Colonel O'Neill leaned in slightly and proceeded to read her the riot act in a carefully controlled rage. "I don't care who or what you are or how high your security clearance goes or about how you could level this mountain with a blink of your eye. Daniel Jackson was a member of my team. More than that, he was my friend, so don't give me any crap about self-sacrifice or how this was his choice! I trusted you to look after him and you let him die!"
Ville fumed silently. She could not say anything that would convince O'Neill right now that his loss was equally hers. She'd arrived on yet another Earth through yet another calling that was getting her no closer to finding her son Jonathan. She'd never been drawn to an Earth where this Stargate artifact existed, let alone had been unlocked and put to use – what were they thinking?! - in a universe where a parasitical alien race called the Go'uld had been kidnapping and enslaving humans since prehistory and possessing a chosen few of them as unwilling hosts. It had been a very bad few months for a sworn Teacher and Guardian to the human race.
"Well?" O'Neill barked.
"He said you'd be a hardass about it and to 'get over it, Jack'." Ville stormed from the infirmary ignoring the armed escort trailing her, no doubt at General Hammond's unspoken signal. She went straight to her quarters and allowed herself to be locked down. She lay on the military issue cot rubbing her temples, inevitably going over the events on PJX-4234 and wondering what the hell she could have done differently.
Three months earlier had been the oddest transition she'd ever experienced: like flying in all directions at once without any spatial orientation whatsoever and then rising through an atmosphere the consistency of mercury, waves rippling at her back and passing through a thin but solid barrier of some kind. Then gravity set in and she was standing at the top of a metallic ramp with a roaring in her ears. The first thing she noticed was the armoured squad with their assault rifles trained on her. Oops. Slowly she raised her hands palms outward. Apparently that was not a very reassuring gesture to these people; she rotated her wrists into the more submissive gesture. One story up she could see a command center through an observation window. Uniforms, USAF. An underground Air Force base? She continued looking upward. A former missile silo. Somehow that was not as reassuring as it might have been.
"I mean you no harm," she used the warmest voice she could.
A man in fatigues muttered, "They always say that."
A two star general used the P. A. system to address her. "Who are you?"
"I'm not sure I can answer that to your satisfaction, sir."
"And why is that?" the general demanded to know.
"Because…I don't know what your security clearance is, sir," she answered respectfully.
"I'll show you mine if you show me yours?" That guy has to be an officer, Ville thought, and probably a good one judging by his level of casual in such close proximity to the irate general.
"Young lady, you have five minutes to explain your intentions and more importantly, how you managed to breach that iris."
'He's from Texas,' Ville realised, absurdly. She looked over her shoulder. Surprised she rapped her knuckles against the metal. "Wow, titanium. So that's what that was. Uhm, General, I understand your position. I hope you can try to understand mine. May I suggest that I be confined to your brig while you contact your superiors requesting security clearance to debrief an agent code named 'Ville'? Perhaps someone with contacts at the National Security Agency or the FBI?" she suggested hopefully.
"Excuse me?" the general bellowed.
Another guy in the control room, wearing glasses, remarked ponderously, "An alien with a code name – how very X-Files."
"That show has so many technical fallacies," the smarmy office remarked to no one in particular.
Ville let her arms fall. "Great, the Keystone Kops in Kevlar."
"Permission to show our uninvited guest to a secure cell, general?"
"Granted, Colonel."
After three days, she guessed (since the lights never go out down here and besides she'd slept most of the time), the flippant colonel showed up and announced, "The Wizard will see you now, Dorothy."
"The name's Ville, colonel."
"Kinda defeats the purpose - using your real name as a code name, dontcha think? Colonel Jack O'Neill," he introduced himself.
She almost smiled. "You're Irish?"
O'Neill started to answer, then stopped, then started, "Well, half. Irish, half Irish. On my mother's side. So…come to this planet often, do you?" His dumbass act was perfect. At least she hoped it was an act.
"Show me the yellow brick road, Glinda."
"Ah," was his only comment. She wondered if she'd passed some arcane test. "Glad you didn't ask me who won the World Series – I hate baseball," she baited him.
