Sorry about the long wait for this chapter but I hit a few stumbling blocks that took awhile to hurdle over.

Also I would like to thank James Axelrad for his persistence, pataince and assistance with this fic. I also would like tot hank those at the Fanfiction forum and nysk for their help and suggestions.

Half assed disclaimer, I don’t own either series portrayed in this fic.

One last thing, you might want to get comfortable, this is my longest chapter yet as I was originally going to divide it into three parts before I decided to just treat you all with it in it’s entirety.

Short summery, Ranma starts to recover while something from Cassie’s past comes back to haunt the SGC

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After placing the car into park Janet looked over to her companion and sighed wearily at the sleeping girl. They both had been sleeping when the phone call had come in, apparently Dr. Warner had decided to wake Ranma from the medically induced coma that the teen had been in for a little over a week in order to flush the drugs out of his system while reducing the chances of a extremely painful, possibly fatal withdraw. Janet had been expecting that as she had signed off on the idea after finding out that Ranma had some sort of device attached to his skull. According to the information on the USB drive the device was similar to one of those Tok’ra memory recall devices. She had wanted to wait until Ranma was woken out of the coma to remove the device and had set up a surgery time in two days Unfortunately the device had become active some time that night and Doctor Warner had decided to take Ranma out of the coma and sedate him for the surgery to remove the device.

Unfortunately though Doctor Warner had not taken the medical records on the USB drive at face value as such the lack of potency of the sedatives had caused Ranma to awaken while they were in the process of removing the device. Now they had a panicking meta-human flipping out in the SGC. Janet had then been asked to bring Cassie in to see if the Ranma’s familiarity with the girl could calm her down without having to resort to force, which according to the physiological profile that Doctor McKenzie had worked up would be a very bad mistake as it could possibly push the teen over the edge.

Reaching her arm out she began to gently but reluctantly shake her daughter awake. She did not want to bring her daughter into the current mess at the SGC, figuring that she had suffered more than enough in the little over a week since the debacle at the cabin. It had been both frustrating and distressing to watch as her daughter pushed everyone away from her while not talking about what had happened. Sure Teal’c had mentioned his suspicions but there was nothing that could be done to confirm anything until either Ranma awoke and confirmed his suspicions or Cassandra opened up.

Cassie cracked her eyes open slowly half expecting herself to be back in the cave with some sick freak trying to have his way with her.

Janet took on a look of immediate concern when she noticed Cassie’s fearful expression change into one of relief. Raising her hand up to stroke the side of her daughters face she motherly asked, “Are you alright sweetie?”

Cassie adverted her eyes in shame feeling that she didn’t deserve to have Janet care about her so much after all she had been placing her adopted mother through. Weakly she offered back, “I’m fine mom… Just tired…”

Biting her tongue in a combination of frustration and worry for her daughter Janet let the obvious lie go and stated softly, “We’re there.”

It took a moment for what her mother had said to fully register, once it did Cassie brightened somewhat shyly and asked, “You’re going to let me see Ranma?”

Janet nodded slowly but reminded the girl, “Remember what I told you though…”

Cassie nodded, her mother explained to her what had happened and the circumstances involving Ranma’s current state. Even armed with that information though the teen was just glad that she would finally be able to see Ranma as the other teen had been kept in isolation while under observation in the coma.

Slipping out the keys from the ignition and setting a hand on the door handle Janet reiterated, “Remember, Ranma’s probably fairly spooked right now so I want you to be careful, if it looks like there might be trouble then I want you to get out of the way and let security handle things.”

“Okay mom….” Cassie responded meekly.

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Jack stepped out of his truck, having just gotten it back from the shop and glanced around before stuffing his keys in his pocket and shutting the door. Recognizing the two females nearing the mouth of the complex Jack hesitantly picked up his pace, torn between wanting to catch up with them and giving them their distance. The reason behind his hesitant pace was that he was unsure of where he stood with the two women after all that had happened, having not seen Janet since she put him on medical leave to recover from being shot in his thigh. Sure Daniel, Carter and Teal’c had been by his house and told him that Janet was not holding a grudge over the whole affair but Jack could not help but feel guilty over the whole debacle. It had been his call, he was the one who should have known better and because of his poor judgment two girls had gotten hurt. Sure Cassie did not seem to have any apparent physical wounds but he and Teal’c had their suspicions, especially after some of the things that Carter had mentioned that where on the disk given to Janet as well with what they had seen at the scene.

Faltering in mid step he firmed his resolve; he cared about Cassie too much and needed to try to make amends or at least find out for himself where he stood with the two.

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Janet slowed her pace slightly, knowing full well who was coming up behind them, Giving her daughter’s intertwined hand a squeeze she asked softly, “Do you want to talk to Colonel O’Neill?” Truthfully she was holding no real ill will towards the Colonel, he had done his best in a difficult situation and knew enough from both Sam and Daniel to know that the past week had been nearly as difficult on his conscience as what it had been on herself and Cassie.

Cassie nodded fearfully as she pulled herself closer to her adopted mother, half afraid of what her uncle Jack was going to say to her. Sure she knew the man had cared about her deeply but she had not seen him in the week since being released from the SGC and was full of doubts as to whether the man cared for her at all anymore, especially after all of the trouble she caused.

Leading Cassie to a stop just before the first check point, Janet turned while extracting her hand from her daughter in order to pull the troubled girl into a semi protective embrace.

Following Janet and Cassie off to the side Jack strolled to a stop and thrust his hands into his pockets, regarding the two with a thoughtful expression. Even with the dim lighting Jack could plainly see that the two of them hadn’t been sleeping well as evidenced by the large bags under their eyes. Chastising himself for his own screw-up Jack tried to greet them pleasantly, unfortunately it came out awkward at best as he said, “Doctor… Cassie….”

Janet nodded not really hearing the subdued mumble that Cassie uttered and said, “Why don’t we talk in the elevator while we’re going down… That way at least we’ll have a bit of privacy…” Janet added after motioning with her head at the two MP’s at the sign in desk.

“Okay…” Jack drawled motioning with his arm and adding, “After you then.”

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Jack leaned his back into the side of the elevator as he watched the doors close before turning his attention to Cassie whom was somewhat hiding behind her mother. Sighing at his guilt Jack started, “I’m sorry… I should have never left you alone…”

“It’s okay…” Cassie mumbled with her eyes actively avoiding Jack’s.

“No it’s not,” Jack reinforced, “I made a mistake and something bad happened … Teal’c is a big guy and could have probably taken care of himself… You and Ranma though… Your both kids and I shouldn’t have left you two alone out there.”

“You didn’t visit…” Cassie muttered meekly, still not wanting to look Jack in the eyes she added with a slight stutter, “I thought that… that you were mad at me or something“

Shaking his head at his own stupidity at having ignored the teen Jack removed himself from the side of the elevator and took a small step forward while softly asking, “Come here for a sec would ya.”

Knowing that her daughters hesitation at moving towards Jack was more of a fear of being rejected than fear of the man in general Janet chose to give her a bit of help by extracting her daughter from her and guiding her forward.

Jack wrapped his arms around the girl bringing her into a tight embrace, shoving aside his own awkwardness he softly cooed, “I was never mad at you… I… Err…” after emitting a deep sigh he started anew with, “I’m sorry I should have visited to see how you were doing…”

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Daniel stood at the elevator doors, that marked the halfway point to the SGC on orders from General Hammond for either Jack or Janet to arrive to brief them more thoroughly while simultaneously attempting to come up with an excuse for him not going home for the night. Briefly he considered saying that he just beat them there but he threw that excuse aside knowing that Jack knew exactly how long it took for him to get there. Hearing the elevator ding signaling its arrival on the floor he took a step back to allow its occupants more than enough room to exit.

He was mildly surprised though when the door slid open to reveal all three persons that he was waiting for. Noting that two of them seemed to be embracing he grinned ruefully, glad that Jack had used some of his common sense and finally spoken to Cassie. According to Janet the teen had been having some real problems coping with what had happened, problems that Jack could have lessened if he had not been being so dammed stubborn and just went over and talked to the girl.

Realizing that no one was coming out of the elevator he cleared his throat.

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Choosing to ignore Daniel for the moment Jack tightened his hold on Cassie, making sure that she had a chance to compose herself a bit before he withdrew away from her. Once he noted that she had stopped crying he pulled away slightly to ask, “Are you sure you’re up for this kiddo?”

Cassie nodded sharply as she fished around in her pockets for something to blow her nose with. Janet knowing what the girl was looking for reached into her purse and pulled out a travel packet of tissues. Offering them to her daughter she said, “Here you go Cassie.”

“Thanks mom…” Cassie stated taking the offered items.

With Cassie taken care of Jack turned his attention to the moment at hand, shooting Daniel a look he observed, “You’re here early.”

Knowing that he had been busted Daniel just shrugged and replied, “Actually I never left.” Noticing Jacks gaze intensify for a moment he added in his defense, “What? I have a lot of back logged projects to work on…”

Jack shook his head at his teammate’s actions knowing that when he wasn’t around both Daniel and Carter had a tendency to get too involved in their work causing them to ‘forget’ to go home to rest. Guiding the now composed Cassie out of the elevator with him he asked, “So what’s going on, Harriman told me a little but seeing as you’re here then…”

Daniel nodded and waited to start talking until after they had cleared the final check point and were inside the elevator that would take them the rest of the way to the SGC.

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“GET AWAY FROM ME…”

/CRASH/

/Oomph/

Not wanting to further agitate the seemly slip of a girl any further Teal’c peered cautiously around the corner, his eye’s darting quickly over to the two downed SF’s that had just been on the receiving end of a thrown gurney. He wasn’t sure on what was going on but to him it almost seemed that his mere presence was agitating the girl. Locking his gaze on the redhead he tried to convey to her that he was not going to hurt her but was forced to jerk back around the corner as a clean bedpan smashed into the doorframe inches away from his head.

Turning to his blond teammate he dryly stated, “It would appear that she is not in the mood to talk at the moment.”

Sam bit off the sarcastic comment of, ‘you think’ before it even had a chance to leave her lips; sarcastic replays were the colonel’s area after all. Instead she turned her gaze down the hall following the path of destruction coming from the operating theater to their present location. Hearing the rhythmic sound of boots walking in step Sam peered past Teal’c and saw Feretti leading SG2 her way. Stepping out from against the wall but mindful to not break the plane of the doorway Sam held up her hand to stall their advance, knowing full well that more man power would most likely cause the situation to worsen. Calling out to her fellow Major with, “We need to stay back and not risk antagonizing her any further, Dr. Warner said that he didn’t have a chance to remove the device. Hopefully Colonel O’Neill will be able to calm her down enough for when Janet arrives with Cassie.” If Jack couldn’t though then they would have to look into other options as there was no way she was going to let Cassie in there with how Ranma was acting at the moment.

Motioning for SG2 to remain where they were Feretti took a few more steps and explained, “I picked up a few zats from the armory, figured if everything continued to snowball south we could use them to take her down.”

Sam nodded just as a series of unfamiliar words came from the room that contained the cornered redhead. Only recognizing Cassie’s name out of the entire tirade She glanced back at Feretti and asked, “Don’t suppose you speak Japanese Feretti?””

Shaking his head negatively he peered into the room and asked, “What are we going to do about the two SF’s in there, don’t think that it would be wise to leave them in there as they are.”

“I do not believe that they will be further harmed as long as they do not try to approach the girl.” Teal’c stated before he peered around the corner once more and added, “However I believe that now would be the best time to retrieve them as it appears that Ranma has taken refuge inside Doctor Frasier’s office.”

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Ranma moved the last piece of her impromptu barricade into place just as her mind was once more assaulted with horrific images of random death and destruction. Collapsing to her knee’s with a whimper she pleaded in her native tongue, (Get out of my head… Get out… Get out….)

Ranma clutched her head tightly, rocking back and forth in distress. she was confused, scared, and was having a hard time coping with the sinister images flashing through her mind. She knew that the images that she was seeing where the same ones that she would dream about when sleeping and have right before she would fall prey to the Neko Ken but at the same time it was different. They seemed less potent than what they had been before. What Ranma did not know though was that there was a very good reason for them to seem that way as she was no longer being pumped full of hallucinogens.

Still just because they were less potent seeming did not mean that they were not affecting her. Just the visions themselves were enough to drive Ranma to feel an utmost urgent need to put as much space between normal people and herself, lest she lose control again and begin to slaughter people just as she had at the cave.

Feeling a warm liquid trickle down her face Ranma was instantly reminded of what had been going on when she had awaken inside what she assumed to be some sort of operating room. She had been jarred awake by a muted feeling of someone cutting into her scalp and had only moments of semi conscious clarity before the visions started. Whimpering once more as her mind was assaulted with powerful images of glowing eyes and gruesome death scenes Ranma curled up into a ball, thrashing across the floor of her refuge waiting in hopes that her torment would end soon.

It was like a loop, Ranma knew, the images would assault her and then taper off, reoccurring every few minutes. So as the final image in the loop came to a halt Ranma blearily opened her eyes, trying to focus on something other than what she was being put through. For several moments though it was all she could do to just lay there and try to focus on the world around her.

Blankly she stared across the floor, until the pooling blood from the incision in her scalp reminded her once again shakily she reached up with one of her hands and began to lightly touch the wound. Feeling a foreign mass she began to hyperventilate in disbelief while muttering, “No no nonononono… I’m dreaming… yeah this is some sot of nightmare… I just need to wake up… Yeah that’s it… Just need to pinch myself…. That’s all…”

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Jack slackened his stride slightly as he rounded the corner and spotted SG2, Feretti, Teal’c and Carter standing nearby two downed soldiers, Taking a quick glance around at the mayhem and destruction in the hall he decided to let out a low whistle in appreciation to alert the group to his arrival.

Janet slowed to a stop taking Cassie with her just as she rounded the corner, pulling the teen tight she firmly stated, “This is as far as you can go until the Colonel say’s otherwise.” Biting her lip in worry she turned to Daniel and asked, “Could you stay with Cassie so I can go check on the wounded.”

“Uhm… Sure, no problem.” Daniel said as he clasped a hand down on the girls shoulder, “We’ll be right here.”

After shooting Daniel a grateful nod she turned back to her daughter and asked, “Is that okay with you Cassandra? Staying here with Daniel, I won’t be far away if you need me… Okay?”

Cassie nodded almost reluctantly, not because she didn’t trust Daniel enough to be alone with her but rather she just really needed to see Ranma.

Giving her daughter one last hug Janet added, “Don’t worry dear, everything will be okay. I’ll be right around the corner.”

Cassie blushed deeply at her mothers concern, part of her not wanting to believe that it was real while the rest of her relished of the thought of her adopted mother caring so much for her, especially after considering how poorly she had treated the woman just a week and a half ago.

As Janet walked away to check up on the two downed soldiers and get a better read on the situation Daniel placed his hand on Cassie’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

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“And now it seems that she has locked herself inside of Dr. Frasier’s office.” Janet heard Sam finish just as she approached the group. Taking a knee next to one of the downed airmen she asked, “Any casualties?”

Shaking her head negatively Sam supplied, “Not really, Doctor Warner and his team are a bit shook up but other than that just minor scrapes and bruises… I don’t think she was actively trying to hurt anyone.”

“She threw a gurney at two airmen.” Feretti interjected as he glanced around to take note of all the damage, specifically at a section of wall that the redhead had nearly shattered with one punch.

Tracking Feretti’s gaze Sam added, “That’s my point… If she can do things like nearly pulverize a wall in one blow then imagine what she would do to somebody if she wasn’t holding back.

Thinking back to the two bodies at the cave Jack found himself agreeing with Carter and said, “We can sort out the rest of this later, I’m going to go try and talk to her before this situation gets anymore out of hand.”

“Colonel… You might want to take one of these.” Feretti said while holding out a Zat.

Shaking his head Jack replied, “Let’s keep that as a last resort. Shall we?”

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Ranma squeezed her eyes shut, attempting to force the assaulting images from her mind while clenching her fists in agony, banging the back of her head into the corner of the room that she had sought refuge in.

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Sam frowned in worry as she took her eyes off of the retreating Colonel’s back, even if Ranma was not going full out in her attacks as evidenced on the sessions taken from the USB drive there was still a chance for the Colonel to get seriously hurt. In the back of her mind gears began to shift, she knew that there had to be some reason as to why the device had gone active, Ranma had been in the isolation room and in a coma for eight days before it went active. Turning to Janet who had moved on to the second Airman she asked, “Janet… Did Doctor Warner mention anything about why the device went active, was he running any tests or did something to set it off?”

Janet looked up for a second and replied, “No, he just said that the nurse noticed an increase in brainwave activity when she came in to check up on her.”

Feretti fully aware of Major Carter’s ability to pull rabbits out of her hat stepped back from where he was watching Colonel O’Neill and asked, “What are you thinking?”

Shaking her head to chastise herself she stated, “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this earlier.“

“Think of what?“ Janet asked while tending to one of the downed airmen.

“Well… from what we know about the devices is that even though they can work by themselves to retrieve memories they have to be activated with a second device to implant memories. We also know that it can be worn for extended periods of time but once it is activated there is always a small variation in brainwave activity.”

Nodding grimly in understanding Feretti replied, “So what you’re saying is that someone here had to have activated the device… Meaning that we have a NID plant somewhere on the base.”

“Right.” Sam confirmed as she continued, “If we can find the mole then we might be able to find the device to turn the implant off…” Staring down the hall with a thoughtful look on her face she added, “But I might be able to turn it off without it… I need to go get a few things from my lab.”

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“Ranma can you hear me? It‘s me Jack… from the cave?” Jack called from the outside of doctor Frasier’s office, while trying to peer through the mostly obstructed window.

Not hearing anything but unintelligible whimpering Jack knocked on the glass and tried to sound as non threatening as possible as he said, “I know you’re confused right now but I just want to talk.” Not hearing a response Jack stated with a sigh while he stepped in front of the door, “Ranma… I’m coming in…”

Jack tested the doorknob, giving it an experimental jiggle and after finding it to be unlocked tried to push it open but was unable to budge it. He was about to place his shoulder on the door and call out, “You know you could unblock the door for me…” then he realized that Janet’s office door swung outward and not inward. Glancing over his shoulder he noticed Teal’c still standing slightly out of sight in the doorway with a amused expression on his face. Rolling his own eyes at the Jaffa he took a step back and swung the door open only to reveal a cluster of half hazardly stacked furniture blocking his path.

Hearing whimpering and a rhythmic thudding sound Jack began to attempt to push his way through the impromptu blockade, wincing at the sound of breaking glass that immediately followed the upper portion of the barrier gave way. Taking a step back he briefly debated calling over to Teal’c for a hand in pushing this stuff out of the way but shook it off as he did not want to agitate Ranma any more than he had to.

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Sam rushed into her lab and immediately began to search through her stash of, what the Colonel called, various thingamabobs and doohickeys, looking for the miniature Zatark detector that the Tok’ra had helped them design after the Goa’uld had tried to assassinate the president using Martuf. Not finding it on any of her shelves she stopped in the middle of the room and gave the room a once over, concentrating on where she had it last. “Of course… The desk…” She muttered as she realized that she must have locked it up in one of her drawers. After fishing the key out of her pocket she moved over to the desk and began rifling through all her locked drawers before finding both components stuffed all the way back in the bottom drawer.

After stuffing them into her pocket she grabbed a hold of her Laptop so she could interface with the device and made her way out of her office at a full run, heading back to the elevators to take her to Janet’s office.

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Jack pushed his way into the room, finally having made a big enough opening to squeeze through while softly calling out, “Ranma, It’s just me… Jack… I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to talk…”

Realizing that she was no longer alone in the room Ranma’s head jerked up as the fact that Jack was there registered fully in her mind for the first time. Sure she had heard him knocking and calling out to her but with all of the images assaulting her mind she had played it off as a mental trick. For a moment her face softened as she softly exclaimed, “Jack… He’s here…” Then though the fear ridden part of her mind took back control and she shrieked, “NO… DON’T COME ANY CLOSER… I DON’T WANT TO HURT YOU…”

Cringing at the high pitched screech, Jack took a brief moment to get his bearings before turning his attention back to the room where he winced again, this time over the mess of broken equipment and scattered papers now cluttering the once neat and orderly office. Turning his attention to the huddled up redhead in the corned he immediately adverted his eyes at the site of her tattered and torn gown. Jack tried to talk in the most soothing voice he could muster while sliding off his jacket to offer it to the girl, “Ranma… you need to try to calm down… I know you’re confused but no one here is going to hurt you… We just want to help you…”

“Help me???” Ranma questioned softly to herself in near disbelief.

Taking a knee and reaching out to cover the girl with his jacket Jack continued, “Yeah… Help you. There’s a device implanted in your head… We need to remove it..”

Reaching one of her hands she idly began to trace her index finger along the still open incision and weakly asked, “Remove it?”

Jack merely nodded in response, slightly uncomfortable in the situation and waited to see what Ranma would do next.

