Chapter 59

Within milliseconds the Ascended Ancient latched onto Sekhmet's life-force, delving into Samantha's brain searching out every bit of Sekhmet's darkness pulling it away from her out of the young woman's mind and drawing it into his own.

He could feel The Others rage and fury at him for crossing the invisible line between influence and interference. A violent yank pulled on his ascended life energy then recoiled when they realized that it was now intermingled with the evil darkness of the goa'uld.

Sekhmet fought him tooth and nail screaming obscenities at him. She lashed out at him throwing horrible images of his fate if he did not turn from this course of action, but he continued on removing every hint of Sekhmet's evil from Samantha's mind and body.

Sekhmet clawed at his arms trying to escape him "You can't do this! They will destroy you!"

A peaceful smile touched his lips, "No. They will destroy us."

Jack tried to get to his feet when Marcreat grabbed Sam, but Daniel put his hand on his shoulder keeping him in place. The Colonel looked at his friend in anger. Daniel merely shook his head at him and in Jack's weakened state the younger man had no trouble keeping his team leader down.

The monster infesting Sam began screaming obscenities at the Ancient holding her, but Marcreat tightened his hold wrapping his arms around and up her back grabbing the goa'uld's by the back of the head and forcing it forward to touch forehead to forehead.

The air began to crackle and Jack could feel the air charge with electrical energy as the ground began to shake and shift. Lightning strikes of white and blue energy sizzled around the two wrestling beings.

"Daniel!" Jack yelled over the cracks of electrical fire. "What the hell is going on?" He ducked as a wayward energy blast shot a few feet over his head and hit the wall nearby.

"Geez!" Daniel grabbed Jack's arm and began pulling him away from the dangerous beings.

"Hang on! What about Sam?" Jack hollered in the younger man's ear, Daniel winced but kept dragging him away.

Across the room, Teal'c was regaining his feet and shaking his head to clear it. Seeing Marcreat grappling with Sam he raised his staff weapon at them. Indecision was clearly etched on his face, the Jaffa warrior unsure who to assist and who to harm.

"Teal'c!" Daniel yelled to their teammate, "Get over here and help me."

The Jaffa hesitated a moment then cautiously made his way along the wall as far from the bursts of energy as possible.

The room crackled and vibrated with electrical energy causing the fine hairs on the back of Jack's neck to stand on end. He could see streaks of blue and black racing along the floor. One pulsed past his foot and he yelped in pain when an intense shock ran up his leg. Jack noticed that although the blue energy pulses were still vibrant, the white ones were beginning to darken shifting between light and dark intermixing with the blue then separating once again.

Marcreat's body began to pulse with white light as his entire being shifted transforming into his Ascended form. Tentacles of white light tightened around Sam's body expanding to encompass her from head to foot then they began to enter her body pulling through it like a sieve from her back toward her front. Sam's body within began to writhe and fight against the translucent hold.

Daniel stopped in amazement at the sight his face pale with a mixture and awe. "He can't do that!" his friend and former Ascended Being whispered clearly understanding more about what was going then Jack did.

Jack stiffened a moment later when he noticed Sam's body begin to convulse and a thick inky black smoke began to ooze its way out of Sam's mouth. Heavier than the air it fell heavily down her chin falling to her chest and rolling down toward the floor. Black strikes of energy pulsed through the sludge-like substance. Marcreat's form pulled it into himself enveloping what Jack now realized had to be Sekhmet's evil life-force. Sam's body gave a shuddering lurch as a great glob of the stuff erupted from her mouth and the translucent tentacles passed the rest of the way through her body. With a soft expulsion of breath Sam crumpled to the floor.

Without hesitation the three men of SG-1 started toward her, but a deep rumbling beneath their feet halted their steps.

Jack fell to his knees his legs no match for the violent shaking. Daniel also lost his balance and Teal'c steadier then they were braced his legs as if he was on the deck of a storm tossed ship. Jack saw panic etched Daniel's face as the younger man grabbed his arm and began frantically tugging Jack back while waving Teal'c away from Sam's unconscious form.

