"Daniel?"
The cockpit was empty. Shallan and Jack/Kanan were in the back discussing their future. Daniel watched Hades sit, alone, at the helm.
"Daniel."
She lost patience.
She launched herself out of the pilot's chair and stopped when she hit the compartment-cum-bar. She flicked it open. She reached for a bottle of Jack Daniels.
Daniel's voice rang from the corner, "Don't."
Hades held up her hands in mock surrender. She turned her back to the cabinet. "So this is what it takes for you to drop by and say hello."
"Stop it." Daniel sighed.
She swaggered back from the bar. He supposed the distance from the bottle was meant to reassure him. "I hereby convene this year's meeting of the Lost Lenore Club—"
"Shut up." He ordered.
She dropped her arms and turned stony in an instant. "Did you ask Jack to ascend?
The words were late, so he nodded sharply. "Yes."
"Did you know he had a symbiote at the time?" Her throat tightened.
"Yes."
She swallowed. "His name is Kanan. They're back there. Right now." Her lips pursed. "He's talking to the love of his life. They're figuring out the host situation." Hades took a huge breath, flaring her nostrils. Her eyebrows rose and she stretched a smile across her face. "Kanan's gonna move out of Jack, possibly into Shallan." She shrugged. "I'm just such an inspiration. Question:" Hades tipped her head back to the ceiling, looking everywhere but Daniel's corner, "if Shallan becomes Shallan/Kanan and she masturbates, is it sex? Food for thought."
Daniel crossed his arms. He shifted from right foot to left. "It was the right thing to do."
"Kanan would have died."
"No." Daniel's temper snapped. "It would have been—How did you put it?—'something worse.'"
She deflated against the wall. She pressed her hands together and watched her skin flatten against itself.
"Oma told me." Daniel continued. "It took some prodding, in case you were interested."
Like lightening Hades launched herself at the bottle.
Daniel reacted just as quickly. "No!" A flash of energy flew towards the offending hand. Hades drew back.
A moment passed. Hades looked up at him.
"You lied to me." Daniel whispered.
Hades spoke deliberately. She seemed in no hurry to defend herself. "I never said—"
Daniel knew where this was going. "I'm not talking about the wording." Daniel growled. He stepped forward and Hades shrank back. "I thought you were different. You're a monster. Hades."
"'Different' and 'a monster' are not mutually exclusive." Her words were rough in her throat. He'd hurt her. And he did not care. "What did you think I was?" She asked. "What does 'different' mean to you?"
"You…" He was at a loss. He threw out the first word that came. "Feel. You connect to others." And the Jack Daniels burned in his throat once more. Just like that first night. "You connected to me."
"We shared an experience." She dismissed.
"Yes." He breathed out, smiling despite himself. "Love." He took a few breathes to gather his thoughts. Pants more like, which stuck out sharply in the silence of the cock pit. "You love, Hades. Goa'uld don't do that. They aren't capable of it, but you… you are." His tongue flicked over his lips. "That makes you better."
Hades met him face on. He remembered a time when he found companionship in that gaze. It was still there, but crumbling before the press of the utterly alien. "These things coexist, Daniel." She eased into the pilots chair and nudged the copilot's out for him. He took it. "Just because I feel doesn't mean I am not capable of unspeakable cruelty." Her fingers laced and pressed. Her hands were always the beginning of her speech. "The thing I did. I did it for love." Her mouth distorted. She looked to the window. She preferred to look at the image of loss rather than at him. "So which is worse?" She heaved, turning her body, at least, back to him. "Productive empires in the hands of sadistic tyrants? Or absolute and total destruction in the name of love?" She bared her teeth. Grinning or fighting, he was not sure. "I don't know. It's an interesting question. Tyranny or anarchy?"
"There's no hope for any of you, is there?"
Hades shook her head.
He curled his fingers into hers. "You'll be gone soon. All of you." It was the only comfort he could offer, and the only comfort she deserved.
"That we will." She flashed that manic grin that had so confounded him when first they met. "Seems like every time I talk to you you're gunning for my death."
"I am."
They sat in silence. Stretching the end of their friendship as they had once stretched their understanding of each other.
It fell apart. "Is she there?" Hades blurted.
Daniel did not answer. He faded from that plane of existence, still holding Hades' hand.
The world and characters depicted in this story belong to Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin, Jonathan Glassner, Brad Wright, and the Sci-Fi Channel. No profit is made off their use herein.
Great thanks to NewmoonSunrise for bringing to my attention the compatibility issues of my formatting. You are a heaven send, madam or sir.