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.
Teal'c glimpsed the shadows moving only moments before Daniel Jackson was enveloped in them. A gasp of pain was all they heard as it tried to move away, taking Daniel Jackson further from them. Teal'c moved forward, wishing for his staff weapon, and raised his spear to block the shadow-creature. Within the darkness, he could glimpse the pain-etched features of his young friend. However incorporeal the creature seemed, it was capable of causing injury. Teal'c hoped that meant it was also capable of being injured.
The others had followed Teal'c's lead and encircled the dark thing that sought to take their friend. Teal'c had a strange memory flash of a story O'Neill had once told him of a 'boogey-man', a story told to frighten children of a creature that would steal them away from their parents if they wandered too far from their protection. It seemed Tel'nat, or perhaps the Pal'noor, had an equivalent tale.
O'Neill experimentally prodded the darkness and watched it reflexively back away. At the same moment, Daniel Jackson cried out in pain.
"Daniel?" O'Neill called out.
"I can feel ..." Daniel Jackson's voice was breathless with the pain, the words and the tone making it very clear that the creature's pain was shared by him.
O'Neill looked helplessly at the shadows that nearly concealed their friend...a helplessness shared by all of them. Teal'c wondered how they could stop the creature without causing Daniel Jackson further agony?
Teal'c felt a sudden chill. Once again he was faced with the choice of saving Daniel Jackson by a means that could only hurt him more. Teal'c hesitated a moment, cursing the gods, false and otherwise, for the cruelty that seemed forever to lock himself and Daniel Jackson into this fate....then plunged his spear into the darkness.
Sam didn't even have time to react as she realized what Teal'c was about to do. The colonel was nodding slightly even though Teal'c had not asked permission. She hoped it was the right decision.
As the spear point plunged into the swirling darkness, Daniel screamed. Sam felt her heart freeze at the sound, the last time she'd heard Daniel express this level of pain had been when he'd suffered through the hellish withdrawal from the sarcophagus. This was much worse. The darkness clung to Daniel for what seemed an interminably long moment, as if it didn't want to let him go, then dissipated back into the surrounding darkness of the forest. Daniel stood there a moment, eyes closed, body trembling convulsively. The colonel and Connor rushed forward to ease Daniel to the ground, the colonel providing gentle support for the damaged back.
Sam started forward but glimpsed Teal'c's face and stopped. The Jaffa's face was locked into an expression of guilt and deep regret, an expression identical to the one he'd worn for weeks following Sha'uri's death. Sam knew what must be passing through the big man's mind at this moment, but couldn't find words to express everything that needed to be said. She laid a hand on Teal'c's arm, trying with the simple gesture to convey the platitudes that she knew were ultimately useless. No amount of words would assuage Teal'c self-recrimination. Even Daniel, with his amazing capacity for forgiveness, hadn't been able to do that entirely. Only Teal'c would be able to release himself from the weight of guilt that dragged at his heart.
Sam unrolled the cloak she'd been carrying and laid it over Daniel. He was still shivering but not so violently as before. Sam checked him thoroughly, but couldn't find evidence of any new injuries. She speculated aloud that the shadow creature must have been telepathically linked to Daniel in some way, must have somehow transferred its pain.
The colonel looked on in quiet rage, still cradling Daniel against him in a way they hoped wouldn't add to his pain. Sam noted with a grim smile that the colonel's hand was absently rubbing Daniel's arm as if to ward off a chill, and Connor was doing the same thing on the other arm. It looked like Daniel had two mother hens now.
Jack was getting completely and totally pissed with Tel'nat and his alien head games. He wasn't sure what the purpose of this one had been, what he did know was that it hurt Daniel. Again.
Daniel had finally stopped shaking and seemed to be unconscious. His fever had spiked again and Carter was not even trying to conceal the fact that she was worried. Connor and Teal'c had gathered wood and started a fire. The light and the warmth seemed to ease them all.
Jack kept catching strange looks Carter was giving to Teal'c. Jack didn't have to think too hard or too long to figure out what was going on there. The whole situation had a warped, déjà vu quality to it. Jack didn't need to point out the obvious to Teal'c ... there really hadn't been a choice with that shadow creature. If Teal'c hadn't acted, Daniel would have been missing at the very least, or more likely dead. Teal'c knew that. They all knew it. Daniel would know it. But that didn't help Teal'c.
Daniel shifted slightly in Jack's arms, hissing quietly at the pain the movement caused. Jack saw Teal'c flinch at the sound.
"There wasn't any choice, Teal'c," Jack stated quietly.
Teal'c nodded, but made no comment.
"We couldn't let it take Daniel, " Connor added. "He'd have died for sure."
Teal'c nodded again.
"Daniel won't blame you, " Carter said quietly, delving into the heart of the problem.
Teal'c looked up then, his dark eyes flashing with self-disgust.
"He should."
Jack could only watch as the big Jaffa stalked away into the darkness.