"I'm more of a boxer, myself," was his non-committal response.
"Take many blows to the head, Colonel?" She strode past him out into the corridor. He started to answer, then shook his head and decided against it. "Attitude," he said to no one in particular.
Her side of the debriefing followed a familiar pattern pretty much. She answered all their questions as best she could and most of the answers were deemed acceptable. Oh, there was the usual demonstration – telling them things no one could possibly know but themselves, a little translocation, a little history lesson. That's when the kid with the John Lennon glasses and a tendency to use run-on sentences got excited. "This is incredible – another myth based on alien visitation. You're saying you are one of the so-called 'Watchers'? As in 'Who Will Watch The Watchers'?"
"Daniel, what the hell are you talking about?" O'Neill asked.
"The Watchers. Granted this is isn't exactly my field, it's a little too modern for that, more of a nineteenth, twentieth century myth kind of like the Freemasons, a secret society possessing secret knowledge preserved back through the ages, I mean, I always thought it was a science-fiction thing…."
Ville leaned forward and raised her eyebrows, "What exactly is your field?"
"Oh, I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson. Pleased to meet to you by the way. I'm an archeologist."
"He's kind of our pet geek, if you will," O'Neill said almost apologetically.
"Why does the Air Force need an archaeologist?"
"I was brought in to help decode the Stargate, that, uh, big, round…thing you came through when you arrived."
"How did you get through the iris by the way?" The young woman asked. She'd been introduced as Major Samantha Carter. "I mean it's designed to prevent precisely what you did."
"Well, what I did wasn't very precise. It was instinct."
"You're saying you can exercise conscious control of your corporeal body at a subatomic level? How is that even possible?"
"Evolution." Ville shrugged. "That, and my father taught me."
"My dad taught me how to fish," the colonel offered to no one in particular.
"Should not our immediate concern be why this person is here?" That was the strong and silent one, the one with a very painful looking emblem imbedded in his forehead.
"I'd like to know that myself," General Hammond allowed.
"Short answer: I'm looking for my son."
"Why would your son come here?" Teal'c demanded.
"I didn't mean here, exactly. We got…separated during our travels. Out of synch as it were," Ville tried explaining.
Daniel repeated, "Out of synch?"
"We started out together in the timeline he was born into, as it were, and after a few callings, we got separated."
"You mean like an alternate reality?" Daniel said eagerly.
"Oh, not this again," O'Neill muttered.
Major Carter admitted, "We've had some experiences with that type of phenomenon."
Daniel added, "Yes, an alien device we found, or actually I found, purely by accident, called a quantum mirror..."
Ville said, "This is different from that Stargate thing you mentioned?"
Daniel, "Well, yeah, you see the Stargate—"
"Daniel," O'Neill interrupted with a significant look.
Teal'c asked, "If you are not familiar with the Stargate, how did you manage to operate it?"
"I didn't operate anything. I was streaming through the quantum foam and I materialised here. But a few possibilities jump out. This Stargate, it uses a lot of power, I'm guessing?"
"Yes," Major Carter confirmed.
"You should see our electric bill," the colonel quipped.
"Was it in use when I arrived?"
"It was activated from off world and then you materialised on the ramp." Carter again.
"If you were responsible for its activation and managed to pass through the closed iris, you can see why we'd be concerned," Hammond stressed.
Ville nodded, "Yes, I can see how that might be disturbing. All I can say is, sir, that I'm not aware of actively breaching this gate or whatever it is. May I ask some quick questions to orient myself, General?"
"Alright, as long as you understand we reserve the right to withhold any sensitive information."
"Of course." Ville laid her hands flat on the conference table. "First of all, what year is it?"
"What year is it?" O'Neill echoed incredulously.
Daniel answered, "2001. Like the movie. But, not like the movie."
"What is the state of your space program?"
Carter fielded this one, "We've landed men on the moon and brought them safely back, explored all the planets except Pluto by probe. We have a small fleet of reusable orbital vehicles which we're using to construct a space station."