Ranma was torn, not really sure on what to do or even who to trust. Even in her confused state she was fairly positive that she was not at the lab, but at the same time where she was seemed fairly similar, having the same sterile feel and smell to it that the lab had had. Also, while she was glad to see at least one person she recognized she was still uncertain on whether or not she could trust him. She had after all trusted the people from the lab and thanks to that Cassie and her had almost been… Shuddering at the mere thought of what might have been Ranma began to feel a little more confident as she thought, “Could Cassie be here??? Jack is here… “

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Sam spared Cassie and Daniel a glance as she rushed by them for the second time as she made her way into the infirmary to set up her equipment. Turning the corner she noticed that the two previously downed airmen were now standing in the hall armed with Zats while Teal’c stood in the doorway watching for any sign of complications from Janet’s office. Slowing down to a crisp walk She asked, “Teal’c… Any word from the Colonel yet?”

“No… O’Neill has not yet left Doctor Frasier’s office.”

Nodding more to herself than to the tall Jaffa Sam continued, “Could you pick up that Gurney for me… My hands are rather full at the moment.”

While keeping his eye’s on Janet’s office door Teal’c made his way to the fallen gurney and righted it, allowing Sam to set down the equipment she was carrying. Once she was done and waiting for her computer to boot up he asked, “What do you intend to do?”

“Basically,” Sam started, “I’m assuming that the device had to be activated from within the SGC… So that means that there had to have been a signal to set it off as Ranma was monitored in the isolation room. So what I’m doing is using the Mini Zatark detector that the Tok’ra helped us design to seek out the frequency that the implant is using. Once it does that, the device should activate to link up with the Zatark detector giving us not only the correct frequency and means to turn it off but also give us a look at what the device is actually doing. If it is doing what I think it’s doing then my laptop should be able to record the images it’s forcing upon Ranma’s mind.”

“I see..” Teal’c stated simply as he took a step back to allow Major Carter more room to work.

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“What happened to Cassie?” Ranma asked quietly in between deep breaths in an attempt to keep herself under control, not knowing how much time she had before her mind was assaulted again.

Jack frowned slightly and replied vaguely, “Well… She’s… Physically okay. Now that you’re awake though I imagine that she’ll start to feel a little better.” Looking around at the walls Jack continued, “ Actually we’re in her mom’s office right now.” Seeing what he had been looking for on the floor in a broken frame rather than hanging up on the wall he reached over and picked it up shaking the broken glass from it as he said, “Here… Look for yourself.”

Taking the picture in her shaking hands Ranma looked down at the picture in hope. Wanting to believe that if the picture was real then she could trust these people because Cassie knew them.

“She’s here now. Waiting to see you actually.” Jack said when he realized that he was getting through to the small redhead. “But before you see her you really should let us remove the device in your head. We don’t want Cassie to get hurt accidentally now do we.” Jack finished guiltily not liking his own manipulations of the kids feelings, but at the same time recognizing the need for Ranma to be stable before she had any prolonged contact with anyone.

Nodding her head in agreement Ranma was caught off guard as the device activated again, sending horrific images of torture and murder through her mind. Due to being caught when her guard was down her reaction was much like it had been when she had immediately woken up in the operating theater, except that now the anesthetic had worn off completely resulting in a far more violent reaction.

Jack seeing the girl starting to spasm out of control as her hands gripped the sides of her head again lunged forward in the hopes of keeping her from hurting herself any further.

Fully immersed into her hallucination Ranma reacted without thought and flung her arms forward as red energy started to flow forth from her hands.

Jack watched the approaching hands wide-eyed unable to dodge the attack due to its sheer amount of speed, as it was he had barely enough time to exclaim, “Oohh Sh…”

Jacks words cut through the panicked haze of Ranma’s minds like a knife as she realized what she was about to do. Asserting control of her own arms she pulled the brakes, stopping herself just millimeters away from hitting Jack right in the chest. Paling at the realization the she had almost just impaled someone who was trying to help her Ranma unsteadily jumped to her feet, banging against the wall in the process.

Jack, having fallen backwards in the hopes of being fast enough to avoid the blow, sat there blinking for a movement before he noticed what Ranma was doing. Standing back up he tried, “Ranma stay with me…” Seeing the teens agitation increase Jack repeated himself more firmly, “Ranma… You need to stay with me here.”

Ranma gripped her head and screamed as she witnessed one of the more vicious visions. Looking around wildly and not seeing a direct way out Ranma launched herself into the bookcase that she had piled up in front of the large window in the doctors office.

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Sam’s hands were flying over her keyboard as she attempted to get a lock on the device implanted in Ranma. She had hoped that it would automatically lock onto the implant when she loaded the device’s driver into her computer, unfortunately there was too much electronic equipment in the infirmary that was interfering with the device’s ability to interface with the implant. She knew that most of the issue could be solved if she could get within a few feet of Ranma but she was not willing to risk agitating the teen any further with the Colonel within arms reach.

Hearing the noise level in Janet’s office begin to escalade Sam doubled her efforts.. Shaking her head in frustration she called out, “Teal’c, it’s no use I need to get closer.”

Readying his Zat Teal’c nodded and began to push the gurney closer to the office door with Sam keeping pace while she worked. Growling internally as the linkup failed again Sam stated, “It’s no use I’m still to far away, for this to work I’m going to have to get in there right in front of her.”

“How much time do you need.” Teal’c asked stoically.

“If I reset it and can get into range it shouldn’t take more than a few seconds.” Sam answered as she began to recycle through the devices protocols.

“Very well.” Teal’c replied while making a move towards the door to start moving away the blockage preventing easy assess to the room. Just as he was about to swing the door open a loud crash that was directly followed by the sound of shattering glass resonated throughout the room.

Once she realized that the red haired teen had been the one whom had exited the room via the window and not the Colonel, Sam wasted no time and typed in the commands to link up and deactivate the implant.

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Ranma hit the ground hard and for a moment laid there relishing the physical pain from the fall as a means to distract her own mind away from the disturbing images that were overlapping her vision. Unfortunately the pain was only fleeting at best, thanks to her increased physical abilities and had passed almost as quickly as it had come leaving her aware of the two presences in the room with her. Opening her eyes for just a second had been more than enough time for her to recognize the two people, One she knew was the large man that made her feel uneasy as if there was something about him that she was supposed to notice, the other was the blond woman that had tried to calm her down before.

Not wanting to risk hurting anyone she scrambled to her feet, swaying unsteadily as she realized that throwing herself through a window had taken a bit more out of her than what she realized. Letting out a horrified scream as a particularly set of grotesque images overlapped her vision she made a dash for the doorway, hoping to put as much distance between the people and herself. She hadn’t taken more than two steps though when the vision was cut off causing her to stagger in mid-step and crash back down into the floor.

Not knowing what was going on other than the vision ending prematurely, Ranma felt completely overwhelmed not knowing when and if the images were going to reassert themselves or if someone was just playing a sick cruel joke on her, trying to get her hopes up before shattering them with something even more gruesome. Tears started running down her face as she rolled onto her back wishing that her ordeal would just end, she couldn’t take any more of it, it was just too much.

Sam’s heart went out to the girl as she tore her eyes away from her laptops screen where the last image Ranma had seen was depicted. She had been about to take a step forward and try to comfort the girl, assure her that it was over for now, when Teal’c placed his hand on her shoulder and said, “Wait… Let O’Neill handle this, your presence might only serve to agitate her once more.”

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Jack pushed the broken remains of the bookshelf to the side and climbed out of the room via the window, figuring that was a lot easier then trying to squeeze his way through the partially blocked door. Catching both Carter and Teal’c standing nearby and Ranma flat on her back crying he shot his two teammates a silent question.

“I was able to turn the implant off.” Sam said while she watched the Colonel approach Ranma, take a knee and drape his jacket over her.

Nodding in relief Jack turned his gaze downward and said, “Ranma, I’m going to call over a friend of mine. Her name’s Janet Frasier, she’s Cassie’s mom and a doctor. I need you to let her examine you to make sure that you’re alright.”

Ranma nodded weakly, she had heard the blond woman say that she had turned the implant off and felt relieved to be out of its grasp.

“Good… “ Jack replied staring down at the distraught teen girl in concern while keeping his anger over her ordeal in check. Not because he was afraid to let his team see him get righteously pissed, no they had seen that side of him often enough when he felt that someone was taking advantage of a child to further their own agenda. What he was afraid of though was letting Ranma see how royally ticked off he was as it would most likely only serve to confuse and alienate the teen further. So he bit down on his burning rage and forced himself to smile warmly down at the current girl.

Janet gave Sam a quick glance to make sure that everything was alright and the device was not going to reactivate anytime soon. Unfortunately Janet noticed that Sam seemed to be rather preoccupied at the moment with watching the Colonel. Janet couldn’t fault her friend for it though, Jack O’Neill just had a knack for interacting with kids. However just because she couldn’t fault her friend did not mean that she was going to assume that everything was alright. Clearing her throat slightly she asked, “Sam?”

“Oh, Right…” Sam blushed having been caught staring. Looking down at her laptops screen she said, “It’s off for the moment. I’ve managed to link up to the device so even if it were to activate again I would be able to shut it down right away.”

“Okay. “ Janet said while slowly approaching the Colonel and Ranma. Once she was close enough she took a knee opposite of Colonel O’Neill and said, “Hi Ranma, I’m Cassandra’s mother but you can call me Janet.” Glancing across to the Colonel she continued, “Like Jack said, I’m a doctor. I just want to take a quick look at you to make sure that you don’t have any serous injuries. Is that okay?”

Ranma looked over to Jack before shutting her eyes and nervously stuttering, “Jack said you could remove…”

“I can.” Janet intervened, “but to do that I’m going to have to sedate you.”

Tensing up Ranma started to shake her head, she did not want to risk being unconscious again as every time she came to it seemed like there was something horrible happening.

Clasping one of his hands down on Ranma’s shoulder Jack tried to clam her down, “Nothing’s going to happen if you don’t want it too. We are not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do…” Giving Janet a quick look he added, “Right doc?”

Janet nodded and replied, “I suppose I could just numb the area, but we’ll have to tie you down to make sure you don’t move around.”

Ranma laid there silently considering her options before asking quietly, “Then can I see Cassie?”

Janet looked up at Jack for a moment while she considered her answer. She was confident in Sam’s ability to keep the implant turned off and gauging the Colonel’s appearance he didn’t look roughed up in the least. Still though she was feeling reluctant to guarantee anything until she looked down into the girls face. The silent pleading look combined with her knowledge of her daughters desire to see the teen gave her enough pause, she could understand where they were coming from and even why they needed to see each other. Cocking her head to the side she called out, “Major Feretti, Could you go let Daniel know that he can bring Cassie over now.”

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Daniel had been holding on tightly to Cassie as with every loud sound the teen wanted to rush away and try to find Ranma, seeing Major Feretti walking calmly though caused him to sigh in relief. It was not that he was getting exasperated with the teen, no he could fully see where she was coming from, it was more that he was glad that everything was okay as he was fairly sure that if there was something wrong Feretti would not appear so calm.

Lifting his hand off of Cassie‘s shoulder he asked for conformation of his suspicions, “Everything alright?”

Shrugging Feretti answered, “It appears so. The doc is trying to convince her to let her remove the device.”

Noting that Cassie looked about ready to bolt he asked, “I take it that Janet sent you to retrieve Cassie.”

Feretti barely had time to shrug when he was nearly knocked aside as Cassie rushed past him. Glancing over at Daniel he stated, “She seems to be in a bit of a hurry.”

Shrugging Daniel replied, “She’s been all worked up for the past week, I’m just glad that Jack was able to calm the girl down.”

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“”RANMA….” Cassie cried out in excitement as she rushed into the infirmary.

“Cassie…” Ranma replied shyly, suddenly feeling rather unsure of herself now that Cassie was standing before her.

“Oh Ranma, I’m so glad you’re alright…” Cassie fretted as she approached the group and took a knee right next to her mother so that she could take Ranma’s hand into her own.

“You are…” Ranma asked uncertainly as she tried to avoid the other girls eyes, “I didn’t think you would want to see me again… Not after all that happened.”

Cassie’s eye’s sobered at that, Hoping to make her new friend more comfortable Cassie slid her free hand over the other teens sandwiching them warmly between her own two hands and said, “Ranma, I know we haven’t known each other that long but I am very happy that you are alright. I was really worried about you.”

Hoping to help the situation along Janet added, “That’s right Ranma, She’s been really worried about you for the last week and has been by to see you as often as I would let her.”

Ranma tried to turn her face away from everyone as her eyes started to tear up. Though she still felt as if her world was crumbling apart with all that had happened, Cassie had been there for her when it all started to crumble.

Noticing that Ranma’s eyes had started to tear up Cassie gently set Ranma’s hand at the redheads side and leaned over to hug the other girl while saying, “I know… I’ve been so scared… “

Jack looked over at Doctor Frasier silently asking her if what he was seeing was normal as Cassie’s personality had gone from timid and unsure to supportive in the half hour or so since they had arrived.

Janet looked back uncertainly in response; She knew that her daughter had been feeling vulnerable and scared for the past week, up to the point to where the teen had been crawling into bed with her at night. At the moment though those insecurities were muted as Cassie had taken on a more comforting role. Sighing internally Janet placed her hand on Cassie’s back and said, “Cassie, Hun… I need to get Ranma prepped for surgery so I can remove the device before it becomes active again.”

“Okay mom…” Cassie replied as she sat back and reclaimed Ranma’s hand in her own. After a moments silence where no one spoke Cassie asked, “Mom… Can I stay with Ranma while you remove the device?”

After standing up Janet gazed down into her daughters eyes for a moment while she debated her answer. She really didn’t want to put her daughter into any more danger if it could be avoided yet at the same time Ranma did not want to be put asleep and was willing to be restrained while they worked on removing the implant. Thinking that Cassie’s presence might actually ease Ranma’s mind a bit she nodded and said, “Only if it’s okay with Ranma.”

Nodding while Cassie helped her up Ranma replied quietly, “I’d like that.”

Cassie smiled brightly for the first time in the little over a week that she had been back. For some reason it felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. Sure she knew that the other things she had been feeling were still there and that it would probably be some time before she felt comfortable being by herself, at the moment though she felt that she could push it aside.

“Easy there.” Jack stated as he stepped in to steady Ranma as the redhead swayed on her feet. Scooping her up into his arms he added, Why don’t we get you on a gurney until the Doc is ready for you.”

“I’ll be right there with you.” Cassie supplied helpfully as she followed Jack over to another gurney.

Ranma almost wanted to protest at being treated like that but quickly decided against it as she was suddenly feeling somewhat exhausted.

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Stargate Command Briefing Room, one week later.

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“So how are Cassie and our guest doing Doctor.” General Hammond asked.

“Better… As long as they are together.” Janet started before elaborating, “Cassie is still having some problems…”

“Is she still having problems with her friends?” Sam asked clearly out of concern for her pseudo niece.

“Well there’s that… And she still has problems sleeping by herself, doesn’t like large crowds and seems to be hesitant to be left alone with anyone…” Janet clarified before adding, “Present company excluded.” Seeing the General nod in acceptance she continued, “Of course Doctor McKenzie say’s that kind of behavior is not uncommon with situations similar to this.”

“What of Mr. Saotome?” Hammond asked while making a few notes.

“Well Cassie seems to only truly relax around Ranma and vise versa to a degree.”

“I see… Has Mr. Saotome shown any signs of being a threat since the implant was removed.”

“No Sir.” Janet answered firmly before motioning for Sam to explain.

“General, I don’t think Ranma is as much of a threat as he believes.”

“Major… We are talking about the same person here right?”

“Yea sir, “ Sam replied reluctantly before adding, “But I believe that reaction was the direct result of the circumstances preceding the incident. With the implant removed and Ranma being weaned completely off of the drug cocktail he had been on I believe the threat he poses to be minimal. Unless he were to be attacked directly.”

Interjecting Janet said, “Doctor McKenzie and I agree on this as well General, with the mitigating factors no longer present Ranma is more afraid of loosing control of himself and is more likely to avoid confrontation than to stand up for himself.”

“So you’re saying he’s lost his mojo?” Jack asked with a concerned frown.

“Yes sir.” Janet replied, “I’ve been over the Data from the USB device several times and it seems that Ranma was nearing the point to where they were going to mind stamp him. Taking the notes contained in the drive and Doctor McKenzie’s own thoughts on the matter Ranma has undergone nearly a full one-eighty in his personality. Also, though we know that Ranma‘s special ability is a factor Doctor McKenzie is unsure as to how much relevance it has on the overall picture…”

“By special ability you’re talking about his curse.. And not his other abilities… Right?” Jack asked.

“Yes sir, however I believe it best for Ranma’s sake that we refrain from calling his ability to shift genders a curse at this time, it might have detrimental effects on his psyche.” Janet stated firmly not wanting to argue over the matter.

“Very well…” General Hammond conceded before making a note to reread all of the reports on Ranma as there was just too much information to go through and at the moment while there was a general concern for Ranma’s well being with his flagship team and medical staff he still had a base and off world operations to run. Looking over at his old friends daughter he asked, “Speaking of Ranma’s ability, Major, have you been able to come up with anything new?”

“No sir… Not really anyway, at this point its all theory but I severely doubt that it is magic. If anything I believe it to be somewhat similar to the nanites that were responsible for aging Colonel O’Neill.” Sam stated as she shifted through some of her notes.

“Similar?” Jack asked carefully not really wanting to rehash the time that he had been turned into a decrepit old man.

“Without further testing I can’t be certain. We can tell that there is something there but at the moment our ability to identify it is currently beyond our means. Unfortunately though further testing will have to wait until after Ranma has recovered a bit more as Doctor McKenzie has advised against any extensive testing until Ranma is in a clearer state of mind and no longer feels obligated to do whatever he is told.”

Seeing a few puzzled looks being directed at her Sam clarified her statement, “Doctor McKenzie wants Ranma to be more self assertive before we subject him to more tests than absolutely necessary as he believes that at this point Ranma is too concerned with not upsetting people and will likely concede to any invasion of his privacy without so much as a peep of protest.”

“That’s going to make things a bit more difficult.”

“What do you mean General? It doesn’t seem that difficult to me, the NID were the people who did this to the kid… We sure as hell can‘t count on them or any other agency to try to help Ranma recover.” Jack stated as he straitened up in his seat to give the general his undivided attention.

Taking in a deep breath Hammond reluctantly drawled out, “I am currently being pressured to release young Mr. Saotome into the care of a facility that would be better suited to fit his needs…”

Knowing that the general was inferring that Ranma was going to be sent to a place to make him disappear rather than help him Jack shot up to his feet and exclaimed hotly, “Sir you can’t let them do that… They just want to cover their sorry assess… They don’t give a damn about what the kid needs to recover; their solution will be keep him doped up like some sort of zombie.” turning his head over to Major Davis whom he had thought to be better than some boot licking toady Jack continued, “You can go back to your bosses and tell them that the kid will be moved over my dead body, I’ll call the president if I have to … he does owe me one…”

“COLONEL O’NEILL… THAT’S ENOUGH… SIT DOWN OR EXCUSE YOURSELF FROM THIS MEETING…” roared General Hammond as he attempted to silence his XO.

Realizing that he was out of line Jack made a visual show of sitting back down in his seat.

Nodding to himself Hammond sternly stated, “As I was going to say, I do not think that it would be wise at this time to do such a thing. However that leaves us with finding a valid reason as to why Mr. Saotome should stay under the protection of this command.”

“Sir/General???” asked several people at once with the exception of Jack whom seemed rather embarrassed for his outburst and for not trusting the General whom he knew to be a good man.

“Major Davis believes that he can stall things in Washington for awhile. However, in the mean time we must come up with a valid enough reason to allow Mr. Saotome to stay here with this command otherwise we will eventually have to turn him over.”

“General,” Daniel started drawing all eyes on him, “What about using Ranma for what the NID had in mind?”

“Daniel???” Janet asked appalled that he could even consider such a thing.

“No… No… That’s not what I mean…” Daniel stuttered quickly, “I’m not talking about mind stamping him or anything like that… But… We do have a lot of information from the NID about what Ranma can do, and for the most part this information has yet to be verified… So…”

“We keep him here while we observe him to check the validity of the NID’s claims under the guise of Ranma might prove to be a valuable resource to the SGC.” Sam finished for Daniel having understood where he was going.

“Right…” Chirped Daniel, “And the best part is, is that we can hold off on any obtrusive tests indefinitely to focus more on observing Ranma’s physical abilities, which in itself could take years to understand fully.”

“Yeah about that…” Jack started cautiously, “I’ve sort of secured a store room for Ranma to practice his abilities in.”

“That’s good then, we’ll just observe through the security camera’s for now.” General Hammond stated glad to have resolved the situation for the time being.

“It’s not that simple Sir.” Jack replied sheepishly, “I sort of promised Ranma that there would be no one watching him so he could practice in private without fear of being watched.”

“Why would you do that Colonel.” Asked Hammond sternly.

“I didn’t want Ranma to think that we were just like the NID.”

Reluctantly General Hammond replied, “I see… Unfortunately, we need something to satisfy the people in Washington.”

“Well…” Started Daniel as he stroked his chin thoughtfully, “There’s nothing that say’s we need to have a physical record of anything he does at the moment. So for the time being since the only people he seems to interact with on a regular basis are Cassie, Janet and Jack and to a lesser degree Sam and myself we just write down our observations in a log and use that until such a time where we are required to give the people in Washington more.”

Nodding in agreement General Hammond said, “For now we will try to make do with that Doctor Jackson. I am curious though, after watching some of the visual files and going over what the implant was forcing Mr. Saotome to see, how does he interact with Teal’c.”

