samandjack.net

Story Notes: Grace Unbecoming 6: Spoilers: I don't think there's anything…

A/N: My muse finally woke up and wouldn't leave me be. So here you are. I hope that this turns out to hold all of your attentions in a good way. Any and ALL previous chapters to this series can be found on my site. It's pretty necessary to read those before this one.

Dedication: To Claira and Venom… who put up with a lot of fic- complaining on my part.


Their footsteps echoed hollowly along the dark crystal tunnels of the Tok'ra base. Others wandered past and paid them little heed, dismissing the presence of SG1 to yet another vital move on the behalf of the Tok'ra.

{They do not pay you much attention.} Raine noted, watching three armed guards move out of their way as they stepped through the archway into the wider chamber of the High Council.

[It's not unusual, Raine. If we are necessary for them, they will pay us little more than courtesy.] Sam rolled her eyes and Raine's internal sigh and corrected herself. [Fine, more than courtesy, but it's forced.]

Sam stepped to the side and watched from the corner of her eye as both Daniel and Teal'c took up their positions beside her and behind Jack. Sam could read his mood like it was written on the back of his head. His tight shoulders and rigid stance relayed all that she needed to know about his state of mind. If he had been carrying a gun his trigger finger would have been very itchy indeed.

{That would not have been a good thing.} Raine smiled gently, knowing as well as Sam did that even if Jack *had* carried that gun there was no chance in hell of another Tok'ra being injured.

If only because General Hammond was specific in his desire to maintain the Tok'ra/Earth Alliance.

The sterile grey crystalline wall that surrounded them reflected very little light and Sam suppressed a shiver. Something in the back of her mind was yelling at her, screaming in tension and nervousness, even though the threat of an enemy being there was close to nil. She didn't understand why she was having such an adverse reaction to being back to Raine's home.

{I have yet to understand your `instinct', Samantha, but from what I have seen of it, it have served you well.} Sam could almost hear Raine thinking through the events of the last couple of weeks. {We are here to accuse the High Council of something of which we have no proof.}

"Sam?"

Sam turned on her heel, catching sight of her dad standing in the archway.

"Dad!" She moved and took the older man into a warm and comfortable hug.

After hugging her, Jacob moved to greet each of the other members, granting Jack an extra shake of the hand, something that Sam did not miss. She smiled discreetly and as soon as Jacob had moved past them to the table in the middle of the room, she glanced at her Colonel and grinned inanely at him.

{I do not understand your behaviour, Samantha.} Raine said, a hint of humour tingeing what Sam would normally call irritating words.

[You'll learn.]

{That I will, Samantha that I will.}

With that last thought, five more Tok'ra filed into the resounding chamber, their soft foot falls still managing to echo off of the walls. Stiff clothing rustled uncomfortably as they stood lined up behind the table and faced SG-1.

"The High Council welcomes you."

Jack graciously steeped back and allowed Daniel to do all the tricky formal stuff that he usually did so well.

"Honoured members of the Council, I would like to thank you for receiving us on such short notice. We understand that your time is short, so we would like to put forth our concerns." Daniel took a breath, turned to his fellow team members and, taking strength from their stance behind him, faced the imposing members of the High Council again.

"Concerns?" One voice asked.

"As you have seen of late, information that the Tok'ra have passed onto to the SGC in hopes of partnership in action has become… broken or left incomplete." Daniel gathered his courage and continued before any of the council could intervene. "It is worrisome for those of us relying on your information, as well as for our leaders who fear that maybe there is something that you are intentionally withholding from us."

Hushed, harsh whispers erupted from the five standing behind the table as they turned to each other to discuss the accusation. Sam watched intently, her eyes darting over two members particularly. Behind them stood Torin, his stance reminiscent of the anger that he had showed her in the briefing room only days ago. Even though his hands were clasped behind his back, Torin was listening intently to the conversation that the two members were having and would, amazingly, interject their conversation.

