Author's Notes: Xi'a is pronounced ZEE-ah, with the emphasis on the ZEE. Just in case you were wondering.
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.
The insult had barely left Jack's lips when he was in motion, hurling himself at Maybourne; arms outstretched and fingers curling in happy anticipation of their connecting with a certain neck. This time he wouldn't let go until he felt the damned thing snap like a twig. The memories of what this crawling slug had done to Teal'c were still too fresh. Teal'c had been bad enough, but if Maybourne thought he was going to live long enough to lay one stinking finger on Daniel he had more than another thing coming.
Jack O'Neill fully intended to see that Maybourne got everything that was coming to him. And he didn't even need a gun.
Maybourne had an equally savage smile on his face as he calmly watched the infuriated man draw a bead on him and fire himself at him. As a matter of fact, he had the aspect of a man who had just been granted his fondest desire.
"Thank you, Colonel," he beamed. "That is exactly what I wanted you to do."
Maybourne's eyes went cold and dark with hate. As if they had practiced the maneuver before hand he took a quick step back and the armed men flanking him moved forward to form a barrier between him and the infuriated human projectile with murder on his mind who was speeding toward him. At the same time he barked. "Arrest that man! Cuff him, club him if you have to, I don't care, just take him down!"
Jack was dimly aware that General Hammond, Teal'c, Sam and Janet had finally managed to push their way into the room. He didn't have any more time to spare for them; he was a man with a mission.
Howling with rage he launched himself into the air, slamming hard into the unyielding shoulders of the two MPs in front of him, trying to use his momentum to push over and through them to get to the man they protected. As they held him fast he reached desperately past them, straining his fingers to connect with some portion of Maybourne, who had stepped back out of his reach just in time to elude his grasp. His fingers closed on empty air and he gathered himself to hurl himself yet again against the resolute wall of MP flesh that blocked his way.
Before he could follow through on his resolve the men who held him were bearing him down to the floor. He hit hard, his head reeling as the back of it impacted with the implacable surface beneath it. They were turning him over, he felt a knee grinding savagely into the small of his back, his arms were being wrenched behind him. He struggled, kicked out, cursed. Pain erupted in his side as a very hard boot made a not-so-gentle acquaintance with that portion of his anatomy.
But it seemed he was not the only one with problems. Off to the side he heard a man yelp with fear as, from the sounds of it, he was getting free flying lessons. Another man's terrified voice sounded on the heels of the exclamation of the pilot.
"Christ! Harry - help me! This guy is nuts! Aaaarh!"
That would be Teal'c. Making his own unique and humble contribution to the war effort.
Jack was still pretty much confined to his view of the patch of the floor directly under his face seeing as how the thugs holding him seemed pretty much determined to make the side of his head well and truly one with it, but it sounded as if the room was getting pretty lively all around him. Maybourne and Hammond were yelling at each other, Sam was calling his name and probably bloodying a few noses in her efforts to get to him if he knew his feisty female teammate, and Teal'c wasn't making a sound but the men he was tossing around like toothpicks certainly were more than making up for his deficiencies in contributing to the noise level of the room.
With all that was going on you wouldn't have thought that there was room for any more noise. Or any possibility for one voice to be heard over and above the din. But today was certainly a day for surprises and everyone in the room was about to get just about the biggest one they had ever gotten in their lives.
Someone screamed. Janet?
Someone else sobbed, "Oh my sweet Jesus..."
The men who were holding him suddenly stopped struggling with him, literally freezing in mid motion. Jack couldn't see what was going on. Somebody still had their hand on his head, trying to grind his face into the floor.
"DON'T TOUCH HIM!"
That was Daniel's voice. But it wasn't. It was big and strange and echoed as if it was coming from the bottom of a well. It rippled through him, hummed inside him and what in the hell was going on oh crap this felt weird.
The men who were holding him were - gone - as if they had been - yanked away. Behind him strange noises were coming from the knot of people assembled in the room. Scared noises, like they were looking at something that had just made them crap their drawers. Ohhh, he was getting a really bad feeling about this.
Before he could put together a coherent enough impulse to start getting himself up, someone had a hold of him and was doing it for him. His head still swimming from its former attempt to mate with the floor, Jack felt himself being gently lifted from the prone position he had been forced to assume. It wasn't until he was set fully on his feet and feeling himself still supported by the unknown benefactor that had righted him that he realized that.. ohhhh crap.
There was nobody there. Nobody beside him. Somebody had picked him up and set him on his feet and there was nobody standing within ten feet of him. Nobody except.
