Daniel opened his mouth but Sam beat him to it.

“The ground is pretty packed sir. And there aren’t really any breaks indicating water flow which happens after misuse. I recommend going through the underbrush…”

Sam shot a look into the distance at the sun which was halfway in it’s descent to the horizon.

“… or at least move away from the Stargate before sun down.”

Jack looked up at the purplish sky and nodded, pulling his green cap over his graying hair.

“Yep. We hit the pot of gold here my friends. Teal’c, you watch for people… you warn and go ahead… signal if you see something. Carter… set up the equipment. Daniel…”

“Look for signs of civilization, check, look for rocks, double check…”

Jack smiled briefly as he looked in Daniel’s direction to find him holding a tablet of sorts and already loading it onto FRED and searching the surrounding area a little more carefully. Jack’s smile faded as he surveyed the area. Marble statues adorned the beaten path. A beautiful maiden stretched her hand towards the sky.

Jack watched as Daniel approached the figures, searching the bases and entwining figure for any inscriptions that might be of some use to him.

Jack strolled towards him, the unnatural stillness in the air suddenly becoming increasingly apparent.

In front of him, Daniel stopped, looking up and slowly backing off. Jack narrowed his eyes in concern and increased his pace. Sam, also noticing Daniel’s expression and his actions began to walk towards him.

They both got there at the same time and looked at horror at what Daniel was slowly backing away from.

All the statues, lined up row by row were crying. But that wasn’t the only unusual thing. They were crying blood.
 

“I’m not saying it’s odd… I’m saying it’s weird.”

Sam Carter announced after they had set up camp and were eating dinner. Daniel shivered as he remembered the blood rivulets twining around the statues bodies and into the ground via a concealed tube.

“I know Carter. But what are we going to do. Nothing. We have two days here on this planet. Just don’t go near the statues and stay away from the caves underneath.”

Sam nodded uneasily and for a light moment her eyes darted around, searching the darkness surrounding the camp. Long shadows from the fire and the four occupants flickered making it a very eerie site.

Unconsciously Jack felt for the familiar feel of his sidearm strapped to his upper thigh.

Jack stared into the wilderness, following Carter’s example. He wouldn’t admit it to them as their superior officer, but to himself, this place freaked the hell outta him. The trees which were once friendly now stretched menacingly over the camp and the tents were the only things that really looked inviting at the moment.

“Okay campers. Pack up. Throw the dishes in the water and go to sleep. Daniel Sam, me Teal’c.”

“I will take first watch O’Neill.”

Jack looked at the Jaffa who had silently been watching the canopy and the dark foliage for quite some time. Very discretely but watching none the less.

Jack nodded.

“Wake me up when it’s my turn then.”

Sam piped up for third watch and Daniel took his customary fourth watch which of course let him be the first in line for coffee in the morning.

Jack tossed sand into the fire, letting only embers survive, feeding off a supply of small kindling and sticks to ensure that the fire would not be easily noticed.

Daniel and Sam retired, huddling closer then usual as they bundled into their tent. Jack nodded at Teal’c, who understood exactly.

*Make sure nothing comes into camp*

Jack himself then retired. Stripping his heavy coat and pants to the shorts beneath. He slipped into bed and then after a moments afterthought got up, taking the gun and holster from the table and replacing it on it’s usual spot. Pulling the safety off for a moment, he made she it was loaded and then replaced the pin.

Nothing was going to hurt his team no matter what.
 

By the time it was Daniel’s watch, the sun was already beginning to come over the horizon. Sam yawned and waved a good morning as she slipped back into bed.

Daniel stretched, scratching his hair and rubbing his eyes.

“Oh crap”

Daniel patted his pockets realizing that he had misplaced his glasses.

“Shoot. Not again. Janet will kill me if I ask for another pair of glasses. Daniel peered around the campsite hoping somehow that they were outside. It was against the rules to go into the tent once the watch was on. He certainly wouldn’t ask Sam to. She was already sound asleep, her quiet snores shattering the silence.

Around their tent any ways.

Daniel grumbled, sitting on a rather large stone that was on the outskirts of the camp.

It figured. He had his journal, ample supply of pencils and pens and an eraser but he forgot his glasses. Wonderful. At least Jack wasn’t up yet to make fun of him.

