"Daniel, calm down."

The kitchen was as perfect an illusion as the rest of the diner, including the smells of numerous food dishes mixed with the underlying scent of washing detergent. Vaguely Daniel heard a radio playing in the background.

"No, I won't." He wrenched his arm free. He was furious, at Oma, at Anubis, at the whole friggin' situation. "Somebody's got to take a stand and fight for what's right in this 'sea of apathy'."

"Then you've made your decision?"

"Yes." He nodded with steely determination. "I'm going to Ascend."

"And then what?"

Daniel spun around at the unfamiliar voice, seeing for the first time the room's two other occupants. The shorter of the two distracted him from his anger for a moment as Daniel recognized him. "Skaara!"

The Abydonian, who was dressed as a kitchen hand with an armload of dirty plates, smiled warmly. "Dan’yel, it is good to be seeing you again." He dumped the plates in the sink of soapy water, wiped his hands on his apron and embraced the man he'd called brother.

"Likewise." He returned the hug, glad to see a friendly face, then pulled back, his attention on the stranger. "And who are you when you're at home?"

"Daniel, this is Auberrat." Oma made the introductions. "He has his own decision to make."

"Oma, I can speak for myself," the cook replied curtly. He repeated his question to Daniel.

"I'm going to do what needs to be done, and do it by playing by your rules." Daniel sensed that Auberrat was higher up in the food chain than Oma, though just how high remained to be seen. Had the gut instinct that Oma had brought him here specifically for this 'meeting' and that his Fate, and possibly others, were balanced on what happened next. He knew that given the circumstances, he should try to put all those diplomatic negotiation skills he'd been developing in the last few years to good use, but truth be told, he was beyond the point of playing nicely. Taking a page out of Jack's book, sometimes you just had to go in with guns blazing and hope for the best, and he was too damned mad at the moment to do anything else.

"Really?" Auberrat seemed amused. "And how do you plan on doing that?"

Daniel directed his response to Oma. "You said, 'not yourself nor I', could defeat Anubis. You were very careful to use the singular. Just for shits and giggles, what about if you and I teamed up and worked together?"

"We could fight him for longer, but it's doubtful we could kill him."

"And what if we had more people join us? Say, another four?"

"The odds would be better, but there is no guarantee."

"And how are you going to convince even one of the Ascended to assist?" Auberrat butted in. "Oma has had little success in ten scores of millennia."

Playing the game of answering a question with a question, Daniel turned to his former brother-in-law. "Skaara, how's Kasuf doing these days? And Tobay and Rabhi?" He named two of the kids from the original uprising on Abydos who were now also part of the Ascended. He added the last to take the number up to five, leaving Oma out of it for he wasn't entirely certain she would help him.

"They are very well, Dan’yel."

"How do you think they'd feel about assisting in the demise of the Goa'uld who destroyed their people?"

"They would be most eager."

"You cannot ask them to fight," Auberrat interceded.

"Why not?" Skaara asked. "We would be proud to stand alongside Dan’yel. It would be like when we fought Ra..."

Daniel held up his hand stopping Skaara's indignation. "I didn't ask Skaara to fight. I asked him to assist. As useful as my former tribe would be, we need help from people with strong battle experience."

"Like O'Neill!" Skaara suggested helpfully.

"Yes, like Jack and the rest of my team." Blue eyes slid to Auberrat, challenging him to pick up what he was proposing.

Auberrat remained obstinately silent.

Daniel shrugged and continued on with his 'plan'. "Once I've Ascended, using your rule of five, I can talk to my team, tell them how it is...that if they Ascend, collectively we can override whatever rules you have created, that collectively we have the best chance to defeat Anubis on this plane of existence where no more of our people would be put at risk."

"You'd ask them to kill themselves to Ascend?"

"I won't need to. We've been on suicide missions before where the odds were miniscule by comparison to this. I know my team. Each and everyone of them wouldn't hesitate to lay down their lives for the possibility of getting rid of Anubis." His gaze was unwavering as he pressed on conversationally. "Normally, getting to this point in the Ascension process," he waved his hand around the room, "would be the hard part, I went through that the first time," he nodded to Oma, "but again with that rule of five, that can be circumvented. Moving beyond to full Ascension from here is simply the desire and strength of will to do so." To prove his point that he understood the process, he concentrated for just a second on his now burning desire to Ascend, and his body glowed slightly. He reined the desire in and the glow dissipated. "And then, once the five of us have fixed your mistake of letting Anubis roam free, we'd move on to whatever else you've let slide by in your arrogance of not 'demeaning' yourselves with the lives of the 'lower' beings."

"You’re sounding more than a little arrogant yourself," Auberrat said stonily.

"Just getting into practice for when I join your enlightened ranks."

"You dare threaten Us?"

"Yes, I dare!" Daniel replied hotly. "Somebody has too. There are people, innocent people, dying and you do nothing. You may as well not have those precious powers for you do nothing with them, nothing that makes a difference."

Auberrat visibly tried to rein in his temper. He did not usually react with such heated emotions, however Daniel in his previous visit had riled him as much then as now. There was something about the man's everlasting passion to save everyone, to question everything, his stubbornness to never give up, that grated on his nerves. The newly Ascended should be content to have achieved that heightened plane of existence, not question every damned decision and event. "We are not gods, what gives us the right to say what is right and wrong?"

"Your own moral conscience!" Daniel flung back. "Have you been so long in this realm you've forgotten that you need a true sense of morality to get here? What happened to that morality once you attained enlightenment? Did it evaporate with your bodies?"

"You are as annoyingly persistent as last time."