*Oh my sweet Jesus is right. oh - Daniel.*
Daniel was - out of bed. On his feet, standing a few feet away from him and glowing like a big, purple light bulb. A crackling aura of snapping, rippling amethyst energy roared and pulsed around him, most strongly concentrated on the thing on his chest, which had become an almost transparent ball of whirling, turbulence. You could make out an enough of an outline of its former shape to know that it was still there, but it sure didn't look like a purple tuber anymore.
But that isn't what scared Jack the most. Not that what he was looking at was exactly something you would see just walking down the street except for maybe possibly in LA, but the most dramatic transformation in Daniel was the one that made him want to crap his own drawers.
Daniel's eyes were gone. Where those mild, expressive blue orbs that Jack knew so well used to reside were twin swirling vortexes of streaming, glowing brilliance. Daniel blazed with the terrible awesomeness of some sort of otherworldly avenging angel, and even though his eyes weren't his any more, you had to be a fool to look at what burned in them now not to know that he was - really pissed.
Jack felt his legs go and didn't fall. The air was still holding him up.
Sweet.
Ya know, he should probably be getting really freaked by this.
This sort of thing didn't happen every day.
That was okay. As soon as he woke up, everything was going to be fine.
Daniel had been looking at something behind him. Slowly, his head turned and Jack was subjected to the full force of that blazing, unearthly focus. A gentle smile touched Daniel's lips, an expression of tenderness that was only amplified by the incongruity of its existence on the face of a man who no longer looked even remotely human. Or as if he would need to care or concern himself with the affairs of mere mortals.
Those same lips parted and a single word issued forth from him, uttered in the inhuman voice Daniel had used before. Only this time, the tone of that voice was very different. It was gentle, concerned, tender.
Daniel said one word, as he held out his hand and began to walk toward him.
"Jack."
Jack couldn't see Daniel in his eyes but could hear him in his voice. He wanted to trust what his gut told him, even if the rest of him was scared so shitless that all he wanted to do was turn tail and run. But the closer Daniel got, the more the primal terror bubbled up within him.
*Daniel is in there, Jack, you know that, Daniel would never hurt you oh my godohmygodohmygod *
Daniel reached his side and stopped. Jack flinched; willing himself not to look away from the pulsing infernos that blazed forth from where Daniel's eyes should have been.
*no fear no fear no fear this is Daniel. Danny. Danny. Danny won't hurt me. *
"No Jack, I won't," the voice that was and yet was not Daniel's issued forth from him, still soft, still soothing. "Neither will Xi'a. Let him see me, Xi'a. Please. We are frightening him. We don't want to do that."
Daniel reached forward and put a hand on the cheek that had been badly bruised and contused by Jack's tussle with the floor. As the glowing hand touched him Jack felt a warm tingling swarm across the skin of his face, going deep into the flesh beneath. At the same time Daniel stepped in closer and put his other hand on the back of Jack's head, to cradle the damaged place where he had lost his first battle with the floor. Again Jack felt the same heat that banished the pain and dizziness as it seeped soothingly into his skull.
Jack closed his eyes gratefully as an infusion of vital, energizing force surged through him, seeking out every violated portion of his body, instantly making whole what had been hurt. It felt so good - so enervating, almost - orgasmic. He had never felt more alive, more connected to himself, more aware. Helluva rush.
*Geez. Danny, if we could figure out a way to bottle this we'd make a fortune. *
A very familiar sound, close to his ear. The sound of laughter. Danny's laughter. Jack raised his head from Daniel's shoulder, where apparently it had been - whaddya know about that - and looked up to see his friend's well-remembered blue eyes shining at him with the full brilliance that was uniquely Daniel.
"Hey Lucy, I'm home," Daniel said softly.
Jack felt a strangled bleat of sound erupt from him that was a cross between hysterical laughter and hysterical sobbing. Which was fairly appropriate given how he was feeling.
Daniel's eyes held him, as familiar and as welcome as the hands on his shoulders. It didn't matter what he looked like, even if he was standing there spitting purple nickels and shooting purple freaking sparks all over the freaking room this was Daniel. Jack didn't know what was going on, all he cared about was that his friend was standing here in front of him, in his right mind and apparently just fine if you were prepared to overlook the purple. Ah, what the hell, he could learn to live with it. Sometimes it just didn't get any better than this. In spite of the fact that there was a roomful of people staring at them Jack was fully prepared to slide into the comfort of yet another 'moment', but alas, such a luxury was not to be his.
Even though it wasn't spring, the assholes were still in bloom.
"Don't just stand there - SHOOT HIM!"
