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Previous parts are here.
I think this might be the penultimate part. Don't quote me on that.
ETA: well, it nearly was...
Buried Dreams
Part Six
He didn't change his mind even when they ran into Simon a few minutes later, gun in hand, coming to check on their progress. Or gloat over their lifeless bodies. Daniel froze, breathing fast, his eyes flicking from the gun to the triumphant grin on Simon's face, and MacGyver lost it, totally and completely.
His first kick took Simon's legs from under him, his second sent the gun flying, and then he launched himself on top of Simon, punching the smirk off his face, dimly aware that he was practically snarling.
This wasn't going to end with Daniel shot, dying, lost. It just wasn't.
Simon fought back once the shock wore off. Mac guessed that Simon hadn't really gone hand-to-hand for a while; riding his reputation and getting by on appearances. He was all hard muscles and attitude but he was slow and a little sloppy.
And after Daniel had picked up the gun and slammed it down on his head, he was unconscious and bleeding.
MacGyver wiped a hand across his mouth and stared at the scarlet stain, feeling a little shaky. "I'm okay. Are you okay? You look okay."
Daniel crouched down beside him. "Yes. We need to go. Can you--?"
"I said I'm okay." He let Daniel help him up, swaying slightly. He'd banged his head, or maybe Simon had been the one doing the banging, a handful of Mac's hair in his fist as he slammed Mac's head against the wall.
Daniel looked at the gun he was still holding, a dubious look. He was gripping it as if it was about to go off and he was planning to jump when it did, and it was making MacGyver's skin crawl.
"Get rid of it."
"We might need it," Daniel objected.
"No, we don't. Besides, I think we've established you'd never shoot anyone."
"We've established I wouldn't shoot you," Daniel said gently. "I don't mind shooting people who're trying to kill us. I think."
"Look, just give me the gun, will you?"
Silently, Daniel passed it over, and MacGyver emptied it, dropped the bullets into his jeans pocket and then handed it back. Daniel raised his eyebrows but took it. "Back to the bridge?"
MacGyver nodded but gave him a sympathetic glance. "You want to look around, don't you?" He wasn't sure how he knew that, but he did. Daniel had to be simultaneously in seventh heaven at all this new stuff to explore, and feeling tortured because they couldn't risk sticking around.
"It's not going anywhere," Daniel said with a sigh. "And Professor Blake won't let them take the dig off him. We'll figure out how to bypass the security on those steps and see what's down there."
"I'd like to help out on that," MacGyver told him. "I've got some leave -- well, I'm not actually employed. More of a freelance consultant, I suppose…"
Daniel beamed at him, clearly happy with that idea, and then his smile faded and he nodded at Simon. "Shouldn't we, I don't know, tie him up, or something?"
"Or something," MacGyver said. "Why not put him back in that room we were in? I'm guessing he doesn't know how to open it and I can cover the panel inside up in any case."
They dragged Simon along the corridor to the room and dumped him at the top of the stairs while MacGyver began to repair the panel.
"Let me take another look at the symbols," Daniel said, taking a small notepad and pencil out of his back pocket. "I want to copy them down."
"Hurry up," MacGyver told him as Daniel eased in beside him and started to scribble. "Cartwright's still out there, remember, and I'd like to get us out of here in one -- Daniel!"
Simon hadn't stayed unconscious long. His fist struck, slamming into Daniel's jaw as the man twisted around, sending Daniel to the ground in a silent fold of legs.
"Oh, you just don't know when to stay down, do you?" MacGyver muttered, getting a sneer in return. Simon obviously thought the strong silent type was a look that was good on him.
MacGyver thought bruises would suit him better.
Pushing off from the wall and hurdling Daniel's body, he kicked off round two of the match. Without Daniel watching, it took on a darker edge to it, somehow, with Mac not hesitating to use every trick at his disposal to end the fight as fast as possible, by whatever means he had to.
He wasn't sure that included a punch that had Simon staggering back to fall down the stairs, though.
Simon's face filled with horror as he rolled down, arms flailing, and came to rest beside one of the corpses; the one on the ninth stair. "No!"
His hoarse, panicked cry had Daniel's head lifting. "MacGyver…?" he said muzzily. "What -- oh, God!" He scrambled up and over to Mac, who spared him a quick glance, noting the swelling bruise on his jaw with a flare of anger. "We have to get him out of there."
"Why? He can walk." MacGyver turned his attention back to Simon who was crouched on the step, his eyes wide with fear. "Get back up here; I won't stop you. But the fight ends, you got that? All of this ends."
Simon moaned, shaking his head. "Too late…"
"No, it's not." MacGyver beckoned to Simon. "Come on, will you?"
