Ba'al's gaze swept the room. Teal'c was intently studying two holographic displays, one of the instruction manual, the other of the algorithms that were being run against the manual trying to identify any encryptions. Carter was crouched by the weapon base, examining a small open hatch. They were speaking quietly, but his acute hearing picked up their conversation.

"This is more disheartening than working with the SGC computers." Sam didn't look up at the soft beep of the algorithm display that indicated yet another decryption code had failed. "Ba'al has triple the amount of decryption codes, Goa'uld or otherwise, and it's still coming up with nothing."

"We will be successful," Teal'c said firmly, though whether he was trying to convince himself or Sam was anybody's guess. "Eventually."

"But will it be before Dakara falls?" Sam worried. "If Anubis gets his hands on that weapon..." She cut off as Ba'al approached.

"Your progress?"

Sam gestured to the opening. "Managed to access the void that was showing up on our scans. It appears to be a containment vessel. It has its own miniature shield."

"For what purpose?"

Teal'c answered. "When Major Carter accessed the void, a new chapter appeared in the manual. It speaks of optional specification."

Sam shut the panel. "We think it will act as a safety valve, narrowing the target field."

"That's all you have come up with?"

The major scowled at the Goa'uld's tone. "There are over five hundred pages of text to go through not counting this new chapter. And your decryption codes so far aren't any more useful than ours. If you've got any bright ideas, then please share them."

"Are you here for something specific?" Teal'c asked.

"Anubis made a curious reference, implying that My Beloved was no longer of consequence with the 'Dedicated being separated'."

"That is curious." Sam's frown turned to one of confusion and she raised an eyebrow at Teal'c for any suggestions. "Why would that matter?"

The Jaffa was equally perplexed. "The Dedicated task is complete. Separation at this juncture should be immaterial to the weapon's usage."

"Did we miss something?" Sam mused, coming to stand by her teammate, her fingers already reaching for the mini console of the manual.

"The term Dedicated is first mentioned on page one-five-three," Teal'c supplied helpfully.

Ba'al wore a frown of his own, more at the Tau'ri's reaction than at the 'mystery' terminology. He'd thought he was delivering a new key piece of information, for none of them had previously mentioned 'the Dedicated'. Yet obviously they were familiar with it. Anger rose within him that they had kept this knowledge from him. "You know who or what these 'Dedicated' are?"

Teal'c answered, though his full attention was on the holo display. "SG-1."

"You have known all this time that you are the Dedicated?"

"Yes, for whatever good it does us." Sam skipped ahead a few pages.

"Explain."

Both Sam and Teal'c glanced up at the angry dual tone, almost like they had forgotten he was there.

"If you have known you five are the ones to use the weapon, why have you not used it?"

"For starters we don't just activate a device willy nilly without knowing what it will do." Sam grimaced. "Well, not intentionally anyway. Plus the manual refers to two distinct groups. The Dedicated are the ones assigned to finding and assembling the weapon. The Chosen are the ones to use it. The manual is very specific about that."

"You must be interpreting it incorrectly," Ba'al decreed. "All the components have been found and assembled. Anubis knows this. If the Dedicated task is complete then he would not be so anxious to have them...you, kept apart."

"That was a direct quote from the manual." Sam let her frustration show, both at the Goa'uld double guessing her and that Ba'al had a point. She brought up the page she was speaking of. "Look for yourself."

Ba'al scanned the text that Sam was pointing to but wouldn't admit out loud that she was correct, even if silently he agreed that there was little room for misinterpretation.

"Clearly Anubis knows something we do not." Teal'c tried to restore a modicum of peace.

Sam sighed, reining in her temper. "Well, he does have the knowledge of the Ascended, he doesn't need the manual."

"How certain is Anubis that we are separated?" Teal'c turned to the Goa'uld.

"Confident. It was said with more than his usual arrogance and yet he was still seeking possession of My Beloved."

It took forcible strength of will for Sam not to snap at Ba'al for the continual reference to Annika as his consort. She knew he was only doing it to get a rise out of them. A sudden thought nagged at her. "Do you think Anubis knows Daniel has Ascended?" She cursed herself for the wobble in her voice.

