Exceedingly short, I know, but important. To be fair, as long as I've ended this better than the travesty that was Game of Thrones and its many character assassinations, I'll be happy.
Chapter XXI
Turbulence shook the ship, casting it along bumps so great that it seemed the artificial gravity was no longer fully functional. The view out the front window was a pure, blinding white-red, heat pouring over them in waves as the two mated ships careened towards Earth.
"You have to do something," Vala said. "Adria, you can stop this!"
She looked at her mother, half her concentration remaining dedicated towards keeping the energy barrier going. "We will be safe. My powers can protect us."
"But what about everyone else?" Vala asked.
"This is war."
"And Teal'c?" Vala said, the desperation clear in her voice. "Daniel?"
"I can't," Adria answered, the words ash in her mouth. "I am the Orici. I must fulfill what has been foretold."
"Adria, if you don't stop this ship, millions—billions—of people are going to die!"
She lowered her head slightly. "A necessary sacrifice."
Vala struggled to her feet, staggering toward her. "Bullshit."
Rage smoldered in Adria's eyes. "Excuse me?"
"No, excuse me. For thinking anything could ever be more important to you than power," Vala spat.
"Enemies of the Ori will show no mercy in their attempts to lead us astray from the true Path, likewise we must attack with all the Strength with which we have been given," Adria replied. The shaking of the ship was getting more severe.
"Bullshit," Vala said again. "The Ori created their own enemies in their quest for absolute power, and now they're gone, and you're still fighting their war for a bunch of dead power-hungry beings."
"Caelium videri esset. Et terra rus ad sidera tollere vultus. Ex uno disce omnes."
"We don't really have time for reciting the Book of Propaganda," Vala said. "They're dead, Adria, and you're putting them above millions of living."
"I can hear them," Adria admitted quietly.
"That doesn't mean you have to listen," Vala told her. She placed a hand on Adria's elbow, and Adria allowed the contact. "You have the power to stop these ships. You just have to choose to use it." Their eyes met, and both held the gaze for a few precious seconds.
Adria nodded, stepping back. "This will end it. All of it."
"Good."
Shutting her eyes, she closed her senses to the chaos surrounding her—the tumult of the ship, Vala's desperate gaze, her own strife and indecision. In her mind's eye, she brought forth the seemingly endless Plains of Celestis, with their ceaseless ripple-waves lapping against distant shores. Still the place she found most peaceful. Still the place she would call home. Adria felt her frenetic heartbeat slow, a profound calm stealing over her senses once more.
...Blessed are those that deliver us from evil...Hallowed are those who walk in unison…
A warm glow began to suffuse throughout her chest and down to her fingertips, the beginnings of ascension. A whisper of thought that was not her own passed through her again, but Adria ignored it, seeking the light with every bone in her body. Full sentience and power exploded over her awareness as she transformed, radiant red light even brighter than the fireball outside overtaking the bridge. Vala shielded her eyes with a raised arm, knees buckling back to the floor.
The universe was open to her, now. Adria had almost forgotten what being ascended felt like, viewing the universe and her streaking ships as if from afar, and the writhing, unbridled power that blanketed this realm, awaiting the time she would come to claim her birthright. And, on the edges, the shadows that lurked, waiting to tear it all away from her should she break their ancient laws.
This time, however, Adria wasted no time with the marvel of it, reaching out and harnessing the power to herself, binding it to her will. She cast it out as her human self would have cast out arms, encasing the falling ships—only a few hundred meters above the ground now—in energy, beginning to drag them back away from the planet's surface. Though directed at the ships, power swirled through her, setting her alight with it. She was merely the conduit.
An Alteran brushed against her, a peculiar sensation for her incorporeal form, only for Adria to realize they had surrounded her now. Hundreds of them, the howling of a thousand winds, circling in a mighty storm of prowess and potential, but they did not stop her. Adria did not know why.
The disabled ships were rising quickly now, though Adria was drained with the effort of channeling so much power. The warmth of the energy licked at her insides, seared her veins, and generally set fire to all of the phantom body parts she no longer owned but could still feel, in an abstract sort of way. The power was a heady feeling, jolting and numbing all at once. In another few seconds of swirling heat, Adria dragged the ships back out of the edges of the atmosphere into a stable orbit, extinguishing the flames surrounding them, though the outer stone still shone vaguely cherry red. The torrent stopped as soon as she released it.
The Alterans swarmed, wresting control away from her in a feat of overwhelming numbers and Adria's own faltering strength. She did not know how much of the Ori's sequestered power she had used—in the long run, probably insignificant—but more importantly, she had given them an opening—and a reason—to stop her by violating their laws. That was the path she had chosen.
Then she was tumbling through the darkness, a long tunnel with no substance other than its infinite length. There was no end to the black.
One chapter to go!