Fiction > Het Fic > Novels > Honor Amongst Thieves (Original Version)

Honor Amongst Thieves (Original Version) by Cleo the Muse
Rating: Older Kids
Genre: Het (Daniel/Vala), AU, Action/Adventure, Drama, Humor, Romance
Warnings: Some foul language (though nothing too severe), some questionable comments from Vala, and (since some folk don't like him) Jonas Quinn.
Episodes: Nothing's sacred. Basically, any episode which has either Daniel or Vala in it (and maybe a few which don't), so... the first movie through season ten?
Synopsis: Vala Mal Doran steals a cargo ship, but wrecks it on a backwater little farm planet whose people don't even speak a dialect she can understand. Fortunately, there is a stranger living among them who is able to translate. He arrived on that planet in a flash of light only months before, and has yet to remember who he is. When a conversation with the incorrigible thief leads him to remember his name, Daniel agrees to travel with her through the Stargate to find his past.
Notes: Loosely based on Ael L. Bolt's "Five Daniels That Weren't: The Third Daniel - Pirate". Now, the part that might REALLY send you for a loop is that I wrote and posted a chapter EVERY WEEKDAY for three months to get this plot bunny to stop nibbling on me!
Status: Completed as of May 16, 2007
Disclaimer: See The Fine Print.  I don't own Stargate... it owns me *eg*.

Ch. 1-10      Ch. 11-20      Ch. 21-30      Ch. 31-40      Ch. 41-50      Ch. 51-60      Ch. 61-70

Honor Amongst Thieves

Chapter 11

Of all the stupid things he'd ever done, this had to be the dumbest. Well, the dumbest he could remember, anyway.

Daniel sighed and tucked his hands under his arms again, wondering what in the world possessed him to go wandering around town on his own. Gishoral's largest trade center—simply called the City—was only about half the size of Katana in area, but was a warren of dark, closely-situated buildings on twisted streets. He thought he'd been keeping track of where he was going, but he'd apparently missed a turn somewhere along the way.

"You look lost."

He looked up to find a tiny wizened woman sweeping the stone steps in front of one of the many tall, skinny dwellings. "Hi. Um, I arrived with the merchant caravan that came in yesterday."

"Then you don't just look lost, you are lost."

"Yeah," he admitted. "These streets and buildings all look the same."

"They do to me too, boy," she grinned, leaning on her broom handle, "and I've lived here for forty thaws!"

His eyebrows knitted. "You're forty?"

She cackled. "Oh, that's rich! No, boy, I spent my first thirty-seven thaws up near the mines."

"Mines?"

"Gold and the gods' ore. 'Course they let us sell some of each off for food and supplies when you traders come through the Ring, otherwise we'd probably all starve to death." She cocked her head to the side. "Didn't they tell you any of this?"

"Some of it, yes, but this is my first time here with the caravan," Daniel answered truthfully. "I'm a translator."

"And I'm an old widow who misses having someone who'll actually listen when I talk. Come on inside and warm yourself."

"I really should get back to the inn. My, uh... my wife will be probably be looking for me." Vala would probably laugh her head off if she heard him refer to her as his wife... after she finished scolding him for wandering off, of course. He wasn't sure he wanted to share his nightmare with her just yet, which was why he'd felt the need for some time alone.

"If she's smart, she won't go out into the City to look for you, and if she's not, she'll get lost, too," the woman answered. "You might as well come in and warm up so I can tell you the secret to navigating the City."

Daniel sighed. On the one hand, he didn't want to waste any more time than he already had, but he was cold and certainly needed help if he was going to find his way back to the inn before he froze to death. Numbly nodding his head, he stepped onto the shallow porch and followed the old woman into the surprisingly warm house.

"Put your gloves, cap, and scarf next to the fire to heat them faster and have a seat." Shutting the heavy wooden door, she leaned her broom in the corner and puttered over to the small kitchen area. "Have you broken your fast? I still have wheat cakes and tea."

"I ate already, thanks," he answered, settling carefully onto the bench by the fire. His satchel and its precious contents of carvings and tools went on the floor beside him. "Your house is very cozy."

She either didn't hear his reply or decided he needed to eat again anyway, returning to the sitting area with a tray of biscuits and a copper teapot. "Thank you, boy. I learned to prepare a good fire in my youth, working in the Temple of Benu."

Daniel's eyebrows rose. "Benu? As in the local, uh... god of funerals?"

"Supposedly our god of rebirth. But the thaw comes later and later every year, and Benu's temple is still a pile of rubble."

His heart sank. The Benuui, a statue depicting the funeral, or rather rebirth deity, was last known to have been inside the temple's main chapel. If it had been reduced to ruins, then his and Vala's chances of finding the artifact in the next three days were very slim. "Yes, I was told the temple was all-but destroyed when, uh, when Sokar invaded."

"Sokar?" the woman questioned, pouring two cups of tea. "Ah, Seker. Oh, that old devil would have liked to think he was half the god Benu was. His Jaffa just marched through the Ring one day, declaring their master had slain Benu in battle. With the Fire Lord dead, Seker was free to lay claim to his territories." She scoffed. "Seker styled himself as a fiery underworld god, like some twisted form of Benu."

Daniel had a sudden, inexplicable flash of memory involving a world full of flames and a man with only half a face. It was gone just as suddenly as it appeared, leaving him more confused than ever. It was a scene frighteningly similar to his nightmare.

It started with a memory, of walking in the market on Katana with Vala when she pulled him into the alley and kissed him. When she leaned back, the dark hair wasn't gathered at her nape, it was loose and curly, framing a face that was no longer Vala's yet still achingly familiar. "My Dan-yel," she whispered, raising a hand to stroke his cheek, tracing the bridge of his nose up to his brow. Then her hand and eyes were ablaze with a fierce light, hurting him, making him beg for her to stop, to forgive him... The light increased blindingly, then faded into the world of fire, the half-faced man sneering at him and taunting—

"My dear boy, are you all right?"

He nearly leapt out of his skin, just barely managing to catch the tin cup holding his tea before it slipped out of his hands. "S-sorry," he stuttered. "I, uh, I had a nightmare about fire last night, which is why I went out walking this morning." He took a deep breath to steady himself. "You were saying?"

She gave him an odd look, folding her hands in her lap and leaning back into her over-sized wooden chair. "I was telling you how the temple was destroyed. Seker's Jaffa burned it to the ground when they took over the old fortress. That's when my husband and I moved from the mines to the City."

"Did anything survive the fire?" he asked. "I mean, I'm sure there were writings and art still in the temple when it was destroyed."

"What Seker's Jaffa didn't destroy, Yu's did."

"Oh."

The old woman's eyes twinkled. "You're a very respectful young man, if a bit strange."

Remembering his conversation with Vala the night before, he couldn't keep himself from smiling. "Thank you, uh, ma'am."

"Just call me Gran. Everyone else does."

"I'm Daniel."

"That's a nice name for a nice boy. Tell me, had you ever heard of Benu before you came here?"

He hesitated. "I'm not sure. Maybe?"

She leaned forward. "Benu's avatar was a bird. The Benu bird, it is said, dies in flame, but is reborn from the ashes. A painful way to die, yes, but the bird returns to life brighter, wiser, and more wondrous than ever."

Daniel shivered a little, though he wasn't sure why. "Do you think Benu's temple will be reborn from its ashes, Gran?"

"No," she replied, "but if you're finished with your tea, there's something I'd like to show you."

Chapter 12

Daniel's antics were grating on her nerves, leaving Vala more than just a little furious. Shortly after breakfast, her partner-in-crime decided to take a walk to "clear his head" and forgot to tell her he was going. In fact, the only reason she knew his motives for wandering out into the city was because he briefly mentioned them to the landlord on his way out the inn's front door.

The blasted fool had slept on the floor beside the bedroom door, despite her promises she'd keep her hands to herself. Early this morning, he'd had a rather spectacular nightmare which woke her out of a pleasant dream involving tropical beaches and piles of gold. He either couldn't or wouldn't tell her what had caused him to thrash about like a man in the throes of excruciating torture, muttering in a mixture of languages. Instead, he'd grabbed his woodcarving kit and a scrap of lumber and gone down to the commons room to keep himself busy until the caravan's merchants began to rise for the morning.

Then, of course, there was that aforementioned stroll he decided to take without informing her of his intentions. She was going to have to have a serious chat with him about sticking close on strange planets, especially now. The fortuitous combination of his scattered memories, fragile ego, and brilliant mind were proving to be eminently exploitable, and Vala could ill-afford to lose him.

"I have to go find him," she declared, pushing up from the wooden table and heading toward the door.

Kien Lu caught her arm. "There's a reason visitors don't go wandering in the city, Miss... uh, Missus Vala: all the streets and houses look alike. The roads are so twisted, one could lose his way and be only steps away from his intended destination."

"All the more reason for me to find him," she retorted, trying to tug her arm free. "Let go of me, Lu."

"Please think this through rationally, Missus Vala. If you go out looking for Master Daniel, would you not also be lost? Then we would need to send two search parties, not just the one."

Angrily, she yanked her elbow out of his grasp. Taking a single faltering step toward the door, she wheeled back around and planted her hands on the tabletop. "Fine. What do we need to do? It's been almost two hours since he walked out, so he's likely half-frozen by now."

"He's a grown man," protested the innkeeper. "Would he not have sought out assistance with one of the residents?"

"Have you ever known a man to stop and ask for directions?!"

Lu waved his hand in a placating gesture. "He's very intelligent young man, Missus Vala. He would, at least, have found shelter."

Vala glared. "He might be a grown man—and a brilliant one, at that—but Daniel is very much like a child when it comes to people. He trusts far too easily."

"None who live here will mean him harm," the innkeeper promised.

"Can you say the same for the Jaffa who patrol the streets?" At the returning silence, she had her answer. "I didn't think so. So I'll ask again, what do we need to do? What do I need to do?"

The innkeeper exhaled heavily. "We need to determine how far away he might have gone, first. Does he often go wandering about?"

"He had a nightmare this morning," she began. "He's always been quiet and a little disoriented after one of those. What does it matter? If he's lost, he could be two streets over or all the way on the other side of town by now!"

The older man spread his hands. "Would he have been disoriented enough to keep wandering even after he realized he was lost or would he have stopped for help or to warm himself?"

Her preferred response, a snappy "I don't know" stopped at her lips. Daniel was supposed to be her "husband" after all, so wouldn't a wife know his habits? She paused to weigh his stubborn streak against his trusting nature and occasional use of common sense, and found the stubborn side wanting. "He'd have stopped," she answered at last. "He'd probably have met someone with strong parenting instincts and been taken in like a lost lamb."

"Gran," the innkeeper suggested after a moment.

"Gran?"

