by Stargate
"That has a familiar ring, no pun... oh, crap!" O'Neill's eyes widened as he looked up and over Sam's shoulder. "Poppa Kettle just blew his top!"
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ack had thought the volcano had been erupting before, but he now understood what erupting meant. Before it had been puffing smoke like a big honkin' chimney. Gray, kinda cheesy special effects, lots of smelly stuff and a dash of glowing fuchsia to give it just the right touch of brooding malevolence.
This was an eruption of an entirely different species, more along the lines of a tactical nuke versus a fistful of C4.
"Overture!" Dabruzzi's face had reacquired its normal shade of nut brown. His eyes darted between the volcano and the sensor in his hand that was spiking red all over the place.
"Overture? " Jack said, barely able to hear himself think between the noise like an F16 pulling out of a bomb run fifteen feet from his ear, and the mortal cries of a hundred thousand - give or take -Xalotcans now running in every direction. He'd always wondered about that. Why did panicked people run in every direction?
"Popo's just clearing its throat," yelled Dabruzzi with a suspiciously smug smile. "We're in no immediate danger."
Tell that to the screaming hordes. The only way he was going to get any kind of control was by sticking to the god routine. "Hold your ground!"
Jack's orders were meant for his team; but he had also spoken directly to Atlatl. The jaguar warrior averted his gaze, arguably more terrified of the consequences of looking a god in the eye, than the monumental eruption now taking place. Jack reached across and grabbed Atlatl by the arm. "Hold. Your Ground! I can save these people, but you have to do exactly as I say."
The children clutched one another and crouched low, the boys flinging their short little feather and agave capes over theirs and the girls' heads. Jack couldn't hear their cries over the noise, but he knew they were all in serious danger of being trampled. Carter fired a short burst from her P90 above the stampeding mass of human ity, but with no comprehension of what this new noise meant, most ignored her.
"Do as your god orders!" Teal'c bellowed.
Atlatl's warriors immediately sprang into action, forming a human shield to protect the children, effectively barricading a section of the Avenue. It took a few minutes, but a manic sort of order returned. People either clambered up the pyramids, determined to die for some god, any god, rather than risk death from Popo, or they scurried inside temples and buildings, pulling ash-covered cloths over the doorways and windows in the futile hope that the structures would offer some protection.
Jack looked up at the volcano. For the first time since he'd seen it, the scarred lips of the mountain were completely visible, mostly because so much stuff was shooting out at such an incredible velocity that gravity couldn't get a look in - yet. As he watched, the top of the cloud, now in the upper reaches of the atmosphere, began to boil over. Although most of it was spreading to the north, some of it spilled in their direction.
"Sooner or later we're gonna get hit with a massive rain of dacite," yelled Dabruzzi. When Jack shot him an impatient glare, he added, "Mostly pumice but there'll be big stuff with it; could cause serious injuries if we stay outside."
"We'll take cover - "
"The roofs will collapse under the weight." Dabruzzi tucked the sensor back in his jaguar-skin shirt. "Ever see that movie, The Last Days of Pompeii?"
"Yeah."
"Same thing."
"Daniel! Cave, now!" yelled Jack. He turned to three of the Marines dressed as eagle warriors. "Welch, Can, and Bradley, make sure he gets there."
Daniel pulled off his pack, withdrew a yellow instrument case, took out the crystal skull and ran up the first steps of the Pyramid of the Sun. He paused a moment to get his breath, and, holding it aloft, called loudly, "Ohtliquetzalcoatl. The Road of Quetzalcoatl!"
It was a coincidence, Jack knew, but at just that moment a shaft of miserly sunlight found a gap in the roiling clouds, and illuminated the skull. The light was channeled through the cranium, and blazed out of the eyes like twin yellow laser beams.
"The Road of Quetzalcoatl!" The words became a chant, echoing throughout the city. "Quetzalcoatl will take us to Omeyocan!"
"Atlatl," Jack said. The warrior went to kneel, but Jack grabbed his arm. "Listen! Cut the bowing and kneeling stuff, will ya? We need to get these kids to safety."
