Gaia - The Princess 4

The Rescue

by romansilence

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/asr/rsilence/gaiath04.php
Summary: Sam is still in the hands of the Goa'uld Nut, but Janet's story about the rescue of Queen Gabrielle and Consort Xena a few months prior comes to an end

PRESENT DAY: ON BOARD OF THE SCYTHIA

"Do you want to talk about it, Janet?"

"No, Gabrielle... yes, I think I should. I'm sure that I could help her but outside of the sarcophagus she shuts me out. She doesn't want me to feel what's going on, and the signals I get when I can reach her are really strange. I can feel her love for me. I feel her pain and her fear and even her anger. But I also feel some strange kind of concern for this Goa'uld, this Nut. I'll have to think about it but I'm not ready to do this just yet.

"Let's work on your story. It will keep my mind off things I can't change, and remind me that one can beat even impossible odds. And you can fill me in on the things that I missed."

~*~

THE PAST: M5X-179

They were lucky. The sensors on board the XS-01 found nothing that indicated the existence of a force field and the dampening technique their opponents used at close range also was easily penetrated by the superior sensor array of the XS-01.

Samantha fine tuned her plan in a short radio conversation with Master Niva. She flew close to the roof and the walls of the temple to check for energy barriers of any kind, and finally landed behind a boulder the size of an elephant about two hundred paces from the rear wall of the temple. The crystal specialists and eight warriors of the Royal Guard left through the hatch and disappeared behind the stone cover to wait for her signal.

Samantha brought the aircraft to the other side of the building. She touched ground as close to the entrance as she dared and gave the signal. Moments later the south side of the temple was attacked by Master Niva and half of the warriors. Explosives detonated close to the walls at the north side. Jaffa burst from behind the dilapidated outer walls and tried to fight them off, flanked by a group of Tok'ra with staff weapons and ribbon devices.

The guards at the front entrance, however, were unfazed by the pandemonium breaking out all around them and didn't move a muscle, just as Samantha had predicted. She checked her weapons and slipped the ribbon device on her fingers. She took position to the right of the door, opened it and sent two precisely aimed shots at one of the two Kull warriors standing there. Her research with Xena had taught her that the throat was the most vulnerable part of the intimidating armour. The next one fell seconds later before he even had the chance to aim his disruptor gun.

