Chapter Thirty Four

Vala's own cries echoed in her head, almost as if she could somehow detach herself from the pain she was enduring as one of the countless victims of Qetesh's crimes struck her with the goa'uld pain stick once more. This particular victim had been torturing her for hours, sometimes with the stick, other times with her fists and feet. It seemed her anger was never ending. Vala was starting to wonder if this woman's anger would be her end. She relished in the idea, squeezing her eyes shut as she silently prayed for them to never open again. She had seen the sun rise and fall countless times, and there was still no sign of anyone from Stargate Command to save her. Her hope was waning and her injuries were getting more severe by the day. She was certain that all that awaited her at this point was a slow death that had probably already begun thanks to one of her many wounds.

She forced herself to take stock of her injuries once more. A few cracked ribs, maybe a few broken. Probably a concussion. One of her eyes was swollen shut. Her left arm was broken as well as a few fingers on that arm, though thankfully she was starting to lose feeling in it. She wasn't sure that was a good sign, but she would take whatever relief she could. She didn't think she had any internal bleeding, but might after this woman was finished with her. She screamed out again as the victim placed the pain stick to her neck, the involuntary flailing accompanying her cries only serving to magnify her injuries even further before she slipped into unconsciousness.

She wasn't sure how long she was out as she opened her eyes to the blaring white light around her. She pulled herself up right and was surprised to find that it didn't hurt. Looking down to her wrists, she could see that they were no longer chained. She could also see that she was no longer in the bloodied garb of Qetesh but back in her black SGC uniform. She looked up at a womanly figure approaching, the face of her visitor shadowed from the glaring light behind her. She felt her heart skip a beat as she recognized the form of the woman with her long flowing brown hair and warm smile.

"Mother?" she practically croaked.

"I'm afraid not," the familiar voice of the Orici responded as she knelt in front of Vala. "Hello, Mother."

Vala felt her whole body stiffen at those words. It was almost a kneejerk reaction after her many encounters with Adria. But Adria was long gone, she reminded herself. There was only one way she could be really reunited with her daughter. "Am I dead?"

The young woman shook her head as she beamed with pride. "You are far too strong to give in so soon, Mother."

She lowered her head, closing her eyes as she breathed sadly. "You can stop calling me that."

Her dark brown eyes shifted down, the sting of the words and the shame of deserving them sinking in. "You prefer that I call you Vala. You still do not think of me as your daughter."

"No, Adria was my daughter." She lifted her head to the image of the child in question. "I loved her very much. More than she knew. But you aren't her. She was destroyed by Morgan Le Fey. Or is still battling her somewhere or whatever happens to ascended beings. Which means you can't be real."

Her eyes sparkled with affection as she placed a hand on her cheek. "Are you certain you understand what it is that transpired when Morgan Le Fey attacked me?"

Doubt flickered through her mind as she thought about this. Daniel had explained to her about Anubis and Oma-whatever-her-name-was. He said that they would be forever locked in an eternal battle, preventing Anubis from causing anymore harm as all he would be able to do is fight Oma. "How are you here?"

"That is not important. What is important is that I am here with you, Mother." She wrapped her arms around her, hugging her tightly around the neck. "I have missed you so very much. I could not allow you to endure all of this alone." Adria pulled back so that she could look Vala in the eye. "Or to give up, as I know you are close to doing. You must hold on, Mother."

"For what?" Vala asked with a humorless laugh, still not convinced that this wasn't just a means for her to survive this dilemma psychologically.

Adria took her mother's hand in her own, squeezing it tightly. "I will show you why you must continue to find strength, Mother."

The white light surrounding them shivered slightly and shapes began to form around them. Vala stared around in wonder as she found herself back in one of the familiar corridors of the SGC. Looking around, she knew that she was right outside one of the guest quarters. Adria gestured for her to walk inside and she obeyed. Samantha was curled up on the bed, Jack's arms wrapped around her as she cried.

"I failed her," she sobbed into his shirt.

"Shh....you're doing everything you can, Sam. We all are. We'll find her," he assured her as he rubbed his hand up and down her arm.

"But what if we're already too late?" Her reddened eyes finally looked up desperately into his. "You heard what Astrilld said, Jack. When she saved her, they had beaten her to the brink of death. It's been over a week..."