A sudden thought occurred to Daniel. Had he been the one to sow the seeds of the dissension among the Ascended because he'd asked similar questions? He pushed the thought aside. "You think I'm stubborn? Wait until you meet the rest of SG-1." He threw down the paper to the counter. "I can read between the lines. All is not happy-happy-joy-joy among the enlightened ranks. Do you really want SG-1 running around stirring up all the unrest you are trying to quell? Is it really worth it for the sake of you stepping in this one time to do what you must know is right?"

"We are not your enemy."

"You're bluffing."

"Oh, but it's a mighty powerful bluff, isn't it?"

The two men stared at each other, neither willing to back down. Then Auberrat switched his gaze to Oma.

She had kept to the sidelines, for she knew this 'confrontation' between the two of them was necessary though the reason was different for each. Her face had revealed none of her trepidation. Daniel was playing a dangerous game and it could very well blow up in all of their faces.

When Auberrat next spoke, it was to Daniel yet his gaze didn't shift from Oma. "What if there was another option?"

Daniel warily studied the two Ascended beings. "I'm listening."

Auberrat took a long breath. "You and your colleagues have recently acquired a device..."

Sam heard the colonel's demand for her presence as she exited from the elevator. Almost bursting with news she skidded to a stop outside the cell. Jack's grin was equally triumphant and they spoke eagerly over the top of each other.

"Colonel, the job list, one person can have multiple jobs applied to them!"

"Carter, multitasking! We all do it!"

"All we need do is find five people who between them have all the qualities or jobs listed." Teal'c wore a pleased expression that dimmed as his gaze landed on Annika who hadn't paid any attention to their arrival and exuberant talk. His voice lowered. "We have had this information for two weeks, though we did not know how to interpret it. 'It must be all but just a few'."

Jack and Sam recognized the quote as the snippet Annika's second sight had come out with when the list had first appeared.

"It was so simple, so obvious." Sam was angry that it had taken so long for the penny to drop. "If we had figured this out sooner we could have stopped today from happening."

"Don't torture yourself with what ifs," Jack said quietly, though he himself was thinking the same. "The thing to focus on is that we have figured it out. Let's just move on to the next obstacle."

Sam gave a nod, reining in her emotions. "There's one part of the opening paragraph of the list chapter that concerns me."

"Just one?" Lucky you, Jack thought. He could think of a half a dozen things that were making his hair grayer than it was already.

"This line, 'A majority of the Great Races'."

"General Jack! Come have a look!"

The three members of SG-1 glanced up. Annika was sitting cross-legged on the bed, the notebook she'd been using as a sketchpad in her lap.

"In a minute, Casper."

"'kay." The redhead happily returned to her drawing.

Sam lowered her voice. "She's not getting any better?"

"No." Jack ran a hand over his face, a tell tale clue at how frustrated and upset he was over Annika's current state. "Bits of her hocus pocus are coming through, but I don't think she comprehends what it is. Her interpretation skills are down the crapper."

Equally troubled as the others, Teal'c hid a sigh and brought the conversation back to the topic at hand. "At least three of the Great Races must be present."

The major nodded. "It's possible to have the Nox because we know that there are people like Annika who are descendants of Naturra..."

"Is a minute up yet, General Jack?" Annika again interrupted.

"Not yet," he answered absently.

"And because of you, sir, we know the Ancient gene is also mixed in human DNA, so that's half of the alliance..." Sam let the sentence hang for the others to identify the problem.

"However, we have no way to know if the Furlings also crossbred with any species before their extinction, nor of a way to identify if remnants of their DNA still exist," Teal'c concluded.

"And the Asgard clone. They don't, or rather can't," Jack corrected, "mate amongst themselves, let alone with other species." He felt a tug on his sleeve, distracting him from this new dilemma. Twisted his head to see Annika had scooted off the bed and was standing hesitantly behind him.

"Now?" she whispered, her violet eyes hopeful.

The colonel fought down a frustrated sigh. Annika must have been a right handful when she was a kid. Realizing that she wasn't going to let up he swiveled towards her. "Okay, yes, now. What do you want to show me?"

She proudly thrust the notebook at him. "I drawed you a picture."

Jack dutifully looked at the sketch. "That's great, Casper." He quirked an eyebrow when Annika frowned back at him. Obviously that wasn't the response she was hoping for.

She turned the book so Sam and Teal'c could see, looking expectantly at them.

The major smiled encouragingly at her. "You've done a fantastic likeness of Jack and Charlie."

Annika looked affronted by the compliment. She roughly ripped the leaf of paper out, causing the loose sheets she’d drawn earlier to scatter, scrunched it up and threw it to the floor. "Not Charlie," she grumped and stomped back to the bed. Keeping her back to them she busily started another sketch, anger clearly evident with every pencil stroke.

Jack did his best not to be annoyed at the fit of temper. This situation wasn't easy on any of them, but her mood swings were becoming tiresome. A few more displays of spoilt brat behavior and he'd probably wind up paddling her backside.

Sam automatically tried to catch the floating pieces, only remembering at the last second about the force field. Focusing on the pictures as they drifted to the floor was easier than watching her friend act like a petulant child. It took a moment for her brain to compute what her eyes were showing her. "Sir, did Annika show you these others?"

He nodded. "To keep her amused I asked her to draw me something. That’s what she came up with."

"Okay, you looked, but did you really see?"

The colonel studied the sketches, not understanding what was so important. "It’s Daniel, so what? He’s never been far from her mind since she woke up as a kid, so her drawing him in different poses isn’t exactly a shocker."

"They’re not different poses…they’re different jobs. Teacher, archaeologist, friend, soldier, Ascended being..."

