CHAPTER NINETEEN

SG-1 traveled down the path toward the village.  As they drew close to it, they heard what sounded like cries of pain.  Hurrying their pace, they rounded the final bend and came to a dead stop.  The village was in shambles.  Many of the huts had been toppled, their walls and roofs broken and scattered about.  Dozens of injured villagers were huddled on the ground, several of them moaning and crying.  The frightened cries of children could be heard.  Stunned by the destruction, SG-1 entered the village.

"Sir, these people need medical attention," Sam said, horrified by what had happened.

"Get back to the gate and dial home," Jack ordered.  "Have Janet send a medical team through."

The rest of SG-1 continued through the village, giving aid where they could.  Most of the Dicharins appeared to be in shock, both the injured and uninjured.

After they'd been there for a while, Daniel found Gennae.  The old man's face was lined with grief.

"Gennae!  What happened?" Daniel asked, running up to him.

"Oh, Daniel.  He came so suddenly.  We thought that he slept."

"Bendrak did this?"

"Yes.  He came seeking you."

Shocked, Daniel stared at him.  "Me?"

"He demanded to know where the one who returned the . . . the abikar to its original form was.  We did not understand what he meant, and he got angry.  He made a fierce wind blow and destroyed our homes.  Then he told us the meaning of his words, asking who made a crystal turn blue and glow white.  I told him that the one who did it was a visitor who came through the enkali from another world and that the person was now gone.  I did not tell him that you were returning, Daniel.  You must leave.  You are in great danger if you stay."

"Gennae, I'm so sorry this happened.  This is my fault."

The chieftain shook his head.  "The fault is not yours.  I said that it would be safe for you to come.  We thought it was safe."

Daniel swallowed tightly.  "Gennae, did . . . did Bendrak take anyone's life power?"

"No.  He spared us that, but if he learns that you have returned, he will kill you for sure.  We do not wish you to be harmed, Daniel."

"Then I will leave.  As soon as we attend to your injured, I will go and not come back.  I wouldn't want any of your people put in danger if Bendrak comes after me."

Daniel turned and went back to Jack and Teal'c, motioning for them to follow him.  A few yards down the path toward the Stargate, they met up with Sam, who was coming back with a medical team and SG-3.  The medical team continued toward the village, and Jack told SG-3 to go with them.

"Did you find out what happened?" Sam asked.

"It was Bendrak," Daniel replied.  "He apparently woke up and knew that someone had changed one of the crystals."

"How?" Jack asked.

Daniel thought about it for a second.  "Sam, when I touched the blue crystal, you said that it gave off infrasonic waves, right?"

"Yes."

"Then that must be it.  Bendrak must have sensed the sonic waves, and they woke him up.  Either that or he sensed the energy that the crystal gave off when I changed it."

"But that was three days ago," Jack said.  "The attack on the village happened only a few hours ago."

"Well, if Bendrak was in some kind of hibernation or stasis, it might have taken him a while to come out of it.  The point is that this happened because of what I did.  I'm responsible for it.  And, now, Bendrak is awake.  We won't be able to take the Dicharins to another planet."

"Daniel, this wasn't your fault," Jack told him.  "You didn't deliberately change that crystal, and you had no way of knowing what would happen."

"And it is possible that Bendrak will go back to sleep," Sam reasoned.

Daniel shook his head.  "There will be no way for us to know that for sure.  We can't make that assumption and start evacuating these people only to find out that we were wrong."

Everyone knew that he was right.

"Then we'll have to come back next year," Jack said regretfully.  "The thought of two hundred more people dying to feed that thing sickens me, but it's the best that we can do."

Daniel walked away a few paces, his arms wrapped around himself, shoulders hunched forward.

Jack let out a curse.  "This really stinks, you know that?"

"Yes, it does, sir," Sam agreed in a heavy voice.

"All right.  Let's get back to the village and help as much as we can.  Carter, you and Teal'c go on ahead.  Daniel and I will catch up."  As the others left, Jack walked up to the archeologist.  "Daniel, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," the archeologist murmured.

"I know, but I'm still sorry.  I like these people, too."

Daniel looked off in the direction of the temple.  "They don't deserve this, Jack."

"No, they don't.  Not many would.  We will help them, Daniel.  We'll come back next year and take them out of here, then blow Bendrak to hell."

"And, in the meantime, two hundred more innocent people will be sacrificed."

Jack did not reply.  There was really nothing he could say.

