Dirt

Dirt

When Harry next awoke, he had an excruciatingly awful headache. His mouth was so very parched, so, still barely conscious, he went to get himself a glass of water. Returning to the command center, Harry sat down and began to think about his situation. The first thing he noticed was that the injuries that he had sustained from his fight with Osiris were gone completely. He knew from Isis that the healing abilities of a symbiote shouldn't have stayed with him, but then the same was true of the goa'uld's knowledge. As an experiment, Harry flashed his eyes to see if he still could and was surprised to see that he still had the ability. He tried the distorted voice, and though he was able to pull it off, it felt different than when Isis had physically manipulated his vocal cords. Harry recognized the feel of power inside of him, and something more. Perhaps it was the naquedah in his blood. He decided to think more on it later; he needed to figure out what to do next.

His first thought was of Osiris's host. Sarah, the name came to him. Harry felt that he owed it to her to set her free from Osiris, as he had been set free. He didn't want to think about her still being a slave in her own body. However, he didn't think that he was a match for Osiris. What he needed was a way to knock her unconscious, yet she had their only zat'ni'katel. If he wanted to capture the host without hurting her, he felt he would need one of those. That meant taking the ship to another planet, where he could hopefully acquire one.

He thought about his options. From Calaissis, there was another inhabited planet only one week away named Oberdad. Or at least, there had been one eight thousand years ago. Now, he couldn't be sure of anything, as Isis and Osiris had discovered down below. He plotted a course and set the ship to take him there anyway; at the very least, it was a plan.

As he did so though, he finally noticed something about the ribbon device on his arm. Before, it had always fit snugly against his skin, but looking at it now, Harry realized that it had somehow become a part of his skin. He remembered when he had tried to force Osiris out of her host, the energy had gone into the hand device, and interacted with the naquedah in his blood. Somehow, the device had become fused with his arm in a way that felt as though it had always been a part of him. Oddly enough, it didn't hurt.

Harry decided that his arm was another thing that he could think about later. Right then, he was hungry, so he set himself to scrounge up some food. With the goa'uld's advanced stasis technology, the ship had kept food in its stores from the last time it had been used all those thousands of years ago. Harry feasted on fruit, meats, and cheeses with a glass of goat's milk, produced by long dead creatures. The pungent cheeses had taken some getting used to, but ironically, Harry had grown to like them during his five-month trip as a host.

As he ate though, Harry's thoughts turned dark. He couldn't help but feel that he was running away from Osiris and abandoning Sarah. From there he started thinking again about how long he had waited to take control of his body back, and to the boy who lay dead back on Calaissis. The boy's face flashed in his memory. His appetite gone, Harry put the food away and began pacing in the small dining area, trying to forget the events of the past days, to shake his feelings of guilt. After a while, Harry turned to the exercises that Isis had put his body through in desperation, and found for a while at least, that he could forget everything else.

!

Four days into his journey, Harry was doing his best to sleep during the ship's artificial night. Trying being the operative word. Harry had hoped that he could put much of what Isis had done with his body behind him, but that just wasn't happening. He had been having nightmares, mostly focusing on the death of that small boy. Sometimes he dreamed that he was still a host, and Isis would make him kill and torture one person after the next. All the while Harry would scream and struggle against Isis, but to no avail. It did not help that Harry now knew intimately how to do both.

The waking world was little better. Harry's guilt over his actions had been eating away at him, taking away his appetite. The only things that seemed to keep him sane were exercise and experimenting with the energy inside of him. He was ashamed of that as well, though he didn't let it stop him. The Dursleys had told him that he was a freak, that there was unnaturalness within him. He had often felt as though they were right, but this was the proof of what they had told him. Still, the power had freed him, and he liked it, and really, he didn't like the Durlseys.

Knowing that he wouldn't find any peace in his bed, Harry got out and decided to try experimenting with his power. He sat down on the floor cross-legged, and focused on his left hand while trying not to think about what he had done with it. He had washed that hand so many times, but no matter how hard he scrubbed it never felt clean. Putting those thoughts aside, Harry decided to try something new. He had had some luck moving things around himself, a form of telekinesis, but Harry wanted to try a different effect. He remembered from his fight with Osiris that accompanying the blast that had forced them apart, there had also been a flash of light. He wanted to know if he could recreate that light, or something similar.

As he focused on his hand, willing the effect that he wanted, Harry felt the Naquedah in his blood respond. Soon, bright sparks came into existence and faded away over his hand. It wasn't quite what he wanted, but it was a start. Harry went on trying to create a light that he could control, for no other reason than that it kept his mind off of darker thoughts.