“He appears to be apprehensive and on guard whenever I am near.” Teal’c stated.

“He might be associating Teal’c with the Goa’uld, General.” Sam supplied helpfully, “It does make some sense even if he doesn’t fully understand what he was watching that the images might have stuck with him enough so that he is unconsciously wary of Jaffa.”

“Well we can’t have that now can we… “ Jack stated humorously, “Teal’c will just have to win him over using that legendary Jaffa charm of his.”

Raising an eyebrow at the friendly jibe Teal’c decided to give into the moment and simply replied, “Indeed.”

“See… With charm like that Teal’c will have won Ranma over in no time…” Jack chuckled somewhat seriously.

“Well if there is nothing else that needs to be discussed privately I believe that I am ready to meet Mr. Saotome.” General Hammond stated seriously, effectively silencing the few remaining chuckles coming from his staff. Pressing a button on the conference room’s phone he said, Airman please show Mr. Saotome and Miss. Frasier into the conference room.”

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Ranma gulped apprehensively as he stared at the door to the conference room.

Sensing Ranma’s apprehension Cassie gave his hand a warm squeeze and said, “Everything will be okay… General Hammond is one of the good guy‘s.”

Ranma nodded absently as he was mentally focused more on the what if’s as in what if they decided to send him away somewhere and keep him locked up, or even worse what if they sent him back to the lab. Sure he knew that Jack said that the people who had been keeping him were rouge NID agents but that didn’t meant that the more official side of their organization was not going to want to get his hands on him. For a brief second he felt that Cassie was too close to the people and wished Wanda was there but she was dead. Not by his hand as it turned out, which had Ranma cycling through a mix of emotions ranging from relief to anger to despair, but by the hand of the very people she had worked for. Firming his resolve and hoping that this was not all some sort of sick joke at his expense he knocked on the door.

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/Knock Knock/

“That must be them now.” General Hammond said as he motioned for Colonel O’Neill to get the door.

“Right… make the cripple get it.” Joked Jack as he made a slight show of getting out of his seat and walking to the conference room door. Swinging the door open and noticing that it was indeed Ranma and Cassie Jack smiled and made a motion to dismiss the two airmen that were assigned to escort the two to the conference room. “Come on in… I believe you already know; Daniel, Doctor Frasier, Major Carter and Teal’c.” Ushering the two forward Jack continued, “The big man at the end of the table is General Hammond the Base Commander and to his right is Major Paul Davis.”

Ranma nodded slightly noting that to his side Cassie had greeted the general with a smile causing him to feel a little more at ease with the situation.

“My apologies for not meeting with you sooner Mr. Saotome, But being the base commander keeps me fairly busy..” Stated General Hammond warmly as he rose from his seat to shake the teen’s hand.

Ranma shrugged slightly as he awkwardly stepped forward to take the man’s hand before sitting down in between Jack and Cassie.

“See what’d I tell you, he’s a regular chatter box.” Jack stated warmly before he leaned in to Ranma and said, “Relax, we’re not going to let anything bad happen to you… I promise…”

Despite Jack’s well meaning words Ranma found himself shifting uncomfortably in his seat as he tried to put his general unease to rest. It was difficult despite the fact that he was sandwiched in-between Cassie and Jack, it wasn’t so much the two new people in uniform though, they seemed normal enough and both Cassie and Jack had vouched for them. No what was truly unsettling for him was the fact that the large man with the golden tattoo had him on edge for some reason that he had as of yet been able to pin down. Sure both Cassie and Jack had vouched for the man on more than one occasion, and according to Cassie it was that man that Jack had ran off to assist back near the Cave, still though he found the man unsettling and that was bothering him.

General Hammond waited until the teen settle down in his seat, idly noting that although the teen wasn’t looking directly at the former first prime, he still kept the man within his line of sight. Wanting to set Ranma at ease he spoke warmly, “First off, I would like to assure you that my command and I will do all that we can do to help you out, including helping you find your father.”

Ranma looked up sharply with a hopeful expression on his face before he re-hung his head feeling a combination of shame and helplessness.

Cassie squeezing her friends hand asked worriedly, “Ranma what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing…” Ranma muttered, “It’s just that I can’t even remember where I was supposed to meet him, or if he’s still there waiting for me… Even if I did remember would he even want to see me after all that I’ve done…”

“What was done to you, Ranma. You were being manipulated by some very bad people who wanted to use you for your abilities. I’m sure your father would understand that it was beyond your control.” Janet stated softly in an effort to raise the teens spirits up.

“I suppose…” Ranma stated slowly not really believing her.

Not wanting the teen to dwell on the matter Jack asked, “You said before that you were supposed to return to Japan Right?” Seeing Ranma nod in confirmation he continued, “Well, that’s a starting place. Is there anything else you can remember to narrow it down?”

“Somewhere in or around Tokyo.” Ranma answered softly.

“Well there you go… We’ll find him in no time… How hard can it be to find one man in Tokyo after all.” Jack chirped cheerfully in an attempt to restore some hope for the teen.

“Jack… Tokyo is not some small town, it’s a major metropolitan area containing several prefectures…”

“I know that Daniel…” Jack stated heatedly, “I was just trying to cheer Ranma up a bit.”

“Oh… Right.” Daniel replied weakly somewhat embarrassed that he had missed Jacks intentions.

“Regardless.” General Hammond Interjected, “I assure you Ranma that we will do all we can to locate your father for you. In the meantime though there are a few things I have to tell you.”

Shifting his attention to the general Ranma nodded for him to go ahead.

“First off, this is a top secret installation. While you are here your movements will have to be monitored.” Seeing Ranma wince he added, “This is for your safety as well as ours there are things that we do here that can be very dangerous. I want to assure you that you are not our prisoner but there areas that you are going to be restricted from entering at specific times and other area’s that are going to be off limits all together unless you have an escort. Colonel O’Neill will go over those areas with you later. Okay?”

“I guess.” Ranma shrugged.

“Also, while you are not our prisoner…” General Hammond restated, “I am afraid that we are going to have to set guidelines for when we allow you off of the base. The NID could still be after you and this is for your own protection. However, due to the top secret nature of this facility we can not afford to bring undue attention to us. To that extent I am afraid that I am going to have to ask you to refrain from changing your shape outside of the base.”

“He doesn’t have any control over it though…” Cassie pleaded not wanting Ranma to have to stay cooped up on the base.

“I understand that, what I am saying though is basically that Ranma can leave the base but to do so he has to be female as summer is nearly over and any ground water or rain should not be warm enough to shift him back into a male.”

“So Ranma can’t leave the base unless he’s a girl?” Cassie asked before adding, “What about if he’s inside a house… Can he change back then as long as no one outside sees him.”

“It would be best if he didn’t just to retain some continuity for any prying eyes.” Sam said, knowing that though the odds were slim there was always the chance of some old busy body snooping around.”

“Oh…” Cassie stated somewhat sadly not really understanding why she felt so bummed out about Ranma having to stay as a girl if he was off base, despite the fact that they were allowing him to be able to leave anyway.

Feeling the need to clarify things for her daughter Janet added, “Cassie was hoping to have Ranma over tomorrow night for dinner to celebrate her birthday with her. I had told her that we would see about it.”

“I see…” General Hammond stated as his eyes drifted back and forth between Cassie and Ranma.

“It’s not what you think.” Cassie blurted out quickly, despite not knowing herself what she thought, “It’s just that Ranma only has clothes that fit as a guy.”

General Hammond glanced down at Ranma’s file before him and nodded his head upon reading Ranma’s height when female was shy of five feet. “Well I’m sure that between today and tomorrow night we can find something suitable for Ranma to wear to your birthday party. Although if Ranma is going to attend he will need an armed escort.”

Shrugging Jack replied, “I think that can be arranged.” Originally he hadn’t been planning on attending Cassie’s party and had been going to give her gift to her before hand out of the general awkwardness of being at a teen girls party but since Ranma had come into the picture he thought it would be good for the kid to get out in the real world and get some fresh air.

“Actually I was sort of hoping that Sam, Daniel and Teal’c would come too…” Cassie added quietly.

“Sure Cassie we would love to go. Right guy’s?” Sam stated knowing that three weeks ago when they had asked the girl if she had wanted them to go she had declined in favor of being with her friends but had obviously changed her mind since then, due to currently being on the outs with said friends.

“Well I think that just about covers everything. For the moment. If there are any problems let me know. Otherwise, Ranma feel free to come talk to me any time you want, just let an airman or Colonel O’Neill know to bring you over to see me first.” General Hammond stated after watching the members of his flagship team nod in agreement to attend Cassie’s party.

“Ranma… Before you go…” Started Major Davis as he stood up and straitened his uniform out.

Pausing halfway out of his seat Ranma directed his attention to the man and asked, “Yes?”

Reaching into his pocket and taking out a small white card Major Davis explained, “I wanted to give you my card.” Seeing the teen’s rather blank look he added, “Since I will be the one who will be doing most of the leg work in tracking down your father I thought it might be best if I gave you a means to contact me directly just in case you remembered something further that might be of use. I know that General Hammond, Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter all know how to get a hold of me but I wanted to make sure that if any of them were not available you could reach me without having to track someone else down.”

Taking the offered card into his hand and depositing it in his pocket Ranma nodded his thanks and said, “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” Paul said as he retracted his arm and turned his attention to Cassie, “Before I go though, happy birthday Cassie.”

“Thank you Major Davis…” Cassie replied sporting a slight blush in embarrassment.

Glancing at the wall clock Major Davis said, “If you’ll excuse me though I need to have one last word with the general before I leave to catch my flight.”

“Ranma, Cassie… Could you two step in the hall with Doctor Frasier, I need to have a word with the Major before he goes off to talk with the General.”

Once everyone else had cleared out of the room leaving Major Davis and General Hammond, Jack started of, “Paul, I just wanted to apologize for earlier.”

“No problem Colonel…” Major Davis replied cutting of the Colonel before he could finish completely with his apology, “I know what it looked like at first, but I assure you that I will do everything I can to find his father for him. Though it‘s proving to be a bit more of a challenge than I had initially thought.”

“How so…” Jack asked curiously thinking that with how readily available information was via the internet that the Major would have no problem with the task at hand.

“We’ll just say that after the NID got a hold of Ranma, it seems that they did their absolute best to erase his existence, I can’t even find the school records for the few schools that Ranma remembered attending. I‘ve tried to go through official channels but the Japanese government has been giving me the run around.”

“That means? What exactly?” Jack asked.

“Basically that even when I do find his father things will still have to get smoothed out with the Japanese government and I can’t really involve the state department due to security issues.”

“What’s the problem with the Japanese government?” General Hammond inquired.

“Honestly sir, I think that they might be in leagues with the NID to some degree, it’s nothing concrete but they do seem rather adamant that Ranma is not to set foot on Japanese soil.”

“That really doesn’t make much sense though.” general Hammond asked, “If they were in league with the NID wouldn’t it be easier to recapture Ranma if he was over there.”

“Actually…” Jack interjected, “Ranma had said that he and his dad did move around a lot, it might just be easier for the NID to wait and grab Ranma over here than to try and track him in Japan.”

“That’s what I was thinking Colonel.” Major Davis replied.

“Well that certainly presents a problem then. Unfortunately, at the moment there is little we can do on the matter. I do have some contacts over there in Okinawa so I might be able to dig up some support on that end. For now though we will just have to try to work around the issue and hope that we can come up with something if and when we find Ranma’s father.” Slightly switching gears General Hammond asked, “Major, have you included your search to include any other family members that Ranma might have that he isn’t aware of?”

Nodding Major Davis replied, “Yes, but it seems that Saotome is not a terribly uncommon name in Japan.”

“Well hopefully you have a good long distance carrier…” Jack joked before he sobered slightly and added in a mock crumble, “If you’ll excuse me though … Things to do and all that, probably going to have to take Ranma shopping for some regular looking girls clothes..”

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“Let’s go back up to the Infirmary level.” Janet said as she started to guide the two teens to the elevators, knowing that they had to keep Ranma ignorant of the Stargate and the best way to do so was to keep him away from their current level.

Cassie nodded in slight disappointment, she had been hoping that General Hammond would tell Ranma about the Stargate so she could tell him the truth about where she was from.

“”Is something wrong Cassie?” Sam asked having seen the disappointment on the teens face. “General Hammond said that Ranma could go as long as he was escorted.”

“Huh… No it’s nothing…” Cassie replied not wanting to explain her disappointment or even sure how she could do so without mentioning the Stargate.

Ranma had been following along lost in thoughts of how everyone seemed to be genuinely trying to help him and the possibility of being reunited with his father. Of the former he wasn’t so sure how to feel, he hadn’t known these people but they seemed real nice but so had Wanda and Sheila. The possibility of being reunited with his father had his stomach in knots as he contemplated all that had happened, he felt certain that he had disgraced himself with his actions and allowing his weaknesses to be exploited as they were.

“So Ranma, what do you want to do?” Sam asked as she tried to engage the teen in conversation.

“Huh… What???” Ranma said as his looked around.

Smiling warmly Sam said, “I asked if you wanted Janet and Cassie to take you to get some more suitable clothing for your girl form.”

Silently chastising herself for not paying attention and losing track of where Teal’c was Ranma replied softly, “Can’t I just wear some sweats or something? Or even just barrow from Cassie or something?”

“You could,” Sam replied cautiously as she watched Ranma maneuver slightly in the hall so that he was walking directly behind Teal’c. “But, Cassie is nearly a half of foot taller than you when you’re a girl, the closest person to your height is Janet and she’s still 3 to four inches taller than you.” Ignoring the somewhat joking dirty look Janet had directed at her for mentioning how short she was without her heels Sam added, “I just thought that you might be more comfortable if you weren’t swimming in your clothes.”

“I don’t know… I guess.” Ranma replied reluctantly feeling somewhat embarrassed over his height when a girl and the fact that people were showing him so much concern over something so trivial.

“Cassie and I can stop by a store and pick you up a few things if you don’t feel comfortable going out just yet.” Janet stated as she came to a stop in front of the elevators.

“I don’t want to be a bother or anything.” Ranma said while looking down at his feet.

“Nonsense… It’s no bother Ranma, besides I have to stop by the store tonight on the way home anyway to pick up a few things.” Assured Janet as she depressed the elevator call button. “Though if you have any preferences you should let Cassie know, just to make sure that you’re comfortable with what we pick up for you.”

Ranma shrugged and replied, “Uhm, as long as it’s not too frilly or anything…”

“Okay, nothing frilly it is then.” Janet supplied with a warm smile as she stepped into the elevator first, followed closely by Ranma and Cassie.

Stepping into the elevator Teal’c frowned internally, for the most part he was quite used to people being afraid of him. There were even times where he found his natural ability to seem menacing and intimidating a blessing. What was upsetting him though was the fact that if things continued as they were he was certain that Ranma Saotome would not ever be able to be at ease around him. Settling up against the side furthest away from Ranma he leaned back and considered his options.

The Tau’ri wanted to take the teens recovery slow so as to not cause the teen any undue stress while simultaneously working to gain the boy’s trust. For the most part Teal’c respected that and even agreed with it, however fundamentally he thought their reasoning to be flawed, but he had been raised with a whole set of different customs and rituals and while Ranma was no Jaffa Teal’c felt that he might benefit from certain Jaffa ideals. Not only that but a large part of him believed that perhaps the Tau’ri should consider informing Ranma about the Stargate and seek out the teen’s aid in fighting the Goa’uld. After all, what was done was done and it would be a waste of a very powerful potential ally to not even at least consider that avenue. Noting that everyone with the exception of O’Neill was now in the elevator Teal’c pressed the button to bring them up to the infirmary level and then after a moments consideration pressed the button to bring him to the level where his quarters were, he needed to meditate on the best course of action and means to convince the others to at least consider his way.

“You’re not coming with us Teal’c?” Daniel asked curiously.

Thinking that by pressing the button for the floor where his quarters were was an apparent answer Teal’c raised his brow and stated, “I have a desire to meditate Daniel Jackson.”

“Uhm okay…” Daniel replied slowly wondering what was going through his friends head.

Ranma held back the large exhale wondering why he was feeling relieved that the large man was not going to be joining them before turning back to Doctor Frasier and asking, “Would it be okay if I went and practiced some?”

“Well, I have some work that I need to catch up on that’s been building up for the past few days so you’ll either have to wait up in the infirmary until Colonel O’Neill comes up or…” Janet added, “I’m sure Sam and Daniel would be willing to escort you over to the storeroom that the Colonel procured for you.”

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Later that night, Janet was sitting in her bed writing up reports on her laptop, she was just about finished having to just spell check and edit the last one when her door slid open. Frowning in concern she called out, “Cassie is everything okay?” Knowing full well that it had become a nightly ritual for Cassie to climb into bed with her Janet moved aside some of the blankets and set her laptop aside wanting to give her daughter her full attention.

“I don’t feel so good…” Cassie replied as she moved into the room and into the bed.

Not sure whether to feel relieved that Cassie had not answered with, ‘I had another nightmare’ Janet reached out and pressed her hand to Cassie forehead. “Well you feel a little warm. Just go to sleep Hun, if its worse in the morning I might have to see about keeping you home from school, and maybe even postponing your party tomorrow night.”

“I’ll be fine mom… Just a little tired, that’s all.” Cassie reassured as she tried to get comfortable in the bed. Despite her reassurances however Cassie knew that she was feeling a little under the weather and had been for the past week or so. It was just that she was still feeling guilty over being what she considered a bad daughter and did not want to bother her mother with something as trivial as a slight fever.

“We’ll see…” Janet said cautiously as she reached over and closed her laptop for the night before laying back in an attempt to go to sleep.

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The next day`

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Ranma sat in the middle of the floor in the storeroom that Jack had procured for him. His hands outstretched before him, encompassed in a soft white glow while beads of sweat continued to run down his face. It was a new technique that he had been working on for almost six days, after it had been pointed out to him that the NID had been trying to make him into a weapon of destruction with their manipulations.

The technique in itself served two purposes for him though. First off it would serve as a constant reminder to himself that he was more than just capable of destruction and death. And two, last night he had realized that he had not gotten Cassie a present for her birthday. Jack had tried to express to him that it would not matter to Cassie that he had not gotten the girl anything, that for Cassie, simply going would be enough. But Ranma thought otherwise, everyone else was getting her a gift and while he knew that Jack would lend him money to pick up something for her Ranma wanted his gift to mean something more than any trinket he would be able to find at the last minute.

Of course Ranma was aware that Cassie might not like it. That very thought had his stomach twisting into knots as he wanted to show her how much her friendship meant to him. She had after all been there to comfort him when his world had crumbled, she even witnessed his inner monster and had still stayed by him. He felt that he needed to show her that he was capable of something more than tearing apart people like a savage beast.

/KNOCK KNOCK/

“Hey Ranma… Open up, you’re going to have to get ready, the Doc left to pick up Cassie from school and start setting things up an hour ago.”

Ranma shifted his head slightly as he began to dissipate the technique. Ever since the implant had been removed he had been trying to be more aware of his surroundings so that he would not lash out at someone on accident. Standing up in one fluid motion he made his way over to the door and answered, “I’m coming.”

“Good, Teal’c and Carter already left to meet up and help the Doc set things up.” Stepping aside as the door swung open Jack continued, “Plus, I figured that we might leave a bit early just in case you decided to take me up on my offer.”

Feeling a very sudden onset of self doubt Ranma stopped just short of telling Jack that his offer would not be necessary and shifted mental gears feeling that a back up gift would be a good idea just incase she didn’t like what he wanted to show her. So instead of declining the man’s offer Ranma nodded and hesitantly asked, “Are you sure you don’t mind?”

Placing his hand on the teens shoulder as he began to steer Ranma in the direction of the teens assigned quarters Jack exclaimed, “Ranma there’s a lot you don’t know about me but I’ll tell you this. When I say it’s no problem, then it’s no problem.” Noticing that a doubtful expression had crossed over Ranma’s face Jack felt it necessary to add, “Besides it’s not like the money is doing me any good sitting in the bank.”

“Uhm okay…” Ranma replied unsure as to whether Jack was joking or not.

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Frasier residence roughly an hour later

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Ranma stepped up to the door and nervously checked her appearance for the umpteenth time since she had changed gender and clothes. Over all she had been satisfied with what Cassie and her mom had picked out for her, all together four different outfits for her to mix and match. A rather nice looking leather Jacket that looked unisex enough to be able to be worn as a male, three pairs of shoes, two pairs of jeans, a few sweat shirts, a nice pair of slacks, a blouse and a blue and grey jogging suit with a few simple t-shirts thrown in for good measure. For tonight though Ranma was wearing the less causal of the outfits, consisting of the black slacks that hung right at her hips, the matching shoes that gave her a little bit of added height and long sleeved red and white patterned blouse that thankfully was long enough to ensure that her backside remained covered when she bent over. The only real complaint Ranma had though was Cassie‘s selection of underwear as the several pairs she now owned seemed a little too racy for her own tastes..

Shoving her hands into her pockets she fingered the last minute gift that Jack had bought for her to give to Cassie. It was nothing extravagant, just a simple piece of quartz attached to a plain looking chain, but Ranma thought that Cassie would like it.