Jack felt a heavy sinking in the pit of his stomach. Annika had been drawing them since she'd first spied the notebook in his pack. He hadn't made the connection, had put it down to her just jotting down random images. Annika had been trying to tell him of her 'Purple People Eater' vision all along, or at least the interpretation of it. As he saw one particular image of a mostly naked Daniel in an intimate embrace with a woman whose face was hidden, he surmised that was the picture Annika refused to show him. If he had seen that one, would he have made the connection? Would he have realized that the imagery was way too adult for a five year old, that his adult friend was struggling to be heard through the voice of a child? If all those sketches were to help them interpret the list then this last one... Carefully he smoothed out the last picture and really looked at it. It was of himself and someone who, like Sam, he'd assumed was Charlie.

"O'Neill, does that not bear a stronger resemblance to yourself at a young age than your son?" Teal'c asked.

The colonel nodded. "Yeah, it is more mini-me than Charlie."

"Your clone." Sam's eyes widened as she guessed the significance of the sketch. "The Asgard put a genetic marker in your DNA to stop tampering. An Asgard genetic marker. That makes up the majority of the Great Races. And limits the search down significantly." In fact, it actually narrowed the candidates down to one, for only Jack had the marker... She was distracted from following through on that thought by what happened next in the cell.

Jack's guilt was a bitter taste in his mouth. Because Annika's actions were that of a child, he had been treating her as such, forgetting that beyond the surface the woman he knew was struggling to be heard, to help. "Casper, I'm sorry," he said quietly, stepping towards her.

Annika's back stiffened giving him the silent treatment and she continued to draw furiously in the notebook.

"Casper..."

Her head swiveled around at him, eyes blazing, but there was a kind of desperation to them too. The words that spat from her lips he recognized as Ancient.

He remembered her tongue lashing to Ba'al, that he had said her words had been 'adult', and another thing clicked in his mind. The more emotion Annika felt the stronger her hocus pocus became. Was she trying to tell them something? And holding on to the anger was the only way she could do so coherently? "Carter, did you catch any of that?"

"Sorry, sir," Sam shook her head. "It's a different dialect to what I'm used to."

The Jaffa who had been present when Annika had first woke, cleared his throat. "The seer speaks the dialect of Lord Anubis."

"Jaffa, you understand Annika Jackson's words?" Teal'c asked.

"No. Only recognize the language when it is spoken."

Annika ripped out the page she'd been working on. With Jack's apology, her anger had dimmed even though it was apparent she was trying to hold on to it. With a sad sigh she held out the page. "Here, General Jack."

Jack took the paper and studied it. Saw that she hadn't been drawing but writing. It was a mixture of Goa'uld and Ancient. Held it up to Sam and Teal'c. "Translation?"

"Manual, page two. Must be in...Teal'c, do you recognize that word?" Sam asked.

"Harmony," the Jaffa supplied then continued on with the last remaining words. "Must be fixed."

The word 'must' had been underlined.

Teal'c scrolled up to page two of the manual. "None of those words are on this page."

"Casper, don't suppose you can shed any light?"

"On what?" She blinked innocently at him. Obviously whatever had prompted the writing was gone.

Jack patted her shoulder. "Never mind." He turned back to the others, may as well start with the most obvious of interpretations. "Carter, in your tinkering did you come across anything that needs fixing?"

"No, sir."

"Okay, let's solve one piece of the puzzle at a time. Back to the list." He paused until Sam had dutifully flicked back to the page. "Being presumptuous by using us as the Chosen. Do we have everything on the list covered?"

The three of them mentally ticked off descriptions and nodded.

Jack caught the anticipatory look on Sam's face and the flicker of disappointment a few seconds later. "Sam?"

"Oh, it's just I expected a new page or chapter to reveal itself. Each time we've determined something concrete another piece of the puzzle is revealed."

"The Ancients and their damned tests," Jack muttered.

"Perhaps we mis-assigned some of the list?" Teal'c suggested.

"Then let's confirm we're all on the same wavelength." Sam pointed to the first item. "Protagonist refers to you, sir, as does Ancient and Asgard. You could also be Warrior though that could also apply to Teal'c..." As she moved down the list her finger accidentally brushed too close to the hologram and she felt the tingle of the energy through her fingertips. Thinking nothing of it, she continued down.

To their surprise the word moved with her finger.

Sam automatically pulled away and the word bounced back to its original place. "It's interactive," she murmured.

With the movement of the glyphs, the bottom of the page extended to reveal a pattern of five interconnected circles arranged in a larger ring shape.

Playing a hunch Sam once again touched the word and dragged it down to sit inside one of the circles. When she removed her hand, the glyphs remained inside and the circle glowed a bit brighter. Hesitantly she chose the next item on the list, 'Selfless Enemy' which they had worked out to mean Tok'ra, she placed in the next circle that she designated for herself. The third item, 'Created for Servitude', she assigned to the third ring, as Teal'c. The descriptions remained where they were placed. Buoyed by the success, Teal'c helped to place the remaining glyphs. They first allocated the clear-cut single references that could only be applied to one of them. Sam had 'scientist' added to her own, while the fourth ring had 'shaman', 'artist' and 'Nox' for Annika. Sam hesitated at the fifth ring, to hold the descriptions of Daniel, then was filled with a sense of hope as she moved the word 'Ascended' into the ring, followed by 'Keeper of Records' and 'ambassador'.

Not sure how to place the terms that could apply to more than one them, Teal'c experimented by dragging the term 'Sharer of Knowledge' over the join of the interconnecting circles for Daniel and Sam. The holographic word duplicated itself, and of its own accord shifted to sit within the assigned circles. 'Chosen servitude' they deduced meant Sam and Jack as they had chosen a career of military service. 'Creator of Life', they took to mean parent. Descriptions such as united, loyal and crusader, applied to them all. And so the list continued. Steadily the pair worked through the hundred descriptions and virtues, quietly conferring with each other and Jack for some of the trickier ones.