Daniel gave a sigh.  "You go on ahead, Jack.  I'll be along in a few minutes."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

Jack gave his shoulder a squeeze, then head on down the path.  Daniel watched him leave.

"I'm sorry, Jack.  I hope you can forgive me someday," he whispered.  Then he turned and walked away in the opposite direction, knowing what he had to do.S

Jack, Sam, Teal'c and SG-3 helped clear away the wreckage as Janet's team treated the injured.  Thankfully, there were no injuries more serious than broken bones, none of which were bad enough to require surgery.  They'd gotten lucky.  If the huts had been made of heavier materials or if any very young children had been caught in a collapse, there would likely have been fatalities.

"Sir, where's Daniel?" Sam asked when she realized that she hadn't seen the archeologist around.

Jack glanced about.  "I don't know."  He spied Gennae and called to him.  The man came over.  "Have you seen Daniel?"

"No.  Did he not go home to your world?  I told him that Bendrak would kill him if he was discovered here."

Jack got a sinking feeling in his gut.  "Well, he failed to mention that little fact to us.  Carter, Teal'c, let's go.  Daniel might be in trouble."

They hurried toward the gate, seeing no sign of the archeologist on the way.

"Maybe he did go home, sir," Sam suggested, knowing, even as she said it, that such was not the case.

Jack shook his head.  "He wouldn't do that.  Even if his life was threatened, he wouldn't leave here until he was sure the Dicharins were all right."  A horrible thought came to him.  "Unless. . . ."  Jack doubled his pace.  "Dammit!  I should have known he'd do something like this."

"What?  What are you saying?" Sam asked, almost running to keep up with him.

"He's gone and gotten one of those blue crystals and plans on going after Bendrak!"

Suddenly terrified, Sam took off in a full run, Jack and Teal'c only a second behind her.

The three members of SG-1 were only about half a mile from the temple when they caught sight of Daniel.  He was carrying what looked like one of the containers used for transporting hazardous material.  Apparently having heard their approach, he turned around.  He then continued walking, increasing his pace.  His teammates soon caught up with him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Jack yelled, out of breath from the mad dash to get there.  He grabbed Daniel's shoulder, stopping his forward progress.

"I'm fixing the problem," Daniel replied shortly.  "I'm going to stop Bendrak once and for all."

"Daniel, you can't," Sam said.  "You heard what Janet said.  If you use that crystal again it might kill you."

"I have no choice, Sam.  I have to do this."

"No!  You don't have to do anything!" Jack told him.  "And I'll be damned if I'm going to let you go off and get yourself killed!"

"And what's the alternative, Jack?" Daniel asked angrily, glaring at him.  "Let two hundred more people die?  You can't stand there and tell me that my life is worth more than two hundred of theirs!"

The others fell silent.

"If it was you in my place, you would do the same thing," Daniel said, his voice now just a murmur.

Jack closed his eyes, knowing that Daniel was right.  He could not weigh Daniel's life against the lives of two hundred Dicharins and have it come out in his friend's favor.  If he was the one being put in this position, he would know what he had to do.

"Sometimes, I really hate it when you're right," he said, his voice carrying a wealth of emotion.

"Yeah, well, there are times when I really wish I wasn't right either," Daniel told him.

Jack gave an almost inaudible sigh.  "I, um, guess we'd better get going, then."

Daniel shook his head.  "There is no reason for you to come.  You'd be putting yourselves in unnecessary danger."

"Daniel, we're not letting you go alone," Sam said firmly.

"If you must face Bendrak, then we will be at your side," Teal'c stated.

Daniel looked at his teammates, knowing that they would not let him do this alone.  He gave a short nod, then turned and continued toward the temple.

All too soon, they were there.  Daniel had been feeling Bendrak's presence for quite a while, but, this time, knowing what was causing his feelings of unease, he didn't let it bother him.

The members of SG-1 stood outside the temple, looking for some sign of Bendrak.  They'd been there for perhaps three or four minutes when something darker than the shadows became visible in the doorway.  It floated toward them about five feet, then stopped, taking on a vaguely human shape.

'Who dares disturb me?' said a voice in their minds.  'Wait.  I know you.  You were here before.'  A hand-like shape pointed at Daniel.  'You.  I killed you.  You are dead.'

"Well, now, you see, that's the thing about Daniel," Jack said.  "He's a really hard man to kill.  Um, no, on second thought, that's not exactly true.  You can kill him.  He just has this odd habit of not staying dead."  He turned to Daniel.  "So, how many times is it that you've died, Daniel?  Five?"

