Author's Notes:  Nothing much to laugh about in this segment. Warning - some very sad stuff coming up... Sorry.

DISCLAIMER: All characters and property of Stargate SG-1 belong to MGM/UA, World Gekko Corp. and Double Secret Productions.  This fan fiction was created solely for entertainment and no money was made from it.  Also, no copyright or trademark infringement was intended.  Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.  Any other characters, the storyline and the actual story are the property of the author.

"We're just going to waltz through the gate and go and get him. Just like that. That's your plan?"

They were moving swiftly through the corridors of the bunker, heading for the control room. Daniel had his arm around Jack's shoulders, impelling him forward with a sense of urgency and a strangely compelling 'otherness' that Jack found he could not resist.

Daniel was clearly the one calling the shots. More than in control, he moved with an innate sense of self-confidence and self-mastery that Jack had never seen him display the whole time he had known him. That is - he had never seen this in the Danny he had known.

Jack wasn't really used to letting someone else do the driving. Usually it fell on him to do the leading, the protecting, the choosing. All the stuff that sometimes meant deciding who lived and who died.

This time, none of it was on him. Even though the mission was the rescue of his best friend, the man they were trying to save was the one who was saving himself. Jack O'Neill was just along for the ride.

Right now, Jack wasn't having a problem with any of it. Oh, to be sure he was gonna have more than a few sleepless nights when all of this finally hit, but for the moment, he was cool.

The off-duty corridors of SGC Command tended to be rather empty at three in the morning. Tonight was no exception. They obtained their objective without seeing a soul. The control room was empty save for the duty sergeant seated at the control console, who looked up in surprise when they entered the room.

"Colonel O'Neill? Dr. Jackson? What are you doing here? Is there something -"

Daniel had already crossed over to the man. He reached down and touched him on the forehead. Cut off in mid sentence, the man's eyes closed; he started to slump forward. Daniel caught him, cradling his head with one hand as he gently lowered the man to the floor.

"It's all right," he said to Jack as he got back up again. "Put him to sleep. He'll be fine. Will wake up in about an hour or so, no worse for the wear."

Jack looked down at the slumbering Sargent, and then at the man at his side. "How did you do that?"

Daniel shrugged. "No biggie. Just a little stimulus to the sleep centre."

"Kinda like a Vulcan nerve pinch? Sweet. How hard is it to learn something like that?"

Daniel shook his head, stepped up to the computer keyboard and started swiftly typing.

"This won't take very long. Just have to lock the barn doors so we won't be interrupted, dial up the complex and send my return code so they'll let us in. Then we're outta here."

Jack watched as Daniel's fingers danced over the keyboard. It was an odd sight. Carter was usually the one doing all the fancy data entering stuff when it came to anything having to do with the gate. Just something else to remind him that the man he was looking at wasn't his Danny.

But then, the more time Daniel spent away from the original, the less he resembled him. Jack kept trying to put his finger on what it was about Daniel that was becoming so noticeably different - from Danny.

It was just something - about him. The way he moved, stood, the way he looked at you. Like he really OWNED himself, in a way that Danny just didn't. It was as if he was - a Daniel without walls.

That was it. What had Daniel said? At the moment of creation he was everything that Danny was and had every experienced right up until that moment, but he had it - without having any real understanding of it. All the form, but no substance. Like looking at a life as a series of photos in an album. Two dimensions. No depth, no content.

That meant he had all of Danny's experiences, but not the traumatic associations that went along with them. He knew what had happened, but was untouched by the events themselves. There were no scars on his heart or mind.

Jack realized he was looking at a Daniel who had come into being into a personal world that was far more secure and nurturing than the one Danny had been forced to find his way through. The world Danny had grown up in had been a constant adversary to be endured and survived. Daniel had nothing to fear from his world, or the people in it. He was loved, he was respected. He had a place, and belonged. There were no shadows or enemies here.

