Name: Reality
Summary: Vala. Adria. The mother, the daughter. Alien and Orici. Right and wrong. What could have been. What should have been. What she wanted.
Author's Notes: Written for CaffinatedK … actually not sure if that's how you spell it but, the point is, I've hardly ever seen this TV show and I'm basing it off of one episode. Don't hunt me down and spear me, please. Spoilers for season 10, episode Flesh and Blood. Episode is twisted slightly to suit me.
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"Can I hold her? She's my baby!"
Her pleas, though, fell on deaf ears, so to speak. The Prior intent on whisking the child away from her mother stared down at her condescendingly. And he ignored her, without giving so much as an explanation.
"What! After all I've been through, I think I deserve to hold her!" she cried indignantly, feeling somewhat forlorn – and not to mention cheated.
She became pregnant without a choice, went through the strains of child labor with the same amount of aforementioned free will, and now they were taking away the child? She felt that she should, at the least, be able to hold the babe.
It was strange, though. The child wasn't born out of love, and Vala still felt a connection to it. A bond between mother and daughter, and it seemed that the Prior had the intention of setting flame to the bond before it could even begin to grow, to become a strong, twisting vine… And it was then that Vala realized what they were going to do to her child. What they wanted.
step one. – dehumanize the very mortal babe
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"I'm her mother, I should be allowed to see her!" Vala ranted to her husband. Her rant went unheard, as he talked right over her.
"I've spoken to the Prior… they've agreed to let you see her."
For some reason, those words brought hope and joy to the instinctive protective parent hiding in Vala. She turned to the door, fully expecting to be allowed to hold the baby, the cuddle it, to love it…
And was utterly surprised when her husband dropped to his knees and prostrated himself as a servant led an unfamiliar three-year-old through the door.
An exceedingly weird three-year-old with the strangest eyes and a look that was far too old and far to wise for a mere child.
It wasn't until the child spoke that Vala realized the full horror of the thing before her. It was her own daughter, who was but a babe mere hours before. She was growing extremely fast for a human child …
A deep disappointment washed over her, and she couldn't help but feel cheated again. She couldn't help but feel as if she had missed the first three years of her child's life, and had come back after a long break only to find the child-who-was-not-a-child no longer a sweet little infant.
step two. – create the Orici in as short amount of time as possible
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"Are you actually going to stop growing at some point?" Vala asked, though she already knew the terrible answer. Not until I am what the Ori need to terrorize the whole freaking galaxy and take over the whole universe, destroy the Ancients, and become supreme ruler, uh, duh.
She tried to keep the dismay and revulsion from her voice and from her face as she watched the seeming seven-year-old being dressed. 'Honestly… I think by seven, she should be able to dress herself…' she couldn't help but think.
But back to the original problem – the Ori, for their sick, twisted reasons, were forcing her baby to grow. Her little child, her firstborn would never know the joys and innocence of childhood, never make those little mistakes, never receive love from a doting parent, never make friends, never go shopping with her mother for a dress to catch the eye of a pretty boy, and would never do anything that normal girls should do.
And that was not something Vala did not agree with. To make it worse, there was nothing she could do about it.
Fortunately, the child took her horror for concern.
"You need not be afraid," the child who was not a child said in what she probably thought was a soothing tone. In truth, it was just plain creepy, and it sent unwelcome shivers down Vala's spine.
With a twist of lips that couldn't quite be called a smile, the child spoke again, obviously pleased with Vala's concern. "I'm glad you were worried for me."
'Funny, you don't sound it,' Vala's traitorous mind thought, though she shut the voice up and ploughed on with the awkward conversation.
"They call me Orici," the girl said proudly.
Vala felt the urge to find the Prior and the give him a sound smack upside the head for treating her daughter in such a way. 'She's a human being, for the Ancient's sake! Not a tool! Honestly! No name?' she thought angrily.
No seven-year-old newborn child should be subjected to something like this.
"What would you like to call me?"
Vala sensed the vine-bond that wasn't supposed to grow starting to grow… the girl-child wanted her approval, it seemed. Just like any kid, after all.
And Vala felt a sliver of hope – maybe, just maybe, she could re-convert her daughter…
"Isn't there a part of you that comes from me?" she asked the newly-named Adria.
"Of course. You are my mother!"
