Things to know before reading:
"This is a human or a host human talking"
"This is a symbiote talking through their host. The Goa'uld voice, if you will."
This is a human thinking, or talking mentally to the symbiote they are blended with.
And this is the symbiote mentally conversing with their human host.
Have fun, and let me know what you think.
Harry had gotten used to life in the Tok'ra tunnels. Tucked up in his little laboratory the sounds of the occasional passer-by and soft conversations provided the backing track to his work. Only twice before had the sounds heightened in speed and volume, as the Goa'uld found them and the tunnels needed to be evacuated and dismantled. So when Harry started hearing running outside? His first impulse was to pack first and ask questions later.
"What's going on?" Once the packing was underway he flagged down one of the passing Tok'ra. The excitement on his face took Goa'uld approach off the table.
"It is the Queen! She has been found, Queen Egeria has been found!" Harry could almost imagine him jumping for joy, if the stoic Tok'ra were ones for such things. The man disappeared around the corner, and Harry followed behind.
He followed a growing number of Tok'ra to the main council chamber, where it looked like every Tok'ra member not currently out in the field had gathered. Grand Council Garshaw and Supreme High Councillor Per'sus were trying to calm down the jubilant masses. Harry was about to enter himself when a strong hand gripped his arm and yanked him away. Harry found himself following Malek with bemused amusement.
"Malek. What can I do for you?"
"You have potions to heal us, yes?" In an abrupt about-turn from the other Tok'ra Malek was scared, desperate. This immediately raised Harry's hackles.
"Yes, absolutely. I have them all here, actually." A side effect of Harry's now-unneeded packing. Once the veil had spat Harry out on an alien world and the Tok'ra had taken Harry in (only once they believed he was no spy, which took a while) he had started adapting the potions he knew to the Tok'ra physiology as a thank you. He hadn't managed to do it for all potions, but the few healing potions he had managed worked just as well on the Tok'ra as they do on him.
"Excellent. Come with me." And the two were running through the tunnels, in the opposite direction to everyone else.
"This planet is called Pangar." Malek explained as they exited the Chappa'ai and continued their run. "They had found an imprisoned queen symbiote and, believing her to be Goa'uld, used her and her children to develop a drug that would allow them perfect health for as long as they took it. But in this past day we have been told she is Egeria, our mother. The Pangarans' work has weakened her considerably though, and she is dying." Oh crap. That would explain Malek's fear, and why he dragged Harry into a deserted side tunnel before asking for his help. And it would also explain the running. They reached civilisation, and Harry and Malek startled several scientists during their sprint through the bastard lovechild of a hospital and a factory. Finally Harry was able to take a breath when they reached a sizable tank of liquid, but the breath turned into a choked gasp when he saw the queen inside.
"Fuck." Harry kept swearing as he dug around the various pouches on his person. "What is the chemical composition of this liquid?" He barked at a hovering scientist, and she immediately began to rattle off several names with a stammer. Harry had to ask for clarification a few times, it was unreasonable to think that a different world might share the same chemical names as Earth English when the language development was completely different, but eventually he was reassured that the liquid would not react badly with the potions he had. He added three drops of the strongest healing potion he had, along with two drops of an invigoration draught. He and Malek, and Kelmaa who joined them shortly after they arrived, monitored the health of the queen as the potions spread through the tank.
"Her health improves, but not by much. It will not be enough." At Kelmaa's assessment Harry added more of the potions, giving Egeria a higher dose. He wanted to start off small and be able to increase the dosage, rather than start off too high and kill her with kindness. He dreaded to think what the Tok'ra would think of him then!
"What has been done to her?" He asked the Tok'ra carefully, eying the large sac that Egeria carried. He hadn't even thought to modify any pregnancy aids, those potions were unnecessary among the Tok'ra. But symbiotes probably had different nutrient requirements for pregnancy than humans, so normal potions were out. Which was annoying. Harry could alter potions, sure. It was even somewhat easy once he understood the relationship between ingredients, stirring and temperature that Snape never bothered to teach. But creating potions from scratch was too difficult for Harry to attempt right now.