Daniel looked around, listening to the sounds of this strange world.

Birds, animals scurrying in the brush….

…and what sounded like footsteps.

Daniel stopped breathing for a second and listened carefully.

Soft steps on the leaves that stopped periodically and then moved some more. It was almost indistinguishable. Daniel carefully got off the rock and peered around the bushes.

The footsteps seemed to stop and Daniel narrowed his eyes and stepped around. There, nearly ten meters away was a woman, dressed head to toe in a beautiful hand spun Greek dress. A beautiful head cloth covered her hair and he could just see light brown curls falling from its hair tie.

Daniel stepped foreword and winced as a stick cracked underneath his feet.

The woman looked up and Daniel noticed two things.

First, she was see through

Second, she was crying… blood.

Before she disappeared she mouthed one word. *Danger*

Daniel stood there, opened mouthed staring at the space where the ghost, as he presumed, once stood. As he walked towards where she had been standing before he noticed a stone on the ground, carved with a sentence written in ancient Greek:

‘Here lies the white maiden whose courage in battle was comfort to all and she still survives in our hearts as the lady who weeps blood’

Daniel shivered listening to the water bubble past the spot where the ghost had stood, before turning and going back to his position on the rock, watching the camp.

As he sat back, he could still remember the blood running down the woman’s eyes and the one chilling unspoken warning the woman has mouthed at him.
 

After Daniel had finished telling his story, Jack gave him an odd look.

“Are you sure you didn’t imagine her? I mean… you… women… it’s like paper and fire.”

Daniel shot him a withering look, instead of giving Jack a piece of his mind, Daniel turned thoughtfully to his cup of coffee. And biting on his MRE.

“Sam did you check the rock with the inscription?”

Sam nodded, typing on her computer, far less interested in the conversation then in the program she was running on her laptop, which was processing information about weather patterns and heat signatures in the five miles radius.

“Well… I have looked everywhere. The tracker program hasn’t picked up anything. If you DID see a woman Daniel she either was a ghost or could run really fast.”

Sam chewed on her nail as she tapped away on the computer.

“The only other explanation I can have is that this woman went into the caves. I can’t get any readings in the caves. There’s naquada on the top layer of the caves that’s throwing off my signals. IT would be an excellent place to hide. Especially from the Goa’uld.”

Jack nodded scrubbing a hand through his hair.

“Well, believe it or not I’m very curious. Teal’c and me will check it out. You and Daniel will stay here, poke around… see if the sensors pick anything else up. Keep in radio contact and Sam…”

“Yes sir?”

“Keep an eye on Daniel.”

Jack ignored Daniel’s glare and pulled his cap over his head, snapping the safety off his gun and motioned for Teal’c to take the rear.

Sam watched as they left and began running the search program again.

“Sam. I’m going to head along the creek to see if I can get some more answers. I’ll be back in two hours or so.”

“Un huh…” Sam muttered under her breath and motioned to her walkie perched on her shoulder.

“Yes. It’s right here.”

Daniel tapped his walkie and shrugged off his coat, leaving it beside Sam. She waved and tapped more furiously.

Daniel sighed.

The day he would take technology over a good old fashioned brush and shovel would be the day.

The leaves crushed underneath his feet and he stepped over jutting rocks on the creek side. The water was crisp and clear. He followed the flowing river to the source, stopping every so often to check the surrounding area for any sign of writing or man made structures.

Nothing.

‘Oh well’ Daniel thought to himself. There was nothing maybe on the creek bed, just the stone with the Greek writing where the camp was.

Suddenly the radio on his shoulder crackled to life.

“…Aniel… Dan… where ar… yo… Storm… back…”

Daniel looked up at the sky where the beginning or pitch black clouds were beginning to form. Daniel tapped the radio but it seemed to have gone dead. Probably the storm was cutting off the communication.

The storm clouds rolled in fast and soon the forest was being torn apart by the hurricane like winds. For the briefest moment Daniel wished he hadn’t left his coat beside Sam as he shivered. The Storm crackled with barely contained energy and lightning spread forks of deadly energy across the sky.

With the wind howling and the once calm creek crashing across his legs, Daniel looked for cover. In the corner of his eyes he saw a flash of white and turned.

There, hidden in the darkened dense overgrowth was a cave he hadn’t seen previously.

