he’s trying to create a new order.” It’s a stretch, but nothing Baal is doing fits with the usual Goa’uld MO. And she can’t forget what he told her. “He said... he said that he was no longer determined to bend the galaxy to his worship. I know that sounds insane because that’s what the Goa’uld do, but why surround himself with free Jaffa? Why bother saving you?”
Daniel sits down again. “’Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth’,” he intones.
She arches an eyebrow. “Oma?”
“Arthur Conan Doyle.”
“So do you think I’m right?”
“I think you’re in the best position to find out,” he says. “Maybe if I present it like that, Landry won’t fry your ass the second you get back. The IOA are going to have a field day, though.”
She groans. “God. So, what, you think I should stay now?”
“Well you seem fairly sure that you should. I don’t agree, but this is your decision. I just hope you don’t regret it.”
“He could have killed me in the lab, Daniel, but he didn’t. Apparently when he said that he would never hurt me, he actually meant it.” She gives him a wry smile. “And I actually believe him.”
“You’re insane.”
“Probably.”
“Sam, the amount of trouble you’re going to get into... are you sure it’s worth it?”
“I’ll let you know if we manage to defeat the Ori,” she says wryly.
He asks the question she doesn’t want to hear: “Then what?”
She sighs and looks away. “I don’t know, Daniel, I really don’t. Discussing my return is a waste of breath if he decides I’m not going back. Not that I understand what he needs me for, since he’s so superior. He has the ancient device and my calculations and-”
“And what?”
Sam can’t believe she fell for his lies. She is going to break his neck.
She’s vaguely aware that Daniel trails after her as she storms down the corridor and onto the bridge. Baal stands just behind the pilot, hands clasped behind his back. She flies at him, one clenched fist impacting against his jaw with a crunch. He stumbles and the Jaffa turn their weapons on her. Fury blinds her, but at the edge of her hearing she catches the charge of a staff weapon.
Baal grabs her wrists, halting her flurry of blows. “Sam.”
She breaks a hand free, slaps him across the face. “Where the hell is it?”
He steps away, rubbing at his cheek. Noticing the Jaffa still at point, he waves a hand and then looks at her.
“I assume that you mean Merlin’s weapon,” he says.
“I actually believed you.” She’s furious; with him, with herself. Disappointed too, and she’s not sure why. “I actually thought you really wanted to help. But no, all you wanted was to help yourself.”
She stands there, hands fisted at her sides, breathing hard.
He arches an eyebrow. “I did no such thing.”
“Liar. I know you brought it back. That there had to be another reason for your so-called rescue.”
“Sam,” Daniel calls, his tone a warning that she ignores.
Baal sits on the throne, yet there’s nothing regal about his pose.
“Jaffa,” he says. “Leave us.” He waits until it’s just him, her and Daniel, then looks at her again. “To get aboard the Ori ship, I had to overcome their shielding. The device allowed me some time, but not much. I beamed in, marked Doctor Jackson and then beamed us both off. No side tracks, no ulterior motive.”
Sam hesitates. Her gaze seeks out Daniel.
“All I can tell you is that he did appear in my cell,” he says. “If he’d been anywhere else first... well, I don’t know but we did come directly back.”
The realisation that she’s got it very wrong leaves her cold. She looks at Baal. There’s a red mark on his cheek and a wry twist on his lips. She had been so sure. And it made more sense than if he’d not come back with it. She doesn’t understand, and she needs to.
“Why?”
He gives what is clearly an exasperated sigh. “I had hoped to instil a little confidence,” he says. “It would seem I over-estimated the mission.”
She blinks and looks at Daniel for help. He shrugs, his eyes bright as he glances from her to Baal and back, as if whatever is going on is as fascinating as ancient ruins. No help there, then.
Turning back to Baal, she sighs. “You do have rather the track record.”
“We’ll get nowhere if you hold everything against me,” he replies, making it sound like she’s being totally unreasonable. “You asked me to rescue Doctor Jackson and there he is.”
“And the weapon?”
“Is really still aboard the Ori ship.” He draws a cross on his chest. “I swear.”
The ridiculous gesture makes her smile, her anger fully dissipated. She knows he’s a liar, but there’s no reason for him to lie about the weapon. Not when he wants to destroy the Ori as much as she does. That still leaves her clueless as to his reasoning behind getting Daniel back.
