Title: Through the Looking Glass

Author: Terri D. Thomas

Status: Complete

Archive: Heliopolis; anyone else, please ask first

Category: Missing Scene

Spoilers: "Point of View"

Season/Sequel info: Set during "Point of View"

Rating: PG

Content Warnings: Minor profanity; minor violence

Summary: Daniel's point of view while alone with the quantum mirror

Author's Note: This is my first attempt at SG-1 fanfic. Done some other stuff and thought I'd try my hand at this. Comments welcome. Oh yeah, and it's not beta read. . .Yikes!

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and its characters are the property of Showtime/

Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. In other words, don't own them, just borrowing.

Through the Looking Glass

By Terri D. Thomas

1/1

"Okay, here goes," Daniel Jackson whispered, turning the small device on as Charles Kawalsky had instructed. Instantly, the quantum mirror came alive, revealing a small laboratory, immediately informing the young man that the connection to his own reality had been lost. He fought the sinking feeling which immediately struck him. "That's what I was afraid of. When I turned off the remote it lost its place. I have to find our reality all over again." 'Like it was so easy to do the first time,' his mind sarcastically added.

"All right, it's okay," Col. Jack O'Neill comforted. "We knew that might happen. Stay with it." His words were encouraging, as was the pat on the shoulder.

'Wish I could feel as sure as you sound,' Daniel's thoughts replied. 'Damn it. It took me forever to get this right the first time. . .'

He glanced over his shoulder and watched Jack and Kawalsky leave the room. It was an eerie feeling being left alone with the dead body of the Teal'c of this world. Sam. . .the other one, was with his Teal'c, trying to make it to the Stargate. Jack was with the Major trying to boost the power. Daniel knew he too had an important role in this operation, but the idea that he was alone with only a dead First Prime for company was disheartening at best.

He turned his attention back to the mirror. "Guess it's just you and me. . .and millions of worlds," he muttered. He flipped the lever, the picture shimmered and he was immediately confronted with Jaffa soldiers in full armor. Fighting an instant of panic, he flipped the lever again. "Oops. . .too far," he breathed as the scene changed. . .to something worse. He was now faced with Jaffa in a darkened room, preparing to fire upon him. Speechless, he hit the switch and an empty hallway was now displayed. 'Let's not do that again,' he silently scolded himself. He couldn't help but think that this device would be the death of him yet.

Suddenly the empty corridor was no longer empty. An Air Force officer, with hands on head. . .the General perhaps (although it was hard to tell) was roughly pushed into the hallway by a large Jaffa. Daniel's first instinct was to help the prisoner. . .but of course, there was no assistance he could provide while he was trapped in this reality. Knowing that he was sentencing the human captive to death, he flipped the switch again and the mirror revealed. . .a coastline.

Blue ocean met a deserted beach. It was a scene that would normally evoke a since of calm and peace in the young anthropologist. But not this time. . .not when an entire world was at stake. Disgusted, he couldn't help but growl at the mirror, "Come on, please." He flipped the switch again.

"Damn it," he muttered as he looked into yet another darkened closet, much like the one he was standing in. He knew instantly that this was not his world either. Sam wasn't there. And in his world he knew she was waiting for them.

Anger overtook him and he began to move the lever on the remote more rapidly. Worlds flashed by. . .some very similar to what he and the others had left behind and some very different. He couldn't help but wonder what had happened to cause the differences. The beach, for instance. . .how had the device ended up there. What twist of fate had caused that place to become the mirror's home. And what had happened to him and his friends in that reality? Was he alive? Hell, had he ever existed? The possibilities the mirror displayed caused even his over-active curiosity to go numb.

Realizing he was flipping through worlds like he was speed reading a boring novel, he consciously slowed down, taking the time to examine each one more thoroughly. And then it happened. He saw Sam's familiar face. Relief flooded him and he had to bite his tongue to keep from shouting for joy. Instead he settled for a whispered "Yes."

Blue eyes made contact with blue eyes as Sam walked around the sand bag barrier which had been set up in the small room. She smiled at Daniel, a similar look of relief showing in her face. Anxiously she shrugged her shoulders, clearly asking, "What's going on?" with her body motion. Daniel wished there was some way to tell her that everything was okay. . .that so far, things were going as planned. But there wasn't. He was hemmed in by the limitations of the mirror, just like she. He waved at her instead. She smiled back and mouthed what looked like the words, "Come on."

It was tempting to say the least. Knowing that he was alone in this closet, waiting for some word from the others, while an invasion force stomped through the SGC destroying everything in its path, created a level of fear in the man that surpassed all others.

He was almost ready to stop his progression through realities when an incongruity struck him. His eyes had drifted to the name printed on Sam's uniform. . .'Capt. Carter' was displayed in black block lettering. The time. . .the place shown in the mirror was wrong. "You're a Captain," he muttered, the sinking feeling from earlier returning. Defeated, he waved at the woman again and switched the scenes, knowing he had to keep looking for his reality.

Another picture, similar to the last, confronted him. Sam was there. . again. She was standing in front of the mirror, obviously anxious. In this reality she had apparently been waiting for any word that her team was okay. Before doing anything else, Daniel eyed the pocket of her green fatigues. Relief returned once again as he whispered, "Major. . .thank God." He had found it. . .there was no doubt in his mind this time. 'Not bad, Jackson,' he praised.