"Shuttles," O'Neill simplified, "Oh and we have a really cool telescope in orbit, too."
"And the Stargate," Daniel added, "but…it's a secret. Mostly."
"This gate is a form of transportation?"
Carter answered, "It forms a stable wormhole with another gate and allows one way travel from one to the other."
"So you've explored exo-solar planets. Mostly. In secret. Without space vehicles? What happens when the gate breaks?" Ville asked skeptically.
"Carter fixes it," O'Neill said as he finished folding a paper football. Ville watched in dread fascination as he flicked it across the width of the table towards Daniel who merely glanced at it in annoyance as it bounced off his arm. "Yes!" O'Neill hissed.
"So you're not phased by anything I've said or done today, other than the thing with the iris?" Ville continued, "Is there currently a unified global government in place in this timeline?"
"Well, there's the UN, ah, that stands for United Nations," Daniel offered lamely.
"Bunch of paper pushers," O'Neill grumbled.
"Colonel—" Hammond started. Without moving Ville snatched the paper football out of O'Neill's reach and passed it over to Hammond. "Thank you, General."
"Sorry, sir," O'Neill apologised.
Ville continued, "So is Earth at war with these Go'uld or just mostly and in secret?"
O'Neill answered casually, "We've kicked their asses a few times. Blew up a few mother ships in orbit, killed a few snake-heads. Captured a ship even."
"…which we then used to blow up a sun," Daniel added in a tone of voice indicating that this was not necessarily a flattering accomplishment.
Carter rallied quickly to the defense, "Which we wouldn't have considered if there had been other inhabited planets in the system, of course."
Ville put her hands over her face. She could already tell this was more than an observation gig. Which meant she was going to be here awhile.
Even after five years with the SGC, Dr. Daniel Jackson was still amazed that he was able to drag himself out of bed early enough each day to arrive in his lab on the base by 0700. Sometimes he wondered why he bothered to keep an apartment off base, but the guards at the security gate topside brought it home every time: although you're living every archaeologist's dream, you have to put up with the military mind set, can't publish any papers, oh and by the way, your research is restricted to authorized personnel only. Sorry, doc, those are the rules, have a nice day.
On the elevator ride down to the bottom of the silo, he buried his nose in the numerous notes he made last night while he was not sleeping. In the hallways, base personnel habitually made way for him knowing that he never bothered to look where he was walking while deep in thought. Just inside the door, he reached out to flick on the overhead lights. They were already on. "Oh, hello," he said automatically when he saw Ville reading one of his reference books.
"Hmm? Oh, good morning, Dr. Jackson, it is morning, isn't it?"
"Uh, yes, it's morning and it's Daniel. I mean, I'm Daniel. Ahh, is there something I can help you with?"
Ville smiled tiredly, "General Hammond has given me limited access. I wanted to catch up on my reading, helps get me reoriented. Major Carter said she didn't think you would mind if I borrowed your reference works."
"Oh, absolutely, yes. You're planning to read all these?" he scanned the titles of the stack of books at her elbow.
"Those are the ones I've finished," she told him, ignoring the stunned look on his face. "By the way that was a good catch – when you demonstrated the writing system of the first and second dynasties emerged seemingly fully formed as if based on an another, pre-dynastic writing system. I take it Egyptology is your specialty." She paused in her reading to give him her full attention.
Wowed, Daniel didn't know what to start with, "Yes, I was brought in to translate the carved cover stones laid over the Stargate. Turned out the symbols that had everyone stumped were star constellations as seen from Earth. Obviously the early dynastic writing system was based on the language used by the Go'uld and after the gate was buried, it was passed on by the few humans allowed to learn it, probably the priesthood, but I'm guessing there. Are you saying you've been up all night reading these? Don't you need to sleep?"
"Do you ever breathe in?" Ville couldn't resist asking with a smile. Anyone else might have been offended.
"I have allergies, actually, and, uh," he stopped to breathe in deeply, "I'm used to being interrupted a lot."
Ville nodded understandingly. "Colonel O'Neill, for example."