"Get back!" He yelled. Jack looked back at Sam unwilling to leave, but a rough pull from his friend yanked him back and away.

Violent bursts of blinding light slammed into the floor and Jack turned his flash-burned eyes away. Deep rumblings of sound filled the room. Each sound different from the other, some were short and abrupt others even and longer.

Jack turned his gaze back toward Marcreat and Sam. The lights had dimmed slightly and now he could see twelve or so other Ascended Beings surrounding the two. They pulsed angrily in time to the rumblings and Jack realized that what they were hearing was voices, the sound of the entities communicating with each other and with Marcreat's ascended form which still held Sekhmet's black soul in a pulsing ball at the center of his being as if protecting it from the others.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jack could see Daniel shaking his head in denial as he watched the drama playing out before him muttering the word "don't'" over and over again in a shaky mantra.

Marcreat stared at what constituted the ruling Council of Ascending Beings that now surrounded him. The oldest of their kind, he knew the human's around him only saw brilliant white beings, Marcreat could see them as they truly were. Each still held the shape and look of their once living bodies. Ancients intermingled with other life-forms not yet met by those in the Tauri's galaxy stood in a ring around him each furious and terrifying in the power emanating from them.

Fear coursed through Marcreat's form as he held Sekhmet's writhing life-force contained within his own held barely leashed.

"Released the life-form, Marcreat!" The Ascending Being known as Rials roared at him. An Ancient like himself, Rials had been one of the first Ancients to find Ascension. He had been Ascended for so long that when he took his original form it was never quite the same each time. Almost like he could not remember what he had once looked like.

Marcreat glared at the council member. "I will not!" His gaze raked over the myriad of beings that made of the core of the Ascended's ruling body. "If I release her she will retake Samantha Carter's body and countless worlds will be destroyed by her! She will use the Ancient knowledge she stolen from me and overrun them."

"It is not our concern how lower beings conduct themselves." Another council member interjected. Marcreat turned toward Drin'byan, a being from a race that had evolved on a water covered world so long ago that his original species was now long extinct. The iridescent form shimmered raising its non-existent nose at him in distain.

Marcreat shook his head at the being. "Tell me, Drin'byan do you even remember your people? Do you remember your mate or children? Did you have a mate?" The being glared at him, but remained silent. Marcreat's gazed swept passed the others around him. "Do any of you remember what it was like to be alive? To feel that life coursing through your body, to feel fear or worry or awe-inspired wonder at the worlds around you." He searched the faces watching him.

"The trappings of our lower selves are not needed now. Those things would only prove a distraction to the enlightenment we now share." Rials stated, his face devoid of emotion.

Marcreat's being shook with anger. "You are not more enlightened than this creature I hold within myself and you have even less compassion than it."

Rails glared at him. "Our laws are set, Marcreat! You have let the rashness of youth lead you on a reckless path and must face the repercussions of your actions. Sekhmet will be restored to the human woman's body to resume as the creature would have had you not interfered. You will be held away from these lower being. You will watch, but you will not interfere again. If the beings of these worlds cannot destroy the creature by their own means than they will fall." Rials stared at Marcreat his face hard as stone.

Sekhmet's life-force pulsed within him drawing Rails attention.

"At least take the Ancient knowledge from her. Give those who will suffer under her domination a chance to fight her." Marcreat pleaded.

"We will not take the knowledge away. She will keep that knowledge and perhaps this will help you to understand the consequences of breaking our laws."

So that would be his punishment. To watch Sekhmet use what she had stolen from him to destroy those beings of this galaxy that he had come to care for. Not very original, Oma's punishment for being tricked and helping the goa'uld Anubis ascend was not so very different. The Others only partially descended Anubis throwing back the monster with the stipulation that it could not use knowledge it had gained from Ascension.

"Sekhmet has tried for Ascension. What if she succeeds?"

It was obvious that Anubis' successful albeit short attempt of Ascending still rankled the Ascended Beings . "She cannot ascend without help and not even those among us considered to be radical would aid her." Radicals, like Oma, like him. "Her evil will not be allowed to ascend. She will face destruction should she try."