And then he heard it. He heard the thundering sound which struck fear in his heart. It was a Jaffa squad. Their body armor clanged, their feet hit the floor in unison. Daniel could swear that the ground vibrated with each footstep the unit took. He started to turn off the device, but then froze. If he did that, he would lose his place. He would have to find his own reality all over again. There might not be time. . .

His panicked eyes met Sam's. She seemed to instinctively know what was happening. She motioned for Daniel to come through the mirror. He took a step towards it, knowing that if he did, he would be safe. He could take the hand device with him and then return later.

Then he stopped. What if he couldn't return later? What if the Jaffa discovered the mirror before he could turn it off? They could destroy it, preventing any possibility that Jack and Teal'c could return to their own world. It would leave the two men. . .his best friends. . .trapped in a reality which was not their own. . .a reality where Apophis lived. . .where Earth had been all but decimated by cruel invaders.

Daniel glanced at the door behind him. The footsteps were getting closer. They would soon discover his position unless he took action. He turned back to Sam. She was motioning for him to cross the threshold to safety. It took every ounce of will he could muster to not place his hand against the shimmering surface of the quantum device and escape to safety. He shook his head, knowing that his eyes showed his regret. He held up the remote and switched the mirror off, praying to God that his reality. . .his home. . .would not be lost.

Daniel looked desperately around the room for a hiding place. . .there was nothing. If the Jaffa warriors chose to enter the storage closet they would find him. So instead he opted for another option. He moved to the shelf which lined one wall of the room and hid the handheld unit behind an unmarked container.

He started a search to find something to conceal the transport device, but before he could move, the door was flung open. Daniel spun around and found himself confronted by eight Jaffa soldiers, holding eight staff weapons, all pointed at him.

Defeated, Daniel held up his hands in a sign of surrender. The Jaffa entered the room, surrounding him. Before he could respond, a staff weapon impacted with the back of his legs, knocking his feet out from under him. He fell to the floor, a gasp of pain escaping from his lips. Two sets of hands harshly pulled him to a kneeling position. "What is your purpose here?" the leader growled.

Daniel thought about all of the answers he could come up with, but instead he chose to respond with silence. The leader of the Jaffa stepped forward. The burly man reached out with his hand and cupped Daniel's chin in his palm, squeezing the young man's jaw until the doctor was certain that the bone would be crushed. "Your efforts to fight our god, Apophis, are in vain, you must know that."

Daniel still said nothing. A sudden shout in the Goa'uld native language came from the opposite corner of the room. The dead body of the Teal'c of this reality had been found.

"Did you do this?" the leader growled, squeezing Daniel's chin until the man couldn't help but cry out.

The man suddenly released Daniel's face. The young man could feel the heat as his blood suddenly rushed to the indentations which had been left in his flesh. "You will answer," the Jaffa hissed.

Daniel shook his head in defiance. He would not answer, of that he was certain. The Jaffa warrior narrowed his eyes at his captive. Without releasing the staff weapon he held in his right hand, the armored soldier raised his left fist and backhanded Daniel across his face. The force of the blow caused Daniel to collapse onto his right side, his shoulder roughly impacting with the concrete floor. But still, he said nothing. The two Jaffa warriors behind him raised him to his knees once again.

"You will answer," the Jaffa repeated. He handed his staff weapon to the his Jaffa comrade standing next to him and removed his Zat weapon from its holster at his side. "Do you know of the pain that this instrument can cause?"

Daniel swallowed down the growing lump in his throat and could swear he could feel it land in his stomach. He knew the pain the Zat weapon could cause and he wasn't looking forward to experiencing the agony again. "I fire once and you suffer immeasurable pain. I fire twice. . .and you die," the Jaffa threatened.

Daniel closed his eyes. He felt a twinge of regret. Part of him desperately wished he had stepped through the mirror to safety when he had the chance. But it was too late now. None of it mattered. If he had to, he would die here and now to protect his friends, if that was to be his fate.

He shook his head, denying the interrogator any other response.

He fully expected to feel the electrical shock and subsequent pain of the Zat gun as it's power overtook his body. . .but instead, the door slammed open again. Daniel's eyes flew open in surprise. O'Neill and Kawalsky were crouched in the doorway, weapons at their ready.

Daniel felt a surge of irrational joy upon seeing his friends. Then reality sunk in and he realized that he was to be used as the instrument which would bring about the mission's failure.

"Lower your weapons or we will kill him," the Jaffa leader threatened.

In Daniel's peripheral vision he could see the staff weapons pointed at him. Despite the threat, he almost shouted out that Jack should go ahead and fire, taking out the entire squad. But then he realized that such a plan would be doomed from the beginning. Two human-made guns were no match for the eight staff weapons.

"Colonel?" Kawalsky asked, even though the Major knew the answer already.

"Yeah. . .we should do that," Jack O'Neill muttered as he lowered his weapon to the ground.

Daniel closed his eyes. It was over. There would be no going back. The Jaffa surrounding him pulled him to his feet and pushed him to the door. He collided with Jack. The Colonel held him upright. Daniel couldn't help but whisper, "Sorry Jack. . ."

Jack shook his head as he and his young friend were herded out of the door and into the hallway. "It's not your fault, Danny."

As they were pushed farther away from the storage closet, Daniel glanced over his shoulder. Behind two Jaffa soldiers he could see the mirror. It had been ignored by the warriors who had invaded the room. But that didn't matter now. His breath caught in his throat. He turned back to Jack, a look of defeat in his eyes. They had been so close. . .so close to their world. . .so close to safety. . .so close to home.

But they had failed.

End