The other three and the two remaining guards were close behind her when she sprinted to the wall and peered inside. They waited for Niva and a dozen of the guards to join them while the rest of the warriors, now under Jessica Willams' command, were still fighting at the ramparts, keeping their opponents busy.

~~~

The inside of the temple was eerily quiet and calm, too calm. Samantha followed her instincts and ordered everyone to drop to the ground only moments before salvos of staff weapon fire burst over them at chest level. The answer was fierce and short.

Their attackers had been hidden behind the big pillars holding up the temple's roof. It was a decent though probably improvised manoeuvre, Samantha fleetingly thought while emptying the magazine of her weapon, a Carter special with which had gifted the consort with before returning to Earth, but they obviously had not been prepared for the firepower of their Amazon enemies or for their fierce determination.

Samantha was on one knee, cautiously surveying the carnage and finding that her own forces for all outer appearances had only sustained superficial injuries.

Suddenly a staff blast whizzed by her left shoulder; in quick succession, she heard the sounds of a body hitting the marble floor, an agonised cry, and the Amazons' equivalent of a P-90 discharging a round of bullets. She instinctively turned around and the first thing she saw in her peripheral vision was a Jaffa warrior crumbling in a heap. Her eyes then fell on Janet who was lying on the ground, unharmed but slightly disoriented; next to her was Egeria covered in blood from collarbone to abdomen, and behind them stood Aria, holding the rifle in her shaking hands.

For a very long heartbeat she was paralysed. Finally she called the rest of her small contingent at attention. The warriors of the Royal Guard quickly surrounded them in a protective ring. Janet was on her way to crawl over to Egeria, following her healer's instinct. When she came closer she knew that there was nothing she could do but at least she had to try.

Samantha was already kneeling next to the old woman when Janet began to try and stop the blood loss. Neither Samantha nor the dying woman were paying her any attention.

"This is not how I wanted to do this, Mother Egeria."

To Janet's surprise the voice that answered her partner was not the double toned one of a Goa'uld or a Tok'ra but a very pleasant, feminine voice with an almost musical quality to it. The few words she spoke were enough for her to know that she would love to hear much more of it.

"We also didn't foresee that it would happen this way. I had hoped to see Gabrielle and Xena for one last time. Let's do it now. Egeria will need all her strength to survive the transference."

"May you be reunited with your love for eternity," Samantha answered formally, bent down, and kissed the dying woman. A shudder went through her body, her eyes flashed for a short moment.

Janet didn't believe her eyes. Her blonde lover had willingly offered herself as a host. It obviously had been planned in advance, and Egeria certainly wasn't your usual run of the mill snake, but still... It was something she had been sure would never happen.

Before she could give voice to her concerns, Egeria's body flashed in a blinding white light; it slightly brushed her cheek, and the body was gone. The fleeting touch had sent a barrage of emotions and images to her mind and now she knew that everything would be alright. She had heard about ascension, but she never would have thought that it could be this breathtaking and beautiful. Suddenly, it felt right. The old woman now was with her love Athena, reunited for eternity.

Samantha slowly stood, judging by her stance and words obviously still the one in control. "Master Niva, is the temple secured?" The other woman nodded. "Good. You and six others are with me. Illiana, Janet, Aria, you form the rear guard."

The blonde purposely strode towards the stairway to the basement, but the weapons' master's voice stopped her.

"Warrior, wait! I know you are anxious to find our Queen and her consort, but it's my duty to protect you and Mother Egeria. Please, stay back with the others and let us do the mop-up in the basement. The consort trained all of us to be silent, efficient, and if need be, deadly. Let us do our job."

Surprisingly, Samantha only nodded and stepped aside to let the warriors of the Royal Guard take point. Her reasons to acquiesce to Master Niva, however, had nothing to do with security concerns, but all with the still strong current of uneasiness and fear she felt from her partner. Without caring for the sounds of fighting still drifting in from the outer walls or the group of guards the weapons' master had left behind, she took Janet in her arms.

"I'm fine, baby; we all will be fine, my love."

The brunette returned the embrace and searched her lover's blue eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was afraid that you would talk me out of it. She will not stay with me for long. Egeria said that during the last days or weeks of her existence, she wanted to be as close to her lost love as possible. Her departure for Earth was planned for the end of next week."

"My heart understands, Sammy. When Egeria's host..."

"Diti; her name was Diti."

"When Diti ascended her energy touched me. I think she wanted me to understand that you would be alright. I fleetingly felt the peace and joy she experienced at being reunited with Athena. My heart understands; it's my head that has problems keeping up.

"We don't have the faintest idea what a second symbiote dying in your body will do to your body chemistry or how you will deal with the residue of Egeria's memories should she choose to leave some with you."

"Would you have been able to deny her request, Janet?" the blonde quietly asked.

"No, my love, but I can't help but worry about you."

~~~

Before Samantha could answer, a young warrior returned and lowered herself on her right knee in front of the major as if she were one of her commanding officers.

"The basement has been cleared of thirteen hostiles, young warrior. Master Niva asks you to come down. There are two corridors of Tok'ra design branching off. Both of them are guarded by the machine souls."

"What's your name?"

"Fasira, young warrior."

"Please lead us to the weapons' master and your sisters, Fasira. I want a group of four to stay back and guard the staircase. See that no one sneaks up on us from behind."

Four women to Janet's right brought their right fists over their hearts and replied, "We heed and obey."

Samantha adjusted the ribbon device and followed the young woman down the steps. Her mind was running a mile a minute. The Amazon warriors were acting more and more strangely towards her the longer this mission took.

'We heed and obey.' She never had heard this particular expression addressed to anyone but the queen and her consort. It was possible that she just never had paid attention when someone used it to answer the weapons' master or the captain of the Royal Guards – but she knew herself good enough to easily discard this possibility. It probably was only a war time thing.

Her attention was quickly refocused on the here and now when they were greeted by two other members of the Royal Guard guarding the tightly bound unconscious bodies of eight Jaffa warriors that had been stripped of their armours and weapons. They followed a corridor and passed a small guard room where five corpses were a silent testament of Amazon effectiveness.

Samantha and her group joined with the others about five hundred paces later. Niva and her contingent of warriors were waiting behind a wall of wooden barrels in what once must have been a big storeroom. The basement ended here.