"That's what everyone calls her. She's nearly eighty thaws and the motherly sort who talks the ears off anyone sitting still long enough to listen."

"Daniel loves a good story," Vala sighed. "Where is this 'Gran'?"

"Fortunately, on this side of the main row from the entry gate," answered the landlord. "Four reds and six blues, if I remember correctly."

"Reds? Blues?"

"It's the way we indicate—" he began, but was interrupted by the sudden opening of the front door.

"Enemy Jaffa at the Ring!" the heavily bundled figure yelled.

In a surprisingly swift move, the innkeeper leapt to his feet and loosened a hanging rope from its hook. When he began hauling on the cord, she realized it was a bell-pull threaded up through the ceiling, probably leading to the roof. Within seconds, a loud clanging overwhelmed all other noises in the room, and Vala felt a brief pang of pity for the members of the caravan unloading the wagon immediately outside the building.

"We have to find Daniel!" she shouted in Lu's direction, hoping the Han agent could hear her over the racket. The front door had opened again, and the caravaneers were quickly stepping into the shelter of the inn.

"It's not safe!" the agent yelled back. "This isn't the first attack this town has been through, Miss Vala, and the people know what to do. If he's with Gran, she'll keep him inside until the crisis is over!"

"And what if he's not with Gran? I'm just supposed to hope no Jaffa mistakes him for the foreigner he is and shoots him?" The ringing began to abate as the innkeeper finished pulling the rope and tied it back to the hook on the wall. "How can I sit still and wait, Lu?"

"I'm sorry, but you don't have a choice," the landlord replied, placing a beefy hand on her shoulder. "The Jaffa at the fortress are likely on their way here by now, as are the patrols. If fighting spills into the City, it will be too dangerous to be on the streets. You must stay here."

A steel-bound plank was settled into mounts on either side of the main door and wooden frames fitted into the front windows, sealing the inn off from the outside. Vala could still have let herself out if she wanted, but her instincts told her she'd have a hard time getting back into the wayside house. As much as she wanted to make sure Daniel wasn't in danger, too many years of self-preservation could not be overcome so easily.

The first sounds of staff blasts outside reinforced her decision. Closing her eyes, she took up a silent mantra.

"Please be safe. Please be safe..."

Chapter 13

"Now repeat that back to me."

Daniel smiled at Gran. "The street corners are marked with colors indicating their direction and placement in relation to the two main roads which intersect at the City's center. White goes to the road leading to the Stargate—what you call the Ring, and blue goes away from the road. Green goes toward the road to the mine and red away. To get back to the inn, I need only follow the white markers to the main road, then green ones until I get back to the inn."

The old woman beamed. "There's a good lad. I hope to meet you again the next time the caravans are in town, Daniel. Perhaps it will have finally thawed by then."

He opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the discordant ringing of a bell. Another, more distant bell soon took up the signal until the air was filled with racket from all sides. "What's that?"

"Another Jaffa attack," Gran answered. "Back inside the house, boy... it's best you stay inside until this is over."

Quickly, he shut the door and moved away from it. "Does this happen often?"

"Once or twice a thaw, in the old days. This is the second time for an attack in only a few days, though."

He carefully placed his satchel back on the floor and helped Gran shove a wedge under the door to prevent it from being easily opened from the outside, then at her direction, closed and latched the interior shutters on the windows. "Which Goa'uld do you think it is?"

"Does it matter? They all want the same things: ore from the mines, people to worship them, and the occasional servant."

"What about hosts?" he asked, remembering what Vala had told him.

"Not here. We don't breed 'em pretty enough," she grinned, eyeing him up and down. "All-the-more reason for you to stay inside until the fight's finished." Now that the bells were silent, he could hear strange sounds in the distance. There was a noise reminiscent of something wet being squished, followed by the rush of rapidly displaced air. "Staff weapons, and lots of 'em."

He frowned. "More than normal?"

"Many more than normal," Gran confirmed. "This fight won't take long. I doubt reinforcements have arrived from the fortress yet, so there may still be a while yet before it is safe to open the door."

Trusting in her advice, Daniel returned to his seat beside the fire, listening for the sounds of combat. The noises rose and fell several times over the next hour before abruptly falling silent. The quiet stretched on for several long minutes before Gran gave a nod to remove the obstructing block and open the door.

No sooner had Daniel reached for the handle than a booming voice announced, "Tal’bet kree! Lo tel’mac renek Ba’al!"

"It’s one of those blasted vo’cumes," Gran informed him, looking disgusted. "Useless blathering. I never understood the language of the gods."

"He’s telling us to surrender and bow before him... him being Ba’al." Daniel grimaced. "This is going to make it difficult for my caravan to leave, isn’t it?"

"That it might. What else is he saying?"

"We’re to assemble before him to ‘hear the words of he who possesses the vo’cume’," he translated. "This may be my opportunity to get back to the inn—to my people."

Gran nodded. "Good luck to you, Daniel."

He paused. "You’re not going to—"

"I’m too old to be standing out in the cold whilst an over-inflated monkey in a tin suit tells me to bow down in praise of his ‘god’. Now, you go find that wife of yours, boy, and get yourselves off this ice block."

Realizing that nothing would sway the stubborn old woman, Daniel gave her a brief hug of thanks, gathered his bag, and plunged back out into the frigid air. The other people living along the street began to trickle out of their own dwellings, and he was soon merged with a crowd heading for the road to the Stargate.

The smell of burnt ozone and flesh greeted him as he paused on the main road, glancing in the ‘green’ direction in hopes he’d spot one of the members of the Zhiangma caravan. He didn’t want to think about the reason he recognized the stench of scorched skin or why it sent shivers down his spine, so he did his best to ignore the odor. Squinting in the hopes he could focus his weak eyes better, he thought he caught a reflection of the dim sunlight off a bald pate, hopefully Kien Lu’s.

It was, and Vala was right beside him. Catching sight of Daniel, she made her way toward him, flinging her arms around him in an exuberant hug and hissing into his ear, "Where the hell have you been?"

"I got lost," he began, not wanting to tell her the full story while they were in such a noticeably public location.

"You and I are going to have a little talk about not wandering off," she snapped, pulling away from him. "But not here. Pull the hood of your coat up and try not to draw any attention from Baal's Jaffa. I can't take the chance they'll recognize me from my days as a host or get close enough to sense the naquada in my blood."

Nodding, Daniel did as she asked, and they rejoined the rest of the caravaneers. When Baal's Jaffa seemed satisfied enough of the City's residents were gathered at the plaza where the main roads intersected, their leader began to speak. He informed the citizens that the planet had been taken in the name of Baal, they were to worship him as their god, keep mining naquada... basically, nothing changed for the people of Gishoral except the name of their new master.

"Wait here while I secure our release," Lu instructed as the gathering at last was allowed to disperse. Daniel watched in shock as the Han agent cautiously approached the Jaffa speaker, drawing the pendant representing his affiliation out from beneath his shirt. Though he couldn't hear what was being said, the Jaffa's scowl seemed to indicate his displeasure. Then, to Daniel's utter surprise, the Jaffa released the amulet and nodded, turning his back on Lu and stomping away.

"We should go," Lu announced as he brushed past the stunned duo.

"Just like that?" Daniel asked.

"Yes."

Vala looked impressed. "Well, I knew the Hans had influence, but I had no idea..." She pulled away, running just a little to catch up with the agent. "What about... what Daniel and I came here to get?"

Daniel cleared his throat. "About that... listen, I—"

"There's no time for that now," Lu interrupted. "I will explain the situation to Master Han. He will understand."

"But that's not—"

"You heard the man, Daniel," the raven-haired woman sighed. "We're lucky to be leaving with our lives."

He shook his head. "What I'm trying to say is—"

"Oh, we'll talk about it when we get to a warmer planet," she muttered, lowering her head and stalking resolutely back toward the inn.

"But you don't even know what I was going to say," he complained to no one in particular. When he reached the inn, all thoughts of making his intended explanations vanished as he was called upon to help reload the wagon.

The return trip down the hill was even more difficult than the arrival had been, as the caravaneers had to pull against the wagon's weight to belay its ascent. One wrong move could cause it to go hurtling down the slope and crash, so the men had to utilize extreme caution. Daniel was inwardly grateful for the work, as it kept his attention from straying to the bodies of dead Jaffa littering the trampled and blood-stained snow. At last, they were on the valley floor, and Lu entered the coordinates Daniel recognized as the planet the Hans called home. Using planks laid as ramps up the Stargate's steps, the wagon was then hauled through the event horizon.

Han Kazo himself met them at the 'Gate. "What happened?"

"Baal's forces attacked and took the planet," Lu answered. "Ground troops only, else we might not have survived. I'm afraid our mission was otherwise a complete failure."

"Not a complete failure," Daniel began.

"Daniel and I didn't even get a chance to set foot outside the City," Vala cut in, stepping up beside the Han agent. "We never even saw the temple, let alone had chance to explore it."

"Guys!" Vala, Lu, and Kazo turned to look at him, along with everyone else from the caravan. "If you would stop interrupting me, I've been trying to say that we didn't have to go to the temple." He took a breath, slipping his satchel of his shoulder and releasing the drawstring.

"The elderly woman I met in the City was a worker in the Temple of Benu back when Sokar invaded. She and her husband saved the Benuui from the ruins of the temple, and she's kept it in the cellar of their home ever since." Smiling triumphantly at the dumbfounded expressions leveled at him, he reached into the bag and drew out the rising-bird shaped statue. "She gave it to me when I asked her for it," he finished.

Silence greeted him, then Kazo erupted in a roar of laughter.

Chapter 14

"Don't think I'm not still mad at you."

In the darkness of the room they shared, Vala heard a quick inhalation. "For what?"

"For wandering off without telling me where you were going, for starters," she began, swinging her feet to the floor and tapping the button to bring up the lights in the room he shared with her—reluctantly, it seemed.

He blinked against the sudden brightness, squinting up at her from his customary make-shift bed on the floor. "I didn't realize I needed your permission to go for a walk. Besides, it all worked out in the end."

"Oh, right. Kazo got his lovely bird statue made of an alloy remarkably resistant to extreme heat and you and I got paid a tidy sum."

His expressive eyebrows furrowed. "You're going to have to explain it to me, then, 'cause I don't see a problem so far. Is it how I presented the statue to Master Han? 'Cause I tried to tell you about it before we left Gishoral, but—"

"You scared me, you idiot!" she shouted, causing him to recoil just a little. Daniel sat up with his back to the wall and looked ready to bolt, so Vala swiftly took matters into her own hands. Crossing the room in two strides, she straddled his knees and planted her hands on his shoulders to prevent—or at least slow—his escape. It took a great deal of willpower to not withdraw when he flinched at her touch.

