Continuum of lies: Way of Truth
Qetesh pieces together Ba'al's lies until she comes to the true. He desired nothing more than her and power. She desired the tau'ri Daniel Jackson. So Ba'al changed time! Continuum spoilers.
I just watched Continuum and although loved most of it, regrets that they missed out some important elements; namely some D/V action. So here are the moments they missed out slightly AU. This is my first Stargate fic.
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As their fleet amassed around the Tau'ri home world Qetesh sat proudly on her throne; watching Ba'al with her 'love' usual distain. Last time she'd been to this planet she was the Goddess of sacred ecstasy and bodily pleasures. Those who followed her built a city in her name and from her temple she could see the sea. Then, Ra had abandoned it and she'd gone too.
Ba'al was speaking on a device that Qetesh had never seen: Never. Not in all the fifty years they'd been together. She asked what it was and he'd made another cryptic response.
"Just something I'd had for a very long time ready to make this call!" he'd purred. She hated that. The self-satisfied look on his face; from the moment they'd met. From the time she'd chosen him as Ba'al's host he'd always looked smug. Then they'd sparred, for thousands of years been playing a dance. She had always been able to out manoeuvre him.
Until fifty years ago, he'd seemingly known her strategy before she did. In place of a great battle over some unknowable backwater in the galaxy; she had been taken hostage. Instead of being executed. He'd made her his Queen. The dance was over.
She'd been in another body, then. Ba'al had no real interest in her until a weapons smuggler had been captured and he'd seen his slave. At that moment, five years ago, everything had changed between them. She'd relinquished the body she'd had for a millennium for this cunning woman with flowing black hair.
All that time she'd waited, watched and never has his plan been revealed. Now on this strange handset, he spoke to the tau'ri leader like he knew him and their ways. Something wasn't right.
Ba'al's host had been of the tau'ri, one of the shrewdest managers Ra had ever had. He was lustful and greedy. Everything Ra wanted in an under lord. He had begged her to be a host; promised his devotion. That was two millennia ago.
She perched on her throne waiting, watching, listening. What changed her mind was the phase.
"Come in peace..." They did not come in peace. They came in war, to enslave and kill.
Enough was enough. She wanted answers and the only way to get those was at the tip of her blade. Thrust straight into his chest. As it went deeper there was a gurgle of surprise.
"Put that down" she whispered assuredly.
"...I'm afraid I'll have to get back to you later" he said to the device before dropping it with a clatter that echoed.
She hated him but before he died. Before she enacted her plan to become the Queen of the system lords she had to know.
She started by threatening him, gently. With an almost sweet voice; the same he'd used on her when she'd been captured, when he'd given the order for her to exchange hosts. "...Now tell me how could you possibly know so much about this world?"
"You've been studying?" she repeated the lie incredulously. "When? You haven't allowed me to leave your side in fifty years!" To punctuate the point she plunged the blade deeper. "You make war on your enemies like you're one step ahead. Then you speak with these people like you've lived among them. You even have one of their communication devices: how?"
He sprouted more lies. More promises but she'd had enough.
"My Lord" Teal'c said with reverence... Qetesh was surprised that Ba'al didn't alert Teal'c to his distress. As the Jaffa continued to speak she realised that Ba'al thought he could continue to manipulate her. Even with her dagger in his back and the taste of his own blood on his lips he thought himself in control.
Teal'c explained there was a Chappa'ai, as he had predicted. Ba'al still looked smug. She knew Ba'al made could not predictions without help. Then information about the Stargate being moved surprised him. He was truly shocked. And Qetesh knew...
"Bombard each position from space then." Qetesh ordered. Ba'al confirmed her command and Teal'c finally left. Ba'al looked at her pleadingly. He felt betrayal.
"Now tell me, my sweet..." she said bitterly. "Is your plan going as well as you expected..."
Slowly she lifted her hand device and the glowing light linked their minds. To begin with he fought her intrusion but she keep up the assault with vigour. He was powerless and he didn't realise it. The toxin impregnated within the blade opened his memories to her.