"For little under three decades the Pangarans have been using Egeria's children to create a drug named Tretonin." Kelmaa went into detail about the benefits and flaws of the drug, how it was created and what SG-1 had initially contacted the Tok'ra for. Once Kelmaa was finished Harry thought over the potions he had, but there was no poison or wounds to treat, just exhaustion and general body failure. The Tok'ra queen had had a hard thirty years. So the generalised healing potion and the invigoration draught were the only things that could help.
By this point Egeria was starting to move deliberately rather than the listing drifting she'd been doing beforehand, although it wasn't for long or very far. But she was examining Harry, Kelmaa and Malek as much as they were examining her. This careful observation continued in near-silence, the three quietly updating the others when needed, Harry adding more drops of potions as appropriate until Harry eventually stepped away.
"This is as much as I dare give her right now. In three hours I'll be able to give her more." Kelmaa looked down at her instruments and released a nervous, defeated breath.
"She is still weak. We are losing her."
Harry walked around the tank and placed a reassuring hand on her arm. "We will do everything in our power to save her. We won't lose her, I promise." Kelmaa gave him a small, grateful smile and nodded.
"If you have no further need of this room, please leave." Malek gave the Pangaran soldier the darkest glower Harry had ever seen the Tok'ra give. "We will escort you back her in three hours, but this is still a high-security area. We can't allow you to remain." All three of the Tok'ra, Harry included, levelled the man with their fiercest glares.
"We need to stay, in case the queen's health deteriorates! We can't leave."
"Indeed, she requires constant monitoring." Kelmaa's next comment was interrupted by the appearance of Major Carter, of SG-1. Harry hadn't realised they were involved, but it made sense of how the Tok'ra got involved in the first place.
"The Pangarans are asking to keep Egeria," she murmured quietly. Malek's face became a stony mask of anger, and he was out of the room before Harry even saw him move. Kelmaa and Harry hurried after him, and the guard took advantage and shut the laboratory door behind them. He gave them an ineffectual glare.
"Three hours." Harry and Kelmaa gave each other exasperated and angry looks, but they followed after Malek. In his haste he had disappeared, Major Carter hurrying after him, so when Kelmaa and Harry turned the corner they were met with nothing but empty corridor.
Harry leant against the wall and took a deep breath, letting it out in a long exhale. Kelmaa paced a short path in front of him.
"If we lose Egeria, we lose the Tok'ra's hope for a future."
"I know. But we're not there yet. We will keep fighting for her." For both her life and her freedom.
"Will blending increase her chances of surviving?" Harry dismissed it straight away.
"She's too weak. The blending is intense at the best of times, I think if we tried it now we only hasten her death. I also don't think the Pangarans would allow us to call more Tok'ra here, they're distrustful of us now that Egeria's identity has been realised."
"We would not need to call anyone else. I would willing sacrifice myself to ensure Egeria's freedom." Kelmaa's voice was firm and absolute. Harry's was furious.
"That is not an option. In her current condition any attempts to blending with Egeria will mean we not only lose Egeria but you and your host as well!" Kelmaa's body language made it clear she wasn't willing to take no for an answer. But Kelmaa's suggestion had given Harry a completely insane idea.
"I'm going to need your weapon." Kelmaa looked offended. "Not because I don't trust you, not at all!" Kelmaa lost the offense but narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "You're right, giving Egeria a host will be the best way to free her from the Pangarans. But blending will kill her just as surely as leaving her here. So she needs a host who will not die." And Kelmaa's eyes widened and her mouth dropped when she realised his implications. Harry's impossible condition had been studied by the both of them, along with every scientist that the Tok'ra had. They didn't know how it worked, but it did. And it would definitely work to their advantage now.
