A/N:
1) Do not own the setting, MGM does.
2) For this A.U., assume that things went similar to canon except that Season 6 episode 10 did not occur. And now, without further ado, I present to you…
Dancing with the Devil
The problem was that we were a dying race. Our resolve was strong but our numbers dwindled: countless centuries of war have taken their toll and only a few of us survived to this day. So when we were offered a chance to save our species, what choice did we really have?
We still don't know how they found us. With how few of us are left the location of our bases are a close-guarded secret, one we're reluctant to share even with our allies. It thus came as a great shock to us when a single Ori soldier stepped through the Stargate on one of our worlds, left a small chest by the D.H.D. & simply dialed out.
The planet was evacuated within hours of course but the small box contained not a bomb or a bioplague but a request for an armistice of all things, explaining that a Prior will return to that world in a week's time to negotiate a truce between the Ori and the Tok'ra.
We expected trickery and prepared for such. Satellites were placed in orbit to warn of any incoming ships, staff weapon towers were erected around the Chappa'i, trenches were dug and mines were placed with no less than three of the Tau'ri "anti-Prior devices" hidden around the gate. Once again, the Ori surprised us by staying true to their word: neither a ship nor an army appeared, only a single one of their pale-faced priests came through the event horizon undaunted by the weapons pointed his way.
The proposition was simple – the Tok'Ra will cease all espionage and attacks against the followers of Origin and in exchange the Ori give us what we thought lost forever - our queen-mother, Egeria.
Egeria, the progenitor of our whole species. The one who rebelled against Ra and dedicated her life to freeing the humans from Goa'uld tyranny. The one who was lost in battle thousands of years ago until the day the Ori found her, trapped on a distant world once ruled by Ra himself.
Make no mistake, even as desperate as we didn't take the Ori at their word. But the Council saw it fit to at least check the veracity of the Prior's claims, sending a group of Tok'Ra to accompany him back through the gate. We departed the next day to Pangar.
The memories of Pangar still chill me to this day. The Pangarans were free from Goa'uld rule for centuries - in that time they developed art, laws, medicine, physics and technology; they experienced joys of discovery as they learned of the secrets of the atoms, quirks of evolution and the wonders of astronomy. All of it was undone the day the Ori arrived.
Stepping through the Stargate I saw before me the ruins of a coastal city: once great buildings gutted to husks, the empty streets covered in rubble while the nauseating smell of sacrificial alter fires clung in the air. Occasionally a dirigible could be spotted in the air, a reminder of the industry this world once possessed - though even the airships now bore the Sign of Origin painted on them.
The queen was housed in a lab deep within the city. The Pangarans exploited & experimented on her, creating an entire facility just to hold her & her spawn. Given this knowledge I should have known what to expect but I was not ready for it. None of us were.
Egeria was dying. Decades of inhumane experiments took their toll, even on a symbiote's healing ability. It seemed so cruel - to find our mother after all this time only to learn that there is nothing we could do to save her. And that's just what the Ori were counting on.
The Prior poured sweet poison in our ears and minds, telling us how the Ori were merciful and willing to heal her. But nothing is free of course.
After another round of negotiations lasting several days the Council agreed to a deal. Even with the prospect of getting our mother back hanging in the balance the councilors were reluctant to meet the Ori's terms but in they had no choice. The Priors were allowed access to multiple Tok'Ra bases, to both ensure the terms of the previous peace treaty were upheld and to preach Origin to all those Tok'Ra willing to listen.
The Priors were always under our watch when on base, surrounded by no less than eight Tok'Ra combat specialists and at all times within the vicinity of a device blocking their mental powers. The Priors were even rotated regularly, each one spending no more than a week at a Tok'Ra base to ensure they didn't grow immune to the device's effects or had time to learn all of the bases secrets. But they did not need their mental powers to corrupt us - the Tok'Ra would not be swayed by parlor tricks anyway. Instead they appealed to the desires shared by all sapient beings: they preached about ending injustice and suffering by bringing light to a galaxy that knew nothing but Goa'uld darkness, they gave sermons about the eternal life of Origin's followers in the ascended realm, they lectured on the peace and prosperity their own galaxy enjoys under Ori rule. And the Tok'Ra listened.
Sure, not all of us were swayed by the Priors. Not even the majority. But after millennia of knowing nothing but war, espionage and endless death enough of my brother and sisters were swayed by promises of peace and ascension to make a difference. They even manage to justify for themselves the Ori's murderous campaigns on Pangar and Heberdan - for if the Tok'Ra can blow up the Netu and condemn millions of lives to death on Delmak just to kill Sokar in the name of the greater good why shouldn't the Crusaders undertake the same "necessary evils" in their efforts to save the galaxy? It is rather common nowadays to walk our crystal tunnels and hear two people debating passages from the Book of Origin or seeing a room full of individuals kneeling in Prostration.
Slowly but surely our people are moving into the fold of Origin and as long as we need the Priors to keep Egeria alive the Council can do nothing about it. Indeed if rumors are true some of the councilors have taken interest in the religion themselves.
Our mother is still too weak to take a host or spawn new symbiotes. The Priors have become her physicians & nurses, seeing her regularly and using their "gifts" to mend her many wounds (this is the only time the anti-Prior device is turned off). After each session our own healers thoroughly examine her to ensure the Priors did not infect her with their plague or harm her in any way. They assure us that everything is fine and that the Priors are keeping their end of the deal. But I wonder, just as Origin poisons the Tok'Ra society slowly and silently maybe so do the Priors' powers alter Egeria's mind & soul without our knowing? When our mother is strong enough to take a host, will the first words she speaks to us be "Hallowed are the Ori"?
I know one thing for certain: neither my host nor I intend to wait long enough to find out. Already some of us who were dissatisfied with the Tok'Ra-Prior treaty & wish to continue the struggle against the Ori Crusade have defected to the Tau'ri and today I intend to join their number. As much as it pains me to abandon our people at this crucial time I do not wish to follow my comrades down a dark path. I leave this excerpt from my journal here for my fellow Tok'Ra in hopes it will explain my actions and sudden disappearance. To whomever reads this, I sincerely hope that my predictions about the fate of our people are wrong and that we will not find ourselves on opposite sides of the growing conflict. Before you choose to kneeling at the Alter of Origin, ask yourselves if this is really the future Egeria envisioned for us when she first defied Ra & the will of 'gods'?
Sincerely, Syrev & Ammeris
A/N 2: This is my entry for Tok'Ra Kree Contest Round 7; I picked prompt number 44 ("Egeria, save her, I don't care how") & played around with a different style of writing here. Hope you like the result. :)
Credit goes to Beedok & StargateMillennium for helping with the title.