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.
His feet were winged and with Daniel beside him he raced on the very teeth of the wind. Effortlessly they surged forward, their strides devouring the rough and obstacle-laden landscape as if it did not exist, hurtling through the darkness at an impossible, utterly intoxicating velocity. What they streaked past was no more than a streaming blur on the periphery of Jack's vision on the one side; on the other side flew the man who coursed with him transfixed in the ecstasy of the near omnipotence that impelled both of them irresistibly forward.
Jack thought his heart would burst with the swelling joy of the feeling of that power - this time used not to hurt but to exalt in the sheer wonder of existence and the ability simply to be in a pure moment of the most perfect execution of being. For that is what they were- perfect. Focussed, directed, racing toward their single united desire in a union of optimum expression. There was no single thing that needed to be added to what already was. Nor anything that could be taken from it that would make it less than it was.
They ran, long, joyous and heedless, through the night, miles melting beneath their unflagging feet as if the distance they traversed did not exist. Jack found that his mind no longer had any problem with the idea that his hand was tightly clasped by an unshod half-naked god who was propelling them both forward into that which just was not possible. Possible or not, it was happening, wasn't it?
Roads? Where they were going, who needed roads?
Jack let his mind get as into it as deep as the rest of him, knowing that he no longer had the slightest thing to fear from or about Daniel. He didn't understand why or how it was possible - didn't understand how anyone could be doing what he was doing - feel what he was feeling - be what he now was - and not get twisted, caught up by it and consumed. But Daniel was okay. He could feel it. He could feel Daniel. Oh, sure, he was grooving on it, well, who wouldn't - but as they continued to run together through the darkness, little by little, more and more of Daniel came over to the Jack side of the spectrum. The closer they drew to the mountains the more Jack felt of Daniel, and the less of Xi'a.
It was an almost imperceptible difference, but nevertheless, it was noticeable to Jack, and as the night wore on he found himself trying to figure out why. Why the shift? Why the change? What was Daniel doing?
And then, with a humbling realization, Jack knew. Humbling that Daniel would trust him that much, humbling that he would think Jack possessed anything inside him that would have been of use to him in what he was trying to do.
Daniel was literally anchoring his consciousness to Jack's, tying the very foundation of his own humanity to that of his friend in order to not get lost, swept up and away into Xi'a siren song of power. He was trusting Jack to keep him grounded to himself so the very thing that Jack had been afraid of back there - would not happen to him. He was trusting Jack to be a bastion to which he could affix himself so he would not succumb to the frenzy and madness of absolute power.
He was doing so with the unshakable assurance and the unbreakable faith that Jack would be able to be this bastion for him.
Hours ago Jack had faltered before this man he had called his friend, actually believing him capable of killing him. Now, one who had more power than any human being had ever dreamed of and the unfettered opportunity to do whatever he wished with it was placing his very soul and humanity in his care. Trusting completely that his friend - wouldn't let him down.
If it took him the rest of his life, Jack vowed that one day he was really going to deserve the faith that Daniel had him. Well, it started, right here and now.
*Don't sweat it, Danny, I've got you and I'm not letting go. *
The dark void of night was beginning to imperceptibly attenuate with the introductory infusions of incipient dawn. The lunar landscape they had been leaping over was giving way to rolling foothills and although still many miles distant, the reality of the mountains they were aiming for filled the world and sky in front of them. Jack did not notice any change in their pace or the ease with which he was able to move, but he began to feel a bit of a tremor in the hand that held him.
Something had happened. Something had changed. The shift was so gradual that Jack almost missed it, but because of the effect it began to have on Daniel, it soon became impossible to ignore.
What continued to be effortless for him no longer seemed to be so for his friend.
Daniel was noticeably laboring now; his chest was heaving with exertion, his visage and eyes drawn with concentration, his face and torso becoming slick with sweat. Still they continued, not stopping, not slacking, surging resolutely forward, it would seem now, solely on the force of Daniel's will and determination.
Jack felt helpless - wishing there was something he could do. He tried to suggest that they slow down only to be answered by the vehement shaking of Daniel's head and a mental flash 'no time'. Something was about to happen, they had to get to somewhere in the mountains before it did, and because it was starting to happen it wasn't as easy for Daniel to do what he had been doing.
That was all the explanation Daniel could spare him, every ounce of his concentration went back to getting them where they were going. This didn't make Jack very happy, but that seemed to be the way it had been with a lot of things in his life, and he had had just about as much say in it then as he did now.
Jack just prayed, for his friend's sake, that they were able to get where they were going in time. Damned mountains still seemed a long way off. For what little it probably was worth, Jack tried his damnedest to send what mental support and encouragement he could Daniel's way. Maybe he couldn't do much but he damned well could do all that he could.
Daniel gave a huge gasp, stumbled and almost fell. Jack instinctively grabbed him, seeking to support him, at the same time feeling the dispensation that had given him the ability to transcend all that was possible starting to falter as well.
Crap, they weren't going to make it..
