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Ooooh. *digs back through files*

There's tons I never got around to squeezing into that fic, mostly Tok'ra mythology, which I made myself lay out before starting that fic. Not only Petra (Egeria's daughter, who, by the way, was totally still alive at the end of that fic. I had tossed around a sequel for a while: Petra's Revenge.), but I also made myself come up with a why and how I think Egeria turned, and how she started the movement that would become the Tok'a. I imagined her as a low level queen, someone who slipped knowledge and understanding into a small select few of her off-spring, a slow, insidious infection of the ranks over centuries. And of those symbiotes, only a few made their way to a host to begin with. And so you have this complete scattering of Tok'ra throughout the population, and there was no 'movement' per se, until much, much later. She never could have dreamed the Tok'ra as they are in the SG-1 universe. More than she could have hoped for.

As for the why Egeria flipped allegiances, I have this whole epic, Gilgamesh-esque journey half sketched out on scraps of paper somewhere.

So, yeah, a lot of Egeria stuff that didn't make it in, mostly because it was a Sam story. But I thought of Daniel translating the files later and all of this coming out. I guess that story was just about my general fascination with the Tok'ra.

But I know what you really wanted. Here's a cut scene that never made it in:

The first time Jack walked into a team leader meeting and saw Sam there he almost raised an eyebrow and made a sardonic comment about her doubting his ability to pay attention in any meeting. But then he remembered that she belonged there, just as much as he did. It’s weird how something could feel so right even as it was strange as hell. But then again, a lot of things in Jack’s life could be described that way.

Sam noticed his entrance and smiled slightly at him across the room, but quickly went back to her conversation with Reynolds. She said something Jack couldn’t quite make out and Reynolds let out a bark of laughter.

Sam was pretty quiet during the meeting but Jack knew she was just getting her bearings, absorbing enough information to know exactly where she stood with the group. It shouldn’t take her long to realize that none of these men had ever thought of her as a subordinate. They all knew she deserved to be here.

After Hammond ended the meeting the rest of them hung out for a while as was custom, swapping tale tales and generally griping about various team-related issues.

“So, Sam,” Reynolds said at one point, turning everyone’s attention on her. “Now that you are clear and free from SG-1 and won’t have to put up with Jack anymore, got any stories to share?”

Sam glanced at Jack with a rather wicked gleam in her eye. “What, you mean like the time the Colonel accidentally wandered into-”

“Carter,” Jack said, cutting her off mid-sentence. “I think they would all much prefer to hear about P3X-595. You know…when you drank that stuff-.”

Sam stood up. “Gee…look at the time,” she said. “We’ll have to finish this some other time.” She glanced at Jack. “As in never.”

Jack grinned at her. “Whatever you say, Carter.”

Ditto.
She's got quicker keyboard fingers. *g*

Hm. I think one of the things that confused readers was my inclusion of actual episodes into the AU, but in a completely different order. After all, I did a remix of the events of 'Within the Serpent's Grasp' from season one, but in my universe it took place five years after Sha're and Skaara were grabbed by Apophis. I did this because in the AU, many things did not happen because there was no Major Carter. Jolinar did not happen, therefore the Tok'ra did not happen. SG-1 did not launch to such prominence in the galaxy, nor make themselves quite as much of a nuisance to Apophis, and because of this, he turned his attention to conquering all of the other System Lords before even bothering with Earth. Convenient of him to take out almost all of the other Goa'uld before he let Sam take him out, isn't it? Not that there aren't a few still out there by the end of String Theory. Dun, dun, DUN!

Maybe I should take a picture of this crazy timeline diagram I have drawn out for this series. Lol.

Oh, and if you wondered how I justified having Jacob be alive despite no Tok'ra, I claim that retiring 20 years early and having a kick ass wife kept him in better health. (Sex>Cancer) Or something. ;)

Oh, and in case you missed it, the second to last chapter (http://annerbhp.livejournal.com/67619.html#cutid1) on Abydos? The ocher tent the young couple led Jack and Sam to? Nuptial tent. Yeah, there was more to that water drinking ritual than they realized. Daniel might get around to telling them someday. ;)

Ditto this please :D

Oh, you just *knew* I was hoping someone would pick that one. Lol. This will probably be more than you wanted though.

I guess the largest chunk missing from the final draft is Vala's story, her side of things, because she was manipulating events at every level a ton more than Jack was aware of. But it was in essence really a Jack story, not hers, so I let it stay in the background, only hinting at it slightly. Now I have a chance to share a bit! (And hopefully relieve some of those time travel headaches. Or just make them worse.)

The thing with the loops is to imagine that each loop back creates a seperate timeline, erasing all the previous timelines for everyone but the person actually jumping (in this case Vala and then Jack). So timeline0 was the original course of events, leading to the death of everyone, Vala's blending with Panos and the discovery of the time looper. When she jumped back the first time it became timeline1, with only Vala and Panos aware of the previous timeline0. Vala chose to go back to the BBQ because subconsciously she *knew* something had happened there, but because of Adria's manipulation, she didn't couldn't know what. She tries to change things though, but Adria's interference ensures that Daniel will have the artifact somewhere Vala will come across it every time. So say Vala keeps trying for 20 times. In timeline20 Vala gives her promise to try Panos' suggestion and wake Jack up. By this point both Vala and Panos are a bit insane, and Vala is getting weaker under the symbiote's control. But though Panos wants Jack to kill himself, Vala has other ideas. She thinks Jack is unconnected, sane, and can maybe fix what she couldn't. She *wants* him to live, she just can't get out from under Panos' control to communicate her suspicions. In fact, that last thing she says to Jack before he loops is:

“But if you do get frozen again, we’ll all just end up right back here again,” Vala tacks on at the end, her eyes full of that strange luminosity again.

Because she wants him to understand that she's not convinced of Panos' plan.

So, Jack loops. The important thing here though, is to realize that Vala steps out of the way of the machine and does not loop, ensuring for her that no matter how many times Jack loops, it will always be timeline20 for her. So Vala from timeline20 is always influencing Jack's loops because she has no reason to know he understands what's going on. From her perspective, she hasn't woken him yet. Which is why, no matter what promise Jack gets out of Sam, he always ends up back in the stasis chamber, because Vala makes sure of it.

Which is why, when Jack finally loops back to the BBQ, he finds himself sitting across the table from the Vala in timeline20. Slightly unstable, insane, unaware of anything Jack has been through, but a Vala who is beginning to realize Jack is the key. It takes her a bit to realize this is the Jack she will wake up. As Jack accuses:

“Forget Panos. It’s just you and me, Vala, just the way you planned it.”

“I didn’t!” she protests, but there is doubt in her voice now.

“Not yet, but you will.”

And then together, with Panos finally gone, they figure it out.

In the end, when Jack loops all the way back before the BBQ and manipulates events so that the artifact will never exist, Vala and Panos from timeline20 both cease to exist as well, leaving only Jack with knowledge of timelines20, 21, 22, and 23, and now, a completely new timeline with no set events past the BBQ.

“Try the parfait, Vala,” Jack says. “I think you’ll like it.”

From that moment on, the future is undefined.

And wow, that was much longer than I thought it was going to be. You can imagine me having this conversation with my four(!!!) betas. I'm not sure I ever convinced any of them. Lol. *hands you aspirin*