Frozen in place, Simon simply shook his head.
"Why isn't he dying?" Daniel hissed in MacGyver's ear. "Nothing's happening."
"I don't know." He called down to Simon. "You hear that? Nothing's happening; maybe whatever killed them has run out of juice. Dead battery or whatever they used back then."
Something that looked like cunning passed over Simon's face, erasing the panic. "Yeah. Hey, yeah." He glanced around, visibly calming down. "The others died quick; quicker than this."
"How do you know?" MacGyver wrinkled his nose in disgust. "You stood here and watched them?"
"Outside the door and heard the screams," Simon corrected him, getting up; although he was still hunched over a little as if he wasn't entirely sure he was safe. "And I'm going down, not up. To the gold."
"How do you even know it's down there?" Daniel asked, his voice hard. "What's Cartwright basing that on?"
Simon hooked his foot under the body on the step and sent it tumbling down the flight of stairs until it came to rest against the corpse on the twelfth one. MacGyver got what he was doing, but couldn't hold back his distaste for the contempt Simon was showing towards men he'd helped to kill. "Something your parents dug up. A book… picture, I don't know. Cartwright stole it from them, anyway. Finders keepers, right? It wasn't theirs, anyway. They were just grave robbers. All your fancy degrees and grants don't change that."
"We're preserving the past." Daniel's voice was steady, almost bored, but the hand at his side had clenched into a fist. "Learning from it."
"Stealing from the dead," Simon insisted. "Well, guess what? This time they've got something worth having and it's going to be mine."
"What about Cartwright?" MacGyver asked suddenly. He'd been listening with half an ear for footsteps and was tensed, ready to stop Cartwright from imprisoning them again, but the corridor was filled with nothing but emptiness. "Got the idea this was his show."
"It was until we got this far," Simon said, jumping lightly down to the twelfth step and sending another body rolling in a bumpy descent. "I don't need him now, though, do I? So I sent him to join Ali. Surprised you didn't hear him yelling when he went over."
Daniel gasped, but MacGyver couldn't work up much surprise at Simon's treachery -- or sympathy for Cartwright. "You can't think we're going to let you walk off with the gold -- assuming there is any -- not even the pitiful amount you can carry back up these stairs. Or didn't you know that gold tends to come in heavy and really heavy?"
"You can't think I had just one gun," Simon replied mockingly, pulling an automatic out of his jacket pocket and aiming, not at MacGyver but at Daniel. "You won't be able to stop me when you're dead -- or are you going to tell me this place is cursed and you'll come back to haunt me?"
"Count on it," MacGyver told him, edging sideways towards Daniel. If he could just push him out of the way…
"Say goodbye to him, MacGyver. Just don't start crying."
"I only met him today." Maybe if Simon didn't think Daniel mattered…
"And I'm sure it was the start of a beautiful friendship," Simon sneered.
MacGyver turned his head a little, just enough to be able to catch a glimpse of Daniel out of the corner of his eyes. "You know, it really has been," he said quietly, knowing Daniel would understand. Daniel's face was a fierce mask of concentration as he stared down at the floor, and he didn't react at all, which sent a pang through MacGyver that he tried to shrug off.
"Wait…" Daniel's head lifted and he stretched out a hand, abject, pleading. "Please… I can help you. Don't… don't kill me. Please."
Shock and disappointment washed over MacGyver. He'd have expected Daniel to die with dignity, somehow, fighting to the end. He couldn't blame him for trying to appeal to Simon's better nature; he just wasn't sure the man had one.
Then he realised what Daniel was doing. Moving. Moving forward, in a slow, gradual shuffle, barely noticeable.
And then jumping, with all his weight, on the first step, the one Simon hadn't touched because MacGyver's punch had sent him flying over it. A bullet sang over their heads, pinging harmlessly off a wall, but it didn't matter; as MacGyver yanked Daniel back, away, pulling him to safety, Simon began to die.
MacGyver could never describe it afterwards; as the first bright rays burst out of the wall, sharpening and focusing on Simon, he cried out, shielding his eyes, and then his ears, as Simon began to scream, endless ululations of agony ripping out of a throat that was taking its last breath a long moment later.
"Oh, God," MacGyver said, turning his head away. "God --"
"I killed him," Daniel said huskily. "MacGyver -- I --"
MacGyver grabbed him by the arms, shaking him slightly. "Listen to me! You didn't kill him; his greed did. And he was about to kill us, don't forget."