Vala waved a mental victory flag, tempted to add in a mental dance as well.
interlude: counter step one. – nurture the bond
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"The Ancients are the ones who lied to you! They have kept the truth of your existence from you! They have hoarded their knowledge, and been dishonest about everything! And the Ancients are the ones sapping power from the humans in this galaxy for themselves!" Adria preached in earnest, sounding as if she desperately wanted her mother to believe her.
"The cause is just, and the truth will see us through to victory..."
"Do you really believe that? Or are you just hoping that I will." Her mother's words were slow and deliberate, as if she were debating on how to present her side of the story.
"Why don't you believe me mother? Why do you trust the word of an Ancient over your own daughter? What have they done to gain your trust?" She could feel her mother's cryptic, saddened, answer. She didn't hear it, and she didn't need to.
About as much as you. Actually, probably more than you.
Adria would never let her know how much the disenchantment her mother held with the Ori cut her.
She was supposed to be strong, supposed to be the Orici… but her own mother seemed to refuse to accept her, to accept her beliefs.
How could she, Adria, the Orici lead her troops against the non-believers without her mother by her side, giving her support? How was she supposed to save their souls, if she couldn't even save her own mother's?
A dark shadow of doubt was cast over Adria's mind, and she felt as if she needed to hear the truth from her mother's mouth. She wanted a substantial answer, and if Vala could give one, she'd willingly leave the Ori to accompany her mother to wherever.
"Only you can save your own soul," Adria said darkly, strange eyes appraising her mother.
She was wishing for approval from the woman who gave birth to her so that her doubts could be banished, and she could reaffirm her solid beliefs. She was hoping for a condemnation, so that she could righteously hate Vala, and prove her mother wrong. Most of all, though, she was desperately needed an answer from the being who had been chosen to bear her. Any answer. Anything at all. An explanation, a goodbye, anything.
But she stayed silent, and Adria's resolve hardened.
interlude: vala's test. – failed
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When she left Daniel at the door and entered the room, Vala prepared herself for an older Adria.
She wasn't prepared to see a child of ten or twelve alone, in the dark. Alone, Vala shivered. Nobody should be alone. Nobody should be floundering in the dark by themselves – especially not a new-born child.
Fires bloomed, and Adria sat there, serene as ever as if she had heard Vala's thoughts and was trying to reliever her of her concerns for her daughter's welfare.
But they both knew it was too much for a child to bear. A child should never have to go through something like this.
And Vala almost opened her mouth. Almost spoke. Almost comforted the monster that had become her daughter.
In an ideal reality, Adria would still be a babe, and she'd be in Vala's arms with a loving, non-twisted, not-misguided husband by her side. (While she was daydreaming, it wouldn't hurt to plug Daniel in for the husband…)
In an ideal reality, Adria wouldn't be preparing to lead troops to massacre countless people and planets. She wouldn't be 'preaching' to her mother, trying to 'convert' her to the Path, to the 'true way of living'.
In an ideal reality, Adria wouldn't be a not-human girl bearing the impossibly large task of trying to take over the universe..
But this wasn't an ideal reality. This was now, this was happening, and it was a disaster.
And so, with a heavy heart, she coaxed Adria into conversation, and gave the catch phrase.
She was duly surprised when her husband came through the gate, pushing Daniel in front of him.
'Shit. He's got the damned deadly staff,' Vala thought darkly.
She barely had time to think as her husband raised the 'damned deadly staff' and shot at Daniel. She didn't think, but she acted and jumped in front of him with a yell of "No!"
"Mother!" Adria cried out softly, dropping to her knees to heal her.
"Wha-?" her husband exclaimed, equally surprised. He dropped his weapon and crawled towards his wife. The one he had almost killed.
And in the seconds before Daniel stunned her, during the seconds with which she healed Vala, she couldn't help but wonder.
If this was an ideal reality, her mother would be accepting, be proud the work Adria was preparing herself for. Her mother would be a devout Ori.
If this was an ideal reality, Vala wouldn't be on the ground as Adria healed her, while trying to take a labored, pained breath. She'd be holding Adria, encouraging her, soothing her, loving her.
If this were an ideal reality, Vala wouldn't be trying to fight the inevitable Path of enlightenment.
But this isn't an ideal reality. This is now, and this disaster is happening. And so, Daniel stunned both Adria and Vala's husband, and he grabbed the last conscious person in the room and beamed out.
conclusion: end. – they parted ways, and would be enemies the next time they met. they both remember what could have been. what should have been. what they wanted to be…
A/N:
So there is my little piece. Yay.
Review please!
Aes Sedai-