After a split second of stunned silence there was a resounding echo from both sides.

"Your Dad?"

"Your Charlie?"

The two O’Neills nodded.

"Charlie, what are…" Jack was having trouble with which ending to tag onto his question. There were so many hammering his brain right now. What are you doing with a gun? What are you doing here all grown up? What are you doing here ALIVE? He settled for, "What are you doing here?"

Like father, like son, Charlie was having the same problem. What are you doing here conscious…not brain dead…with both legs…with THEM? He chose the latter.

The hatred that blanketed Charlie’s face when he referred to the rest of SG-1, especially Daniel and Annika, as ‘them’, snapped the colonel out of his shock. His protective instincts for his kids kicking in. "Oh, we come as a set. Buy one get four free."

Charlie tried to cover his mixed feelings. Not wanting to admit that the entire situation was freaking him out, especially not in front of his men, he reacted with a snort of disdain. "Since when has a crippled colonel," he gave a confused shake of his head at his dad’s intact legs, then glanced at Teal’c and Sam, "a First Prime, Captain Lackey," he waved his gun towards Daniel and Annika, "Doctor Lap Dog and Ba’al’s whore, been a set of anything?"

All of SG-1’s back stiffened at the derogatory nicknames.

Jack’s eyes narrowed. "These people have saved my butt more times than you’ve had birthdays, so watch your mouth, son."

"There is?" Jack gave a lopsided grin. "What?"

"Working on it," he whispered from the side of his mouth, then more loudly to Charlie, "Is there somewhere we can discuss this without all the...er…gun pointing?"

In a single look Charlie asked the opinion of his men who grudgingly nodded. "This way." He motioned to the tunnel from whence he came.

"CJ," Hammond spoke up. "We got a lot of scared people back there. If they see ‘them’, they’re going to panic."

The young leader agreed. Silently cursed for not thinking of that himself. "I don’t suppose you have anything to disguise yourselves in those packs, do you?" he asked of SG-1.

"Does everyone know us by sight?" Sam hesitantly queried. "Or just general descriptions?"

Hammond answered. "Our people know you. The general population tend to keep their distance."

"Annika, the sashes Lya gave us are in your pack, aren’t they?"

The psychic nodded, already slipping the straps from her shoulders. She rummaged around until she found the hand spun delicate folds of fabric of blue and green, doing her best to ignore the hostile eyes boring into her. As soon as the people of this world had appeared, ‘recognizing’ who had come through the wormhole, she could feel their fear, anger and hatred of SG-1, and especially of herself. Those feelings had intensified with Charlie’s presence, descending over her like a violent wave. Silently trying to stem her own confusion and worry at their predicament, so she could focus on keeping the hostility at bay, she passed the blue one to Sam who tied it bandana style over her head, covering her blonde hair. Annika quickly plaited her own hair, twisted it into a bun and hid her distinctive red shade the same way as the major. Teal’c, who always had his trusty bandana on hand to hide the crest of Apophis, was already securing the black square over his bald head.

With Daniel they hit a snag. With or without his hair hidden, he looked the same.

"I’m guessing that since Charlie is the only one that recognized me, that I’m not well known?" Jack asked. When his suspicion was confirmed, he swiped the cap from his head and tossed it towards his friend. "Here, you can keep it pulled down low."

"I suggest we also rid ourselves of these." Teal’c untied the loincloth that he had inexplicably found himself dressed in, from his hips.

Jack and Daniel followed suit, stripping the unfamiliar clothes and Sam dropped her BDU shirt on top of the pile.

When Daniel tugged the loose cotton pants over his boots he remembered he had a missing piece of attire. Considering they were trying to blend in, having mismatched shoes would not help their cause. "I don’t suppose my other boot is anywhere around here?"

Half of the crew began a search, the other’s not willing to turn their backs on the five of them. The boy with the lantern was the one to find the black boot. He trotted over to Daniel and handed it to him. Out of all the strangers, he was the only one who was unconcerned by SG-1’s ‘identity’. He had a trusting innocence about him that belied his age, making Daniel suspect he suffered from a mild case of Down’s Syndrome.

"Thank you, Jeff." Daniel accepted the shoe with a smile, already shucking the loosely tied brown boot with his other foot.

Jeff grinned back, enormously pleased that his name had been remembered.