Time-travel! For fifty years, he'd been playing with time like a puppeteer. All the answers he'd ever had were stolen. Stolen from the tau'ri. Not this tau'ri but another, stronger version of them. A team SG1: Jack O'Neil, Samantha Carter, Teal'c and Daniel Jackson. Pictures of them flashed in her mind; Jack's sarcasm and courage, Samantha's intelligence and beauty, Teal'c's compassion and tireless rebellion, Daniel Jackson's brilliance and... and... blue eyes.
Her breath caught. Even now Ba'al felt jealous over his Queen's reaction.
His eyes weren't what Ba'al had admired but Qetesh felt lust for this tau'ri; this Daniel Jackson. For fifty years she'd been attached to Ba'al and had thought herself above desiring any man. That was now a powerful emotion.
Another wave hit her.
She felt Ba'al's admiration for SG1, when they defeated his enemies. Recognition: he needed to stay one step ahead of these tau'ri warriors and Teal'c.
He used tau'ri greed and lived among them. Like Seth, lurking in plain sight. Watching, learning, waiting and scheming.
Then, that surge of cunning when he found an abandoned Asgard laboratory. Stolen and modified its cloning technology. The used the tau'ri's own experience to use a Stargate to travel through time and control it. His clones were a diversion to be duly killed by Jaffa, tau'ri and then the Ori. Their distraction allowed Ba'al perfected the time travel technique.
While he worked he became more obsessed. The clones intelligent reports named... named...
Vala Mal Doran. Vala Mal Doran as ally to the tau'ri Daniel Jackson. Not the tau'ri but Daniel. They said that she'd do anything for him. How could that be? Vala Mal Doran was the name of this body she inhabited?
The tau'ri would never have met the Ori or defeated so many of his clones without her host. She wouldn't have been so potent and determined an enemy without her desire to please this Jackson.
Qetesh plundered Ba'al's mind and feelings. He disgusted her. Ba'al desired her as Vala Mal Doran. It was both the host and the Goa'uld. She was his prize. So to obtain power over the Jaffa, tau'ri, system lords and her; Ba'al changed time.
...
As Ba'al body dropped to the ground Qetesh went after Teal'c, she felt a rush of power and craving. When the tau'ri home world was hers, their people enslaved... She would find this tau'ri with brilliant blue eyes and kill him. She would play with him first but then... Then she would kill him because of the small voice in her head. The voice of Vala Mal Doran that she usually couldn't hear was screaming and fighting her; fighting for the hope that the tau'ri Daniel Jackson provided.
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Teal'c died at her feet: saying that he was free. The tau'ri female Samantha Carter died close by. Her Jaffa left her alone to think. In the quiet, she heard shallow breathing; it was so faint that her Jaffa had missed it.
Qetesh followed the sound and looked down. From her position she could see a body. Quickly, without thinking she ran down some steps her dress floating behind her. He had brown hair; askew, as were his glasses. She felt her heart race. Daniel Jackson. Kneeing down she turned him over – his life was slipping away. She used the hand device.
His breathing improved but it was a nasty staff blast and she knew he wouldn't live long without a sarcophagus.
"Daniel!" she said limply. He opened his eyes slowly. They were the most beautiful blue she'd ever seen. "Darling!" The endearment slipped out. Every part of her wanted this Tau'ri for her own.
"Vala!" Daniel smiled reaching for her face. His hand cupped her cheek and stroked it. Suddenly, she felt alive.
"Qetesh" she corrected him. "I'm not Vala."
"I knew Ba'al took you..." he muttered slipping towards unconsciousness. "It was the only thing that made sense."Qetesh slapped Daniel's face. "My Vala... I missed you!" He was leaving her and for some unknown reason that was unacceptable.
The hand device glowed as she raised it towards his temple.
"Show me!" For the second time in a few hours she was viewing herself as another saw her. Someone she didn't know but as the memories flowed, emotions bubbled.
The first time they'd met she'd beat him up and kissed him. A kiss that showed they'd be well matched.