“Well are you going to knock or just stand out here all night.” Jack said as he came up the steps.

“I was just waiting for you…” Ranma replied lamely.

“Riiiiigggghhhhtt….” Jack drawled out as he knocked loudly on the door.

“Coming….” Came a muffled voice before the door swung open to reveal a grinning Daniel Jackson, “It’s about time you two showed up, Cassie wanted to send out the Marines to look for you.”

Snorting in amusement Jack pushed a large wrapped box into Daniels arms while keeping the six pack of Guinness for himself to carry. Pushing past his friend Jack exclaimed happily, “Well we’re here now so let’s get this party started…”

“Uhmm… Jack???” Daniel asked as he took note of the six pack in Jack’s hand.

“Daniel???” Jack questioned in return as he turned around.

“You do know that this is a sixteen year old girls birthday party you are going to… Right?” Daniel drawled out slowly.

Feigning ignorance Jack replied, “Yeah… And?”

“You’re bringing beer?” Daniel asked in disbelief not knowing what was running through his friends head.

“Oh right… How’d that get there…” Jack stated in mock surprise before he switched gears and said, “Relax Danny it’s not for her, it’s for us.”

Deciding to ignore Jack for the moment Daniel turned his attention back to the teen who had not yet entered the house and said, “You look rather nice Ranma… Is that one of the outfits that Cassie and her mother picked out for you last night?”

Ranma looked down to her feet in the hopes that the simple action would hide her blush over the compliment on what she was wearing.

Sensing that the silence was moments away from becoming awkward Daniel offered, “Do you want to come in?”

“Ahh… Yes…” Ranma replied hesitantly, still feeling extremely nervous.

Stepping aside to allow the teen more room to enter he added, “Cassie’s in the living room playing chess with Sam.

Nodding absently in response Ranma stepped through the door, after taking a moment to remove her shoes and place her somewhat oversized jacket on a hook she began to look around wondering where Cassie was as she had no idea on where the living room was. Hearing noises to his right she started to head off towards the sounds.

Coming up behind Ranma, Daniel interjected, “Living room’s strait down the hall and to the left, that’s the kitchen your heading too.”

Nodding in appreciation Ranma corrected her course and hesitantly made her way deeper into the house, stopping just short of the doorway to the living room where she spied Cassie and Sam playing a game of chess.

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Cassie had just moved her Rook into place but as much as she enjoyed playing chess with Sam she had been distracted from the get go. Originally the game had started as a means to quell her nervousness but as time wore one it was getting harder and more difficult to focus on the game. Hearing Jack’s overly enthused voice booming from the kitchen had tore the rest of her resolve to stay focused on the game at hand because she knew that if Jack had just arrived then Ranma must be there as well.

Taking advantage of Cassie’s distraction Sam moved her queen into position and called, “That’s check mate Cassie… You must be slipping to lose this quickly.”

Blushing in embarrassment Cassie double checked the game board, looking for some sort of reprieve for her chess playing abilities. Not seeing one she sighed and apologized, “I’m sorry Sam… I was distracted…”

“That’s fine…” Sam said as she waved off Cassie’s apology with a grin, adding, “I just wonder what could possibly be distracting you enough for you to lose four out of five games to me.”

“There’s no one…” Cassie blurted out before she realized what she had started to say and corrected herself with, “It’s nothing…”

Laughing slightly at her honorary niece’s embarrassment Sam replied with a wink, “Well I was just going to say that what ever it is I owe it my gratitude for helping me win.”

Blushing over Sam’s good-natured teasing Cassie tried to look anywhere but at the blond major, pretending to examine every little bit of decorations adorning her living room’s walls. That is until her vision came across a short haired redheaded girl, smiling in excitement she dashed out of her seat and exclaimed, “Ranma… You’re here…” Enveloping the shorter girl in a hug she gushed happily, “I was starting to think that Jack forgot or something.” Not giving her friend a chance to respond she moved her into arms length and said, “You look great… I knew that outfit would look good on you.”

“Thanks… I guess…” Ranma replied awkwardly as she was feeling a bit out of her element.

Noticing her friend’s lack of enthusiasm Cassie asked in concern, “What’s the matter??? Don’t you like it???”

Nodding her head Ranma replied unsurely, “It’s nice and all… I’m just not really used to dressing like this.” Hoping to bring Cassie’s attention away from herself Ranma quickly added, “You look nice…”

Not noticing the bright blush that had spread across her friends face Cassie smiled and allowed a slight misinterpretation of the facts come out, “Oh this old thing… I just threw this on…” In reality though she had spent almost an hour going through her closet trying on and discarding clothes before settling with a long brown skirt, white blouse with a matching fitted brown sweater that served to keep the exposed skin level to a minimum.

Sam had been watching the two teens interact intently while idly resetting the game board. For the past two weeks she had noted that Cassie had seemly switched her tastes of clothing into the more conservative side of the spectrum. Tonight though she was somewhat surprised, not really so much with Cassie’s choice of clothing though it was a bit more conservative than the usual latest norm for the teen. The truly surprising factor was with what Cassie had picked out for Ranma, she had been expecting something more of along the lines of what Cassie was wearing and not the rather curve defining clothes that the redhead was wearing tonight.

Deciding to ask Janet about it later Sam called out to the two teens and asked, “Ranma, do you want to play a game of chess before dinner? We might not have enough time to finish it though.”

“Huh… Oh right… chess..” Ranma replied weakly glad for the distraction.

“Ranma’s pretty good Sam.” Cassie stated helpfully while she began to guide Ranma over to the couch by placing setting her arm across Ranma’s back so that her hand was comfortable resting on her hip, “Sam is the one who taught me how to play.”

“Wow she must be really good then.” Ranma admitted as she unconsciously leaned in a bit closer to Cassie.

“Yes she is.” Cassie said as she smiled at Sam.

“I’m not that good.” Sam replied defensively as blushed in embarrassment.

“Don’t let her fool you Ranma, she’s a lot better than she let’s on.” Jack warned as he entered the room holding two beers.

Switching her gaze to the items held in the Colonels hand she asked, “You brought beer to Cassie’s birthday party?”

“Geez what is it with you people, ? First Daniel then Janet, it’s almost as if nobody drinks… Well if you don’t want one then it’s more for me.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want one.“ Sam said as she moved the board slightly so that Ranma wouldn’t have to reach too far to move the pieces.

“Janet sent me in to tell you that dinner’s almost ready.” Jack said as he handed the offered beer over.

“Well we should have time for a quick game.” Sam said as she indicated for Ranma to make the first move.

Ranma had been about to move her piece when a thought dawned on her, so far she had seen Daniel, Sam and Cassie, having arrived with Jack and been just informed where Cassie’s mom was left one person accounted for. Voicing her concern over the matter she asked, “Where’s Teal’c?”

Surprised that Ranma would be wondering over the whereabouts of someone that apparently had her constantly on edge Sam replied, “He’s in the kitchen helping Janet with Dinner.”

“Oh…” Ranma replied both relieved and surprised over the information she had just been given.

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After Dinner

“So cake first or presents?” Janet asked as she stood up to begin clearing away the dishes.

“Cake/Presents”

”Colonel, I think that since it’s Cassie’s party she should be the one to decide on whether or not she has cake first or presents.” Sam chastised while she shook her head in amusement.

“So cake and presents then?” Jack asked cheekily.

After giving the Colonel an exasperated sigh Janet turned to her Daughter and asked, “It’s up to you honey, what do you want?”

Appearing indecisive for a moment Cassie made it a point to look at everyone at the table with a thoughtful pout as if she was fully considering all her options. Inwardly she was smiling brightly though, It had been a great dinner and being surrounded by the people she cared about and knew cared about her in return did a lot to lift up her spirits and take her mind away from the dark recesses of the cave. Finally as her eyes settled on Ranma she gave her answer, “Cake first.”

“Cake it is then.” Janet stated as she reached into the refrigerator to pull out the double layered chocolate cake that Sam had brought.

“SWEET!!!” Jack exclaimed happily

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Ranma watched as Cassie set aside the last opened present and smiled causing her to advert her eyes while she nervously played with the hem of her shirt. Unlike the others she had not set her gift for Cassie out on the table for her to open in plain view, instead she had opted to leave it in her jacket pocket until she could give it to her when they were alone as Ranma was too focused on the possibility of her new friend flat out disliking the gift.

Jack had noted that Cassie had not yet opened Ranma’s gift, looking around the various boxes strewn about the table he then realized that Ranma had not yet brought it out. Suddenly Ranma’s more nervous than normal behavior clicked in his head as he figured that Ranma didn’t want to give it to her in front of everyone. Sighing internally about somewhat emotionally damaged teenagers he offered the two teens an escape, one that would allow Ranma the privacy he obviously needed. “Well It’s getting kind of late. Some of us have an early start in the morning.” Turning to Ranma he asked, “Ranma I don’t suppose you could give Cassie a hand in putting away her presents?”

Visibly sighing in relief Ranma nodded and replied, “Okay.”

Once the two teens had stacked up all the gifts and made their way out of the room Daniel turned to Jack with a slightly puzzled look on his face and asked, “Early Start?”

Shrugging Jack replied, “I was being tactful. Ranma got Cassie a gift but didn’t want to give it to her in front of everyone.”

While Jack had been talking Janet had made her way over to the kitchen doorway to call out, “Cassie… Keep your door open.”

Ignoring the bait of Jack calling himself tactful for the moment Daniel turned his attention to Janet to ask, “Why does she need to keep her door open?”

Staring at Daniel incredulously Sam factually stated, “Ranma’s a boy.”

“Yeah but he’s a girl right now…” Daniel stated as he ran his hand through his hair.

“Daniel…” Janet started as she shook her head in disbelief, “What I mean is that Ranma’s self identity is male no matter what body he’s wearing.”

“Yeah but he is physically a girl right now… So it’s not like…” Daniel started as he still was not fully understanding where Janet was going with things.

“A girl with a boy’s mind… With a girl in the same room… No supervision…” Sam stated before Jack snorted out, “Geez and people call me dense Danny.”

Realization dawning on his face Daniel mouthed a silent, “Ohhh.”

“Indeed.” echoed Teal’c as he rose up from the table.

Feeling the need to explain things further Janet added, “I don’t think anything is going to happen or anything like that, it’s just a house rule.”

Wanting to shift attention away from his momentary denseness Daniel turned to Jack and asked, “Tactful Jack?”

Holding up his hands defensively Jack fired back, “What? I can be tactful.”

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Ranma, having retrieved her gift for Cassie from her jacket entered the room nervously, she had never been in a real girl’s room before and was half expecting someone to lash out and make fun of her for some obscure unknown reason.

Sensing Ranma’s nervousness Cassie walked over and retrieved the bundle of gifts from her friend and said, “Why don’t you take a seat on the bed while I put this stuff away.” Hearing the light footsteps that she had come to associate with Ranma walking now moving towards the bed Cassie continued, “What took you so long? You were right behind me when we left the kitchen.”

Silently plopping down on the bed and hunching forward to stare at her nylon sock clad wiggling toes Ranma reluctantly replied, “I had to stop by my jacket to pick something up.”

“Oh…” Cassie stated simply not wanting to show the excitement over the possibility of Ranma getting her a gift evident. In an attempt to make Ranma feel more at ease she asked, “Did all the clothes fit?”

Ranma instinctively nodded her head affirmatively before she realized that Cassie still had her back turned to her forcing her to reply verbally, “Yeah.”

Placing her new clothes in her closet Cassie started, “That’s good, Mom was worried that there might be some fitting issues.”

Relaxing a bit Ranma replied, “Everything seemed to fit fine.”

“Good.” Cassie cheerfully shot back as she turned around to make her way over to the bed to sit down, spotting a curious bulge in Ranma’s pants as she did so. Despite knowing how complete Ranma’s female form was Cassie blushed and averted her eyes.

Feeling the twisting in his stomach increase tenfold when Cassie looked away from her Ranma mustered up the courage that she needed to present her friend with the gift in the hopes that she was not being shunned for not getting her anything. Reaching into her pocket she nervously stuttered out, “Hey… Cassie… I err… Got you a gift..”

Turning back to Ranma with a rather unexpected eager smile on her face Cassie asked, “You did? You didn’t have too.”

Looking back down to her feet Ranma held out the offered gift and replied, “I wanted to… I didn’t have any money though, but Jack offered to loan me some, so I thought…”

Cutting off Ranma’s ramblings as she reached over to take the small charm necklace out of her hands Cassie said, “It’s really nice. I like it.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, it’s nice I’m going to put it on right now.” Cassie said she began to drape the charm necklace over her neck.

Feeling a surge of confidence surge through herself from Cassie liking her back up gift Ranma added, “I got you something else too.”

“Oh Ranma you didn’t have to get me anything let alone two gifts.” Cassie said as she finished locking the clasp on the chain that held the piece of quartz.

Nervously tugging at the hemline of her shirt Ranma replied, “It’s not so much of a gift… but rather a technique I came up with a few days after I woke up… It’s… I wanted to show it to you… To show you that I’m not… some kind of monster…”

“Oh Ranma,” Cassie stated passionately, “I know you’re not a monster…”

Adjusting herself on the bed to that she was now facing Cassie with her hands slightly outstretched Ranma began to initiate the technique, hoping that showing Cassie would say more than her current floundering for words could.

Cassie stared in wonder as Ranma’s hands lit up with a soft white glow, tentatively she reached forward with her hand stating, “It’s beautiful, what does it do?”

Ranma smiled at the evident awe in Cassie’s voice and explained, “I haven’t had a chance to test it out yet but it supposed to heal… I want to be more than just a weapon capable of death and destruction.”

Wiping away a few stray tears as they started to run down her face at the wonderful sight before her Cassie inched her hand closer to Ranma’s own while eagerly looking into the redheads eyes silently asking if she could allow the soft light to wash over her. Seeing Ranma nod Cassie moved her hand the rest of the way only to exclaim, “It feels wonderful… I can’t even begin to describe it.”

Ranma feeling the strain of keeping the technique up allowed it to dissipate slowing into the air around him.

Not letting her slight disappointment for the dissipation of the technique show Cassie lunged forward and enveloped Ranma in a warm embrace while gushing, “It was so wonderful Ranma…”

“It was?” came Ranma’s happy but puzzled response as she wrapped her arms around Cassie in return. Not being used to the level of intimacy that was being directed at her Ranma blushed heavily while utilizing all of her control to remain still, not wanting to lose the feeling of warmth and acceptance that Cassie was showing her.

“Yes it was.” Cassie stated feeling completely overwhelmed with emotion as she planted a simple chaste kiss on her redheaded friends cheek.

The moment Cassie’s lips met her skin Ranma knew something was horribly wrong. The feeling of wrongness only increased as the lights in the room surged brightly while Cassie began to convulse. Then with a loud pop the room went dark signaling Cassie’s own release from consciousness. Quickly setting her friend onto her bed Ranma worriedly called out, “Cassie… SOMEBODY HELP…”

Moments later a worried Janet burst into the room followed closely by the entirety of SG1. Spotting her daughter convulsing on the bed Janet briefly turned her attention to the frantic looking redhead next to her daughters prone form and quickly asked, “What happened?”

Wringing her hands in a futile gesture to keep the swelling panic in her chest from consuming her Ranma shot out, “I don’t know… We were sitting here … I showed her my new technique… Then she kissed me… And I don’t know…. She just started….”

“Okay new technique with Ranma, that could very well be some sort of energy discharge given what I know him to be capable of… But how would it affect Cassie like this… Some how I don’t think that Ranma would try to willingly hurt her as they have been nearly inseparable… Wait a sec…” Doing a mental rewind while she knelt down next to her daughter Janet asked sharply, “She kissed you???”

Sam who had been unknowingly been mirroring Janet’s own thoughts of what sort of technique Ranma could have done that would have this type of effect on Cassie was brought out of her concentration at Janet’s question. Frowning down at the very frightened looking redhead on the bed Sam visibly deflated she had been about to lay into Ranma something fierce for a second as her over protective aunt persona came out but seeing the redhead flinch under her gaze she allowed her expression to soften as she crouched down next to Janet and deflected her friend with, “How is she?”

Janet tearing her protective mothers gaze away from Ranma and back down to her daughter sighed and said, “I don’t know… She’s unconscious… I need to get her back to the infirmary…”

Jack flipped open his phone with ease to alert the SGC of their situation as he successfully resisted letting his mouth shoot off with some remark about so much for keeping the door open.

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SGC infirmary

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“How’s she doing?” Jack asked as he stepped into the room.

“Her fevers still climbing and she hasn’t woken up yet.” Sam stated as she shifted in her seat next to Cassie’s bed to look up at the Colonel.

“Any chance that this is just a bad case of the flu?”

“No Sir.” Janet stated as she set Cassie’s medical chart down on a nearby desk. “That’s what I thought initially because she had a temperature the night before last when she went to bed. But now I’m thinking that it’s related to what is going on now.”

“And that is?” Jack questioned as he made a hand motion for Janet to continue.

“Well…” Started off Janet slowly as she put her thoughts together, “We found evidence of a retro virus in Cassie’s blood work, I’m not sure on what exactly it is doing yet but Sam thinks that it might be the reason behind the low level electromagnet field that Cassandra’s cells have begun to produce. Unfortunately we can’t do a MRI with her EM field spiking as it is we were forced to move her in here for the shielding this room offers so we wouldn’t keep blowing out lights and equipment.”

Jack, having moved to Cassandra’s bedside looked up from the teen and over to the doctor and asked, “Could she have gotten something from Ranma? We know that the NID were doing stuff to Ranma… Then there‘s that new technique he mentioned…”

“I had thought so but after taking a look at Cassie’s blood I ruled it out. Whatever Cassandra has its not contagious and she did not get it from Ranma, nor does it seem to be some sort of side affect from the new technique that Ranma came up with.”

“Did anyone tell Ranma that?” Jack said as he glanced over to the door remembering that he had not seen Ranma in several hours.

“Oh just great…” Janet sighed as she rubbed her forehead, “I can’t believe I forgot about her… err… I mean him.” Looking down in embarrassment she explained, “The last thing I told Ranma was that I needed to draw a fresh sample of her blood to compare it to Cassandra’s to see if he was carrying the retro virus.”

“Carter?”

Shaking her head negatively Sam added, “I’ve been with Cassie or Janet the whole time and haven’t seen Ranma at all.”

“Well that’s just dandy.” Jack sighed as he ran his hand through his hair, “I guess I better go find the kid and tell him that it’s not his fault… One more thing Doc… Did Ranma show you the technique?”

Shaking her head no Janet stated, “No, not yet, I ruled it out because Ranma’s blood work showed no evidence of the retro virus in his system.”

Sam nodded to Jack as he left the room feeling slightly torn between going with him to smooth things out with Ranma and wanting to stay by Cassie’s bedside just in case the teen woke up. In the end though instead of rising out of her seat to follow the Colonel she had decided that it was more important to stay with Cassandra. Looking over to Janet she noticed that the worried mother had gone back to examining the chart probably in the hopes of finding something that she had missed in the countless times she had looked at it before. She was just about to open her mouth and try to consol her friend when she heard a slight rustling coming from the bed.

Janet hearing the rustling from her position a few feet away set the chart down again and moved closer, arriving at her daughters bedside just as the teens eyes slowly fluttered open.

“Mom…”

“I’m here Cassie.” Janet reassured as she took her daughters hand.

“I couldn’t finish the harvest…”

Glancing worriedly at Sam, Janet replied slowly, “That’s okay honey…”

“I need to go into the forest…”

Sam, brushing away a few hairs away from Cassie’s face and tried to reassure the seemly delirious teen with, “It’s okay , Cassie.”

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A short time before

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Teal’c had finally made his decision, he was going to confront Ranma and try to force the teen into facing his demons much like Master Bre’teck had done to him when he had felled victim to the manipulations of a false god. He knew he would have to alter his approach though as Ranma did not have a symbiote and thus could not undergo the same right he had. Briefly he had considered doing the same thing that had been eventually been done to his son to break him of Apophis’s mind control but he was certain that electro shock with a Zat gun was not the way to go either.

So instead he found himself carrying along two practice staffs along the halls of the SGC on his way to the empty storage room that O’Neill had procured for the boy with the hopes that an actual physical confrontation would help the teen recover. At the same time though he hoped that what he had in mind would help set the teen at ease around him, because while Teal’c knew the benefits of being on alert he also knew that even a Jaffa had to set down his guard at some point otherwise there was too much potential to make a fatal mistake when placed into a dire situation. Having seen all of the video footage from the USB drive, he was under no delusions that he would walk away the victor in the fight but as his old master used to say, ‘Sometimes you have to lose in order to win.’

Having arrived at the former storage room Teal’c brazenly swung the door open and stepped inside. After allowing the weight of the door to cause it to close itself he marched directly to the center of the room, paying no heed the rooms other occupant until he was in position. Ignoring the wary almost frightened look directed at his person Teal’c took a stance while throwing the other staff at the teens feet.

“What’s that for?” Ranma asked nervously as she tried to fight against the NID ingrained instincts.

Teal’c while eyeing the teen over simply stated, “It is a staff for fighting. My people use it for training and to settle disputes.”

Ranma still clad in the clothes from the night before began to dig her nails into her palms in a visual effort to remain where she was.

