~Polarity~

Sweat trickled down his face, the hand holding his gun wavered as his muscles tensed up from having held position for far too long. By Daniel's reckoning, he had three rounds left before he and Jack were truly screwed; three chances he had to make count. He felt Jack move against his back and tensed up. He was bleeding internally, this much Daniel knew, but spending just a moment of attention on him would leave them both open to attack.

"You do not attend to your companion." The voice of the enemy belonged to Major Samantha Carter. "He will soon die."

"Shut up!" Daniel fought to steady his hand. Any show of weakness at this moment would be seized upon swiftly, and sliding his gaze over to Teal'c, he could already see the Jaffa was ready to pounce. They were at an impasse.

Less than a day ago, the UAV detected a temple sitting in an open glade amid the ruins of a devastated city. Nothing unusual there, and the SGC had visited many worlds with similar scenarios. What made this scene unique enough to warrant a visit, were unusual mineral traces detected by the MALP, and the fact that the temple was intact and yet the city wasn't.

With a perimeter established and the area in the vicinity of the gate declared safe, SG-1 had split into teams. Teal'c and Carter set about collecting mineral samples – bagging and tagging them for transport back to the SGC. Daniel set off in the direction of the temple with an already bored Jack in tow.

What happened next caught him completely off guard, and unfortunately, Jack as well. He'd been filming walls inside the temple while Jack investigated several buildings in close proximity. The familiar and distinct sound of automatic weapons fire broke his concentration and he set off at a run for the temple entrance, weapon drawn. He'd barely cleared the doorway when a flash of green slammed into him and propelled him back into the temple.

Head spinning, Daniel's breath came in painful gasps as a great weight pressed down on his chest, and it had only taken a few seconds for him to realize it was Jack sprawled across him.

"Jack," Daniel hissed, struggling to get his way out from under his friend's dead weight. "Jack!"

Bullets peppered the stone wall high above his head, raining shards down on them both. With a grunt of effort, Daniel rolled Jack off his legs and climbed to his knees, fumbling with the safety on his weapon before letting off a few rounds in the direction of the gunfire.

Something was very wrong, and Daniel couldn't quite place it. Either Sam or Teal'c had been captured and whoever was firing at him was using their weapon… or his teammates were the ones doing the shooting. The last scenario left him cold, but having no time to ponder the problem, and his ammunition clip rapidly emptying; Daniel was choice-less. Still winded from the impact, he heaved Jack across his shoulders and staggered into the temple.

The ante-chamber he had been working in was deep inside the temple, and although the building was in far better shape that the city encircling it, the room had succumbed to the ravages of time. One wall had almost totally collapsed to leave a debris field of rubble littered across the floor. All of which worked to Daniel's advantage. Gingerly, he lowered Jack down behind a wall of fallen sandstone blocks and took a quick moment to check his pulse as he rummaging through his pack for the first aid kit. There wasn't time to do anything other than open the tiny box of supplies and set it down before he heard footfalls in the hall beyond the chamber.

Daniel drew his weapon again and positioned himself as far behind the small wall as he could, making sure Jack was tucked behind him. Flicking off the safety, he steadied himself and aimed the weapon at the doorway.

"Daniel?" Sam's voice echoed off the chamber walls. His initial relief at knowing she was alive quickly died as he grappled over who had been shooting at him. Indecision played on his mind for a split second, but he held his aim true and kept his mouth shut.

Shadows danced across the entrance to the ante-chamber, the footfalls drawing ever closer until the silhouette of two figures hung in the doorway.

Staying silent was no longer an option. From the entrance to the temple, the hallway only led to one location so it was a better than fair guess that Sam and Teal'c would know where they were.

"That's far enough." Daniel kept his tone low and even, controlled.

"Daniel!"

Sam stepped out of the shadow of the doorway and into the room; her hands spread wide, P-90 dangling on its clip. "We heard weapons fire and tried to raise the colonel on the radio."

There was something in her voice, a cold sterility he'd never noticed before. Was it a lack of concern or possibly the ease with which she lied to him? Who did she think she was kidding? No one's fool, Daniel knew their radios were all tuned to the same frequency. If Sam had tried to contact Jack, he would have heard it. A moment of doubt hammered in his mind. What if she had tried to contact Jack and something in the composition of the temple walls deflected the radio signal? No. That didn't account for someone firing at them with Earth-type weapons.

"Just stay where I can see you," he warned.

"Do you not trust us, Daniel Jackson?" Daniel had known Teal'c was standing behind Sam from the cast of their shadow on the far wall. Despite this, the revelation of his presence settled uncomfortably in his gut. If the rest of his team had been compromised, then it was going to be almost impossible for Daniel to overpower them physically. Sam alone he might have been able to handle, but Teal'c? Not a chance in hell. Mentally, he tried to count off how much ammunition they had left. All of them carried at least two spare clips in their packs and likely another one in their vests, and he could only hazard a guess at how much they had already wasted.

The three rounds he had left in his Beretta weren't the last of his ammunition supply, but the rest was in his pack on the far side of the chamber. He'd never make it.

"No. No, I don't think I do, Teal'c."

"That is most unfortunate." Another voice resonated across the room in the gravely duel-tone he recognized as being distinctly Goa'uld. This one held another familiarity to it though, as Sam stepped out of the shadow of the door and into Daniel's line of sight, her eyes flashing brightly in the hazy light.

And that was when Jack started to move.

The End