Jack was mad at himself. He had let the situation completely out of his hands, and hadn't managed to get in control again. Instead, he had left Daniel to face, well, whatever it was, and then, when it was over with, he had been unable to face Daniel like he should've.
Of course, Jack had asked Daniel if he was all right, and, of course, he had said yes. He had looked mostly all right too, uninjured and in one piece, albeit a bit pale and apparently exhausted. That wasn't the thing that Jack was worried about. Instead, it was the blank look on Daniel's face, the way he kept a clear distance to everyone, and the fact that his explanation of what had happened had been very vague, and unbelievable at best. So, Jack made getting back to the SGC the first priority. It was so easy to believe that Janet would figure this out. She would know what to do.
Jack kept a close eye on Daniel – as did the rest of SG-1 – as they worked on the Jaffa situation. There was no change of any sort, and nothing alarming. Still, Jack was really glad when they were ready, and finally walked up the stone pedestal, into the cool blue event horizon of the stargate.
Somehow, Daniel wasn't so anxious to get back home. On the other hand, he didn't really feel anxious about anything right now. When they had first stepped through the gate to Krynn and met with the locals, it had been the excitement of exploration that had driven him forward, as always when they visited a new world. Then, later on, even when he should have been very tired, the thought of Sha're – Takhisis's plot – had kept him going. When he had finally seen through that, he had had to struggle to keep himself and his friends alive. Now, it felt as if there was nothing left, no force to push him on. Still, he kept telling himself, home was always home. Earth. Back through the gate.
The sight of the gate room was soothing, even with the military personnel that had their guns trained on SG-1, and only lowered them at Hammond's command. The General was standing at the farther end of the room, with Doctor Janet Fraiser next to him. Both were wearing hesitant smiles: so far it seemed that all of SG-1 had made it back unharmed.
Daniel had hardly stepped to the familiar metal ramp, when he realized that something was very, very wrong. He felt so dizzy that he could hardly step straight, and the room was melting into a twirling haze. He was sweating and shivering at the same time, and the air felt too thick to breathe, no matter how hard he tried. And through everything else, he could feel a faint tingling on his back, right where the draconian's claws had struck.
He didn't understand what was happening, he couldn't even remember where he was anymore. Suddenly he was falling, and Jack was there, a face just slightly clearer than the surrounding fog, looming in front of him. Jack. Jack had been worried that he was sick, had tried to make him listen but he hadn't listened. Jack had been right.
"Daniel? What's wrong?" Jack asked, holding his friend by the shoulders.
Daniel stared at him with glazed eyes full of confusion, breathing in shallow gasps. "I'm sorry, Jack," he muttered weakly, closed his eyes and went completely limp, slipping from Jack's grip.
Jack reached to catch him again, to keep him from hitting the ramp, but Teal'c was there first – he had stepped out of the gate right behind Daniel. Carter was there as well, kneeling next to him and calling for a medic, although she must've noticed that Doc Fraiser was on her way already.
Afraid of wasting even a few seconds waiting for Fraiser, Jack placed his fingers on his friend's neck. First, he could feel nothing aside from the damp, cool skin. He sighed out of relief as he found a pulse – and then winced, since it was way too fast and shallow. He looked up to offer an encouraging nod to Carter, but the grave look on her face stopped him.
"He's not breathing," Carter uttered, loud enough that Fraiser could hear it as well.
Then the Doc was there, gently pushing Jack and Carter out of the way and guiding Teal'c to help her staff place Daniel on a stretcher.
One of the medics instantly confirmed Carter's words. "He's not breathing, but airway's fine."
"Bag him," Fraiser ordered urgently.
Other commands, numbers and pieces of information came in a steady flow from the perfectly cooperating medical team. Jack listened to them with growing concern, although he hardly understood half of the exchanged words. BP's 80 over 60, pulse 144, no visible trauma. As they turned him around to check for injuries, Fraiser raised her eyebrows at the claw marks tearing through Daniel's jacket, and the perfectly smooth, unharmed skin beneath.