"Firstly, you had that stupid nightmare you wouldn't talk about," she began, "leaving me a little concerned. Then you went and disappeared without telling anyone—oh, except the landlord—and leaving me more than just a little worried. When you were still gone two hours later and Baal's Jaffa attacked, I was scared."

"I'm sorry," he offered quietly. "I—I didn't know."

"I care for you, Daniel," she continued, releasing his shoulders and sitting back on her haunches. "In the last two weeks, you've come to mean a lot to me." She cringed inwardly at her deliberate misdirection, which was noteworthy itself. If it were anyone else but Daniel, she was certain she would have no qualms about manipulating his perceptions to her needs. There was something about him, though, that made it almost distasteful to lead him to believe her investment in him was more emotional than financial.

"But you don't trust me," he guessed, folding his arms across his chest.

"I trust Theadan," Vala answered at length. "He's honest and careful and kind. Unfortunately, I don't yet know Daniel well enough to know if I trust him or not, because he keeps hiding from me."

"He keeps hiding from me, too," the man muttered, gazing downward as though the hem of his shirt held all the answers. Just as Vala began to think he wasn't going to speak further, he cleared his throat. "It starts with you, actually."

"What?"

"The bad dream I had."

"Oh. You sure it's not a good dream?"

Daniel gave her a look of amused exasperation. "It starts with you dragging me into that alley on Katana and kissing me. When you pull away, it's not you anymore. Instead, there's a woman with curly black hair who calls me 'my Dan-yel'. At first, she's gentle and sweet, but then she changes. She becomes cold and arrogant. Her hand and eyes glow, then I'm in so much pain, I fall to my knees and—"

"Oh my," Vala breathed, shifting position so that she was beside his legs rather than across them. "She's a Goa'uld."

"That would certainly explain why I always feel anger and sorrow when anyone mentions the Goa'uld." He tipped his head back and smiled wistfully. "She was so very beautiful... and I loved her very much."

"Do you think she's still out there? Waiting for you to rescue her?"

Daniel shook his head. "I don't know. There are other people who were important to me, people whose faces aren't clear... not yet. An older man with silver hair... a warrior, leader, and brother. At first, I thought I just kept confusing Atrus with someone else from my past, but it's obvious now they aren't the same... even though I feel they have a great deal in common." He grinned. "Not the least of which is annoying me to distraction."

"I can do that," Vala scoffed playfully. "Who else?"

"Another man, dark-skinned, physically powerful. I get the sense of great age and wisdom, but still young and a student at the same. A woman, fair-haired and light-skinned. There's a bond between us like... like family?"

"A sister, maybe? Cousin?"

"Possibly. The rest are still vague shadows with no real shape or definition. A wise leader, a compassionate healer, a lonely child, a man with two faces, a venerable warrior... well, you get the idea."

"Sounds like a motley crew," she grinned. "Two leaders and two warriors in the mix, though."

"Oh, a lot more than just two warriors... but again, they're all shapes and not faces."

Vala pondered what he'd revealed so far. On the one hand, the presence of so many warriors and leaders seemed to imply he'd been a part of some sort of army, with the silver-haired warrior the leader of its masses and the wise leader their sovereign, perhaps. On the other hand, she was entirely unsure how a man of Daniel's gentle nature could be a part of such an organization. Still, it served as a perfect explanation for his familiarity with zats, tel'taks, and the art of stealth, leaving her to wonder again what secrets lay beneath the seemingly guileless exterior.

"Quite the mystery," she mused aloud. "Thank you, Daniel, and please forgive me if I seemed... accusatory in any way. It certainly wasn't my intention."

"It's okay," he assured her. "Talking about it out loud sort of helped me put some of what I remember into perspective. Do you suppose I was a member of some sort of military unit?"

"I thought the exact same thing... and I don't think it's likely."

"You don't?"

Vala pulled her hair back from her face with one hand. "I can't imagine what a man of your learning would have been doing serving in an army. Maybe, instead, the wise leader you mentioned is your father, the king... and the warriors your protectors as the crown prince of wherever."

He laughed aloud, dazzling eyes momentarily losing their dark cloud of contemplation. "I've told you before, Vala, I don't think I'm royalty."

"You said 'king'. 'Prince' was never mentioned in that conversation, so I think I'll hold out for that one for a while."

His expression managed to convey amusement and confusion at the same time. "Okay, so if I'm the prince, who are the other people?"

She settled next to him, back against the wall but leaning into his side. Obligingly, he put his arm around her shoulders and rested his head against her own. "Well, the dark-haired woman must be your beautiful princess. Instead of an ivory tower, it's a Goa'uld who has her imprisoned. The silver-haired man is the leader of your father's armies and the older warrior is his mentor. Let's see... the big man is the leader's man-at-arms. The healer is the court physician, the sister is your sister, and the child is... a younger sibling? The son or daughter of any of your other companions?"

"It's your story, take your pick."

"Oh, no, it's your story, remember? Okay... so the child belongs to... the physician. What about the two-faced man? Did you mean he was duplicitous or literally had two separate faces?"

"Two separate faces, I think, but they are nearly identical."

"Since I doubt he's the court jester, I'll go with king's advisor."

"So where do you fit into this fairytale, Vala?"

"Oh, we can't introduce me to this yarn just yet," she admonished. "Once upon a time, Prince Daniel was out riding through the countryside when an evil Goa'uld wizard called down a bolt of lightning to frighten his horse. Prince Daniel was flung from the saddle and fell down a ravine. Although his fall was broken by tree branches on the way down, they tore his clothes so that he landed on the ground quite naked."

Daniel buried his face in his palm. "I'd hoped you'd forgotten that."

"Not on your life, darling. Anyway, the nearby villagers were startled by lightning on a clear day, so they ran to the base of the cliff to see what had happened. Imagine their surprise when they discovered the handsome prince lying on the ground before them. Of course, they didn't recognize him as the prince because all his fine clothes were gone."

"You're dwelling too much on that part. Can we skip it?"

"Which of your parts should I skip?" she grinned.

"Anything without clothes!" he blushed.

"Oh, fine. So... not knowing who the prince was, they took him back to their village. When he awoke, they found the fall had caused him to lose his memory. Without knowing where he came from, he stayed with the village and helped them... since that's what kind, generous princes do, after all. The village was in too remote a part of the kingdom to receive news that the prince was lost, you see, so when no news of his whereabouts returned to the castle, the king thought him slain by the evil Goa'uld wizard."

He turned his head and smiled at her. "You're quite the storyteller."

Vala laid a finger across his lips. "Shush. I'm not finished yet. One day, a notorious pirate was in the area. Having commandeered a ship with a leaky bottom, she was forced to make for land before her ship sank. The first place she came to on-shore was the village where the prince lived. They discovered they had a few things in common, so when it came time for her to leave, he traveled with her to a nearby magic portal and stepped through it to the pirate's country."

He was leaning heavily against her now, and she suspected he might be drifting off to sleep. Reaching across her body, she took his left hand in her right, lifting his arm over her head and putting it down at his side. "The pirate and the prince are going to go on many adventures together, combining her knowledge with his to make them the best treasure-hunters on the high seas. Then, one of these days, they're going to find their way back to the prince's kingdom, where she'll help him rescue the princess from the evil wizard's tower. The king will reward the pirate richly for helping his son, and they'll all live happily ever after."

Daniel looked far more relaxed than she had ever seen him. "Sounds like a good story, Vala." His voice was slightly slurred, so she helped him to lie down and pull the tangled sheet over his body. "Richly rewarding the pirate? Gold, jewels, and a ship to call her own: what else could a pirate want, hmm?"

He dropped off into slumber, mouth open as his breathing slowed to a very soft snore. She hoped his dreams that night would be of the magical kingdom she'd crafted for him instead of the nightmares he normally suffered. Impulsively, Vala leaned down and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Every girl dreams of finding her Prince Charming, Daniel."

As she crawled between the sheets of her own bed and turned out the lights, she mentally cursed herself. Daniel was an excellent business opportunity, not some lost prince whose kingdom she was needed to help save. She was not supposed to be getting emotionally attached to him.

Chapter 15

"According to the tablet, it's supposed to be in here."

Vala raised an eyebrow, casting the beam of her handlight around the big but obviously-empty room. "Well, I'm sure you and the tablet are right, Daniel... it's just my eyesight that's wrong, that's all."

He gave a huff of exasperation, wondering how a woman as impatient as she had ever gotten anywhere as a thief and smuggler. "Okay, so somebody got here before us. It's not surprising, really, since Kazo said there had been other treasure hunters to seek this particular treasure. Still, I can't help but feel we're missing something."

"The treasure, for one."

Daniel scowled. "It's more than that. There were supposed to be writings in this room. I don't see those, either."

"So it's been a few hundred years and the paint's worn off."

"Carvings, Vala. Chiseled, cut, or otherwise engraved on the surface of the stone. There's no sign of flooding, so they can't have eroded, either. The edges are still too sharp between the paving stones."

She twisted around, shining her light on his face. "You never mentioned writings before."

"I wasn't quite sure what the word meant, remember? I'm pretty sure that it means writing, though."

"Pretty sure?"

"Pretty much." He glanced down at the thin paper rubbings he had made of the tablets Kazo had presented them. "Either that or it means 'markings' or 'drawings'."

"I don't see any of those, either," Vala retorted, "unless you count the oh-so-lovely yellow stripe of stones down the center of the hall we walked through to get in here."

"Yellow stones?"

She put her free hand on her hip. "Don't tell me you went wandering in here without paying attention to the floor at your feet! Your Highness, what were you thinking?"

"Stop calling me that. And to be honest, I was too busy trying to make a map of the corridors so we could find our way out of here later."

"What good does a map do you if you step on a trap and fall into pit?"

He sighed. In the week since the "fairytale" was first introduced, Vala had been running hot and cold. One minute, she'd be as friendly and flirtatious as ever, then she'd turn around and snap at him for no apparent reason. Several times, he'd had to resist the urge to make a pithy comment about 'that time of the month', but his self-preservation instincts had fortunately prevailed.

"So... was this the first place you saw yellow stones, or were there others?"

"There were others," she replied. "I'd thought maybe they were a regular decoration, but the pattern was broken in places."

He blinked. "What places?"

"Lots of places. Does it really matter?"

"Well, it might." Sighing heavily, he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "We need to backtrack... find all the yellow lines and compare them. I knew I was missing something, and that could be the key to figuring out what it was."

Vala rolled her eyes, but led the way back out, pointing at the decorative-looking row of stones down the center of the corridor, barely noticeable against the dusty brownish-rose hue of the surrounding blocks. Daniel used a thin piece of charcoal to mark its start on the map he'd been drawing, carefully following the line until it stopped where another of the labyrinthine hallways intersected at a peculiar angle.