“Alright, Baal,” she says and folds her arms across her chest. “What exactly do you want? Why do you need me?”
He starts, stops and then sighs. She wonders what he was going to say, suspects it was a tirade of abuse that, for some reason, he’s bitten back. Her curiosity grows and she steps closer. He glances at her and offers a faint smile, then shifts on the throne. His gaze settles on Daniel.
“The last time I was at the SGC I offered an alliance that I did not intend to carry through. I believed that assistance from the Tau’ri was... unnecessary.”
“Once you’d stolen the list of Gate addresses,” Sam interjects with a sweet smile.
“Unfortunately,” he continues blithely, “what I had not counted on was the effects of the symbiote poison on the worlds under my control. I’d lost fully two thirds of my Jaffa and the rest had fled. While I held what I believed was the answer to finding a way to defeat the Ori, I no longer had a force to do that with.”
Daniel comes closer, interest written on his face. “What about the clones?”
“I cannot trace them, meaning that they are either dead or have removed their locator beacons. In any case, I cannot rely on them. Nor do I wish to.” Baal gives a wry smile. “I’m not terribly reliable at the best of times, and this is definitely not one of those.”
“If that’s supposed to instil confidence, you kind of missed your mark,” Sam tells him.
“I’m being honest,” he replies with a wider smile. “To which, I realised that I would, in fact, require some assistance. Abet after I infiltrated the SGC, I admit. I decided that the pleasure of your company was preferable to the brief delight of your death.”
“Oh, you’re too kind,” she murmurs.
“As to why I need you...” Baal shrugs again. “You are better at thinking outside of the box. As much as I have disregarded this tendency in the past, I now recognise that it is an asset and not a pointless waste of time.”
She purses her lips, thinking back to what she told Daniel. Knowing that Baal’s ship is so close to Adria’s, knowing that he has the beginnings of a different weapon even if he’s not got Merlin’s, she understands that they may not have this opportunity again. She has to trust him.
“Will you divert so that Daniel can Gate back to Earth?” she asks him.
“I will. Though I wish him luck convincing General Landry that I have not kidnapped you and that my offer is sincere.”
“Again with the track record.” Sam turns to Daniel. “What do you think?”
Pairing: Sam Carter/Baal
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,915
Written for: 10_fics
Table: #4
Prompt: #8, Recall
Summary: AU post-The Quest. Sam's late-night experiment session is interupted by Baal, who still wants her to help him defeat the Ori. Making a deal that means saving Daniel first, Sam finds herself onboard Baal's Al'kesh and in danger of breaking every rule in the book.
Unconsciousness is cloying, choking. Sam fights through, struggling to breathe. Comes to, gasping for air, tangled in the silk sheets of Baal’s bed. It takes her a moment to realise that; her memories are shattered, disjointed. There’s a recall of his voice and an odd, weightless sensation. Her throat aches.
Her memories snap back like an elastic band and anger surges, mixing with adrenaline, and she’s out of bed and at the door in a moment. She slams her hand against the metal.
“Baal! Baal! Get in here, you slimy bastard!”
The door slides open. A Jaffa stands on the other side, dressed in the black-and-gold of Baal’s new uniform. He is unarmed and inclines his head in deference.
“Colonel Carter, Lord Baal wishes you to accompany me.”
“Does he now?” She folds her arms and glances around, looking for him. “To where, exactly?”
“To see Doctor Jackson.”
Shock washes through her. “H-He’s here?”
“Lord Baal secured his release,” the Jaffa says, as if going aboard an Ori Mothership and rescuing a prisoner is of little consequence. “Doctor Jackson has been informed of your presence and is waiting to see you.”
Sam waves an impatient hand. “Alright, I’m coming.”
She follows the guard down the corridor. They make a few turns and then the Jaffa opens a door. The quarters are significantly smaller than Baal’s, but still palatial. More importantly, Daniel sits on the bed, clearly expecting her arrival.
“Daniel,” she says and dashes to embrace him. He returns the hug fiercely. She pulls back and looks at him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, surprisingly so, given I was kidnapped by an Ori and rescued by a Goa’uld.” He frowns at her. “What’s going on, Sam?”
She shakes her head. “I’m not sure. He said something about defeating the Ori, which is the same damn story he came out with when we were hunting clones.”
“Is he another clone or are we dealing with the real Baal?”