They were already on their way out of the room when the Doc stopped to gesture that Jack should follow. He was amazed. After all, she was usually strict on keeping people out of her way when lives were at risk.
"I'll need you to explain exactly what happened," Fraiser told Jack in a commanding tone.
Why me, he thought for a passing second, before he remembered that Teal'c and Sam had been back at the SGC for quite a while, and missed a lot of what had happened. Although it was not like Jack had any explanation for Daniel's condition either.
Nevertheless, Jack ran along with the medical team, trying to speak to Fraiser as quickly and coherently as possible. "It's not like I'm going to be able to help you a lot… I have no idea what's wrong with him… He was on his feet just a moment ago, and has been for the best of the last few days …"
"What about those cuts on his clothes? Something that didn't quite hit him?" she asked.
"He got clawed by a lizard-man-alien not long after we arrived there… Looked pretty bad for a moment, infected and feverish… Then there was this woman with an alien healing device who fixed it – she thought he should be OK after that… But then he ran after this goa'uld we thought to be Sha're, but it wasn't… It was another goa'uld lady and then there was this huge dark alien thing – and then somewhere along the trip, Daniel became a mage…"
Sooner than Jack had expected, they reached the infirmary. He absently noticed that his throat was getting sore. After all, he had been babbling all the way from the gate room just like that little pointy-eared alien, Tassel-something. Tas. Daniel would remember the name…
The scene playing out before his eyes was just as busy and no less shocking than every other time when a member of his team had been brought in here in a hurry. Still, something was missing. They had still found no injury, nor any explanation to Daniel's condition, so there was no blood, no bandaging, no suturing, no preparing for emergency surgery. Just a massive array of tests of all sorts, and continuous requests for even more.
Jack sat down on one of those highly uncomfortable plastic chairs and closed his eyes. How long was it since he had last had any sleep? Last night he had been guarding over Daniel, the night before that, he had been planning things with Tanis and Sturm – so it had been prior to this damned mission, when he had never even heard of Krynn – how long ago had that been? Ages and ages. He wasn't able to figure it out before his head drooped and he fell asleep.
Jack woke up to find himself lying in an infirmary bed, with an IV stuck to his arm, and without any memory of how he had gotten there. He was quite certain that he had not been injured lately, but someone else had… Daniel!
Jack jumped up from the bed and drew the IV out, and was about to start runnin, when he nearly crashed into Carter.
"Good morning, colonel," she greeted casually. "I was wondering when you'd wake up. Janet sends her apologies for being a bit over-protective of you, but when you just fell asleep like that, for a moment, before they knew what was wrong with Daniel, they thought that you had caught the same thing. You had that cut across your chest too, and Teal'c and I had no explanation for it."
Jack quickly swallowed a remark of how he found it perfectly normal to take a nap after some three days without any sleep at all. The truth was that he was just angry with himself for having dosed off like that. "Before they knew what was wrong, you say, so they know now? What was wrong with him? He's going to be OK, isn't he?"
"I guess you'd better ask Janet, but apparently, he's suffering from septic shock that was probably caused by the cuts from the draconian attack."
"So the alien healing thing wasn't as good as it seemed – damn! I knew it! I only wish I could've done something about it," he grumbled, and quickly motioned for Carter to lead the way, since he actually had no idea where they were keeping Daniel, and he was nowhere in sight.
"For a short while, we were worried that he had caught some contagious disease native to that planet, so we put him in isolation," Fraiser explained as soon as Jack and Carter got to the room.
Jack couldn't help thinking in horrible clichés: how Daniel was paler than the sheets about him, and how small and lost he looked among all the medical equipment. His face was half covered by the ventilator tubing and tape, and his eyes were closed. He was still as dead.