In front of the openings to the typical, dully elegant Tok'ra tunnels stood two of Anubis' super soldiers or "machine souls", as the rebel Jaffa and the Amazons called them.

The blonde took a calming breath; at once reassured and surprised that her new symbiote obviously didn't feel the need to let her presence be known. She could feel her at the edge of her mind, but it was more like the memory of something than the reality of it.

She knew she would only have split seconds to take the two statue-like soldiers down and keep them from raising an intruder alarm. The sounds of battle had faded away after only a dozen steps down the stairs; so, Samantha was reasonably optimistic that their approach had not yet been discovered.

The red crystal in the palm of her hand flared to life; its energy wave rippled through the air. One of the super soldiers sank to the ground and his companion didn't even have the time to turn his head before he succumbed to the same fate. Samantha quickly stepped over their bodies and touched the walls of the right corridor. She cocked her head as if it were able to speak to her. She did the same with the left corridor.

"Janet, Illiana, Fasira, Aria, and two others, you are with me. Master Niva, please take the rest and follow the right corridor. I'm pretty sure that you will find your sisters there. Get them out of here and back to Gaia, some probably are in need of medical attention. Keep radio silence. I'll call as soon as we have the queen and her consort."

The weapons' master was slightly shorter than the blonde Air Force pilot, but her grim nod let her appear as if she would top Samantha. However, when she turned around Janet detected a hint of reluctance in her movements; and she easily could understand why. For the proud warrior it was a question of honour to participate in the rescue of her leaders. Samantha's order instead had fulfilled the deepest desire of Niva, bondmate of Larina, captain of the Royal Guard and one of the missing warriors.

