AN: Inspired by the artwork of Hito of Deviantart fame. Sadly, I can no longer find any record of her art as of about a decade ago. I knew she was having health problems and then stopped writing and making artwork. I would love to credit her if anyone knows how to contact her.

Legend of Cheyenne is a collaborative effort with MissAlice1990. Without her much of my description of western USA and cattle driving wouldn't be period accurate.

This story is set primarily in the 1880s of America's Old West. 1881 to be specific. As such certain attitudes that are portrayed here are not a reflection of the authors. This includes era accurate terminology for African-Americans and attitudes towards First Nation peoples. Our goal is not to portray such attitudes and behaviors as acceptable but as historically accurate within reason.

We'd like to encourage you to read through even if the topic makes you somewhat uncomfortable because there is no easy way to admit that we, as a nation, need more Jack O'Neill's who find such behaviors disgusting.

That said, this story is a little bit of a love letter to my dad who loved Westerns, RDA, and Social Justice.

Side note - Janos is pronounced Yonish I have spelled it as it's pronounced as Uralic languages are difficult for English speakers unfamiliar with non-anglicized names. And I say that with a Hungarian surname that starts Sz… I did this not to disrespect the character but for those who would like to say it correctly and aren't familiar with the 'yon' sound that 'jan' makes in Hungarian. We'd mostly read it as Jan-os which is incorrect.

Legend of Cheyenne

Chapter 1 – Situation Normal

SGC mission briefing for P78-548

"Good morning, people" General Hammond greeted SG-1 as he sat down at the head of the briefing table. Daniel was still loitering by the coffee pot. Sam and Jack were sitting next to each other on Hammond's right, swatting each other's hands away from the single raspberry Danish they both wanted but refused to share without squabbling childishly this morning. Teal'c silently nodded at Hammond with a small smile from Hammond's left.

"Good morning, Sir." Sam said cheerfully while defending her breakfast.

"Morning, General." Jack said in a serious tone, still trying to snag corners off the coveted sweet.

"Morning." Dr. Jackson mumbled to Hammond as he added a concerning quantity of sugar to his cup of coffee. A sure sign the young man hadn't spent any time sleeping the night before. He then moved to stand at the foot of the table where he'd left his notes, sipping his scalding hot coffee gingerly.

"Dr. Jackson, what have you got for me this fine spring morning?"

"Ah, yes, er, P... 78-548… the, ah, MALP recorded grassland, temperate conditions… on further inspection the UAV found a town near some runes that look like they might be Mayan or Incan. They seem very worn down and would require further on-site inspection… sir." Daniel finished and tried sipping his coffee again, only to make a face at how hot it still was.

"Do we have any concerns people?"

"Just the usual, Sir." Jack told him but didn't elaborate.

"Noted." Hammond told Jack, knowing what Jack usually worried about in the field and knowing the only way to answer those kinds of questions required walking through the Gate. Hammond reached behind him to the console to snag what he wanted then leaning forward, he slid a table knife across the briefing table to his second and his second's subordinate to hopefully mitigate and eliminate their early morning distraction. "If you two would eat beforehand, you wouldn't have to fight over the raspberry one." George pointed out to them good naturedly.

"Well, sir, we would have but Carter's car broke down so I had to drop by her place at the last minute to pick her up and we'd have both been late had we stopped for breakfast." Jack told him affably and snagged a large chunk of the sugary sweet finally, earning him an exasperated glare from Sam.

"You could have just taken the cheese one." She grumped under her breath.

"Where's the fun in that?" He mumbled around the Danish he had shoved in a single piece into his mouth.

"All right, you have a go, people. You depart at Oh eight hundred tomorrow. And Sam, Jack, go get some breakfast and quit fighting over that stale pastry." He admonished them, trying not to chuckle. Some days SG-1 was more like a group of unruly children than an elite team of space faring field experts. Their ring-leader being a graying overgrown ten year old.

"Yes sir." Sam at least had the wit to look chagrined for her behavior but she did not relinquish the other half of her Danish to her greedy CO either.