Working his powers that way wasn't the only thing Harry had been experimenting with. After giving up on trying to remove the hand device from his skin, Harry had decided to try experimenting with it as well. It still worked as it should, but Harry remembered something else from his battle with Osiris. When the hand device had melded with his skin, he had felt as though he were connected to it, and not just in the physical sense. The device had always been slave to thoughts and emotions, but now it was as though Harry could speak to it, manipulate it on a far more personal level. And through the hand device, Harry found himself reaching out into the ship itself through the connection between the two pieces of technology. Harry had surprised himself when he had opened a door with just a thought. Still, it wasn't as though this control was very functional yet. Harry had to shut out the rest of the world while he connected with the ship. Pushing buttons was much more practical. Still, it was interesting, and it was another thing that kept him from thinking about the things he didn't want to think about.

As he sat down for breakfast later, Harry turned his thoughts to what he would do when he got back to Earth. 'If I get back to Earth,' he thought. Really, he couldn't imagine going home. He had, in effect, stolen his Uncle's car. Surely, he couldn't just go home and expect bygones to be bygones. He considered simply not going home, maybe not even going back to Earth. While living with the Dursleys, Harry had survived knowing that even if they didn't care about him, at least he would be able to make a future for himself, one day. He did well in school, which was a haven for him, in spite of his cousin, and he knew that one day he would have more than a few options open to him (he had still considered fireman as an option). Now though, he couldn't see himself ever leading a normal life, sitting in school, and getting a job. He couldn't see any future at all.

!

Just over five months after the incident with Isis and Osiris, SG-1 had been quite busy. There had been no news about the two escaped goa'uld, though that had been expected. They had left the Earth in an ancient ship, which would have been very slow by modern standards. It was only recently that the goa'uld had made significant improvements in their hyperdrive capabilities. Now, SG-1 was on what was supposed to be a rather uneventful trip. The planet they were on had been abandoned by the goa'uld long ago, and it was inhabited by a simple and peaceful group of humans. That was just fine by Jack; any mission where no one shot at them was a good mission. They were there at Carter's request, she wanted to check out some anomalies with the soil. Jack really hadn't been paying attention during the briefing. She'd do her thing, and he'd do his.

They'd been there for two days, having been graciously given shelter by the local town leader. The man had been excited to have visitors from so far away. It had been interesting, mixing with the people on this planet, but really, Jack was getting bored with the whole thing. He decided to stretch his legs and go for a walk; the locals had told him that there was a good view along the coastline. He radioed the rest of the team to tell them where he was going, before walking off.

!

The ship was in the final hours of its journey, and Harry wasn't doing very well. He'd just about stopped sleeping, and it was a struggle to eat anything. Really though, he'd stopped caring. He'd already despaired of ever achieving his goal of freeing Sarah. He knew that he wasn't strong enough to free her; he'd learned that the first time. The more time Harry spent alone on that ship, the more he began to feel that he had nothing tying him to life; nothing was the same anymore. It wasn't as though he had any kind of a home to go back to, anyway; he couldn't imagine going back to the Dursleys. The more his guilt ate away at him, the more he wondered why he bothered to go on.

When Harry reached Oberdad, he told the ship to land at the edge of the smallest continent. His plan to find a Zat'ni'katel had been discarded. Truly, it had been a foolish plan. Harry ringed down and examined his surroundings. The ship had put him down next to a large cliff, which Harry thought rather suited what he needed right then. He put one foot in front of the other, and let his body take him to the edge.

!

Jack was walking through the slightly dense foliage, and had almost made it to the coast, when he saw a ship coming down from the sky. He didn't recognize the make of the ship, though it looked to be of goa'uld design to his experienced eye. It looked to be somewhere between a cargo ship and an al'kesh in size. He radioed the rest of his team, though he knew that they were at least twenty minutes away, and told them what was going on. The ship stopped not far away, hovering roughly fifteen feet off the ground. Jack hurried over to its position, making sure to stay out of sight.

When the rings fell from the ship, Jack was surprised that they deposited a small figure on the ground. The hooded person was too far away for him to make out the face clearly. He watched as, what he thought to be a boy, looked around before walking to the edge of the cliff.

!

Harry looked down over the edge. At another time, he might have thought that the scene below looked rather nice. Beautiful, in fact. The almost purple water was crashing against the rocks below in a spray of color, and the sun was setting in the distance. He held his arms out, and wondered if he could actually do it. Put an end to the pain and guilt. Then, he took a deep breath and put his arms down, before taking a step back. He sat down, and for the first time since he had woken up free of Isis, he cried.

He knew that he couldn't just kill himself, but everything in his life was so confusing; so hard. Beyond trying to free Sarah, he didn't know what he was going to do, how he was going to move on. He didn't even know if he would ever be able to sleep normally again, or go through a day without feeling the guilt or the shame.

But in a way, that didn't matter right then, because he couldn't give up on trying to rescue Sarah. He had a job to do, and he meant to follow it through. He stood up and wiped the tears from his face before turning to go back to his ship, intending to search for a settlement that could lead him to the technology that he was looking for. As he was walking though, he heard the telltale sound of the very device that he was searching for.