Looking at the storm and then the relative safety of the cave, Daniel ran over to the entrance just making it before the storm unleashed the rain and hail onto the ground.

“Hello?”

Daniel shook water from his boots that had accumulated from the creek in his haste to get to cover.

It was dark in the cave but Daniel could still see outlines of cave walls and in the distance a flickering light source seemed to be getting stronger from the back of the cave.

Daniel lowered his heavy breathing and looked around for a place to stay out of site. He didn’t want to come into a confrontation with any natives. Not when he was unarmed and not quite in the position to do so.

A rock far into the left of the cave with a little alcove provided the perfect cover and Daniel just managed to squeeze in before the light became visible, along with it’s owner.

“I’m sure I heard something papa.”

Daniel recognized the ancient Greek and his mind wandered to the rock. Perhaps it was a gravestone. And perhaps the lady with the bleeding eyes was no a ghost at all.

“Come child. It’s the storm. The storm always frightens the young ones.”

Daniel smiled as he heard the indignant reply.

“I am not young. I’m fourteen seasons old. Old enough to marry.”

The man chuckled and Daniel heard footsteps going away. The light slowly and finally disappeared.

Daniel sighed, leaning on the back of the alcove. He could still hear the storm raging outside and for a moment he wondered if the rest of SG-1 had found cover.

‘Of course’ he chided himself. Jack was very resourceful, and Teal’c and Sam even more so at times. They probably found cover and were waiting for the storm to pass to contact him. He felt sorry for Sam. She was told to watch him and Daniel was guessing that if they were together Sam wouldn’t hear the end of it.

As Daniel leaned back his eyes began to close and soon he was fast asleep.
 

Sam cursed as she threw down the useless piece of equipment.

“Great. I’m alone and without Daniel who I was supposed to be with and there has been absolutely nothing in terms of communication from the Colonel.”

Daniel hopefully had received the message before the storm had hit and gotten cover. Sam herself had tossed herself into the nearest cave and hoped for the best.

Sam sighed and fiddled with the lap top she has managed to save from the pounding rain and hail. It too was pretty much useless. Her work had drained the battery and the cave walls were covered in Naquada which meant she wouldn’t really get any readings.

Sam listened to the rain outside for a second, hoping that it wouldn’t last. Daniel was out there, and no doubt that Jack and Teal’c were probably still exploring the caves.

“Saaaammmm”

Sam looked to the back end of the cave, her brow furrowing. She swore she just heard her name.

Sam shook her head, knowing it was impossible. Daniel headed north towards the source of the river and Jack and Teal’c headed South towards the caverns that were about two clicks away from her current position. So, no matter what circumstances, none of the men could be around her.

Sam shivered as icy fingers skittered down her spine. Something wasn’t right.

Something was terribly wrong.

Sam turned around slowly, listening to the odd and even drips that struck the floor with sharp splashes that resounded through the cave.

A white light flickered faintly about the walls and Sam shrank away as she saw a white being floating in mid-air. So strikingly familiar. The white woman, Sam realized, was almost just like the woman each statue by the Stargate.

And it shared one very frightening feature…

The eyes were bleeding.

Sam backed away but in puzzlement stopped when she saw the ghost mouthing something.

The ghoulish sounds of wind held a voice that Sam strained her ears to hear.

“Danggggerrr…”

Sam blinked her eyes in confusion and suddenly the sounds of rain on the rock surface wasn’t the only rumbling she heard. The whole cave because to shudder and cough as the very foundation of this odd world rolled about like a weird roller coaster.

Sam jumped into the safety of the cave and squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the worst to be over.

Suddenly the cave shuddered one final time and thousands of rocks, pebbles and stones showered the once empty cave.
 

“CRAP!!!”

Teal’c opened his eyes, somewhat startled yet not surprised at the frustrated tone in Colonel O’Neill’s voice.

They had been stuck in this cave because of the heavy rainfall for nearly half a day.

It had rolled in so quickly that they had been caught unprepared and would have gone out in the storm if not for the flash flood that had taken out the entire path that they had been traveling on, and the cold weather and element of danger would be suicide with the minimal protection their light gear provided.

“You know, just once… JUST ONCE I would like to have a mission go right for once.”