"But Egeria needs a female body, if she is to spawn." Harry waved her words away.
"That's fine, it's covered." Kelmaa's expression implied that he was an idiot, and Harry snorted quietly. "A few hundred years ago the magical population was dwindling. Potions and rituals were used to make males able to bear children too, to help repopulation efforts. It worked, with the added effect that the ability was passed on to their children. Any wizard with a pureblood ancestor is able to bear children." Kelmaa looked torn between intrigued, stunned, and a tiny bit hopeful. Harry gave her a grin, one that felt slightly manic on his face. "So, do we have a deal?" Kelmaa matched his grin with a feral one of her own, and pulled out her zat'nik'tel.
"I'll deal with the humans. You help Egeria." Harry nodded, and the two determinedly made their way back to the laboratory. Harry spared a tiny thought for the poor soldier getting zapped, but pushed it aside as he quickly and efficiently removed the monitoring cords from Egeria's body. The queen was in good enough condition that she was able to wiggle her own way out of the breeding sac and to the top of the tank, anticipating Harry's intentions. With a respectful bow to the queen who would soon (hopefully) share his body, Harry gently lifted her free of the tank, brought her to his lips and opened wide. As a queen she was long, so much longer than the typical Goa'uld, and Harry fought to breath around the obstruction. Then there was a pain in the back of his throat, followed by a more intense pain down the length of his spine, then… almost an explosion, in his head. Distantly he felt his body, their body, hit the floor as noise filled his head, sound and images and thoughts and feelings all swirling around in their brain to the point where they no longer knew who was Harry and who was Egeria. Conversations were held in languages Harry couldn't name but could understand intimately. Egeria saw two dark-haired men, a red-haired woman and a slightly scruffy man with brown but greying hair, all of whom she could not identify but who felt like family, like home.
It seemed like forever had passed, or maybe just a few seconds, before the tumult died down and they were able to think again. Able to separate themselves into Harry, a young wizard who had lost everything and threw himself at a veil that meant death in the hopes of being reunited with the one family member left alive, and Egeria, the great queen whose rebellion spawned thousands of soldiers and millennia of opposition to the System Lords. And Harry could feel Egeria's gratitude, and her sorrow.
Your lifeforce is now linked to mine, and young Kelmaa is correct. I am dying. If Harry could laugh in his mind, he was doing it now. He locked down his magic, took it into the mental equivalent of a tight fist and then sent it careening around their bodies.
And I'm immortal. Let's see which one bears out, shall we? Harry felt the Elder Wand hum in his wrist holster, the Resurrection Stone vibrate on his finger, the Invisibility Cloak sing from its home in a pouch on his belt. Memories of the Hallows thrummed between them, to Egeria's shock and awe and unending, heartbreaking HOPE she saw scenes of the Tale of the Three Brothers, Harry's first death that didn't take, in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, then the dozens that followed as Harry shook off spells, weapons and poisons that should have killed him but that the Boy-Who-Lived survived. But others didn't. When Death Eaters attacked him in Hogsmeade, three students died just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. When multiple someones cast multiple bombardas in the middle of Diagon Alley, Harry survived but Teddy and Andromeda, the last of his family, died in the explosion. And she saw the aftermath. The distrust and fear that brewed among the general populace, how Harry couldn't go out in public without whispers of Voldemort and dark magic following him around. She saw when Hermione and Ron and the remaining Weasleys told him to stay away, either because they believed the rumours or because it was becoming too dangerous to be his friend. So he did the only logical (to him, at the time, with no friends and no way out, the papers now calling for his arrest) thing and snuck into the Ministry, through to the Department of Mysteries and fled through the archway that took Sirius from him, hoping it would give him back. But whilst Harry didn't find Sirius, he did find the Tok'ra, Egeria's family, and her pride and love for her children burst through him like a million little flowers blooming. Her sorrow and grief for Harry's past swirled with her desire for a better future for them both, for them all, and entwined with Harry's heartache at her loneliness and pain during her captivity, and her grief for her poor children lost to the Pangarans until she learnt to give the children nothing, just blank slates for the Pangarans to butcher.