"You see any more of these lines?"

She peered into the darkness, then shone her light down the hall to their right. "We really need to get your eyesight corrected."

"I take it that's a 'yes'?"

"Yes."

Daniel stifled the urge to sigh in exasperation. Instead, he stepped into the new hallway and began carefully mapping the curve of the walls until the yellow line ended at a four-way junction, this time intersecting at right angles. Vala spotted another line to their left, and they set off in that direction.

They stopped for a rest and water after nearly an hour, then resumed mapping the path of decorative stones. The self-professed thief made no effort to disguise her boredom and belief in the futility of his efforts. Yet another hour later, he was still approximating measurements and sketching when Vala abruptly stopped. "We're back at the entrance."

He blinked, looking up from his map to see the badly-defaced fresco which they had discovered near the stairs leading out of the underground complex. It had likely been damaged by vandals or other treasure hunters, leaving whatever scene it depicted unrecognizable. "That's strange."

"We could have just followed those stones to get to the empty chamber at the end?"

"Well, it would taken a lot longer than following the directions on the tablet," he replied. "It also crosses the initial path we took several times and even itself more than once, and some of those were dead ends.. If my friend Jack were here, though, he'd probably tell us to 'follow the yellow brick road'."

"Your friend who?"

"My friend—" Daniel froze, then grinned "—Jack! That's the name of the silver-haired leader, the one I kept confusing with Atrus. When Atrus thought I was saying 'Zhek', I must have been saying 'Jack', even without knowing who he was!"

"Congratulations," Vala replied dryly. "And his advice to follow the yellow brick road?"

"Not really sure," he admitted. "I'm pretty sure Jack was full of odd comments which really didn't mean anything."

She snatched the map out of his hands and held it up, tipping her head to first one side, then the other as she studied—or at least pretended to study—the lines he'd drawn. As her head moved, allowing the sunlight from the stairwell to pour over her shoulder, Daniel blinked in surprise at what he saw.

"Vala, hold it up to the light for me. No, no... the other way, with the back of the page to me." Although she frowned in confusion, she did as he asked. The light shone through the thin paper, illuminating the crudely-formed map in reverse. From the back side, the hand-drawn lines of yellow stone intersected with the "true" path to form an unmistakable rune.

"Find anything useful?" she asked, amusement coloring her voice as she took in what was undoubtedly a shocked expression on his face.

"Well, you did say Peklenc was an underworld god," he replied, shaking his head as though that would help restart his brain. "If he were looking up from his kingdom, he'd see the lines from the back side, not the front. That's what didn't make sense about the tablet. 'Seek the writing when you reach the final chamber'. There wasn't writing in the last chamber; you had to seek what was 'written' only after you got to the last room!"

The woman stared at the paper, then at him. "So, what does the writing mean?"

"It says 'Ozwiena'. If you remember from the books Kazo gave us—"

"—She was his consort. The locals once associated her with ravines and caverns."

Daniel grinned. "But it also said that in their early beliefs, anytime they heard an echo, Ozwiena was mocking them. Ravines and caverns have echoes. We've been down here for several hours, but have you heard an echo yet?"

Vala cocked her head to one side. "No... and that's strange, since this is a big, empty temple with nothing but lots and lots of walls to reflect sounds back to us. Even the last chamber didn't echo."

"So... why don't we go back there and see if we can find one or something that represents an echo?"

Energized for the first time since their arrival, the pair followed the map again to return to the end chamber. Nothing had changed in the surprisingly spacious room, the darkness still unbroken save where their handlights sliced into it. The walls and floor were made of the same closely-fit pinkish-stone as was prevalent elsewhere in the temple. The ceiling, unlike the arched vaults of the maze-like corridors and chambers elsewhere, seemed to be perfectly smooth, proving the complex—or at least this part of it—had been carved out of the mountain instead of being constructed within an existing cave system. Given that one of Peklenc's titles was "god of stonecutters", the detailed craftsmanship of the temple was less surprising than it might have been on another world.

"You do realize that anyone seeking this treasure before us would probably have tapped the walls in search of secret compartments," the dark-haired woman commented, beginning a tour of the room's perimeter.

"Yeah, I figured as much," Daniel agreed, tucking his papers into his pack before circling in the opposite direction. "Obviously, we're looking for something else. Do you remember what the symbols for Peklenc and Ozwiena look like?"

"Oh, I leave that sort of thing for you to remember. If I see anything that looks like it might be an intentional scratch, I'll certainly let you know." They lapsed into silence then, each taking to studying their half of the room. Nearly an hour later, they met near the middle of the wall opposite the door, exchanging grim shakes of the head which told of their lack of success.

"There must be something in here," Daniel muttered disgustedly, sweeping his light back over the room again as though another look would provide an answer.

"Or someone could have already beat us here and gotten whatever treasure this room supposedly held," Vala replied, striding back across the room. "Not that I would have minded finding Pek's secret stash of jewels and precious metals."

"...Metals."

She froze in place. "Did you hear that?"

"...Hear that?"

Daniel realized his mouth was hanging open and quickly shut it. "An echo!"

"Great! What's that tell us?"

"...Tell us?"

"You've probably found the spot we were looking for," he answered, quickly crossing to where she stood, a few strides short of the center of the room. "Any markings around you?"

"...Around you?"

"Around us," Vala corrected, rolling her eyes at the echo. "Whatever we're looking for must be in this approximate space."

"...Approximate space."

"I wonder how big it is... what shape it takes."

"...Shape it takes."

"You know, that is really starting to get annoying," she griped.

"...Annoying," the echo agreed.

Daniel grinned. "Try whispering, then... that doesn't echo as loudly." He began slowly moving back in the direction from which he'd come, counting aloud and listening for the replying echo. When he no longer heard his own voice being repeated back to him, he bent down and made a mark on the stone in charcoal. Turning around, he stepped past Vala and did the same again, stopping less than a normal stride past where she currently stood.

"You know, if you'd been walking any faster, we might've missed this."

"...Missed this."

"So what do we have so far, Your Highness?"

"..Your Highness?"

He scowled, turning to his right and stepping forward again. "It's about three full strides across here, but I'm not sure of the shape." No echo answered him, so he turned and moved again. This time, his counting was repeated, so he made another mark. As though realizing her time would be better spent helping him instead of providing more fuel for the annoying echo to parrot, Vala asked for his spare piece of charcoal and went to work.

Shortly thereafter, she announced, "It's a circle."

Daniel looked back his own marks and nodded in agreement. Their initial crossing point had been toward the circle's edge, with the full shape being four or five strides across at its diameter. "That could be significant."

Her hands were on her hips, and she cocked her head to one side. "You know, I'm sensing a little naquada around here. It could be rings."

"Rings?"

"A Goa'uld ring platform is about this size and is also round, of course."

"And what's that do?"

She rolled her eyes as though he should know, but explained, "It's a transportation device that moves people and objects from one platform to another. The matter is transported into energy, then re-formed on the other side."

"Like a Stargate?"

"In a way, yes. Ring platforms are usually activated by a control console or the use of a precisely-calibrated signal, usually from a transmitter worn on the hand or wrist."

"Well, we don't have a transmitter," he mused, wondering what the phrase "garage door opener" meant and why it suddenly began bouncing around in his skull. "The tablets didn't say anything about that, either."

"They probably wouldn't. You said the tablets were instructions for Pek's worshippers so they could leave offerings for him. It stands to reason that the temple would have had priests and Jaffa in attendance who would activate the rings for the supplicants. Goa'uld are big at making their technology look like magic, so the tablets wouldn't have revealed something like that."

"No, I suppose not," Daniel sighed, casting his handlight over the floor in front of him. They'd marked almost half the shape, and he could easily estimate the rest of it. "I don't suppose there's any technology we could use to—" He broke off, panning the beam back over the stone he'd just passed.

"What is it?"

"What's another word for 'echo'?"

"'Mimic'?" she guessed.

"Reflection," he corrected. "That stone is reflecting my light."

Vala walked over and scrutinized the stone in question, running her fingers over it in search of loose edges, unusual bumps, or anything else of the sort. "It seems pretty ordinary to me... other than the reflection."

"...Reflection," agreed the echo.

"What if it's an activation point? Shine a light on it, push it in, stand on it, something?"

"You'd better get inside the circle if it works."

"...If it works."

He crossed the charcoal marks, then peered around her shoulder as she pushed on the stone. It gave away with some resistance, depressing less than a finger's width before sliding back into place. "Of course it couldn't be that easy," she remarked, looking back at Daniel as though he held all the answers.

"...That easy."

"Maybe there's another one that has to be pushed at the same time," Daniel suggested, smiling as the echo put in its own "same time". Casting about, he found another of the otherwise-unremarkable stones which reflected light on the exact opposite side of the circle. "You wouldn't want anybody to just accidentally stumble across the activation switch."

"...Activation switch."

"What if there's more than two?"

"...More than two?"

"Not likely. Peklenc and Ozwiena wouldn't be able to enter their own treasure room by themselves, then."

"...Themselves, then."

"So we're ready to try this?"

"...To try this?"

Daniel nodded, pushing his own stone as Vala pressed hers. "To Oz," he declared.

An explosion of sound and light surrounded them.

Chapter 16

Vala blinked away the spots dancing before her eyes and quickly looked around, grateful to note that the ring platform on this side was considerably more visible than the one in the temple complex had been. A quick glance upward showed her where the rings were stored when not in use.

"Well, that was exciting," she commented. "First time traveling by rings, Daniel?"

"Uh, I don't think so, no," he answered, checking their surroundings. "We're deeper underground, I guess?"

"Most likely, although it's very unusual for a Goa'uld to build beneath a planet's surface. They liken it too much with the way the Tok'ra are known to tunnel. Besides, they much prefer the tasteless grandeur of forcing their slaves to build them opulent palaces almost big enough to house their egos."

Daniel blinked. "I thought the whole carved-into-a-mountain thing was pretty impressive."

Actually, it had been. Even in a sad state of disrepair, the towering columns, massive statues, and detailed craftsmanship had been a testament to the skill of long-dead artisans, doubtlessly toiling away under the mistaken belief their labors would grant them some favor with the Goa'uld who ruled over their world. Then the treasure hunters had found their way inside the temple and were confronted with even more evidence of the workers' dedication to the art of stonecutting in the sprawling network of tunnels.

Vala shook her head. According to the information she and Daniel had been given—plus a little half-remembered history from the remnants of Qetesh—Peklenc and Ozwiena had turned against one another. Peklenc had been a rather minor Goa'uld who wasn't important enough to be able to attract the attention of a true Goa'uld Queen, and Ozwiena had grown tired of her role as the less-dominant of the pair. She betrayed his armies to another lesser Goa'uld, Narciss, who later killed her, too. With both Peklenc and Ozwiena dead, their hidden palace became the subject of much speculation.

