Hey everyone! I am massively hyper and a bit sleep deprived today! Wanna know why? All right, I'll tell you: At midnight my roommate and two of our friends journeyed out to Wal-Mart to seek out our own copies of Rent. We got to the store, asked the clerk for the location of the DVDs and watched in excitement as she opened the display. We grabbed our copies, paid for them, came back to the dorms, my roommie and I watched two special features before going to bed, and then today we've been watching the special features on the DVD and the movie itself. Well we just got done watching it and now I'm listening to my CD. So yeah...had very fun times. And Viva la vie boheme!
Muse/ViH: Shut up! I'm watching the movie!
Now that you know why and how I'm hyper, on with the story.
By the way, there are several lines in this chapter that are from the Tao Te Ching, so if you don't recognize a philosophical saying from one of the characters, it's a safe bet it's from there.
I own nothing except my new Rent DVD. Don't believe me, I have a receipt. So HA!
Dante rubbed his forehead wearily. He was sitting on the bridge of his ship. Two days had passed since the incident on the planet. Ever since then, he had been getting random headaches and pains in his body. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. He closed his eyes and stretched his back, making it pop in several places.
He opened his eyes and blinked in confusion. He was in a room in a mansion he had shared with Janet a week before the incident with Lilith. He rose to his feet and began walking around. He noticed that everything, himself included, was in a soft glow. He walked out of the room and down the stairs into the main hall.
"You're fate is in your hands," a voice said.
Dante spun around and saw a woman wearing a white business suit. She had brown wavy hair and a gold necklace hung around her neck. A pair of gold earrings hung from her ears. The woman's face had a knowing look with soft eyes that held Dante's gaze. She had a pair of white heels on her feet. Her legs were crossed as she sat in a chair in the hall.
"Who are you?" Dante asked.
"My name is Oma," she said.
Dante frowned. "Oma Desala? The one who helped Daniel Ascend?" She nodded. "Why are you here?"
"You are once again faced with a choice in your path," she said.
"Once again?"
"When your wife died, you were faced with a choice."
"There was no choice. I was depressed and traveled around," Dante said, sitting down on the stairs.
"You went to temples in Asia to find your path."
"And I meditated there. I found peace. What's the big deal?"
"You began the road to enlightenment there," Oma said.
"And you want to help me continue down that path?" he asked.
"Only you can decide the path that you wish to take."
Dante sighed. "Fair enough. What did you mean when you said my fate was in my hands?" he inquired. "Were you talking about the choice I now face?"
"If you realize the candle is fire, then the meal was cooked a long time ago."
"Riddles. The monks in the temples I stayed at did that," Dante muttered. "And they mean whatever you need them to mean." He stood back up and began pacing. He stopped in a doorway and rested his right arm against the frame. "But riddles and deep meanings they have don't help all the time." Dante blinked in surprise when a scene lit up in the dark room he was looking in.
Dante sat in the dark garden, the moon shining down on him. He was wearing ragged pants and a tattered shirt. His hair was disheveled and his eyes were rimmed red from tears. A monk was pacing around the vampire in the snow.
"Heaven and earth are not sentimental; they regard all things as dispensable," the monk said. "The sage isn't sentimental, either; he views all forms as ephemeral and transitional." Each step the monk took made a crunching sound in the snow.
"Words won't bring my family back," Dante said in a low voice.
"Nor will your grieving for them," the monk said, his hands folded in front of him. "Without going out the door, you can know the world. Without looking out the window, you can see heaven. The farther you travel, the less you know. Thus the wise person knows without traveling, understands without seeing, accomplishes without acting," the monk told him.
"Those mean nothing," Dante grumbled, rising to his feet.
"Govern a nation by following nature. Fight a war with unexpected moves. Win the world by letting go…"
"You eventually realized the truth of the monk's words, did you not?" Oma questioned him.
"Eventually," Dante confirmed. "I may have moved on with my life but I never forgot them. Just like Janet."