Jack had recognized the captain of the jaguar warriors back in Xalo. Atlatl was a professional soldier, same as he. Canny, middleaged, more scars on his soul than on his body. He bore the eyes of a man who had seen too many people die for no good reason. Now, as Atlatl looked at him again, Jack saw that something big had gone down these last few days. Loyalty to Quetzal had not come cheap.
Daniel ran down the steps and then disappeared around the far side of the pyramid, the three Marines dressed as eagle warriors hard on his heels.
"Lord Tzcatlipoca claimed dominion over both his and Tonatui's realms," said Atlatl. "Then he ordered your children sacrificed." The warrior's eyes slid from Jack's to Carter's, then back again. "His fire priests took their parents and cut their hearts out before my men could stop them. Then Tzcatlipoca ordered all of those who swore loyalty to Quetzalcoatl to be killed, and your temples razed." Atlatl's voice dropped as he continued, "The fire priests ordered us to defile your names so that our world would not be destroyed. We battled long and hard against Tonatui's eagle warriors until my men broke through their ranks."
Jack's stomach clenched. "Where are your sons?"
Atlatl paled. "I left them so that I could defend your children. Their throats were cut along with their mother's. But I thought..." His voice cracked in shocked disbelief. "You did not accept them into Omeyocan?"
A familiar agony, one Jack had thought carefully locked away, tore through him like shrapnel. Atlatl's loyalty to Quetzalcoatl - to him - had cost him his family. Until now the warrior had believed they were safe in death, in a Heaven run by Quetzalcoatl.
Barely aware of the children filing past, oblivious to the small pieces of pumice falling on his head and shoulders, Atlatl's expression dissolved like soft clay in the rain. The man visibly shrank in on himself, pulling Jack with him, into a place he never wanted to be in again. "You are not a god?" Atlatl whispered hoarsely.
Jack didn't have to wonder how words could be both bitter and dead at the same time.
"Quetzalcoatl, Chalchi! Chocolati Quetzalcoatl!"
He was suddenly aware of the kids, his kids, including Whiteowl and Two-water, crowding around them. Atlatl stared at him with the same expression Teal'c had worn on Chulak, after turning on his fellow Jaffa and killing them, abandoning a lifetime of indoctrination.
Atlatl looked lost.
The seconds passed while a silent moment of truth moved between them. "I.. promised them there would be chocolati in Omeyocan," Atlatl said, absently placing a battle-scarred hand on Two-water's head.
The little girl looked up at them with wide, solemn eyes. Whiteowl's brow furrowed in uncertainty. The cheeky, playful demands from the children fell away into quiet obedience. Their parents had been butchered, and they hadplaced their faith in Jack to save them. But something was wrong.
Being a god sucked.
Avoiding Carter's knowing eyes, he said, "Hey, kids? How about you go with Chalchi. I'll catch up."
When the children were out of earshot, he turned to Atlatl_ "I can't bring back your family anymore than I could bring back my own son. But I can save these children, and l can save your people, if you'll help me." His voice was low but heartfelt. It was all he had to give. "Omeyocan is not some world of the dead, it's a world where people can live. But only if we move, now." He pointed overhead. Eerie, purple inkiness was spreading across the sky, enveloping the gray clouds.
His eyes shifting to Teal'c, who was standing on the other side of the line of children heading for the pyramid, Atlatl said, "The Jaffa wears your mark."
Behind the children, the guys lined up for sacrifice had
been squatting on the steps of the pyramid, their heads bowed, waiting for the inevitable. Now that the first waves of panic had subsided, they began to stand and look around. Cat Lips, a god, was slung like a sack of corn over Teal'c's shoulder. The world was cracking and breaking, and the jaguar warriors of Xalo were apparently sworn to Quetzal. Loyalties were shifting. Some of the local eagle warriors, beginning with the ones who had been guarding the prisoners, broke ranks and began helping Atlatl's men with the children. Jack hoped Daniel had found the right cave.
Atlatl was still staring at him, waiting for an answer, trying to comprehend.
"Teal'c was where you're at right now," Jack said. "He's a Jaffa, but he's also my friend."
Teal'c had moved to join them. "We must hurry, O'Neill."
Wodeski groaned but didn't wake. If he had, Jack would have been tempted to put him back to sleep - permanently. Insanity was a feeble excuse for what the professor had done to the children, and to the man who stood before him.