She and Daniel had solved the mystery, though, and as she gave the area immediately around them another quick check, she noticed with relief that a more typical control panel for the ring platform was nearby. "What are we waiting for?" she asked.

Daniel licked his lower lip. "It occurs to me that a palace sealed off for five hundred years might not have very good air in it."

"We're breathing just fine now, aren't we?"

"Well, yes. But we could still be breathing the air which came with us through the rings."

"And there might not have been anyone or anything down here to poison the air for that same five hundred years." She shrugged, stepping out of the ring room and slowly making her way down the hall. "There's no use dwelling on it now that we're down here. If the air is bad, we likely won't notice until it's too late anyway."

He gave her a bewildered look as he caught up to her. "Well, that's positive thinking."

"You started it."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did..." He trailed off shaking his head. "Yeah, I guess I did. So, should I be making a map or something?"

"Probably won't be necessary," she answered, pausing to investigate a closed door. "Since this is the first chamber immediately after the rings, I'd guess this is a throne room. Goa'uld are notoriously lacking in creativity, so I doubt this place will be much different than any other palace or ship." They rounded a corner and were confronted with gold-colored walls covered in hieroglyphs. "Like that, for example."

"That's like the inside of the cargo ship... tel'tak. Do the symbols mean anything?"

She raised an eyebrow. "You can't read them?"

He shrugged. "Not from this distance, no. Actually, I'm not sure, but I wonder if it's worth my time."

Resisting the urge to smirk, Vala gestured toward a section of paneling. He stepped closer so that his weak eyesight would allow the details of the hieroglyphs to come into focus. "'The Great and Beautiful Ozwiena, Mistress of the Underworld, Daughter of Gaia, Slayer of Tyche...'" He shook his head. "It's all propaganda, isn't it?"

"Pretty much," Vala grinned, "but occasionally useful." Stepping up next to yet another sealed door, she ran her light over the glyphs beside it before selecting one at waist-height which resembled a grouping of three mountains. It turned under her hand, causing the door's seam to crack open slightly. Together, she and Daniel were able to force the two panels apart.

The room beyond was astonishingly pristine for something abandoned for hundreds of years, but she supposed it and the hallway's dust-free condition was owed to the facility's location underground. The Goa'uld were known for applying some of the same principles guiding the construction of spaceships to architecture—and vice versa—which could very well mean the underground palace was air-tight. She wondered if the environmental systems and doors had been shut off or if they'd simply run out of power.

"There isn't any dust," Daniel commented, mirroring her thoughts. "Do you suppose there's a life support system down here? I mean, that'd make sense if it's cut off from the surface."

"I was just thinking the same thing," she grinned, once again impressed by her companion's quick intelligence. Clearly, he'd had more than just passing experience with Goa'uld technology in his forgotten life. "I'd say it's worth a look if we come across it. Our first priority is the treasure, though."

"If you call gaudy trinkets like that 'treasure'," he replied, handlight coming to rest on a hideously-ornate piece of sculpture.

Vala approached and hefted it, scowling at its light weight. "It's not even solid gold," she pouted, accidentally brushing her hand across the decorative scarf on the table as she stepped back. The ancient cloth practically crumbled. "Well, now there's dust."

Daniel grinned and continued on into the next room. "Bedroom," he called back to her.

Despite her increasing confusion over her relationship with him, she couldn't resist teasing. "Care to help me test out the mattress?"

"If it's as old as the table scarf, I doubt it would hold up to your enthusiasm," he replied.

She stopped in the doorway. "Impressive. That's the first time you've had a come-back for any of my suggestions."

"I'm a fast learner," he commented cheekily, carefully opening a small wooden chest atop one of the dressers. "Hello."

Stepping into the room, Vala peered around him to see the unmistakable glint of gold and jewels. "Looks like Ozwiena didn't clean house before she dumped her husband."

He took a piece of cloth out his pack and carefully wrapped the jewelry box before tucking it into his bag. They quickly searched through the drawers on every piece of furniture in the room, turning up a few more valuable trinkets amidst the rapidly deteriorating clothing.

"I can't help but feel I should be preserving all this," Daniel remarked, shutting the door of the armoire he'd inspected.

"Oh, we are preserving this darling... for us."

"The Hans, too," he reminded her.

Vala shrugged. "I'm sure they won't mind if we keep a few of these pieces for ourselves."

"Probably not... it'd be cheaper than paying us for our services."

"No, I think I'll still insist on a cut," she corrected. "They couldn't have expected us to find what we were looking for in the first day of actively searching. That's got to be worth something, Daniel."

He shrugged. "You're the finances person in this partnership."

"And you're the brains of the outfit, so try not to strain them too much." Closing the drawer she'd just finished searching, she cast her beam in the direction of the bedside table and caught a glint of red. There, hidden partly by the frame of the massive bed was an ancient Goa'uld activation crystal. "Let's see what this does," she muttered, pressing the dome.

With a groan of disused gears, a section of wall just on the other side of the nightstand slid aside. "Hello," she grinned, mimicking Daniel's earlier comment.

"Oh, nice," he commented, shining his light into the revealed chamber. Perhaps fifteen strides deep and at least that many wide, the hidden compartment was filled with sealed ceramic pots, drinkware and dishes that looked like they were probably silver underneath a few centuries worth of tarnish, magnificent wooden chests that potentially held untold treasures, and lots and lots of gold. There were statues, pots, urns, decorative armor, and pieces of jewelry, all seemingly crafted out of the Goa'uld's favorite precious metal.

"These new packs are not going to be big enough," Vala announced.

"No kidding," Daniel agreed, carefully—and wisely—checking for traps before stepping into the treasury. "You know, I always thought treasure rooms like these were a complete cliché, but I'm beginning to realize the Goa'uld love clichés."

"Ostentation and a complete lack of originality will do that to a race. Let's start with the jewelry, Daniel. We don't want to overload ourselves too much, and we can always come back for the bigger pieces later."

He nodded, moving to the left-hand side of the room and removing his pack. Vala helped him load handfuls of glittery prizes into his spare shirt and tie off the bundle before doing the same for her own bag. They were each considerably heavier when they finally exited the bedroom.

"Life support first, then the rings," Daniel suggested.

Vala nodded. "An excellent idea, darling. You've had a number of those today."

"Should I be worried?"

Her surprised laugh echoed down the hall. "I'm thinking I should be the one worried! My sense of humor seems to be rubbing off on you."

"As long as it's only your sense of humor that's doing the rubbing," he chuckled. "Actually, I think we have Jack to thank for my sudden razor-sharp wits. I get the impression he made me laugh, even when I didn't want to."

"Remind me to thank him later," she answered, stopping in front of another door. After prying it open, she determined it wasn't the room they were looking for and continued. Finally, four doors later, they found what they needed.

The raven-haired woman inspected the controls, pressing a button which made the whole console glow very faintly. "It looks like the power source is nearly depleted."

"Uh, question: are we going to be able to use the rings to get back out?"

"The rings should have their own separate power supply," she answered. "But if we're to come down here again, we'd probably do well to bring a portable generator to run the environmentals and lights." She smiled slyly. "You know, we could make this our own private getaway."

"First thing I'm doing is hiring a decorator."

Chapter 17

"Fifty-fifty."

"What?"

Vala hefted her pack, adjusting the weight on her back as they stepped out of the ring room in the main temple complex. "You've more than earned an equal split of the profits, Daniel. I think we can also look into getting another place to live that's a little bigger... or maybe a ship. What do you think?"

He looked thoughtful. "I think I like it. Full partners?"

She stopped, placing her hand on her hip and cocking her head to one side. "We're only full partners if we're having sex."

Despite his recently-acquired sense of humor, she could still make him blush. "Look, Vala..."

"It's okay, Daniel... I'm only teasing you, again."

"And I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's nice to hear again. You've been a bit... distant lately."

"I've had a lot on my mind," she answered, wracking her brain for an excuse which didn't sound pathetic. "I wasn't sure how well you'd receive my, uh, suggestions now that you remember your old girlfriend."

This time, Daniel froze in place. "Um, actually... I think she's my wife."

"Your wife?"

"Yeah. I mean, there's nothing tangible, no solid memories to make it up, but I get that feeling. Her name's Sha're."

Vala felt a sudden, irrational hatred of the absent Sha're. It figured that the woman who could put such a wistful expression on Daniel's face would have a lovely name to go with what he had already described as beautiful features and spirit. Surprised and more than a little annoyed with herself for her unwarranted jealousy, she nodded at him. "You've remembered a lot today."

"Actually, I remembered that yesterday."

"Well, okay, but you've still remembered a great deal today. Your... your wife, your friend's name... even your sense of humor."

"I know!" he responded, clearly enthused. "It's like actually getting my hands dirty and solving ancient mysteries are something I used to do. There's a word for it, I know, and it's just on the tip of my tongue..."

"Gold digger, treasure hunter, tomb raider," she supplied. "Excavator? Relic collector?"

"Archaeology! I was an archaeologist." He beamed, eyes shining in the darkness with the force of his excitement. "Not a prince or a soldier, I was a scientist... a scholar!"

That made sense. Vala had noted earlier how easily he held the charcoal stick he used for his drawings, as though he'd been born with a writing implement in his hands. It also went a long way toward explaining his gift with languages: he'd studied them. "The fact that you've clearly had an extensive formal education narrows the field of possible planets of origin considerably," she remarked.

"It does?"

"Well, most places under the rule of the Goa'uld don't get the opportunity to found institutions of learning. Educated people share ideas, which is something the Goa'uld don't want. They don't want them to think for themselves."

"Knowledge is power," he agreed.

"But so is money," added a scratchy voice.

Vala whirled around, knowing who she'd see before he stepped out of the shadows near the entry staircase. "Arturis Maz."

"Vala Mal Doran," he replied. "I see you have a new boyfriend."

"I see you brought some friends of your own," she retorted, tracking the shapes of at least two more people approaching from either side and slightly behind. "To what do I owe the rather dubious pleasure of your company?"

The scar-faced man crossed his arms, the casual pose radiating confidence in his control of this confrontation. "A friend of mine told me you've been hanging out with the Hans lately. Now, that made me wonder what a group of powerful people like them see in such a pretty but lowly little thief such as you. Then I hear word that you and your new lover are searching for lost treasures of antiquity. Nobody's ever found Peklenc's secret stash, yet here the two of you are." He smirked. "Those packs look a lot heavier than they did coming in here."

"You were following us?" Daniel blurted.

"Actually, we got here before you," Maz answered, giving Daniel a quick once-over before turning his gaze back to Vala. "Hundreds of people have turned over every stone in this temple and come up with nothing. You two seem to have found something in a matter of hours. We could use that kind of talent in the Lucien Alliance."

