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Runaway To Hell

Chapter Sixteen

"We got her!" Jack announced, the first to emerge from the wormhole. He blinked in surprise to see the 'gate room cleared of the standard security team. The only person waiting anxiously at the bottom of the ramp was Casey. His eyes flicked upward to see Hammond himself at the control desk. The rest of the personnel were nowhere to be seen.

"The way's cleared to the isolation room." Hammond forestalled the inevitable question from his 2IC for the break in protocol. He felt a knot of tension unravel when Doctor Jackson emerged carrying Annika in his arms followed by the rest of the team. He was about to ask about the 'guest' they'd brought with them, striding down next to Teal'c, but Annika stirring distracted him.

The iciness of the dematerialization process had roused Annika from her stupor. Disorientated, she first became aware of the arms around her that her body and soul had been pining for. Then the familiar sounds of the klaxons blaring, the stomping on the metal grill and instantly recognizable voices penetrated her ears. She cracked one eye open with a feeling of dread to see the grey walls of the SGC. Panic seized her again. "No! I can't be here! You have to let me go!" She struggled against Daniel.

"Crap. Here we go again," Jack sighed, grabbing at Annika's legs to stop her from bucking from Daniel's hold.

Annika's mind latched onto a plan, as pathetic as it was. She knew she wouldn't be able to escape. Somehow she had to make her team let her go. And the only possible way to do that was to make them hate her, make them loathe her to the point that they would turn her away in disgust.

Jack's hand closing around her ankle made him her first target.

"Child killer," she snarled. "You have Charlie's blood on your hands. You may as well have pulled the trigger yourself! You destroyed your family, now you'll be responsible for our deaths too!"

Jack blanched at the cruel accusation, but his grip only tightened around her leg. He gestured with his head for them to start moving to the corridor.

"Which is nothing for you, is it, Teal'c?" she spat at the Jaffa trying to hold her other leg steady. She felt like she was dying inside with every venomous word that poured from her mouth but she steeled her emotions. "How many people did you torture, maim and kill to keep your little shol'va secret?"

Gaining no response from Teal'c either, her eyes frantically searched for a new victim. They landed on Casey and a new terror crawled through her. "You stupid slut, your meddling has screwed up everything!"

Casey's hurt gasp triggered a horrifying realization in Annika. Only then did it register what the presence of the blonde seer meant. It explained the speedy way Daniel had crossed the gaming floor on the ship. Her head twisted around, her gaze landing on the double of her husband. Hatred Annika had no idea she possessed, let alone for a Daniel Jackson, seeped through her veins. "You screwed up in your reality so you've come to ruin ours? Why don't you take your useless, kinky, little whore home and leave our reality the fuck alone?"

"Carter, get the elevator down here," Jack said through gritted teeth. He was contemplating if a third dose of the sedative would have any effect or if they should let Veta knock her out with the nifty pulse weapon again.

Sam bolted ahead, though she wasn't quick enough to avoid Annika's screech at her.

"Sam, you Black Widow! Every lover you've had has died. It's a miracle Jack has survived this long."

Oakey flittering overhead, could sense the anger and hurt building in her saplings. They didn't fully grasp the control the daemon had of Annika's thoughts. Though the seventh level being knew that the team didn't believe that Annika truly meant the cruel words she was firing at them, they did believe that she was independently saying them to get them to release her. She had to step in before they fueled the daemon's power by reacting to the accusations.

Sam slapped at the lift button, the psychic's words ringing in her ears. Drew in a steadying breath. The taunt had cut her to the bone, a nagging guilt at the truth behind it though she had never acknowledged it before. A gentle caress to her mind and Sam distinctly heard Oakey telling her to 'look'. She turned back to her team carrying the still struggling woman.

What she saw was like a transparent curtain descending over her vision and an image danced over Annika’s head as she continued to scream at them. The image showed a black shadow sitting at a computer screen. The shadow opened a file labeled Annika’s mind and began running the cursor over the thousands of ‘documents’ highlighting what Sam identified as memories. The shadow searched the documents and when it found one it liked it opened it, changed the font and rewrote it, twisting the memory’s perspective and then Annika let loose with another hurtful snarl, her words the twisted ones the shadow had created. Sam activated the radio, whispering in her team's ears. "Is everybody seeing this?"