“I have seen the footage that was contained in the implant, you might not understand it but I know how desperately you wish to strike me down.”

Shaking her head Ranma desperately replied, “No… That’s not true… I don’t… I’m not…”

“You do.” Teal’c stated, “My mere presence causes you great unease and you wish nothing more that to give in to your feeling and slay me as you did those men at the cave.”

“Nooo… Ranma replied as her voice cracked, “That was an accident… I didn’t want to… They were going to…”

Taking a bold step forward Teal’c interjected, “It was no accident… You wanted to… You needed to… If not for your action you and Cassandra Frasier would have been hurt…”

Climbing slowly to her feet Ranma tried to slid slowly against the wall, hoping that she would be able to avoid the large man coming at her.

Taking a few quick steps Teal’c cut off the teens escape route and said, “You will not run from this… You will fight me.”

“I don’t want to… Please…” Ranma pleaded as she stumbled backwards.

Deciding that there had been enough idle talk Teal’c rushed forward and swung his staff at the small redhead causing her to stumble backwards into a roll that put the other staff directly behind her feet.

Ranma looked around wildly in hopes of an escape from the fight, unfortunately the large man was currently between her and the only exit. Stumbling backward as she tried to avoid the approaching man but her foot caught on the staff behind her feet, forcing her to lose her balance just as a strike was coming down upon her. Not having a choice Ranma thrust her arms out in an awkward off balanced attempt to block the blow.

Teal’c frowned to himself as he sent the petite redhead flying across the room, he had put all he had into that blow as he had witnessed secondhand through the video files what she was capable of. Currently though she was not showing even a measure of the power she held within her small frame. Knowing that it was too late to alter his course of action Teal’c pressing onward with his resolve and charged across the room, swinging his staff downward as he homed in on his target.

Ranma crashed into the wall with a grunt as her body finished its slide across the floor. Looking down at her shaking hands she tried to resist her programmed urges. She knew that there was something about the large man that made her want to attack him and rip him apart limb from limb but ever since waking up for the first time in the SGC she had been resisting those urges in the hopes that she would be able to understand what it was about the man that had her on constant alert.

Now though with him attacking her relentlessly that resolve to not attack that she had literally forced down upon herself was quickly crumbling away. Hearing the pounding of feet, signaling that the man was nearly upon her once more Ranma rolled back to her feet. Narrowly dodging another swing of the man’s staff as the top button popped off her shirt from the heaving of her body in the tight constraining clothes, Ranma skidded back a few feet to allow some distance between them. Bringing one of her hands up to her now slightly open shirt Ranma frowned, She did not understand why the man was so insistent on fighting her, every one had said that he was one of the ‘good guys’.

Teal’c stopped his advance when he saw the redhead fingering her shirt where it now appeared to be missing a button. For a moment he had thought he was getting through to her and that she was going to fight back then though he saw her eye’s begin to well up. Deciding to prod the girl further before what ever resolve she still had crumbled away he taunted, “I was under the impression that you were strong… That you were a powerful warrior…” After pausing to allow a moment of silence to permutated throughout the room he continued with, “Perhaps I was wrong… Perhaps you are nothing more than you seem… A weak sniveling little girl afraid of her own shadow because she does not possess the fortitude…”

Ranma switched her gaze up to the man from her shirt where she had been staring at the spot the now missing button had once resided. Part of her wanted to run and hide from the man, not out of fear for him though, “He’s right… I am afraid… Not of him, but of myself… I’m afraid that once I start I won’t be able to stop… That I’ll lose myself and become… I‘m not weak… Am I… No…” Shaking her head in confusion Ranma tried to deny the man’s words, “It’s not true, I’m not weak…”

“Prove it to me Ranma Saotome… Let me see just a small measure of that strength that you supposedly possess.” Teal’c taunted, hoping that he was finally getting through to the kid.

Ranma felt her resolve slipping away that she had placed upon herself since that night where she had woken up only to be covered in blood and guts from what she had thought to be the remains of Sheila’s body. That night she had been consumed with grief over what she had done to her friend and by doing so played directly into the very hands that had been seeking to manipulate her. She had been still shrouded in that grief back in the cave and that blindness had nearly cost the two of them their virtue and their lives but at the last moment she had been able to set that aside after she allowed her rage to consume her over her betrayal and fear for her friend she had lashed out. In the times since and with the truths that had been revealed Ranma had been consigned to wallow in her own fears over what she was capable of.

Using her hands to slowly unbutton the somewhat restricting shirt Ranma’s jaw hardened in determination she wasn’t going to run from herself anymore. Sure she knew what she was capable of but she had always been capable, she had been trained in Martial arts her whole life and she was not going to let her fears of losing control dictate her life any longer. “No…” She realized, “The time to stop running has come… I need to fight back if I am ever going to be able to put this behind me.”

Teal’c arched his brow as he watched the redhead remove her shirt, fold it neatly and then place it by the wall so it would be out of the way. Momentarily he wondered if she was hoping for her black lace clad bosom to distract him enough for her to flee, but he shook his head at that thought. No, he could see her resolve firming as she stood before him once more with all signs of timid ness gone from her demeanor.

Popping her neck loudly Ranma said, “You wanted a fight… Cassie’s friend or not, I’m going to give it to you.”

Teal’c spared the teen no pleasantries as he was forced into the defensive. His opponent was a literal blur as he was sent sprawling to the ground having been unsuccessful in his attempts to dodge or block. Climbing back to his feet he began to swing the staff around in a sweeping motion that was meant to scatter approaching Jaffa.

“Nice try…” Ranma called out as she lashed out with another light kick that sent the large man back down to the floor.

Teal’c grunted in pain as he forced himself back to his feet and took a ready stance.

“He’s tough… And durable…More so than a lot of the people I‘ve met at the various dojo‘s pops took me too…” Ranma thought to herself as she circled lazily around the tall man, “But I’ve seen and fought far tougher… hell I probably could have taken him back when I was ten…”

Having not had any real sparing since she had left her father Ranma decided to reign in more of her strength so that she would be able to draw the fight out longer.

Teal’c shook off his surprise at the fact that the teen seemed to be slowing down enough so that he would be able to keep up if just barely. Unlike the last time this time when the teen attacked he was able to muster up his defenses and brought the staff up for a block. Unfortunately for Teal’c it seemed that Ranma was not holding back as much with her strength. Feeling the staff break apart the sturdy Jaffa tried to recover by bringing the ends of it together and downward in hopes of catching the teen with a blow to her shoulders.

Ranma slid under the blow easily and brought her left foot forward landing another kick to the Jaffa’s chest.

Teal’c backed away from the teen cradling his chest, the last blow having snapped several ribs that the symbiote was already well on its way repairing.

Ranma stood silently waiting for her opponent to make his next move, she was actually beginning to enjoy the spar, something that she hadn’t done since her fateful fall into a seemingly harmless pool of water. Allowing a wry grin spread across her face she asked cockily, “You have enough?”

“I have.” Teal’c stated in reply. Normally he might not have given in so easily but his point had been made and it seemed that the lesson had stuck. So, while he would not mind facing her as an opponent once more in the future, for now he had had enough. Plus her lacy clad breasts were serving to be a further distraction than he had realized, he was only a Jaffa after all. So with his mission a success Teal’c prepared to make his leave. After gathering up the two staff‘s he bowed formally and stated, “I thank you for the spar Ranma Saotome, I would like to do so again sometime.”

Ranma returned the bow but remained silent as her former opponent left, caught totally off guard that the man had ended the fight just when it had been getting good. Although she had enjoyed it once her hesitation had subsided Ranma realized that there was still something off about the man that she could not place, something that had to do with the visions the device had forced upon her. For now though she could push those thoughts aside to focus that she had won the spar thus showing herself that while the man was dangerous she was still capable of handling herself without having to resort to lethal force. Walking over to her shirt she picked it up and began to put it back on, hoping that she would be able to fix the damage done to it without Cassie knowing about it.

At the mere thought of Cassie though Ranma frowned and plopped herself back into the corner, pulling her knee’s up to her chest for support. While she knew a big weight had been lifted from her shoulders there were still a few things that had her distressed. Sure the spar had helped take her mind off of it for a time but afterwards Cassie was still sick in the infirmary and it was very possible that it was her fault. Feeling wetness beginning to form in her eyes Ranma hung her head and allowed herself to cry because although she was feeling better she still had a lot of pent up emotions running through her system and sometimes according to Sheila you just had to cry.

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A short time later

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“Hey Ranma you in here?” Jack called as he pushed the door to the storage room open. Not hearing an immediate response he added, “Just came by to see how you’re doing…”

Ranma still clad in the clothes from the fight before looked up from her position in the corner, using her sleeve to wipe away the tear marks from her face she sighed sadly, “It wasn’t supposed to hurt her… I just wanted to show her that I was more than some pathetic weak willed monster…”

After crossing the room Jack came to a halt a few feet away from the troubled teen, sliding down the wall so he was sitting next to her he stated, “It didn’t… “

“But Doctor…”

“Ranma, it’s not your fault, there are some things that we do here that have a tendency to bite us in the ass. What ever is happening to Cassie could have been caused by any number of things, Doctor Frasier just had to check your blood to rule you out.” Seeing the currently redheaded teen visibly relax a little Jack added, “But in the future perhaps you shouldn’t use Cassie to test out your new techniques.”

Ranma nodded grateful for the knowledge that Cassie’s sudden illness wasn’t her fault but winced again as she mentally chastised herself for letting her interact with an unproven technique.

“Sooo…” Jack started slowly as he reached into his pocket to fish out his yo-yo, “You told Janet that it was supposed to heal?”

Nodding Ranma softly replied, “Yeah, but it didn’t work… Otherwise Cassie wouldn’t have gotten sick after touching it. ”

Shrugging as he took a few practice swings Jack said, “You’re a pretty special kid Ranma, and you have all these cool special powers, maybe healing just isn’t one of them.”

Horrified at the mere thought that she was incapable of doing something positive despite all her gifts Ranma shook her head in denial while exclaiming, “I have to be able to… I need to be able to…”

Thinking back to his dead son Jack replied soberly, “We don’t always get what we need or want, that’s just how things go Ranma.” Noting that the teen was starting to look even more crestfallen he added, “That doesn’t mean that you should stop trying though… It just means that you should be more careful and make sure that you have all the kinks worked out before you go and try using it…” After a few minutes of comfortable silence, broken only by the occasional whizzing of his yo-yo Jack glanced down at his watch and grimaced. After collecting the yo-yo back in his hand after it completed its latest cycle and stuffing it in his pocket he rose to his feet and yawned, “Well Ranma, I think it’s just about time to go get some grub, why don’t you go back to your room and wash up and I’ll come by in a few after I go check on Daniel…” Pausing to stretch his arms Jack added, “Then afterwards I’m sure the Doc wouldn’t mind if you went and kept Cassie company.”

“Cassie’s awake…” Ranma exclaimed as she rose to her feet within the blink of an eye.

“Not yet… But I’ll bet she’d like to see a friend when she does… Hey where’d you go?” Jack asked lamely as he looked around the now empty storage room before shrugging and making his way to Daniel’s lab to collect him for lunch.

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SGC briefing room after lunch

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“Do I need to quarantine off the Facility?”

“I don’t think so, General. None of the others that have been interacting with Cassandra on a regular basis as of late have shown any sign of the retro virus in our blood.” Janet replied as she folded her hands nervously on her lap in an attempt to not show the General how worried she was for her daughter.

“Do we know where it came from?” General Hammond asked plainly.

“I’m guessing her home planet.” Janet stated unsurely.

“Cassandra has not been on that planet in four years… Would it not make more sense that perhaps Ranma Saotome might…” Teal’c said carefully while he ever so slightly adjusted himself in his seat as he waited for Junior to finish healing him from his spar with Ranma

“No… I checked his blood first…” Janet said shooting Teal’c an sympathetic look before continuing, “What I mean to say when I say that I believe it to be that Cassandra contracted the Virus on her home planet is that I have never seen anything quite like this before. It is possible for a retro Virus to remain idle for years before becoming active.”

“I just finished going through SG-7's, err, reports from P8X-987…” Daniel announced as he made his way into the room and over to the video equipment.

Jack shaking his head over the fact that Daniel had just entered the room and not bothered to acknowledge anyone greeted the man with, ”Daniel…”

After a few moments of fumbling with the equipment to queue up the video Daniel replied, “Jack…” Finally looking over the room Daniel shifted awkwardly before clearing his throat and starting anew, “In the three months that SG-7 were on Cassie’s planet there were two reported cases of high fevers with hallucinations in teenagers Cassandra’s age. The local villagers called it the mind fire. I’ve managed to find some video footage among their reports.” Pressing play Daniel stepped back and allowed the first few minutes of footage to play out. Once it reached the relevant point the then paused it and continued, “There’s more to it… But… Well you get the general idea.”

Frowning in concern Sam asked, “How did they treat it?”

Sitting down at the table Daniel sighed, “SG-7 offered medicine but they turned it down. The village elders believed that these children were touched by the gods, and that interfering would tempt retribution.”

Setting down the pen he had been using to make doodles Jack looked up and asked, “What happened to them?”

Glancing over the room Daniel replied, “They were sent into the forest nearby the village by themselves…” Allowing himself a slight pause at the look that Sam and Janet had spared each other at his mention of forest Daniel continued a bit more slowly with, “After several days they came back cured.”

“Any idea on how they came back cured?” General Hammond asked from the head of the table.

“No… SG-7 tried to find out, but the elders insisted the child had to make the journey alone as some sort of religious rite.”

“Cassandra mentioned going into the forest…” Janet stated softly as she mulled the situation over in her head.

Shaking his head in disbelief Jack added, “Yeah but you yourself said she was delirious at the time.”

Wanting desperately to find a cure for both of her friends sake Sam countered, “Still… It’s worth checking out, Sir.”

“When we were last on P8X-987, the atmosphere had been contaminated by the Goa'uld Nirrti..” Teal’c stated as he reminded everyone of the potential danger in returning to that planet.

Folding up his papers neatly Jack made a show to look at the general as if he was anticipating his words.

Nodding to his second in Command he said, “We’ll send a MALP first, if the atmosphere is clear then you have a go.”

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Sitting at Cassie’s bedside, clad in air force sweats, Ranma tried to keep himself as silent as possible so as to not break Doctor Frasier’s concentration as she worked tiredly towards finding a cure to her daughters predicament. Glancing at a clock he held back a sigh, so far he had been in the room for three hours and while he was perfectly okay with being there for his friend the silence was starting to make him a bit uneasy.

Janet set the folder down with a silent growl of frustration while she rubbed the tiredness from her eyes. “It’s not like looking at this is going to help any. I’ve been over this folder a thousand times and committed every ounce of information to memory. Sitting around like this is not going to help me get any closer to helping Cassandra…” Pushing herself away from the desk Janet spared the rooms other two occupants with a quick glance. Standing up she idly wondered how Ranma could bear to sit absolutely still like he had, if she didn’t know better she would have sworn that the teen hadn’t moved at all.

Approaching the teen slowly with her heals breaking the eerie silence of the room with a steady click clack Janet asked, “Do you want anything from the mess hall?”

“No I’m fine.” Ranma replied quietly not wanting to wake his sleeping friend.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes then…” Pointing to a small remote attached to a cord Janet instructed, “If anything happens press the big button on there that says call and Nurse Hopkins will be in to take care of it.”

Ranma nodded in replied before asking, “What about if she wakes up?”

Janet switched her gaze over to the flickering monitors that were doing their best to keep track of Cassie’s vitals despite the EM field that the girl was putting out and almost considered telling Ranma that he could hold off on calling the nurse if Cassandra woke up in the end though she decided that her daughters health was too important and said, “I still want you to call in the nurse. I’ll tell her if there’s no immediate concern to stand off a bit and let the two of you be… Okay.”

“Yes ma’am.” Ranma answered.

Making her way out the door Janet called out, “I’ll be right back.”

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Hearing slight movement in the bed at his side Ranma glanced at the clock, Cassie’s mom had only just left a few minutes ago and it seemed his friend was about to wake up. Reaching over he depressed that call button to notify the nurse and then nervously shuffled in his seat while staring at his friends face waiting for her eyes to flicker open.

Though her unfocused haze as she flickered her eyes open Cassie saw a fuzzy mass hovering next to her. Not yet knowing who it was she pleaded, “I need to go into the forest…”

Having depressed the call button for the nurse immediately once Cassie’s eyes had open Ranma was at a temporary loss as to what he was supposed to say. He did not really understand why she would want to go into the woods, especially as sick as she was.

Not hearing anything in response Cassie repeated her request adding as much desperation conveyed in her voice that she could manage, “Please I need to go into the forest I have to go back…”

Shaking his head Ranma tried to explain, “Cassie you’re very sick your mother will be back soon…”

“I need to go back… I have to go into the forest…” Cassie repeated desperately.

“Back where? Cassie.” Ranma replied softly as he noticed the nurse entering the room.

Nurse Hopkins had been set to observe Cassie’s health from the doorway as at first look there was no immediate concern for Cassandra’s health but upon hearing what young Miss Frasier was saying to the other teen she realized that she had to take action before Ranma was told the truth about Cassandra’s origins. Taking quick purposeful steps over to the nurses tray where they were keeping the sedatives she tried to prepare a likely story about why she had needed to sedate the teen.

“I need to go back… Please… You don’t understand…”

“I want to Cassie. but I don’t understand, Back where? You’re safe here, your mother is going to make you all better…” Ranma tried again not understanding what Cassie was trying to tell him. Spotting the Nurse approaching with a syringe Ranma turned to her and asked, “What are you giving her?”

“Just something to help the poor girl sleep.” Nurse Hopkins tried to assure the teen with a smile as she emptied the syringe’s contents into the IV.

Cassie suddenly feeling really tired tried one last act of desperation, reaching up with her hands she clasped onto Ranma’s arm as tight as she could manage and pleaded one last time, “I need to go back to Hanka.. My… Home.. Plane….t…”

Ranma shook his head, the whole situation seemed off to him for some reason but it appeared that Cassie was obviously delirious from her fever. Lightly brushing away Cassie’s hair from her face he gave the nurse a slightly suspicious look wondering if a sedative had really been necessary.

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Twenty minutes later

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Janet stepped into the room after talking briefly with Nurse Hopkins having just been informed that it had been necessary to sedate Cassie before the delirious girl spilled the beans about the Stargate program. As things were, if not for the general consensus among the majority of people on earth, the little information her daughter had already disclosed might have been enough to make Ranma suspicious. Unfortunately the only thing that she could think of to keep Ranma ignorant of the Stargate program until Cassandra was aware enough to keep her secrets to herself was to bar Ranma from visiting.

Making her way over to Cassandra’s bedside Janet tried to examine Ranma’s features looking for any inkling of suspicion in the teen’s eyes. Not seeing any either way Janet set down her coffee on a nearby table and picked up Cassandra’s chart. Making her way over towards the bed while idly flipping through the chart Janet started to test the waters to see if Ranma had any suspicions, “The nurse said that Cassie woke up for a few moments… Did she say anything?”

Ranma slowly shook his head no as he thought about what to say. He was relatively sure that there was something suspicious going on with how readily the nurse sedated Cassie but besides being obviously delirious he was not sure what it was.

“Did she mention going into the forest?” Janet inquired trying to sound as casual as she could not wanting Ranma to connect any dots.

“Yeah… I guess, she mentioned something about a forest and going home too…”

After burning the twinge of guilt over what she was about to say Janet said, “She’s been having some delusions from the fever, if she has any more of them try to go along with them… It’s best not to get her worked up…”

“Okay…” Ranma replied softly after he turned back to keep his silent vigil at his friends bedside.

After making a few more notes about Cassandra’s currant vital signs Janet turned away and frowned at having to discredit her daughter so, but she realized that she really had no choice in the matter as Ranma was not an American citizen and had not been cleared to know about the Stargate even with all that had happened to him.

Sitting down at her desk Janet sighed, SG1 was not due to check in for eight hours and she had no idea on what to do in the meantime to try to stop the changes from running rampant through her daughter’s body.

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Roughly eight hours later

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Janet rubbed her eyes again as she went over more test results that failed to give her an idea of how to fight the retro virus that was wagging war within her adopted daughters body. Hearing a noise at the door she sighed and tiredly stated, “Ranma I told you to go back to your room and get some sleep…”

“From the looks of things I don‘t think Ranma is the only one who should get some sleep.” Sam stated with concern as she made her way into the room and noticed her friend’s tired looking appearance.

“I’ll get plenty of sleep once I figure out how to help Cassandra.” Janet stated with grim determination as she rose out of her seat to stretch.

“Janet…” Sam started to sigh worriedly.

“I’ve had to sedate Cassie to keep her from talking to Ranma.” Janet said interrupting what Sam had been about to say.

Blinking in surprise at the revelation Sam asked, “Why?”

Laughing bitterly Janet replied, “As much as what our nation has done to the teen he is still not cleared to know about the Stargate. Cassandra was delirious and had almost spilled the beans once already. So I told Ranma to go get some sleep and come back later so I wouldn’t have to keep knocking Cassie out when she woke up.”

“He means well…” Sam offered politely not sure what of which had her friend more annoyed.

“I know…” Janet answered with another drawn out sigh, “It’s just that I am thinking more and more that we should just tell him. Who knows it might actually help him understand some of what he was seeing in the images that he was being force fed through the implant.”