Sam was curious as to why he was not reprimanded for his presumptuous actions.

{Perhaps they value his input.} Raine supplied, though Sam could feel her interest in the chain of command.

Sparing a quick glance to Jack on her right, Sam noticed that his eyes were drawn to the same dark man, and the two members who were talking to animatedly before him. He caught her eye and nodded his recognition of the situation.

"Over the last several months, several teams of the SGC have reported that information passed on to them from the Tok'ra has been incomplete. In fact, so incomplete, that pertinent and somewhat obvious information – such as shift changes and arrival times – have been left out." Daniel eyes the members obliquely, hoping that by looking at them he wasn't threatening them. "One obvious display of such lack of information stands here before you." Daniel gestured to her out of the corner of his eye, keeping them trained on the diplomats before him. "On one mission that SG-1 was specifically asked for, knowledge of the shift change could not have been less accurate. In fact, the time given was when there was a battalion change. We were led into a trap, an ambush that nearly cost us one of the greatest warriors that this fight has at the moment."

Raine politely controlled the blush that normally would have stained her features at such a compliment, and Sam remained in her protective pose two feet behind Daniel.

"How is it that you know the information was intentionally omitted in the report?" One of the members that stood near Torin asked.

Daniel turned to Teal'c, and gestured to the Jaffa to continue.

With a polite nod of his head, Teal'c stepped forward and faced the Council.

"As former First Prime of Apophis, I was placed in charge of scheduling shift changes as well as battalion replacements. Under such supervision came strict guidelines as to when and where such changes would occur. Battalions require much advance planning as many Jaffa are required to move specifically. Anyone who would have had access to shift changes would have also known of battalion changes, even if they do take place on the same time tables."

Nodding once more, Teal'c took a step back and retreated behind Daniel, who once again took over.

"Any operative who had access to shift changes would have been able to tell when it was that a battalion would have been arriving."

The Council members once again turned to themselves, leaving Daniel fiddling nervously, though inconspicuously. His role as diplomat was something that he took extremely to heart and he did his absolute best at any moment. Signs of nervousness were not conducive to instilling confidence in those listening to him.

"Why then would someone want to do this?"

"Of that we are unsure, your Eminence." Daniel clasped his hands behind his back and stood tall. "We were hoping that any distaste that the Tok'ra feel for our… inferiority would have, by this time, been diminished by the loyalty we have showed you in various situations."

"And the same is true for us, Daniel Jackson. There are many differences between our peoples, but there are many more that bind us in our fight against the Goa'uld."

Daniel nodded politely, accepting the members words for what they were – an honest assessment of their situation.

"We were hoping so. But the fact still remains that information passed to us has either been tainted from the beginning or have been tampered with just prior to our receiving it."

All five member of the council looked to each other and then back at the Daniel and the rest of the team, their worry obvious.

"You believe that there is a Goa'uld spy among us?"

"We have seen it happen before, your Eminence."

Sam shifted uncomfortably. The tension in the room had simply begun to escalate and without any protection with them, she felt vulnerable to the situation. Jack was standing straighter too, his eyes consistently scanning.

"I assure you that any information that has been played with has happened after it has gone through our inspection."

"That is good news." Daniel said. "However, it leaves us with the problem as to who is doing the tampering."

"There are few members who have the authority…"

"Hey!" Jack suddenly shouted, pointing across the room. "Where are you going?"

Dozens of eyes turned to see Torin disappear into the maze of tunnels.

Daniel spoke up. "Is Counsellor Torin one of those members?"

"Yes, he is."

Suddenly Goa'uld was spoken and several Tok'ra soldiers darted past the still forms of SG-1.

"Let us help you in your search." Teal'c deep voice rang heavily through the suddenly still chamber, even as other voices echoed hollowly down the halls. "We are four more who desire to catch the same man."

One of the members gestured to a soldier and four zats were passed out as they left the room.

