Title: Reversal
Author: Sentra Aquila
Paring: Six/Gaius
Spoilers: Major spoiler for 2x10 "Pegasus"
Summary: "Kind words, he will provide, to guide his Eurydice from the depths of hell."
Gaius has never felt pity. Not truly. Not until now.
A replica of the woman he loves, no the woman, he loves, lies beaten, battered, and broken on a glacial floor. Tethered to a chain like a common dog, she withdraws into a trance like a priestess in a state of delusion. But there is no chamalla, no incense, no divinity that she is conjuring.
God has abandoned his most worthy vessel, his former temple now lays in ruins.
He takes in her tattered appearance, emaciated and starved. The curves that once fit perfectly with his body have been reduced to protruding bones. The creamy complexion that he's explored with his fingertips has been desecrated with bruises and gashes. The eyes which formerly reflected unwavering love and devotion have surrendered to hopelessness and despair.
Her mind is her only refuge now that they've claimed her body. And even that has been branded with their insolence, their arrogance, their hatred.
Can she hear? Can she understand? Can she think?
Or has her subconscious offered her solace as if she were some homeless beggar whose found a generous Samaritan to shelter her from the horrors of the night? If so, why would she want to return.
He wants to believe that this is not his constant companion. The lover and confidant he's come to treasure since the end of the worlds. The woman he knows is strong and proud. She would never be reduced to a pile of catatonic waste.
Yet, she looks the same.
Will she smell the same after a shower and anointed with perfume? Will she taste like delectable Caprican berries? Will she exhale one of her condescending laughs at his disbelief in God? Will she remember his faults, of which she absolutely adores?
He recalls their excursion to Tauron last September where they basked under the suns. Or their first act of intimacy where they christened his office desk and begun an illicit affair?
Does she recollect this?
Does she remember the spot of his neck that reddens in anticipation of her touch?
Best yet, does she know he exist?
No, he rather not contemplate this possibility. For his sake and hers. For now, he imagines that she can hear the sweetness tinged with sorrow in his voice. Kind words, he will provide, to guide his Eurydice from the depths of hell.
The time will come for her to rejoin the living and assume her place as goddess.
He will worship her like an compliant acolyte. He will be a historian to their story. He will pick up the gauntlet and sword to be her knight. He will be her angel of mercy as she was once his.
During a time when her race is hated, he's never loved her more.
"There was a woman I once knew... "