Shrugging helplessly Sam responded, “It’s not up to us though…”

“Yeah, you’re right…” Switching the subject Janet added, “You’re back… Did you find anything?”

Nodding Sam started, “We found a lab that Daniel believes to have belonged to Nirrti, he’s still back there searching the lab with Teal’c and the Colonel.”

With hope blossoming on her face Janet asked, “Was there anything left behind that could help me create a cure?”

“I’m not sure.” Sam replied with a frown before adding, “I just came back with the preliminary findings, Daniel hasn’t really had a chance to translate much. But he did find reference to something called a Hok’Tar.”

“Hok’Tar?” Janet repeated slowly.

“It’s Goa’uld, Hok meaning advanced, and Tar meaning human.” Sam explained.

“I didn’t know you spoke Goa’uld…” Janet replied as she mulled over what Sam had just told her.

“I don’t…” Sam answered slightly embarrassed, “I’m just repeating what Daniel said. From what he translated so far we were able to determine that Nirrti was using Cassandra’s people as a long term experiment to create genetically enhanced hosts.”

Looking over to another set of folders on the desk Janet said, “So she was trying to make a super host… Some one like Ranma?“

“Janet?” Sam questioned.

“Well technically Ranma is an advanced human… He could have something in his DNA that keeps his body from burning up from all the energy that he channels.”

“I thought you already checked that.” Sam stated.

“I did...” Janet started with a renewed purpose as she made her way over to collect Ranma’s medical records that she had left on the far end of the table. “But that was before I knew what to look for.”

“What are you looking for?” Sam asked as she moved in closer.

“We know that Ranma has advanced abilities that we have not been able to explain… Abilities that should be impossible for him to be able to do. There has to be something different about his DNA allowing him to be able to do what he does. ” Janet said while collecting the files and starting out of the room at a brisk pace.

“But both you and the NID have been over Ranma’s DNA with a fine toothed comb and haven’t found anything.” Sam stated as she kept pace with her friend.

“But that was before we knew what to look for.” Janet said coming to a stop and facing her friend.

“What are you looking for?”

“A gene, one that is present in both Ranma and Colonel O’Neill.”

“Why Colonel O’Neill?” Sam asked as she tried to put the puzzle pieces together herself.

“According to the Asguard our Colonel is one of the most advanced humans on the planet. I’m thinking that there has to be some sort of connection between the two, whether or not the colonel’s gene is more advanced than Ranma’s I’m hoping that if I compare their DNA to each other I’ll be able to identify it.”

“But the Colonel has never even shown an inkling of being able to do what Ranma can… Nor has Cassie for that matter.”

“I know…” Replied Janet with a sigh, “It’s a stretch and I’m grasping at straws but it’s the best I can think of at the moment.”

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The next day

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“Find anything?” Daniel asked softly as he stepped into the lab.

Tiredly rubbing her eyes as she looked up from the microscope Janet replied, “I’m not sure. I’ve been going over the two samples for several hours and have found six genetic markers that they have in common that I can identify and four that I can’t. Five of the six markers that they have in common can be traced back to having European ancestry…”

“Uhmm… Janet, Ranma’s Japanese.” Daniel interjected carefully.

“Japanese with red hair as a girl and blue eyes in either form, meaning that he had to have some sort of mixed ancestry at some point. From the looks of things I‘d guess great grandparent..” Janet interjected quickly before adding, “Anyway, as I was saying they have five of the same markers tying them into a common European ancestry probably Irish given the Colonel’s lineage. The sixth one is a recently discovered marker that is found with those of a Middle Eastern ancestry, probably Jewish but I won‘t know for sure until the doctor publishes his full findings.” Taking in a deep breath she continued with, “Then there are the four that I haven’t been able to identify yet. It could be any one of them or a combination of the ten that they have in common. Or it could be one that’s just present in Ranma, to rule those out though I’d have to have access to a family members DNA as well as a few others of Japanese descent not to mention the months I would need to go over everything to rule things out.”

Stepping fully into the room Daniel stated with concern, “Aren’t you putting a lot of faith into an offhand statement made by the Asgaurd.” Shooting his hands up in a placating gesture he quickly added, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m as big as a fan of the Asgaurd as the next guy but it seems you’re putting all your hope into this.”

“Daniel…” Janet started tiredly as she placed her palms down onto the table before her, “Even with the data that you and the others brought back from Hanka I’m months away from finding a means to help Cassie, months I don’t have. That is if there is anything there to begin with as so far it just seems to just be a mess genetic samples that I can’t even begin to hope to identify in time, meaning that the only one that could possibly help Cassandra is Nirrti and even if we were able to find her I doubt she’d help. No this is the best way, I might not be able to stop what ever it is from happening to her but maybe I can make it so that she will live long enough so that I can.”

After taking a few more steps towards Janet, Daniel cam to a stop while placing his hand on the smaller woman’s shoulder, “I know you’re worried that you won’t be able to help her but we can find a way to stop this. This route… trying to help what ever is happening along… You said it yourself, there could be countless combinations if any of the ones you’ve been able to identify are the ones you actually need. What happens if you pick the wrong one or even worse what happens if you pick the right one and it still doesn’t help Cassie… What then?”

Breaking down into tears of frustration over her desperation to help her daughter Janet clutched tightly onto the archeologist and cried, “I don’t know… I have to do something… I’ve been through all the data, if there was someone else who had already been cured of this then I’d be able to make a counter virus but all off Cassandra’s people are dead… Incinerated because of the potential risk of the disease that Nirrti laid upon them… There’s no one left but Cassie… This is the best I can do…. I don’t want to, especially knowing that I’d be painting a bull’s-eye on her back to the NID if I succeeded but this is my best hope… I’ll have to worry about the rest when it comes to it…”

Daniel stood there silently for a few minutes while he wrapped his arms around the distraught woman. The reason for his silence was that he wasn’t sure as to what he could say to her to lift her spirits. He knew she was searching desperately for a means to save her daughter but he did not really agree with her latest idea. He felt that it was too risky and if successful would be a large burden on the girl that he wasn’t sure she could handle after having already been through so much. After all he knew first hand about how knowledge and power could be easily corrupted thanks to Shifu and was worried about Cassie attaining that level of power and becoming driven by revenge over what had happened to her first family. Of course he was sure that Ranma hadn’t yet fallen victim to that urge despite the NID’s best efforts but Ranma was different, he had been raised and matured into the level of strength that he had and not had it thrust upon him. Feeling the woman in his arms start to slide out of his embrace Daniel put on a sad smile and started to say, “I’m sorry Janet… I’m just worried about Cassie… I stopped by to check in on her before I came to see you and… She was awake, sitting there … Spinning a chess piece in mid air… Using her mind to move the piece.”

“I know.” Janet replied softly as she finished withdrawing herself from Daniel, “I was merely acting on a hunch before but she started to display those abilities a few hours ago after waking up. I’m convinced that I’m on the right track.” Pointing over to a folder she continued with, “I’ve already been through her DNA and compared it for any similarities with Ranma or Colonel O’Neill and haven’t been able to find anything as of yet. Meaning that while this virus is changing her DNA it’s not adding any new genes so if I can find the right gene and it does what I think it’ll do…”

Daniel nodded abruptly wondering why Janet had just trailed off. Noticing that the short woman’s gaze was now traveling past him he slowly turned around not expecting to see Cassandra leaning heavily against the door frame in her hospital gown.

“Mom…” Cassie muttered quietly as she tried to make her way into the room.

“Cassie… What are you doing here… You should be in bed…” Janet stated worriedly as she made her way forward to steady her daughter.

“I…” Cassie started weakly as she looked down to the floor not wanting to say that she had been lonely and wanted company.

Seeing the lights surging Janet turned to Daniel and asked, “Can you give me a hand bringing her back to her room…” feeling an objection coming from her daughter she preemptively added, “Don’t worry hun, I’ll stay with you until Colonel O’Neill brings Ranma back.”

“Where’d Ranma go?” Cassie asked as she was reluctantly led back to her room.

Sighing softly Janet reminded her daughter, “I had to keep him preoccupied because you were delirious and were in danger of exposing the Stargate to him. So after the nurse sedated you I sent Ranma off to bed and then spoke to Colonel O’Neill to keep him distracted for awhile until you were aware enough to not mention anything to him about the truth of where you come from.”

Cassie nodded reluctantly and replied, “I know… I just wish I could tell him… It’d be nice if I didn’t have to hide…”

“I know honey…” Janet said softly, “But that’s a decision for a later date. Right now we need to keep you focused on getting better.”

Having arrived at her bed Cassie nodded again while she was assisted back into the bed with help from both Daniel and her mother. “I know mom… I just can’t believe that 4 years after she wiped out everyone else that she’s managed to…” awkwardly motioning with her arms Cassie continued, “Finish me off…”

“Don’t talk like that sweetie. I’ll find away to save you… I promise…” Janet interrupted passionately hoping to reassure both herself and her daughter.

“You’re mothers right.” Daniel added bringing the teen’s attention to himself, “But you just need to do your best to hang in there in the meantime.” Looking briefly down at his watch he added, “I have to get back to translating some of the notes we found in Nirrti’s lab… So if you’ll excuse me I have work to do...”

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“I don’t know…” Ranma stated as she browsed through the store while looking for a small get well gift for Cassie, “I… Err… Why can’t I have just stayed there and waited for her to wake up and then went and got something for her later, when she was doing better…”

“Ranma…” Jack replied, “Just trust me on this, besides it would be counter productive to get her a get well soon gift when she was better.” Throwing a companionable arm around the petite redhead Jack added in a conspiring whisper, “Besides girls love this type of stuff…”

“Colonel…” Sam sighed having heard the last bit of advice her superior had given Ranma, “It’s not just girls that like it. It’s a thoughtful gesture that everyone appreciates not just girls.”

Squeezing Ranma’s shoulder lightly Jack added, “She’s just saying that because she’s a girl…”

“Colonel…” Sam hissed jokingly knowing full well that he was just playing around, well at least she hoped that he was playing around.

“Kidding… Carter… Ranma knows that I was just playing around... I mean come, on every one appreciates a get well soon gift…”

Ranma blinked, she actually had not known that Jack had just been joking around with her but upon hearing that she felt more than a little relieved at her own inner thoughts of wishing that someone sometime would have done the same for her.

Spotting something off out of the corner of his eye Jack extracted his arm from around Ranma and announced, “I’ll be right back…”

Sam sighed to herself as the colonel wandered off to the video section and said, “Come on Ranma lets go this way…”

“What about Jack?” Ranma asked in reply as she glanced around nervously not really liking Jack leaving her alone. Sure she had been around Sam several times but for the most part her most steadfast visitor besides Cassie had been Jack as he usually found some excuse to stop by and check on her.

Sighing as she realized that Ranma was still really uncomfortable around people, Sam stepped in closer to the redhead and set a comforting arm on the girls shoulder while wondering, how the sometimes girl had made it as far as she had into the store without looking like a nervous wreck. Then it hit her that Ranma must have been either putting on a front for Jacks sake or been distracted. Shaking her head as she considered the cause being more likely the former than the latter Sam said, “Actually why don’t we go get the colonel first then I’ll show you a few things that Cassie would like.”

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“Perfect.” Jack muttered to himself as he turned the DVD box set over in his hands, “Ranma will love this.”

“Colonel…”

Jumping slightly at hearing Carters voice so close Jack to a moment to glare halfheartedly at his XO before stating, “Geeze Carter…. What are you trying to do give me a heart attack?”

Holding back a snort of amusement Sam replied innocently, “No not at all sir…”

Giving the Major a stern mock glare Jack added cheekily, “What’s the matter miss me already? I’d said I’d be right back, just thought Ranma here might like something entertaining to watch instead of those dull books that you and Danny have been feeding her.”

Sighing as the Colonel held up a star wars special edition box set Sam said, “There’s nothing wrong with Ranma reading books in her spare time.”

Sensing that he was moments away from striking a nerve with his favorite Major, Jack quickly backpedaled and added, “Never said there was… Just trying to expand Ranma’s horizons a bit… I mean come on, Lost civilizations of the world? The Collapse of an Empire… I’m sure there’re great reads but Ranma should have something effortless to do and…” Brandishing the box set in his hands like some sort of ancient treasure, “What could be more effortless that sitting down and enjoying an epically classical collection like this.”

“Epically Classical?” Sam muttered to herself as she turned her attention to Ranma.

Ranma whom had been trying to focus on her center as she heard the last part was about to interject and say that she liked those two books as anything was better than just staring at a wall waiting to fall asleep at night, but quickly changed her mind as she spotted yet another person staring at her. Feeling really uncomfortable with how he and several other guy‘s around her age were looking at her Ranma stepped in closer to Jack and Sam hoping that their closer proximity would act as a buffer.

“Something wrong Ranma?” Sam asked softly as she took in the increasingly nervous vibe that the teen was putting out.

Feeling rather foolish that a bunch of people staring at her was making her feel that uncomfortable Ranma shook her head negatively and muttered, “No… It’s nothing.”

Giving the redhead a worried look Sam stated, “Ranma relax, you can trust us. We’re here to help you.”

Sighing in defeat Ranma mumbled, “It’s just that…” Taking in a deep breath Ranma continued, “I keep seeing these guy’s staring at me…”

“Where?” Jack hissed as his hand automatically began to reach for his side arm.

“Sir…” Sam warned cautiously not wanting the Colonel to pull out his sidearm in such a public place unless he absolutely had too.

“Relax Carter, Just stretching my hand out a bit.” Jack said as he covertly glanced about the store looking for any suspicious persons that he might have failed to notice.

Following Ranma’s slightly nervous gaze to the group of boys standing twenty feet away and then looking back at the redhead Sam sighed, she had not even thought that this would be a problem. Perhaps she should not have insisted that Ranma change out of the somewhat concealing air force sweats and into one of the outfits Cassie had picked out. At the time it had seemed like a good idea as the last thing they wanted to do was have Ranma outwardly connected to the air force even if it was by proxy. To that extent both she and the colonel had worn their civilian clothes out of the mountain, giving themselves the outward appearance of just a normal family out at the store. Despite her blush at the thought of her and the Colonel being more than the close nit friends and loyal teammates Sam knew that just simply changing clothes and using a rental car would not be enough to hide from whatever possible NID threat was out there. At least with Ranma dressed as a normal teenage girl though she should be able to hopefully blend into the background better should something start to happen.

Now though, as she took in the tight t-shirt and low hanging pants the teen was wearing Sam wished she could slap herself without bringing even more attention their way. Doctor McKenzie had mentioned that there was a good possibility of Ranma feeling insecure about his or her own sexual identity should he be placed into a situation where he was stuck in the role of a female with a lot of other teen boys his age around him.

Gently placing her hand on the teens arm she said, “Let’s just go this way, pick up a quick gift for Cassie and get out of here.”

“Okay… I guess…” Jack said worriedly as he continued to covertly glance around in the hopes of spotting any potential threats.

Sensing her commanders confusion Sam added, “You don’t need to worry sir… I’ll explain later but there’s no NID around…” Thinking about the last part she had said Sam corrected herself, “At least none that we are aware of…”

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A few hours later

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Ranma stared at the board in front of her as she witnessed Cassie move another piece effectively trapping her king in check mate. The fact that her friend was moving said piece without the use of her hands had the current redhead’s mind more curious on how her friend was doing so and not on the fairly quick game that they had just finished playing.

“Check mate.” Cassie announced with a frown as she won for the sixth time in a row in nearly twenty minutes. “Come on Ranma what’s the matter? It’s like you’re not even trying.”

Looking up to meet Cassie’s eyes with a sheepish expression on her face Ranma apologized, “Sorry… I just keep getting distracted with trying to think up a way for me to be able to do that too.”

Watching while her friend lean back into the bed and hugging the small brown bear to her chest that she had picked out for her Ranma realized her folly and apologized, “I’m sorry Cassie… I didn’t mean to…“

Sighing as she straitened up a bit Cassie interjected, “It’s okay Ranma, I know that you didn’t mean anything by it… I’m just really tired that’s all…“

Frowning to herself for bringing on a somber mood Ranma tried to lighten Cassie’s spirits and said, “You’ll get better, I just know it… I mean everyone say’s that your mom is a miracle worker so how hard can it be, she’ll have a cure ready for you in no time.”

Cassie mentally shook her head, she knew that her mother was a great doctor but she had also overheard some of what she had told Daniel and knew that the situation was much more dire than what Ranma knew, that there was a very distinct possibility that she would not live through the week. Not wanting to face her own mortality at the moment Cassie tried to switch the subject and asked, “So how did your first outing outside of the base go… Wish I could have went with you, we could have had a lot of fun.”

Nervously wracking her hands on her lap Ranma tried to put off answering by deflecting with, “Technically it was my second trip away from the base. Besides it’s not like I haven’t been to places before, I did spend a lot of time with my pops traveling from town to town learning martial arts.”

“True…” Cassie conceded, “But that was in Japan and China, It’s a whole different country out there.” Truthfully though, Cassie was slightly depressed over the fact that she had not been with Ranma on his first outing into Colorado Springs. She supposed that it was selfish of her but when she had first came to earth and after her near death and subsequent adoption she had been absolutely astounded over all the neat and interesting things she saw in one small area and that was a wonder she had wanted to explore with Ranma despite her knowledge that the teen was not an alien in the same sense as her.

“I guess you’re right…” Ranma admitted with a shiver as she tried to block out the memory of seemingly everyone staring at her.

Seeing her friend shiver Cassie immediately became concerned and asked, “Ranma are you cold?” Blushing as she said it she added, “You can move up here with me if you want to…” Now fumbling over her words as she tried to continue her predetermined course of action Cassie hastily tacked on, “That way we can share my blanket.”

“Uhmm.. I’m not… I don’t know…” Ranma drawled out unsurely not wanting to mention to Cassie the real reason for her shiver. Looking around the room nervously she asked, “What if someone say’s something?”

“What are they going to say? We’re just too friends getting comfortable and staying warm. Besides it’s not like I’m contagious or anything.”

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“I’m back… And I brought…” Jack announced as he entered Cassie’s room only to trail off at the sight of the two girls sleeping soundly in the same bed. Momentarily a dark cloud of confusion crossed over his face as he mentally debated separating his adopted niece away from the boy and leaving the two girls comfortably sleeping in the same bed alone to get some much needed rest after what was for the both of them a rather stressful day. In the end he decided that he would let them be for the time being since there was nothing inappropriate looking going on. Setting the prized Star Wars box set off to the side on a nearby table Jack silently approached the girls and shook his head. Gently reaching out with his hands be began to carefully remove Ranma’s shoes so as to not wake the slumbering teen. Once that was done Jack then adjusted the blanket noting with a nod of approval that Cassie and Ranma despite their close proximity were still separated by a layer of bedding.

Looking back at Teal’c who had been standing at the doorway holding a vast array of snacks and the DVD player Jack sighed, knowing full well that the Jaffa had been looking forward to a mini marathon and that somehow he would have to make it up to him. Already he could see the miniscule signs of disappointment showing through his friends features, “Well actually…” Jack amended, “It’s kinda more like a small twitch of the brow really.” Shaking his head as he heard the sounds of labored breathing coming from behind his stalwart teammate Jack rolled his eyes. Motioning for Teal’c to put the DVD player down on the small table next to the Box set Jack made his way into the hall and quietly hissed, “For Christ’s sake Siler it’s just a small TV it’s not that heavy, I can hear you twenty feet away… There are girls trying to sleep in there…”

Siler stared at the Colonel in disbelief, sure the TV wasn’t that heavy especially for a twenty seven inch one, but after lugging it around the base for the past half hour while the Colonel looked for a bigger TV he was feeling fairly fatigued. “At least I was able to talk him out of having me remove the projection TV from the conference room, General Hammond wouldn’t have been happy at that.”

Shaking his head at the Noncom Jack moved to the side and continued in a soft tone, “Set it down inside the room over by the far wall.”

Nodding his head the Master sergeant started to enter the room but was cut off with one last word from the Colonel.

“Oh and Siler…”

“Yes Colonel?”

“You didn’t see anything in that room. Okay?” Jack warned not wanting to let the innocent scene inside to be twisted into some wild fantasy circulating among the enlisted. Not that he thought Siler would have said anything as the noncom was a fairly good man, if maybe a bit clumsy, which had earned him a place in his will as the recipient of his treasured Simpson’s collection, “Still though… It‘s better safe then sorry… Don‘t need to be reading about Cassie on the men‘s room wall..”

Siler simply nodded, he wouldn’t have said anything regardless of the Colonels warning but just incase temptation reared its ugly head he kept his eyes glued to the wall and did not even spare the rooms occupants a cursory glance.

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Nirrti walked through the bland grey corridors of the Tau’ri base with a pensive look on her face that was unseen to the Tau’ri thanks to her personal cloaking device. She had been in the middle of assembling her remaining resources after having lost most of them to Chronos after her attempt on his life and her subsequent imprisonment. It was during her consolidation of her now dwindling resources that she had noticed an alarm going of signifying that someone had entered one of her old labs. Further investigation led her to realize that it was coming from the abandoned facility on Hanka. Knowing that she had cleansed the population with the exception of one girl whom she had turned into a living bomb as a trap for the Tau’ri had her mildly curious.