For the first time since stepping foot on this planet, the major unholstered the zat resting close to her right hip. Ever since their return from Gaia, she not only had increased her training and the sparring sessions with Teal'c but also her weapons' training. With a ribbon device at her dominating hand, she worked to increase her accuracy with the other. She not only had learned to master the Goa'uld weapon to a point that she was able to use the device either to heat water or obliterate any obstacle; the instructor at the SGC only two weeks ago had attested her by now being perfectly ambidextrous. The veteran had even speculated that her regular top scores would not be beaten for years to come.

~~~

Luckily their combat boots made almost no sound on the crystal floor. The first room they checked was empty, so were the second and the third. In the forth room they found a pile of Amazon weapons; zats, combat rifles, crossbows, daggers, a staff Janet immediately recognised as belonging to Queen Gabrielle. She instinctively took it.

The members of the Royal Guard took all the weapons they recognised as being of personal value to their owners and were about to disintegrate the rest with a zat'nikitel when Samantha saw a glimmer at the bottom of the pile. She bent down and retrieved a sword in a worn scabbard and a metal ring that only could be Xena's chakram. The blonde never had seen it before, but had heard enough of Gabrielle's stories in the almost two months they had spent on Gaia to have no doubt. She slipped the scabbard on her back and almost absentmindedly secured the chakram with a leather strip at her belt, totally missing the wide, astonished eyes of her companions.

They followed the slight curve of the corridor and found another eight rooms, all empty and all individual sleeping quarters, making testament of their inhabitants' orderliness or lack thereof. Someone obviously had planned to stay here for a long time.

Samantha signalled the others to proceed with the utmost caution.

Her mind was busy trying to make heads or tails of the whole thing. The Tok'ra, a large contingent of Jaffa from different tribes, and Anubis' soldiers; it just didn't add up.

'What had brought these warring factions together? What did they hope to gain from kidnapping and torturing the leaders of the Amazon Nation? Why now?'

There simply were too many questions.

The corridor suddenly became wider; another fork was ahead of them. Illiana wanted to split up, but Samantha stood in the middle and just listened, oblivious to any potential danger. She then purposely strode to her right and the others followed, slightly puzzled. Not even the highly trained Amazon scouts had heard anything else than the breathing of their companions. This corridor had no rooms; instead there were small barriers of varying height every ten or fifteen paces on both sides; obviously for defensive purposes.

They had just rounded a corner when angry voices erupted from a room or another corridor about fifty paces ahead and to their right. Samantha instantly recognised one of them: Anise. The other voice also sounded female, but it took the blonde another ten paces to know to whom it belonged. It was Osiris.

Surprisingly the entrance to the big room the raised voices led them to was unguarded and Samantha used one of O'Neill's favourite gadgets to peek around the corner with a wide-angle lens of her own design that allowed her to see every square inch of the whole room.

There were two Jaffa standing impassively at the wall to her left. A tall, naked, dark haired form that only could be Xena was shackled to the back wall but it was impossible to discern if she were conscious. Three Tok'ra were sitting at a long table to her right, busy checking what looked like tissue and blood samples.

Anise and Osiris were standing at the foot end of some sort of operating table and what was on the table nearly made her stomach turn. The telescope almost dropped from her hands and she pressed her back against the wall with one hand clamped over her mouth.

The heated discussion drifted to her ears. "I told you this wouldn't teach us anything, and besides, she was the wrong one to do this experiment with. We want to find out how they became immortal and not how to kill an immortal."

"One thing is for certain, if this didn't kill them, nothing will; and we already learned a great deal. You just have to look at it with a scientist's eye. And besides, your slap and torture method certainly didn't work either."

"I tell you, the only way to get them to talk is to kill a couple of their guards. They value every one of them," Osiris oily voice finally said.

Samantha knew that she had to act fast. She silently ordered Illiana and one of the warriors of the Royal Guard to take out the two Jaffa. Fasira and Aria were to keep the Tok'ra scientists at bay. She would deal with the two women, and the other Amazon would stay with Janet.

The moment the Jaffa crumbled under the assault of the Amazons' weapons, a shot from Samantha's ribbon device tore the one Anise wore to shreds. The blonde Tok'ra was propelled to the ground and clutched her bleeding hand. Samantha's next shot slammed against Osiris' chin as if it had been a right hook, testament of the control the Earth warrior had over the ribbon device and her emotions. It knocked the Goa'uld out before she had a chance to activate her personal force field. The two young warriors held the surprised scientists at gun point; none of them were armed.

Janet stepped in and nearly stopped dead in her tracks. She heard the gasping of the woman at her side and quickly slipped into doctor mode. Gabrielle's chest was spread wide open, most of the arteries to her heart were cut. They obviously had been in the process of removing her still-beating heart. To what end she didn't even want to guess. Thankfully she seemed to be unconscious.

"Sam, I need you."

The blonde took a place at the other side of the table after barking the orders, "Tie them up; I want them all to face Amazon justice. Free Xena. Guard the door."

"Put some gloves on, Sam. I need an extra pair of hands."

The tall soldier fought hard against the bile rising once again. She knew that technically the queen of the Amazons was unable to die but she never before had seen so much damage done to a body. The removal of the heart, it seemed, had been the latest in a long series of Mengele-like experiments. The ribbon device clattered to the ground and she reached for the healing device Janet had slipped into her breast pocket before they had left Gaia.

"I forgot about this thing."

Samantha's eyes flashed and she said with Egeria's voice. "I'll take care of Gabrielle. Xena needs your help, Janet."

Janet swallowed hard, her worry for her lover almost winning out over her Hippocratic Oath. "Don't overdo it, please. You're still weak from the transference."

"Go, young healer." It definitively was not a request but an order.

Once again the soldier in Janet won out and she went to care for the prone body of the consort. The warriors had positioned her on her right side, obviously the least damaged part of her body.

Her back was a mass of raw, bleeding flesh. Her legs were broken just below the knees, the shin bones shattered and sticking out. The arms also seemed to be broken in two places. The front of her body was liberally covered in bruises and cuts. Her neck bore the mark of a Goa'uld pain stick and her forehead the distinctive remnants of the use of a ribbon device.

The small doctor almost jumped out of her skin when she heard Xena's voice. "Gabrielle, have to..."

"Gabrielle will be alright, Xena. She is in good hands. Let me take care of you."

~~~

During the next half candlemark the room was eerily silent, except for Janet's voice quietly requesting one item or the other while treating the consort. Fasira knelt next to her opened backpack. The small doctor didn't know from where the young warrior got her knowledge, but she had an uncanny instinct of what she needed one moment before she asked for it. Aria's eyes were fixed on what these two were doing.

The attention of the others, including their trussed up Tok'ra prisoners, was riveted to the operation table in the middle of the room. The yellow ray of light of the healing device by now was enveloping Gabrielle's whole body. Everyone who dared to have a closer look at her would have seen how the cut blood vessels were slowly reattaching themselves, how the lungs once again started to work, how the extracted ribcage began to retract itself, the bones knitted together, and how the skin inch by inch closed over the wound.