Of course Maz had thrown his lot in with the Luciens. It was exactly the kind of behavior she expected out of a spineless bootlicker such as himself. "I thought I was just a lowly little thief," she retorted. "The Lucien Alliance knows my policy when it comes to working with them... I don't."

"Well, then maybe your friend would care to join up." Maz grinned lecherously. "You're a pretty thing yourself."

"Excuse me?"

Vala's pulse raced, not liking the tone Maz's voice had taken, nor the confrontational one Daniel had adopted in response. "You're not his type."

"You wound me, sweetheart... I'm everybody's type." He strode over to her and bent slightly, yanking her pistol out of its holster. "Now... let's take a look at the goodies in your packs, shall we?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Maz's two goons clamp their hands on either side of Daniel's shoulders, relieving him of the zat in his coat pocket and effectively pinning him in place. She caught his eye and tried to convey a silent message to him, Don't do anything stupid.

Slowly, she slipped her bag off her back, releasing the buckle and flipping back the cover. "As you can see, it's not even full. The rumors of Peklenc's vast treasures have been vastly exaggerated."

"Somehow, I doubt that," Maz replied, digging a hand into the top bundle and coming back with a fistful of jewelry. He nodded to his henchman, who stripped Daniel's bag off his shoulders and yanked it open, the shorter of the two wiry men holding up a similar find. "Now tell us where to find the rest."

"There isn't any more," she insisted. "That's all there was."

"You're lying."

Daniel cleared his throat. "Yeah, she is. There’s a lot more. Whole rooms of the stuff."

Vala stared at him incredulously, unable to fathom what the self-professed archaeologist was trying to accomplish. She almost winced when she realized his goal was likely to convince Maz to keep them alive so that they could lead him to the rest of the treasure. She should have thought of that herself.

"And you're an even worse liar than she is," Maz snorted. "Whatever secret you two are hiding will die with you then. I've set a few explosives on the stairs that will make sure neither of you will ever leave here alive." He drew a small object out of his jacket with deliberate slowness, exaggerating the motion as he pressed the button on top. "At least you'll be able to enjoy each other's company... unless you want to change your minds. You have less than five minutes."

"I don't need five minutes," Daniel blurted. "I'll join the Lucien Alliance."

"Daniel!" she snapped, shocked at his betrayal.

"Smart move," Maz sneered, bending down to heft Vala's jewelry-laden pack over his shoulder.

Daniel bent to pick up his own pack, snapping the buckle shut and gathering the straps in his hands. He straightened suddenly, swinging the heavy bag around and connecting with the taller guard's jaw. The man flew backward, striking his head on the wall behind him and going down hard. The shorter man to the left reacted with surprising speed, aiming a punch at Daniel's face, but Vala didn't see if it hit.

She tackled Maz, knocking her pistol out of his hand. His breath whooshed from his lungs as he impacted the floor, but he recovered quickly, kicking Vala off him and surging to his feet. She rolled and came up, fists held defensively in front of her while backing up slowly. A quick glance showed Daniel wrestling with his own opponent, his greater height and bulk helping make up for his lack of fighting skills.

As though sensing her momentary distraction, Maz rushed, aiming a jab at her head she just barely managed to duck. She scored only a glancing blow across his ribs, dancing under his outstretched arm and trying to gain the upper hand. She didn't have enough weight to make punches do any damage without hurting herself in the process, so she needed a little space to get her legs into the action.

It was distance Maz wasn't willing to give her. He closed again, arms spread wide as though to grab her in a bear hug. He deflected the strike she aimed at his face off his forearm, raising his elbow just high enough she could again slip past him. This time, she aimed a backward kick at the bend of his knee, driving him to the ground. Before she could lose her momentary advantage, she spun about and planted her foot in his right ear. He howled with pain, rolling with the impact and sweeping out his own legs to trip her.

Her skull connected with the hard stone floor, shooting sparks across her vision. She tried to get her body to cooperate and roll away from her opponent, but he was on her in a moment, flipping her on her front and pinning her arms behind her back while his own leg kept hers out of the action. He pressed his weight on her cruelly before yanking up, pulling her painfully to her knees while his leg ground her shins into the floor.

"Say goodnight, sweetheart," Maz growled in her ear, free hand snaking around to caress her jaw, clearly intending to snap her neck.

"Goodnight, sweetheart," a dangerous voice replied. There was a sudden flash of light beside her face, then Maz’s grip was gone.

"Daniel?" she gasped.

The dark blond man lowered her pistol. "We'd better get out of here now."

Vala dove for her pack, wrestling it over her shoulder as Daniel slung his own across his back. A thousand questions raged through her mind, but the only thing of importance now was escaping the temple before Maz's explosives detonated. Daniel was a surprisingly fast runner, but his speed was now hindered by a noticeable limp. He hadn’t gotten out of his own fight unscathed, it seemed.

They reached the stairs, almost slamming into the wall beside them as they scrambled to turn the corner and dash up the steps. A detached part of her brain noted the dark lumps of explosive charges on the stairs before they emerged onto the ground level and fled out the front door. Her eyes watered at the sudden brilliance of sunlight, but they had no time to slow down as they raced across the temple courtyard, putting distance between themselves and the impending blast.

The shockwave lifted her off her feet, and she had the sense to let go of her pack before she hit the ground, tucking her shoulder to lessen the impact. Vala rolled to her knees and spun around, watching in amazed horror as the magnificent pillars supporting the temple's massive facade crumbled, bringing the whole front of the building crashing down. She was then struck by a different force, realizing belatedly that it was Daniel pushing her face to the ground and covering her body with his own. It was a smart move, she realized, hearing flying chunks of stone rain around them as they lay with their cheeks pressed together, gasping for air. Finally, he rolled off her, allowing her to turn over and sit up.

The temple was gone. Maz's charges had brought down almost the entire side of the mountain, a pinkish cloud of dust coloring the air around them. It was a little difficult to breathe.

"Let's get out of here," she managed, meeting Daniel's eyes with a shiver. The wondrous blue light was a little dimmer, perhaps even a little cold. It was only then that she remembered what he had done.

Daniel had defeated his opponent, found Vala's gun, and looked Maz straight in the eye. He'd even had time for a sarcastic remark before he'd snapped off a well-aimed shot that had made a mess of the Lucien's face. Numbly, her left hand crept up to her cheek, fingers coming back smeared with the blood of the man Daniel had killed.

"Let's go," he agreed, expression grimly determined.

For the first time, she was scared of who he might turn out to be.

Chapter 18

Pushing the door open, Vala paused to make sure she hadn't disturbed the occupant of the room's only bed. The light of the setting sun cast long lines across the room where it passed through the single window's curtain, but left the rest of the room plunged in shadow. There was no sudden movement from the sleeping man, so she quietly closed the door.

She hovered over the bed for just a moment before oh-so-carefully sitting down on the edge. Daniel lay sprawled beneath the twisted sheet, a tiny line of tension betraying his discomfort. He was naked from the waist up, and even in the dim lighting, Vala could count every painful-looking bruise and scrape on his face, neck, and torso. His dark silk pants had been pulled up to the left knee and the limb propped up on a pillow with a cold cloth wrapped around it. Despite the thickness of the fabric, it was obvious the joint hidden beneath was swollen to more than twice its normal size.

After their timely escape from the explosion of Peklenc's temple, Daniel and Vala helped one another to their feet. The front of the mountain continued to tumble down as more rocks fell free, loosened by the concussion of the blast. They continued to stare at the destruction for a few long moments before meeting one another's eyes.

The narrow margin of their escape and the events which had precipitated the temple's destruction left her in desperate need for a catharsis of some kind. Upon seeing Daniel's face, hair, and clothes covered in the pink dust of the local rock, the tension expelled itself from Vala in the form of a muffled giggle which quickly developed into side-splitting laugh. His grim expression changed to confusion, then he began to chuckle, too. Soon they were holding onto one another to keep from falling over again.

After they began to wear down, Vala wiped at her eyes and dusty face. "We should really get going. It's a long way back to the Stargate with these packs."

Recovering their slightly-worse-for-the-wear bags, the treasure hunters turned and headed out of the ruins. By the end of the first mile, Daniel was limping badly. Halfway through their second mile, most of his weight was on Vala.

"I need to check your leg," she insisted, stopping by a pile of boulders and digging her thankfully-intact water flask out of her pack.

"It won't do any good," he sighed, accepting the drink with a grateful nod. His own flask had apparently sprung a leak when his bag hit the ground in the explosion. "Your friend's little pal did a pretty good job of trying to remove my kneecap with the heel of his boot."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. The sooner we get back to 'Gate and I can get some ice on it, the better."

So of course the stubborn fool insisted on walking the remaining mile back to the Stargate, despite the fact that he was sweating profusely and looked like he'd throw up any minute. He had a few scrapes and bruises on his jaw and cheek which really began to stand out against his increasing pallor, and the orbit of his right eye also began to darken. When Vala pointed it out to him, he shrugged the injury off with a remark about the guy being left-handed, but said nothing of his obvious discomfort.

He nearly fell through the other side of the wormhole, Vala just barely managing to keep him upright until a pair of the Han guards came to relieve her. She put her foot down firmly, sending him off to have his wounds tended while she explained to Han Kazo what had happened. He was disappointed in the destruction of the temple, but very pleased with the prizes they had managed to salvage, and vocal in his appreciation of their survival and relative health.

Vala was then shown to a hot bath and given an attractive silk garment and matching shoes to wear, all of which went a long way toward refreshing her. She was bruised and sore all over, but perfectly aware it could have been much, much worse. When she emerged from the bathing chamber, she was told that Daniel had passed out while being treated and had been bathed and moved to one of the guest bedrooms in the enormous complex. Rather than permitting the servant to lead her to her own room, Vala made a detour for the Stargate.

Throwing a wave at Sarilis, Vala entered her bedroom above the former bounty hunter's shop and dug a bag out from beneath the mattress. One of the items inside was a small wooden chest in which she stored her most precious keepsakes, and the other was a linen bundle. Stuffing the bag and box away again, she opened the cloth wrappings of the second item on top of her bed. When the last fold had been smoothed away, she stared at the tools contained within: a Goa'uld ribbon device, a hand-sized healing stone, and a Tok'ra voice modulator. Withdrawing the healing stone, she re-rolled the package and tucked it away before heading back up the hill to the Stargate and to Daniel's room in the Han's palace.

Resisting the urge to stroke back the stray lock of hair on his forehead, Vala slipped her fingers into the handle of the healing device and breathed deeply. Holding the jewel just above Daniel's torso, she concentrated on willing the device to activate. When it began to glow with its restorative energy, she moved the beam over his torn knee and let the stone work its wonders.