“I don’t think it matters,” she says, then realises that she’s quoted the Goa’uld’s words and pulls a face. “What matters is what happens now.”
“Which is what, exactly?”
Sam steps away from Daniel and looks around. Other than them, the room appears empty but that doesn’t mean that Baal isn’t listening.
“How should I know?” she sighs. “Has he told you anything?”
“He said that he’d gone to Earth to... well, exact revenge was the term he used, then he realised that you might be persuaded to help him with his Ori problem. Which is funny, since I thought Baal was all-knowing and didn’t need any Tau’ri help.”
“Except for accessing our database,” Sam noted wryly. She knows Daniel’s wondering why she’s here, but she’s not sure herself. Other than being Baal’s new plaything, and she’s not prepared to mention that. “There must be something that we’re missing.”
Daniel doesn’t get a chance to respond: the door opens again and Baal strolls into the room. He’s dressed all in black, though the long coat is loose enough to reveal a gold lining. He has, Sam realises her holster strapped to one thigh and she snorts.
“Covert ops?” she asks icily.
He grins at her, then coughs and adopts a more serious air. Nods his head at Daniel. “Doctor Jackson. I hope you’re satisfied that I have not harmed Colonel Carter.”
“Harmed, no. But did you tell him that you’d drugged me?”
“Ah.” Daniel shoves his hands in his pockets. “That’s why I demanded to see you.”
“Perhaps, Doctor Jackson, you would be so good as to tell the Colonel what I told you.”
Sam wonders why she has a feeling that she’s been kept out of a loop and arches an eyebrow at Daniel. He sighs and shrugs.
“We know that Adria can access our minds. Okay, she does it best with Vala, but since I’m a returned Ascendant, there is a good chance that she can manipulate me. In fact, she intended to. Her plan was to turn me into a Prior and use me as... an emissary I guess you’d call it, to the SGC.”
She looks from Daniel to Baal. “You can’t have known that.”
“Divide and conquer isn’t solely a human tactic,” he says, his voice soft. “It occurred to me that Adria would except an assault from SG1 and have prepared measures. Once I had, I knew that to take you aboard her Mothership would undoubtedly result in failure of the mission and possibly your death.”
Her head hurts. She rubs her forehead and sits on the bed. “But you said that you needed my help.”
“In defeating the Ori, not in recovering Doctor Jackson. I was... protecting my assets.”
Oh, you need to protect your ass alright, Sam thinks sourly. She looks at Daniel. He shrugs, hands still in his pockets.
“Unfortunately, he’s right: Adria was expecting you and a direct assault. However, she wasn’t expecting a Goa’uld to use an Asgard beam, mainly because I wasn’t.”
“Your presence would have jeopardised the mission,” Baal adds. She glares at him.
“And you couldn’t explain this rather than drugging me?”
“You’d have argued,” he replies, and rightly too. “There was a slim window of opportunity and... it was the easier solution to the problem.” He grimaces. “Abet a temporary one; since I’ve no doubt that you’re going to shout at me now.”
Sam opens her mouth, then sighs, defeated. He’s done what he promised to do, so shouting seems a little pointless. And he wouldn’t pay attention to her anyway.
Lifting her head, she meets his gaze. “So now what?”
Baal’s gaze shifts to Daniel briefly, then he gives a small shrug.
“My original plan was put on hold while I secured Doctor Jackson. As such, I was forced to let the Mothership escape us.” He waves a hand. “For the moment, since we are directly on the trail. We will take them over in a day or so. However, in order to accomplish that, I can afford no diversions.”
She blinks. “What about Daniel?”
Daniel looks understandably concerned. “I need - we need - to get back to the SGC.”
Sam bites her lip. She can feel Baal’s eyes on her.
“I-I can’t,” she says. When she lifts her head, it’s Daniel she looks at. “I made a promise.”
He blinks. “To-”
“Yes.” Cutting in before he says the obvious, Sam pauses to take a deep breath. “The war against the Ori is here, now. We have an advantage that we can’t overlook, Daniel, no matter what.”
Daniel purses his lips and stares at Baal for a moment, then turns back to her.
“Sam...”
“Daniel, please.” She sees a chance, and looks at Baal. “A small diversion,” she says. “To a planet with a Stargate so he can get back and let the SGC know. It wouldn’t hurt to have back-up.”
Baal’s eyes narrow, but his express remains impassive. He glances at Daniel.
