What Was Lost
Blood from the gash on his forehead made a trail down his cheek and splashed onto the ground. Amid a hoarse groan of pain he was sure was his own, the words "fall back to the gate" hung in the air demanding his attention.
"We must leave, O'Neill!"
Jack shrugged off Teal'c's vice-like grip and chanced a look back over his shoulder at the smoke and flames billowing from the village behind them. The heavy scent of death filled the air, and he cursed what ever system lord this was that had set such a cunning and deceitful trap for his team.
The villagers were peaceful, the children all bright smiles and eager footed, a perfect setting for a meet and great. Only the villagers were Jaffa families and the children as heavily armed as their parents. In but a few minutes the damage was done and SG-1 were heading for the gate under fire and broken.
The heat and fire from the staff weapons crackled in the air, strafing SG-1 as they made their desperate race for freedom. The unpredictability of their aim had tragic consequences, and misfiring, ignited a hut, starting a domino effect of destruction. Anger fuelled the Jaffa attackers onwards and in their final push for the gate the team had suffered their own loss. There was no going back, no recovery to be made.
All Jack could remember was the heat of the staff blast as it whizzed past his body finding contact with another. Daniel's chest exploded. The blast propelled his team mate backwards a good few yards and left him crumpled and smouldering on the hard earth.
Eyes wide with surprise and unblinking in death, Daniel Jackson had used the last of his nine lives.
"Fall back to the gate," Carter screamed at the top of her lungs as her hand slammed down on the DHD crystal and she punched in the GDO code. In the span of a heartbeat she'd seen Daniel's lifeless body hit the ground, and Jack's hardened glare as Teal'c pushed him forwards towards the wormhole.
Blood flowed freely from a gash to his forehead, blurring his vision and staining the earth beneath him. Twisting at the top of the gate platform, Jack caught one last glimpse of Daniel before the pull of the vortex sucked him away from the destruction, and away from his friend.
The End