"It is possible he does not." Teal'c made sure he only focused on the question and not that his friend was dead. "When Oma Desala helped the Abydonians Ascend, Daniel Jackson was not aware of her presence." Troubled eyes locked on the major's as he realized where her thoughts were leading. "If he believes all of SG-1 to be alive, and he can no longer use his abilities to reach Annika Jackson, he may attempt to incapacitate one or all of the rest of us."

"You are safe here." Ba'al waved his hand dismissively. "Anubis does not suspect you are on my ship."

Sam rolled her eyes. Trust Ba'al to think they were only thinking of their own skins. "Which only means he'd go to where he thinks we are."

"The Alpha site or Earth," Teal'c concluded. "We must warn General Hammond that another attack may be imminent."

Ba'al hesitated. Sending a message risked Anubis pinpointing their location again. He did not care one way or the other if the Tau'ri home world was attacked. Although as he thought ahead to the aftermath, such an attack would in fact be to his benefit. If Anubis committed the first strike, well, technically it would be the second strike, it would weaken the Tau'ri defenses without cost to Ba'al's own men. Once Anubis was defeated it would be easier for him to move in on Earth and claim it for himself. However, Anubis needed to be destroyed first before that lovely scenario could take place. He took in the sudden tenseness of the shol'va and major, how deciphering the weapon had been forgotten at the mere possibility of their world coming under attack. That would never do, he needed them focused on the task at hand. "I will convey the warning to your general."

The Goa'uld ignored the surprised expressions on his 'guests' faces. He started to stride from the room when another thought intruded. If Anubis did discover a way to get beyond his shields and discovered he was harboring SG-1 on his ship... He beckoned his First Prime to him. "Until the weapon has been used and Anubis destroyed, the Jaffa will extend their defensive duties to include SG-1 as though they were me."

"My Lord?" The warrior was startled by the order.

"You will defend them with your life. If one of them should die, the Jaffa who failed will follow suit, along with the Jaffa on either side of him."

The First Prime paused for a fraction of a second at his god's demand that totally contradicted their directive of the last few years. "As you command, My Lord. I shall inform the rest of the Jaffa."

Ba'al gave a curt nod then continued his way to the bridge.

Sam did a better job of hiding her shock than the rest of the Jaffa stationed around the room. She gave Teal'c an uneasy smile as almost immediately extra troops began to file in. Being surrounded by Jaffa for their protection was too much like being their prisoner. Quietly she murmured, "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

"Indeed." Teal'c warily kept an eye on the warriors. "It is a strange turn of events where our enemy is now also our protector."

Sam looked sharply at her teammate. Both enemy and protector...Her fingers flew over the console bringing up the list of requisites for the Chosen, her mind simultaneously cheering at the revelation that had just hit her and cursing at how stupid she had been. They'd been looking for a complicated encryption and all along it had been so simple!

Teal'c saw the gleam in Sam's eye. "What have you realized, Major Carter?"

She grabbed the manual and almost ran from the room. "Come on, I'll explain on the way."

Teal'c was barely a step behind her, knowing precisely where Sam was headed. He listened intently to her epiphany, the metal sound of Jaffa boots as their protective detail followed them was irritating background noise.

"Casper, do you remember this morning?" Once Ba'al had left, Annika had almost instantly come out from hiding behind him. She had flopped down on the bed and began drawing once again, as though the last few emotionally tense minutes hadn't happened.

"What happened?" she asked, blinking blankly at him.

Jack felt a stab of disappointment. He supposed it had been too much to ask for, but he answered anyway. "We were at the abandoned shipyard."

"That's where you was mad at me."

"Yeah, let's just skip over that for now. Do you remember the music you were hearing?"

"Nuh uh." Annika noticed he looked a bit sad by her answer. She really wanted to help. Wondered if mentioning a different song would make him smile. "But I remember the other song."

"What other song?"

"From the planet we went to after, where all the guns and fighting was."

"You heard another song at the Alpha site?"

She nodded. "It was a funny one, but then it got really, really loud and it hurt my ears, and it wasn't very funny anymore."