“I could allow that, depending on what, exactly, Doctor Jackson is letting them know.”
She glances from him to Daniel and back again. Daniel is scowling, as if he suspects something untoward is going on. Sam is not convinced that there isn’t. A small smile flickers over Baal’s face.
“Maybe I should let you two discuss it,” he says and, without another word, sweeps out the room again. She stares at the closed door and realises that she’s shaking.
Daniel sits next to her, places a hand over hers. “Sam?”
She shakes her head, unable to speak. He pats her hand and then goes to the sideboard. She watches him pour water into a glass and bring it over. It’s clear, but she’s not sure it’s clean and she doesn’t trust it.
Daniel takes a sip and then hands her the glass. She smiles and drinks, assured that at least he’ll follow her into the darkness if it is drugged.
“You don’t owe him anything, you realise that, yeah?”
“He said that he’d save you and he did.” Sam wipes her eyes. “I can’t let that pass, Daniel.”
“But it’s Baal.” His voice is sharp and he stares at her in disbelief. “He’s a Goa-“
“I know!” Her own voice cracks and she’s on her feet before she realises. Forcing herself to calmness, she tries again. “I know what he is, Daniel, but if I go back on my word…”
“You know he would.”
“Then I have to be different, don’t I? Otherwise I’m no better.”
Daniel sighs and comes over to her. She screws up her eyes to stop from crying as he puts his arms around her.
“Do you really think this is the only chance we’ll have?” he asks.
“I don’t know, but I’m not sure that we should ignore it just because Baal’s in charge.”
“What’s in it for him, apart from a galaxy free of the Ori that he can pick over as he chooses? Does he expect our undying gratitude?”
He expects me in his bed, Sam thinks and it’s possible he sees her as Qetesh’s new host. She shudders at the thought. “I don’t know. He says he wants us to be allies, but we’ve heard that before.”
“Once the Ori are gone, there’d be nothing stopping him re-establishing himself as a System Lord.”
“The Jaffa are free,” she reminds him. Then she remembers something else. “His Jaffa are free.”
Shock washes over Daniel’s face. “Uh. Well, that’s new. I wondered what the uniforms were about. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
“I-I think he’s trying to create a new order.” It’s a stretch, but nothing Baal is doing fits with the usual Goa’uld MO. And she can’t forget what he told her. “He said... he said that he was no longer determined to bend the galaxy to his worship. I know that sounds insane because that’s what the Goa’uld do, but why surround himself with free Jaffa? Why bother saving you?”
Daniel sits down again. “’Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth’,” he intones.
She arches an eyebrow. “Oma?”
“Arthur Conan Doyle.”
“So do you think I’m right?”
“I think you’re in the best position to find out,” he says. “Maybe if I present it like that, Landry won’t fry your ass the second you get back. The IOA are going to have a field day, though.”
She groans. “God. So, what, you think I should stay now?”
“Well you seem fairly sure that you should. I don’t agree, but this is your decision. I just hope you don’t regret it.”
“He could have killed me in the lab, Daniel, but he didn’t. Apparently when he said that he would never hurt me, he actually meant it.” She gives him a wry smile. “And I actually believe him.”
“You’re insane.”
“Probably.”
“Sam, the amount of trouble you’re going to get into... are you sure it’s worth it?”
“I’ll let you know if we manage to defeat the Ori,” she says wryly.
He asks the question she doesn’t want to hear: “Then what?”
She sighs and looks away. “I don’t know, Daniel, I really don’t. Discussing my return is a waste of breath if he decides I’m not going back. Not that I understand what he needs me for, since he’s so superior. He has the ancient device and my calculations and-”
“And what?”
Sam can’t believe she fell for his lies. She is going to break his neck.
She’s vaguely aware that Daniel trails after her as she storms down the corridor and onto the bridge. Baal stands just behind the pilot, hands clasped behind his back. She flies at him, one clenched fist impacting against his jaw with a crunch. He stumbles and the Jaffa turn their weapons on her. Fury blinds her, but at the edge of her hearing she catches the charge of a staff weapon.
Baal grabs her wrists, halting her flurry of blows. “Sam.”
She breaks a hand free, slaps him across the face. “Where the hell is it?”
He steps away, rubbing at his cheek. Noticing the Jaffa still at point, he waves a hand and then looks at her.