"Their deaths were not your fault," Oma said gently.
"I could have saved Janet," he said stubbornly. "I could have shot Lilith and saved Janet."
"The warrior is never certain of who he is killing until his victim is already dead," Oma told him.
Dante turned and looked at her. He looked down at the floor, a thought occurred in his head. He looked up at Oma, realization on his face. "With how weak I was, I could have accidentally shot Janet…"
"We can only control one thing in our lives," Oma said.
Dante looked up at her. "And what would that be?"
"Whether we are good or evil. Only you can decide if you're worthy for Ascension," she said.
"How can someone think they're worthy for Ascension? No one is without flaws, least of all me."
"To conquer others is to have power," Oma began.
"To conquer yourself is to know the Way," Dante finished, smiling faintly.
A small smile formed on Oma's face and she nodded. "You are ready for Ascension. But the choice is ultimately yours." She rose to her feet.
"You're leaving?" he asked.
"You have all you need to Ascend," she told him. "The choice is now yours." Dante watched her leave and he shut his eyes, a faint smile on his face.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself back on the bridge of the Ragnarok. A stabbing pain went through his head and he winced. A sudden chilling thought occurred to him and he ran down to the ship's small medical room. He picked up a needle and jabbed it into his vein. He withdrew some of his blood and walked over to a machine. He injected it into the computer and anxiously waited for the results.
The computer beeped and he studied the readout. His eyes widened in shock and his breathing became more shallow. He took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, calming himself down. He began running around the ship, ignoring the jabbing pains in his body that were increasing in frequency.
Vampire Chronicles Vampire Chronicles Vampire Chronicles Vampire Chronicles Vampire Chronicles Vampire Chronicles Vampire Chronicles
Sam picked at her food in the cafeteria, her appetite nonexistent. She rested her head in her left hand and finally pushed the food away. "Food that bad?" Ronon asked as he sat down across from her.
"Not that hungry," she said. She looked at him. "Look, about what happened on the planet…"
"Don't worry about it," Ronon said. "I probably would've done the same thing as you if our roles were reversed."
"Hey guys," Cameron said as the rest of the group came over. They all sat down and began eating.
"So what new experiments are Beckett and his team doing?" John asked.
"They've been analyzing some of that blood that was on Dante's shirt," Sam said. "They tested it on some different cells from humans, Wraith, and Dante's own cells."
Beckett suddenly came running into the cafeteria and didn't stop until he came to their table. "Did any of you get bitten or scratched or anything by that creature you found?" he demanded breathlessly.
"No," they all said.
"What's wrong?" Rodney asked.
"The blood from that hybrid mutates cells on a genetic level. It's like a virus I've never seen before," Beckett said.
"Oh my god…" Sam slowly said.
"What is the matter Samantha?" Teal'c asked.
"Dante…some of that thing's blood might've gotten into his mouth…"
"We need to find him right away!" Beckett said. The alarms to the city suddenly began blaring and a pit of dread grew in Sam's stomach.
She leapt to her feet and ran as fast as she could to her brother's ship, hoping against hope that Dante hadn't caused the alarm. She rounded a bend and skidded to a stop, her eyes wide with horror. A figure was crouched over a body, blood pooling around the figure and the body.
The figure had blue-gray fur all over its body, a pair of tattered black pants covering its torso and legs. It had long black talons, white hair, and a flat face. It turned to face Sam and she saw it had sharp teeth, its mouth stained with blood. If not for the pendants around the creature's neck, Sam wouldn't have recognized her brother.
"Dante?" she asked. She could faintly hear the footsteps of her friends and teammates running towards her. The creature that used to be Dante turned to face Sam and growled hungrily at her.
Dun dun duuuuuunnnnnn! Don't you hate these cliffhangers? Well, you're all just going to have to wait to see what happens next. I think (think mind you) that there'll only be two or three chapters left. Just depends on what Muse says. Until then, fare thee well and review. :Goes back to watching/listening to Rent:
