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e-zines | an overview

A growing trend to deliver quality fanzines in a more reasonable price has taken form in fanzines on cds, otherwise known as "e-zines". Currently, we only have one available through Agent With Style at: http://www.agentwithstyle.com. Our previous sold-out zines are currently under development to being archived in the same format as well and will be available shortly.

novels | fate's reflection

Description:

He thought this was the worst idea he'd ever had.

Sitting on the thickest branch of the tree, the young teen surveyed the ground below. Other kids were running around the park, laughing, screaming, and playing with each other, enjoying the warm autumn day, while he sat on the big oak, backpack smelling like the bologna sandwiches he'd packed, jeans all grubby and sweaty, and him feeling very alone.

Not my fault, he thought to himself, wondering if he should dare eat a sandwich now or wait. He didn't know how far away Canada was. He might need the sandwiches for later.

How could he believe that Bucking kid and not me? I'm his son! Not that snot nose, pimpled freak!

He swung his legs listlessly, not at all perturbed by the height. Watching the children laughing below, the youth scowled and turned his head deliberately away to eye the sky, already turning to dusk in lieu of the setting sun. As he swung his lanky legs like a pendulum, one of his loosely tied sneakers slipped off his left foot. The boy groaned when he watched half of his favorite pair tumble away from him-

Landing on a small boy's head. The little boy yelped, short hands going up to his head, long locks of blond hair tangled with chubby fingers as they sought to find the culprit.

"Oh man!" the young teenager exclaimed. He scrambled down from the tree with a practiced ease, dropping down in front of the boy, who barely reached his chest.

He hopped on one foot, trying to put the lost sneaker back on again. Then he eyed the knapsack still dangling on the tree above them and he steered himself and the little boy away.

"Are you okay?" he demanded when they stood clear of it's path.

The boy just blinked big blue eyes at him.

"Oh great, I must have hit your brain or something!" he groaned. As if he wasn't in enough trouble already.

Lower lip trembling, the little boy sniffled.

"Don't do that!" the adolescent pleaded, looking around frantically for some mother who was probably stalking their way. "Come on! That didn't hurt at all!" When he saw that didn't work, the boy still sniffling louder and wiping his red nose with his arm, he sighed. "Where's your mom? I'll take you back to her, ok-?"

"D-dead," the little boy sniffled loudly.

"Huh?" He was stumped.

"Dead…both." The boy rubbed his eyes with his sleeve.

"So how'd you get here?" He was confused. If the boy's parents were dead, then how did he get to the park? Maybe he hadn't heard the kid correctly. The child sounded like he was a bit congested as if his nose was stuffed up and was going to bawl right there on the spot.

"Lily," the toddler replied.

"Who's Lily?" he repeated, getting more and more lost in the conversation by the second.

The little boy sighed as if it was a dumb question. "My frosty parents."

"What?" He scowled, wondering if the boy was just playing. "What? I thought you said they were dead!"

The boy's lower lip trembled again. "They are…now I'm with frosty parents."

"Frosty?" He smacked his forehead. "You mean foster parents!"

"Uh huh." The boy looked at him in exasperation, looking very much like his fifth grade teacher Ms. Cowling after catching him fighting in the schoolyard again. "That's what I said."

"So where's your…ah…foster parents now?" He hunched down a bit to look at the boy better, realizing now that the child couldn't be more than five or six. He was at least eight years older than this boy was and somehow it made him feel very important.

The little boy wordlessly pointed to the road a few meters away that cut into the park before leading to the state highway. "Lily."

The teen frowned, glancing over to the stretch of road that cut across the park, but he didn't see anyone. "Lily is over there?"

"Was," the boy corrected him.

"Oh shit!" the teen blurted out before he could stop himself. "You mean she abandoned you? For real?" He'd heard of this before in the news, heard his parents talk about a child they'd read about in the papers, but he'd never seen a real abandoned kid before. Stuff like that only happened on television and his parents would cluck, shake their heads sadly and muse out loud about what was the world coming to. The teen now looked at the child with a bit of awe.

"Good for nothing."

"What?" Gawking at the little boy, he then noticed the bruises peeking through the neckline of the shirt too large for the boy. It draped down to his ankles, looking like the muumuus he saw some of the older teens wear while carrying those peace signs.

"Lily said good for nothing." The boy looked sad.

For some reason, it made him very mad. Even his dad didn't say that to him. Sure the old man yelled a lot, but never using those spiteful words. The teen wondered how could any grownup think of saying such things.

Especially to a scruffy baby like him, he thought, eyeing the barefeet, the small hands that clutched the shirt's edge, and the bag of books on the ground.

"Good for nothing," the boy repeated.

"Don't say that!" the teen snapped.

Ducking his head, the boy kept quiet. Seeing this, the teen sighed. He ran a hand through his hair as he'd often seen his dad do. Now he knew why.

"Sorry." He paused. "Say…I don't even know your name. Mine's Jack. Well, actually…it's Jonathan. Jonathan O'Neill. But you could call me Jack. "

"Daniel Jackson," the little boy said solemnly, sticking a dirty hand.

Jack took the hand and shook it. Strangely enough, the teen didn't feel funny shaking the little boy's hand. "Nice to meet you, Daniel Jackson. Can I call you Danny?"

Daniel made a face. "Daddy called me that. Only him."

"Oh…sorry." Jack paused. "Okay, how about Dan?"

"Why not Daniel?" The boy wanted to know.

"Because it sounds so…so…boring!" Jack protested.

"I like the name Jon...athan. Or John," the boy said it carefully, pronouncing it right the first time.

Jack grinned. "Hey, you said it pretty good."

"Like words…sound nice…even the not English ones." Daniel looked up shyly with a small smile.

Jack shrugged. "Wouldn't know. Words are okay. I like baseball more." He scowled. "But I don't like that name Jonathan. My dad only says it when he's mad. Call me Jack instead."

"Does your daddy say Jonathan a lot?" Daniel asked softly, his huge eyes wide with concern.

Jack tilted his head and thought about it for a second. "Nope…now that I think about it. Not really." He eyed the boy. Then he bend forward, resting his hands on his knees and tilted his head towards the little boy. "Say…do you want to go home with me, Dan?"

The little boy looked at him silently, hands that had been twisting the shirt hem stilled. "Home?" Dan repeated the word as if it was a new term.

"Yeah." Jack grinned. "You might even save my as…I mean, butt. Can't raise all heck at me with you there."

"You in trouble?" Daniel guessed.

Jack groaned. "Man! I am in so much trouble! And it's all Larry Bucking's fault!"

"Is your daddy going to call you Jonathan?" Dan asked worriedly.

"Not if you come home with me." Jack paused. "Or do you want to wait for Lily?"

The little boy looked at the road, then back at Jack. Huge blue eyes blinked at the young teenager. "Lily hits me."

"Yeah." Jack guessed that was what the bruises were.

"I'll go with you," Daniel decided with a small nod. He bent over and grabbed his bag of books.

"Cool!" Jack grinned. Well, his behind was probably saved here. One look at him and his parents would probably be distracted by the sad puppy look on the kid.

Didn't get that dog I wanted, but hey! Got me a little bro!

Jack grinned wider. "Yours?" He nodded towards the bag.

"Daddy's." Daniel sounded sad. "Lily sold some to a big man I don't know. All left here." His short fingers curled around the bag anxiously and Dan looked at him apprehensively as if worried Jack might do the same.

Jack frowned. "Come on, Dan. I'll have you meet my mom. She wouldn't sell your daddy's books to anyone." He tugged at the bag until Daniel finally relented. The teenager took the bag the boy held on so protectively before. It was really heavy and Jack wondered how this reed of a boy was able to carry it all the way from the road Lily had left him by.

The little boy nodded, stuck his hands in his shorts' pockets and dutifully followed Jack, feet stepping on the trampled grass the older youth stomped over. The teen paused, looking down at the hunched posture.

"You shouldn't do that," Jack warned, not knowing why it would bother him. "You look like a wimp like that. People will bully you if you look like that."

"Wimp?"

"Ah…a person who's weak…always scared," Jack tried to explain.

Daniel blinked. "But I am scared."

Taken back, Jack didn't know how to respond. He never met a boy who was willing to admit being scared. Saying that usually only get your back up against the yard's fence and your money in school bully George Stum's greedy pockets.

Clearing his throat, Jack extended out a hand. "Don't be. Just hold my hand…um…nothing to be scared of. I'm here." He wiggled his fingers in front of the child, offering his open palm.

For some reason, it seemed to have reassured the boy. Daniel stared at the offered hand for a moment, pulled out one of his own and shyly placed it on Jack's larger palm.

Feeling very weird all of the sudden, Jack couldn't figure out why his mind was telling him to hold on very tight. He shrugged, pretending it was no big deal and guided the boy out the park towards the road that led to his house.

* * * * *

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you!" Colonel Jack O'Neill warned his team archaeologist before the young man could reach out a curious hand. The team leader ran a hand through his short hair, silently wondering if another gray hair had popped up there. It seemed like after every mission, he would find just one more. His foot tapping near the white, carved coverstone the DHD was on top of, Jack glared at the curious scientist, the one person he was certain was responsible for 99.9% of them.

Doctor Daniel Jackson rolled his eyes, dropping his hands before he could make contact with the shiny surface. It was astonishing. He didn't know why the probe didn't pick up on this. All the MALP gave back to them when it first came through were images of charcoal black, stone walls and rubble, the digital scans murky at best due to the darkness.

When the team came through the Stargate to P9H-521, the first thing they saw were the walls again. Daniel wove around rusted looking figurines discarded all over the room like a giant scattered chessboard, relying on his flashlight to show him where to walk. He hopped up a few inches onto the coverstone in the center of the room, giving it an admiring glance as he felt the raised relief of symbols on white stone smooth as glass under his boots.

Lightning flashed and rumbled in the distance, outside the structure they were in, but was unreliable to depend on to see the chamber clearly. So Daniel swung around his flashlight, followed by the rest of the team turning on their flares for more lighting. Sam called out she was turning on the MALP probe's spotlight and the walls they had seen in the initial readings became much clearer. Jackson nearly dropped his flashlight when the fine details revealed themselves from the shadows.

The walls towered at least sixty feet over them, capping off to a dome ceiling decorated with twisted and intricate patterns carved in stone that was cracked with age, the heavy panels set in place by girders made of what looked like to be bronze. Some of them looked like distorted faces, dancing figures on rock, moving when their flashlights' dim light skimmed over them. As lightning pounded against the structure, it revealed its presence in sporadic bursts of light through cracks on the ceiling. In front of the Stargate and the DHD platform, decorated with all the chevrons chiseled out of heavy gray, smoky stone, stood one wall also made of smooth black stone. But unlike the other adjacent walls, this one was shiny like a mirror.

The Stargate itself was perfectly reflected off the wall's surface, gleaming with an iridescent glow, like highly polished metal. Even Jack, who normally would just give a half-impressed grunt towards anything that didn't stand on two legs, stopped to gape at the sight. When he saw it, he'd tilted his cap back to see better. He'd even whistled.

"I'm reading some faint energy levels here, sir," Major Samantha Carter reported as she waved the Geiger counter over the reflective wall. Her own image shimmered before her like a watery reflection and she stopped to stare at the mesmerizing effect. The astrophysicist looked tempted to touch the surface, too, even going as far as reaching out to the wall tentatively. But military training and a sense of practicality made her drop her hand and look back down on her scanners instead. "They're fluctuating. This thing, whatever it is, is still working, sir." She glanced over to her CO.

"In other words, don't touch!" Jack wagged a finger back at Daniel, seeing the young man going near the wall with wide, staring eyes.

Muttering to himself, the archaeologist waved his hands around in frustration and backed away as he waited for Carter to finish her analysis. He rocked on his heels, hands in pockets, wistfully looking at the wall.

Jack bit back the smile. He doubted Daniel could hold out too long. It was like waving a piece of candy at a kid and not offering a bite. The way Daniel was looking at the wall, waiting for the okay to check it out, it might as well be the world's largest lollipop.

Thunder crackled in the sky, flashing its light through cracks in the ceiling. Jack looked up and frowned. The building had definitely seen better days. Automatically, he didn't know why, his hands gripped his rifle a little tighter.

"It does not appear to be Goa'uld," a deep voice spoke up. A tall dark man, his forehead marked with the golden symbol indicating him as once Apophis' Jaffa, Teal'c studied the statues that lined the entire room with a slight frown. "They do look familiar however." He circled the chamber in a tight circle, studying his surroundings, eyeing the many doorways lurking within the shadows, but did not venture towards them. "And there are many rooms I can see from here, O'Neill."

"That's it!" Daniel exclaimed, clapping his hands together as it came to him. Jack jumped.

"Jackson!" the colonel snapped. There's that new gray hair. He glared at the young man. "Those kind of antics could accidentally get a bullet up your ass!"

"Huh?" The archaeologist blinked towards O'Neill, baffled.

Exasperated, Jack shook his head. "Never mind. Now what's got your underwear all in a bunch?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow, looking over to Daniel with mild concern.

"Ignore him, Teal'c," Daniel sighed. "Jack is always full of clichés even I haven't heard of."

"Daniel." O'Neill crossed his arms.

Jackson blinked once more and smiled sheepishly. "Oh…yeah. I thought this place felt familiar. Remember P3R-233?" Daniel asked, sweeping a hand across the massive room, the other hand pushing up glasses that never seemed to stay on his nose. He rocked on his heels, waiting for the colonel's answer.

Jack frowned. Why did everyone assume he would remember every single coordinate they'd been to? "As if I have a Rolodex of planets' coordinates in my head. Spit it out!" he growled.

"Um…the planet where the quantum mirror took me to that alternate-"

"Okay, okay! I remember!" O'Neill scowled. He remembered all right. He remembered how the team had turned around to suddenly find their young teammate gone. And after frantic hours of searching, Daniel suddenly turned up, badly injured with by a Goa'uld staff weapon, and with the foreboding news of an imminent attack by the system lord, Apophis.

Oh yeah, Jack remembered that planet. It was the kind of memory that stuck like glue.

Or like a stubborn bloodstain.

"Are you saying this planet is similar to P3R-233?" Sam asked, quick to make the connection.

Daniel nodded vehemently. He turned clockwise, his hands waving towards certain sections, looking oddly like a galactic tour guide to O'Neill. "The set up is almost the same and there are tables over there." He pointed to the rooms behind them. "With clear indications they serve as a sort of lab. Remember how there were rooms on P3R-233? I suspect there might be even more artifacts like-"

"Daniel," Jack said in a stern voice, trying to get the young man back on track.

"Huh? Oh…Sorry. Anyway, the décor is similar, with the Stargate in the end of the room, their carvings in the stone walls surrounding the Stargate itself. The only thing different here is that the DHD is set up on top of the coverstone with the symbols. I don't see any sort of quantum mirror here and P3R-233 didn't have this type of wall anywhere in its facility. Of course the condition of P3R-233 was poor and it could be when the Goa'uld attacked there, any walls like this one could have been destroyed..." Daniel trailed off, deep in thought, forgetting he was speaking to an audience just before. Jack exchanged an exasperated look with Carter, who looked away to hide her amusement. O'Neill opened his mouth to push Daniel on, but the archaeologist went on, unknowingly interrupting Jack before he could even begin.

"Hm...It may hold some sort of religious significance." Jackson didn't see the dirty look the colonel was giving Carter as the woman tried not to snicker. "I might be able to make a better comparison once I take a look at those inner rooms," Daniel went on, about to point out more similarities when the place began to shake. "Uh…Jack?"

"Damn. That doesn't feel right." O'Neill eyed the towering walls, the mirrored one in particular with concern. Lightning rumbled once again and the room shook in unison. "Daniel, dial us out of here before this room caves in."

"B-but we haven't-" Daniel yelped when a piece of the roof landed in front of him, shattering into sharp shrapnel. He grimaced as he felt pieces cut his out flung arms and neck.

"Daniel?" Jack called out before he suddenly found himself on the ground. Teal'c helped Sam back up. When the colonel received no immediate response, he lifted up his head, searching as he called out more sharply. "Daniel!"

"I'm okay," Jackson called out faintly as he stumbled over to the DHD.

The rocking grew worse and the archaeologist found himself on his knees, clutching onto the bottom side of the device for dear life, his fingers digging into the beveled edge underneath to brace himself. It felt like he was on a boat, lurching and tilting under an onslaught of rocky waves. Daniel gritted his teeth and got up, only to lose his balance, his fingers sliding across the DHD edge as he sought to stay on his feet. His forehead banged right into the curved edge and Daniel saw the room light up in stars. Dazed, he was half tempted to sit there on the raised platform until he heard the rest of the team shouting as they avoid debris from the roof. Finally, he groped around for the symbols, one hand still grabbing onto the bottom edge for support, the other punching the symbols frantically as the planet seemed to heave underneath their feet, determined to toss them up. In seconds, the Stargate sparkled to life. It apparently reacted with the structure though, because suddenly, the vibrations grew worse.

Jack, not waiting for any more protests, grabbed Daniel roughly by the arm, and hauled him through the Stargate, barking over his shoulder for the others to follow. Teal'c and Sam, who gave one last glance at the now shimmering wall, ran through without any delay. With a whoosh, the wormhole vanished after their departure.

The ground stilled.

Until-

The shiny wall flared up in a brilliant flash of light and then dulled. Suddenly, it flickered, the image of the Stargate the SG-1 team departed from replaced with another Stargate, with its own DHD and similar spinning column of light bursting out of its ring. The double sparked into life, all seven chevrons lit, its event horizon evening out to a smooth surface.

Two figures stumbled out of that Stargate, the smaller person cloaked with a brown robe that hid the person's features. The companion in a dark black jumpsuit with a similar cloak draped over it, face hooded as well. An odd mesh like plate covered the front, peeking out from the cloak's slits.

Pale arms flung out and the smaller one of them fell to the ground. The taller visitor, looked back anxiously at the Stargate they had came from, before kneeling down to his fallen companion, his hand gripping the other's shoulder tightly.

"You okay?" the one standing anxiously asked.

The other was silent, still trying to collect its strength. For a long moment, all that could be heard was heavy gasping, the struggle for air. With a small nod finally, the person signaled to be let up. The taller one helped the other back on its feet, one hand gripping the smaller one's forearm tightly. When the cloaked person leaned against the mesh surface under the robe, he cringed. His friend swore softly, reached under and pulled the metal item off, tossing it to the ground without any hesitation. It landed with a loud clang as it struck the floor and the sound echoed throughout the chambers, rivaling the rumbling of the lightning storm outside that seemed to start up at their arrival.

The taller visitor propped his companion up against a statue and stumbled in the dark, groping around for the DHD until he tripped over the coverstone it was on. Fumbling, he felt the contours of the device and grunted to inform the other of the discovery. "We better-"

At the sound of the first chevron locking, he whipped his head towards it. "Shit! They're following after us! They must have saw the symbols." the tall one cursed. He hurried back over to his comrade. "Can you walk?"

"Y-yes…" The reply was barely audible.

Helping his friend up, the larger person half carried, half supported the other and stumbled away from the Stargate, its inner track already rotating to lock on the first symbol. As they reached near the dividing mirrored wall, they didn't see it vanished with barely a spark and the pair passed through where it should have been.

"We can't dial out now. We better find a place to…" His voice trailed off when he turned around and saw the twin Stargate quietly standing there in the darkness. He jumped as he gawked at it. "What the-? There's another Stargate here!"

Second chevron locked.

"A second Stargate?" the smaller one whispered, hands reaching out to clutch the other's forearm. "How is it possible?"

"Who cares?" the other answered curtly. "Can you get it working?"

"Help me…to the Giza…" the smaller one said, before gasping and falling back on his knees.

Third chevron engaged.

Swiftly, the taller one scooped up his companion into his arms with barely a grunt, glancing back at the Stargate where they came from. The building trembled as if vibrating along with the activated ring.

"The tablet…" the smaller one whispered, rummaging around his pockets. "It might have the…symbols…"

Without shifting his load, the taller one carried his friend over to the DHD, stepping up on the coverstone. The other pulled out a square tablet from within the folds of his cloak.

Fourth chevron…locked.

With a shaky hand gripping a round palm size stone, the smaller man waved it over the flat surface. Within that movement, the symbols wavered, shifted around and then solidified. He fumbled around, touching the surface as the taller one mumbled about the Stargate behind them.