So after making her way to the nearest Stargate, the former system lord made her way to her currently occupied lab to see what had set off her alarm.

Upon her arrival Nirrti had noticed one of those mechanical Tau’ri probes sitting near the gate. At that she almost turned around and retreated back to her current base but then she began to think about why the Tau’ri would come back after four years. Then it hit her, the girl whom she had hoped to destroy them four years ago must have begun to enter the stage where she entered the rite. Deciding that the possible data was well worth the possible risk to herself, Nirrti, hidden from sight thanks to her personal cloaking device decided to spy on and follow the Tau’ri.

So she had ringed down to her lab and observed them, taking mental notes as they slowly revealed that her suspicions had been correct. With that in mind she continued her silent lurking and followed them back through the Stargate to check on her former project herself.

Despite her familiarity with the base she had opted to continue following the members of SG1. Unfortunately the blond female was nowhere to be seen which left her trailing closely behind the three males as they passed through a door reading locker room. Minutes later a semi pleased looking Nirrti exited silently through the doors, and if anyone would have asked her at that moment if she would destroy the earth given a chance, she would reply, definitely, just not until after she claimed a few trophies for her enjoyment.

Leaving the locker room behind her the fallen system lord struck out on her own to locate the infirmary and check on one of her former experiments.

At first, after she had finally found the right lab, Nirrti had been content in just watching what the Tau’ri were trying to do but after several interruptions that occurred over the span of the past day and a half of her alternating her attention between periodically checking in on the ignorant female Tau’ri doctor’s progress and gathering as much information as she could from the Tau’ri computers, she decided to check on the situation one last time before she decided if it was time to leave lest she stay longer and risk discovery. She had already done so several times already and had been silently amused by the audacity of what the sole human occupant had been attempting to do. This time though that amusement turned to astonishment, ever so briefly, when the woman left the room once more giving her access to see what exactly the woman was currently working on. That astonishment was quickly replaced with a look of contemplation as Nirrti considered the data spread out before her. Judging from what she was seeing the Tau’ri female had access to some highly advanced DNA and that by using that, was now well on her way to develop a gene therapy that would assist the retrovirus instead of combating it head on or simply deactivating it like what she had done to countless other girls during the long span of the project.

Continuing her inspection through the redheads work Nirrti shook her head in annoyance. “So Primitive… it’s a wonder how they can be such a nuisance and still be so utterly incompetent. Still though… This does present a very promising predicament. All I would need to duplicate this work would be a few samples of this advanced DNA and I could replicate this on my own, away from the Tau‘ri… On the other hand…” Nirrti thought as she rubbed her chin in consideration, “It would only take a few minor unnoticeable alterations to this work right here and I could have a potentially fresh sample of Hok‘Tar DNA not to mention a possible new host. Of course that would depend on the girl living through the procedure… Then again there‘s nothing to say that I can‘t do both, that way if the girl doesn‘t survive I can replicate it myself.”

Deciding that she was being presented with an opportunity that was far too valuable to pass up, Nirrti went right to work making subtle corrections in the redheaded Tau’ri woman’s work. Once that was done she then turned her attention to copying as much data from the files as what she could, knowing that if she did not hurry she risked discovery by the Tau’ri and despite her confidence on her cloaking device she did not want to risk capture and loosing all the potential data that she had discovered. Briefly as she went through the woman’s work she considered just seeking out the owners of the two samples of Hok’Tar DNA but ruled that out once she discovered that O’Neill was one of the owners and despite being well known for making a general nuisance out of himself he did not show any of the special attributes that she was looking for. “Well except for that thing in the shower…” Nirrti mentally amended to herself as she went back to copying the work.

Hearing the clicking footsteps that signified her time running out Nirrti stepped away from the counter and retreated to a safe distance where she could observe without the risk of someone accidentally bumping into her.

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Janet stepped back into the lab trying in vain to suppress a tired yawn from escaping her mouth. She was exhausted and knew that she was running out of steam but she was so close to being able to help Cassandra that she could feel it. Taking a long swig of the Coffee she had gone to fetch she made her way back to her work and began to go over it once more. After a few minutes she stepped away and blinked, “That’s odd… I don’t remember doing this… I must be more exhausted than I thought…” Turning her thoughts into slightly coherent thoughtful mutterings she continued, “Everything looks right… This could work… No… This will work…” After standing there for a minute digesting her own words Janet’s face twisted into an excited smile as she exclaimed, “This will work… I’ll be able to save her with this…”

After taking in several deep calming breaths to hide her excitement Janet reached calmly for the lab phone to summon her staff to help her get the treatment ready while keeping her fingers crossed because if all went well then they should be able to synthesize a treatment within a few hours.

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Nirrti shook her head at the Tau’ri woman’s arrogance while making her way out of the lab to check on the test subject as she knew she had some time to burn and had not yet checked in on her little experiment.

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A few minutes later

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Ranma jerked awaked and immediately began a visible sweep of the room with her eyes, having been woken up by a vague feeling of dangerous unease that she usually associated with Teal’c’s presence. Though to be honest with herself, what ever had woken her up had been much more potent than what she had ever felt around the large man. Letting her gaze come to a stop at the entranceway she tried to shake the feeling off and chalk it up to what Doctor McKenzie called post traumatic stress.

Nirrti paused; she had been in the room for only a few moments idly examining a curious looking box that had been sitting on a table by the door when she sensed movement behind her. Quickly stuffing the curiously decorated box into her robes she spun around just in time to witness the unknown girl who was sharing the same bed as her test subject suddenly jerk awake and begin to scan the room. She had been about to dismiss the phenomenon as nothing important when she realized that the girls gaze stopped at her position. Not wanting to risk discovery yet she took a step to the right and was surprised to see the girls gaze follow her. Knowing that her cloaking device kept her hidden from almost every race she knew about the former system lord began to reconsider her approach, after all if the girl was from one of those few races that could detect her, then she might find herself discovered before she had a chance to silence the girl. Taking several slow steps backwards Nirrti began to carefully creep back out of the room, tensing herself for the moment that the girl cried out in alarm.

Sighing in relief as the sensation finally passed Ranma turned her attention to her bedmate, seeing that Cassie was still asleep Ranma relaxed back down into the bed, feeling relieved that her friend had not been awake to worry about her as she tended to do when she tensed up around people.

On the other side of the door a thoughtful Nirrti stood wondering why the girl who could obviously sense her had not cried out in alarm. Briefly she considered reentering the room but immediately dismissed that idea as too risky until she had a better grasp of the girl and what exactly she was capable of. After all, the girl in the other room could be the other owner of the advanced DNA and without knowledge of what she was capable of Nirrti could find herself caught and imprisoned cloaking device or not. Deciding that she needed to find out more about this girl Nirrti made her way to the closest unoccupied computer terminal to hack into the SGC database.

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Janet strode her way to Cassandra’s room ready to tell her daughter that she had been able to formulate a treatment and that it should be ready by the morning. Her only regret on the matter was that it was not a cure and that after the treatment her daughter would have to worry about becoming a target to the NID but as Colonel O’Neill would say, one thing at a time. For the moment she had much more pressing issues as the treatment was still not a hundred percent guarantee but it was the best she could do without months of time to test and refine it. In any case though Janet knew alive was much better than dead and at least this way her daughter had a fighting chance and was not doomed to slowly burn up as she was currently doing.

Coming to the specially shielded room she braced herself and put aside all negative thoughts from her head as she did not want to worry her daughter before entering. Now with her face clear of self doubt Janet entered the room prepared to tell her daughter the news only to come to a halt at the sight before her. As Cassandra’s mother, Janet had to suppress a frown, despite having already been informed by Colonel O’Neill that there was nothing inappropriate going on. But as Cassandra’s doctor and mother she could not help but smile at the sight of her daughter sleeping peacefully as it was something that her baby had not been doing for the past few weeks. Sighing out a quiet, “It’s okay Ranma, Colonel O’Neill already told me that you two were in here sleeping… Though I see that you are awake now.”

Shuffling nervously on the bed Ranma began the arduous task of extracting herself from Cassie’s arms so that she could climb out of the bed.

Slowly approaching the two teens Janet waited for Ranma to climb out of the bed before she made a motion for the sometimes girl to follow her out into the hall.

Ranma gulped with trepidation before she realized that she was no longer wearing her shoes. Not wanting to walk around on the cold concrete in just her socks she looked around feverously for them.

Realizing what was taking Ranma so long with just a glance Janet pointed behind herself and quietly said, “They’re over there, Colonel O’Neill took them off you in your sleep.” Seeing the teen hesitate Janet sighed in exasperation, “Hurry up Ranma… I have to get back to work.” Almost as soon as she said it Janet regretted it as it nearly sent the teen into a blind scramble to get her shoes on and out the door. Resisting the urge to cover her face with her hand, Janet followed behind the apparently jumpy sometimes girl into the hall.

Once they were safely outside and out of earshot from the room Janet called out to the still retreating Ranma with, “That’s far enough Mister.”

Gulping nervously Ranma turned around and braced herself for the parental chew out that was sure to follow, after all while she did not have much, if any experience with such things she knew enough to realize that Cassia’s mother must be upset with her for taking advantage of her daughters friendship. Seeing the stern look being directed at her from the older woman Ranma took a reflexive step back and braced herself.

Realizing that she was further spooking the teen, Janet sighed again and smiled softy while saying, “It’s alright Ranma I’m not mad at you. I just wanted to talk to you without having to worry about Cassandra waking up.”

Unsure as to whether the woman was just humoring her or not Ranma nodded almost reluctantly and waited for her to continue.

Glancing back in the direction of her daughters room Janet almost wistfully continued, “I didn’t want to wake her, it’s been too long since she seemed so at peace in her sleep. Even when she…” Trailing off as she realized that Ranma probably did not want to hear about how Cassie had been suffering from nightmares that led her to climb into her bed Janet cleared her throat and said, “Anyway… As I was going to say. I managed to formulate a treatment that would work and was going to tell Cassandra that it would be ready by the morning. Seeing that she is asleep though, I guess that will have to wait until after she wakes up.”

Upon hearing the news Ranma’s heart soared with relief for her friend she had been worried about Cassie’s degenerating condition despite the fact that Cassie seemed to be doing better. Unfortunately despite her ongoing recovery from the NID’s manipulations of her psyche, Ranma was left unsure of how to respond to the news. Before, back when she had been all man and carefree she probably would have said something like, that’s great news. But standing in the there and now she felt that sort of response seemed hollow to the way she was feeling, what with her chest tying itself into knots and eyes starting to tear up.

Watching as the teen started to cry and knowing that Doctor McKenzie was trying to get Ranma to be more open with his or in the current case her feelings Janet took a few steps forward and opened her arms while softly saying, “Come here…”

Despite it being a request and not a command Ranma tensed up slightly and obediently moved forward, allowing herself to be wrapped into her warm embrace in the process.

Stroking Ranma’s short cropped red hair as the not currently male cried into her shoulder Janet soothingly replied in a soft gentle voice, “Girl or guy… It’s okay to cry when you’re happy. It just shows how much of a true friend you are to Cassandra.”

Not trusting her voice Ranma settled to just nodding into the somewhat taller woman’s shoulder while she tried to compose herself.

After a few moments Janet slowly relinquished her hold on the teen and moved her to shoulders length away and let her face fall into a slightly more somber expression while she said, “Just so you know, Cassandra isn’t out of the woods yet. The treatment will be very hard on her and she will need all the support from her friends that she can get… You’re going to have to be strong for her… Can you be strong for her?”

Nodding her head in affirmation Ranma brushed away a few stray tears and replied, “Yes ma’am..”

Satisfied with the answer Janet nodded and stated, “Good… Then I’m going to need you to go get something to eat and then it’s off to your quarters to get some rest…” Sensing an objection moments away the red-haired doctor added, “Don’t worry, seeing that my daughter will likely insist that you be present when we administer the treatment I’ll make sure to come get you myself once she wakes up.”

Releasing her hold on the teen Janet then made a shooing motion with her hands while mock chastising, “Well off you go… You better hurry the mess hall is going to be closing soon…” Seeing that the teen before her was just standing there awkwardly waiting for something Janet sighed with realization and said, “You need an escort…”

Nodding her head Ranma sheepishly replied, “Yes Ma’am.”

Realizing that it had been some time since she had last digested something other than caffeine Janet offered shorter girl a smile while taking her hand into her own and said, “Well I guess I’m it then…” Sensing a protest coming her way Janet cut it off with, “Doctors need to eat too, besides Nurse Hopkins is on duty and will have me paged if there is any change in Cassandra’s condition.” Tugging the girl towards the elevator Janet added, “Besides, it’s not often that I get to spend time with my daughter’s friends.”

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A few hours later

In a semi secluded office away from prying eye’s

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Nirrti leaned back in the seat she had sequestered deep in contemplation over her next move. Her search through the Tau’ri data base had been enlightening to say the least and left her reconsidering her course of action. Not that she was considering turning over a new leaf or anything that extreme, no. No, it was the realization that the Tau’ri apparently had Hok’tars living amongst them that sent her mind spinning in different directions. Because if the Tau’ri had them then why did they not recruit more of them to fight against her kind, from what she had seen of the files, the one they currently had seemed most formable and would almost with out a doubt be more than enough to handle more than a dozen Jaffa single-handedly. Also if what she had seen was true and they truly did have Hok’tars, then when did they start to develop? She like the other system lords knew full well that nearly a millennium had passed between the time that Ra abandoned the planet and the final Goa’uld holdout had left. So where were the Hok’Tar during this time? “Unless… Unless the Hok’tars are recent evolution on this planet and they are still in their infancy thus meaning that their numbers are small…”

Moving her gaze over to the closed door of the small room she had holed up in while she hacked into the Tau’ri database Nirrti continued to mull over her next move. Part of her knew that she should probably just leave and cut her losses before she actually lost something of value, but the arrogant Goa’uld part of her was practically drooling up a storm at the possibility of having one or even two developed Hok’tars to study. So with that thought in mind the former system lord rose out of the seat and made her way to the nearest armory while she finished formulating a plan of action.

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A few hours later, early morning, Infirmary

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“You’re going to be fine…” Ranma cooed softy as he gently clasped Cassie’s hand between his own, “You’ll see… You’re going to be back to kicking my butt in chess in no time…” trying to grin with a confidence that he was currently lacking over Cassie’s worsening condition Ranma then added, “Besides you said you wanted to show me around and you can’t do that from a hospital bed.”

Stepping away from where she was giving last minute instructions to her staff Janet glanced over to the door to see Doctor Warner standing there holding a small case. Nodding to him the weary mother/doctor changed her course and announced, “It’s time…”

Holding out the small box in front of him Doctor Warner said, “I was in the area and stopped by the lab just in time for them to finish synthesizing this so I thought I would bring it by.“

Stepping in close to the man Janet made a move to take the case from him only instead of relinquishing the treatment to her Warner’s face turned somber as he asked, “Are you sure you don’t want me to do this Janet?”

Shaking her head Janet replied, “Normally… No, I need to do this… She’s my daughter and…”

Cutting the woman off Doctor Warner sighed, “Very well…” Relinquishing his hold on the case, the Doctor continued quietly, “Good luck…“ Checking his watch he then added, “I’ll be covering for you in the infirmary, I got a page… Apparently Siler…“

Janet laughed nervously knowing full well that Doctor Warner was just trying to lighten the mood and whispered, “Thank you.“ Turning away from the other Doctor Janet made her way over to her daughters bedside. Giving her daughter a loving reassuring smile Janet asked, “Are you ready sweetie?”

With her throat dry from the high fever of her rapidly worsening condition Cassie nodded unsurely while weakly squeezing Ranma’s hand.

Brushing away Cassie’s sweat soaked bangs Janet continued, “Okay then…” Sparing Ranma a quick glance she said, “I’m going to have to have Ranma move away from you so he won’t be in the way…” Seeing her daughter nod in understanding again Janet continued, “He’ll be right over there with Sam, Daniel and Colonel O’Neill… Okay honey…”

Reluctantly Ranma took the queue and gently let go of Cassie’s hand to step away and stand with the others.

Jack whom had been covertly staring at his favorite Major with concern waved him over and asked, “Why don’t you stand here between me and Carter.”

Keeping his eyes locked on his friend Ranma silently complied and moved into position between the two adults. Engrossed as what he was in Cassie’s well fare he showed no outward reaction when he felt both Sam and Jack latch onto him in a show of support.

Sam sighed to herself as she tried her best to not let her face convey just how worried she was for the closet person she would probably ever have for a daughter. Years ago she had wanted to adopt Cassie as she had known even then that she would never have the time to have children of her own, it would have been just be too irresponsible of her to put her needs first while the Goa’uld threat was still out there and given their sheer numbers she had known even then that she was in it for the long haul. Sadly that had been the same reason as to why she could not have adopted Cassandra despite how badly she had wanted to, there were simply just too many missions and crisis’s that needed her and it would not have been fair to the at that time young preteen. So she had settled for being an adopted aunt, it was still a decision that would haunt her late at night as she would sometimes wonder about what if’s and would have could have’s.

Hearing the Colonel say something to Ranma, Sam twisted her head over to the man and sighed internally again, he was another part of her long list of regrets. Shaking her head to clear away the jealous thoughts that sparked up for her analogs from alternate dimensions Sam turned her attention back to Cassie and noticed that Ranma had stepped in-between her and Jack, seeing the visible signs of worry on the teens face she reached out ad took his hand into her own, idly realizing that her Colonel had reciprocated the action by clasping down one of his large gentle hands down onto the lads shoulder. Briefly Sam considered the newest addition into the SGC family of misfits and while he had not been there for long, he had already become a pseudo adopted son.

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Daniel stood there silently by Jack’s side watching Janet with compassion evident in his eyes. He had mixed feelings over what she was about to do, sure he cared for Cassandra and wanted her to live but at the same time he was deeply worried for her because if the treatment worked then the former farm girl would be given a powerful ability. Combine that with the recent happenings in her life and given what had happened to her first family, he was worried that the most of the time sweet girl before him would turn into something else becoming driven by the feelings of fear and helplessness she had been feeling. Even if she didn’t succumb to those feelings there was still the risk of her starting to believe herself as superior to everyone else and even if she believed herself to have the best intentions with using her gifts he had learned from Shifu that sometimes even having the best intentions could override your very soul. Realizing that Janet was about to administer the serum Daniel cut himself away from his own mixed feelings on the ethical rightness of what fate apparently had in mind for Cassie

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After inserting the needle into Cassie’s IV Janet closed her eyes briefly in prayer before reopening them and depressing the plunger to empty the serum into her daughters IV. Once it was completely drained Janet slowly withdrew it and announced, “It’s done.”

“How long until we know if it’s working?” Ranma asked from his position between Jack and Sam.

Glancing up at the clock Janet replied, “It should have started to take affect almost immediately…” Turning briefly to take note of her daughter’s vitals Janet frowned and asked, “Cassie hun… Are you feeling any different?”

Cassie was about to shake her head negative and attempt to croak out a no when all of the sudden her whole body felt as if it were twisting itself into knots while filling her with a white hot pain.

“She’s seizing…” Janet cried out in alarm as she lunged forward to pin her daughter to the bed, “Get the restraints on her… Diazepam, Stat…”

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On the sidelines Jack clamped down onto Ranma’s shoulder in an attempt to keep the teen where he was and out of the way while the Doc did her best to keep her daughter stable and was somewhat relieved to realize that his action was unnecessary as Ranma apparently realized that he would be in the way if he did move forward.

Janet depressed the pre-prepared vial into her daughter, not moving from her position as her eyes tracked her vitals like a hawk. Feeling Cassandra’s seizures begin to dissipate Janet allowed herself to take a quick breath to announce, “She’s stabilizing…” Tearing her visage away from the vitals the worried woman turned down to her daughter only to discover that she was trying to say something, Bringing her hand down to push away her daughters hair Janet softly cooed, “Shhh… Save your strength… It’s okay… It’ll be okay…”

“Her BP is skyrocketing…” Janet heard Nurse Hopkins warn from her side.

“Stay with me honey… You need to calm down…”

Cassie’s looked around the room wildly as she struggled to find the strength to cry out a warning having sensed something that she had only ever sensed in Sam and Teal’c closing in.

“She’s crashing…”

“Nonono… Stay with me…” Janet cried out as she began to toil relentlessly to keep her daughter alive.

Ranma jerked forward uncertainly as he listened in on the happening around him wishing desperately that there was something he could do as he stood on the sidelines watching his friend’s condition deteriorate. “There’s nothing I can do… I’d only be in the way… Unless…”

“She’s going into defib…”

“Get the pads…” Janet barked as tore away the top of the flimsy hospital gown that covered her daughter’s modesty while she heard the ominous piercing tone of the heart monitor signaling that her little girls heart had stopped.

“No… I can’t lose her… There has to be something I can do…”

“Clear!”

“Come on Cassie… Come on…”

“Again!”

“Please… You can do it…”

“Again!”

“She’s not responding…”

“Dammit I can see that…” Janet retorted before she pleaded with her daughter, “Come on baby… Come back to me… Adrenaline…”

“Doctor… It’s no use she’s gone…”

“Don’t tell me she’s gone. What are you doing just standing around? I said Adrenaline, now!” Janet ordered as she climbed on top of her daughter and began heart compressions.