Teal’c looked at Jack and he looked back. He was well aware of the anger in the team leader’s stance but chose to ignore it.

Teal’c himself was worried about the fates of the accident prone archeologist and Major Carter. It wasn’t as if he was heartless… just he didn’t express his concern out loud.

“We cannot do anything for them at this point O’Neill. We must rely on Major Carter’s resourcefulness and Daniel Jackson’s ability to survive. We must focus on staying alive for their benefit.”

Jack sighed and looked out at the torrential rains.

“Yeah Teal’c I know. But it’d be nice to know if they’re okay.”
 

A distant rumbling brought Daniel to his senses as he hurled himself upwards into the unforgiving solidity of the rock wall that had somehow placed itself in his path.

“oowww!!!”

Daniel rubbed his head and flopped back down hoping the pain would dissipate.

He groaned as it finally subsided and listened as his harsh breathing quieted. The rumbling that had woken him up was gone now. Only the rain outside thundered through his skull.

Something skittered across his arm and Daniel brushed it off.

This planet was terrible. Rain, loosing his friends, wet everything, a nice lump on his head… and furthermore the bugs or whatever has been bothering him upon the arrival to the planet. The white Lady was no exception either.

“Shit!!!”

Daniel scrabbled as something bit him. Hard.

Daniel fell out of his temporary lodgings and rubbed furiously at the spot which started to itch and burn. That hurt. That hurt a lot.

For a moment Daniel wished he had light so he could see the bugger that had bit him.

A flickering light made him start and Daniel tried to get up. He had all but forgotten about the two people who had been in the cave looking for him and there was no doubt that they were coming on account of his exclamations.

Daniel lurched upwards with every intention to get back into his little substitute home and hide from the cave dwellers but his limbs obviously had a different idea.

He collapsed in himself and the burn from the bite seemed to spread throughout his system, affecting every part of his body.

“Wonderful…” He slurred.

“…I get bitten by a radioactive bug.”

Daniel’s vision wavered and faded as he looked into the eyes of a very surprised teenage girl. Her mouth was moving but all Daniel could only hear the rushing in his ears that swelled over him and effectively shut him down.
 

Jack paced, he knew it took forty-four steps to get to the edge of the tunnel and to get back is took forty-five. It was six steps back and forth across the cave and from his position to Teal’c’s it was fifteen steps.

The rain and hail hadn’t stopped yet. It was coming down like no tomorrow. The radios were totally and utterly useless, the lightning was scrambling any radio waves and the metals in the cave were doing just the same.

Now if that didn’t seem bad to the average military man…

The river beside the cave was fast eroding the sandy banks. 

Which to the trained military mind meant that they were in serious trouble if they stayed in the cave. No bank… all the water flushes them down into the bowels of the cave.

Jack nervously looked at the pouring rain and golf ball sized rain, and then looked at the disappearing bank and foreboding river that was raging through the storm like God’s fury itself.

“What a choice…”

Jack paced back to Teal’c’s position and shook his friend.

“Okay Teal’c… we’re going down.”

Teal’c blinked and nodded, rising from his uncomfortable position, cross-legged, on the rocks. Jack grimaced and waved him to the back of the cave where a dark cavern burrowed deep into the ground. 

“Is this wise Colonel O’Neill?”

Jack looked back at his friend and then down to the unknown depths of the cavern.

“Well… it’s either going out into the hurricane weather and get our butts pummeled until we can’t stand… wait for the bank of the river to collapse and let it send us into the bottom of the cave… or go down ourselves and hope we can find some crevice where we’ll be safe until this stupid storm ends and we find Carter and Daniel. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be alive to find them.”

Teal’c nodded in his silent matter and took a rope from his backpack, attaching it securely to an overhang. 

Jack inhaled sharply as a loose rock dislodged and plummeted to the bottom. There was no sound to indicate it’s final stop at the bottom. 

“I will go first O’Neill.”

Jack nodded and watched as Teal’c slowly disappeared over the edge into the black abyss. Swallowing, he tightened his gloves and followed Teal’c down wishing feverently that nothing bad was to come out of this particular expedition. 

“O’Neill!”

Jack started out of his dark thoughts and looked down for the source of the voice. He had ceased to notice that Teal’c’s lumbering movements were no longer on the rope and he was the only one on the rope.