Sam's heart beat in her chest, rapidly filling her ears with the rushing blood until she felt a pure hatred against the Goa'uld flooding her senses. That he would play on so many emotions to try and get so many people killed was something that she could not seem to grasp. Her footfalls fell in steady cadence with the three other men with her, but she paid little attention to them, so focused on Torin she was. Suddenly all was calm and she was no longer in control.

{I am sorry Samantha, but it appears to me as if your personal vendetta against Torin may effect how you work right now.}

In that first moment, Sam felt insulted by her symbiote's harsh observation of her actions, but on retrospect, Sam was almost grateful that she wouldn't have to handle the time when she did get her hands on that spy.

Lost in her thoughts, Sam lost track of the three guys who were with her. They had rounded a corner and when Sam had done the same a few moments later, they were nowhere in sight. She frantically checked the adjoining passageways to no avail. Confused as to where they could have disappeared so quickly, Sam nonetheless felt confident in her ability to handle herself if she should happen to come across Torin.

She chose a random passage and started down it, her eyes and ears keeping track of anything around her that could clue her in to Torin's whereabouts. Eventually she found herself in league with two other Tok'ra, in the hunt for the spy. They were quiet and efficient, and Sam noticed that their methods of movement and concentration had changed since they had met each other. It was a useful alliance to maintain if it helped more people to be saved from the Goa'uld.

They didn't talk, didn't introduce eah other, though she was pretty sure that they would know who she was. She felt better in their silent presence however, and in the back of her mind – that which wasn't focused on Torin's whereabouts – wondered how Jack and the other's were doing.

Sam spent several minutes walking the halls, her footsteps become faster and faster as she moved further from the centre of the Tok'ra base. Fewer Tok'ra wandered the ways here, and Torin had any number of chambers in which to hide. She now felt especially grateful for the two men walking along behind her.

Suddenly, to her left, a branch of tunnels took off into the darkness, unusual in their appearance only because they were not typical Tok'ra crystals. The notable grey of the Tok'ra crystals was faded into blackness, dark and dull.

Without a moments thought, Sam took on down the tunnel, her zat ready to defend herself. There were few sounds, and those only came from the echoes of people moving past the way she had come. Her own footfalls were silent and unnoticed in the other faint sounds, developed over years of watching how the Colonel moved in the field. She was grateful that her companions had learned the skill of stealth.

{He is near.} Raine said, her sense of another Goa'uld heightened in the moment of searching.

"Torin! I know you're here, you traitor!"

Seconds lapsed by in silence, and vaguely, Sam could hear frantic voices down the hall. Someone else was coming for her. If she could stall him…

"Torin is no more, Samantha."

The hollow distorted voice that was distinctly Goa'uld was warped even more by it's echoes off of the walls. Sam looked over her shoulder at the two others standing quietly behind her. Their stances were tense, but she could tell that they were ready for what they might have to do.

"So, then, what do I call you?" Sam walked forward slowly, the dim light outlining the frame of an archway to her left. Glancing quickly around, she found that no other passageways forked off from this section. This was where he had to be.

"You have disrupted years of careful planning, Samantha. Few things could have made me more angry."

Hastily, Sam ducked her head around the corner to take in the terrain of the room. He stood in the back, facing the doorway, his zat at the ready. Sam signalled to her companions about his position in the room and then went back to thinking how they were going to be able to get him out of there.

"Well, you know, I would love to feel sorry for you, but it's just not happening."

{You have spent too much time in the company of Colonel O'Neill.} Raine commented while maintaining awareness of Sam's vital systems and allowing her to keep the greatest of control over her reactions. Sam could tell that all of her senses were enhanced, for she could see nearly perfectly in the dark, hear voices several hundred meters away and scan areas faster than before.

"You do realise that you are trapped down here, don't you? There really is no way that you would be able to leave these tunnels alive… but your host might live." Sam thought through her options, but there were very few variables in this situation that would give her even the slightest advantage over him. There was really only one thing to do…

See who had the greater reflexes.