"Actually, it's six if you count the cardiac arrest when I was in Ma'chello's body," Daniel replied.

Jack turned back to Bendrak.  "There.  You see?  He's like that Wile E. Coyote guy.  No matter how many times he gets squashed, blown up, falls over a cliff, or whatever, there he is, back in the next scene, good as new."

'Silence!' Bendrak shouted in their minds.  Everyone winced in discomfort.

"Ow.  Keep down the volume, will ya, Benny?" Jack asked.

'You will all pay for your insolence.'

Jack glanced at his teammates.  "The guy doesn't look like a Goa'uld, but he sure does sound like one.  Do all these bad guys take the same class or something?  How to be an Insufferably Arrogant Jerk 101?"

With a mental snarl, Bendrak began moving toward them.  Daniel quickly opened the container he was carrying and pulled out the crystal.  Bendrak instantly halted.

'You.  You are the one who changed the abikar?'

"Yes," Daniel replied simply.

'That is not possible.  No human has the ability.'

"Not even a human who was once ascended?" Daniel said in a very quiet voice.

There was a moment of complete silence.  Then Bendrak roared in fury.  He rushed toward the archeologist.  Daniel immediately lifted the crystal and aimed it at the creature, willing it to do the thing for which it had been designed.

Light blazed forth from the crystal.  Seconds later, the atmosphere all around them appeared to ripple and move.  The deep thrumming sound came again, pounding and vibrating through their bodies.  Then all hell broke loose.  With another roar from Bendrak, a wild wind began shrieking through the clearing and forest with gale force, ripping branches and leaves off the trees and flinging them about.  Jack, Sam and Teal'c went to their knees, trying to keep their balance and protecting their heads and faces as much as possible.  Daniel stood like a statue in the eye of the storm, his body alight with the brilliance from the crystal, not a single piece of debris coming near him.

Suddenly, the air around Bendrak came alive, twisting and bending grotesquely.  Bendrak let out an inhumanly high-pitched scream and began to writhe in pain, his form warping out of shape.  Then, with a final wail, he seemed to collapse in on himself.  The crystal sucked him in, flaring like the sun.  The light snuffed out, and everything went dead silent.

Uncovering their heads, Jack, Sam and Teal'c watched in horror as Daniel crumpled limply to the ground.  They scrambled toward him.  Jack's fumbling fingers felt for a pulse and found none.

"No!  Dammit, Daniel!  Don't you do this to us again!  You hear me?!  You are not going to do this!" Jack yelled.  "Teal'c!  Get a medic!"  He did not spare a glance for the Jaffa, who took off at a dead run for the village.

Working with frantic haste, Jack and Sam laid Daniel's body out straight and began CPR, Jack doing the chest compressions as Sam breathed into Daniel's lungs.

The seconds and then minutes dragged by as Jack and Sam fought to restore life to Daniel.  They refused to give up, refused to accept that he was gone.  Sam had started crying, silent tears coursing down her face, the lips she pressed to Daniel's wet with them.  As time went on, Jack's breathing became labored, exhaustion making his arms shake.  They both knew that they had passed the point where there was no use in continuing, but, still, they would not stop.

Finally, though, Jack's arms fell to his sides.  "Sam," he murmured.

"No!" she said fiercely.  She began doing the compressions herself.

Jack took hold of her shoulder.  "Sam.  Stop."

"No!" she screamed, batting away his hand.  She began stroking Daniel's hair.  "Daniel, please don't go.  Please."

Jack turned away, his body slumping in defeat, not even bothering to hide his tears.

And that's when they got a miracle yet again.

A single gasping breath filled Daniel's lungs.  Jack's head snapped around, and he stared at his friend, watching as a second, softer breath expanded the archeologist's chest, then a third and a fourth.  Both Jack and Sam began to laugh with joy.  Their laughter stilled as they saw their friends's eyelids flutter and open.

Daniel gazed up into the sky in confusion, then his eyes fell upon Jack and Sam, seeing the wetness on their faces.

"I guess it's seven times now, huh," he whispered weakly.

Jack laughed and smiled down at him, laying a hand on his best friend's cheek.  "Yeah, Danny.  And we would all really appreciate it if you'd hold off on number eight for another fifty, sixty years or so."

Daniel smiled faintly.  "I'll do my best."  His eyes then fluttered closed, and he slipped into unconsciousness.

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