Hardly thinking what he was doing, Jack reached to hold his friend's hand. "His hand's cold," he uttered, surprised. "I thought septic shock causes fever?"
Fraiser nodded in reply, looking very grave. "It does, initially, and it's usually noticed by then. However, Daniel's condition is a later stage, sometimes known as cold shock."
"But it's nothing alien, right? You know what it is and you can help him, can't you?" Jack asked, although something in Fraiser's face and her voice had already given him the answer.
"To begin with, his situation is unlike anything I have seen before, since the initial injury was healed in an alien fashion – we have no way of knowing what that did or did not do to him. Nevertheless, it seems quite clear that those wounds were infected badly enough to cause sepsis. His condition must have deteriorated continuously as he just went on, although he inexplicably did not feel sick, and apparently didn't look that bad either. Now, in addition to the septic shock that's already bordering on multiple organ failure, he suffers from exhaustion and dehydration. We're doing our best, but he's not responding to the treatment very well," Fraiser explained.
Jack glanced at Carter, who looked shocked, although she must have heard this already. He raised his eyebrows at Fraiser, urging her to tell what he knew had to be coming.
"I won't say that he's not going to make it. He's not dead yet, and it's possible that he'll survive. Still, unless there is some unexpected turn to the better, the odds aren't very good. I would say there's a 70 to 80 percent chance that he'll never wake up again."
Jack nodded, and closed his other hand over Daniel's, as if trying to warm it between his hands. "Where are all those miracle-working alien mages and healers when we need them," he mumbled, while in his mind, he only blamed himself. He should've done more and better, he should've helped Daniel before the situation got this bad. Yet he had no idea of how he could've stopped Daniel.
Unstoppable Daniel. Daniel casting magic spells to ensnare his friends, and spells strong enough to kill jaffa. The idea was like a distant dream, even though it had only been yesterday.
Daniel was back among the clouds, back in the dream he had had on Krynn.
The same dream, but not quite. The clouds were less solid, more like a grayish mist, and there were no stars in the dark sky. The shabby, gray-cloaked wizard in front of him looked slightly transparent, unreal, and he had lost his pointed hat.
"Fizban the Fabulous," Daniel greeted the wizard. "I thought you would not bother talking to me if I was dead. This time, I know I'm not asleep, and the way I felt when we got back to Earth really makes me think that if I'm not dead, I'm not far from it either."
"I know this, and I am truly sorry, especially as it is mostly my fault," Fizban replied sadly.
"Actually, I thought it's mostly my fault," Daniel uttered. "I guess I didn't quite do what you expected me to."
"No, do not blame yourself! It was I who underestimated my sister, I should have known how resourceful she is, and how twisted. Still, in the end, the situation was solved."
So, Takhisis-the-evil-goddess and Fizban-the-good-god were sister and brother, Daniel noted to himself. Somehow it did not surprise him, but he kept the thought to himself. Instead, he asked the question that had been troubling him ever since it happened. "What really happened in the end, then? It was you, wasn't it? I had nearly given up, when suddenly, without knowing what I did, I did – something. I still don't know what it was."
"It was a powerful spell, but not one like the mages cast. It was the sort of spell that gods may grant to very loyal, holy priests. And yes, I gave it to you. It was such a spell that it only harmed evil beings, so you need not worry for the goa'uld. As for the real Takhisis, she was not harmed. Soon, she will gather her dignity and rise again, glad that she's finally got rid of the impostor."
"Just wait a moment," Daniel said, raising a finger. "Very loyal, holy priests? I'm hardly one of those. That's another thing that really puzzles me. Why did you choose me, out of all the possible beings on the planet?"