"And that threat will keep her contained to the lower planes of existence where she will wreak havoc on those there." Marcreat observed.

"Yes." Rials said confident in the infallibility of the laws and the council's decision.

Marcreat lowered his gaze to where Samantha Carter lay at his feet a bittersweet smile on his lips. Crouching down next her he brushed his fingers over the wisps of dirt and blood matted hair from her face. "No."

Rails looked askance at him irritation creasing the Ascended Being's ageless brow.

Marcreat stood and faced the council. "You have become blinded by your arrogance and have missed one crucial element of this situation. Sekhmet is within me. She is ascended."

Shock overrode the benign expressions of the council as Marcreat released Sekhmet's life-force and infused it with his own.

"Oh shit!" Daniel jumped up from the floor and streaked across the room toward Sam as the black sphere within Marcreat began to expand within Marcreat's translucent form.

"Teal'c, get Jack! Get out now!" Teal'c grabbed Jack and they stumbled out of nearby hole that led into the next room.

Marcreat's form began to crackle with black pulses of electric energy and Daniel could feel the current of it pulsing painfully through his body as he grabbed Sam threw her over his shoulder and ran for it.

The Ascended Beings roared and Daniel turned in time to see them converge on Marcreat's form in a concussive burst of force that threw him and Sam through the doorway he had been escaping to.

Hitting the ground hard he rolled over quickly and saw Breeshan and Rya'c leading a contingent of Jaffa warriors they had gathered at the first sounds of Sam's battle with the mutant Sekhmet.

"Get everyone out of here!" Daniel yelled as a tremendous crack of rent the air and pulse of energy shook the ground. Without a word Breeshan grabbed Sam from Daniel and cradling her in his arms shouted a command to the force behind them to get everyone out of the palace. "Rya'c." Daniel said indicating the doorway down the hall. "Go help your father with Jack. Rya'c turned quickly and ran down the corridor.

Daniel surged to his feet as another pulse of energy rocked the floor under him. Teal'c and Rya'c with Jack between them stumbled into the hallway in front of him as Daniel began to race toward them.

They quickly caught up with Breeshan still carrying Sam. Jack looked at his teammate then at the large Tok'ra. "Is she alive?" He demanded.

Breeshan could not tell him as another rumble of destruction shuttered across the floor making them grab each other or the walls to help them stay upright.

A metallic groan sounded ahead of them and the floor beneath them shook as the corridor ahead of them buckled and came crashing down blocking their way out.

"Well that's just peachy!" Jack grumbled. "What the hell do we do now?"

Jacob ran down another level in his frantic search for his daughter. He had made it to the Sarcophagus Room only to find the room a wreck and debris blocking his way. With Selmak's help, he back-tracked and had took a longer route that had him cursing up a storm as the building around him shook and groaned. He had just opened the hidden door of the passage he was running through and stepped into another damaged room that he heard Jack's voice raised in angry disgust.

He ran to the doorway of the room as another series of rumblings shook the structure. The first thing he saw on entering the corridor was his daughter's bloody and torn body in the arms of Pha'esh of Malkshur ignoring the rumblings around him and the desperate expressions everyone around him he ran toward her and yanked her out of Pha'esh's arms.

"Sam." He shook her gently. "Samantha!"

The building around them groaned menacingly and Jacob felt a strong hand grasp his shoulder. He looked back to see Jack O'Neill's tormented gaze. "Is she…?" He started, but the floor beneath them gave an earsplitting metallic screech which cut off his question. "We have to get her out of here." He said instead.

Jacob nodded and returned Sam to Pha'esh. "Follow me, Selmak may know a way."

Resisting the urge to constantly look back over his shoulder at his battered child, Jacob led them back into the room he had just come from. Walking to the wall he touched his hand to the creaking metal surface tapping his fingers in the pattern needed to disengage the holographic image masking the hidden door.

Despite his worry for Sam, one side of his mouth quirked when he heard Jack let out an impressed "Nice!" as the door was revealed.

He led the way into a low-ceiling darkened passage way that lit up with an eerie green light when he passed the threshold. He looked up and frowned at the evidence of stress fractures running through the ceiling and walls of the passage. The palace groaned around them.