Because Daniel was busy replacing his original footwear, he didn’t realize that Annika hadn’t made a move to take off her extra piece of clothing. In fact at Teal’c’s words, she had frozen on the spot, her arms held slightly away from her body.

"Casper?" Jack frowned, taking an automatic step towards her.

Annika stepped backward keeping her distance.

Daniel could now feel the fear oozing from her through their bond. He hastily tied his lace and spun around towards her. "Annika, what’s wrong?"

"I don’t want to know." Her words were slightly strangled. "Don’t want to see."

"See what?" he asked gently, trying to send a soothing caress through their invisible link. He started to move closer to her, but she jumped away.

"No! Don’t touch me!"

Recognition dawned on Daniel. "The skirt, the clothes," he murmured. "They belong to this world…"

She gave a jerky nod, battling to fight down her own fear, flapped a hand at the strangers, almost hysterical. "They all fear us, fear me. I don’t want to know what we’ve done…"

"Annika, we haven’t done anything to these people," Sam kept her voice calm, though from the corner of her eye she saw Charlie and his men once again had their guns warily trained on them, not understanding what was happening. She shifted her position so she was standing between Jack and Daniel. "This is not our world."

"But they fear us anyway, loathe us." Tears stung her eyes. "I can feel it…their auras, I can see it…so strong…" The negative emotions of the strangers were pounding against her. Had steadily been growing with each passing second, threatening to overwhelm the woman who was so sensitive to the feelings of those around her. If she touched the skirt she instinctively knew that she would be bombarded by visions of this world, and right now she couldn’t handle that, not without preparing her mind first. "When I look at them…I can’t bear the weight of their hate…"

"Then look only at us Annika Jackson," Teal’c stepped across to Daniel’s side. "For there is no hatred from us."

The four members of SG-1 had instinctively formed a human wall between the psychic and the others, shielding her from the strangers’ negative emotions. Almost immediately Annika felt the pressure ease up and this time the tears that threatened to spill over were caused by the concern, love and friendship emanating from the people she called family.

Daniel felt his wife begin to calm, but knew she couldn’t totally gain control until the unfamiliar piece of clothing was removed. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped it around his hand. Very carefully, making sure his skin didn’t touch the gossamer skirt, he manipulated the gold clasp at her waist. As the material pooled at her feet, he dropped the handkerchief on top of it. It was barely out of his hand when Annika leapt into his arms, needing the security of his embrace, the warm glow of his love. He held her trembling body to him, feeling her frantically drawing on his love for her through their bond.

She loosened her hands from his neck to snake out to include Jack, Sam and Teal’c in the hug. "Thank you," she whispered hoarsely.

Each of them returned the embrace.

"Anytime, Casper." Jack spoke for all of them.

Charlie and Hammond exchanged identical looks. This was truly a bizarre encounter. Their first instinct was that Ba’al had somehow found out about their set up and had sent his key people to get rid of them. Yet all of their intel told them that these people had never been in the same room together, let alone worked as a close knit team. Their actions spoke otherwise. The four had easily identified the problem the redhead had been babbling about and instinctively known how to ‘fix’ it, whatever it was. A blind man could see these five people cared deeply for each other, would do anything to protect and defend each other. Then there were the other unexplained things. Like how they had ended up on another planet to step through the Stargate together, when according to the last check in less than an hour ago, four of them had been dotted around different points of Earth. Plus there were the matching uniforms and guns, and the Jaffa, and their undeniable shock and revulsion of the names Charlie had purposefully tossed at them to gauge their reaction. Everyone had questions, hopefully someone would have some answers.

Charlie cleared his throat. "Can we move along now?"

"You okay?" Daniel asked Annika, placing a tender kiss to her forehead. No way was he going anywhere if Annika wasn’t ready.

She drew in a steadying breath. "I think so. Sometimes my gift is a pain in the ass."

The team broke from their huddle.

"I don’t suppose you’ll surrender your weapons?" Charlie wasn’t at all hopeful.

"Tell me," Jack quipped. "Have you heard the term ‘snowball’s chance in hell’?"

"It would help keep the civilians out there calm," Hammond pressed.

"I’ll make you a deal," Jack struck a deceptively casual pose. "If you can take them from us, you can have them."