The moment the last of the list had been distributed, the five rings pulsed brightly and the glow extended to include the whole of the holographic device. The three of them watched fascinated, yet warily, as the control glyphs began lighting up in a complicated pattern that became faster and faster until the tiny lights were a blur. There was an audible click and the glow dimmed to normal, the hologram flickered back to the first page.

"A bit anti-climatic," Jack quipped, after a few seconds of stillness.

"The text has altered." Teal'c scanned the writing.

"Not only that," Sam's eyes drifted to the bottom corner where the page numbers had been. Where it had previously read 1 of 530 pages, it now read 1 of 5. "It's condensed it all. No wonder we couldn't break the encryption. There was no code. The real instructions were hidden randomly amongst the rest of the text, one word at a time."

Jack studied the entwined rings that now decorated the hologram like a letterhead. "Right, well, since I'm supposed to be the protagonist...something I find questionable by the way..."

"Why?" Sam interrupted. "You're the leader of SG-1."

"I don't get on my soapbox and rally the masses for social causes," he groused.

"No, you're the hero who leads us through the Stargate to save the galaxy." Sam's voice was amused, yet there was a seriousness to her eyes. Jack could deny it all he wanted, but it was the truth. Beside her Teal'c nodded in agreement.

"The mission reports are exaggerated," he quipped. He didn't see himself that way and was uneasy at the compliment, even if it was coming from the people closest to him. "Anyhoo', here's a question for ya'. I thought we'd established we were not the ones to use this gizmo. What happened to the 'Chosen'?"

She skimmed the pages. "All references to the Chosen have been deleted."

"Perhaps it was part of the Ancients' challenge," Teal'c put forward.

Sam slowly nodded. "Despite all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, we had to still believe we were the ones. It was a test of faith."

"What faith?" Jack demanded. "Faith played no part when I suggested using us for the list. It was desperation to put it in perspective to make sense of this thing."

"O'Neill, desperation is when faith is most called upon."

"So for weeks we've been chasing a red herring." The colonel shook his head in disgust. "Well, here's a bit of faith for ya'. I swear to God that if I ever catch up with the Ancient author of the manual I'm gonna teach him the meaning of 'short and sweet'." He let Sam read, speaking again only when she had scrolled to the end. "Carter, give me the 'abridged' abridged version. How does it work? Nifty laser beam? Cosmic shock wave? 'Cause as much as I'd like to blow a hole in Ball's ship, I'd rather we weren't on it at the time."

Sam shook her head. "It's not that kind of weapon, sir. Just by switching it on, isn't going to destroy Anubis."

"Knew it wouldn't be that easy," he muttered. "So what's it do?"

"If I'm translating this correctly, it kind of evens out the playing field. It gives us the means to fight him."

Peachy, more cryptic clues, Jack thought. "At the risk of sounding like an idiot...how?"

Sam grimaced. "Not precisely sure. It says the hundred become five, the five become one, the one mirrors the target," she paused thinking that through. If 'the hundred' was the list, which was then broken down to the five users... "Um, it's possible it's going to partly Ascend us."

"Carter, please correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to be dead to Ascend?"

She nodded.

"I'm all for taking one for the team, but isn't that the kind of thing that should be in bold print, not designated to a footnote?"

Despite the seriousness of the revelation, Sam grinned. "It's in bold print now, sir, sort of." She then launched into a basic explanation. "The weapon is adaptive. It's not like a gun that only fires bullets. It identifies the enemy, or whatever it is we're trying to destroy, and gives us a chance to defeat it."

"A chance? We're gonna die and only have a chance of defeating Anubis?"

Another nod.

"I have a bit of a problem with that."

"Well, nothing is a certainty, sir," Sam replied absently. The 'chapter' on the void in the device, that was now a single paragraph on the second page, had her full attention. "We can limit who the weapon affects by sealing in the void a sample of what or who we're trying to destroy. It says it's optional but recommended."

"And how, pray tell, are we going to do that? Find Anubis and ask him to hold still while we snatch some of his vapor?"

"This device was designed to eliminate beings similar to Anubis, Ascended beings who turned rogue, but because of its adaptive properties it can be used against other beings."

Teal'c immediately suggested their biggest enemy. "If a symbiote, or part there of, were contained in the void, we could destroy all the Goa'uld at once."

Three pairs of eyes gleamed at the prospect.

"Colonel Sammy's daddy goes bye-bye."

Those same pairs of eyes darted to Annika, who had been so unusually quiet that they had temporarily forgotten she was there. She was still squiggling in the notebook and hadn't looked up, yet clearly she had been listening to the entire conversation.

Sam turned pale drawing in a shaky breath and Teal'c looked grim. Jack's breath whooshed out at the 'close call'. Annika's comment had rammed home just how powerful a weapon the device was, explained why the Ancients had so many safe guards built into it. Put a symbiote in the weapon's containment vessel and it would annihilate not only the Goa'uld but also the Tok'ra and Jaffa, possibly even previous hosts, like Sam and himself, for they still had the markers in their blood. On an even wider scale, put a piece of human tissue inside and it would wipe out humans in general from existence.

"Once we have used this weapon, it should be destroyed," Sam said solemnly. "Despite the safety protocols, we cannot take the risk that it will fall to enemy hands."

"No argument here," the colonel agreed.

Teal'c also nodded his agreement. He had returned his attention to the glowing pages, he pointed to the text three quarters of the way down the second page. "I believe this is the reference to harmony Annika Jackson spoke of."

