Mine Eyes Have Seen... by eve11 (PG)

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Rec Category: Jack and Daniel friendship
Pairing: none
Categories: Jack and Daniel friendship, Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, gen, angst, episode related, AU
Warnings: violence
Author on LJ: eve11
Link: on AO3 here

Why This Must Be Read: This austerely bleak little story is a wonderful AU version of Meridian where things turn out even worse than in canon... a story about politics, war, about the individual team members and what harsh fates do to them, about right and wrong...

And for me (if no one else) one of its central themes is what happens when the divide that was always there between these two tough, strong, good men where morality and issues of right and wrong is stretched to its absolute limit, further than they ever did in the show, past the point of no return. Jack's pragmatic ethics crashes headlong again Daniel's unflinching principles, neither can come round to the other's side, and there is no middle ground.

Because what happens is... they still care. The thread of their fierce, complex relationship may be quieter than in many other stories, and frayed, but it's still there. In a very real way, the killer last line of the story pulls together everything they have been wrenched too far apart to say...

Jack pointed an accusatory finger. "Sacrificing yourself for a bunch of undeserving assholes, on the other hand? Totally you."