Quickly, he dove out of the way of the blue wave of energy. Coming up, he brought up his shield to ward off further attack. He did so just in time, as a moment later the blue energy washed over his shield. Unlike a staff blast, a zat'ni'katel blast didn't have enough kinetic energy to pierce his shield.

"What the heck was that for?" he cried out to the man who had apparently come out from the bushes.

"Don't pull the cute kid routine. I know what you are, I know who you are, Isis." There was venom in the man's voice when he said the name.

What a coincidence, the man must be from Earth. "Isis is dead. I'm just Harry."

"You expect me to believe that?"

Harry wished that he would. He sighed. "Really, that would be nice, but since I can't prove it to you, I'll just be going."

He was about to take a step back, when he realized that the man had exactly what he had come for. He supposed that it wasn't really stealing if the guy had shot at him first. So he reached out with his hand, and his energy, and pulled the man's weapon out of his hand, lowering his shield briefly to allow the object to come through. Immediately the man reached for his belt knife and threw it with one fast motion. It was stopped by his shield, Harry thought that it would have gone through his right arm otherwise. The man would not be cowed, and would not stop, and immediately reached for his machine gun, but Harry pulled it out of his grasp too, though it was still connected to the man by a strap.

"In two weeks, I will bring Sarah here. There is a ring platform by the gate. Be there to take her home."

Before the man could grab another weapon, Harry ran beneath his ship and activated the rings, transporting away to safety.

!

'That happened a lot faster than I expected it to,' Harry thought as he looked at the Zat'ni'katel in his hand. Going through his connection with his hand device, Harry told the ship to climb into orbit again before he made his way to the control room.

Thinking over his brief conversation with the man below, Harry supposed that he had been a bit vague about his instructions. Running a scan of the world below him, Harry discovered that the man was having a discussion via encrypted radios. He wasn't able to listen in, but he would be able to broadcast a signal that they could hear. Putting through the necessary commands, Harry cleared his throat and addressed the people below.

"Um, hi. My name's Harry, I'm the kid you were shooting at. Anyway, I thought you should know that Isis is dead, and Osiris is trapped on a planet with a buried Stargate. Thanks for the zat'ni'katel, I'm going use it to go get her, and I'll try to remove her parasite if I can. Either way, I'll return her here in exactly two weeks. If I can't get rid of Osiris, I'll deliver her unconscious. I trust you'll meet her with non-lethal weapons."

He ended his transmission and entered his ship into hyperspace.

!

On Oberdad, Jack started walking back to the village to regroup with the rest of his team. Inside, he was very confused. If that had been a goa'uld, then he had acted differently than any other goa'uld that Jack had ever met before. It didn't make sense for the boy to suddenly be free of the snake either though, and he didn't even want to get into the apparent telekinetic abilities. Whatever he had done, the boy hadn't seemed to use any technology to do it.

Jack thought on the transmission that had been sent to them. It sounded like a trap of some sort, but the only way to find out would be to show up in two weeks. There was always the hope that they would get what they were promised. If they didn't, then they could always set their own trap.

He met his team outside of the village and went in depth into what had happened.

"Unless he knew I was there to start with, then judging by his behavior, I'd say that he isn't a goa'uld. Frankly, I have a hard time imagining a goa'uld crying without it being a show."

Sam spoke up. "What do you want us to do, sir?"

"I want you and Daniel to go to the village, and set up a defensive position. Warn the people that there may be hostiles in the area. Teal'c, I want you to come with me while I check in with the SGC."

He turned to leave, but Daniel stopped him. "Jack, what are we going to do in two weeks?"

Jack turned back to him. "We're going to get her back Daniel. We're going to bring both of them back. But you know that what happens in two weeks isn't up to me. I will recommend though, that we be here then."

He turned around and made for the gate.

!

When he had entered hyperspace, Harry decided to try to sleep. He didn't manage to get much, but the sleep that he did get was plagued by faceless people, who he killed. In his dream, Harry tried to stop his hands as they destroyed whoever was in front of him, but he couldn't.

When he woke up, he realized that something had to change. He knew that he couldn't take another seven days alone in his ship. He remembered a thought that he had had on the way to Oberdad, that he could manipulate the ship's hyperdrive to go faster; a lot faster. He understood exactly how his ship's hyperdrive worked, but more importantly, he could feel it. Through his hand device and his connection with the ship, he was a part of everything. He could tell that the ship had a potential for much greater speeds, the energy just had to be used in the right way. He knew that he could manipulate energy, and he thought that he could manipulate the ship's hyperspace window generator to get the effect that he wanted.