"Sha're?"

Vala looked up in surprise, realizing belatedly that in the darkness, her hair loose about her face and a glowing object on her hand, she probably bore a startling resemblance to his long-lost wife. "It's Vala," she replied, her voice sounding considerably steadier than she thought it would. "I'm trying to heal your knee."

"Oh," he answered softly, struggling to sit up to see what she was doing. "It feels much better already."

"Just lie still... I'll be done in just a moment." Once she was satisfied the joint was repaired, she moved the device back to his chest, smiling to herself as the bruises and black eye faded. "Done," she announced, shutting off the beam and sagging just a little.

"Thank you," he smiled, pushing himself upright and scooting back against the headboard. Bending down, he unwrapped the cloth and tossed it in the floor, flexing his knee experimentally before sliding the pant leg down to his ankle. He straightened up and held out his left arm, inviting her to sit next to him.

She shook her head. "I should probably get back to my own room."

"Stay. Please." The room was darkening rapidly as the sun went down, leaving Vala to wonder what his expressive eyes were conveying this time. As though taking her hesitation for indecision, Daniel added, "I saw the way you looked at me when I killed Maz. I think we need to talk."

"Okay," she agreed, but didn't move from the edge of the bed. "I can say I was a bit surprised... and at the same time not. You've done that before, haven't you?"

"Killed someone? Yes. There aren't any faces other than his right now, which scares me. I had hoped I would remember everyone I ever killed... and now I realize there were probably too many to remember them all. Holding that gun... that felt normal—not natural, but close—and that scares me more than anything."

Vala shuddered involuntarily, certainly not going to argue with that sentiment. "When I was host to Qetesh," she began a moment later, "she used my hands to kill so many. She used my voice to order the deaths of countless more. When the Tok'ra freed me, I swore to try to always find a way to avoid killing someone."

"The gun's for show," he realized. "It's more of an implied threat than a weapon."

"Exactly. Don't get me wrong, Daniel, I do know how to use it and many other firearms... I'd just rather not."

"Me too. How about we stick with zats from now on, eh?"

She smiled, even though she knew he couldn't see the expression. "If only it were that simple. The unfortunate thing is, violence is all many people in this galaxy know. I would love to find a place where I can... stop running, stop pretending, just stop being practically everything that I have to be to survive out here, but that's a lot easier to say than it is to do. I've never fit in anywhere... not even on my own home planet."

"I know what you mean," Daniel replied, shoulders slumping a little more. "Living in Makosis felt so familiar to me... I felt welcome and wanted, of course, but I didn't feel like I belonged."

"That's because you were meant to be with your friends," she suggested.

"Maybe not," he admitted. "I... On the way back to the 'Gate today, I remembered fighting with them. I don't remember what the arguments were about, but they were sometimes very bitter, especially between me and Jack. He'd say some hurtful things, then I'd go and say something rude and condescending right back at him." He hung his head, wrapping his arms around his chest. "I think I walked away... abandoned them."

"What about your wife?" Vala asked. "Sha're?"

"She's dead," he answered. "There are no details, nothing specific... just a feeling of loss... like I mourned her a long time ago."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," he assured her. "She wanted children, but I couldn't give her any. She wanted a devoted, loving husband, but I apparently couldn't give her that, either. For all I know, her death was my fault."

"Daniel..."

He sighed. "There's no point in guessing, though. I'm beginning to remember more and more, Vala, but there's still so much more I don't know. For the first time, I'm truly afraid of what I might find."

Vala shivered at how closely his thoughts mirrored her own just after the collapse of the temple. "I must admit, I wondered the same thing," she started, staring down at the barely-visible outline of the healing device on her lap. "Then I remembered that in the time I've come to know you, you've never been anything but kind and generous. I know that if Maz had given you any other choice, you would have found a way to save my life without taking his. The truth is, he didn't give you that choice."

"I know."

"Then please believe me when I say that you are the..." She paused, breathing deeply. She didn't want to say the wrong thing—didn't want to damage their tenuous friendship—especially now,when he was doubtlessly still reeling from what he'd only recently discovered about himself. "You're the type of person who doesn't give up easily," she began, instead. "The injuries you received fighting to save us both in the temple are proof enough of that. I'm sure that if you really did walk out on your friends, there wasn't anything else you could do."

After a long stretch of awkward silence, he cleared his throat. "Are you calling me stubborn?"

Grateful for his sudden levity, she grinned. "That's one word for it. Pig-headed comes to mind, too."

"Oh, this from the woman who keeps trying to get me naked?"

Impishly, Vala tossed her head so her hair would flounce, knowing he could see the gesture silhouetted against the window. "Looks to me like I'm halfway there." At his answering groan, she patted his newly-healed knee and rose from the bed. "Goodnight, Daniel."

"Goodnight, Vala," he replied. He waited until she was at the door before adding, "Sweet dreams, Lady Pirate."

Vala smiled to herself and pulled the door closed, crossed the hall to her own room, then shut herself inside before flopping bonelessly on the bed.

She was definitely in trouble.

Chapter 19

"Unscheduled activation!"

Sam Carter stopped in her tracks, turning around in the hall and dashing toward the control room. Her commanding officer, Colonel O'Neill, was already there, presumably having still been conferring with General Hammond after their mission debriefing. A clatter of footsteps on metal stairs heralded Jonas' arrival, Teal'c following just behind at a statelier pace.

"Receiving Tok'ra IDC," Sergeant Harriman announced, and Sam held her breath as the iris slide open

Her wish was granted. "Dad," she grinned, jogging out of the control room, her team on her heels. She met her father at the base of the 'Gate's ramp, closing in for a welcoming hug as the wormhole disengaged.

"Hey, Sammy," Jacob Carter smiled, only too happy to share in the affectionate gesture.

"Where's my hug?" a voice whined.

"Nice to see you too, Jack," Jacob remarked dryly. "Not that I'm complaining or anything, but you're in a surprisingly good mood today."

It wasn't just today. Jack had been positively cheery for more than three weeks straight. Sam recalled her own elation when the colonel breathlessly exclaimed that Daniel had been on that planet, that the man she loved as brother—even more than the sibling who shared the same blood as her—was alive. Watching Daniel die slowly and painfully as radiation poisoning devoured his flesh was the hardest thing she'd ever been through in her life. When he'd appeared on Abydos, she'd been grateful to see him despite the niggling hurt that he'd never come to see her like he had Jack and Teal'c.

After the battle was over and Abydos and Daniel were both gone, she'd staggered to her on-base quarters and cried herself to sleep. That night, she'd dreamed of the mission where she'd been subjected to Nirrti's genetic experiments, only this time she remembered the ordeal with Daniel sitting by her side, holding her hand and looking soothing and eminently huggable in his cream sweater and khaki slacks. She mentioned the dream to her teammates the next day, and both Jack and Teal'c confirmed the outfit as the way Daniel had appeared to them, in their times of need.

The good spirits extended to more than just Jack, actually. Ever since word spread around base that Daniel was "out there somewhere", the personnel who knew him were all considerably cheerier. Teal'c walked around with that enigmatic smile he must have learned from staring at Jonas' poster-reproduction of the Mona Lisa; the expression had the added benefit of unnerving the SGC's newest members. The doctors and nurses in the infirmary chattered pleasantly while going about their non-crisis duties and the buzz in the mess hall was back to an audible level after a year of near-silence. Even Jonas' perpetual smile was now genuine in nature and not his usual mask.

The greatest change, of course, was Jack. He'd spent the second of their two days on Makosis with Atrus, ostensibly to discuss their mutual friend. The two men had gone fishing, and even though they didn't speak the same language, Jack insisted they hadn't needed to, that they shared an 'understanding'.

He was right, it seemed. Neither man returned with any fish.

"Oh, I'm just fine and dandy. Tried to retire again, changed my mind, the usual," the colonel rattled happily in that inane way of his he'd only recently rediscovered. "Why don't I let you tell him, Carter? It's your turn."

"Your turn? For what?" Jacob asked.

"To give you the good news. She let me tell Hammond, Teal'c got to tell Bra'tac, and we even let Jonas surprise Doc Frasier."

Sam smiled. "Daniel's alive, Dad."

The retired general-turned-Tok'ra stared at each member of SG-1 as though they were pod people. Finally, he blinked. "As in flesh-and-blood?"

"Yep," answered Jack, rocking back on his heels and looking every bit as pleased as a proud papa. She shot him a bemused look, but doubted it had any effect on him. He'd been receiving lots of those lately, mostly from startled airmen unused to seeing the base second-in-command looking so... giddy. The ones who'd been here for three years or more remembered other times when he'd smiled so readily.

"Nothing keeps that kid dead for long, does it?" her dad laughed, looking around the 'Gate room. "So where is he?"

"He's not here," Sam began. "That's why we sent for you." She held out her arm, gesturing for him to follow her and the rest of her team to the briefing room.

General Hammond had finally finished up his phone call with the Pentagon, so was able to join them at the table. "Good to see you again, Jacob."

"Likewise, George. So what's this about finding Daniel but him not being here?"

"Three weeks ago, we 'Gated to P11-887," Sam began, folding her hands on the table in front of her as Hammond gave her the nod to begin. "We had some initial connection problems, but those cleared up on a second dialling attempt. Once on the other side, a native led us to the nearby village, where we learned that Daniel had lived there for several months."

"He left that morning, actually," Jack added. "Found himself a new girlfriend and disappeared through the 'Gate."

Jacob gaped. "Why hasn't he tried to contact Earth?"

"Well, we don't think he can," Jonas replied. "According to the village leader, he just appeared there one day—in a flash of light, they said—and with no memory. He only remembered his first name the day before we arrived."

"But it was obviously him," the colonel finished. "Their description matched perfectly, Atrus recognized my name, and the most convincing of all: Danny left a carving with the villagers that looked just like the team patch."

The last time Sam had seen her dad look so astonished was just after he'd woken up from blending with Selmak, his symbiote. "Holy Hannah!" he exclaimed, just as he had back then. "That's amazing!"

"The locals didn't see the address Daniel and the mystery woman dialed, and even if they had, there's no guarantee they stayed on that planet for any amount of time." Sam flicked a quick glance at her teammates, then at the general. "As much as we'd love to go looking for him, we really don't have any clues where to start."

"So I guess you want the Tok'ra to keep an eye out for him, huh?"

Hammond leaned back in his chair. "We'd appreciate it a great deal, Jacob. Teal'c's already asked the Rebel Jaffa to watch for him."

"Master Bra'tac and I have encouraged discretion," Teal'c announced. "It would be unwise to make inquiries as to Daniel Jackson's whereabouts where agents of Anubis may hear."

"It wouldn't be a good idea," Jacob agreed. "How is Bra'tac, anyway?"