"The Dedicated must be in complete united harmony," Sam translated for the benefit of Jack. "For the joining of the minds will be absolute. Any dissension will weaken the effectiveness of the device with possible catastrophic consequences for the Dedicated."

"Joining of the minds?" Jack quirked an eyebrow. "That's new."

"I think that's what it meant when it said 'five become one'."

"When we partly Ascend."

"Well, that was only a theory. It's not clear if 'becoming one' is metaphorical or physical. It could mean that collectively we have to decide and direct the power that the device gives us at Anubis."

"Right, well, we're all in agreement that Anubis has to go, so there's no dissension there."

"However it could also mean harmony amongst ourselves," Teal'c said quietly. "This morning there was unresolved tension between yourself, O'Neill, and Annika Jackson."

"But if this thing makes us 'one', then Casper will know I'm sorry about that, that I know I was being an ass."

"Sir, 'knowing' you're sorry and actually needing to hear the words are two very different things."

The colonel conceded the point. "I could do it now, but I don't think Casper would understand what I'm apologizing for. But the point is moot. In the condition she's in now there's no way I'd subject her to using the device anyway...it'd be child abuse."

"Even if it means letting Anubis use the weapon on Dakara?" Sam asked softly.

Jack wanted to say yes, his head even started to nod, but his eyes were torn in distasteful disagreement. He ran a hand through his hair. "Crap, I hate this. I can't order her, even on a normal day, to participate in what is looking to be a suicide mission. None of us should have to make that decision for her."

"Did not Major Jenkins provide drugs that could give limited lucidity?" Teal'c still kept his voice low.

"Yeah, the shots." Jack nodded slowly, weighing up the risks of using them. The warning the doctor had given rang in his ears. They still had no idea how Anubis had scrambled Casper's brain. The cure, and the temporary cure at that, could be worse than having a five year old adult.

"I think we should try," Sam voiced her opinion.

"Okay." Jack was grateful to have consensus from both of them, even though technically as commander of SG-1, if things went wrong it would be on his head. He moved to his pack, to get the med kit. Frowned when he couldn't find it inside. He searched the items scattered around the floor left over from the earlier 'tea party', but didn't spot the travel pouch. "Ain't that the damnedest thing," he muttered, flipping up the edge of the quilt to check underneath to see if it had been knocked under the bed. "Casper, you seen a small brown pouch?"

"The med kit?" Annika added a swirl from her pencil to the page.

Jack nodded. "Yes."

"Yep."

He waited for a tad more elaboration but Annika just kept doodling. "Care to share where it is?"

"Nope."

"Casper, this isn't a game," he gently scolded, taking the notebook from her so that he had her full attention. For a second he could see that she was tempted to snatch it back but she simply folded her arms across her chest sulkily. "Where's the med kit?"

She looked sullenly back. "Don't want a needle."

Jack mentally cursed his stupidity for mentioning the word 'shot' within hearing range of a 'child'. Realized that her expression was really more one of wariness and fear. "It will help you for a little while," adding silently, I hope. He did another scout around the small room, there were after all only so many places that Annika could have hidden the kit in the few seconds since the decision had been made. She hadn't moved from the bed so it had to be within arms reach of her. He began patting down the covers that had become rumpled during the course of the day.

Annika skittered back so she was pressed against the headboard. "Where's Daniel? Don't wanna play hide and seek no more...he wouldn't make me have a shot." She clutched the silken pillow with the face of Daniel drawn on it, to her.

There was no reason for her to shy away, Jack thought, especially since he wasn't 'armed' with the dreaded needle. "He would if he thought it would help you." Cautiously he approached, checking the surrounding pillows for signs of bumps that didn't belong. Damn, how many pillows did one bed need? He tossed the pillows aside, coming up naught. That only left Casper having it hidden on her person.

She cringed away even though there was nowhere for her to go. "Please, General Jack," she pleaded, as he tugged the last pillow from her arms, checked it and added it to the discarded pile. "Needles hurt and I'm already hurting so much."

Jack did his best to ignore the plea, not remembering it being this hard with Charlie. Although, he thought ruefully, he and Sara hadn't been dumb enough to mention anything even remotely to do with 'injections' until they were already in the doctor's exam room. He could visually see that the pouch wasn't stuffed up her shirt and the side pockets of her BDUs weren't bulged, so he slid his hand around to her lower back, despite her best efforts to keep herself pressed against the headboard.

"You don't want to hurt me any more do you, General Jack?"

The heartfelt desperate comment and not locating the kit that he felt sure had been tucked into her waistband, gave him pause. He drew back sending a questioning look to the others. "A little help?"

They knew what the dilemma was. Was that just a child's fear of injections talking? Or a premonition warning she'd have a reaction to the drug? Or was it Annika coming through, speaking of the emotional pain at the loss of her husband? A combination mix of all three?

"Annika, there's no needle." The scientist in Sam had her trying the process of elimination to figure out what was prompting Annika's rejection of having the injection. "It's an air pressure syringe. Do you know the difference?"

Annika spared the blonde a skeptical glance, which immediately darted back to Jack as he spied an irregularity between the mattress and the golden base and his hand dove between the two, coming out with the elusive med kit. "No needle?"

"Show her the syringe, Jack," Sam prompted needlessly, for the colonel was already reaching inside for the implement.

"No needle," he confirmed. He made sure that he didn't accidentally pull out an epi shot that was a traditional injection and twice the normal size. Hell, that thing made him cringe. He held the empty syringe out to Annika.

Cautiously she took it, carefully examining it for a hidden skewer of metal.

