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Ok.... Daniel thought. Don't panic. There has to be a perfectly logical reason for this....
This was the apparent lack of support holding Daniel up as he stared about him in a panic.
Instead of the infirmary bed back in the SGC he was expecting, he was floating in what seemed to be a sea of white. No floor, or walls, or even sky. Just white, surrounding himself, stretching off for God knew how long.
Right, he thought. First thing first. How the hell did I end up here? What's the last thing I remember?
Oh, yeah. Send to PX3-997 for a routine archaeological dig on the basis of suspected Ancient technology. Or as Jack put it, a time for Daniel to 'play with his rocks'.
And of course, because it was meant to be a calm and peaceful mission, SG1's luck had to have a Gou'ald ambush waiting for them.
After that, Daniel's memory kind of blurred into shoot, don't be shot, dodge that staff blast, and Oh God, pain.
Daniel's only thought was that Jack was going to be mad at him; apparently, the linguist had gotten himself killed again, this time by staff blast.
But how did I end up here? And for that manner, where is here, anyway?
He tried to stand up, to move at all, but with no ground to support him, Daniel couldn't tell whether he had moved at all, or just succeeded in making himself look like an idiot by flailing about helplessly.
A giggle sounded.
Ah. An idiot, then, I guess.
Wait. What?!
"Hey!" Daniel called out frantically, twisting his head in every direction he could, trying to see where the noise had come from. There was no one there.
"Hey! Is there anyone there? My name is Daniel Jackson; I don't mean any harm - in fact, I don't even know how I got here!"
But no one appeared.
By this time, Daniel was getting desperate. Am I in some kind of new Gou'ald prison? Oh God, what if I'm stuck here?!
Taking a deep breath, Daniel tried to calm himself. "Look, if you're a Gou'ald, I'm telling you now there's no way I'm telling you anything!"
This time, there was a reply; in the form of yet another giggle.
Youngish, and female, Daniels mind supplied. Doesn't sound threatening; more... amused than anything.
Then there was nothing. For the next few hours, Daniel yelled himself hoarse trying to communicate to his invisible audience. He twisted and turned, but couldn't tell if he got anywhere. In the end, he fell asleep, exhausted.
---
Daniel had no idea how long he had slept, although he did feel kind of rested. He turned around, still half-asleep, before his fog-filled mind registered something. Something important. Ground! He quickly sat up, taking note of the obvious difference in his surroundings; while there was still an empty, white nothing for a sky, newly-formed ground stretched as far as the eye could see - ground in the form of thick, green grass, and... flowers. Ok. Guess that scratches the Gou'ald prison theory - I can't really imagine one of them coming up with décor like this, unless they're trying to make me die of hay fever... and that was another thing to add to the list of the Weird: Daniel was surrounded by flowers - nice pretty looking and smelling flowers - and yet was perfectly fine. As in, no hay fever to speak of. That was new.
Time to see if there's a way out of here, Daniel thought to himself. Although I kinda doubt that... there's just that little something about the fact that there's nothing but flowers and white nothing for miles and miles that kinda grab hold of your hopes of escape and squishes them. He stopped and reflected on what he had just thought. Great. Now I'm channelling Jack!
Daniel grimaced - he did so not want to walk down that road. In an effort to keep the voices out of his tired, stressed, and caffeine-less brain, he got up and stared around, trying to just see something - one teeny tiny little thing that could be a means of getting out of the weirdness he had fallen into. Seeing nothing in front, he turned around.
And smacked right into the invisible audience that had been watching him all that time.
Well, not invisible anymore - and she's solid, so not some hologram.
"Um," Daniel tried from the ground he had just fallen back onto, "hello... can you understand what I'm saying?"
The girl just looked at him, smiling a little. Daniel stared back.
She was dressed pretty simply: a pink dress with red jacket, brown boots, and her hair was in loose braids. Her large green eyes kept on staring at him, taking in his SGC uniform, glasses, and goodness knew what else.
Suddenly, the girls smile widened, and she reached out a hand to help him back up.
Taking it, Daniel was surprised by the strength the stranger possessed, pulling him straight up without any trouble.
"Hullo", the girl said softly, still smiling, but now looking a little confused, "I'm Aeris. You're not supposed to be here."
Daniel looked at her as he dusted himself off "where's here?" He asked.
"You don't know?"
"No - I don't even know how I got here, let alone where here is."
By now, Daniel was really confused. How did the girl - Aeris, he reminded himself - know he wasn't supposed to be here? She was the one who had been watching him before, he was sure of it, but then why didn't she know?
She mustn't have been the one to bring me here. But if she wasn't, then who was? And why?
Aeris laughed. "You're safe here, no need to stress yourself out, silly. And as for where you are - you're here."
She smirked. Daniel got the feeling she was gently making fun of him.
"But where is here?"
"Where?" she giggled, doing a little twirl, "You're in the Lifestream, of course!
"But like I said before, you're not meant to be here, so I guess I'll have to send you back, as amusing as you've been."
Daniel grabbed her by the shoulder, and he was surprised to see she didn't flinch or try to shy away. "You can do that?" he asked, a little desperately, "send me back to the planet I was on before?"
Aeris just kept on smiling up at him. "Oh no," she said, "Not to that world - that would be mean, dumping you off like that. Besides, I can get you back to your world - to where your Stargate is - so I'll just do that instead."
"But my stuff -"
"Will be returned," she replied firmly. "Don't worry, Dr. Daniel Jackson; you'll be fine - we couldn't let you die. We need you."
Daniel jerked his head to stare at Aeris. "You need me? Who's we?! Who are you?!"
Aeris didn't answer, she just reached out, took the hand that was still resting on her shoulder in her own, and placed his other hand on top.
"Goodbye, Dr. Jackson."
She placed a kiss on his forehead, and everything blurred. White became grey and the swirling red of alarms, and the never-ending field of flowers turned into hard concrete floor, with a large stone circle resting behind him.
Shouts were sounded, and men came racing up to him, asking questions, jostling him, trying to get a reaction. But Daniel's mind was still reeling with shock - still replaying the last words the strange girl had whispered as everything faded around them.
"We here are the Ancients, Daniel. We protect you, our little rebel band, and always will, but you will be the one to lead your people to freedom from the terror of the Gou'ald. You will. So next time.... Try not to get yourself killed!"
And with a last giggle, she was gone.