"What song was it? Can you sing it for me?"

Another nod and then she took a deep breath. "Well I saw the thing comin' out of the sky. It had the one long horn, one big eye. I commenced to shakin' and I said ‘ooh-eee, It looks like a purple eater to me’ ...It was a one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' purple people eater. One-eyed, one-horned flyin' purple people eater..."

Jack listened intently to the classic song that was almost as old as he was, waiting for any change in the lyrics. It had been many moons since he'd heard it, but he didn't pick up any alterations like there had been in the nursery rhymes. Could it be that Anubis had randomly plucked a tune from Annika's head to use as a launching pad for his method of attack? The idea didn't gel with him. As far as he knew, there wasn't anything random about her hocus pocus; usually there was a specific clue in what she was shown. Unfortunately, Casper was the one who did the interpreting, or at least put it in a frame of reference everyone else could understand to analyze. His gut was telling him he was on the right track with this line of thought but had taken a wrong turn. Something to do with interpretation...

Annika was still singing the comical song though she had shifted position on the bed. Her head was hanging off the edge and she was looking at him upside down. Her new outlook on the room distracted her from the song and a giggle escaped. "Looks like the whole world is topsy turvy."

The comment caused Jack to look sharply at her. Looks like... How many times had Annika used that as an opening to start a description of her visions? Looks like, seems like, I'd call it a 'whatever' except... Annika used association from her own experiences for anything her visions showed that she didn't instantly recognize. "Casper, does that song mean anything to you?"

"It's fun."

"Nothing else?"

"Like what?"

"Oh, I don't know. Is it special?" he prompted. "When I hear that song I think of my third grade teacher, who I secretly thought was a Purple People Eater in disguise."

"Was she?" she asked curiously, her eyes lighting up at the idea.

"It was never confirmed," Jack grinned. "What do you think of when you hear it?"

Her brow creased in thought. "My daddy."

"Why your dad?"

"'Cause it was on the radio," she answered as though it was obvious.

Oy, this could take a while, Jack thought. "When?"

"When we was on vacation."

"Was there something special or different about that vacation?"

She shrugged. "I was grumpy, 'cause Daddy had to spend a lot of time with Mr Conroy and Mrs Tuppy and everyone else. He promised to take me swimming but they kept him too busy."

"Who are they?"

"Daddy's boss and the other folks he worked with."

Jack wasn't making the connection between a business holiday and their current situation but he was certain there had to be something. Maybe it wasn't the event itself, but her 'grumpy' feelings. Although why the feelings of a little girl twenty odd years ago mattered, he hadn't a clue. "Were you grumpy at him the entire time?"

"Nope. Mommy ‘splained that while Daddy was always my Daddy, sometimes he had other jobs to do. That when he was working he became a manager and an em-ploy-ee," she sounded the word out. "She took me down to the con'fence room where Daddy was and we peeked inside. Daddy was speaking on a little stage and everyone else was listening very quietly, like they was in school. They was looking at him like he was my school principal not my daddy. Then Daddy finished his speech and he took me swimming and I was happy."

The gears in Jack's head were turning and he absently asked, "So where does the Purple People Eater song come in to the story?"

"It was playing in the cafe next door."

He blinked at the redhead. The song had been a simple memory trigger, that had Annika been in her normal mind state, would have understood straight away. Another thought intruded. If this memory had been 'downloading' to Casper's mind at the moment Anubis attacked her, was it possible that she was stuck in that memory? "Casper, how old were you when this happened?"

"I was a big girl, I was five and three quarters." She gave him a bright smile. "Did that help?" She looked innocently at him for approval.

"Big help, Casper." Jack was on his feet, striding to the front of the cell. "Hey, tin can! Get Carter up here. We just figured out a piece of the puzzle!"

When the bell tinkled, once again announcing the arrival of Jim, no one openly paid any attention to him.

