He'd gotten good at judging the times that the mess hall would be all but empty; this had been one of them, and he'd had a good forty-five minutes to linger over a cup of coffee before a group of Marines had taken the table next to him and he'd left. Daniel was back...Daniel was back in the city, and he hadn't gone to see him yet. He wasn't sure ( Read more... )

Steven wandered down an empty hallway, admiring the architecture and enjoying the pleasant weather. He'd stopped hiding in his room, gotten tired of pacing the same length of floor over and over again, but still, he tried to avoid contact with the rest of Atlantis...it was too easy to see the fear and distrust in their eyes, even though his more ( Read more... )

Steven sat on a public balcony on top of one of the lower spires of the city, looking out at the ocean, eyes a million miles away on things he'd rather not be remembering. It wasn't even being tortured that was the worst of it, he could have lived with that...it was what he'd done, more than what he'd been through, that he couldn't forget.

It was the middle of the night when he arrived in Atlantis, and there were only the essential personel around. He was grateful for the lack of fuss - there was no obvious security escort, no crowds to stare at him suspiciously, just Sgt. Lenoir waiting to show him to his quarters - different ones from last time, because his old ones were still ( Read more... )

He can't remember how long he's been locked in this room. Jonny had been visiting him regularly, for a while...usually zatting him when he came in, but Steven assumed he'd been running tests, trying to figure out what Ba'al had done to him ( Read more... )

TO: Dr. Daniel Jackson ( Read more... )

Steven knelt in front of his Lord Ba'al, not moving until instructed. "You summoned me, Master?" he asked, the look on his face closer to boredom than to the devotion he'd tried to feign, at first. Perhaps today would be different than all the days before...perhaps this would be the time that the forces that tugged at his being every time he died ( Read more... )

Life with Ba'al had gone from hellish down to simply unbearable. He'd regained Ba'al's love and trust - if he'd ever lost it; he wasn't entirely sure about that. But being loved by Ba'al was almost as painful as being hated by him.

Ba'al had started letting him leave on his own every once in a while, though - never entirely on his own, but at ( Read more... )

The transmitter Ba'al had implanted in him didn't do much - not enough to talk or report, just enough for Ba'al to activate one of his emergency plans ( Read more... )

They'd finally let him out of the infirmary - Daniel was following him around everywhere, making sure he was never alone even for a second, but he was back in his own room ( Read more... )