"First of all, I did not wish to choose anyone of Krynn. As you may have heard, we gods left the people during the Cataclysm, and although the time of our return draws near, it is not quite yet. I did not wish to reveal myself, and perhaps accidentally make a prophet out of someone. Also, I could not have chosen anyone of Krynn had I wanted to, because they already live in a world filled with magic, and they either have the talent, or not. Suddenly giving such a power to any of them might have had devastating effects. As for why I chose you out of the four team-members, that was quite simple. When the draconians forced you to split, I only had two to choose from, you and Jack O'Neill. You were sick and feverish, which made you the easier target. I also thought that I would be helping you, but in that, I made a mistake. And aside from all this, your mind is more open, more ready to accept such an amazing gift."
Daniel nodded. If that was not an extensive explanation, then he did not know what was, although he was not sure which of the reasons he believed.
They stood silently for a while. Daniel noticed that the surroundings looked even more faded now, and when he looked at Fizban, he could see straight through him. Fizban was frowning.
"I cannot stay much longer. I am too far from my world, and you are too far from your body. There is only one more thing left that I must take care of. You see, as I said, I made a mistake when I thought I would be able to help you. Instead of making you any better, one could say that I set a fire in you, the fire of magic, that both drove you on and consumed you, and was so strong that it drowned everything else. When Goldmoon tried to use the crystal staff to heal you, there was a kind of a misunderstanding. You see, the power of that staff comes from my companion, Mishakal, and she did not wish to disturb what I had done. That is why you were not entirely healed," he fell silent again, perhaps waiting for questions, but Daniel had none.
"And now, again, I wish to help you, and so does Mishakal, and she is a goddess of healing. Although Earth is not our world, and it is far away, we should still be able to do enough. But as you must have guessed, the magic is gone forever, unless you return to Krynn some day, and speak with me again. Then, you should call me Paladine," the god finished his speech, and then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone.
The clouds were gone as well.
Daniel was alone, in the middle of an empty darkness.
And then he was falling, falling into the emptiness, and there was nothing else that he could feel or see or sense.
Fizban-Paladine had failed, and he was dead. He was sure of it.
And still, he was falling, falling for eternity.
Falling…
…until he felt someone holding his hand, strong hands wrapped around his, stopping and steadying him. Paladine's hands? Then Fizban had succeeded after all.
The debriefing was just as long and tedious as Jack had feared, and even more so with the thought that Daniel might take a turn to the worse while they were sitting and talking. He couldn't concentrate. Every time he explained something that had happened during the last few days, he had to speak of Daniel, and every time he thought of Daniel, his thoughts went back to the infirmary.
The last thing Daniel had said had been "I'm sorry, Jack." The idea that those might be his last words ever was dreadful, and even more so, because Jack felt that he should be the one to apologize.
Of course, as soon as they were finished, Jack headed straight back to the infirmary.
Janet Fraiser looked up from a stack of papers and smiled at him. "Apparently we got our miraculous, unexpected turn to the better. His condition's been improving – body temperature and blood pressure are nearly back to normal, and we could expect him to wake up any moment. However, I'm going to keep him sedated for some time. I want to keep him on the ventilator a while longer, since I'm still worried of his pulmonary function."
Jack was quick to return the smile. He had been fearing the worst, and got the best instead. "You'll let me know as soon as he wakes up, won't you?"
"You can trust me on that. Now, I'm your doctor as well, and I'm ordering you to go to the cafeteria right away, to get something to eat."
"Daniel, I'm sorry, you shouldn't be," were the first words Jack said to Daniel when he finally woke up.
And as soon as Fraiser had taken the tube out of Daniel's throat, he was quick to answer, even with a very raw and sore throat, despite the fact that Fraiser had particularly told him that he shouldn't speak yet.
"No, Jack. Not your fault. Blame the gods."
Paladine, also known as Fizban the Fantastic and the Platinum Dragon, picked up his old gray hat from the ground, where Tasslehoff Burrfoot had forgotten it. He dusted the worst dirt off the hat, placed it on top of his tangled hair again, and wiped a tear from the corner of his eye.
"I just cannot help it," he mumbled to himself. "Happy ends always make me cry."