The men didn’t miss how the five people who claimed to be a team subtly changed their stance. Small things like adjusting their footing, flexing back muscles, hands shifting on their guns. The almost reflexive way they prepared to defend themselves spoke of how often they had been in this position, and since they were all alive and well, must be damned good at it.

Charlie waved his hand dismissively. Right now it wasn’t worth the effort to try to disarm them. Besides, once in the main command hub, these five would be outgunned five to one. Those odds should have been reassuring, yet they weren’t. He had the feeling that these people had fought greater numbers than his rebel outfit.

SG-1 let themselves be flanked as they proceeded through the tunnel, keeping Annika in the middle in case whatever they were walking into was another onslaught of emotions. For the moment they had deduced that the alternate reality theory was the most logical and all were keeping an eye out for not only the obvious changes but for the smaller, subtle ones.

A few feet into the tunnel there was a small alcove with a familiar piece of technology hidden inside.

"They have a DHD," Sam commented softly, though it was loud enough for Charlie walking beside her, to overhear.

"A what?"

"Er…a dial home device, the original device that activates the Stargate."

"Oh. We call it a PCR, planet coordinates relay."

Jack nudged Sam with his elbow, encouraging her to keep the conversation going.

Wondering which of the multitude of questions she could ask that would identify other anomalies of this reality, the major asked the first thing that popped into her head. "Um… is there a second Stargate on this planet?"

The young commander’s eyes narrowed at her question, as though she should already know the answer. He chose his words carefully. "Yes. But we don’t have access to it."

"Does it also have a DH…PCR?"

"No."

After an uncomfortable pause Hammond gave some details. "The Air Force designed a supercomputer to make the other ‘gate work. It was used for one official mission and then the program was shut down, until Ba’al invaded."

"That first mission, was it to Abydos?" Daniel asked.

Again there was that puzzled look, like they should know.

"Yes."

"Did we...er…you, defeat Ra?"

"Yes, for whatever good it did us." Hammond gave a huff of disgust. "Three months later Ba’al’s fleet arrived."

While his two blue-eyed geniuses were working out some of the techno and historic details, Jack had been stealing sideways glances at the man who impossibly was his son. "Where’s your mother?" he blurted out.

Charlie wouldn’t meet his gaze. He wasn’t about to reveal anything about his family, not until they got a few things sorted out. These people spoke of an alternate reality. If they wanted to take that unbelievable science fiction road, then he’d play along for now. Instead of answering the question he asked one of his own. "Ba’al hasn’t turned your people into slaves?"

"He’s tried. A lot of Goa’uld have tried but we always send them packing." If Charlie wanted to talk ‘business’ then he could do that.

"Really." Charlie didn’t try to hide his skepticism. "Name a few."

"Let’s see…" Jack tried to dredge up the names of the snakes they’d defeated. "Ra, Apophis, Hathor, Ozzie, Nitty, Amaunet, Heru-something, Apophis…"

"You said him already," Charlie interrupted.

"Yeah, well, he just wouldn’t stay dead," Jack smirked. "Kid, names of snakes are not my thing. Teal’c’s keeping a running tally." He tapped his teammate on the shoulder. "T, which snakeheads have we sent either scurrying away to lick their wounds or on to meet their maker?"

Teal’c started Jack’s list over. "Ra, Apophis, Hathor, Osiris, Amaunet, Klorel, Heru’ur, Seth, Nirrti, Sokar, Tanith, Cronus, Marduk, Imhotep, Thoth, Bes, Qebehsenuef, Hapy, plus approximately a dozen inconsequential Goa’uld. Anubis, though weakened, remains at large, as does Ba’al."

The young man if anything looked even more doubtful and Jack deliberately misinterpreted it. "I know what you’re thinking, how does he remember them all? It’s a Jaffa revenge thing."

"Those are only the Goa’uld we have defeated and repelled," Teal’c added. "There are others."

"Other aliens?"

"Oh, yeah, but a lot of them didn’t stick around to fill out an ID card," Jack began a new list. "Replicators, Reetou, Mimicking brutes from P3X-118, bugs of BP6-3Q1..." He paused eyeing the rebels. Annika wasn’t the only one getting the heebie-jeebies. With everything topsy-turvy he suddenly needed a ‘normal’ reaction from his team, just to make sure they were really his kids. "The micro-what-sits of P5C-353..." God bless him, Daniel stood up to the plate.