"As ordered, mon capitaine!" Jack said with a cheesy French accent and a grin. "Breakfast, campers." He said with a swirl of his finger pointed upward, presumably in the direction of the commissary though he could have simply added the flourish for effect.

"Right." Daniel said absently and wandered out the door, then wandered back in to grab his notes and left again.

"Teal'c, I thought I gave you directions to make sure he slept." Jack told the Jaffa as they left.

"I was unable to convince Daniel Jackson to leave his laboratory last night, O'Neill."

Jack shook his head. "Do I have to do everything around here? Carter! Get a move on."

"Yes sir." She replied crisply out of habit while she gathered her notes and stuffed the last of the contested Danish in her mouth. "Coming sir." She said around her snack then swallowed.

General George Hammond sat shaking his head in resignation as they left the room. He snagged the abandoned cheese Danish on his way to his office.

Several hours later, SG-1 was gathered in Daniel's lab to discuss tomorrow's mission.

"All right Danny, what's so special about this particular pile of rocks?"

"Well, Jack… most of the people we have contacted so far were taken from the Middle East, Asia, and some Eastern European communities with a couple of exceptions including a handful of Nordic tribes and exactly one North American colony." Daniel explained.

"Which means… what exactly?" Jack prompted him in mild annoyance.

"Well, it could mean nothing at all or it could mean that another group of Goa'uld chose to mimic South American gods which wouldn't really surprise me, given how bloodthirsty most of them were. I'm honestly hoping we find out they're all dead but I wouldn't be really shocked if the Tok'ra just hadn't mentioned them for some reason."

"Ah, yes, the Tok'ra, our always forthcoming allies in the war." Jack said sarcastically.

"Sir, with all due respect this may simply be a case of they don't honestly know. P78-548 is fairly far off the beaten path. They may simply not be a viable threat to the larger system lords or as Daniel suggested, they might have died out." Sam suggested.

"Let's hope for the latter." Jack grumbled and Daniel nodded absently.

"I'm with Jack on this one. South American gods tend to make Egyptian gods look practically benevolent by comparison."

"Perhaps if you had some names, Daniel Jackson." Teal'c prompted him.

"Oh, yah, sure, hang on. I have them written down somewhere but off the top of my head the most likely choice would be Supay, the Incan god of... death. The, ah, Mayans had several death gods, seven to be exact, who were defeated by the holy twins only to have them rise again as a single deity who went by, ah," he snapped his fingers, "Xibalba." He continued fishing through the papers on his desk until he produced the list he knew he'd jotted down earlier.

"I have heard of this Xibalba. He was a fearsome System Lord but he has not been spoken of in many hundreds of years. I suspect he is no longer living, Daniel Jackson."

"Well, if he didn't have access to a sarcophagus that would shorten his life-span a little." Daniel agreed.

"One less homicidal space snake is fine with me." Jack told them and received a round of nods and an 'indeed' from Teal'c. "How long do you want to examine the ruins Danny?"

Daniel shrugged. "Ideally a couple of weeks but it's really going to depend on what we learn from the natives about them, assuming they are friendly and there's anything left to learn from the ruins after all this time."

"All right, we'll play it by ear. We'll start with forty eight though. If you find something useful we'll call in nine or eleven depending on the situation. I'm sure Carter would be more than happy to sit in her lab playing with her doohickeys?" He said and turned and raised an eyebrow at Sam expectantly.

Sam tilted her head considering. "Absolutely sir." She said and grinned at him a little.

"Well, there you go. Carter can play with her bits and bobs. You can play with your rocks and Teal'c and I can… catch up on paperwork."

"I am not behind on my paperwork, O'Neill."

"All right, I'll catch up on paperwork and you can... work out or something." Jack told him with a vague wave of his hand.

"I will endeavor to fill the time, O'Neill." His slight smile indicated he was teasing Jack who mock frowned and turned to Daniel.

"So we're good?" He asked Jackson."

"Yah, I think we're as good as we can be on this mission until I have more data Jack."

"Great. Let's go grab lunch before the Marines get there." Jack suggested as he clapped his hands and rubbed them together.