Slowly they nodded, though they were unaware that they were seeing their own interpretation of what Oakey was showing them. Jack saw a shadow, fishing in the middle of a school of baitfish, plucking out one fish at a time, tossing the small ones back. When it came across a larger fish it swallowed it whole then belched it back out a deformed monster to swim in the ocean once again. Daniel was shown a temple wall, the shadow spraying graffiti all over the beautiful glyphs and pictographs, changing them into grotesque, warped translations of what the true meaning was. Teal’c saw the manipulation of Annika’s mind simply as a puppet, the black shadow pulling the strings, making her hurl the insults, making her believe that her mind was coming up with them.

Oblivious to what her team and the visiting Jacksons had been shown, Annika continued to hurl abuse, this time focusing on the one person whom she had avoided speaking to until now. The words had stuck in her throat to be so nasty to the man who held her heart. But desperation to save him from the future she had seen strengthened her resolve. It took every ounce of her willpower to fill her voice with disdain. "You think you're so smart for deciphering the Stargate? How much death and destruction has happened because you just had to solve the puzzle?"

Daniel had to bite his tongue to keep his mouth shut. Instinct told him not to give the daemon the satisfaction of responding, but his anger was growing. His rage wasn't directed at Annika, rather at the daemon. He already knew that once his wife realized that she had been manipulated into running away, she would be mortified. But to add this abuse on top of that could be crippling for her. He was barely aware that they had entered the lift and were quickly traveling up to level twenty-one. What he did notice was that Annika's struggles had lessened to a minor degree.

He glanced at his teammates. Sam had crammed into the elevator with them; his counterpart, Casey and Veta having to remain behind due to lack of space from the way they had to manhandle Annika. All of their expressions were blank, jaws set stonily. Each of them was doing their best, as he was, to tune out the hurtful tirade spewing from his wife's mouth. As the doors opened on the infirmary level, Daniel had the sick feeling that 'capturing' Annika had been the easy part; the worst was still yet to come.

A A A

In the control room, Walter waited until Annika's yells had been cut off by the lift doors closing. He looked up from his place on the floor at Hammond. "Sir, Annika really is possessed?" He needed the base CO to confirm that aloud; needed to be able to reconcile the spiteful, vindictive taunts with the caring and compassionate woman he knew.

"Yes, she is," Hammond replied somewhat stiffly, glancing down at the technicians who had been crouched behind the control desk, out of sight of the psychic, just as Casey had recommended. He could only assume that he had been spared from the verbal attack due to the fact that he had been hidden in the dim lighting of the room. The reason for Casey's premonition had been made abundantly clear, particularly the specific mention that Doctor Fraiser and Keelah not be present. Annika, or rather the daemon...at least he prayed it was the daemon...had dredged up guilt of past events and flung it in her team's faces. He knew Doctor Fraiser was still fighting guilt over her involvement as the zatarc; a secret that no one but a select few knew about and had been purposefully kept from the general base personnel. And Keelah, while she had made great strides in her new life, still had the mental scars of her slavery and harbored guilt over abdicating her throne. Both women had dealt with their 'issues' but it wouldn't take much to reopen those wounds of doubt. "Resume your duties but the base will remain on high alert. Technically we have an intruder on base."

"Yes, sir."

Hammond strode to his office, reaching for the phone before he sat down. Dialed the security room where all the video cameras on base were monitored. "Sergeant, let me know the moment SG-1 have secured Mrs Jackson in the isolation room and have calmed her down." As much as he wanted to be present for whatever happened next with his primary team, he didn't want to exacerbate the situation.

"We'll keep you updated, sir."

A A A

Ferretti stood guard at the office door, blocking the room's only exit. He ignored the glare he was being subjected to from the tiny woman standing opposite him inside. He hadn't even reacted when the sound of yelling had erupted from the corridor, signaling SG-1's arrival from the lift.

Janet tried to get a peek over Ferretti's shoulder but he was too tall for her to see much of anything. "Major, stand aside."

"Nope. You can give me 'the look' all you want, it ain't gonna work." Hammond had given him a direct order to keep the Doc away from Cupid when they brought her home. It was one order that he fully intended to follow.

"I'm Annika's doctor. I should be with her." Janet didn't doubt that there would be consequences if she ignored the psychic warning Casey had given. But dammit, there were consequences with everything that they did. Everyday at the SGC was a risk, and she had no intention of remaining a prisoner in her own damned office when Annika clearly needed help.

"Do you know how hot you look when you're angry?" he drawled. "Eyes blazing, chest huffing and puffing...I could watch you seethe all day."

"Casey's premonition was that Annika shouldn't see me when she was brought back. That time frame has passed by a good three minutes and forty seconds. And if you think I'm going to remain in here while my patient is screaming in obvious distress-" she cut off when an animalistic growl echoed from down the hall.