"Holy Hannah, Jack! What did you guys do? Selmak built this place to withstand a goa'uld armada attack."

Glancing back at Sam with a worried frown, "Hell, I don't know what happened." Jack glanced back over to Daniel who was walking quickly in front of him and the Jaffa warriors supporting him.

Daniel shook his head, "I think…" then he shook his head again looking extremely bothered by his unspoken thoughts. "Let's just get out of here."

Jacob turned back to the passage and picking up the pace as the palace shook and groaned around them.

The journey through the green-lit passage was not unlike a freaked out trip through a carnival of hell for Jack O'Neill.

The eerie light created grotesque and twisted shapes from their shadows giving them a macabre escort that gave Jack an unsettling feeling of being ushered on by the specters of death. He shook off the uncomfortable feeling and glanced back at Breeshan for the umpteenth time trying to see if the woman in his arms was alive or dead. The military man inside him knew that they should have left her back in the room where the Ascended Beings were duking it out. They still had no idea if Sam did wake up if it would really be Sam. Of course Jack had stopped listening to that part of him the moment Sam had blown her way out of the burnt out sarcophagus, demanding when he had pointed his gun at her that he go ahead and shoot her, only make it count that time. It had taken a few moments to lower his gun, but once he did he knew he would never point it at her again.

He could see that Breeshan was holding Sam close doing his best not to jostle her limp form as they quickly made their way through the groaning and shaking passageway. He tried to again get his feet under him and let go of Teal'c and Rya'c assistance, but the process of coming back to life had left his body feeling weird and unresponsive, kind of like when a body part falls asleep and is completely numb. It felt like his whole body had fallen asleep and was not waking up. Parts were completely numb and other tingled painfully. So for now his body would not listen to him and his weakness pissed him off. It kept him from taking Sam from the Tok'ra and holding her himself. He wanted Sam in his arms where he could be sure she was alive, to see if she was breathing, to place his ear to her chest and hear her heartbeat and have it assure him that she was still with him.

The twists and turns of the hidden passageway seemed to go on forever and Jack was pretty sure he would go crazy before they escaped its' stifling walls. He kept looking back at Sam for any sign of life, but nothing gave him hope. She was unmoving not a whisper of breath moved her chest. She was so pale that her skin mirrored the eerie green light that illuminated the passageway, the green cast of her skin broken by the splatters and splotches of blood darkened to black in the dimness of the weak light. He fought against the thoughts that battered at him saying she was dead and forever beyond him. He refused to believe it, damn it, she had survived this long he refused to believe she was dead now.

The corridor groaned and shifted violently under their feet. Rya'c steadied himself with a hand on the wall next to him and tightened his hold on Jack's arm. He could feel Teal'c's hold on him tighten as well when Jack lost what little balance he had and almost tripped. Relieved to have been saved from face planting himself on the floor, he grunted his thanks to the two Jaffa warriors.

The movement of the floor had stopped their party briefly, but Jacob had them going on again with the assurance that it was not much further.

Moments later they left the stifling passageway and stumbled into Sekhemet's private chamber. Jacob walked over to the wall opposite the one they exited and began tapping at the deceptively smooth surface. A rather creative Tok'ra curse issued from his lips and he tapped the wall again the tips of fingers whitening each time with the force of his striking the hidden keys that should trigger the mechanism that would open what Jack assumed was another hidden door.

He glanced back at them. "Teal'c, Rya'c I may need your muscle." The Jaffa warriors settled Jack against the nearby wall leaning him carefully against it and not letting go until they were sure he could stay standing before going to assist Sam's father. Jack slid down the wall to sit on the floor wearily. "Pha'esh," he heard Jacob call to the Tok'ra holding Sam, "I'll need you too."

Breeshan's eyes flashed as Pha'esh took over. The Tok'ra began to lower Sam to the floor, but Jack stopped him by reaching his arms up in a silent request to take her. He lowered Sam gently onto his lap and finally into Jack's arms.