Daniel shook his head, his eyes wide and scared. "No. I did it. I did it on purpose. I worked it out; the first step had to be the trigger because who would miss it out? Except he had to have done, so I... and I knew…"
"That doesn't make sense," MacGyver said, his brain automatically going to work on the problem even as he pulled Daniel to him for a hug. "If the first step triggers it, how come some of them got halfway down? There must have been a built-in sensor or… Daniel? Hey…"
Daniel's fist struck his shoulder again, making Mac wince. "I did it. Stop treating me like I'm some sort of idiot or about twelve. I killed him and I don't need hugging or a fucking lollipop."
"You're acting like an idiot and don't --" MacGyver grabbed Daniel's fist and saved his shoulder another blow. "Stop it," he said quietly. "It's over. Just… stop."
"I'm sorry." Daniel freed himself from MacGyver's grip and took off his glasses, rubbing his hand over his face. "Watching him die… it brought back some memories, that's all."
"Your parents," MacGyver said softly. "Yeah, I can see that."
"You know --?" Daniel's mouth twisted. "Oh. You've probably got files on all of us, haven't you?"
"More or less. Yours wasn't one of the names at the top of my list, though. Blake thinks pretty highly of you and I trust his judgment."
Daniel blinked, shoving his glasses back on again. "You're kidding. He's on my case all the time."
"Guess it's his way of making sure you learn something just to spite him."
He got a reluctant smile. "Maybe." Daniel reached out and laid his hand on Mac's shoulder. "Sorry."
"Forget it." Mac ruffled Daniel's hair with malice aforethought. "You hit like a girl, anyway."
Daniel narrowed his eyes and then started to laugh.
"That's better," MacGyver approved. "Now, let's get the hell out of here."
They'd almost made it back to the bridge when Daniel stopped dead. "Wait. I just thought -- with Cartwright dead, there's no reason we can't look around."
"What? No!"
Daniel's mouth was looking stubborn again. "You heard Simon; my parents were involved. They were on a dig here before I was born; the professor told me I was following in their footsteps. They must have found this place."
"No, or the whole world would've known about it," MacGyver pointed out. "A reference to it, maybe."
"Even so." Daniel turned and began to walk towards one of the corridors they hadn't been down. "I'm going to explore."
"No, Daniel. We have to get back…"
"Why? It's the middle of the night. Professor Blake hates being woken up."
"I suppose so, but, Daniel…"
Too late. Daniel had vanished. It was either follow or leave him behind. MacGyver followed.
Part Seven
I think this might be the penultimate part. Don't quote me on that.
ETA: well, it nearly was...
Buried Dreams
Part Six
He didn't change his mind even when they ran into Simon a few minutes later, gun in hand, coming to check on their progress. Or gloat over their lifeless bodies. Daniel froze, breathing fast, his eyes flicking from the gun to the triumphant grin on Simon's face, and MacGyver lost it, totally and completely.
His first kick took Simon's legs from under him, his second sent the gun flying, and then he launched himself on top of Simon, punching the smirk off his face, dimly aware that he was practically snarling.
This wasn't going to end with Daniel shot, dying, lost. It just wasn't.
Simon fought back once the shock wore off. Mac guessed that Simon hadn't really gone hand-to-hand for a while; riding his reputation and getting by on appearances. He was all hard muscles and attitude but he was slow and a little sloppy.
And after Daniel had picked up the gun and slammed it down on his head, he was unconscious and bleeding.
MacGyver wiped a hand across his mouth and stared at the scarlet stain, feeling a little shaky. "I'm okay. Are you okay? You look okay."
Daniel crouched down beside him. "Yes. We need to go. Can you--?"
"I said I'm okay." He let Daniel help him up, swaying slightly. He'd banged his head, or maybe Simon had been the one doing the banging, a handful of Mac's hair in his fist as he slammed Mac's head against the wall.
Daniel looked at the gun he was still holding, a dubious look. He was gripping it as if it was about to go off and he was planning to jump when it did, and it was making MacGyver's skin crawl.
"Get rid of it."
"We might need it," Daniel objected.
"No, we don't. Besides, I think we've established you'd never shoot anyone."
"We've established I wouldn't shoot you," Daniel said gently. "I don't mind shooting people who're trying to kill us. I think."
"Look, just give me the gun, will you?"
Silently, Daniel passed it over, and MacGyver emptied it, dropped the bullets into his jeans pocket and then handed it back. Daniel raised his eyebrows but took it. "Back to the bridge?"
MacGyver nodded but gave him a sympathetic glance. "You want to look around, don't you?" He wasn't sure how he knew that, but he did. Daniel had to be simultaneously in seventh heaven at all this new stuff to explore, and feeling tortured because they couldn't risk sticking around.