Shocked by the inhuman sound, Ferretti twisted slightly to see where it had come from. Surely that hadn't come from Cupid...

Janet took full advantage of her lover's distraction and charged through the small gap he'd created between the door. Sometimes her small size was an advantage! The CMO ran down the corridor towards the isolation room that had had the shields switched on as soon as they had word that SG-1 was returning. Didn't really notice the hulk of a man standing just outside the door.

Ferretti bolted after her. Managed to catch her when she was just a few feet from the open doorway of the isolation room. Wrapping one arm around her waist, he simply lifted her off her feet. Her being a short-ass was a definite perk for him right now. His other hand clapped over her mouth to stop the inevitable protest she was firing up to give. Trying to subdue the woman struggling in his arms, he gave a wry grin at the stranger who was looking at them with a raised eyebrow. "Howdy. Don't mind us." He turned his attention back to Janet, keeping his voice low but firm. "Doc, I swear on our love that I will knock you out with one of your own sedatives if you keep trying to get in there."

From inside the room, above the continual yelling of Annika, Jack's voice, using every ounce of authority he had, drifted out.

"Everyone with a hocus pocus connection take a wander right now."

A second later Casey and her husband backed from the room, their faces tense.

A A A

Getting Annika from the lift to the isolation room took longer than they anticipated. She had managed to grab onto the handrail and it had taken a bit of time to pry her grip loose. Her tirade had become more of a general protest than a direct attack on any one person, for which the team was eternally grateful.

Feeling the slight tingle when they passed through the invisible shield of the room, Daniel absently wondered that it had been a miracle that the daemon hadn't attempted to use Annika's telekinesis yet. Put it down to something finally going their way for a change.

Annika stilled when the hair on her arms stood up like the effects of static electricity, trying to work out what the sensation meant. It felt familiar though she couldn't quite place it. "Alright put me down. You got me!"

"Yeah, pardon us if we don't trust you not to bolt," Jack replied.

"You'd catch me before I made it back to the lift." The resignation in her voice wasn't an act. Escaping now would be all but impossible.

"Great. Nice to know we all understand the situation." He hesitantly released his hold of her leg.

When she remained placid, Teal'c also let her go. Her feet hit the floor but Daniel's arms helped her regain her balance. As much as she wanted to remain in the circle of his embrace, it was too distracting to have him so near. Unable to meet his eyes she said softly, "Please, stop touching me."

That quiet request hurt more than anything she had yelled at him. Though he didn't want to, he let his arms drop to his sides.

Annika immediately scooted a couple of steps back, needing to put some distance between them. She rubbed at her arms, trying to dispense the pins and needles assaulting her. "What did you do to this room?"

"That's our little secret." Daniel felt the knife in his heart cut deeper seeing her wiping act. Couldn't she even bear to have him touch her? No, it was the daemon making her react that way...it had to be. And yet she was definitely calmer, had the shielding of the room had the unexpected effect of subduing the daemon...

His thought was cut off at the sound of approaching running boots, and his counterpart and Casey ran in. From the way their chests were heaving, it was clear they had run up the flights of stairs rather than wait for the elevator to return back down.

Daniel saw the calmness flick off in Annika's eyes in an instant. It was all the warning he had before Annika literally launched herself at his double in full attack mode, an inhuman bellow erupting from deep within her throat.

Teal'c managed to snag her around the waist before she reached the stunned archaeologist but her hands reached out as if she wanted to scratch out his eyes. Something clicked in the Jaffa's head; Annika Jackson's struggles had lessened whenever the visitors from the alternate reality weren’t near. "Your presence is exacerbating the situation." His comment was drowned out by a cry of agony from the psychic in his arms, one of her hands going to her head.

A feral hatred had boiled over when Annika had seen the alternate Jacksons enter. It was like her body had a mind of its own as she tried to attack them. The drawing on her telekinetic power was an instinctual act of self-preservation. But when she tried to gather her will, her head pounded like a nail was being hammered into her skull. She tried to push the pain aside, a true battle of her fortitude against her own physical pain versus the unexplainable instinct to destroy.

Jack's heart wasn't the only one to skip a beat when a trickle of blood dripped from Annika's nose. Teal'c was right. For whatever reason, Jackson and Casey were making the situation worse. "Everyone with a hocus pocus connection take a wander right now," he ordered. Keeping his back to Annika, but more specifically to the daemon using her, he raised his eyes to the surrounding air, hoping like hell Oakey would take the hint that he meant Her too.

Daniel hoped that Jack didn't mean him, because there was no way that he was leaving his wife.