Almost the same time that thought formed in his head every other thing that was in there was flattened into the outer perimeter of his brain case by a searing mental scream that they must have heard half way across the galaxy. It was Xi'a - and whoever she was calling, she meant to be heard.
*K'HAYA! HELP US! *
His brain completely pureed by Xi'a's panic, Jack felt himself falling. All he was aware of, dimly beyond the periphery of the mental pain, was the fact that somehow, he still had a hold of Daniel. Or was it that Daniel had a hold of him? Fine time to get dogmatic. Whichever it was, it all worked out the same. He was also trying to keep a hold of his consciousness when all at once there was a whirl and rush of sound and whispering, gentle voices and - oh my time to sleep now.
The very next thing Jack felt was Daniel's hand clamped around his forearm with about as much vehemence as he had a hold of his. Then awareness slammed back into him abruptly, forcing an involuntary, startled cry from him. He was lying on his back, his left arm; the one that was gripped by Daniel extended toward his friend, who was also flat out, but on his face. Ground felt nice and soft underneath him, rather cushiony and supporting. Not at all like the rocky surface that had been under their feet the last time the world had come crashing in on him.
Ah Geez Louise, where the hell were they now..
Jack sat up to find his immediate need to check out his environment completely arrested by a close encounter he had not been expecting.
He and Daniel were surrounded by a ring of little guys wearing long white dresses. They were cute as buttons, with pale blue skin, long white hair and large glowing yellow eyes and they all looked at him with similar benign, almost indulgent expressions. As Jack gaped they bowed as one, and then began to advance toward them.
Jack had no fear, no concern as he watched several of the delicate beings kneel down beside Daniel, gently uncouple their grip and give Jack his arm back, gently turn Daniel over and lay their hands upon him. He didn't know what they were doing, but whatever it was, he knew they meant him no harm. That they were helping.
Then he became aware of the hands that were on him, helping him to his feet. Unwilling to take his gaze off Daniel and yet unable to resist the sudden compulsion to do so, he turned his head until his eyes became locked to the being who stood directly in front of him.
He must have been the boss or something; he was wearing a large medallion that the others did not have. Jack found he could not focus on it, the man before him, holding his eyes was talking to him.
Sort of. It was a mental contact, but completely unlike the rapport he had shared with both Daniel and Xi'a. When they had 'spoken' to him, he had heard it as words, sentences, separate, tangible thoughts, the same way you hear the little voice in your head talking when you are thinking things over or giving yourself shit.
But this was different. This guy was talking in big-picture; entire concepts, whole massive chunks of information that were filling his consciousness faster than he could sort it all out. It took mere moments for Tir - that was his name - Tir - to explain - everything to him. What this place was, what was going on, what was about to happen. It was all in there, Jack knew he had it. He just didn't know what he had.
Somehow Tir made him understand that it would come. He just had to relax and let it happen.
Oh, and he was SO good at that.
Meaning to heave a snort of disgust he looked away, and in so doing finally saw where they were.
And then almost fell back down on his keister in awe and disbelief.
They were in an enormous cavern inside one of the mountains. Well, what looked like what was left of one. Once upon a time it had been a volcano, but now the shattered and jagged fragments of what remained after the last time it had blown its top framed and protected a verdant Eden nestled in what had once been the heart of the inferno.
There was a profusion of wildly exotic plants all about this alien bower. The ground underfoot was completely covered with a deep, springy substance like moss that one sank comfortingly into at every step, and the walls of the cavern were also barely visible beneath the covering of tangled vines and flowers that clung to them. Warm, brilliant sunlight streamed unchecked and caressingly through the opening above, generously bathing the bower with its life-giving radiance. The air was fresh and fragrant, heavy with the scents of life and the he could almost swear the small sounds of lilting - voices.
Jack's delighted eyes continued to scan the cavern, taking in the huge stone staircase that dominated the centre of the bower. It rose, arching gradually, at least sixty feet up into the air, and terminated itself in a large platform that jutted out into the air free of any base or pedestal support. Interesting. He almost knew what it was there for, almost had it - and then he saw - the trees.
Well, they weren't quite trees - trees couldn't wave their - uh branches - on their own, but other than that, they looked like trees. They were by far the most prevalent type of plant in this place. Huge, slender and graceful, swaying rhythmically back and forth, waving their long, sinuous limbs gently.
Oh wow, that's where the voices were coming from. Damned trees were singing! There were a bunch of blue guys looking after them too, stroking them, paying particular attention to those purplish pod-like things that were clustered in bunches around the bases of most of them..
Hel-lo, I think we just found out where Xi'a came from now.
That stuff that Tir had put in his head was getting closer. But it could wait. He had to see how Daniel was.
He turned back to Daniel, who still lay on the ground being ministered to by the rest of the K'Haya. That's who they were, the guardians of the Place of Beginning, Joining and Becoming. Which is what this place was.
Cool, maybe Tir knew what he was talking about after all.
Feeling insufferably pleased he knelt beside one of the K'Haya to see for himself that Daniel was all right. The little blue guy looked at him as he joined their ranks, smiled, patted him a little fondly on the arm, nodded and then went back to what he was doing.