Meanwhile Samantha marvelled at the monumental difference between the time when Jolinar had been in control and she had been nothing more than a prisoner in her own body and this time. Yes, Egeria was in control now, but what Samantha felt had nothing to do with her former experiences. She didn't feel oppressed or dominated; she didn't feel out of control. Somehow Egeria was a part of her.

After about a quarter candlemark she could feel how the symbiote was getting weaker with every passing moment. So, the blonde did something she never would have thought even possible. She took control of the healing device and used her own strength to finish restoring the Amazon Queen to health.

She heard Egeria's voice like an echo in her head. "Thank you, warrior child, your help is appreciated."

Her mind answered, 'Please, Mother Egeria, rest. I can do it alone.'

"We'll do it together, Samantha."

The mother of the Tok'ra was not to be denied. Samantha could feel how Egeria used the reserves of her body to fuel the healing device and the energy of her own spirit to control it. But she also felt something else that made her thankful that the symbiote was directing the healing. She tried to ward these feelings off. This definitively was not the time to lose control of her emotions, but there was no denying her anger and need for revenge, both slowly getting stronger.

It took another half candlemark for Gabrielle to finally open her eyes. Samantha sank to her knees and the healing device dropped to the floor next to the ribbon device, but she quickly was back on her feet.

Before she could make sure that the Amazon queen really would be alright, she heard Xena's hoarse voice from behind. "Stop her!"

Out of the corner of her eyes Samantha saw how Anise trying to run away.

Her hand immediately went to her side; with a flick of her wrist she severed the leather thong holding the chakram. She threw it. The weapon bounced off one wall, hit the Tok'ra scientist in the back, ricocheted off another wall, and returned to her still outstretched hand. She bent down and exchanged the chakram with the ribbon device. Her usually soulful blue eyes now were cold and dark.

Samantha shortly glanced at the queen who was slowly sitting up and steadied herself at the edge of the table. She was very pale, but the blonde was sure that she would be alright. So, she refocused her efforts on the Goa'uld.

Osiris had the misfortune to be in Samantha's way and was disposed of with a swift, hard kick that let her crumble in a heap. Another kick turned the prone body of Anise on her back; the ribbon device flared to life and hit its mark, the area between the Tok'ra's eyes. The woman's whole body convulsed under the onslaught.

Gabrielle looked at Samantha with disbelieving eyes, as did everyone else in the room and forced herself on her feet. She assessed the situation and found Janet hunched over Xena, but with her expressive brown eyes frozen in shock.

"Janet, stop her. You're the only one who can."

As if in a trance the brunette obeyed. She slowly stood and walked over to her partner, her mind searching for the sphere of light that was her beloved's love for her. She could feel it but she could not see it. Janet snuggled against the taller woman's back and closed her arms around her lover's slim waist. She closed her eyes and once again searched for the light. This time she found it, behind a veil of darkness.

The small doctor called her lover's name. To her it was as if she was shouting it loud enough to reverberate through the tunnel system, for the whole world to hear. All the others heard was a quiet whisper, "Sam, Sammy, come back to me."

Had the eyes of the others reflected astonishment until then, they now were full of wonder and awe. As soon as the words had been spoken the ribbon device lost its power and the blonde's hand fell to her side.

Aria stared at the two women from Earth as if they were the physical manifestations of Gaia herself. Samantha Carter not only had effectively used Xena's chakram but also the weapon willingly had returned to her. She had caught it without even a hint of scratch. And now the mere contact with her lover had been able to still the raging fury she had seen in the blonde's eyes.

Janet gently nudged her beloved around and stripped the ribbon device from her hand. She took the strong but limp hand and brought it up to her lips. She gently kissed the palm of Samantha's hand and pressed the fingers against her cheek. The tall blonde fell to her knees and clung to Janet's lithe body as if it were a lifeline. Candledrops passed in silence and the small doctor saw how the veil isolating her lover became thinner and thinner but before it was totally gone radio silence was broken by Master Niva.

"Incoming hostiles; eight Jaffa heading your way, warrior. They got past our defences."

"I'm on it, Master Niva. Get the other prisoners," Samantha ordered.

