He had crawled beside her, and spent about fifteen minutes waiting for her to wake up. She had a nasty bruise on one side of her forehead, but Daniel had to restrain himself from trying to shake her awake. Eventually, she came to on her own.
"Ugh…."
"Vala? Finally, I thought you'd never wake up."
"…Daniel?"
"Yes, I'm here."
"Wonderful. I'm must be dreaming again. I'm going to close my eyes now. Wake me up when you're gone."
Daniel paused for a second, contemplating her twisted logic. "How can I wake you up if I'm a figment of your … Never mind. Come on Vala. You're not dreaming; it's really me."
"Really. Prove it. "Owwww!"
"Well you asked me to prove it!"
"Alright, alright. I'm up. No need to get touchy about it." Vala slowly brought her body into sitting position, making a great show of stretching and yawning. Then she turned towards Daniel, a faint smile trickling across her features. Like sunshine, it began to warm Daniel's limbs: he edged in a little closer to capture its full glow. But when she looked like she was on the verge of hugging him-
"How did you get here? Are the others here too?"
"Oh, no. It's just me actually. SG-1 was on a mission to protect a village from an Ori invasion, when their soldiers captured me. For the past three weeks, I have been shuttled from ship to ship in a wasted effort to school me in the ways of Origin. But, as you know, I've never been one for schooling, so the Orici brought me here to give it a go herself. I've had quite the journey. But as much as I love being the center of attention, it's my turn to ask you. How've you been?"
"Just dandy."
"Glad to hear it. Except that you're a terrible liar, darling. You look like you've been taking a dip in the fiery pools of Zaghos."
"Well, a month's worth of mind probing tends to do that to a person."
"Then you're lucky I'm here to rescue you."
"You're here to rescue me."
"Yes. I had a chance to escape but I chose to overlook my selfish needs and come to your aid."
"You overlooked your selfish needs…"
"Daniel, are you paying attention? Or are my words too confusing that you have to repeat everything I say? Should I go a little slower?"
"No, no. Please continue. You're here to rescue me. All by yourself, in a ship equipped with soldiers, weapons, and not to mention mind-reading priors. You have a way around that."
"Of course I do silly. Why else would I be here?"
"To annoy me."
"Hmmm, that's a good reason. But more importantly, I've discovered that I can resist mind probes."
She had, in fact, come across that wonderful revelation early on, when a prior had trained his glowing staff at her, attempting to prove that she was conspiring against the Ori with her husband Tomin. She had concentrated hard, pushing her real experiences to the back of her mind, and fabricating false ones instead. She was not a conspirator. Tomin hated her guts. Tomin wanted to burn her alive. She had insulted his Gods and the last thing he wanted to do was listen to her. She had been surprised when the prior lowered his staff, and smugly addressed her: "As hateful as the pestilence that plagued the tribes of Lakshur, the wicked shall be despised." He seemed satisfied. Vala, on the other hand, had thanked Granus' fat belly that the prior hadn't pulled the same stunt on Tomin instead.
"What? How is that possible? How do you know for sure?"
"I'm not quite sure how, but I have succeeded in misleading the priors when they were poking around in my brain. I hid my plan to rescue you from them, and they seem to have no idea that I'm hiding anything. Maybe being the Orici's mother does pay off in the end. Maybe by carrying her inside me for nine months, I somehow developed an immunity to some of her powers."
"Interesting. A mother and her child do share blood and nutrients through the amniotic fluid. A baby's cells sometimes break off and make their way into her mother's blood stream. It's perfectly plausible that carrying a half ascended being to term has had some physical side effects on you. But superpowers aside, you're still stuck in this chamber with me."
"A minor setback."
"How so?"
"All part of the plan darling. But before I continue, you've been resisting the mind probes yourself haven't you? I need to be sure, because we cannot afford getting foiled by nosy priors just because you're weak minded."
"If you're asking whether I've revealed the design of Merlin's weapon to Adria, I haven't. I've somehow managed to keep her at bay. It's probably because I don't have any real information to share with her. Most of Merlin's memories faded soon after I was taken aboard this ship. All the knowledge revolving around the construction of the weapon has evaporated from my mind."
"Most of Merlin's memories."
"Huh?"
"You said most of Merlin's memories. You apparently still retain some. Is that what you're hiding?"
Daniel hesitated. "Well, I seem to vaguely remember some of the people Merlin knew during his lifetime on earth. For example, the knights of the round table, Sir Parceval, and King Arthur."
"You know something about them that may be helpful in defeating the Ori."
"Yes. But I don't feel comfortable talking about it here. Especially with priors crawling around."
"Alright." She replied, but continued to look at him with wide, curious eyes.
"Fine, I'll tell you. I know where Arthur is buried. Except that he's not really dead, but in stasis very much like Merlin. That's why the village of Camelot was expecting his return. I suspect that although he might not know how to build Merlin's weapon entirely, he might be able to give us some fundamental clues."
"But, I recall you mentioning something about Merlin helping Arthur ascend. "
"Arthur did in fact ascend. But, I remember ... I mean Merlin's memories tell me that he confided in Arthur about the weapon before Arthur's ascension. But, when Arthur refused to share this information with the Others, they banished him, forcing him to assume corporeal form once more."
"Hmmm, his story sounds a lot like yours. Well then, Arthur's burial ground, is it any place we know?"
"Actually, it's not. It's on a planet named Avlicae, Ancient for Avalon. It has the same name as the Avalon we visited on Earth, except this one should be on the outskirts of Vesper's nebula, orbiting the largest star in that cluster. If you get us out of here, we should definitely check it out." Somehow, voicing the thoughts that had been bottled up inside him for so long had made him feel better. He turned to Vala and said: "Plan or no plan, I'm glad you're here. It helps."
She didn't reply at first. Then a great sadness seemed to overcome the sparkle in her eyes as she gently placed her fingertips against his cheek: "Daniel Jackson, why do you insist on being blind to all but the good in people?"
Before he could respond to her exceedingly strange question, she stood up and walked up to the door and knocked.
"Alright boys, you can and come get me now."
Daniel did not have any time to react. The two guards that had brought Vala in earlier burst into the room and grabbed both his arms, forcing him into a kneeling position. Adria and her entourage soon followed.
"Well mother, do you have the information I need, or not?"
The speed at which Vala's demeanor had changed was sickening. With a smug grin upon her face, she said: "Of course I do darling. Your prisoner was in fact extremely forthcoming."
A/N: Finally made the required modifications for the story to be consistent with canon. Arthur had been ascended once, not anymore. R/R please if you think my explanation is sufficient