"Nooo, actually, with him it's more of a challenge – how many circles can I run around his brain before he can get off one of his famous Jack O'Neill remarks." Daniel shrugged unapologetically.
She smiled again. "You must have been a hell of a teacher."
Daniel winced, "Mmm, no, not really. I'm much more comfortable with artifacts and texts than I am with people."
"Because of losing your parents and your wife?" Ville asked gently.
"How did you know that – ah, the telepathy thing. Is that always on or is that something you can turn off?"
"I'm sorry, Daniel, I don't want you to feel uncomfortable around me. It's not always 'on', but some people do broadcast louder than others or when under extreme circumstances."
"Well, I suppose that makes sense," he laughed awkwardly, "ah, I'll try to keep the volume down."
Ville reached over and laid her hand on his arm with minimal contact. Daniel felt comforted almost immediately. She said, "One of the most important things I do, Daniel, is Listen." They held each other's gaze for a second. She withdrew her hand. Not knowing what else to say, he thanked her. "Any time, Daniel."
In that moment, she'd gotten more than enough about him to know both the man he'd been and the man he'd become, which made it all the harder on her when he asked her to let him die.
The mission on PJX-4234 had been shot to hell from the get-go and Colonel O'Neill was very pissed. The alien civilisation on this planet had long ago harnessed their planet's molten core as a power-source and now the planet-sized reactor was going critical. Daniel had not made it back to the rendezvous point on time.
"Damn it, where is he?" O'Neill grumbled before keying his radio again.
The planetary ruling elite had bugged out by ship, leaving their downtrodden citizenry behind. Carter was directing traffic through the Stargate, but they would only be able to save a fraction of the population. Daniel had stayed in the tunnels trying to translate text that he was convinced had been left behind by the ancestors who had built the reactor and should therefore contain instructions for such an emergency if only he could decode it in time.
"Teal'c, help Carter keep these people moving. Ville, show me these tunnels—I swear to God, if he's not already on his way…." He didn't bother to finish his pointless threat. The earth tremors were becoming full scale quakes and occurring more closely together. The tunnels were becoming unstable. Ville shoved O'Neill out of the path of a falling lintel stone that would have easily crushed him. They scrambled over shifting rubble until the tunnel became impassable. "Where was he the last time you saw him?" O'Neill shouted to be heard.
"In the temple! It's two more levels down, but I'm not sensing him there now. You're gonna have to rely on me to go get him, Colonel, this tunnel's completely blocked now."
"Oh, for crying out loud!" He secured his weapon. "What can I do?"
She sought out Daniel's presence. He was no longer on the temple level. A fissure in the bedrock had opened up beneath him and stranded him several kilometres down with a broken leg. He was in excruciating pain and the heat was searing his lungs. Worst of all, he was exposed directly to the radiation from the core. 'No,' she thought.
O'Neill saw her go pale. "What?! Is he alive?!"
Ville nodded her head weakly. "There's nothing you can do here. You have to start back now if you're to make it to the Gate."
"I'm not leaving him here!"
"You've got to get back to the Gate without me, Colonel. I'm going after Daniel; I promise you, I won't come back without him, so please go!" she urged him.
He jabbed a finger at her, "I'm gonna hold you to that!" and took off at a dead run.
Ville turned her attention back towards Daniel and dissolved through the rock. She entered his mind, no time to ask permission, and assessed his injuries. Tissue in vital organs being bombarded with radioactive isotopes and already beginning to disintegrate. Barely enough lung capacity to draw a breathe. He struggled to remain conscious, there was something very important he needed to communicate to her.
'No, it has to wait,' she said.
'There is a way, save these people!'
'Stop resisting! I can help you.'
'The text, there is a way.'
'Come with me now!'
'Can't just let them die~~'
'No time. We have to go.'
'I'm already dead.'
'No, no, no! Daniel!'
'Help me save them.'
'No, Daniel! Must go!'
'Read the text, help me do this.'
She scanned his memory. 'Daniel, no!'
'Yes... is possible; you see.'