“Teal’c? Where did you go?”

“Down further O’Neill. I have found a crevice. It would have protected us from harm had the river become flooded.”

“*Floods* Teal’c…”

Jack shook his head, grunting as the rope stretched under h is gloved hands. He was going to hurt tomorrow. A roar filled the above chamber, Jack looked up to see the cave fill with the river’s fury. Jack closed his eyes as the water tumbled down, threatening to tear him away from his precious hold. 

“Argh!!!”

The rope snapped and the rope coiled and hit him smack in the forehead. Jack scrambled for a handhold as the water tossed him down, the endless ride of horror stopping as a hand grabbed him and missed

As the burn from the rope’s whip spread across his temple, Jack blinked furiously hoping the pain would magically disappear.

In the far distance he could hear cries of ‘O’Neill’ as the hazy world falling around him slowly faded away.
 

 Jack O’Neill blinked, once to get rid of the cloying darkness that was gathering at the edge of his eyes and again to focus on the wobbling figure of a woman that was standing over him.

Jack chocked on his breath and scrabbled backwards, hampered by the whip mark on the top of his head as well as the blood from various scratches that were on him arms. He could feel a steady drip of warm blood still coming down his nose even though he guessed that He had been lying there for a while.

“Shhhh. It’s alright. I’m not going to harm you.”

Jack could feel his breath hitch in his throat making for a very uncomfortable gargle in the back of his throat.

He was accustomed to this, to the many times he had been victim to some sort of beating where he was unconscious. No liquid, no treatment. No nothing.

And now he was feeling the after affects.

Pushing his physical status away he refocused on the woman above him who was kneeling at his side, concentrating on rolling a form of cloth onto his skin. Whatever it was it felt rather good over the scratches that he must have received on the drop down from the edge.

“Teal’c?”

Jack winced at the harshness of his voice. The woman smiled and continued to wrap his arm. Jack scowled looking up the stone chimney.

The strange woman probed his rope injury.

“Ow. Please don’t touch that. Pain… bad… hurts… do-you-understand-English?”

Yet again the strange woman probed and pokes, paying no heed to the frustrated Colonel’s inquiries, and instead offering a hand to him as soon as she had bandaged the raised and blistered skin on his forehead.

Jack accepted the hand and raised himself up, blinking as a momentary feeling of faintness washed over him.

Daniel Sam and Teal’c are my priorities he thought firmly to himself and followed the strange woman into the darkness of the caves.

In a cave not very far away, Sam Carter blinked away the dust and grime from her eyes. The cave in had all but killed her and the constant irritation of dust and grime was beginning to make her cough.

“Help! Anybody… Daniel… Colonel… Teal’c?”

Her voice sounded muffled like someone had stuffed cotton balls in her ears and had refused to tell her of this ‘slight’ change.

Sam strained her ears but nothing seemed to permeate the surrounding rock.

Suddenly, to her left a shower of tiny rocks began to slide down from a crack in the ceiling. The stress of the gravel like mixture widened the hole until there was a steady stream of the tiny rocks spilling into her little concave.

“Oh crap”

Slowly, inch by inch the rocks were burying her alive.

Sam stood in her cramped hold trying vainly to step onto the growing pile of rocks and found they were too slippery and she kept sinking back in.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…”

Sam lunged for the rock pile closest to her and started pulling down the chunks of cave roofing trying to make some sort of escape route.

As the pile grew larger and larger Sam flung the rocks down. Not wincing as they hit her torso.

Sam struggled to keep above the rocks, but her ensuing struggles led her sinking further into the pool of black obsidian pebbles. Desperate to get out, she grabbed a rock and smashed it at the roof of the cave, hoping that she would be able to grab a purchase and haul herself out before she was buried alive.

The roof began to cave and Sam was nearly thrown back as the shower of pebbles became a hailstorm. She fingered the purchase she had created, fighting against the onslaught of the gravel.

As her fingers began to slip and the pebbled began to inch up towards her mouth Sam cried out one last time as she felt the air stop flowing through her mouth.

She looked around wildly as the pebbles began to cover her completely and saw for the briefest moment two sandaled feet. A hand tugged on her outstretched hand and Sam closed her eyes, letting the oblivion take her to a place where darkness ruled supreme.