No wonder they were different, and becoming even more so. Daniel was what Danny could have been - without all the pain. What Danny should have been - had he been as lucky in his life circumstances - as Daniel. Without shadows, walls, scars or inhibitions. Fearless, confident, something the like of which had seldom ever been seen.

Jack looked into the eyes of the fulfillment of every aborted promise Danny had every contained, and suddenly realized that only one of those two men was coming back through the gate.

He was so thankful the decision was not up to him.

"Just about done." Daniel's voice brought him back.

"Uh, Daniel - how do you know those command codes? No wait - don't say it. I don't want to know, right?"

Daniel grinned at him. "Okay, that's it. Let's go. Oh - wait, before I forget."

He reached into his pockets, pulled out a wallet and a set of keys, handing them to Jack.

"He'll want these. Hold on to them for him, will you?"

Jack took them and shoved them into his jacket pocket, trying not to taste the fear that rose in his throat at the significance of the transfer.

"What's going to happen to you?" he asked softly, trying to meet the eyes of the man who suddenly would not look at him.

Daniel reached out, squeezed his arm, shook his head and walked out of the control room. Numbly Jack followed him. No matter what happened from this point on, he was going to lose as much as he got back.

"I'd feel a lot better if you'd let me bring my gun," Jack grumbled as they gained the gate room.

"Wouldn't do you any good, and you might have been tempted to use it," Daniel returned. "That would not be a good thing. The defense program is pretty efficient. One shot and it would take you out. Zap. That's why shutting it down's one of the first things I have to do once we get there."

Jack remembered something. "Uh - wait - what about the radiation?"

Daniel grinned. "There never was any. The collection program had selected Daniel. It wanted the rest of you gone. So it messed with the instrument - making it show a false indication of dangerous radiation levels. Nothing to it, really."

"Oh well, that's all right then. Guess we should go."

Daniel put a hand on Jack's arm to stop him just before he started up the ramp. "Last minute instructions," he began in a low, subdued voice. "Won't be any time for chit chat for a while once we get there.

"Now, I have sent my return code signal, telling the complex I'm coming back so the defense program will lower the screen. I am not due to return for ten years. The only reason why I would return before then would be if I was malfunctioning and needed to be - fixed."

Jack opened his mouth, changed his mind, crossed his arms and went back to listening.

"As soon as we hit the other side, start running. That will confuse the retrieval ray, which will be looking for me to be standing at the gate, waiting to be - retrieved. If it gets me and puts me in the repair system I am going to be there for awhile. You might be able to find Daniel on your own, but you aren't going to be able to do anything for him. I'm just going to concentrate on getting to an interface junction and once I'm there, I can start shutting things down." Daniel grinned at him and grabbed him by the arm again.

"Hope you can run, Jack, cause we've got a lot of open ground to cover to get to that junction. What do you say, feel up to it?"

"Just watch me."

Daniel pulling him forward, they charged up the ramp and hit the event horizon at a dead run.

.and continued on running without missing a stride the second their feet hit the ground of the room on the other side of the gate.

Jack heard a high pitched whine behind them. Daniel pulled at him, jerking him off to the side and then pulled him forward again faster. He heard the whine again, much closer this time, and saw a flash of light out of the corner of his eye.

Shit, that was a close one.

Ducking and weaving their strides ate up the distance as they sprinted desperately across the room trying to stay just ahead of the ray, which was getting closer and closer with each strike. They appeared to be just about running out of room, but were they going to reach the wall they were heading for before they ran out of time?

"Must go faster," Daniel grunted.

Suddenly he gave Jack a tremendous shove, sending him spilling to the floor. As soon as he hit Jack rolled, coming up in time to see Daniel diving to escape the impact of a ray blast that struck were Jack just been. Daniel tucked, rolled, sprang back onto his feet in one fluid motion. In two large bounds he was at the wall, slamming his palm against a blank spot in the midst of a panel containing a lot of colours, lights and squiggles.

"Hah! Daniel yelled triumphantly. "Beat ya!"

Jack got to his feet, looking warily about.

