Disclaimer: Stargate SG1 and its characters are property of Stargate (II) productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money was exchanged. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations and story are property of the author. This story may be linked, but not be posted anywhere else without the consent of the author.

Notes: Unbeta'd
This fic makes a slight reference to a story I wrote that is set after 'Scorched Earth' - there's no big, gigantic need-to-know that comes with the reference, but just so you don't go "Huh? I missed that on the DVD" and go looking for what I'm talking about, you'll see it when I actually post the Scorched Earth epilogue. xP

Breaking Point

"Daniel, where are you going?"

Daniel Jackson stormed through the Stargate, handing off his P90 and flak vest, giving General Landry only a cursory nod as he made a beeline for the blast doors, with Vala on his heels. "Daniel?"

He stopped abruptly and did a 180, hands held palm-out to ward her off, ignoring the tear tracks still evident on her face and the surprised gazes of both Teal'c and Mitchell. "Just...stay here," he urged while trying to keep his voice level, his jaw set.

"Daniel, we can't--"

"I know!" he snapped. "I'll be back before then, just...leave me alone, will you?" At this very moment, Daniel could honestly say he didn't give a rat's ass about the 'bond' between himself and Vala. He needed escape, and he needed it now. Without waiting for Vala's response, Daniel fled the gateroom at a pace just shy of a run, heading for the mountaintop.

=====

"Do you truly believe?"

"Hallowed are the Ori..."

A wordless shout of rage escaped Daniel's lips, and he lashed out, a foot connecting with an innocent stump on the incline he was traversing. "God damn it!" he yelled, allowing himself the release that, recently, had been restricted to frustrated verbal snipes at Vala. It was too much, too hard to handle...

Those fucking Ori!

Daniel swallowed hard, tasting bitter rage and embarrassing fear that gave him pause whenever he thought about the ascended beings and their zealous followers. He didn't understand why he was so out of control, why he felt like such a loose cannon. Nothing, not in nine years of being involved with the Stargate, had made him feel like this. Even after losing Sha're, Daniel could keep the intense grief and sorrow inside, at least until he was within the safety of his own apartment, could keep it from interfering with his work.

But this...

Daniel started walking again, determinedly, deeper into the forested mountaintop, not caring how far he walked or how long it took him to get there. Any minute now, he'd have company; Jack would show up, and--

Daniel stopped in his tracks and sat down heavily, his back against a tree. He was overlooking Colorado Springs from here, sitting in the very spot he and Jack had very nearly come to blows over the incident with the Enkarans and Gadmeer almost five years ago.

"Five years," Daniel said aloud. It was surreal, looking back on everything SG-1 had actually been through over the years. Everything had seemed so new, so exciting, so...huge. The Goa'uld, scourge of the galaxy, and SG-1, the intrepid heroes gallivanting off across said galaxy, sticking their noses where they didn't belong but managing to come out relatively unscathed.

And now it turned out the 'evil' they'd been fighting so long and so hard wasn't even the tip of the iceberg. They'd been 'protected' by the Ancients against the real threat.

SG-1, saviors of the galaxy.

"What a joke," Daniel muttered, washing a hand down his face and feeling as he did so the beard he'd been sporting for the past few months. It had been Jack's dare to him before his friend had left for Washington--going to Atlantis, it was a big step, a new beginning, and if Daniel looked more mature there, he 'might not get into quite so much trouble'. Jack had been joking...well, half-joking, of course, but Daniel had made him a deal that, if he kept the beard for a full year, Jack would fork over two hundred bucks. Since he'd missed Daedalus, Daniel had left the beard out of some act of defiance, that he would still get to Atlantis, still make that dream come true...and winning the bet was a plus side to that, too. Keeping the beard, he'd retained his stubbornness and the teasing he endured whenever he spoke to Jack over the phone, the good-natured teasing from his best friend--just like it had always been.

But nothing was the same. Daniel wasn't so na�ve to think so.

Jack was in Washington. Sam was splitting her time between Area 51 and Prometheus. Teal'c was reluctant to spend more time on Earth than he had to, determined to keep things under control on Dakara. Daniel was physiologically bonded to a woman who annoyed the hell out of him with no end to said bond in sight. There was a new leader of SG-1, of which Daniel wasn't even an official part of anymore, and a new General in charge of operations at the SGC. The infirmary hadn't been the same since Janet's death; the two short-lived doctors following her had been aloof, purely job-focussed. The new CMO, Lam, was no exception - the woman was cold, rarely a hint of warmth in her features, and she always seemed to be scrutinizing everyone around her.

And now Daniel had introduced the evil his na�ve galaxy had been shielded from for so long. Because he was curious. "FUCK!" he enunciated clearly and loudly, taking perverse pleasure in the satisfying way the expletive echoed and seemed to wash over the entire city.

As Daniel sat, simmering, his thoughts raced, drifting back to P8X-412...that Prior, the one that had been responsible for nearly burning Vala and Daniel alive...Daniel hated the rush of fear that accompanied those memories and the memories of the Ori's City of the Gods. What an understatement it had been, telling Jack he was 'scared'. Terrified about covered it. If those things could burn someone alive in someone else's body while their own was a million light-years away...

Was it so selfish to want things to go back to the way they used to be? Days before he'd ever heard of ascension, where finding his wife, fighting the mortality-challenged Apophis and forging those deep, lasting bonds with his friends were his primary troubles. Days before friend after friend had been killed, or possessed by the Goa'uld...

Daniel had never been one for nostalgia. He'd had enough backfires and turnarounds in his life to learn to roll with the punches and live life a day at a time. But this was getting under his skin in a way nothing else ever had before. An evil in their galaxy, brought on because of him, with powers that obviously rivalled the Ancients. Daniel sighed shakily and stood. He had to fix this; had to move ahead, fight. It seemed hopeless, but Daniel refused to be the catalyst for more death and destruction.

"We'll use our strengths against their weaknesses."

Oh, they had strengths, all right. Their strengths included finding enemies' weaknesses.

This wouldn't beat him.

The Ori wouldn't beat him.

First thing tomorrow, he was shaving off the damn beard.

But Jack wouldn't be getting his two hundred bucks.

You have to keep your friends in touch somehow.

The End...?
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