She looked to one of the Tok'ra and relayed that she would like him to move to the other side of the entrance. Swiftly, and without hesitation he darted across the opening and settled down on the other side, his zat, resting lightly within his grasp. She nodded to him and smiled at him in admiration. He had done that well.

"Ahh, you are not alone." She heard him moving around within the chamber and chanced a look. He had moved to one side and was now covered by wall on three sides and out of her direct line of sight.

"Shit," she muttered. She decided that the best way to handle this would be to rush him, though she knew that there were many things that she could be missing. She silently conveyed her plan to the others with her and then, on a spur of the moment, sent the one with her back into the tunnels to go and gather help. Silently he disappeared down the black tunnels.

She nodded to her counterpart and with her fingers counted down to one…

Suddenly, she lurched forward, her zat raised to Torin and her finger on the trigger.

Nothing happened.

She blinked in confusion.

Through her confusion she noticed that the Goa'uld had a personal shield device with him anyway and he zat wouldn't have worked. In fact, the Tok'ra with her was zatted and she watched, shocked as the Goa'uld shot him again, a look of pleased satisfaction lining his now possessed features.

The Goa'uld laughed, stalking confidently towards her. "You did not believe that I would have allowed weapons against me to work, did you?" Fearfully, Sam stood, her pride and honour forcing her to her feet in defiance of his power. Raine stayed mercifully silent, though her own feelings on their imminent doom were very tangible in Sam's mind. He cocked his head at her, impressed by her stature and waved his hand in her general direction. Sam caught sight of a ribbon device and closed her eyes: even if the zat had worked, he would have had a shield in place.

"Yes, I am quite well prepared for this situation." He said arrogantly. He glared at her, his eyes flashing in indignation and hatred. His hand raised to her. "I do however, have a symbiote that would greatly admire your body." An evil smile spread over his dark features and Sam grimaced at the implications of his words. "Killing your symbiote would provide me with great pleasure, however…"

Then from his hand emerged a thin translucent band of orange light that dug into her mind. Searing pain burrowed into her head, expanding and radiating from it's nesting spot behind her eyes. Fire burned in her eyes, forcing her to close them, to shield them as much as possible…

{Samantha, I must go…}

[No! Don't leave!]

{He will kill you.}

[He will kill us both. I am as good as dead regardless of you being with me. I will not become a host to a snake.]

A brief respite from the ribbon device came from within as Raine fought the pain, her joy and happiness at Sam's acceptance of her as something other than a Goa'uld flooding her with gratitude.

{Your Jack will find you. You know he will. I cannot cause you anymore pain. He will cease using his device if he believes I am dead…}

Her presence diminished instantaneously… no more words, no more feelings, no more thoughts. Her body fell forwards onto her hands as she knelt on the floor and she retched. Great heaving sobs of regret and pain tore from her throat as her body expelled Raine onto the dark floor before her. The pain stopped. Thinking stopped. Feeling stopped.

The world faded.

***

Jack skidded to a stop and rounded the corner just as the ring disappeared into the ground once more.

"Damn it!"

He had turned three quarters of the way back to the entrance when something on the floor caught his attention.

Raine.

He raced forward, his hands trembling as he fingered the symbiote.

"O'Neill!"

Teal'c's deep voice sounded off of the walls and the symbiote on the floor jerked into his palm.

"Get a Tok'ra, Teal'c! We need help!" He gingerly held the Tok'ra in his hands and raced out of the dark room, beating past the stunned Jaffa and down into the greater passageways. He very nearly bowled over several soldiers in his attempt to rush Raine to help.

"O'Neill, we have found the spy… Major Carter was…"

"Oh no. Raine." Daniel's solemn voice was soft and full of realization at Raine being out of Sam.

Suddenly, in a fury of movement and coordination, Raine was out of his hand sand into the care and guidance of people who knew what to do with her since she was out of a host. They disappeared.