Sam smiled, remembering how the "oldest and wisest" of the Tok'ra and the elderly Jaffa had forged a mutual respect for one another during the invasion of the Alpha Site by a Goa'uld Ashrak. Then, when Bra'tac and Teal'c's son Rya'c went missing during a recruiting run, Jacob had shown up with evidence leading SG-1 on a timely rescue to a planet called Erebus. The elderly Jaffa had been out of tretonin, the life-saving drug which had replaced his and Teal'c's slain larval symbiotes.

"He is well... and he looks forward to settling his debt with you one day."

Her dad chuckled. "Tell him not to be in too much of a hurry." He looked around the briefing table. "Is that it? Is that the only reason you wanted to see me?"

"Shame on you, Jacob," Jack chided. "You need another reason to come see your daughter?"

"Well, when you put it that way..."

Hammond spoke up then, dampening the mood a little. "Actually, there is another reason we asked for you. Ever since the destruction of Anubis' mothership, we've been trying to keep a low profile while Baal and Yu battle over his territories. We've been hearing some disturbing rumors through the Jaffa rebels that Anubis survived."

"He did," Jacob confirmed. "Unfortunately, we lost the spy within his ranks shortly after she sabotaged the super-weapon, but we did get word from a more distantly-placed agent that Anubis is working on some sort of new weapons and armor for his Jaffa. It’s supposed to make them ‘invincible’."

"Every Achilles has its heel," Jack smirked, and Sam looked at him in surprise. "What? I’m not allowed to know Greek mythology?"

"Indeed," Teal’c deadpanned. "However, I am uncertain as to the veracity of Xena: Warrior Princess."

Sam smothered her grin as her dad frowned. "I didn’t know that was still on TV."

"Don’t say a word, T!"

"Colonel O’Neill has several episodes on tape," Jonas piped up, sensing his opportunity.

Jack glared. "Jonas? Every nice word I’ve ever said to you, I take back."

Sam couldn't stop a brief snort of laughter, becoming the new recipient of the colonel's feigned irritation.

Yes, it was nice to have him back to being himself. The only thing missing was Daniel's voice, adding in his own good-natured jabs. She glanced at her dad, and he returned her gaze with a nod. Even if the Tok'ra as a whole didn't do anything to help locate Daniel, Jacob would do his part.

Chapter 20

"We couldn't really have expected to get so lucky every time," Vala began unexpectedly.

Daniel nodded in agreement, dropping his head down to rest on his chin and stared across the scarred table. They'd come this planet following one of several leads the Hans had given them, trusting in the pair to pursue whichever of the lost treasures they chose themselves. Unfortunately, they'd arrived on the planet to discover that most of the land immediately around the Stargate was covered in very dense growth. The locals used the numerous waterways as their means of travel and never ventured into the dark, dangerous wilderness. "So what do we do now?"

Vala took a swig from her tankard. "We go back the Hans and give our apologies, then pick up another of the leads. I'm certainly not about to traipse all over the jungle in search of a cave system the locals don't think even exists, and they're too afraid of the nasty creatures in the darkness to go find out for themselves. Besides, legends have such a terrible tendency to be pure fiction."

"In my experience, legends have a tendency to be based on fact where the Goa'uld are concerned." She raised an eyebrow at him, as though questioning his experience. "Arch-ae-ol-o-gist, remember? From a planet obviously left un-touched by the Goa'uld for thousands of years?"

She shrugged. "Probably a lot of history is disguised as myths, then, but I don't think that's the case here. The Lost Caverns of Kebek Ramor are a fairytale, and not the kind where I'm a pirate and you're a prince, either. Seriously, Daniel... a fire-breathing dragon?"

Daniel leaned across the table slightly. "Isn't the fact that so many cultures share the mythology of a dragon proof in itself that dragons may not have been so mythical themselves?"

"What?"

He took a breath. "I've been comparing some of the different mythologies and pantheons using the information at the Han's library, specifically anything dealing with cross-cultural similarities. The library computer is really quite good at cross-referencing different books, once you figure out how to use it."

"Oh, so that's where you were all week. We spent five days in a gorgeous palace being waited on hand-and-foot and you wasted most of your time in the library?"

"Arch-ae-ol-o-gist," he repeated, grinning. "Anyway, dragons and phoenixes are two things which crop up in various mythologies from several of the major Goa'uld families. Now, we've actually seen evidence of the first... the Benuui was a depiction of a phoenix."

Vala's eyes narrowed. "What does that have to do with the Caverns of Kebek Ramor, exactly?"

"Nothing specifically," he replied. "I'm just pointing out that just because it's supposed to be the lair of a fire-breathing dragon, doesn't mean that there didn't used to be a fire-breathing dragon that really occupied it."

"Well, in that case, Daniel, we'd probably do well to be a lot better armed and armored before we try to take on a dragon."

She was teasing, and he knew it. It was odd how their relationship had changed almost overnight, shifting from an alliance of disparate—and desperate—individuals in need of one another's skills, to an easy-going, casual friendship of surprising warmth and good humor. Even though he'd spent most of the last week with his nose in a book, they'd shared their meals together—after he'd been politely kicked out of the library by one of the servants—and chatted amicably both then and at other Han family gatherings.

He was remembering so much more now, even though much of what he knew still remained shadowed and unclear. Despite the niggling feeling that he had gotten into some very bitter fights with Jack, the other snatches of remembrance Daniel had of the older man were all pleasant, all moments of relaxed familiarity. Some were darker, like sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a gray room waiting for the approach of something they both dreaded. Others were lighter and more care-free, such as relaxing in front of a flashing, colorful box, drinking and eating food Daniel didn't particularly care for, but consumed because it was just part of "unwinding" with his friend. He suspected the reason these came to light more readily now than the arguments was because he and Vala had adjusted their own relationship to a more comfortable companionship.

He'd also discovered three more languages he knew, based on texts found in the Hans' collection, and two others he recognized but couldn't immediately translate. Because one of the "new" languages was very similar to one on which he'd already tested, he and Vala now put his total number of known languages at twenty, and the count could go higher still if he could figure out the two which were just out of his reach. Han Yuna, having overheard their discussion, had shaken her head in wonder.

More importantly, though, the two treasure hunters had discovered common ground, even though—as Vala had so eloquently phrased it—most of Daniel's territory was uncharted. She'd even thrown in a flirtatious suggestion to help him with "mapping" that had left them both gasping for air between howls of laughter. Humor aside, they were both stubborn, independent, and intelligent. They'd each had rocky relationships with those they'd been closest to—Vala admitting that she and her father hadn't been on speaking terms for almost twenty years—and both felt that while home was the "road" for now, they still craved to find a place where they belonged.

"You think we'll know our home when we see it?" Vala had asked, snuggling against his side as they lazed about in the drawing room, listening to the Hans' youngest daughter give a mini-recital on her guzheng.

"It's possible," he'd agreed, arm curled around her shoulders. Even the realization that she'd said "our home" and not "our homes" hadn't come as surprise, nor had the thought that he was slowly becoming comfortable with the idea. Home, right now, was with Vala... so why wouldn't it be the same in the future?

That, as his friend Jack would have said, opened a whole new can of worms. In the last week, he'd remembered his wife, remembered he'd lost his wife, and was now developing a more-than-casual friendship with a woman who vexed, annoyed, perplexed, and intrigued him. When he'd awakened to find Vala bent over him with a glowing tool in her hands, he'd briefly mistaken her for the late Sha're, even though he'd known better. Once the connection had been made, though, he couldn't stop making comparisons: their hair, their spirit, their stubbornness, and their determination to not be ruled by their tormentors.

He wasn't entirely sure of the details, but he knew Sha're had beaten her demon before she died, though the victory had come at the cost of her own life. Vala had had help in defeating her own parasite, but her strength was no less. The way she had described the horrors inflicted upon her by Qetesh, he knew that her freedom had come at a price. Since she didn't seem to suffer from nightmares like he certainly did, Daniel could only guess that she'd found a way to suppress the worst of what she'd witnessed.

The woman in question cleared her throat, startling him out of his reverie. "You're right, of course," he blurted, recollecting his thoughts. "If we tried to find the caves out in the jungle without knowing where we're going, we'd be asking for trouble. It would be far better if we got a cargo ship or something to scan for tunnels beneath the surface."

"Okay," she began, propping her forearms on the table and mirroring his forward lean. "Well, Mister Brains-of-the-Outfit, how do you propose we get one of those?"

He shrugged. "I thought I'd leave that up to Miss Finances."

She shook her head. "Remember what Kazo said last month? Between the Goa'uld and the Lucien Alliance, there's a shortage of ships right now. We'll have to find a lot more treasure if we want to buy one."

Daniel shook his head, marveling to himself how far he'd come in a month. "Remember how we met?"

"I'm not the one with the memory problems, Dan—oh."

He raised his eyebrows. "And?"

"I take it back... I'm a terrible influence on you." She tipped back the rest of her drink and rose from the table.

"Well, yes, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't a saint even before we met," he answered, bounding up from his own stool to follow her out the door. "Come on!"

"It's a horrible idea, and I can't believe you're suggesting it."

Daniel shook his head. "I notice you haven't said 'no' yet."

Vala stopped in the middle of the muddy street. "It'll never work."

"You only say that because you've never gotten it to work," he reminded her. "We're a team. Together we can do the impossible, right?" She was still frowning at him stubbornly, so he pressed on determinedly. "The Benuui was missing for over fifty years and we found it!"

"You found it."

"I wouldn't have gone looking for it without you," he replied, raising a finger in the air. "Okay, how about this? Peklenc's treasure hadn't been seen for over a thousand years. Neither of us could have found it on our own, but together we did!"

She didn't stand a chance in the face of such unfailing optimism. "Oh, fine. But our priorities still lie with our work with the Hans, not stealing a ship!"

Daniel beamed. "And now we're pirates."

"Oh, I know I'm going to regret this," Vala sighed.

"Oh, no you won't," he replied. "If I know you, you're going to have fun relieving someone of their property... especially if it's a ship we take from the Goa'uld or someone in the Lucien Alliance, right?"

"Well, I do have to admit that the Luciens owe us for trying to kill us and succeeding in destroying a very lucrative business opportunity. We were even going to make that our secret underground lair," she pouted.

He cocked his head to one side. "And there's another good reason for getting our own ship. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't cargo ships have ring platforms?"

"Yes. And?"

"Couldn't we use those to ring down to Peklenc's palace?"

Vala stared at him in shock for a long moment. Then she let out a squeal of delight and threw herself at him for an exuberant hug.

Ch. 1-10      Ch. 11-20      Ch. 21-30      Ch. 31-40      Ch. 41-50      Ch. 51-60      Ch. 61-70

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