“I assume that you mean Merlin’s weapon,” he says.
“I actually believed you.” She’s furious; with him, with herself. Disappointed too, and she’s not sure why. “I actually thought you really wanted to help. But no, all you wanted was to help yourself.”
She stands there, hands fisted at her sides, breathing hard.
He arches an eyebrow. “I did no such thing.”
“Liar. I know you brought it back. That there had to be another reason for your so-called rescue.”
“Sam,” Daniel calls, his tone a warning that she ignores.
Baal sits on the throne, yet there’s nothing regal about his pose.
“Jaffa,” he says. “Leave us.” He waits until it’s just him, her and Daniel, then looks at her again. “To get aboard the Ori ship, I had to overcome their shielding. The device allowed me some time, but not much. I beamed in, marked Doctor Jackson and then beamed us both off. No side tracks, no ulterior motive.”
Sam hesitates. Her gaze seeks out Daniel.
“All I can tell you is that he did appear in my cell,” he says. “If he’d been anywhere else first... well, I don’t know but we did come directly back.”
The realisation that she’s got it very wrong leaves her cold. She looks at Baal. There’s a red mark on his cheek and a wry twist on his lips. She had been so sure. And it made more sense than if he’d not come back with it. She doesn’t understand, and she needs to.
“Why?”
He gives what is clearly an exasperated sigh. “I had hoped to instil a little confidence,” he says. “It would seem I over-estimated the mission.”
She blinks and looks at Daniel for help. He shrugs, his eyes bright as he glances from her to Baal and back, as if whatever is going on is as fascinating as ancient ruins. No help there, then.
Turning back to Baal, she sighs. “You do have rather the track record.”
“We’ll get nowhere if you hold everything against me,” he replies, making it sound like she’s being totally unreasonable. “You asked me to rescue Doctor Jackson and there he is.”
“And the weapon?”
“Is really still aboard the Ori ship.” He draws a cross on his chest. “I swear.”
The ridiculous gesture makes her smile, her anger fully dissipated. She knows he’s a liar, but there’s no reason for him to lie about the weapon. Not when he wants to destroy the Ori as much as she does. That still leaves her clueless as to his reasoning behind getting Daniel back.
“Alright, Baal,” she says and folds her arms across her chest. “What exactly do you want? Why do you need me?”
He starts, stops and then sighs. She wonders what he was going to say, suspects it was a tirade of abuse that, for some reason, he’s bitten back. Her curiosity grows and she steps closer. He glances at her and offers a faint smile, then shifts on the throne. His gaze settles on Daniel.
“The last time I was at the SGC I offered an alliance that I did not intend to carry through. I believed that assistance from the Tau’ri was... unnecessary.”
“Once you’d stolen the list of Gate addresses,” Sam interjects with a sweet smile.
“Unfortunately,” he continues blithely, “what I had not counted on was the effects of the symbiote poison on the worlds under my control. I’d lost fully two thirds of my Jaffa and the rest had fled. While I held what I believed was the answer to finding a way to defeat the Ori, I no longer had a force to do that with.”
Daniel comes closer, interest written on his face. “What about the clones?”
“I cannot trace them, meaning that they are either dead or have removed their locator beacons. In any case, I cannot rely on them. Nor do I wish to.” Baal gives a wry smile. “I’m not terribly reliable at the best of times, and this is definitely not one of those.”
“If that’s supposed to instil confidence, you kind of missed your mark,” Sam tells him.
“I’m being honest,” he replies with a wider smile. “To which, I realised that I would, in fact, require some assistance. Abet after I infiltrated the SGC, I admit. I decided that the pleasure of your company was preferable to the brief delight of your death.”
“Oh, you’re too kind,” she murmurs.
“As to why I need you...” Baal shrugs again. “You are better at thinking outside of the box. As much as I have disregarded this tendency in the past, I now recognise that it is an asset and not a pointless waste of time.”
She purses her lips, thinking back to what she told Daniel. Knowing that Baal’s ship is so close to Adria’s, knowing that he has the beginnings of a different weapon even if he’s not got Merlin’s, she understands that they may not have this opportunity again. She has to trust him.
“Will you divert so that Daniel can Gate back to Earth?” she asks him.
“I will. Though I wish him luck convincing General Landry that I have not kidnapped you and that my offer is sincere.”
“Again with the track record.” Sam turns to Daniel. “What do you think?”