And the magic of the Hallows continued to search through Harry until it found nothing left to heal, no part of him ready to die (and Egeria was part of him now, he would never be alone again she would never be alone again) and their minds finally retreated back to themselves, the memories stopped playing out in their heads, and the current situation with the Pangarans came to mind. Egeria forgave them, they didn't know, it wasn't their fault. And she learnt of the Tretonin, and she felt shame but determination too. She knew why her children struggled to find an antidote. And she knew exactly how to help. They just needed to wake up.
Which was an ordeal, in and of itself. Egeria was unused to seeing with human eyes again, and they had the most horrendous headache. Opening their eyes was difficult and slow, and the light burned, but they managed it. And the first thing they saw was Malek's concerned, eager, fearful face.
"My child," Egeria said on a breath, and Malek's face lit up with joy. They hear gasps, and someone leaves the room at a fast clip. They hear him announce that they had awakened, and more footsteps sound as many more people shuffle into their hospital room. But they only have eyes for Malek and Kelmaa, their children. Who have since dropped into reverent bows.
"Egeria, it is an honour."
"Rise, Malek, Kelmaa. You are not my servants." And the two did as bid, although reluctantly. Their desire to show respect to their queen by bowing warred with their desire not to disobey her. Egeria wished to sit up, and together they managed it shakily. Malek and Kelmaa quickly jumped forward to adjust their bed, raising the top into more of a seat than a bed. "Harry has shared his knowledge of the Tok'ra with me." Her pride was evident in every note of her voice, every wrinkle of her smile. "You are beyond my greatest hopes and dreams." And Harry got to witness two of the usually unflappable Tok'ra squirm, both looking away from them at the praise from one they so respect and adore.
Malek was the first to rally himself, waving a hand to the assembled humans in the doorway in a bid to change the subject. "These are the Tau'ri, who have allied themselves with the Tok'ra."
"I know. Come forward." The same warmth that was in her reply to Malek was also there when she addressed Major Carter. The woman slowly made her way to them. "Harry tells me you seek to help the Pangarans despite what they have done to me." Both Major Carter and the Pangaran leader cringe at her wording, but there is no recrimination in her voice. And Harry, being privy to Egeria's every thought, knows that she honestly harbours no anger towards them. He's not entirely sure he could be so calm, but his anger was shoved to the side by Egeria's benevolence.
"This has all been a terrible mistake. But not a malicious act." Egeria gave Major Carter a small, warm smile.
"Nor was mine, Major Carter." She sighed and leant back against the bed. "I passed on the flawed gene that gave the drug its weakness. You were unable to construct an antidote because of the manner in which I sabotaged my young. I did it in the hope that they would ultimately prove useless to the Pangarans. I wanted to force them to abandon their research once the drug proved untenable. Instead, they continued to make it in ever-increasing quantities."
"And now they can't live without it." Egeria acknowledged Major Carter's words with a rueful smile.
"It is not what I intended."
"Their fate is their own doing, not yours. You merely tried to free yourself the only way you could." Oh, their lovely, passionate child. Harry wasn't sure why he ever thought that the Tok'ra were emotionless. Maybe it is only through Egeria's eyes he could see past their masks? But Egeria simply gives Malek a warm, motherly smile.
"They do not deserve this end, not when it can be prevented." Malek and Kelmaa don't quite get what she's saying. It's Major Carter who has the lightbulb moment.
"You created the flaw. You can create the antidote that will save them." Hope rises on the faces of the two Pangarans in the room. Egeria nods.
"I will tell you what you need to know." The hope blooms quickly into relief at her words.
"Thank you. On behalf of our people, please, forgive us for what we have done to you. Had we known, we-" he trailed off, not sure how to continue.