Daniel silently grumbled the question, why the hell does he keep using the door? Why not blink in an out like any other Ascended being? Although, as he studied the rooms occupants it occurred to him that he hadn't seen any of the Others leave and go about whatever their business was. What was so damned interesting about a mortal having to make a decision? Another thing he couldn't help but notice, the air seemed to tingle with... What was that? Well, color me happy, that couldn't be anticipation, could it? Under the guise of wiping down a table, he saw Oma sidle towards him, wary, almost protective.

"Can I get a coffee?" Jim asked brightly.

"Get it yourself," Oma snapped.

"Don't mind if I do." He headed behind the counter with a light spring in his step as though a few minutes ago he hadn't been tossed out. "Ooh, hey, Danny-boy, you see the paper?" he asked conversationally, reaching for the coffeepot.

"No, what's it say?" Daniel frowned, folding his edition of the paper and tucking it in his back pocket. There was a vindictiveness to the man's joviality.

"Ba'al's Jaffa on Dakara are weakening, being slaughtered by Anubis's Kulls despite the reinforcements he sent. It's only a matter of time before old Anubis gets his hands on the weapon."

"I'm sorry, you sound almost happy about that."

"Who me?" he asked innocently.

"Yeah." Daniel swiveled around in his seat, giving Jim his full attention. "What do you have against Oma?"

"Daniel…" The warning in Oma's tone was clear.

Daniel ignored it, especially when the tension in the air seemed to expand a notch. "No, I want to know. I mean, you're not just watching, you're coming in here to rub it in. Why are you taking such pleasure in her punishment?"

"Me? I don't have anything against Oma." His smile was malicious. "I think she's great, don't I?"

Oma, looking decidedly unhappy, angry and resigned all at the same time, didn't answer.

"Hell, she's the one who helped me Ascend."

Recognition hit Daniel. A shiver of shock and horror descended over him as Jim's grin grew wider and wider, contorting his face into a mask of pure evil.

Jim pointed at him like he'd hit the jackpot. "You got it now."

"You are Anubis." He could barely choke out the words.

A maniacal laugh erupted from 'Jim's' lips, his eyes alight with glee. He raised his mug to him in mock salute. "Cheers!"

Daniel went cold all over, like he'd been dropped in an icy lake, the laughter a chainsaw in his head. He barely registered the half-Ascended being strut out from behind the counter, smirking at Oma.

"Oh, you make a great cup of coffee. Well, gotta go." He gave a finger waggle farewell. "You know how it is, planets to conquer, weapons to use...seers to play with."

It was the final mocking comment that snapped Daniel from his shock. Overcome by rage, he wasn't aware of launching himself across the room at Anubis, his only thought was to stop him from leaving, to keep him from the mortal plane, from his friends, from his wife! When he staggered right through the being's body, his mind registered he was powerless in his current form, but his heart refused to listen. He had to stop him! He spun around, intending to try again. He couldn't give up, there had to be a way!

Anubis smirked at him with cocky confidence. "There's nothing you can do. You don't have the power."

"There's always a way," Daniel snarled, ready to throw himself again at his enemy, no matter how ineffectual the act may be. Suddenly something hot and wet hit him in the chest, pulling him up short. He hardly comprehended the coffee staining his shirt, his sole focus was on Anubis, but he found himself literally pinned to the spot, the brown liquid acting like a physical grip holding him back. "No! Don't do this!" he yelled. He was pretty sure the restraining 'coffee' force had come from Oma, but knew the Others had allowed her to do it. He tried to take a swipe at Anubis only to find his arms moved less than an inch. "Why stop me and not him?!"

Anubis gave an arrogant chuckle, mockingly stepping around the restrained archaeologist and headed for the exit. "Them's the rules, Danny. Them's the rules."

Daniel managed to twist his head to watch his nemesis stroll out. "What's wrong with you people?" he bellowed. "How can you just let this happen?"

"Daniel, why don't you come round the back to clean up?"

He gaped in disbelief at Oma's calm request. "Are you out of your fucking mind?"

"That's all in the eye of the beholder." Her hand closed around his bicep like a vice. "Come to the kitchen, Daniel. Now."

Whatever invisible force that had been holding him was gone so quickly he stumbled. Oma used the momentum to push him through the flapping door to the kitchen.