'No, not possible, please!'
'Help me do this.'
'Can't, promised. Come now!'
'My choice, I choose this~~'
'Daniel, no, please!'
'Do this with me, end the pain.'
'No!'
'Must! Now~~'
She felt the planet's core about to let go and hurled Daniel's refusal to admit defeat at it, backed by the force of her will and his combined. The core imploded and between them, they turned the force back onto itself and started a new chain reaction. In the process, Daniel Jackson's molecules were now streaming throughout the universe at the speed of light. Ville tried to hang onto him.
'Falling, falling now, free!'
'Don't go!'
'I'm gone; Ville, you have to release me.'
'Wait~~!'
'Please. We did it, you did it; you go now.'
'Can't, I promised.'
'It's okay. Let me go; tell Jack I said~~'
She woke up in the SGC infirmary two days later, sobbing.
'I should never have let him stay to decipher the text. But he was right, damn it, there had been a way. All it needed was the energy equivalent of one human soul. One selfless sacrifice. Damn.'
Back in his lab, Ville shelved the books she finished and picked out a few more to read.
Daniel asked incredulously, "So, you've never been to Egypt at any time? What about Mesopotamia, Babylon?"
"Not a big fan of the Middle East – had a traumatic childhood experience in Palestine."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. What happened? That is, of course, if you don't mind my asking?"
"You might say my father died there."
Daniel expressed his confusion. "I'm…sorry, I thought you said yesterday your race was immortal?"
"Ask Major Carter: Law of Conservation. We are made out of energy. We manifest ourselves as matter to interact and communicate with humans or other self-aware species on this plane of existence. If we choose not to manifest as matter, that doesn't mean we no longer exist. In fact, one of my younger sisters returned to the star where my father birthed us centuries ago and she hasn't left since."
"So, your father has ceased to manifest himself as matter?"
Ville looked up. He was genuinely interested and empathic, being an orphan himself. For a devastating moment, he reminded her of Jonathan. So she told him a story that only one other person in the entire universe knew. "Yes. He was a rabbi, a Teacher. The Romans were invaders, oppressors and like all conquerors throughout history, they used force, terror and any other means necessary to insure the smooth operation of their empire. My father taught hope, freedom of thought, very dangerous concepts let loose in the minds an enslaved population. He was branded a dissident; he allowed himself to be arrested. At his execution he underwent a process I call dissolution – basically he scattered his molecules so widely throughout the universe he can never achieve critical mass in order to rematerialise again. The nearest human concept would be transcendence. He ceased to be a physical entity; he no longer possesses the capacity to interact with this plane of existence. I tried to talk him out of it. I pleaded, I cried, I argued that he was throwing his life on Earth away. He admonished me for being selfish."
"Wow." Daniel adjusted his glasses. "I'm really very sorry." He shuffled some papers around, opened and closed various books and field journals. "So, when exactly did this happen?" he asked trying to sound casual.
Ville couldn't help a small smile. Daniel's sense of wonder was refreshing. She turned and sat on the edge of his desk and just looked at him.
Daniel breathed, "No way."
"Way."
"Hey, kids, whatcha doin?" Jack O'Neill breezed into the room.
Daniel slowly sat down staring at Ville. "Jack…you are not going to believe what I've just learned."
O'Neill looked back and forth between them and admitted, "Well, you've probably got me there, Daniel."
"What would you say if I told you: confirmation of the most legendary figure of all time, historical, mythical, biblical, you name it?"
O'Neill thought about it for a moment, then said, "No way."
"Way," Daniel nodded and gestured for O'Neill to ask Ville himself. Which he did, exclaiming, "You knew Elvis?"
Ville didn't know who to feel embarrassed for as Daniel jumped up and said, "I said 'biblical'!"
"You said 'most legendary of all time'!" O'Neill shot back.
"We were talking about Jesus of Galilee, you know, the guy they wrote the New Testament about?"
"Oh, well, sure Jesus was a cool guy, but Elvis had style," O'Neill retorted.