He had rejected the idea before, because even after everything that had happened to him, it sounded crazy, and dangerous. It still seemed ridiculous that he, Harry, could do something better than these interstellar aliens. But the prospect of another seven days alone was one that he truly didn't want to face. Sitting down in the control center, Harry reached out with his mind, through the hand device, and then into the ship. He sought out the ship's hyperdrive and connected with it. He felt the part of the hyperdrive that he needed to change, and willed the energy to flow in the way that he wanted it too, changing the crystals that controlled the engine. He felt himself being pressed into his seat for a few seconds as the inertial dampeners struggled to keep up with the ship's acceleration.

He pulled back from the ship, still not entirely comfortable with the sensation, and checked the screen in front of him. He grinned. Had the goa'uld put more effort into innovation, he was sure that they would have managed these speeds sooner. By the ship's calculations, he was due to arrive at Calaissis in two and a half hours. It seemed that he would have some time to kill before his two weeks were up.

Reflecting on the last time he had eaten, Harry reluctantly went to get something to eat. He knew that he had to eat something in order to keep his strength up, though he still didn't have an appetite for anything. While he ate, he tried to plan what he would do when he reached Calaissis, so by the time the ship was about ready to drop out of hyperspace, he had a rough idea of what he wanted to do.

Back in the control room, Harry checked the ships scanners to pinpoint Osiris's exact position, through her hand device. It was dusk where she was, outside a different village than the one Isis and Osiris had first gone to. By the village's position, Harry figured that it wasn't the first one she had tried after having been left on the planet. She was probably trying to find people to help her unbury the gate. Harry was glad to see that she hadn't had any luck.

He instructed the ship to land a mile away from the village, on the opposite side from her. He made sure the ship stayed out of her sight. Stuffing the zat'ni'katel in his waistband, Harry ringed down to the planet surface.

The planet was much as he remembered it, though this village was close to a large river, giving it a slightly different feel. He decided to walk around the village; if Osiris had already been there, then they might not be receptive to any more strange visitors. It took him over half an hour to get around the village, keeping out of sight from anyone who might see him in the fading light. It wasn't long until he reached the area in which Osiris seemed to be camped.

By this point, Harry was walking as stealthily as he could, making sure to stay out of sight from the woman. When he saw her, her back was to him. She was sitting in front of a fire, cooking an animal that Harry couldn't identify. He summoned the ship before pulling out the zat'ni'katel, which he had activated earlier. Taking aim, he shot her. Or at least, he tried to. She moved out of the way of the blue energy, having obviously heard his approach. Moments later, her golden shield sprung up around her, and she shot her own zat'ni'katel at him. Harry already his shield up.

She addressed him. "Fool. You should not have returned here, I will kill you this time."

He answered her in goa'uld, and he didn't hide the fury he felt for her. "I'm going to free her, Osiris, no longer will you claim a person's body as your own."

"I think not. Those humans will remember your screams for years to come," She said, gestured in the direction of the village, and then she held her hand out at Harry, unleashing a wave of energy from her hand device. But Harry was ready and returned his own energy to meet hers.

Being more experienced, Osiris probably should have been able to win their battle of wills. However, Harry had his own power, which he pushed through his hand device. With a cry, Osiris flew though the air, her shield dropping. As quickly as he could, Harry raised his zat'ni'katel and shot her. This time, she didn't get out of the way, and after she had stopped convulsing, she lay still.

Harry sighed and took a moment to catch his breath. He walked over to Osiris and took her zat'ni'katel, knife, and hand device. By now, the ship was hovering over the clearing, and Harry tossed the three items under it before activating the rings. He went back to Osiris and prepared himself mentally for what he was about to do. Above him, the ship cast enough light to fill the clearing, illuminating Sarah's unconscious form.

He knelt down next to her and placed his left hand on her face. Taking a deep breath, Harry summoned his power and pushed it into her, seeking the goa'uld within, as he had tried the first time. He found the snake, still unconscious from the zat'ni'katel blast. Harry latched onto it with his power and as he did, he felt himself connect with Osiris, as he had with Isis. He went on anyway, not thinking that it would make a difference.

As he was rejecting Osiris from Sarah's body, he felt her stir, beginning to resist him. He heard her in his head.

"You can't do this to me!" Though it wasn't audible, Harry could detect the desperation in her voice.

"I am doing this to you," he replied.

As Osiris was leaving the body, Harry felt the now familiar sensation of the connection between them opening wide, as everything that Osiris understood flooded into his mind. He tried to stop it, remembering what had happened the last time that had happened, but he couldn't. He wanted to once more pass out, but he knew that he wasn't finished. Letting go of Sarah, he grabbed Osiris and killed her as he had her mate. With his last thought, he ordered the ship to move to his and Sarah's position, and ring them up. Blackness engulfed him.

A/N: This story is continued directly in Isis's Bane: Tar'Chell's Wrath, and alternately in Isis's Bane: A new Home, both of which can be found in my profile.