"It's not going anywhere," Daniel said with a sigh. "And Professor Blake won't let them take the dig off him. We'll figure out how to bypass the security on those steps and see what's down there."
"I'd like to help out on that," MacGyver told him. "I've got some leave -- well, I'm not actually employed. More of a freelance consultant, I suppose…"
Daniel beamed at him, clearly happy with that idea, and then his smile faded and he nodded at Simon. "Shouldn't we, I don't know, tie him up, or something?"
"Or something," MacGyver said. "Why not put him back in that room we were in? I'm guessing he doesn't know how to open it and I can cover the panel inside up in any case."
They dragged Simon along the corridor to the room and dumped him at the top of the stairs while MacGyver began to repair the panel.
"Let me take another look at the symbols," Daniel said, taking a small notepad and pencil out of his back pocket. "I want to copy them down."
"Hurry up," MacGyver told him as Daniel eased in beside him and started to scribble. "Cartwright's still out there, remember, and I'd like to get us out of here in one -- Daniel!"
Simon hadn't stayed unconscious long. His fist struck, slamming into Daniel's jaw as the man twisted around, sending Daniel to the ground in a silent fold of legs.
"Oh, you just don't know when to stay down, do you?" MacGyver muttered, getting a sneer in return. Simon obviously thought the strong silent type was a look that was good on him.
MacGyver thought bruises would suit him better.
Pushing off from the wall and hurdling Daniel's body, he kicked off round two of the match. Without Daniel watching, it took on a darker edge to it, somehow, with Mac not hesitating to use every trick at his disposal to end the fight as fast as possible, by whatever means he had to.
He wasn't sure that included a punch that had Simon staggering back to fall down the stairs, though.
Simon's face filled with horror as he rolled down, arms flailing, and came to rest beside one of the corpses; the one on the ninth stair. "No!"
His hoarse, panicked cry had Daniel's head lifting. "MacGyver…?" he said muzzily. "What -- oh, God!" He scrambled up and over to Mac, who spared him a quick glance, noting the swelling bruise on his jaw with a flare of anger. "We have to get him out of there."
"Why? He can walk." MacGyver turned his attention back to Simon who was crouched on the step, his eyes wide with fear. "Get back up here; I won't stop you. But the fight ends, you got that? All of this ends."
Simon moaned, shaking his head. "Too late…"
"No, it's not." MacGyver beckoned to Simon. "Come on, will you?"
Frozen in place, Simon simply shook his head.
"Why isn't he dying?" Daniel hissed in MacGyver's ear. "Nothing's happening."
"I don't know." He called down to Simon. "You hear that? Nothing's happening; maybe whatever killed them has run out of juice. Dead battery or whatever they used back then."
Something that looked like cunning passed over Simon's face, erasing the panic. "Yeah. Hey, yeah." He glanced around, visibly calming down. "The others died quick; quicker than this."
"How do you know?" MacGyver wrinkled his nose in disgust. "You stood here and watched them?"
"Outside the door and heard the screams," Simon corrected him, getting up; although he was still hunched over a little as if he wasn't entirely sure he was safe. "And I'm going down, not up. To the gold."
"How do you even know it's down there?" Daniel asked, his voice hard. "What's Cartwright basing that on?"
Simon hooked his foot under the body on the step and sent it tumbling down the flight of stairs until it came to rest against the corpse on the twelfth one. MacGyver got what he was doing, but couldn't hold back his distaste for the contempt Simon was showing towards men he'd helped to kill. "Something your parents dug up. A book… picture, I don't know. Cartwright stole it from them, anyway. Finders keepers, right? It wasn't theirs, anyway. They were just grave robbers. All your fancy degrees and grants don't change that."
"We're preserving the past." Daniel's voice was steady, almost bored, but the hand at his side had clenched into a fist. "Learning from it."
"Stealing from the dead," Simon insisted. "Well, guess what? This time they've got something worth having and it's going to be mine."
"What about Cartwright?" MacGyver asked suddenly. He'd been listening with half an ear for footsteps and was tensed, ready to stop Cartwright from imprisoning them again, but the corridor was filled with nothing but emptiness. "Got the idea this was his show."
"It was until we got this far," Simon said, jumping lightly down to the twelfth step and sending another body rolling in a bumpy descent. "I don't need him now, though, do I? So I sent him to join Ali. Surprised you didn't hear him yelling when he went over."
Daniel gasped, but MacGyver couldn't work up much surprise at Simon's treachery -- or sympathy for Cartwright. "You can't think we're going to let you walk off with the gold -- assuming there is any -- not even the pitiful amount you can carry back up these stairs. Or didn't you know that gold tends to come in heavy and really heavy?"