The moment the visiting Jacksons had backed out of the room, the guttural growls Annika had been making died off though she once again switched to the verbal attack.

"I hate you all for telling me of the Stargate!" Annika yelled. "Going to sleep at night, never knowing if in the morning Earth will be enslaved by a snakehead...if Ba'al will figure out a way to get his filthy paws on me and fuck me to death...I hate knowing that the monsters are real...I hate you all for making them real!"

"Alright, that's enough!" Daniel gripped her flailing arms and gave her a hard shake. She had already said things that he knew would eat away at her once she was in her right mind. He had to at least try to get her halt the abuse. "Stop this!"

She struggled against both Teal'c and Daniel with all her might but their grips wouldn't loosen.

"I know this isn't you talking." Daniel kept his voice as calm as possible. "You don't mean it."

"It is me! Everything I've said is true, I mean every word."

"No, the woman I love would never be so cruel..."

"Then I guess I'm not the woman you thought I was," she butted in harshly.

Daniel ignored the interruption. "...Not unless she was deliberately trying to trick us, make us try to hate her..."

"It's not a trick."

"...And the only reason she'd do that is if she thought she was protecting us."

The denial wouldn't pass her lips. She couldn't lie about that.

A spark of triumph lit up Daniel's eyes. "Well, it's not going to work. No matter what you say, we will never hate you. I will never hate you. Do you hear me? And I will not leave you." He released his hold on one of her arms to reach into his pocket. In a flash he had withdrawn a pair of handcuffs and snapped the metal band around Annika's wrist. The second band he closed over his own. "I'm not going anywhere."

"No, no, no!" Horrified Annika jerked against the cuffs.

"Everybody else get out," Daniel demanded. There was no reason that the rest of the team should be subjected to any more vindictive comments that the daemon could come up with.

For a moment nobody moved, then one by one Jack, Sam and lastly Teal'c left the couple alone.

"I'm not going anywhere," Daniel repeated, turning his full attention back to his wife. "So you better get used to it."

"I don't want to be here," she said lamely. Daniel's gaze pinned her, making the fight drain out of her.

"Tell me you don’t love me," his voice was hoarse with emotion at seeing the pain and fear torturing his wife.

"I..." The word’s stuck in her throat. She tried again but she couldn’t speak the lie. "I...I hate you."

"It’s a fine line, isn’t it?" Daniel’s tone was hard. "Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t love me."

Annika could feel the panic welling up inside of her again, but it was nothing compared to the despair that was threatening to consume her. All her efforts had been for naught. She had run, just to have her team doggedly track her down. "I...I..."

A A A

The second they left the shielded room Jack, Sam and Teal'c felt the anxious caress of Oakey in their minds. She had abided by sapling Jack's request to keep her presence out of the room simply because she understood the pressure it was putting on Annika from the daemon's fear of her presence. But she had to show them what Daniel's confrontation was doing...

The team felt another whisper telling them to look and in their minds they all saw a replay of a second ago when Daniel had demanded that Annika tell him that she didn’t love him. They saw the shadow try to force the words from her mouth. Saw the purple light of Annika’s will push back, trying to stop the lie from spilling out. The light flickered, losing strength. The best that she could manage was to change the words to ‘I hate you’. They could also see that this battle going on within Annika was totally subconscious, she wasn’t cognizant of the daemon's manipulation, wasn’t even aware of the daemon’s presence at all. What else was becoming apparent was that whatever resistance Annika was able to exert was weakening. She was mentally and physically exhausted after weeks of running, of fighting a duel she didn’t even know she was participating in. They all felt Oakey's concern that Annika was too weak to fight the daemon right now.

"Danny," Jack activated the radio, speaking softly to his best friend. "You need to back off...you're not seeing what our woody friend is showing us...Casper's too exhausted to fight him right now. We have to wait."

Daniel heard the order, but instinct was telling him that he had to keep pressing just a little more. Slowly he reached up to caress Annika's cheek and he changed his tone, hiding none of the pain he was feeling right now. "Tell me."

Annika's mental defenses crumbled at the loving touch of her husband. "I...I can't." She drew in a ragged gasp. "I'm so tired of running...so tired of being scared...I can't do this anymore." The last came out a strangled sob.

"Then stop fighting us, My Angel," Daniel pleaded. "Stop fighting me."

With a wail Annika's legs collapsed beneath her, but Daniel eased her fall. He sat down on the floor, holding her tightly in his embrace, surrendering to both the heartache that tore at his chest with every tear that trickled from her eyes, and the wonderful joy of having his wife once again in his arms.

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