"Annika Jackson, can you not be brave for us?" Teal'c's baritone cajoled, deeply troubled. Out of all the juvenile behavior he had witnessed, this truly emphasized just how encompassing his teammate's regression was. He began to doubt that even the most potent of the drugs would be effective.

"It'll be just like a really fast puff of air against your skin," Jack added.

Her gaze shifted to Sam and Teal'c who were looking at her with encouragement, then back at the syringe then finally at Jack. Slowly she handed it back to him with a stiff nod.

Jack smiled at her then set about setting the required dosage from one of the yellow marked vials. Wished that Annika wasn't watching his every move like a hawk.

When the syringe was full, Annika cast another glance at the cell's entrance, then slid off the edge on the far side of the bed to the floor, hiding herself from view from her teammates. She was embarrassed by her fear, didn't want either of them to witness it anymore. But she couldn't help but tense as Jack crouched down beside her.

The colonel saw the fight of fear on her face and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Try to relax. It'll be over in a second." He brushed aside her hair and pressed the head of the syringe to her neck.

The sound of the pressure release was inordinately loud to all their ears and for a few seconds afterwards there was only silence as they waited with baited breath for the consequences.

Annika felt the drug race through her blood. The haze that had been clouding her mind cleared like a fog in the sunlight, bringing her back to the reality she knew. But with the lucidity came full awareness, and riding the crest of the wave was an agony, physical as much emotional, so strong it immobilized her. Had someone ripped out her heart? It certainly felt like it. The pounding of her head was miniscule by comparison to the barren hollow feeling in her chest.

Jack tentatively reached out to her, concerned by the rapid shaky gasps rasping from her throat. "Casper?"

Her body was contorted in pain, every nerve ending screaming. It was a knee jerk reaction to Jack's physical contact which inadvertently exacerbated the agony, that had her elbow jabbing the colonel in the gut to have him keep his distance at least until she could compose herself. "Just give me a...sec...Colonel," she hissed.

Jack was simultaneously worried out of his skull and relieved. Though said through clenched teeth, the sound of his true rank was music to his ears. The trembling that was almost convulsions and the instant cold sweat that had broken out over her skin spoke of an adverse reaction to the drug. His hand edged for one of the epi shots just in case her heart gave out. He could feel Carter and Teal'c's anxious gaze pinned to the pair of them, but his sight never left the redhead beside him.

It felt like hours but in truth was only a few seconds, for Annika to rein in the explosion of agony that was tearing through her. Eventually she managed to calm her breathing and was able to banish the pain somewhat so that she could at least focus her eyes. Leaning limply against the bed, she gave Jack weak grin. "Puff of air my ass. Those things sting like a bitch."

The quip coaxed a smile to the colonel's lips. "I take it you're you?"

Her eyes were a little glazed, but she nodded. "For now."

"Sure?"

"Want me to rattle off a few more curses to prove it?"

"Nope. Save it for Balls." His smile faltered a bit. "Have you been able to keep track of what's been going on?"

"Right now with this drug running through my veins, I remember with crystal clarity up until Anubis attacked me...after that some things are clear, others are kind of hazy." She gave him a tight smile. "I've been a bit of handful, haven't I?"

"More so for Balls than for me."

"Where's Daniel, Jack?" Violet eyes were scared of the answer he'd give.

"That's one of the hazy bits?" Jack evaded the question. Crap. Why couldn't that detail be one of the crystal clear ones? He really didn't want to be one to tell her that her husband was dead.

She nodded. When he reluctantly opened his mouth to tell her she held up her hand warding him off. "I know he's...gone." She swallowed the lump in her throat, fighting back the pain that was trying once more to break through. "Details I don't have...don't want...don't need..." Her hand dropped down, pressing to her stomach just below her ribcage. "I don't feel him here anymore." Anguish slipped through her barrier, slicing through her like a dull serrated knife and it took a few seconds before she was able to continue. "But I know he's out there, beyond this cell...somewhere, everywhere...and nowhere."

"Casper..."

"Use the weapon, Jack." Annika cut him off, desperately needing to change the subject before she completely lost control of her emotions. "If you can, if it'll work without all five of the prescribed users, then do it. If you think I'll be of any help once the drug wears off and I revert back to how I've been, then use me. Don't let Anubis win because you want to protect me."

He gave a single nod. "Okay." Jack paused. He didn't know how long the drug would last, but he figured they should make the most of it. If he could get his apology in now, then they would be that one step closer to being ready to use the weapon. Plus, more importantly, he wanted to make amends with his friend. His irrational words and actions had been a weight of guilt hanging over him, between them, and he needed to make the apology that he'd been trying to make all day. He cleared his throat. "You still mad?"

A short harsh laugh burst from her lips, as she pressed the palm of her hand against her forehead in an attempt to alleviate the constant pounding to her head that had become worse since the drug had taken affect. "You, Jack O'Neill, are the most infuriating SOB I've met. How in hell am I supposed to stay mad at you when you willingly got locked up in this rat trap just to help me?"

"So I'm out of the doghouse?" he quipped.

"Hell no!" Annika reciprocated the tone.

Both were using humor as a defense mechanism, both knew it.

Jack would have preferred to sort this out with his usual banter, knowing that Annika was normally up to the challenge of a battle of comedic quips laced with more serious meaning, but he knew they were on the clock with how long her lucidity would last. He jumped right in but worked backwards from his transgressions. "I'm sorry for saying I doubt your hocus pocus. I don't. When I said 'one was untrustworthy' I was referring to Anubis's databanks, it could have been disinformation." He took a breath. "And I don't doubt your interpretation of your visions...especially after trying to figure them out today," his hand flapped around the cell.

"Interpreting my visions is a tad complicated." She gave him a small smile. "Thank you for being so patient."