"You can't think I had just one gun," Simon replied mockingly, pulling an automatic out of his jacket pocket and aiming, not at MacGyver but at Daniel. "You won't be able to stop me when you're dead -- or are you going to tell me this place is cursed and you'll come back to haunt me?"
"Count on it," MacGyver told him, edging sideways towards Daniel. If he could just push him out of the way…
"Say goodbye to him, MacGyver. Just don't start crying."
"I only met him today." Maybe if Simon didn't think Daniel mattered…
"And I'm sure it was the start of a beautiful friendship," Simon sneered.
MacGyver turned his head a little, just enough to be able to catch a glimpse of Daniel out of the corner of his eyes. "You know, it really has been," he said quietly, knowing Daniel would understand. Daniel's face was a fierce mask of concentration as he stared down at the floor, and he didn't react at all, which sent a pang through MacGyver that he tried to shrug off.
"Wait…" Daniel's head lifted and he stretched out a hand, abject, pleading. "Please… I can help you. Don't… don't kill me. Please."
Shock and disappointment washed over MacGyver. He'd have expected Daniel to die with dignity, somehow, fighting to the end. He couldn't blame him for trying to appeal to Simon's better nature; he just wasn't sure the man had one.
Then he realised what Daniel was doing. Moving. Moving forward, in a slow, gradual shuffle, barely noticeable.
And then jumping, with all his weight, on the first step, the one Simon hadn't touched because MacGyver's punch had sent him flying over it. A bullet sang over their heads, pinging harmlessly off a wall, but it didn't matter; as MacGyver yanked Daniel back, away, pulling him to safety, Simon began to die.
MacGyver could never describe it afterwards; as the first bright rays burst out of the wall, sharpening and focusing on Simon, he cried out, shielding his eyes, and then his ears, as Simon began to scream, endless ululations of agony ripping out of a throat that was taking its last breath a long moment later.
"Oh, God," MacGyver said, turning his head away. "God --"
"I killed him," Daniel said huskily. "MacGyver -- I --"
MacGyver grabbed him by the arms, shaking him slightly. "Listen to me! You didn't kill him; his greed did. And he was about to kill us, don't forget."
Daniel shook his head, his eyes wide and scared. "No. I did it. I did it on purpose. I worked it out; the first step had to be the trigger because who would miss it out? Except he had to have done, so I... and I knew…"
"That doesn't make sense," MacGyver said, his brain automatically going to work on the problem even as he pulled Daniel to him for a hug. "If the first step triggers it, how come some of them got halfway down? There must have been a built-in sensor or… Daniel? Hey…"
Daniel's fist struck his shoulder again, making Mac wince. "I did it. Stop treating me like I'm some sort of idiot or about twelve. I killed him and I don't need hugging or a fucking lollipop."
"You're acting like an idiot and don't --" MacGyver grabbed Daniel's fist and saved his shoulder another blow. "Stop it," he said quietly. "It's over. Just… stop."
"I'm sorry." Daniel freed himself from MacGyver's grip and took off his glasses, rubbing his hand over his face. "Watching him die… it brought back some memories, that's all."
"Your parents," MacGyver said softly. "Yeah, I can see that."
"You know --?" Daniel's mouth twisted. "Oh. You've probably got files on all of us, haven't you?"
"More or less. Yours wasn't one of the names at the top of my list, though. Blake thinks pretty highly of you and I trust his judgment."
Daniel blinked, shoving his glasses back on again. "You're kidding. He's on my case all the time."
"Guess it's his way of making sure you learn something just to spite him."
He got a reluctant smile. "Maybe." Daniel reached out and laid his hand on Mac's shoulder. "Sorry."
"Forget it." Mac ruffled Daniel's hair with malice aforethought. "You hit like a girl, anyway."
Daniel narrowed his eyes and then started to laugh.
"That's better," MacGyver approved. "Now, let's get the hell out of here."
They'd almost made it back to the bridge when Daniel stopped dead. "Wait. I just thought -- with Cartwright dead, there's no reason we can't look around."
"What? No!"
Daniel's mouth was looking stubborn again. "You heard Simon; my parents were involved. They were on a dig here before I was born; the professor told me I was following in their footsteps. They must have found this place."
"No, or the whole world would've known about it," MacGyver pointed out. "A reference to it, maybe."
"Even so." Daniel turned and began to walk towards one of the corridors they hadn't been down. "I'm going to explore."
"No, Daniel. We have to get back…"
"Why? It's the middle of the night. Professor Blake hates being woken up."
"I suppose so, but, Daniel…"
Too late. Daniel had vanished. It was either follow or leave him behind. MacGyver followed.
Part Seven