The second time they'd met she'd tricked him and they'd been attached by kor mak bracelets. They'd not been able to go far from each other and each time she'd tried to seduce him; he turned her down. Trust had been able to be built. She flirted with him. He argued with her. She spent his money. He taught her his trade; archaeology and linguistics'. Whenever they we off world and had to blend in as locals, he took her arm and they pretended to be married.
He hadn't listened to her when they were in danger. She'd saved them all with her quick thinking. He'd struggled with the guilt but never gave up. Getting pulled into the Supergate was never part of her plan. He had waited weeks before he packed up her room; storing her boxes with his things.
Later, he'd snuck into her room. He felt the pull of the Asgard beam and without thinking he pulled her into an embrace. Never again would he willingly leave her behind.
He took her on a date. Which he said wasn't a date but actually was and she was kidnapped. Jack told her that for those three weeks he searched for her, hounded authorities and looked like hell because he rarely left his desk. She felt his quiet certainly when he said:
"You know when Vala first disappeared, when the Ori gate was destroyed, I refused to write her off. Although the odds were against it, I believed somehow she'd found a way to survive. And it turned out I was right." Then, the desperation as he added: "I want to be right again."
When she'd proposed a plan to capture Adria; Daniel had objected. She'd spent all night persuading him eventually agreeing to tape a message to herself so that she could be convinced afterwards. He'd watched helplessly as the procedure had been performed before carrying her unconscious body through the Stargate. Qetesh saw through Daniel's eyes, felt how protective he was when he placed her down and that he'd waited until she'd awoken before leaving her.
Suddenly, his memories married her own. They were in a fire fight, Teal'c had been injured and from their current position they could only see each other. A desperate look passed between them. Neither one could bear to see the other hurt. From nowhere Tomin shouted his name, rank and that they all surrendered. Tomin was the man who's goodness, on the other side of the galaxy reminded her of her Daniel.
Desperately she tried to explain about Adria:
"...She'll be a fully grown figurehead in a day or so. If she takes after her mother, she'll have a pretty good figure too." She felt that Daniel had missed this with her; but having a fully grown Ori figure head was what concerned him. "This is bad."He muttered. Vala said finally feeling herself again: "You're telling me. Origin is about to become a lot more appealing to the males of this galaxy."Daniel privately agreed; he knew how beguiling Vala could be. The universe was in trouble.
Qetesh found herself slipping away. It wasn't possible but it was happening all the same.
Last thing she remembered was looking into Amaunet's glowing eyes; pleading not to be taken.
Vala's consciousness re-emerged. Amaunet was Sha're. Sha're had been married to: Daniel.
"Question two: 'You are in the desert. You see a tortoise lying on his back in the hot sun. You recognize his plight but do nothing to help. Why?' Hmm. Why?... 'Because... you... are... also... a tortoise'."
She'd pointed a gun at him and he hadn't flinched. Those blue eyes bore into her soul and she knew him. "Daniel" Relief. They both felt relief. His arms opened and he held her... he'd smelt like home and in the car going back to the base she'd felt completely wonko. Shaken, they'd held each other and she'd remembered the baby, their baby, she'd thought. She felt their connection and thought they were married.
After all the lies and manipulations she'd experienced with Ba'al. This surreal connection to this man she'd never met, but found infinitely attractive, felt true. Felt right. Like her rebirth as a Vala she liked only happened when she was with him. He made her better and she loved him. She Vala Mal Doran loved this Tau'ri completely and unselfishly.
What was even more spectacular was through sharing his memories she knew felt that love too.
"Darling!" she whispered in her own raspy voice. "I... I remember... Qetesh she's... she's gone."
"Mitchell's resetting the timeline..." Daniel muttered with a ghost of a smile. "Before we know it we'll be at Ba'al's extraction again."
"And I won't remember fifty years of Ba'al?" she said cuddling into his side.
"No" Daniel reassured. "And I won't remember the year of hell without you!"
The end!
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This is my first go at a D/V fanfic. I have a few fic's in the works about them. What do you think?
She-who-must-be-reviewed