"Aw crap, Casper, don't thank me," Jack said gruffly. "I've been a right bastard."

"This morning you were a bastard," Annika confirmed. "In here you've been anything but. There are not many colonels I know who would play tea parties."

"That you remember?" He gave a teasing eye roll.

"It was a highlight," she replied lightly, then turned serious. "Why were you pissed at me?"

He sighed. "I found the photos you took in the futzed timeline."

There was no need to ask which ones. "Oh."

"I don't like surprises, Casper," he said quietly. "Not within our little group. I expect shocks from the snakeheads and work and life in general, just not from my team...my...family."

"I'm sorry I didn't give you a heads up about the photos." Annika paused then felt he deserved and needed an explanation. "But I didn't want to break the spell."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Spell?"

She nodded. "Those few hours we were happy. We managed to ignore the grief of their deaths and what was to come. All of us seized the moment and accepted the bonus hours for what they were. A miracle. If I had of asked everyone to pose for a photo, you all would have known why I was doing it, and the real world would have intruded. You would have looked like you do now." She cupped his cheek. "Grieving but trying to hide it. You have a constant shadow of heartache, probably always will, but during that time it was gone."

"Was it really?"

Another nod. "When you're ready to really look at the pictures you can see for yourself."

His hand reached up to cover hers that was still resting on his cheek and gave it a squeeze. "I'll let you know when."

They shared a warm smile, the uncertainty and troubled feelings dissipating.

Annika started to release his hand, but Jack held on.

"Just one more thing."

Her head tilted in question.

"When you and I were...er...sniping at each other, you said you were a fifth wheel. Is that how you really feel?"

Annika's head dipped and she again tried to pull away, and again Jack wouldn't let her. "It was said in the heat of the moment."

"Normally that's when the truth slips out," he pressed.

"Sometimes I do," she admitted reluctantly. "Especially since my abilities have been...um...reset to the beginning."

"Good, keep thinking like that."

"What?" Her eyes widened in shocked confusion.

"Funny thing about a fifth wheel," Jack held her gaze seriously. "Also called a spare. It’s the most handy thing to have in an emergency when you’ve got a flat. I wouldn’t travel anywhere without it."

Annika blinked at the analogy, a bubble of mirth erupting inside her as she 'translated' it. "That would have to be the most backhanded compliment I have ever received."

"Oh I’ve got a stack of them." He grinned back at her. "And you’re the newbie I get to deal them out to. The other’s have already heard my repertoire." He held out his hand. "Truce?"

She shook her head and his smile dropped for a second until he registered the warm smile on her face.

"Friends." Annika clasped his hand in hers. She could feel the drug wearing off, felt the tendrils of lucidity slipping, being replaced with the malevolent talons of the presence in her mind clawing back. Gave his hand a final squeeze. "I...I can't hold it back anymore...General Jack." She in fact welcomed it back, because in her regressed state she couldn't focus long enough on the pain ripping through her heart to think that Daniel was dead, didn't have to deal with the pain.

Jack stifled a sigh as Annika picked up the notebook again and began drawing as though the last few minutes hadn't happened. Waited just long enough to determine that she was simply doodling rather than having any hocus pocus come through, before getting to his feet and walked back to the cell entrance.

"Do you believe the weapon will work without Daniel Jackson's presence?" Teal'c asked of both the colonel and major.

The military pair exchanged glances, however it was Jack who answered. "No, probably not. That would be too easy."

"Sir, what do we do if Daniel doesn't show?"

"He'll be here, Carter." Jack figured that being confident something would be so was half the battle. "He's just waiting for us to say a bunch of nice things about him. Next thing you know, he'll come waltzing down that corridor. Like, right now."

He gestured to the golden hall. Both Sam and Teal'c raised a skeptical yet hopeful eyebrow as they turned to follow Jack's hand.

"Waltzing." Jack was still confident. "Now."

Three hearts pounded when a figure appeared around the corner, until they realized it was merely a Jaffa.

"Sneaking?" The colonel gave up on bravado. "I'll settle for floating."

The only movement from outside the cell was the Jaffa's quizzical head tilt as the three members of SG-1 continued to look down the corridor at him.

"It was worth a shot," Jack shrugged then continued stubbornly. "He'll be here. When he's a glowy jellyfish he knows when we need him."

The nods Sam and Teal'c gave had as much confidence as they could muster, though their gaze flickered to the redhead still sitting on the floor. None of them voiced what they were all thinking. Annika had been insisting she 'needed' Daniel since she first woke up. If Daniel was aware of his wife's plight, and there was no reason to think that he wasn't, why hadn't he appeared already as he had when he helped Jack and Teal'c?

Daniel had listened to Auberrat's alternative and eventually gave a slow nod. "And you'd be willing to do that?"

The Ascended being nodded.

"Won't that be going against your power of five rule?"

"This device has its own set of rules."

An exception to the exception, Daniel thought wryly. "So what now?"

"To begin with, you'll need to be updated on what's been going on in your realm." Oma moved to the radio sitting against the wall on the work counter, and adjusted the tuning knob. The music that had been playing softly in the background switched to what sounded like news reports.

After the third 'news reader' Daniel realized he was listening to what was happening in the different planes of existence. "Anubis doesn't have access to that, does he?" Daniel was pretty sure that Anubis didn't, otherwise there would have been no point in Oma's secretive napkin message nor the 'Missing' article in 'The Ascended Times'. However with the Ascended it was always a good idea to confirm these things.

Oma shook her head. "Anubis is only partly Ascended. The radio is merely how your mind comprehends how we," she gestured to herself, Auberrat and Skaara, "access information. Anubis doesn't have all of our abilities, but what he does have equals that of any Ascended being." She turned the dial a little more, locating the direct frequency of the Milky Way Galaxy. "There we go. Here, listen."