"They are already on their way to Gaia. We came back to lend you a hand. We took care of their friends and are about two candledrops behind them; entering your part of the tunnels now."

The radio fell silent and Samantha was back on her feet, the unflappable soldier back in control but the coldness of her eyes was back.

"Janet, help Gabrielle to get over to Xena. Fasira, you and the others secure our prisoners for transport. Illiana, take special care with Osiris, but try and do not harm the host. I'll take care of the Jaffa."

Before the others could even acknowledge her orders, she had picked up the chakram and was gone. For the fraction of a heartbeat Janet stared at the Carter-special the blonde had discarded prior to helping Gabrielle.

"Damn it, follow her. Stop her. She isn't even armed."

"She is, Janet. She has Xena's sword and her chakram," the queen answered with a discernible amount of sadness in her voice while Aria helped her to get over to her consort.

Janet looked at her as if she had completely lost her mind. "A sword against staff weapons and zats?! She doesn't even know how the fuck to use this thing."

"She knows, Janet. She learned it during her sophomore year," Xena said with a still very weak voice.

"Yes, and she said she stopped after the first semester because she didn't get the hang of it," Janet retorted in a mixture of anger and worry.

"She quit because the instructors didn't have anything left to teach her, and because she refused to become the poster child for college sports," the injured consort quietly explained.

The next moment all colour drained from Janet's face and she had to hold on to the bloody table to keep her balance. "Sam needs me," she said and rushed out of the room.

"Aria, keep the healer safe," the young woman was gone in a flash.

Illiana kept the other three Amazons busy with the prisoners to give their leaders some much needed privacy.

~~~

"Are you alright, Xe?"

"It's me who should ask this question, my love. How do you feel?"

"I'm fine, baby. Egeria and Samantha restored me completely."

Xena's only answer was an arched eyebrow.

"Scared, confused, resurrected, angry, confused, proud, relieved... Did I say confused?" Gabrielle answered with a shy smile.

With superhuman effort the tall warrior propped herself against the near wall, tucked all her physical pain in a hidden compartment of her brain, and drew her lover of more than two thousand years in her arms.

"I love you, Gabrielle."

"I love you, Xena."

They sat in silence and let their connection, their link do the talking.

"Diti is gone," Gabrielle finally said.

"So, she finally is reunited with her love – and Egeria resides in Samantha. That's not how it should have happened."

"No, my love."

There was nothing more to say. Samantha would have to play the cards she had been dealt, and all she and her consort would be able to do was to offer their support.

"I didn't want her to learn about it this way. I had hoped that we'd have more time to prepare them," Xena said, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible. Her wife still knew what was going on beneath the surface.

"Samantha is strong, my beloved. She will understand and accept the calling of her blood."

~~~

Janet and Aria rounded the corner to the corridor with the living quarters at a dead run and nearly stumbled over the prone body of a Jaffa. His throat had been cut, apparently with a single stroke, Janet registered in passing.

Samantha stood with her back to them, the bloody sword in her hand; in front of her seven more corpses, one of them with the chakram half embedded in his chest. The ground littered with cut off bits of staff weapons and the crystal walls bearing evidence of staff fire.

The brunette could feel the dark energy emanating from her lover. She had seen her in countless sparring sessions with the Amazons, with Teal'c and other members of the SGC. Samantha always had displayed effective accuracy in her moves and regardless of the outcome she had stayed cool and detached. Even Colonel O'Neill who was able to get a rise out of every other opponent never had been able to get her to lose her composure.

Even now her breathing was regular and she was standing absolutely still, just like in one of her exercises with the captain of the Royal Guard Janet had observed a few months prior. Her Amazon teacher had her stand in the middle of one of the training fields with a blindfold over her eyes. She had to gauge from where the attack would come. It was the same this time. She visibly waited for them to make the first move.

Janet made Aria stay back and stepped closer to her partner.

Still a body length away she could feel the tension rising in Samantha.

She closed her eyes and once again searched for the presence of her lover in her mind's eye. This time she easily found the sphere of light behind the dark veil. It was almost totally obscured but she felt it and she reached for it. The veil expanded, it came closer and closer.