"Jack, you can’t count that species." While trying to draw out more information from Hammond about when this parallel universe had splintered from their own, he’d been keeping half an ear on what else was being said.

"Sure I can," the colonel contradicted. "They skewered me and were going to spread their micro-biotic butts all over the planet."

"We activated their regeneration process through our ignorance, they were only defending themselves. Once the misunderstanding was sorted out it was resolved peacefully."

"If you can call being tossed through the Stargate ‘peaceful’," Jack shot back, immensely pleased to hear that slightly exasperated tone from his best friend. Yep, this Daniel was ‘his’ Daniel.

"We check in on them regularly," Sam butted in. "The high oxygen content of the planet we ‘tossed’ them to has phenomenally sped up their evolution. They’ve progressed from the micro level to a slug type organism. Totally fascinating."

And that was definitely ‘his’ Carter. "Well fine, what about those Hitler spawn?"

"The Eurondans were human," Daniel pointed out.

"Yet by definition, Daniel Jackson, an ‘alien’ is a being from another planet." Teal’c added his own two cents.

"You have a point," the linguist conceded. "In that case you can include the Aschen."

"Jack, given our circumstances, don’t you think we should mention those we have helped rather than destroyed?" While they’d been walking, Annika had run through a series of mental exercises. Now feeling more in control she was able to objectively study the auras of those around them. Though she was grateful to have her team’s banter echoing around her, the talk of ‘destruction’ was exacerbating the fear of the rebels.

"I was getting to that," Jack grinned, "but I wanted to get the short lists out of the way first."

Charlie’s disbelief wasn’t solely due to the long list of the apparent enemies that his apparent father had given. It was the attitude of the five ‘not-strangers’ that also added to his utter confusion. He put aside the fact that their entire demeanors were completely different to what he had witnessed over the last eight years. Effectively they were his prisoners, yet rather than acting even a little subdued by their predicament, they had sparked up a debate amongst themselves as though they were taking a stroll in the park. This was turning into a helluva odd day.

Further conversation was put on hold, as they emerged from the tunnel into a naturally formed cavern larger than an aircraft hanger. Over a hundred people were scattered around.

SG-1 automatically assessed the area, studying the layout, searching for exits and side passages that could be used should they need to make a hasty retreat, objects and positions where they could lay down cover fire, the positioning of the rebels and civilians.

There were a half a dozen side passages scattered intermittently in the rock walls, one of which, due to the lightening of the shadows, most likely would lead outside. Another had a faint bluish fluorescent glow, indicating that it possibly housed a number of active computers. A long table had been set up to one side that had trays of food and bottled water to feed the hundred plus people milling around. Across from there was a smaller table with a number of items cluttered on top that SG-1 recognized as Goa’uld in origin. At least twenty men and women were dressed like their escorts, complete with weapons. The remainder were a range of adults with a few children, clothed in civvies, some sporting injuries. They had a weariness about them, mixed with nervous anticipation, many of them clutching bags and packs stuffed to bursting.

"Refugees?" Daniel asked.

"Of sorts," Hammond confirmed. "They’ve all been targeted by Ba’al for whatever reason. For their safety we’re evacuating them to another planet."

The refugees seemed to perk up a bit upon seeing Charlie and his men.

"Don’t let us stop you," Jack said. He gave a slight shake of his head when Daniel and Annika opened their mouths, forestalling what he knew was coming. "Don’t ask. They’re not going to tell us where they’re sending them to."

"And they won’t trust any safe addresses we give them," Sam said softly. "At least not yet."

Charlie motioned with a jerk of his head to the tunnel to his man waiting to take the refugees through to the Stargate. There was no point in delaying the evacuation. If this ‘SG-1’ had been sent by Ba’al, then it was possible these eighty people would be the last to escape.

The men assigned to making sure the relocation went smoothly began issuing directions to the ragtag civilians. The furtive glances at the people their leader was escorting told SG-1 that they had been recognized.

Charlie ignored the questioning looks and led them to the far side of the cave. The entrance to the alcove was difficult to see until you were standing directly before it. He gestured for them to precede him and the team found themselves in a room set up like a briefing room. Before entering himself he called over one of his men from relocating the refugees. "Corbin, find Rod and get him here ASAP."

"He’s working on how to block our ‘gate signal," the man reminded.