Atlatl sucked his lips and spat out gritty ash. He turned to Teal'c. "You are First Prime to Jack Quetzalcoatl, Jaffa?"
"No," Teal'c replied, meeting Jack's eyes. "He is not a god, for gods - false gods - destroy worlds. This Tauri, this man, my friend to whom I have sworn loyalty as a brother, has killed many false gods and saved a dozen worlds. Although he cannot save this world he will save your people and lead them to a new world, one where there are no false gods to steal your souls with lies and demand the living hearts and blood of your people."
It was one of the longest speeches Jack had ever heard from Teal'c. He just hoped he could live up to it.
The last of the children filed by, the loyal Xalo jaguar warriors in their wake. A few of the men cast a questioning glance at Atlatl, but he indicated they should keep moving. With the same fervent intensity Jack had often seen in Bra'tac, Atlatl physically lifted himself from despair. "Then tell me what you wish me to do, Jack Quetzalcoatl."
Jack claspedAtlatl's arm and turned to follow the children. "Get your men to tell everyone that I want an orderly line of people going into the pyramid. And I want priority given to women and children. I mean it," he said, looking back down the Avenue. "The world we're taking you to is not some men only club. It's gonna get rough outside, but the longer your warriors can maintain control, the more of your people we can save."
Atlatl nodded and began calling to his men.
Jack caught up with the kids. He smiled at White-owl, not as bitterly as he felt, and said, "Hey, White-owl, gonna give me a hand here?" He pulled his pack out from beneath his cape, and held it out. "You're in charge of the chocolate, okay?" Then he winked at Two-water, who giggled and tried to hide in Carter's ash and blood splattered skirt. The little girl's hands firmly clutched the black Chihuahua, Spiffy. Jack reached down and patted the animal. "Let's go.
The rest of the children, jaguar and eagle warriors, and about two hundred prisoners milled uncertainly around a tiny entrance at the base of the pyramid. What the hell was taking Daniel so long?
Coughing and choking on dust, their eagle feather capes torn from their shoulders, Welch, Can, and Bradley ran out of the doorway. "Get back!" Welch cried. Seconds later Daniel ran out, just ahead of an almighty roar - and this time, it wasn't from the volcano. The entire pyramid was shaking and shuddering.
"Back up everyone!" Jack glanced over his shoulder. Great choices. Pelted by pumice outside, or crushed by falling masonry inside. Thanks to a gluey mix of pumice and blood on the ground, they slipped and skidded as they ran into the center of the Avenue of the Dead. And could it possibly get any darker?
"Cavern's are gone!" Daniel shouted in his ear.
"All of `em?"
"I'm not sure." Daniel pulled the remains of his mangled sunshade off his back and tossed it to the ground.
Jack turned to Atlatl. "Is there another way into the caves beneath the pyramid?"
"Only the fire priests know; it is sacred ground."
Oh yeah, it was definitely getting darker.
"How did you get here from Xalo?" Carter asked Atlatl.
"I defied the fire priests and used the Roads of Mictlan. We saw the red shadow of Mictlantecuhtli rise from beneath. We escaped him because we believed we were blessed by Quetzalcoatl."
"Shit!" Dabruzzi's nose was buried in his sensor.
"What?" Jack demanded.
"We got magma moving directly under us." The volcanologist looked up. "That's what's caused the guts of the pyramid to collapse."
"The pit!" Carter declared. "The magma river in the skull cave."
"Mictlantecuhtli roams the tunnels during Nemontemi!" cried Daniel excitedly. "Mictlantecuhtli isn't a Goa'uld. It's magma!"
Behind them, the Pyramid of the Sun rumbled and the topmost section began to cave in, but Carter was staring ahead of them, at the Pyramid of the Moon. Her feather headdress was crushed and gray with ash and liberally adorned with pumice, but her expression was concentrated, and calculating.
"Major?"
She turned to Jack with certainty in her eyes. "Sir, if the magma isn't too high, instead of the caves beneath the Sun pyramid, I think we use the skull cave to transport everyone."
"Didn't you say the caves were set to different frequencies?" Dabruzzi sounded oddly disappointed.
"No, the skulls determine frequency. The caves act as resonating chambers, but any enclosure of approximately the right dimensions and material should do the job. On Yaxkin, it's a manmade rotunda."
