5Angels and Demons
Written after a discussion on the GW Sam/Jack Ship Appreciation Thread regarding "Moebius." I love this episode, but I really wish that we'd seen what happened to "our" SG-1 after they got stranded in Egypt instead of focusing so much on Geek!SG-1. So I wrote this (because there's not enough angst in the world already…). All mistakes are mine. Enjoy, if you can. Reviews make my day! -Jess
The River Nile gleamed in the rising sun. The mosquitoes were already out in force, but it was nothing an old Minnesotan wasn't used to. It was still relatively early, but Jack and Daniel had already been up for several hours, checking on their storehouses outside of the city. It was easier to plan when there was no threat of one of Ra's spies listening in.
Daniel and Katep were still there, counting their supplies and determining what they still needed, but Jack had decided to walk back early. Hopefully, he'd be able to catch Sam before she went off to the market. He smiled to himself. With any luck, he'd catch her when she wasn't even awake yet and be able to surprise her.
Sam slept all lot these days, but he couldn't blame her in her condition. She'd been sick for the last month, and with no modern medicines, they were treating her pregnancy with the utmost caution.
Jack still had hope that they'd be able to get back to their own time before their child was born. This place had its moments, but the high mortality rates for both mothers and babies scared him more than he'd admit to anyone. He couldn't lose another child, and he certainly couldn't lose Sam.
He felt better knowing that they were only a couple months away from being ready to strike. After three years, they'd be able to enact their plan, take back the Ancient ship, and fly home.
And suddenly, he knew that the plan wasn't going to happen. The village came into view as Jack crested the top of a dune. The entire community was gathered in front of Temple of Ra.
Jack swore. They were so royally screwed. They weren't going home.
His heart in his throat, Jack raced down the dune toward the temple. He slid into the crowd and pushed his way to the front. The bastard Goa'uld stood at the top of the temple stairs, his entourage of children and slave women just behind him. He wasn't masked now, but he looked just as Jack remembered him from 5,000 years in the future. His black hair glistened like oil in the sunlight.
Jack had picked up enough of the language to know that he was shouting about the futility of defying a god.
"Those who betray a god," he snarled, "will meet their deaths."
His eyes glowed, revealing the demon inside.
He lifted his long, slender arm and gestured to the sentry who stood at the door of the temple. Several figures were forced into the light, and there were Teal'c and Sam, struggling in the grasps of Ra's Jaffa.
Jack clenched his fists in anger. They'd been so careful, only revealing themselves to those they were sure they could trust. But Ra had spies all over the city, and the Jaffa were most persuasive in interrogating villagers who looked like they knew something they shouldn't. Jack wanted to punch something. Anyone could have sold them out.
After that, there wouldn't have been any place to hide. Both Teal'c and Carter were too distinctive: the Nubian renegade first prime of Apophis and the woman with hair like the sun.
"Mol kek!" the snake roared. "Kill them both!"
Fire flashed in Teal'c's eyes, and he leaped from his captor's grasp. Carter followed suit, jamming her elbow up and into the face the guard holding her. Jack watched in hope as Teal'c snatched a staff weapon from the appointed executioner. He spun the staff around and fired twice, killing one Jaffa and slamming another against a large stone pillar.
Ra's child entourage filed around him, his face cold and uncaring.
The crowd around Jack stirred in distress, and several people screamed in shock; this culture was enslaved by its ruler, living in fear and broken in spirit. They were not about to storm the temple to save these newcomers.
Several more Jaffa rushed to the temple steps. Carter broke free of her guard, but two more were instantly upon her, holding her tightly by her shoulders.
Jack's stomach dropped as a third Jaffa took aim at Teal'c. He didn't have any time to react before the fireball impacted his chest. He landed on the steps, his dark, unseeing eyes staring at the sky.
Carter sagged between the two Jaffa.
Within seconds, Jack could smell charred flesh in the stale, quiet air.
Obviously pissed at the death of their comrades, the Jaffa threw Sam to the ground in front of the crowd, her body curling perversely over her disjointed stomach.
"Shol'vata," one of them spat.
Not content to let others do his bidding this time, Ra picked up the staff weapon. He scowled, but his lips tinged upward in a sick grin. He pointed the staff at Sam's bowed head. Fiery red energy sped along the head of the weapon as it hissed opened.
Silent tears streamed down Sam's bruised face.
Jack snapped. He reached inside his robe and pulled out his Beretta. There were still two bullets in the chamber. He'd been saving them for a special occasion. Now was as good a time as any.
He took a step forward, distancing himself from the crowd. The people around him gasped and backed away, leaving him standing alone. The Jaffa caught sight, and three staff weapons swiveled in his direction.
Ra's black-lidded eyes lifted from Sam and narrowed as they leveled on him. He smiled again, that sick, smarmy smile that said he'd won. Damn it, he'd used Sam to weed him out and it worked.
But none of that mattered now. They were goners, all three of them. Without Sam, his life was over whether Ra shot him or not. What else did they have to lose? This mission was FUBAR from the moment they'd used the ship. They'd futzed up the time line with their failed rebellion. He and Teal'c hadn't been able to let history run its course. Teal'c had already paid for it, and now Carter would too.
Sam lifted her face to his, and she choked back a cry of relief. She obviously hadn't expected to see him again after she was taken. One eye was blackened, and blood ran freely down her split lip, but to Jack she was still the most beautiful thing in the world. The rising sun played off her dirty blonde hair, and she looked like an angel. His angel.
Ra prodded her in the back, taunting Jack, mocking his helplessness, and in that moment, there was nothing that Jack wanted to do more than land a bullet right through Ra's eyes. To end this demon's tyrannical rule 5,000 years before he was supposed to do it again. It would get him a staff blast the instant that he pulled the trigger, but it was worth it.
He wouldn't be around to see Sam fall.
She looked at the handgun, and with an almost imperceptible move, she shook her head. Even now, with a staff pointed at her skull, she wouldn't let him alter the timeline more than they already had. Even with the damage they'd done, she wouldn't risk the future of the planet she was so often tasked with saving.
It killed him, but he knew she was right. They wouldn't make it, but Daniel was still out there. He'd be pissed when he got back and found out they were dead. Their only hope was that he could regrow the rebellion. Ra needed to survive … for now.
If Jack tried hard enough, maybe he could will more satisfaction to his future self when he finally blew this bastard to hell.
He drew comfort from his angel. Her tired eyes spoke all of the things she couldn't say: guilt, so much guilt, for getting them stranded in the first place, regret, for the life their child would never experience.
Love that went back far further than the three years they'd spent together.
He stared back at her with all of the same emotions reflecting back.
The Goa'uld aimed the staff at the base of her skull.
Yielding to her fate, Sam leaned toward the ground, instinctively clutching her belly.
Jack pressed his eyes together to stop his tears. His arm felt heavy and his heart heavier. With resignation and regret, Jack lowered his gun and watched the end come.
And when the staff weapon discharged and his angel fell, the end couldn't come soon enough for him.