"This is more urgent." Charlie darted a glance at the now crowded briefing room. "Threaten him with a lemon if you have to, just get him here."

Corbin gave a nod then hurried to one of the side passages.

Charlie moved to the small table at the side of the room that was set up with a large coffee percolator and poured himself a cup. Not that he needed a caffeine boost, he was wired up enough for the moment. It was more a delaying tactic until Rod arrived. As much as the hypochondriac scientist was a pain in the ass, he was the only one of the rebels who could give an educated opinion on whether this alternate reality hoo-ha was a load of baloney.

Jack saw the longing looks from his newly married teammates and stifled a grin. They may be stuck in some warped world but their addiction to those ground beans could not be denied. Fact was, he could do with a cup of java himself. "Can we grab some of that?" he asked his son. Son. God, that was an impossible concept to wrap his head around.

The young man shrugged his okay.

Though Annika was the furthest from the pot, she was the first of SG-1 to reach it. She motioned for the others to remain seated. "I’ll play waitress." Instinct told her that doing this small, innocuous task would somehow give credence to their story. She quickly poured the strong brew and added respective creamer and sugar, then passed them out to her team. She noticed the subtle color shift in the auras around her. This domestic act surprised them, though she couldn’t tell if it was the fact that she knew how Jack, Sam and Daniel took their coffee or that she was actually serving. "Teal’c, there’s no tea, do you want coffee?"

"I shall refrain, Annika Jackson." The Jaffa gave a respectful nod of his head. "Thank you for the offer."

There was another flash of surprise.

Charlie slid into his chair at the head of the table and waited for everyone else to settle. "Why don’t we take it from the top? George?"

Hammond nodded. "We had just connected the PCR and were about to dial out to the evac planet, when the ‘gate opened and they came through."

"And we got knocked on our asses," Jack butted in. "What was that? An anti-intruder defense?"

He rebels blinked blankly at him.

"So that…force…we were hit with didn’t come from you?" Sam asked.

Hammond shook his head. "No."

"Well, at least we have an explanation as to why we were diverted to this ‘gate." The major was happy to have one thing, no matter how small, explained. "The DHD overrode the supercomputer." She suppressed a shudder at how lucky they had been. A few seconds earlier and they would have walked straight into Ba’al’s hands. Blocking those thoughts, Sam concentrated on the strangest debrief she’d ever attended.

"And you lot claim to be from an alternate reality." Charlie looked to his right at SG-1. "Forgive me if that sounds more than a tad farfetched."

"More so than stepping through an artificially created wormhole to the other side of the galaxy?" Daniel countered, removing Jack’s cap and tossing it to him. "Or that a parasitic alien proclaiming himself to be a god has enslaved your world?"

"Touché," Charlie conceded. "What proof do you have to back up this theory?"

SG-1 exchanged glances.

"None," Sam grimaced.

"So you expect us to just take you at your word. To us you…your ‘counterparts’…are considered traitors of the worst kind. Why should we believe you are any different from them? That you’re not part of some elaborate plot of Ba’al’s to infiltrate our group?"

"With all due respect that’s ridiculous. If we three," Daniel gestured to himself, Annika and Sam, "are so well known as Ba’al’s minions, he wouldn’t have sent us."

"And if Ba’al knew about your little setup, he’d have sent a troop of Jaffa to wipe you out," Jack pointed out.

"Okay, so why haven’t we had any other visitors from alternate realities before now?"

"We don’t know," Sam admitted. "Our previous experiences have been with an inter-dimensional mirror. Only once before has the Stargate linked to a parallel universe but that was due to an Ancient device."

"What sort of old device?" Hammond asked.

"Oh…uh…not old, although it is," Sam tried to clear up the misinterpretation. "I was referring to the Ancients, the race who built the Stargate."

"Could the Stargate have malfunctioned?" Teal’c suggested.

The major shook her head. "The ‘gates have internal safety protocols that prevents the wormhole from engaging if it detects a problem."

"An outside variable opening a rift to an alternate reality?" Teal’c pressed.

"That’s possible," she mused. "If a solar flare can send us back and forward in time, another anomaly could be responsible."

"Such as what?" Jack asked.

"It could be anything, though it’d have to be rare, otherwise, as Charlie pointed out, it would have happened before. Maybe twin solar flares or a comet’s orbit intersecting the wormhole while we were in transit."