*Maybourne? For cryin' out loud, aren't you dead yet? *
Daniel's head snapped up, his eyes disappearing in the violent resurgence of the snarling purple glow that possessed his eyesockets anew. His hand fastened around Jack's bicep in a grip that wouldn't be loosened by any force on this earth. Jack felt himself being swiftly turned around to face the crowd that was bunched together several feet away from them. The MPs were drawing their guns, fully intending to use them. Maybourne was practically hopping up and down, he was so angry, the scummy little toad-face that he was. Jack felt something cold and terrible arise within the man beside him as suddenly an equally terrible voice reverberated through the room around them.
"YOU!"
The amethyst blast furnace in Daniel's eyes flashed, sparks flying halfway across the room. The guns were ripped from the MPs' hands by an unseen power that hurled them against the wall with so much force that neither the weapons nor the surface they encountered were much the better for the experience. The men who held them were similarly tossed, each one impacting on different areas of different walls with enough violence to ensure that they were not going to be getting up anytime soon.
Daniel began to stride toward Maybourne, Jack firmly in hand and in tow. Needless to say, of the people who were left standing, not one of them felt in any way inclined to offer any resistance to Daniel or any assistance to the object of his ire.
In fact, Jack could swear that his kids, the Doc and the General were - rather looking forward to what was going to happen next. Whatever that was.
God knows HE was.
Daniel looked up into the air, pulling Maybourne's body skyward as he did so. The unfortunate man dangled there, his arms and legs jerking spasmodically, a broken, stringless puppet. He was sweating like a stuck pig, making funny little mewling noises while his pouchy little pig eyes darted around in terrified circles.
God, it looked so good on him!
Daniel continued to look up at the pathetic marionette, his face impassive and merciless, for what seemed to be an agonizing length of time. Almost as if he was trying to decide exactly - how to kill him the slowest.
Ahh, that really would have been too much to ask for. But he could dream.
At last Daniel spoke. Well, someone spoke, using Daniel's voice.
"Daniel says that I should not kill you. He says that it is wrong to kill. Even though he can see in your mind what you planned to do to him. For Daniel's sake, I will not kill you, although you are such a thing as should not be allowed to exist. Such as you hurt me. Kept me in that place. Such as you will learn nothing and go out and hurt again. But I will not kill."
The words continued to issue from Daniel's throat as he slowly lowered his gaze and Maybourne with it.
"I will not kill, but understand this. It is because of Daniel that you live. That is the only reason. I see what is in your mind. I warn you. I know of you now. I know of you, and my kind will know of you as well. I will know if Daniel is harmed. If you raise a hand against him, you will wish I had killed you today. There will be no other warnings."
Daniel abruptly took his eyes off Maybourne. Instantly released from the force that had been holding him suspended, he dropped like a stone the from the height of the few remaining feet from the floor. As soon as he was on terra firma he scuttled aside like a drunken hermit crab, looking for a hiding place.
Daniel had closed his eyes as if in deep concentration. He was murmuring softly, as if talking to himself. Or whatever was in there with him.
"Be calm, now, Xi'a. It's all right. Be calm. I want to talk to my friends."
The strident clanging of the alert klaxon shattered the air around them. Jack shot a searching glance around. Maybourne was gone. Crap. Company's coming.
Daniel's body jerked as he wrestled with his skittish passenger. "A moment more, Xi'a, please," he entreated.
The General finally found his voice. "Dr Jackson, are you all right?"
"Yes, sir," Daniel hissed between clenched teeth. "I - can't explain right now. I only have a few more minutes. It is getting very close to Xi'a's time. I have to take her home."
"You mean to go through the Stargate?" Daniel nodded. The General frowned. "You know I can't allow that, son."
Daniel laughed bleakly, convulsively tightening his grip on Jack's arm. "With all due respect sir," he gasped. "After what you have just seen, do you really believe you can stop me?"
"Daniel," Sam stepped forward, deep concern in her eyes. "You have to know that Maybourne is going to try. By now he'll have armed men three foot deep every single step of the way between here and the Stargate."
Daniel's struggle to stay in control was becoming noticeably more difficult with every passing moment. "Believe me, Sam, I am much more worried about what Xi'a will do to them than what they could possibly do to me. Now please, listen to me, all of you. I haven't got much time. Thank you for everything you have done. I thank you, and Xi'a would like to thank you as well. Don't be worried about me, I'll be fine. She won't let anything happen to me. I have to go now, but I promise I'll be back. I'll explain everything to you then. Just, stay well until we get back."
Daniel gasped and was gone. The inhuman glow was ascendant in his eyes once more; the corona that surrounded him flared so strongly that the group about him took several hasty steps backward.
Daniel's head turned, the furnace-glare trained fully upon Jack. Daniel's mouth opened once more, and the voice that poured from his throat was farther from his own, more alien and unreal than it had ever been.
"Take me home, Jack?" She asked him.
"Sure thing, Xi'a," he replied without even pausing to think about it. "Already packed. Thought you would never ask."