"Hey, Vala's tough. She's like a cat, nine lives and all that." He started counting on his free hand. "She must have at least a dozen left."

Samantha couldn't help but laugh through her tears. "You're right. She wouldn't give up on us."

Vala's head dropped in guilt. She had given up. How could she not? She turned as she felt her daughter's hand on her shoulder. "Where are we going now?"

"To see Dr. Jackson," Adria responded as she nodded for Vala to follow her. "He feels a great deal of guilt for what transpired on Kasina. He feels that if you had not saved him, you might still have your freedom."

She couldn't help but be concerned. "He's in really bad shape then?"

Adria gestured to the door to the right of them. "See for yourself."

Vala rounded the corner and did a double take. "What? How did we get here so fast?" She took in the scene before her, rolling her eyes. "Oh yes, Daniel looks so torn up right now. He can hardly contain himself."

She crossed her arms over her chest in a huff. The archeologist was sitting at his workstation, glasses on top of a pile of papers and his chin resting upon his hand as he snored. This was part of his routine! Work, work, work, until he finally passes out in the middle of working only to wake up and start working some more!

"I thought you said he was overwhelmed with guilt. Adria?" She spun around, noticing that her daughter was nowhere in sight now. "You know, if you're trying to rekindle this whole mother daughter relationship, you might want to start by not walking away when I am talking to you young lady!"

"Who are you talking to?" Daniel asked as he stifled a yawn. He rubbed his hands over his face and then put his glasses back on, reaching right for the empty cup of coffee next to him.

"You--you can hear me?" she asked weakly, looking around behind her.

Daniel's shoulders slumped as he realized this must just be another trick of his subconscious mind. "If I close my eyes and ask really nicely, maybe I won't anymore."

Vala was extremely wounded by this. "I thought dreams were supposed to be happy. If this is my mind's way of giving me hope to survive, I have to say it's doing a very poor job of it." She wiped at the tears drifting from her eyes. "I'd be more than happy to go, but I have no idea how I even got here, so...."

He shifted his jaw. "Wait a minute, this is my mind, not yours. You're the hallucination here."

"I am not!" she argued with a stamped foot. "I imagined you first, fair and square! Now say something inspiring like Sam did so I can move on to the next! Or at least so Adria will come back. Or something."

He folded his arms on the desk in front of him and then buried his head in between them. "My mind really is grasping at straws here."

"Why do you say that?" Jack asked from the doorway.

Vala grinned brightly, starting to believe that maybe this was all real somehow. "General O'Neill! Can you hear me too?" Her smile withered as he walked straight through her, unphased by her words or her presence.

"Oh, nothing. Just talking to myself," Daniel replied, his words muffled as his head was still buried in his arms. "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing," the general answered as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "Sam thought I should come by and check on you. And here I find you. Talking to yourself."

"Oh, believe me," Daniel humorlessly laughed, "that's not as crazy as I'm getting lately. I hear her, Jack. It's like she's right here talking to me."

"Look," Jack started gently, "you haven't really slept since Vala disappeared. You should try getting some rest."

Vala had crossed her arms over her chest as she watched the exchange before her. "Huh. If this were really a dream, Daniel would be deprived of sleep for much better reasons than work." She ran her tongue over her teeth as she thought it over. "Much more naked reasons...."

Daniel couldn't help but let out a laugh at this. "Sorry," he apologized to Jack.

"She say something funny, I take it?" he asked as he looked around the room in question, almost as if he was expecting to see her. "Now you've got me feeling like I'm being watched."

"We must go, Mother," Adria called from the door.

Vala tilted her head, her sad eyes boring into Daniel, trying to will him to look up at her. "Is any of this real?"

"No," Daniel answered.

"I didn't think so," she agreed as she backed away. She stopped just outside of the doorway, holding onto the frame.

"We're not going to find her, are we?" Daniel asked Jack as he finally pulled his head from his arms. His eyes widened as he just barely made out Vala's profile as she disappeared around the doorframe. He jumped to his feet and ran to the door, skidding to a stop as he looked around for any sign of her and falling against the doorframe in defeat when he didn't see her. "I'm really losing my mind."

Jack placed a hand on his friend's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "You just need some sleep. We'll find her, Daniel."