"The odds of that happening are as high as our sun going supernova in the next ten seconds."

SG-1 recognized the condescending new voice. All heads swung around to see Rodney McKay at the doorway. Corbin nudged him from behind and the doctor jumped into the room as though stabbed with a hot poker. His scowl was directed at Charlie.

"I do not appreciate being threatened with my mortal allergy to citrus at every turn." He scuttled a couple more steps away from Corbin who was casually tossing a small lemon between his hands. "And what was so important that you had to drag me away from the extremely vital work of cloaking our Stargate’s signature? At any moment Carter could identify the signal and pinpoint our location and Ba’al will blow us to kingdom-come..."

"Not at this moment, Rodney," Charlie butted in, unperturbed by the tirade. "She’s here."

"Oh, well, that’s alright then." McKay’s sarcastic reply was automatic. "She’s here, we’ve got nothing to worry about." Despite having responded directly to Sam’s comment, he hadn’t really comprehended who it was that had spoke. Only now did he actually take pause to see the blonde major sitting at the table. "She’s here?" He blinked at the rest of SG-1. "They’re all here? Are you completely insane?" he demanded of Charlie and Hammond. "You’re kidnapping Ba’al’s people now? What happened to being covert? Ba’al’s not going to stop until he finds them and then if we’re lucky we’ll be subjected to unspeakable torture. I cannot be tortured, I have a low tolerance for pain…"

SG-1 weren’t the only ones to roll their eyes at the melodrama. Clearly this Rodney McKay had the same personality traits as their own McKay. Charlie waited until the scientist had temporarily run out of steam.

"Rod, why don’t you take a seat? These people claim to be from an alternate reality."

"Highly improbable," McKay reluctantly sat down.

"But not impossible," Sam countered.

"No, anything’s possible in the realm of imagination," he retorted.

Sam’s reference to that mission where Daniel and herself ended up on an alternate Abydos with Casey and Daniel had been niggling at Annika. "This doesn’t feel like an alternate universe."

"Casper, from where I’m sitting it couldn’t get more Twilight Zone than this."

"To the naked eye, yes, it’s different," she paused pondering how to explain. How had Casey put it? "When Daniel and I were on that Abydos, there was a different ‘hum’ to the world."

"Hum?"

"Yeah, the…er…essence of the world. I didn’t realize such a thing existed until Casey mentioned it."

"Who’s Casey?" Charlie interrupted.

"My wife in a different reality," Daniel supplied absently, his attention more on Annika. "You’re not sensing that difference now?"

"No."

"But this isn’t our reality." Sam was frustrated. She didn’t doubt what Annika was sensing but there was no logic to it.

SG-1 hadn’t meant to take control of the meeting. It was something they unwittingly had done as they tried to piece together what was going on. Charlie and the others had let them, not so much because they were any closer to believing the fanciful tale, rather were for the moment content to observe how SG-1 were interacting, looking for any sign or slip up that they were lying.

Teal’c frowned at the strange stirring in his stomach. He’d become fully aware of it a few minutes ago, though he only now realized it had been present since arriving through the Stargate. It was a familiar weight, one he had born for over a century, yet had been free of for the past two years.

"T, you okay?" Jack asked. Though the Jaffa was never one to babble, he’d been particularly closed lipped, and now looked the closest to shocked as Jack had ever seen him.

Teal’c responded by standing up so quickly his chair toppled over, reaching down to tug his shirt from his waist to reveal his stomach. He needed to see before he’d believe what his body was telling him.

"Holy Hannah." Sam sucked in a sharp breath that was echoed by her teammates.

"How is this possible?" Teal’c croaked, his fingers outlining the cross of skin that this morning had been sewn shut since the removal of his prim’ta, but now was open. His hand disappeared into the pouch and much to his horror and disbelief closed around the infant Goa’uld nestled inside.

"Where’d Junior come from?" Jack tried not to gape.

The light dawned in Annika’s mind. "Same place as those clothes."

Daniel had also deduced what had really happened. "We’re not in an alternate reality, we’re in an altered one."

"Say what?" Jack forced himself to look away from Teal’c though the look he gave the Jacksons was like they had sprouted Juniors of their own.

"Our timeline has been changed. That’s why things are so…" Blue eyes darted to Charlie for a split second then around the room. "…Different."

