Virgin Birth
Vala hasn't been a virgin for a very long time
I do not own Stargate SG-1, or the characters and plotlines related thereto.
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Vala hasn't been a virgin in any sense of the word for a very long time. Truthfully, she doesn't remember exactly when she lost her virginity, except that it had been well before Qetesh took her as a host. After, the Goa'uld queen had spent several decades using Vala's body as a medium to wring out every spark of pleasure she could and had kept several stables full of handsome youths on all her various worlds to fulfill her every whim.
Vala also knows, that none of that matters.
Despite how she normally acts, Vala isn't stupid. She just likes to allow people to draw their own conclusions, so that she can exploit the weak points they leave for her. She'd done some research into miraculous pregnancies shortly after she returned to Earth, and after reading several versions of the King Arthur story that Colonel Mitchell had told her about (although that story didn't quite match Vala's experiences), found another reference that seemed to be much more widely accessible to Earth culture and was more in tune with what Vala had endured. Reading about that pregnancy, and the result, had given her cold chills and nightmares for at least a week, nightmares that still randomly haunted her dreams, usually after they heard that yet another planet had fallen to the Ori.
According to the religion known as Christianity, an 'angel', a messenger from the ruling God, came to this young woman, Mary, and told her she was pregnant with the 'Son of God'. This was apparently a miracle, because Mary was supposedly a virgin, and obviously hadn't done the required bits to get pregnant the normal way, despite being married. Nine months later, in the dead of winter, the baby was born in an inn's stable, and was revered immediately after the birth.
Vala wasn't able to find all that much more about Mary, apart from various mumbo-jumbo stories about how much she was apparently revered for the act of giving birth, how she supposedly spends her time in the afterlife (and a duller existence Vala cannot comprehend), and how many people had hallucinated about her throughout Earth's history and all the things that had supposedly happened as a result of said hallucinations.
Vala can't shake her sense of recognition at the tale. Recognition, and the bone-deep chill of dread that floods over her each time she thinks about it. It makes her wonder what kinds of tales are being told about her in the Ori's home galaxy. The fact that she hasn't embraced Origin, or the fact that any purity symbolized by an intact hymen would have long since been washed away is nothing, really.
After hosting Qetesh, and pretending to be the Goa'uld queen for several years after the snake finally perished, Vala knows all too well the importance and value of propaganda. She knows how to use it as well, knows how a story; told well and often enough, can override any real facts, how it can be repeated over and over again until only the story survives.
In this galaxy, the fact she hasn't yet and never will embrace Origin is a constant slap in the face for every follower of that damned cult, from the Priors to the Orici herself. They have to deal with her constant resistance, and visible symbol of defiance she brandishes simply by staying free. It's all that keeps her going sometimes, knowing that as long as she stays alive and resists, the Ori's triumph in this galaxy will always be incomplete.
In the Ori's home galaxy, things are doubtless another matter entirely.
Vala has no way of knowing if the Ori managed to send any messages back home before the Odyssey managed to block the Supergate, if the people who didn't come on this crusade even know that Adria has been born. Vala wouldn't have put it past those slimy Priors to find a way to share the 'Good News' with the billions of faithful back home, even with the gate blocked up.
If that's the case, Vala wouldn't be surprised if prayers aren't being offered to her right this very minute, begging for her to intercede for them with the Orici. It is what millions of people on this very planet do to this Mary woman, whoever she really was.
Vala knows that it's the story – the story of the miraculous birth – that outweighs any historical accuracy that might come up. Who knows, Mary might have been the village slut, and had just been too chicken to 'fess up when her husband noticed the baby; the way Vala had been when she'd married Tomin, only to be later found out by the Prior. It might have been anything, up to and including one of the Ancients, descending the way Daniel theorizes Merlin did to help King Arthur; that entered Mary's womb and became the inspiration of a world religion.
The story does have a happy ending though. After being unable to spread his message to the ruling elite, this 'Son of God' was eventually tortured and killed, crucified to be exact, which, as Vala well knows from hosting Qetesh, is a slow and excruciatingly painful way to die. And after the body had died, the spirit that animated it ascended, to rejoin those infuriating busybodies that actually reduced Daniel to swearing on more than one occasion, unwilling or unable to do anything to interfere with the living.