It touched her; she could feel the alluring darkness of her lover's soul and began to understand why Linea had been so fascinated with her. The message she had left on the main computer after leaving and almost destroying the base had not been the only one. She also had sent a short note to Samantha's personal email account. They had found it together after they had ended up in the blonde's lab to regroup. "My debt to your people has been paid, Samantha, but one day we will see each other again, and then I will take you with me as one of my own, a kindred spirit." But her lover's soul was larger than Linea ever would be able to grasp and she would allow no one to take her away from her.

So, Janet didn't shrink back from the darkness; instead she stepped closer to the dark veil and the first layer dropped to the ground. She once again reached for the light and another layer of darkness shrank away.

The small doctor didn't open her eyes when she once again snuggled against her taller lover's back and clasped her arms around her waist.

This time she didn't shout or whisper Samantha's name; she just waited for her to pierce the last of the veils on her own. The tall blonde always had been able to find her way back on her own, regardless of how long it took or how hard it had been. She didn't want her to feel too dependent on her intervention – though at the time rationalizing her actions was furthest from her mind.

Finally Samantha's fingers let go of the sword and it clattered to the ground. The blonde turned around and immediately sank to her knees; her head pressed against Janet's stomach as if trying to hide there. The brunette bent down and gently kissed her lover's hair. The blonde began to tremble from deep inside. Despite her resolve, Janet couldn't let her go through this alone.

She pried her beloved's sword hand away from her back, bent down, and kissed her palm and the inside of her wrist. It tasted of blood and salt and of Sam, her Sam. Then she once again put the hand against her cheek.

"I love you, my Sammy. All of you," she said softly.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I left her. I left her all alone," the blonde whispered with the voice of an anguished child the doctor knew all too well from her beloved's nightmares.

"No, Sam, you returned. You didn't leave her alone. You returned and you held her and she's safe."

They had had this conversation often enough over the last couple of years for Janet to know that the gentle soul of her lover never would forgive herself for the quasi-abandonment of Cassandra. She also carried the burden of guilt for a lot of other things she hadn't had any control over or any chance to change.

Minutes turned into candlemarks.

Samantha looked up and searched eye contact. Brown eyes smiled at frightened blue orbs and Janet said, "I love you, Samantha Gabriella Carter."

"I killed them."

"They were the enemy, my love. They wanted to harm us; they wanted to kill Gabrielle, and Xena, and Illiana, and me. You did what you had to do to keep us all safe."

Neither woman noticed Master Niva and a score of warriors skidding to a halt next to the Jaffa with the chakram in his chest.

"I enjoyed killing them."

"I know, my love."

"And you still love me?"

"I love you, Sammy-baby, all of you, for always. The bright glimmer when you find a new puzzle to be solved, the dark shadow when you had to do something you abhor, the mischievous smile..."

Janet once again bent down and kissed her lover. Their lips met, their eyes closed, and just like in Samantha's dream two spheres of blinding light fused together, creating something strong enough to illuminate the whole universe.

The kiss ended only when they had to come up to breathe.

Janet pulled her taller partner back to her feet and quickly let herself be engulfed in her strong arms. Her head rested at its familiar spot on Samantha's shoulder. She listened to their heartbeats, no, to their heartbeat because ever since the first time they had made love the rhythms of their hearts were in perfect sync. Janet knew that they would be alright.

~*~

THE PRESENT: ON BOARD OF THE XS-01

The members of the search team had found their own way to cope with the inactivity and constant false trails. Jessica and Niva were trading war stories; Jennifer was either pouring over the computer readings or drawing comfort from Aria's calm presence. Daniel was studying the databanks to find more information on Nut, having exhausted the files from Earth and the Amazons. There still was no word from the Tok'ra, and Jack and Xena were tinkering with the reload sequence of the rear gun to keep their minds busy.

They dropped out of hyperspace next to an asteroid belt. Jennifer immediately manned the sensor-array and scanned for ion trails. Daniel had switched the monitors to long range scanners, and after a while muttered, "Star system ahead. Three planets, in synchronous orbits around a sun... There's a Stargate on the biggest of them, all of them are inhabited."

"Anything else?"

"We're still too far away."

"Niva, send a signal to the Scythia. We'll check them out. Tell them to stay back."

Xena would have felt better going in there with the superior fire power of the flag-ship but unfortunately it didn't have a cloak and she didn't want to alert the inhabitants of any of the planets to their presence.

Next: In The Pit