"The Boy With Blue Eyes"

The underground passages are still being fortified with crystals, and glow blue-purple in the gloom. The Tok'ra have been sparse with their help but what they give the Egyptians is used wisely. He makes sure of that.

They know him by the scar he bears on his forehead, a symbol of rebellion and of slavery. The puckered, white scar-tissue shows starkly against his dark skin, and many look at him with distrust. Indeed, if he hadn't been the last leader's confidant, he wouldn't hold his position now.

As he passes they mutter, 'he was First Prime--how can we trust him?' He intends to show them that he is dedicated to their cause. Even if this leadership is not something he wishes to begin again.

There is one thing that grants him joy in his days. Among the unrest of his newfound rebellion and the distrust of his new followers he has one task he enjoys.

For one hour of the day he will sit and watch the boy. The boy with the blue eyes. The boy doesn't notice him as he sits a few feet away--the obliviousness of youth. One day he hears the boy's mother call him 'Neferankh' and thinks that the name is perfect. He calls the boy Neferankh from then on.

The boy is alive with curiosity and filled with passion. He finds joy in the smallest of things and awe in the greatest of them. He works diligently, his focus single-minded and intense. And he grows to care deeply for this boy.

Then one day as he watches, Neferankh brings home a girl. He hears the boy call her "Satah" and thinks that maybe his boy has grown. But the boy is young, and the girl still younger, and they aren't to be married for years yet. So he sits, and he watches.

Years pass, and he gains the respect and trust of his subordinates. He watches the boy with the blue eyes. He hears the plans and the pranks and the hopes and the dreams. He knows that soon they will be crushed by the heavy burden of adulthood. He knows that someone else is watching the beautiful boy.

So he is only slightly surprised when the Jaffa come to take Neferankh away from his mother, and his father, and his brothers, and his Satah. He is only slightly surprised, but he is deeply terrified.

He tells the Jaffa in the rebellion to watch him, care for him as they can. One dies, and there are two left. They watch the boy, and tell him what they see.

They tell him the boy is Meryre now, and he is the personal slave of his once-master Ra. They tell him that Neferankh is not lo'tar, and that relieves him. They tell him the night that Neferankh loses his innocence, and the night his screams are heard for the first time.

He vows again to kill Ra.

So he watches the boy through other's eyes. Learns that Neferankh is loyal to Ra…

…and time passes.

One day a Jaffa tells him that maybe, maybe Neferankh is not so loyal as he thought. Maybe he can be swayed to join their cause. Maybe he can be the valuable inside link that he has long since lost.

And the maybes are both salvation and destruction for him. He tells the Jaffa to watch the boy harder. He tells them that he wants to get in.

Ra leaves, and he seizes his chance. The Jaffa sneak him in, and he sees Neferankh. The boy is a man now, tall and lean and graceful. And he thinks that maybe this was a bad idea. But he's stuck now, so he says, "When they said Ra's hem was a pretty boy, I didn't think they meant it quite so literally."

Neferankh swings around to him, and his fate--and that of the world--is sealed.