Stunned into shocked silence, Teal'c, Daniel and Jack followed the Tok'ra through the halls. Hushed whispers flowed through those who watched them pass, following them like a tidal wave to their destination.

When the group carrying Raine turned into a chamber, and one Tok'ra held them from entering, a solemn look on his face. Suddenly Jack snapped out of his shock and looked around frantically.

"Where's Carter? Where are they bringing Raine, then?"

"Jack…"

Jack swivelled with perfect balance to face Jacob, standing in the corridor, ten feet from him. The man looked scared and haggard, uncertain of his news.

"Raine can't go back into Sam."

Jack blinked, thinking that maybe he had heard that wrong. "I'm sorry?"

"They're both too badly hurt to be blended again. It took a lot of energy for Raine to leave Sam willingly and coupled with the time spent out of a host, she's too weak to try and blend with Sam again."

"Why? That doesn't make any sense." Jack gestured, his confusion with the situation scaring him.

"Sam's hurt, Jack. Hurt to an extent that if Raine were given the opportunity to blend with her again, they would both die. By putting Raine into a healthy and willing host, she has a much greater chance of surviving."

Jack's head swung from side to side, glancing from the slight glow emanating from the chamber behind him to Sam's father.

Suddenly an undeniable, overwhelming hatred flooded Jack's system, his finger's twitching at his side, gripping his zat until his knuckles turned white. Images of a beaten and bloody Torin flashed through his mind and pumped the blood faster and quicker; forcing his feet to move and his mouth to demand where the spy was.

"Jack!"

"O'Neill!"

The cries that emerged from his friends fell on deaf ears as Jack made his way to the crowd of people gathered at the end of one of the halls. His feet were guided by revenge, his senses tuned to the deep resonating voice of the Goa'uld. Jack burst through the line of guards surrounding him and went up to him, standing toe to toe.

Only years of training himself held his anger and allowed him to analyze his enemy from inches away. The smug look that the Goa'uld held in the face of his aggressor did not end up effecting Jack's temper. He confidently cocked his head to the side and looked straight into the eyes of the *thing* that had nearly taken Sam from them. Jack took a breath.

"Didn't work, did it?"

"Oh, nearly as well as I had hoped, Colonel O'Neill."

"Oh?" Jack feigned surprise at the fake confidence the Goa'uld was using. "Well, let's see. You've A) managed to solidify relations between two of your greatest enemies; B) even further tick off two of your greatest enemies; C) screwed up your assignment and D) basically consigned yourself to an eternity of torture and pain in the hands of your two greatest enemies. But you know what?"

The Goa'uld stood silent in the face of the unnerving calmness of the angered man before him.

"All that comes after I've had you extracted in the most painful way possible from the innocent person you've infested." Jacob's stern voice came from over Jack's shoulder, but Jack didn't show any surprise. It might have been a little presumptuous to think that Jack would be allowed to beat the host into submission… seeing as the host had nothing to do with the snake's actions.

Jack was surprised that he was beginning to see the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld as two different being with completely different ideologies regarding the host. Raine had been a good influence and a calm teacher. He found that he would be missing her. He had only one thing left to say before he went to his Major's side.

"Cause once you're out of that body, you're nothing but a parasite… a vulnerable, defenceless creature at the mercy of whoever happens to be around. And none of the good people here are your friends."

With the last snarled threat, Jack turned and made his way through the crowd to where Jacob now stood beside his resting daughter.

"What happened to her, Jacob?"

"We think that Raine left Sam in an attempt to stop the Goa'uld from using his ribbon device, so right now she's unconscious and in pain because of it. But she's going to be fine, Jack." The older man laid a gentle hand on the Colonel's forearm, reassuring Jack's worries.

Brown eyes flickered to the pale figure on the bed before him and then down the hall in the direction that they had come from.

Raine was down there.

Sam was here.

They were never to be together again.

And Jack wasn't so sure if Jacob's assessment of his daughter's health was true.

~FIN~




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