Of course, that depends on whether this Jesus Christ person was actually an Ancient and not an Ori. There are some rather disturbing similarities to the Book of Origin in the Tau'ri Bible. Daniel always choked and turned a series of very interesting colors whenever he caught Vala reading it in the mess; the Bible, not the Book or Origin. She'd gotten more than enough of the latter book when she'd lived among the Ori. His reactions had almost made the experience of trudging through that oh so dull, dry, and repetitive tome worth it. The fact that she'd gotten the little pocket-sized volume for free from some nice old lady who was giving them away only made the expression all that sweeter.
Vala can only hope that same fate holds true for Adria, even though the part of her that is a mother cries out in horror at the sheer thought. She won't count on it though. Not after how she's seen just how unstoppable the Ori are. Not when she's seen just what the Priors, and Adria, can do with her own eyes. There is no way in any hell she's going to count on Adria's followers turning on her the way this Jesus Christ's did, if only because Adria's not challenging the party line the way he did. On the contrary, she's embraced it wholeheartedly and made it her entire reason for living.
Did Mary ever despair, seeing the man her child, her miraculous child, had become? Vala certainly does. She's seen too much for that not to be the case. For those who believe, Adria is a beautiful beacon, shining with the light of Origin, leading the faithful to salvation. But Adria is also a hammer, a merciless, pitiless scourge to those who will not embrace Origin, with more blood coating her beautiful hands than Vala has ever managed, will ever manage in her lifetime, even with Qetesh's legacy hanging over her head.
There's only once thing Vala can do to keep her daughter's ruthless side at bay: believe. And Vala can never believe, not after what she's seen what Origin can do to even the gentlest souls. Tomin had been a wonder, so kind and gentle in the first few months of their marriage that Vala had scarcely believed that a man such as him could exist. But once the Prior had healed him, he'd gradually become someone she only barely recognized, someone who scared her, if only because she'd seen, had known him before the frenzy of war and faith had changed him, had changed everything.
Vala knows religion, hell, she's been religion; she's been a god after all, albeit, a false one. She knows how to use faith, how to twist it to her own ends, and she knows what it's like to hold life and death in the palm of your hand, knows how it feels to have the only currency you need to accomplish miracles is the trust of your believers. That's why she can never, ever, truly believe in anything except herself, and recently, her team. Religion, in her experience; is a sham, a way to fool the masses into supporting you without question, a hollow toy dressed in gold and sparkly jewels without the substance to hold it up.
Did Mary ever wonder why she of all people was chosen to give birth to the Son of God? Vala certainly does. The Ori knew who she was when they impregnated her, she's certain of it. Was it because she was from the Milky Way, as the people on Earth call this galaxy? Or was there something else? Vala isn't sure.
The stories Vala's read say that Mary was chosen out of all the women alive during her time because of her unique devotion to God, a load of horseshit if Vala has ever heard one. She wonders how the elders, and the Priors who stayed behind, explain to the masses why Vala of all people was chosen to be the Orici's mother. Vala doubts she'll ever know the specifics, and is glad of that fact. The thought of what they might be saying terrifies her.
Vala hasn't been a virgin for a very long time. She's desperately afraid, that in the stories that are likely being told about her right this minute in the Ori's galaxy, she is.
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Not sure exactly when this is set during the timeline of SG-1. Sometime early-mid season ten, I'd guess. Just after Momento Mori I think, not long after Vala officially joins SG-1. I think this has been germinating ever since I watched Crusade and had to do a near spit-take at the extremely fake way they maneuvered the King Arthur reference in when every person who ever saw that episode immediately thought of Christianity.
Got blasted by the plot bunny and had to get the story out after reading Tiger, Tiger, by Gaia. Reading that fic gelled several thoughts I'd had about Vala, Adria, the Ori and how they related to each other. There was also the deliberate comparisons drawn between Vala and Mary that I wanted to explore further.
Review and tell me what you think.