"T-there…" He extended a hand out to the dial, fumbling around for the symbols that matched the ones on the tablet.

"To the left…that's right…last one…" the taller one said tersely. He turned his head when he heard the next one.

Fifth chevron…locked.

No time.

The twin Stargate in front of them sparkled to life and the tall one sighed in relief. Without setting his friend down, he whipped out his arm, revealing a black glove with a GDO device strapped to it. Punching in the code, he paused, waiting for it to get through.

Sixth chevron was now locked. Last one.

Green light.

Signal received.

"Hang on." he murmured, bowing his head low so the other could hear. When he heard the last symbol engaged, he abruptly turned around, pulled out a grenade, rolled it to the other Stargate and leaped through the active one with his friend in his arms.

Seconds later, six Jaffa soldiers, helmets shaped like hawks, came through the Stargate. They charged through, pass the still unseen wall, staff weapons waving around as if searching. They barked something to the central figure, a small cloaked person, who hissed at the sight of the lit up Stargate before them. But before any of the guards could reach the DHD to read the symbols, the leader spied the grenade.

"Jaffa, trek loy!" the leader commanded, but it was too late.

The grenade exploded, adding to the slight vibrations of the planet and destroying parts of the ceiling all together. With a flash of light and a screech of sound, the room became dark and the wall reappeared once more, reflecting the Stargate the two visitors just went through.

* * * * *

Jack steadied Daniel as soon as their feet landed on the ramp. Nodding to say he was okay, the scientist stepped away, leaning against the rail, hand on his head with a grimace.

"SG-1, what happened?" General Hammond's voice boomed over the PA system.

"The planet was suffering severe seismic activity, sir. We had to leave before we could get a chance to-" Carter froze when she heard the first chevron light up.

"Incoming travelers!" a voice shouted through the microphone as the alarms went off. Red spotlights from the sirens spun wildly around the room. Soldiers began rushing in through the opening bulk doors, readying their M-16s towards the Stargate and any possible intruders who might be coming through.

"Shit!" Jack dragged the dazed archaeologist to his feet again. Daniel turned his head, gawking at the Stargate, mouth slightly opened, but O'Neill jerked him forward. This was no time for academic curiosity. "Everyone off the ramp!" The team staggered away as the iris closed. But then abruptly, the shield opened again.

"What the hell?" The colonel whipped his head around as he and the others got behind the barricades. "Shut the iris! No one's due back for another day!"

"I'm getting a code through!" one of the technicians shouted back from behind the observation booth.

"Whose?" Sam shouted as she pulled out her gun. She watched the last chevron light up and tensed, aiming her weapon right at the event horizon as the Stargate flared up once more.

"SG…" The technician gasped. "SG-1!" General Hammond started, staring at the technician in shock.

"What?" Jack exclaimed as the wormhole engaged and the sparkling column of light shot vertically ahead. With a yank, he pulled out his own weapon out of his hip holster and aimed for the event horizon, shouting over his shoulder to the booth behind him. "Shut the Stargate-"

Before he could finish, a cloaked figure stumbled through. Soldiers in the embarkation room all steadied their guns at the intruder. The visitor paused, steadying himself and the body he carried so carefully in his arms.

"Stay where you are!" Hammond's voice boomed out in the room and the figure jumped.

"J-john?" The body stirred, a trembling white hand came out from the covers and tugged weakly at the other person's cloak. The other man didn't speak. He turned slowly, eyeing his surroundings. Seeing the guards with their weapons pointed at them, he tightened his hold on the other. Sensing the tension, the other person's hand stilled, fingers tangled in his comrade's cloak.

"Identify yourself!" Hammond demanded, leaning forward to the glass.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sam saw O'Neill pushing Daniel down deeper behind the barricades before pulling out his gun. Teal'c crouched behind the colonel, his zat gun aimed towards the intruders. She tensed as she saw the person shrugged, trying to remove the cloak without using his hands. The brown hood slipped off easily enough, revealing the black jumpsuit underneath it, and when Carter saw the face behind the hood, she gasped.

Jack, stunned, stood up and gaped at who it was.

It was him.

Rather, it was Jack O'Neill, standing at the top of the ramp, dressed in the brown ratty cloak.