"No," Rodney declared. "Not possible. If the time line had been altered then you wouldn’t remember the way it had been, you’d only remember what it had been changed to."

The final light bulb flashed in the minds of SG-1 and their chorused exclamation made the others jump.

"The bubble!"

"Bubble?" Charlie voiced his people’s bewilderment.

"Annika has a natural shield that subconsciously activates…" Sam rushed to explain. "It protected us from the temporal change."

"It activated sometime last night," Daniel picked up the thread. "Then switched off just before we stepped through the Stargate."

"A temporal field is not something that’s created naturally," McKay scoffed. "Especially by a person."

"It is when your ancestors had the ability," Annika said quietly.

"Yeah, well the proof is in the pudding." McKay flapped his hand at her dismissively. "Show us this so called force field."

"I have no control over when it activates, it’s subconscious." She cut off the arrogant scientist’s snort of derision. "But another genetic gift I have is this…" She twisted her hand and fingers in the pattern that was becoming second nature to her. The coffee mugs on the table vanished.

After a stunned second, the rebels tentatively reached out to the ‘bare’ table, their hands knocking into the invisible mugs.

Annika released the fold of air and the cups reappeared before they spilt their contents.

Daniel had been watching their reactions. "I take it Annika cannot do that in your world?"

"No," Charlie answered, hesitantly poking his cup then firmly wrapping his hand around the handle.

"What abilities do I have here?" Annika was almost afraid to hear the answer.

"Premonitions and telekinesis," Hammond supplied. "And somehow you can look into someone’s soul."

A small smile touched Annika’s lips at the uncharacteristically poetic term from the general. "Auras."

"I’m still waiting for proof." McKay was examining one of the mugs searching for quantifiable evidence of how Annika had performed the disappearing illusion. "Your magic trick, while bearing a startling similarity to Copperfield, doesn’t corroborate your timeline theory."

"Just how do you expect us to prove it?" Sam demanded, springing to her feet. McKay was one of the only people who could rile her from calm to explosive in a second. Every encounter with him she’d had to put up with his snarkiness and belittling remarks on her theories. It would be hard enough to convince Charlie and the others about the altered reality without McKay’s close-minded attitude. "Anything we say, none of you have the memories of. It’s just our word against yours."

Jack also rose in case he was needed to stop Carter from launching across the table to strangle the scientist. "Look, we’re telling you the truth. As whacked out as this altered timeline thing sounds what other explanation is there?"

The tension and anxiety that everyone had been pretending didn’t exist reared its ugly head. Suddenly everyone was on their feet, tempers and nerves stretched to breaking point.

"Well, excuse us if we're not trusting souls you want us to be," Charlie snapped.

"We’re not asking for trust." Daniel ran a frustrated hand though his hair. "Just a little open-mindedness."

"We are open-minded." Hammond seemed to puff up in defense of his people. "If we weren’t, we would have shot you on sight!"

Charlie nodded in agreement. "Lord knows, with what we’ve seen you do it would have been a justice."

"It was not us." Though Teal’c didn’t raise his voice his tone was hard. "How many more times shall we need to reiterate that?"

"You can say it until your blue in the face." McKay thumped the table with his fist. "Without proof how do you expect us to believe you?"

"Jesus, we’re going around in circles here." Sam shook her head irritably.

The sense of calm that Annika had thinly managed to wrap around herself shattered. Her reaction was automatic to the intense emotions bombarding her and within herself. Physically she cringed behind Daniel, for he was the closest ‘barrier’ from the rebels. But as so often happened when her emotions were high, her astral self jumped right into the foray. In the blink of an eye she was standing in the middle of the table between the two bickering sides. "Stop it! We’re acting like children!"

The rebels jerked back at the ghostly apparition, but Charlie barely missed a beat. "Oh, I bet Ba’al loves that little trick," he sneered. "Twin sluts to pleasure him."

"You son of a bitch!"

Daniel lunged across the table at the rebel leader however Jack was closer. Before Charlie could gasp he was pinned to the rock wall by his father’s hands.

"Son or no son, you call the lady that again and I will knock your friggin' block off," he growled. "I raised you better than that."

"You didn’t raise me at all," Charlie spat. "Away on missions for the first half of my life and then a mindless vegetable for the second."