Her skin was ice cold to the touch and he snuggled her closer cradling her head in the crook of his shoulder. With shaking fingers he reached up to touch his fingers to the pulse point at her neck looking for some sign that she was still with him, but the tingling that still ran through his body from being brought back to life messed with his feeling of touch and he could not tell if her heart still beat. He flexed his fingers in frustration and tried again.

"Come on, Carter." He whispered. He tried to shift her so he could lower his head to her chest and listen for her heartbeat, but his arms were too weak and he knew if he tried to move her they would give out and he would not be able to stop her from rolling from his lap to the floor. So he tightened the hold he had and decided to try and talk her back to him. "You know very well that you have to be alive. You can't leave me alone with just Daniel and Teal'c. We'll drive each other crazy in no time." His hands clumsily rubbed her arms trying to give her some of his warmth, "What about your doohickeys? They are still all there in your lab. If you die on me, I swear I will go in there and start messing with them." He rubbed his roughed cheek against her bruised one. He closed his eyes in despair, "Please, Sam." He softly begged.

The room shook under them at the same time that Jacob shouted in triumph and the hidden door opened. Still the noise could not cover the breath of air against his neck and words clear as crystal whisper across his ear.

"Stay the hell out of my lab, Jack."

Sam hurt like hell.

She was pretty sure every cell in her body had been taken apart, put in a cosmic Cuisinart then reassembled with an eight pound hammer. She had been taken from Jack's arms and was now being carried along quickly to where she did not know and did not care. Jack was alive. She'd been able to bring him back.

Joy and relief mixed with confusion. The last thing she remembered was screaming at Jack to run and then her consciousness being violently ripped from him and thrown into a dark pit where she could hear Sekhmet screeching triumphantly. She had struggled against the darkness and mentally fought back trying to see what was happening to her teammates. She pounded against the mental barrier that Sekhmet had erected between them, but the goa'uld was too strong. She screamed at the monster to no avail. Then Sekhmet's victorious screeching had stopped and she was surrounded by darkness and a silence so thick it felt physical against her conscious mind. Completely disconnected from her body it was a terrifying feeling. She was sure an eternity had passed when pinpoints of light began piercing the dark around her and the mental prison began to dissolve. Light poured in and with it excruciating pain. Suddenly Sekhmet was back screaming in agony and soon Sam joined her as she felt the evil darkness of the goa'uld's conscious being pulled out of her. The feel of her body came back to her and Sekhmet's physical screaming mixed into the mental. The sound of her own inhuman voice echoed in her ears in a weird combination of the two beings in her body being pulled apart. Her body writhed against another unyielding one.

Her real sight had flickered momentarily and she saw she was looking into the hard brown gaze of Marcreat. He had her in an unbreakable hold and her eyes widened in amazement as his form began to shift and become infused with a brilliant white light. Arms gave way to shimmering tentacles of white energy that wrapped around her body keeping her from falling to the floor. She could still hear Sekhmet screaming, but it now had a disconnected feeling to it and she found she could easily ignore it. She mentally reached out to the Ascended Being holding onto her.

"Marcreat?"

A gentle caress filled with peace brushed against her mind. "Goodbye, Samantha."

She started to respond, but with a lashing sound the tentacles slammed into her back piercing the skin and her entire body erupted in a white hot fire.

She had been unable to think then about what Marcreat was doing to her because when the pain had stopped she had fallen unconscious. Now, however, she knew. At the last he had sacrificed himself and saved her. Sekhmet was gone

Breeshan stumbled and the pain that shot through her body when he tightened his hold on her brought her back to the present. She kept her eyes closed and gritted her teeth against the pain that the Tok'ra hurried pace created.

She still could not believe she was alive and not only alive, but free of Sekhmet! A comforting silence now reigned in her mind and Sam felt her life renewed. Reborn.

She felt a rumble and the sound of groaning metal surround them. Breeshan stopped, then a yell of triumph from someone had them running forward again, the next thing she knew a blast of dry heat and intense yellowish-white light stabbed through her closed eyes. Pain exploded through her brain and she could not stop the darkness of unconsciousness as it enveloped her and pulled her into its arms.