“The technique… I can try it again… It’ll work I know it…” Ranma thought to himself as he began to move forward.

“Ranma, you need to stay here, you’ll just be in the way.” Jack hissed while he and Carter tried to hold the obscenely strong determined teen back.

“I can help her.” Ranma replied simply as he effortlessly slipped out from their grasp.

“Oh really? How?” Jack fired back as he tried to reason with the dark haired youth.

Swiveling her head to the side from her position on top of her daughter Janet asked in desperation, “Can you get it to work?”

Moving up to Cassie’s bed Ranma locked eyes with Janet and replied, “I have to try… I know I can help her… I have to...”

Seeing the fierce determination in his eyes Janet nodded sharply and replied, “Do it…”

Settling his hands into position just above Cassie’s chest Ranma took in a deep breath to find his center and slowly began to will his own life force outward until his hands were lit up with a blindingly soft white glow.

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Nirrti whom had been keeping her distance to not alert the Hok’tar had had enough, she would have liked to have taken both teens but since one was now dead she would settle for the one, “Besides…” She thought, “I already have a DNA sample from her… Though it’s a shame that I won’t have a fresh source to draw from as needed… “

Moving away from her position across the hall where she had been observing through the open door the cloaked Goa’uld pulled out a Zat that she had taken from the Tau’ri armory and modified to suit her needs. Entering the room she smiled sinisterly, her soon to be pet was too preoccupied to sense her presence and that would only work to her benefit as now she would not have to worry about taking him out first. Taking careful aim with both her pilfered Zat and her Hand Device Nirrti smiled in triumph as she deactivated her cloaking device.

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“Shiii…” Jack swore as he felt himself being flung across the room and into an ever so convenient tray of sharp medical instruments.

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Hearing the telltale click-whine of a Zat activating Daniel tried to spin around to face his attacker but it was too little too late as before he even completed the spin and he was hit with an arcing blue light that briefly sent him into convulsions before blissful unconsciousness took hold.

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With both Daniel and the Colonel down from the surprise attack Sam swung herself around and launched a kick at their unknown attacker only to have it blocked and redirected, sending her sprawling towards the ground. Tucking herself into a roll Sam avoided the crash and was soon back on her feet and moving towards their attacker, whom was hiding her face behind a thick black veil.

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“Sound the alarm! Get security in here now…” Janet ordered from her position on top of her daughter as she took notice of the commotion breaking out in the room.

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“Not so fast.” Nirrti smirked as she fired her hand device at the infamous Major Carter while using the Zat to take out the remainder of the staff in the room.

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Realizing that it was just her Ranma and Cassandra’s still body left in the room with a Goa’uld Janet looked up towards the ceiling in agony over what was happening before she realized that the Goa’uld was on the move again and this time had the Zat trained on Ranma. Feeling a slight tremor under her fingertip Janet’s eyes widened, “A Pulse… It’s faint… but… Whatever he is doing… It’s working… But if Nirrti gets off a shot…” Coming up with a course of action Janet launched off of her daughter and into the Goa’uld like a rabid lioness protecting her young.

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Nirrti almost snorted with distain at the woman’s pathetic attempt to stop her. With her Zat still trained on the occupied Hok’tar she raised the hand containing her hand device and sent the woman sprawling back in the other direction leaving just her and the Hok‘tar as the only ones conscious in the room.

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With sweat beading down his face from the exertion of performing the healing technique Ranma slowly turned his head. He had let his guard down and had only faintly been aware of what had been happening in the background as all his focus was currently being used to bring his friend back to him.

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Seeing that she now had the young Hok’Tars attention Nirrti spared no time with pleasantries and fired the Zat.

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Realizing that he could not yet break off the technique Ranma tried one last thing before the Zat blast made contact with him. Pulling forth his entire will he force fed it right into Cassie just moments before he was hit in the back. Feeling a painful electrical discharge on his back Ranma tried to fight it, redirect it, anything to allow him to hold on to Cassie for one moment longer and buy the time he needed to bring her back.

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“You are a resilient one…” Nirrti taunted as she saw the teen struggling to stay standing. “It’s a shame… I would have liked to have taken your friend too for my host but I guess I will have to settle for you… Though it is most fortunate that you are able to become female…” Nirrti added as she considered what she had learned from his medical files, “I would have hated to imagine being stuck with a male vessel…” Tapping her chin as if she were deep in thought Nirrti finished her taunt with, “I suppose that you will just have to get used to being a woman full time… Well… Not that what you want would matter seeing as your body will be mine to do with as I please.” Finished with her little monolog Nirrti fired the Zat once more, causing her newest pet to crumple on top of her former project.

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There were a lot of things that Ranma did not know, who the woman was, what she was talking about. But as he lay there half crumpled across Cassie’s still form he knew one thing, for beneath him he could feel the slight indications of shallow breathing and the faint sounds of a beating heart. Feeling a splash of cold water that instantly reversed his gender, Ranma’s aware mind in her otherwise comatose seeming body briefly hoped that the transformation would allow her to regain motor control over her body.

“Much better.” Nirrti murmured as she tugged the neo female off of the dead girl and started to drag her out of the room and towards the elevators. Normally she might have tried the stairs but thanks to a little foresight on her part she had deactivated the security measures so they would be safe to use.

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“Pins and needles…” Jack thought as he slowly climbed back into consciousness, “It feels like I’m lying in a bed made out of pins and needles…” Blearily opening his eyes as the memory of being flung across the room returned to him causing him to roll his eyes as he muttered, “Course… it probably feels like that because I am lying in a bed of frick’en needles…” Tiredly struggling to his feet Jack immediately staggered over to the alarm to alert the base before turning his attention to the room’s occupants. Noticing Carter struggling to her feet he immediately made his way over to offer a hand.

“I’m fine sir.” Sam muttered before she noticed Janet moving, “Janet? You okay?”

Wincing as she tried to pressure on her arm to raise herself up Janet replied, “No… But I think I’ll be alright…” Remembering what had happened right before she had been sent flying Janet exclaimed, “Cassie…”

“What about Cassie? Jack asked as he moved away from Sam to check on Daniel.

“She had a pulse… Ranma‘s… It took Ranma…”

Sam who had moved over to help Janet up asked, “What? You sure?”

“Yeah… She was going to Zat him when I noticed that Cassie had a pulse.” Janet explained as she stumbled towards her daughter.

Feeling a pulse on Daniel, Jack gave him a few light slaps on the cheeks before standing up and making his way over to the phone to tell them to lock the gate down.

Having reached Cassie’s bed Janet tentatively reached out for a pulse only to jump back slightly as her daughter took in a deep shuddering breath as she lunged upwards.

With her eyes filling with tears Janet frantically began to remove the straps tying her baby girl down the while cooing, “It’s okay… It’s okay… I’m here… You’re going to be okay…”

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Hanging up the phone after calling for a lockdown of the gate Jack glanced across the room, knowing that there was nothing else he could do where he was at the moment he ordered, “Carte, stay here and help the doc until Warner and a security detail gets here, we’re in lockdown.”

“Unauthorized Activation…”

“Scratch that… We’re going down to the gate room. You okay by yourself doc?”

Realizing that whichever Goa’uld had taken Ranma was obviously trying to escape through the Stargate, Janet looked up from where she was cradling Cassie’s head and shooed them away, “Go… go… I’ll be fine… Just bring him back…”

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Had she been current on the colorful adjectives of the Tau’ri, Nirrti would have cursed as the alarm klaxon sounded right as she stepped off the elevator while carelessly dragging her newly claimed prized Hok’tar behind herself.

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“Relax honey. Colonel O’Neill will bring Ranma back.” Janet said as she tried to get her struggling daughter to calm down, “He won’t let anything bad happen I promise… Okay?”

Nodding reluctantly Cassie croaked out, “Okay mom…“

“Good…Now I have to check on the others, so please just stay put. You’re in no condition to go running around.” Turning her attention away from her daughter Janet made her way over to the closest downed body which happened to be Nurse Hopkins and knelt down to check on her condition while keeping her injured arm protectively cradled against herself. Unfortunately her stubborn daughter took her momentary inattention to somehow muster up the strength to not only climb out of the bed but go running out of the room as well.

“Get back here young lady…” Janet called out as she went to give chase only to stop short when she was alerted to Daniel coming to by a suffering moan. Knowing that in cases where the base was put into lockdown that there was no way to get anywhere without a security card Janet sighed and went back to work while muttering, “Stubborn girl… Could have least covered herself up some… Running around half naked… Near death experience or not you are so grounded…”

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“Crap…” Cassie muttered as she slid to a stop in front of the elevators, “I don’t have time for this…” turning her attention to the nearby stairs she almost sighed in despair, “I can’t even… Stupid keycards…” Remembering what she had been doing with the chess pieces the night before Cassie shrugged, “It’s worth a shot…” Focusing all her attention on the door she closed her eyes and pushed. Not hearing more than the barest sound of protest from the door, she opened them back up as she growled in irritation, “It didn’t budge… Stupid door…” Taking in a few deep supposedly calming breaths Cassie muttered with increasing agitation, “I don’t have time for this… Ranma needs me… I’ll just have to try again… I can do it… It’s just like spinning a chess piece around…” Sparing the offending door a long suffering glare she repeated, “A very large stubborn chess piece…”

Letting her frustration over her friends safety leak into her concentration Cassie closed her eyes and pushed with all her mental might and this time was rewarded with a strained protesting groan coming from the door. Letting her concentration slip completely Cassie allowed her frustration to temporarily override her as she ranted, “Stupid door… Open up… Why won’t you open up…“ Stepping forward to kick the stupid passageway blocker Cassie blinked and stopped short of breaking her foot as her eyes clued her into exactly why she could not get the door open, “Figures… No wonder it wouldn‘t open…”

Taking a step back Cassie calmed herself down and closed her eyes for the third time, this time instead of trying to forcibly push the door open she pulled with all her might and was instantly rewarded with a loud bang as the door swung completely open and imbedded itself into the wall.

“Fire exit my ass… Take that you bastard door…” Cassie crowed weakly for lack of a better insult as she darted towards the stairs shouting, “Hold on Ranma… I’m comin…”

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“Shut down the gate.” General Hammond ordered as he stepped into the control room.

“I can’t…” Walter Harriman replied as he cycled through the gate controls, “And the Iris is unresponsive… I can’t close it.”

“Manuel override.”

“It’s been sabotaged; the crank and gearbox are damaged.” Walter replied as he cycled through the shutdown procedure for the gate.

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Nirrti smiled as she deactivated her cloaking device once more after having temporarily discarded her cargo to lay a trap for the incoming SGC security detail. Stepping back over to her prize she used her foot to push away some unfortunate Tau’ri whom had tried to check on her little distraction. Reaching down with her hand she grasped the girl by the shirt and continued on her way to the gate room.

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“Tell me you can at least lock down the gate room.” Hammond said in frustration over his base being compromised again.

“It won’t close either.” Walter said with a wince, “Whoever did this was able to bypass our security measures completely without raising up any flags.

Taking in a deep calming breath the exasperated General asked, “SG1?”

“Colonel O’Neill is on route. Major Carter is still in the infirmary with Doctor Frasier and Doctor Jackson.”

Wanting nothing more than to take a swig from his secret stash of whiskey General Hammond asked, “Goa’uld?”

“Yes sir… And they have a prisoner…” Walter said with another wince.

“Who?”

“Mr. Saotome.”

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“Stop right there…” Jack shouted as he made a dive back into the elevator to avoid a Zat blast. Turning to his Xo who was pinned down with him he stated wryly, “Carter, make a note… No shouting stop right there when leaving the elevator.”

“Noted Sir…” Sam stated as she rolled her eyes.

Sticking his head out from behind his cover Jack stated, “It’s clear, she’s moving towards the gate room.”

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Taking a few steps out of the elevator with Carter on his six Jack was about to motion for her to take the opposite side of the hall when the door to the stairwell burst open. Keeping his weapon trained down the hall in Nirrti’s general direction, Jack glanced backwards ready to give out orders, except instead of the group of stalwart weapon toting men he was greeted with a disheveled half naked Cassie who was clutching the top of her gown to her chest in an effort to contain her modesty.

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Blinking as she came face to face with two very familiar adults Cassie stalled to a halt and nervously replied, “Uncle Jack… Aunty Sam… Fancy meeting you here…”

Sliding off his BDU top Jack stated, “Didn’t we leave you in the infirmary? Carter?”

Glaring at her niece for being up and about when she knew better, Sam chastised, “Yes we did, Sir.’

Taking the offered Jacket Cassie blushed and said, ‘uhm… look at that over there…”

“Nice try young lady, but you’re going back to the infirmary. Carter find an Airman to escort her back up there.”

“Yes sir.” Sam replied knowing that the gate room was the worse possible place for Cassie at the moment.

Not having time to plead her case Cassie opted for a better distraction and reached out with her new powers and pushed them both gently away from her before taking off again down the hall.

“Ommphhh…ommmmphhh…” Jack complained as he laid there on the floor for a moment waiting for his XO to climb off of him.

“Sorry about that Sir.” Sam stated with a blush as she rolled off her CO and offered him a hand up.

“That’s it…” Jack stated, “She is so off the Christmas card list.”

“Colonel…”

“Oh… She’ll still get a gift… Just no card…” Jack clarified as he climbed to his feet and started jogging down the hall with Carter at his side.

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Meanwhile in the gate room

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Nirrti had managed to make it past the remaining guards blocking her path in the gate room as they were reluctant to fire while she was holding a captive. In fact only one last obstacle remained between her and the gate. “Out of my way Shol’va.” Nirrti warned from the bottom of the ramp as she stared down her last obstacle, “Or I shall kill this human.”

“Do so and you shall lose your prize.” Teal’c retorted snidely while he kept his staff weapon trained on the false god.

“Very well…” Nirrti consented with a smirk from beneath her veil while lowering the Zat only to fire several blasts at the platform beneath the traitor’s feet.

Normally Teal’c would not have anything to worry about as even when fired against a metallic surface as Zat blasts would usually harmlessly dissipate after a few feet, but what the experienced Jaffa had not taken into account was that Nirrti had modified the Zat to a higher output, thus resulting in the electrical discharge being able to travel a greater distance, sending the prideful warrior to his knees.

Knowing that the blast would not be enough to knock out the Shol’va Nirrti fired again, this time aiming for the Jaffa’s chest, sending both him and the staff weapon he was holding tumbling off of the ramp.

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Cassie slid into the gate room just as Teal’c fell from the ramp, spotting her friend being dragged carelessly by the scruff of her neck made Cassie’s blood boil, taking a few determined steps towards the now retreating Goa’uld she cried out, “Put him down!!!”

Nirrti stopped in her tracks and turned slowly having recognized the voice. “So you live.”

Incensed that her command had been ignored Cassie slowly repeated it while gently pushing aside the remaining airmen that were blocking her path, “I said put him down! Now!”

Curious over the casual display of power, Nirrti removed her veil and asked, “Or what? You’ll throw a tantrum and cry for your mommy and Daddy… Oh wait… I forgot… They’re dead… Because I killed them when they stopped being useful to me.”

Cassie paled; she had not been expecting to be confronting the sole individual responsible for the death of her people. Forming her hands into fists with her nails digging into her palms, Cassie took a brave step forward showing no small amount of rage as she did so.

Seizing the boon being granted to her Nirrti took a step back towards the gate intent on getting the girl to follow, figuring in her arrogance that she would be able to handle the petulant brat without any problems.

“Put him down!” Cassie growled out fiercely as she stalked forward.

“Or what?” Nirrti taunted while she took another step back.

“I’ll kill you…” Cassie whispered as she continued her advance.

“You’ll kill me child? I’m your god… You can’t kill a god.” Nirrti said dismissively as she continued backwards.

“You’re no god…” Cassie hissed as her bare foot made contact with the bottom of the ramp leading up to the Stargate.

“I’m not?” Nirrti replied innocently as she came to a stop right at the event horizon of the Stargate, “Didn’t I unleash a plague that wiped out your people?”

With her blood boiling with barely contained rage Cassie whispered, “I’ll show you god…”

Taking that as her queue to leave Nirrti stepped into the event horizon taking Ranma with her.

Unmindful of the potential danger awaiting her on the other side Cassie charged forward, paying no heed to the shouts of warning coming from behind her.

“Cassie!!! Dammit!!!” Jack shouted as he rushed into the room to see the teen in question moving for the gate, quickening his stride he sped forward holding out his arm to snag a P90 from a nearby airman as he did so.

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Cassie came through the gate and looked around feverishly for any sign of Ranma or Nirrti. Spotting Ranma lying a few feet in front of the DHD she started to rush forward before she realized that it had to be a trap because Nirrti was still out there somewhere.

Unsure about how to proceed she glanced down at her sore feet to the jagged rocks she was standing upon. Getting an idea she focused her mind and started flinging the offending rocks in all directions, with the hope that one of them might peg Nirrti.

Hearing a rock strike something fleshy near Ranma Cassie began to send more rocks that way intent on blanketing the area with stones until there was a small mountain of stones piled up.

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From behind the cover of the DHD Nirrti watched in interest before deciding that she had had enough, uncloaking herself she stood fully and clapped her hands bringing the pissed girls attention to herself.

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Cassie spun around to the other direction and staggered slightly from the strain of moving so many objects with her mind.

“Impressive… Very impressive… But I’m afraid it’s time to put an end to this little game…” Nirrti stated as she trained the Zat on the red-haired girls still form, “That is if you value your little friends life.”

“I can stop you…” Cassie stated with affirmation as two figures came flying through the gate behind her moments before it closed down.

“Can you? You forget, I have two weapons…” Nirrti reminded the teen as she raised her hand with the ribbon device, “I’m sure I can manage at least one shot with either hand before you can even think to disarm me.” Shrugging dismissively the fallen system lord added nonchalantly, “Oh well, we will just have to see whom is quicker.”

“Cassie step back…” Jack ordered as he advanced forward.

“No…” Cassie replied as she glanced back at Jack, “She’ll kill him…”

“I won’t let that happen. I promise kiddo, bit right now you need to step back and take cover with Major Carter.” Jack promised as he reached her and placed his hand on her arm.

“Noooo…” Cassie screeched out as she noticed Nirrti raising the Zat from the corner of her eye. Not knowing what else to do she reached out with her mind and focused on relieving the false god of her weapons.

Nirrti howled in pain as she felt the Ribbon Device being forcibly torn from her person effectively mangling her intertwined hand in the process. Staggering several feet backwards in an attempt to remain standing Nirrti felt her legs buckle beneath her forcing her to fall to her knees she clutched at the now ruined limb in disbelief.

Advancing slowly Jack cautiously eyed the Goa’uld’s lost weapons, holding back a wince as he spotted more than one finger and no small amount of skin still intertwined in the hand device. Keeping his pilfered P90 trained on the former system lord he recognized as Nirrti Jack held up his hand and motioned for his Xo to move forward to Cassie after seeing her starting to sway unsteadily on her feet.

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Sam moved forward at a brisk pace moving swiftly to Cassandra’s position while keeping her eye out for any sort of back up that Nirrti might have laying in waiting at whatever planet hey had blindly gated to. Having only cleared about half the distance between herself and her adopted niece Sam was helpless to prevent the teen form falling down on her hands and knees. With a worried shout of, “Cassie…” she rushed forward and managed to catch up to the apparently determined girl just as she collapsed into Ranma’s prone form.

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Hearing Carters cry of alarm Jack immediately turned his head to assess the situation unfortunately it seemed that Nirrti had been playing possum as she took the distraction as an opportunity to activate her personal cloaking device and flee into the tree line, leaving a trail of blood from her ruined hand in the process.

Swearing softly to himself Jack started to pursue but stopped in his tracks as he heard the telltale sounds of the gate activating.

Moments earlier

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Feeling a sudden onset of drowsiness overtake her as the adrenaline rapidly dissipated from her system Cassie slowly staggered towards Ranma’s position only to fall to her knees just short of her intended target. Using the last of her fleeting strength she slowly inched forward until she was positioned right above her prone friend. Feeling her arms buckling under the strain of holding herself up Cassie fell forward and wrapped her arms firmly around her friend while drowsily muttering, “I’m so glad you’re safe…“ Cuddling deeper into her human pillow, with her head gently nestled on the currently girls chest Cassie allowed herself to be gently lulled into sleep by the gentle beats of her friends heart.

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Sam finished her approach to the two downed teens and took a knee while carefully reaching out with her hand to check on the girls condition. Feeling a pulse coming from her niece she sighed in relief just in time to become aware of her Colonel moving into position above her.

Brushing a few strands of hair away from Cassandra’s face Sam then reached down and adjusted the back of the girls gown so she would no longer be mooning the approaching SG3 who were being accompanied by the remaining members of SG1 and one very upset looking redheaded doctor. Offering up her report just as Janet was within ear shot Sam stated, “Cassie’s just sleeping… the strain must have been too much for her.” Then switching her attention to the girl clad in ill fitting air force sweats Sam noticed something rather important. Looking up to her Commanding officer with concern she added, “Sir I think we may have a problem…”

After motioning for Teal’c and Daniel to come over while SG3 fanned out to offer them cover Jack looked down and came face to face with two very wide open blue eyes staring in wonder at the active gate behind him. Sighing as he ran his hand through his graying hair he wryly stated, “Ya think…”