Casper was doing her best to restrain her husband, trying desperately to calm him down. There were so many things that were bugging at her about this entire situation. The first of which was her own emotional turmoil she’d been in since arriving. Not the feelings themselves, but rather her reaction and how overwhelmed she felt. She’d been in intense situations before, and had never come as close to unraveling as she was now. It wasn’t normal, not that anything about the last half hour was normal, yet something was wrong and not just with herself. SG-1 didn’t react like this in a crisis, especially not Daniel, the peacekeeper of the team.

Deftly she probed their bond, searching for some sort of explanation. Whether it was because she was using her astral self which was more attuned to spiritual energy, or if it was the consciousness of their altered selves only now rousing from the shock of merging with their real SG-1 counterparts, Annika couldn’t say. Yet she sensed a second essence within Daniel. It was familiar, like the man she loved, yet completely different at the same time; the soul of the Daniel from this reality. Without thought she cocooned the second essence that was making Daniel act so irrationally, drawing it into herself.

Through his rage, Daniel felt his wife’s search then a soft tug, and the disorientation and frazzled emotions that had been boiling through him were gone. He was still angry with Charlie for calling Annika a whore, but his usual objectivity to empathize from other people’s viewpoint reasserted itself. He looked down at the transparent form of his wife who was struggling to hold him back and gave her a quick kiss on the nose. "Thank you."

"You’re welcome." The anxiety creasing her face relaxed, even as one hand flicked out towards her physical self, the other towards Sam, searching and locating the intruding unraveling knots of the second awareness’s. She plucked them from the major and herself then moved on to Teal’c.

Her teammates were startled by her soft presence but the angry retorts died on their lips, their expressions turning sheepish. Only with the removal of their counterpart’s essence did they realize that they had ever been present, and that the dual minds competing within the one body had intensified whatever emotions they naturally had been feeling.

Jack proved to be more stubborn than the others and when Annika yanked the soul from him it caused his physical body to jerk away from Charlie.

While her astral self took care of her team, Annika peeked over Daniel’s shoulder, focusing on the rebels still loudly defending themselves. She deftly projected a feeling of calm and peace towards them like a gentle wave. A few moments later, angry words tapered off into bewildered, slightly shameful silence at their childish behavior.

"Daniel, I can’t hold it for long," she whispered in his ear. Already Annika could feel the pressure building of the tortured souls she was mentally struggling to contain.

"What do you need, My Angel?" His hand snaked out to her body behind him, holding her close, feeding his own strength through their bond.

Annika pressed against him, grateful for the flow of energy he was sending her. "I have to release what I’ve taken in…somewhere, before it overwhelms me."

"Release it where, Casper?" Jack only half understood what had happened. Knew that Annika had removed the emotions that were his own yet weren’t his own, and sucked them into herself. He also knew that in doing so, she put herself at risk. He very clearly remembered when Daniel had been stuck with a dozen people in his head all battling for control over his friend’s body. They’d almost lost Daniel (again) that day.

"Anywhere," she gasped, her head feeling like a nail was being pounded into her skull from the inside.

"Does it have to be a living thing?" Sam asked, already scouring the area for a containment vessel.

"Don’t know…"

The blonde’s gaze landed on the largest container in the room. She thrust the half empty coffee pot at the astral body of her friend, who was now doubled over the table, obviously in great pain. "Try this."

With a shaky hand, Casper reached out to the glass carafe and started siphoning out the emotions.

At first nothing seemed to happen, then the brown liquid began to swirl and froth as the invisible essences poured inside.

As the last of the multiple awareness trickled from Casper, she vanished and Annika slumped against Daniel’s back. "I don’t recommend anyone drink from that," she quipped weakly.

SG-1 weren’t the only ones to stare in wonder at the still bubbling coffee.

"I know there’s a joke in there somewhere," Jack mused. "But I got nothing."

"What made you think of the carafe?" Daniel asked, twisting around so that he could sit down and draw his tired wife onto his lap.

"Something I read," the scientist hedged.

"Where?" Jack was intrigued by the embarrassed flush on his fiancée’s cheeks.

"Harry Potter," she reluctantly admitted.

The rest of her team fought back teasing remarks at their scientist guru reading the fantasy series.

"Remind me to send J.K. Rowling a thank you note," Annika grinned.

"What just hap-"