Daniel circled the room declaring, "Jack, I can't believe you can seriously make that comparison! I mean, we're talking about the saviour of mankind versus, versus…Viva Las Vegas."
Then Teal'c showed up and greeted his team mates. "O'Neill. Daniel Jackson." Ville only rated a nod.
"Okay, here we go, a completely unbiased opinion." Daniel asked, "Teal'c, who is more legendary: Jesus Christ or Elvis Presley?"
Teal'c raised an eyebrow archly. "I have read of your Jesus Christ. He seemed to be a wise and honorable individual. I have not heard of Elvis Presley. Was he a great warrior?"
Jack started to say something. Daniel cut him off with a gesture and a warning look. Jack returned the look and said to Teal'c very quickly, "He was in the Army," while Daniel admonished, "Ah, ah, ah!" with a raised finger.
Teal'c weighed the question. "I do not believe I have sufficient information to form an opinion in this matter."
Jack rolled up onto the balls of feet and arched an eyebrow at Daniel who threw up his arms in exaggerated exasperation as he explained, "Teal'c, Elvis Presley was a singer."
"From what I have studied, singers seem to be very highly regarded in your culture."
"Yes, but how can that be compared to Jesus Christ?"
Ville quietly corrected, "He wasn't Christ then."
Daniel realised his faux paux. "Oh…gosh. Ville, I am so sorry."
Ville shook off his concern. "May I take these to my quarters, Daniel? I promise to return them in good, if not better condition." She blew dust off one the books she'd picked out.
"Yes, of course, please. I hope…you…enjoy them…." After she'd gone, Daniel slapped his hand to his forehead and muttered, "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"
Jack glanced sidelong at Teal'c to make sure he wasn't the only one who was lost. "Uh, Daniel…what was that about?"
Daniel explained, "We were talking about her father…I shouldn't have just blurted it out when you walked in, but I just couldn't help it! It's like a modern day revelation. Jack, this is one of the most incredible discoveries in the history of mankind! Don't you think? Excuse me," he left the lab to go talk with her.
Jack was completely lost now and man enough to show it. Teal'c said, "I believe Daniel Jackson is saying that he believes Ville's father is Jesus Christ."
"Whoa, no pressure there." O'Neill shook his head. "Hey, let's go see what Carter's doin'."
O'Neill knocked on the door and entered her room. Ville sat on the cot looking miserable. He walked to the other side of the room away from her. "Carter says you have something to say that I should hear, " he said gruffly.
Ville sighed. Unlike Daniel or even Teal'c, Colonel O'Neill was a man who prefered concrete realism to spiritualism. It was a tough sale. "Daniel isn't exactly dead."
"You got a body to prove that? He's just gonna come walking through that Stargate any minute now and say it was all a big joke? Is this what you wanted to tell me?"
"I feel the same loss that you do, Colonel." Ville confessed forlornly, "Except that I'm still connected to him."
O'Neill stared at her coldly for several seconds before asking, "What does that even mean?"
"Daniel exists on a higher plane now, a plane of existence that I have a faint sense of."
"Can we bring him back?" O'Neill said evenly, keeping his hope in check, but Ville seemed to age before his eyes. She said, "Even if I could, he wouldn't want to come back. His parents are dead. His wife was taken from him and now she is dead. Her child was taken from him. You, Sam and Teal'c are the only 'family' he had. But he always wanted something more. He knew that with my help he could save those people, an entire race, Jack," her voice broke up into a hoarse rasp, "and all I had to do was let him go!" She turned sharply away, ashamed of her grief, "My father taught me to admire humans for your free will and your capacity to create your own destiny. How could I have refused him his destiny? How can you be angry with him for it?"
Jack knew she was right; he was angry at Daniel. The silence expanded to fill the room before he spoke again. "If Daniel hadn't made the Stargate work, I would've blown my brains all over my kid's room. If he hadn't gone on the original Abydos mission, I probably would've blown myself to hell with Ra with a nuke. He woke me up, made realise I wanted to live. And I miss him," Jack admitted.