Nice people. Quiet, but nice.
Daniel looked okay. Well - better than he had before. His eyes were closed, but his breathing was deep and regular, that was good, that was good. Didn't seem to be in any pain, even better. He was still glowing, but the glow seemed to be moving away from his extremities, rolling inward and more centrally focussed on his torso area, becoming more and more concentrated on the almost completely transparent being he once thought was a tuber and who he now knew as Xi'a who was still hitching a ride on Daniel's chest even though you could hardly see her anymore. Some of the K'Haya fussed over Daniel, rubbing his arms, face and chest, making small, soothing noises as they did so. The others held their hands over the swirling, growing knot of brilliance that was Xi'a - coming back into herself, preparing to become.
Why did he suddenly not like the sound of that? Why was he suddenly afraid of what this was going to do to Daniel? Jack ground his teeth in frustration as he rooted around in his brain trying to come up with what he knew that would give him the answers he desperately needed to have.
What were these little blue guys doing anyway? They were holding something back - trying to stop it? Why? They were worried about something.
Flashes of knowledge darting in front of his inner eye, teasing him, daring him to try and claim them.
*The three ages
Beginning - what she had been
Joining - a'tah - what she was now
Becoming - S'il- what she would be when she - left him.*
Suddenly, Jack understood. What was going to happen. Why the K'Haya were so worried. Not for Xi'a. She was safe now, she was home. Any moment the S'il would be here to witness her ascension to their midst, to welcome home safe and well that part of them that had been stolen away from them so long ago. Xi'a would become, as it had always been, and the K'Haya were here, as they always had been, to welcome into their midst another of the bonded, one who had been honored to have been the vessel of a'tah for one of the thrice born ones, forever changed and made greater than he was as a compensation and recompense for the years he had unselfishly shared his vessel and by so doing so enabled another S'il to become.
But Daniel was not of the K'Haya. Xi'a might have reached out to him and chosen him, but they had not spent years together in a'tah as they should have. The melding of consciousness that was thrust upon him and alteration of his body into the kind of one that Xi'a had needed from her a'tah in order to effect her personal transformation had taken place in mere hours - not years. The biological changes she had inflicted in Daniel in order to be able to bond with him and use his body had been roughly and brutally made by a frightened, lonely, deeply deprived and immature entity desperate to stop hurting, to have the communion that she needed in order to survive, develop and get home.
Xi'a had not meant to hurt Daniel. But when he found her and set her free she had been half-mad with fear and loneliness. In her desperate relief she had literally clamped onto him and had taken everything she could get as fast as she could. She had not meant to hurt him; in spite of the way it looked, Jack knew this. He had had Xi'a in his head, he knew that although she needed some time to get a few more ground rules down, she truly cared about Daniel. Hell, he could say it. She loved him. Jack knew he could forgive her for what she had done because of that one fact, just as Daniel had already done.
No malice, only terrible loneliness and pain. She had been nearly insane, driven by the blind need to survive and stop hurting. Jack knew he could certainly relate to that one. As could his entirely too compassionate and much too willing to help and give friend which was exactly why they were in this mess. Well, that was all well and good for Xi'a, she was going to be becoming something pretty spectacular pretty soon, her worries were almost over. What about Daniel?
No one here had the first clue. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Compared to the gentle, gradual process of intertwining and bonding that the a'tah was supposed to be what Daniel had been subjected to, however unwitting or unintentional, was a mental and biological violation that was almost akin to - rape. And no one here knew what that would mean for Daniel. Although it seemed that maybe Tir had a few ideas.
However, none of them seemed exceedingly optimistic, encouraging or particularly conducive to Daniel's continued state of good mental health and general psychological well being.
He would become one of 'bonded' - retain the psychic link to Xi'a and the enhanced psi abilities that she had awakened within him.
Possible, but Tir didn't think it was very likely. Daniel wasn't of their race, the K'Harra - from whom the K'Haya came. He had not evolved as a member of that symbiotic race and therefore his brain was not properly structured or developed to be able to retain the abilities.
Well, wasn't that special? Scratch door number one.
He would return to the way he was, but would go insane because of the psychic shock of being separated from Xi'a.
The most probably outcome.
That sucked even more. Jack didn't like door number two either.
He would return to the way he was, but he wouldn't go insane. Somehow, he would find a way to survive.
Would be nice, but Tir didn't give it much of a chance.
That was only because he didn't know our Daniel the way Jack knew him.
Door number three was the one.
Had to be had to be, Jack wouldn't allow for the possibility of anything else.
Nor would he allow anything else to happen. Period.
*Okay Danny, you've gone to hell and back for me enough times, it's finally my turn. Don't worry, my friend, we're both walking out of this together. You have my word on it.*
Jack suddenly came back to where he was, as the air began to visibly shimmer with a soft, beautiful trilling that filled the fragrant air of the crater and the souls of everyone who was in it. Immediately the little blue guys closed their eyes, held their hands up and then turned rapt and transformed faces skyward.
Jack looked up, trying to see what all the fuss was about.
Oh my - the S'il were here..