"It's all right now, Jack," Daniel said in a slightly absent voice. "I've interfaced with the system. Shut down the repair retrieval program and the defense program. Telling the drones to shut themselves down as well. Everybody go back to sleep now. Going to see if I can get into the encoding program from here. If not - we'll have to get to Daniel pretty fast."

Jack walked over to him and then stood, fidgeting nervously as he waited, feeling pretty superfluous. The wait wasn't long and from the look on Daniel's face he wasn't having any luck.

"Fraid of that. This interface isn't on the same system as the core command systems. Systems are isolated from each other, part of the way the complex was set up, for defense reasons. Only way to talk to the core programs is from the interfaces in the core itself."

Daniel took his palm away from the screen and quickly stepped up to Jack's side. Putting his arm around him, he pulled him tightly into the side of his body.

"Relax, not trying to get fresh, this is going to be a tight fit is all. Stay close, hold on tight, we're going for a bit of ride."

Jack squeezed his eyes shut as they were suddenly assaulted by a brilliant flash of light swallowing everything up in a nauseating wave of momentary vertigo. He was very glad he had a strong arm around him holding him up. Otherwise he was sure he would have ended up on his - end.

All the same when Daniel removed his support he almost fell over anyway. Jack shook his head, opened his eyes and saw that he was standing alone on a small softly lit oval beside a large, oval-shaped console that was directly in the middle of a huge, open round room with a vaulting ceiling that arched high overhead. Daniel was standing at the console, his palm on another one of those black spaces like on the other panel, his head down, eyes closed.

Suddenly his head snapped up, his blue eyes awash with relief and deep guilt. "It's okay. I stopped it. We got here in time to stop it. He's still with us, Jack."

Jack barely had time to register the relief of that little piece of information when suddenly his gaze caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Something over to the side was moving, going up into the air.

He turned. To see a long rectangular slab covered with lights and ominous looking devices studding it rising up from the rectangular metallic table it had been hovering over. As the slab cleared the table on its way back up to wherever it was going it revealed the still, white form that lay on it. Bathed in a harsh yellow light that only emphasized the terrible inertness of the body that lay there.

"Danny! Oh my god! Danny!"

Jack had no idea how he got to his side, only that he was trying to gather him into his arms but it was difficult because he was so limp and he just kept - falling through his grasp. Like he had no bones and no life even though he was still warm and still breathing. No response, no answer to his desperate entreaties. No flicker of life or recognition when he called his name and tried to tell him that it was all right now, he was here.

// don't do this to me Danny, don't punish me like this I'm sorry I didn't know. Got here as soon as I could it's okay, you can wake up now.//

A hand on his shoulder, cutting through the shock and guilt. Daniel.

"He can't answer you, Jack." Daniel said softly. "We got here in time to stop the program from beginning the termination cycle, but the encoding process was almost complete. Most of Daniel is gone. Absorbed by the machine. His body is alive, but he's gone. But - don't worry. I was prepared for this. I know what to do. I promised you I would get you your friend back. Don't make promises I don't intend to keep."

As Jack continued to hold Danny Daniel drew up close behind him, putting both his hands on his shoulders. He spoke in a soft, low voice, close to his ear.

"I tried to access the file that contained Daniel's encoded memory engrams, but it's locked. I don't know the access code. Probably only the makers themselves can access those files. More security. That means I am not going to be able to download the engrams back into Daniel's mind from that source. But there is another one."

Daniel's hands moved around, clasping the tops of his arms, squeezing them tightly. Jack could feel a slight tremor in the hands upon him. Something was constricting his chest. Drawing a breath was becoming an effort.

"Listen to me carefully, Jack." Daniel was speaking again "When it's over, take Daniel back to the oval on the floor where we were standing when we got here. I've already programmed the travel ray to take you both back to the Stargate. The system is set up to activate the Stargate as soon as you get there, and it will then send a signal that will open the iris through the wormhole. When you're safely through, the screen will go back up. But not till you're safe. Can't very well bring you here without making sure you both get home, now can I?"

The hands embracing him clutched him tightly. Daniel's head fell on his shoulder.