"He knows, Jack. He knows," Ville answered. Neither looked at the other. O'Neill stayed for several minutes before leaving.
Daniel started to knock on the door, stopped, turned away, turned back and knocked. He heard a faint, "Come in" and entered.
Ville put the books she had just borrowed from him down on the table. When she finished, she simply looked at him.
He hunched his shoulders. "Hi," he said with a grimace, "I know I keep saying this, but uhm, I am really... really, really sorry for uh," he gestured absently behind himself, "you know, back there. For telling Jack and Teal'c about your father."
Ville sighed and smiled. "I shouldn't have teased you with it like that. It's just..."
Daniel started to smile. "You must get that a lot, huh?"
She shook her head and sat on the bed. For someone who could do so much, she struck Daniel as rather a vulnerable figure. "Actually, I've never...told anyone before." She returned his smile, "I've noticed you have a talent for eliciting trust from individuals. You have a way of speaking to people. Like my father."
Daniel blushed. "Well, I don't know about that." He gazed at her for several moments. "Can I ask you about him?" he asked with a genuine curiosity.
She seemed to compose herself and began, "He taught me that our kind, for all our abilities, should not interfere with human self-determination. In fact, if we wanted to stay amoung your kind, we should dedicate ourselves to the service of that self-determination. He was awed by the potential of the human race and he taught me to revere it as well. 'Dedicate yourself to becoming a tool of Human Destiny.' He instilled in me what I consider to be the guidelines for our journey with your species, the ground rules, if you will : not to overtly interfere, but to teach, advise and encourage humans to fufill their potential.
"Sadly, he was trying to bring hope to the poor and downtrodden of Judea under Roman rule. Like any empire builders worth their salt, they could be particularly brutal. Several powerful factions attempted to subvert his ministry to fuel their resistance to Rome, resulting in the fiasco of the Crucifixion. Being misunderstood as a proponent of a so-called 'crackpot theory' yourself, you can probably imagine."
"The crackpot theory in this case being that the crucifixion was faked, that Jesus didn't really die on the cross?"
"Yes, these wealthy and powerful families wanted to create a basis for reestablishing the Jewish monarchy. They could see that Rome wasn't to be overthrown, but they could see a way to consolidate their own authority with Pilate on the take and in their pocket. My father, not even human, naturally balked at the idea, as being represented as a king, even a puppet one. They were determined, however, and he found himself honor-bound by his own ideals to the destiny they intended to create for themselves. He did die, in a sense, on the cross, however, in a rather spectacular way that has been edited and re-edited over the ages in an attempt by the self-appointed representatives of the 'downtrodden' to claim his sacrifice for their own purposes. Enter the misogony of Peter and the insanity of Paul and voila! The Holy Roman Empire is seeded and born and commences to perpetrate the same atrocities as ancient Rome before it and all in the name of my father, amen."
"Wow," Daniel pushed his glasses up on his nose. "And I thought my childhood was bad. You, uh, must've had a lot of issues to work out?"
"To put it mildly. In addition to losing my parent, whose sacrifice I vociferiously opposed, it's one of hell of a guilt complex to work off."
"What about your mother?"
Ville laughed. "Another irony – I didn't have a mother. My father created me."
"A virgin birth?!"
"If only they had known the truth. Our kind began as non-corporeal entities, possibly even a single collective entity. We evolved self-awareness and consciousness over the eons. In our natural state – energy - we roamed the universe and its various dimensions. We learned to control and manipulate our energy to manifest ourselves as individual creatures of matter in order to interact with corporeal species in timespace dimensions, such as your ancestors."
"Those of your kind who chose to manifest as individuals would have to learn to think and act individually from the others."
"Exactly. My father and other like-minded Immortals or Watchers as we've come down through your mythology were perceived as mavericks, eccentrics..."
"Crackpots?"
Ville smiled again. "Crackpots, fringe dwellers, what-have-you," she laughed. "Thank you, Daniel."
He raised his eyebrows quizically, "For...?"
"Making me laugh again."
He returned her smile. "Well, I'm glad I could help."
She took his hand. "I know."