Suspicious brown eyes narrowed, scanning the room at the soldiers before they fell upon Sam. The double visibly straightened at attention when he saw her. "Commander? What the hell is going on here?" the Jack look-a-like hissed. "This doesn't look like Antarctica here!"

"Antarctica?" Sam stammered, her gun wavering. "Commander?"

The man's face darkened, studying her up and down. "You're not Sammy." He shifted slightly as if trying to pull out a weapon, but froze when he heard the answering click of a dozen others.

"Wh't's h-happening?" The person he was carrying was now audibly worried, to a point that he finally had to speak again. "J-john?"

"Shh…" the person called John said. He eyed the room with a glare. His eyes observed the numbers with an easy military eye, probably calculating his odds, weighing his chances. The corner of his mouth twitched as the number of weapons trained on him grew, dozens of red dots from laser sights dancing on his chest. When his eyes landed on Jack, he stiffened. "What the-?" John took a step back.

"J-john?"

The man didn't answer to the companion he carried, but his hands tightened around the body, the cloak folding into wrinkles under his grip. "Who are you?" he demanded of his twin.

Jack eyed the intruder, getting the strangest sensation of looking at a mirror. It left him with a lightheaded feeling as he responded, compelled for some reason to keep his voice low. "Colonel Jack O'Neill of the SGC."

"Jack O'Neill…SGC?" John repeated. "What the hell is an SGC?"

Hammond, sensing no threat now, spoke into the microphone softly. "Stargate Command." He eyed Jack down below. "Colonel?"

O'Neill shook his head. "P3R-233, sir?"

The general nodded, making the reference almost instantly. There were some missions one never forgets. "Stand down, men."

The soldiers reluctantly lowered their weapons. One or two of them would glance back towards the colonel, then back at the man on the top of the ramp, confusion clear on their faces.

"What the hell is going on here?" John grated out, eyeing Jack warily as the colonel approached him slowly. With each thud Jack's boots made on the metal ramp, John seemed to tense even more.

"Who are you?" Jack asked softly, unable to tear away from his mirror image. His eyes then drifted to the bundle John was carrying. The man saw where Jack's eyes were and growled, shifting sideways as if to shield his ward from prying eyes.

"Stay away from us!" John snarled. Jack stilled. "I demand to know where the hell are we-" John froze, his eyes glued to someone behind Jack.

The colonel turned around and saw his twin's attention was focused on Teal'c, the Jaffa still poised for the possibility of attack, his staff weapon standing there clear in the open. Jack started to turn, about to reassure the man, when he heard Carter cry out a warning. He whipped back his head and grabbed John's wrist in time before the gun fired from within the folds of his cloak sleeve, the bullet striking the observation booth window and stuck there. The technicians, forgetting the glass was bulletproof, dove for cover while General Hammond stood, his jaw clenched as he watched Jack tried to twist the captured wrist, fighting for the weapon.

Another bullet fired, harmlessly up at the ceiling. At the sound, the soldiers tensed and the guns went up again, this time aiming for the visitor's head. Red dots flew wildly for John's forehead.

"Hold your fire!" Hammond called out as he saw Jack deftly disarmed the man. John stumbled, falling to the ground, dropping his ward on the ramp. The person cried out when he landed and Jack froze. The voice sounded so familiar.

"Dan!" John cried out alarm. He pushed Jack away as he scrambled over to the person. He gathered up his companion into his arms, shaking him frantically. "Dan?"

The hood slipped back from the struggle, revealing the drawn, pinched features of-

Daniel Jackson.

"Oh my God," Jack breathed.

John shook the Daniel look-a-like anxiously. "Danny?"

"C-can't breathe…" Dan gasped out, eyes clenched shut, one hand fumbling around for John again. "J-john…" His head lolled back as his lungs heaved. His long locks of hair parted, revealed silver discs on the sides of his temples. His legs kicked feebly as lungs struggled to draw air without any success.

John whipped up his head, his brown eyes now filled with panic. They locked with Jack's and the colonel was struck with a sense of a dream or nightmare happening before him.

"Please…someone help him…someone help my brother!"

To Be Continued in Fate's Reflection...

* * * * *