He was silent as a woman who sounded suspiciously like Barbara Walters, gave a detailed bulletin of what had been happening with his team on Ba'al's ship. It ended with a live feed of them unraveling the true meaning of the list. A self-derisive sigh huffed from his lips and under his breath he muttered, "The answer was so obvious. How could we have missed that for so long?" He listened intently, savoring the sound of Jack, Sam and Teal'c. Annika's childlike voice however, made his heart ache. "Is my wife's condition permanent?"

"Possibly," Oma replied solemnly. "Anubis was merciless in his attack. We can tell you how to physically fix the damage he has done, but the mind is a fragile thing, the mental trauma may be too great for her to fully recover."

"But she was her old self just now with Jack." He clung to that, needing to hang on to the hope.

Her expression was sympathetic. "A drug induced fleeting moment."

"If this weapon has its own set of rules that transcend your Ascended laws. Why did you wait so long?" he asked hoarsely. "Let it get so far? You could have stepped in sooner."

"Daniel, we did step in," Oma said quietly. "Just not in the way you would like."

He tilted his head in confusion. "How?"

"Events had to be timed precisely," Auberrat answered. "There are only small windows of opportunity when this could be done...we could not let you and your people decipher the weapon too soon...we had to wait until the 'cosmos' were in a particular alignment where the device's usage would only affect one plane of existence."

"Let me get this straight," Daniel said slowly. "For weeks we've been at a standstill and the reason for this is because you've been hampering us?"

They nodded.

Daniel was beyond caring about the manipulation. At this point nothing was surprising him anymore, though he did have a catty thought. In the last month they had discovered they had been manipulated by two of the Great Races, the Nox and now the Ancients, both of whom took 'non-interference' to the extreme. He wondered if the Asgard were going to drop a similar bombshell. "Well, believe it or not, that's actually a relief to hear."

"It is?" Oma quirked an eyebrow.

He gave a slightly bitter laugh. "At least I can tell Sam that we're not the idiots we were beginning to think we were."

"Daniel, killing an Ascended being isn't the same as killing a mortal," Auberrat said solemnly. "There are repercussions. It's why we had to time this so precisely."

"But wasn't that what the weapon was designed to do?" he asked confused.

"So you're saying we shouldn't use the weapon?"

"That is your decision. But you should know the consequences. Killing Anubis may be beneficial for your plane but not necessarily for anyone else's."

"Surely you've had people die, or have the equivalent of dying."

"Besides from the when the weapon was last used, no."

"But you've had people leave. People like me who Descended or moved beyond to the other planes..."

"All choices made by their own free will, not by force."

Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose in weary thought. Dammit, why did Auberrat have to go and mention that? He'd been all set to use the weapon to save his galaxy, just to be told that doing so could possibly decimate a different galaxy, one that truly was full of pure hearted souls. There had to be a way, there just had to be. His mind started to rehash everything he had learned today, about Anubis, about the Ascended and the Ancient device. A smidgen of an idea began to form.

The idea grew and he hesitantly put it forth to the Ascended beings who admitted that while it probably wouldn't stop all the repercussions, it could reduce them significantly. It wasn't exactly the firm assurance he was hoping for, but he realized that he wasn't going to get anything more. Not because they were being their typical evasive selves, rather they honestly didn't have the answer. Daniel drew in a breath to prepare himself. "Okay, then let's do this."

Auberrat held up his hand, stopping him. He tilted his head as though he was listening for something. "The timing still is not right."

"I'm not waiting until Anubis has taken Dakara," Daniel warned.

"Just a few minutes," the being promised.

Daniel didn't try to press the issue anymore, instead he began to pace, impatience oozing with every step.

"Dan’yel," Skaara fell into step with his brother-in-law. As interesting as this day had been, he was here for more than simple observation. "While you wait, may I be speaking with you?"

"Sure, I've got nothing but time on my hands," Daniel grouched, then instantly gave Skaara an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, this situation is not your fault, I shouldn't be taking my irritation at Them out on you."

The easy going smile that had been seen so often from the young man while he was alive once again graced his lips. "There is nothing to forgive, brother." His voice lowered. "Not now and not for before."

"Before?" Daniel asked. His bemusement wasn't exactly real. He knew instantly to what Skaara was referring to, though he had been doing an admirable job of ignoring his guilt for over a year.

Skaara's expression turned to one of brief chastisement at Daniel's pretend confusion. "The burden of guilt you carry for what happened on Abydos does not belong to you. Anubis is the one who broke his vow." His hand reached out to give the taller man's shoulder a comforting squeeze. "We know you wouldn't have let Anubis unleash his weapon if you could help it."

The breath Daniel drew in was a little shaky, as was his voice. "But I gave my word that you'd be okay."

"And we are," Skaara assured. "Our lives may be very different to the ones we lived, but here we have found peace. We no longer live in fear that the Goa'uld may enslave us, and," his grin turned mischievous, "we no longer have the desert sand chafing us where no man should be chafed."

Daniel gave a weak smile at the joke, closing his own hand over Skaara's on his shoulder. "Thank you, Skaara." The guilt that he had been carrying around since that day the Abydonians had been annihilated, had become such a normal part of his psyche that it felt strange to single it out. But despite Skaara's attempt to alleviate it, he knew it would never go away. In fact he didn't want it to. It acted as a reminder. Reminded him that he had vowed to do whatever it took to ensure that such an atrocity never happened again, not if he had the power to stop it. He turned his attention to Oma and Auberrat, his expression full of solid determination. "Ready or not, I'm not waiting any longer."