"Why are you telling me this?" Jack heard himself saying. His voice sounded scared.

"You know why," Daniel whispered. "Funny. All of a sudden, I'm afraid."

The bands around Jack's chest were moving up to his throat. Suddenly he wanted to turn to Daniel but to do that he would have had to let go of Danny and he couldn't.

Daniel was saying something, very quietly, but his jacket swallowed up the sounds. Finally, Daniel's head came up again, slowly. A pair of lips brushed feather-light on his cheek as Daniel's voice sounded, once again, close to his ear.

"Dear Jack. Remember me."

Daniel drew away and walked slowly around to the other side of the table. Every step he took farther away from him drove a nail of fear into Jack's heart.

At last Daniel stood directly across from him on the other side of the table, Danny's limp body between them. Jack looked into level blue eyes that were calm and ready for what had to come next.

"Give him to me, Jack." He said firmly.

Wordlessly, Jack let Daniel take Danny into his arms. Jack stood there, arms now empty, feeling hopelessly bereft.

"Jack," Daniel was still looking at him, compelling him to listen and obey with the force of his strength and determination. "Daniel's clothing and equipment were encoded and stored in a separate file that I was able to access. I reintegrated them. You'll find them on the far side of the console. I want you to go over there and get them. Now. Take your time. As a matter of fact, stay over there - until it is finished."

"No - " Jack started to protest but Daniel stopped him with a shake of his head.

"No. You don't want to see this, Jack. You don't want to watch me."

He was right. Daniel was right. God - he was such a coward..

"This won't take long. Only a couple of minutes. Putting back is easier than taking out. When it's over, he'll be fine. He'll suffer a few residual physical effects from the experience, but the process itself, while not pleasant, does not inflict any actual damage to the organic structures. He'll have a hell of a headache for awhile, but he'll be fine. I promise."

"Thank you." Dumb. That sounded so dumb. He didn't know what to say. There was so much he should say - but there was just - nothing.

Daniel smiled warmly at him, one last time. "You're welcome. Now, go on. Go get Daniel's clothes. You know he's going to want them when he wakes up. Go on, and don't look back. Good-bye, Jack."

Jack made himself turn around and start to walk away. When he reached the console, he shot one look over his shoulder. Daniel had laid Danny's body back down on the table, and was leaning over him, his hands on Danny's temples. Jack pulled his head back around, away from the sight and forced himself to continue rounding the console.

He found the pile of clothing and equipment as Daniel had promised. Scooping up Danny's uniform he crushed it to his chest and let himself fall to the ground, where he just sat, his face buried in the cloth in his arms, waiting. Waiting for it to be over.

The minutes stretched onward. Jack wasn't sure how he was to know when it was finished, and then he heard a sound that echoed like a knell in the silence of the vast chamber. Something slumping, falling to the ground, making a soft impact as it hit that was the loudest, most terrible sound he had ever heard. On the heels of it came another sound - rather a series of sounds, that caused him to leap to his feet and rush back to the table and the man who was on it.

"Ahhh - my head! Where the hell am I? Wait a minute - WHERE ARE MY CLOTHES???

Jack reached his friend who had started to try and push himself up from the prone position, catching him as he was about to fall weakly back onto the table. Danny emitted a soft sound of surprise as the arms around him tightened almost to the point of forcing all the air out of his body and not letting any more back in.

"Jack," he gasped. "What's going on? I feel like crap. Whoa! Room spinning."

"It's okay, Danny," Jack replied in a voice thick with emotion. "You got a little lost, but we found you. I'm going to take you back now."

"We?" Danny's inner confusion was plain in his voice. "Just for a moment - waking up - someone else here - where..." he broke off and turned to the other side of the table, looking where -

"No!" Jack reached around and grabbed the back of his head, turning it away from the sight he shouldn't see. "Don't. Don't look. Come on. Let me help you. We'll get you dressed and then get the hell out of here."

// Good-bye Daniel. I'll never forget you. I promise. //

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