Jack didn't hesitate. If Carter was almost certain, then it was a gilt-edged proposition. "All right everyone," he called waving his arm and pointing to the Pyramid of the Moon. "Let's go!"
"Of course if this idea doesn't pan out," Dabruzzi said, looking around like a kid in a toy store, "we get to watch the end of this world, instead."
"That was unsettling," said Daniel as they ran.
Sam rubbed ash from her eyes. "The part about watching the end of the world?"
"Hope." Jack tossed the volcanologist a jaundiced look. "The way he said it." Scientists. Go figure.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
aniel looked across the magma pit to the far side of the skull cave. Sam was measuring something, trying to work out the best place to set up the crystal skull.
"No pressure Car...Chalchi, take your time!" Jack called.
"Just a few more minutes," Sam replied.
"What the hell are all these giant pineapples?" Jack looked around the floor of the cavern.
"What? Oh... those," replied Daniel. "They're bodies."Although many of the sacrificial victims were being cooked and eaten, an equally large number, mostly the elderly and diseased, were being prepared for cremation. Their bodies were placed in a seated position, wrapped with a saffron-tinted agave bag, and topped with a cluster of long spiky leaves.
Jack ripped off his feather headdress and tossed it aside. It landed in a dark, sticky pool of blood. During the walk along the Avenue of the Dead, Daniel had known exactly what Sam was reliving. He, too, had been forced to recall the erotic, blindingly compelling desire to hunt and kill, to taste blood. But, like Sam, back on Artemis' planet he had clung to sanity. Because Artemis' choice of him had been wrong. It had to be wrong; otherwise it meant his soul was flawed.
In the five years since, Daniel had learned the bitter truth. The madness of the sarcophagus on P3R-636; the corruption of power in the visions Shifu had given him, all pointed to a shadow lurking within him. But he had a choice, and he would never willingly choose that dark road into the Abyss. As Wodeski had done.
The professor was lying on the floor where Teal'c had unceremoniously dumped him. Despite the influence of the Goa'uld, what had been happening in the City of the Gods prior to their arrival had been a highly ritualized and controlled event. The way these bodies were carefully wrapped proved it. Each one would have been lowered into the pit with due ceremony. It vindicated his belief that the Aztecs were not mindless monsters; they were people worth saving.
Unfor
tunately, there was no time now for religious niceties. Word was spreading fast that Quetzalcoatl would lead those who came to the Pyramid of the Moon to Omeyocan. The bodies were severely hampering access to the cave.
Atlatl ordered his men to clear the cave by tossing all corpses, wrapped or unwrapped, into the magma. Daniel picked up one of the bagged bodies. When it began to slip out of his grip, a teenager whom he recognized from the Emperor's garden helped him carry it to the pit. The magma was fifty feet below, much higher than when he and Teal'c had passed through the chamber a few days earlier.
The teenager introduced himself as White-owl. Forgetting his nom de guerre, Daniel replied, "Hi, I'm Daniel Jackson."
White-owl's eyes turned wide and he shouted to the other children, all of whom were helping in the gruesome task, "He is the son of Jack Quetzalcoatl!"
Blinking furiously, Daniel objected. "What? No...I'm-"
But it was too late; the voices grew louder as they circulated among the children. Then the warriors took up the call, "Jack-son, son of Jack "
"Daniel?" Jack had one of the body bags hoisted over his shoulder. A peculiar look crossed his face. "Son? What happened to Wind-feather?"
"Ready ... Quetzalcoatl! " Sam called.
Jack was still staring at him. "Ah...that would be you?" said Daniel, and looked across the cavern to where Sam and Dabruzzi had built a cairn of slate rocks.
"Let's get the kids over there." Jack tossed the body he was carrying into the magma. "Carter? You take the first group."
White-owl picked up a small girl and hurried around the edge of the pit to Sam. Soon, that side of the cavern was crowded with children. Nobody was certain how far the influence of the skull extended, so to make room for more, Dabruzzi came back around to their side of the pit. The three Marines and a dozen jaguar warriors made to follow him, but Jack ordered them to stay with Sam. Although Yaxkin was deserted, she would need help with the children, especially if the rotunda collapsed.