"I created the Tok'ra as a means of salvation for humanity. This is the spirit of the Tok'ra." Small smiles appear on Malek's and Kelmaa's faces, and Egeria quickly gets to work. For an hour the three Tok'ra discuss how Egeria sabotaged the prim'ta, and how they could use this information to perfect the cure. Harry doesn't really listen, since once they're finished he would be able to glean from Egeria's memory and thoughts how the process works and whether it will work, so he instead turns his focus to their body. Running his magic over Egeria's length he felt a small (he didn't want to distract the queen from her very important work) burst of pride and satisfaction when he finds that her own body is completely healed, and any loss of energy that usually comes from a blending is absent. His magic has taken to Egeria, and so it appears have the Hallows. The Tok'ra will never need to fear becoming extinct, he realises with a wild glee. Their queen is now immortal, and without the use of a sarcophagus too.
Harry's triumph does in fact garner Egeria's attention but her work was done, her own triumph at what in theory is a successful cure for the Pangarans entwining with his. She learns of his satisfaction with their health, marvels over it, then decides it is time to leave. She wants to visit her children, every single one of them so strong and proud. Even the ones that are not hers but have followed her path, breaking past their own genetic memories to join the Tok'ra. Yes, she was excited.
I won't recommend breeding quite yet, Harry warned her, feeling where her thoughts were going. Your body may be healed but it still deserves a break. And the Tok'ra lack the hosts to house the adult symbiotes, or the technology to help the prim'ta mature and grow without the use of Jaffa. Egeria's warm gratitude at his concern washed over him, and she acknowledged his advice was sound.
Yes, let us meet my children, and acquaint ourselves with one other. We still have a lot to learn about each other. Then we will learn how our biology differs from what I am used to and how we can breed safely. Harry would have spluttered at her forwardness had he had control of their body. Egeria is amused, and determined to follow this course, but cautious enough to know that it cannot be done immediately. She feels like a Slytherin, cunning and sly, able to spawn an entire resistance movement under the eyes of her Lord Ra and have him be none the wiser. Yes, she knows the value of taking their time and amassing all necessary information before moving forward. Harry feels warm fondness, and isn't sure if it is his emotion towards Egeria or Egeria's towards him.
"We have determined the course of action to creating this antidote." Egeria directs her words towards the Pangarans. "We will return to the Tok'ra and prepare a prototype." The Pangarans almost fall over themselves in gratitude. SG-1 also take this as their cue to leave, and the Pangaran leader Dollen eagerly offers to escort them out. Egeria makes to stand, and is pleased at how strong her body is and how easily she is able to move. She moves in a way that is completely different to Harry, he always hunches his shoulders and makes himself as small as possible, learnt from years pretending he didn't exist at the Dursleys, but Egeria walks with a poise and confidence that Harry lacks. Once outside Egeria basked in the open spaces and the smell of grass and the feel of heat against her skin. The Pangarans lead them to the Chappa'ai, smiling friendly smiles tinged in relief.
"We should be able to manufacture the prototype soon. We will contact you when it is ready." Malek announced, motioning to Kelmaa to dial the correct address. The two are eager to re-introduce Egeria to the rest of the Tok'ra, to have their queen safely back in their midst. Harry and Egeria are fond of them and willing to indulge them, but only to an extent. If the Tok'ra think that they will stay in the tunnels where it's safe, they are sorely mistaken. Harry felt a rising sense of mischief in the old queen, and his own Marauder spirit rose in solidarity. The Tok'ra won't know what happened.
"We are grateful for your efforts," Commander Tegar said with a respectful nod, both to the Tok'ra and to SG-1. Dollen did the same.
"It is our hope that we will be able to repair any mistrust that may have developed between us so that we can pursue a long-lasting friendship between our people far into the future."
"Well said," O'Neill quipped. Harry would have smiled at the man's child-like personality, and Egeria felt his fondness and allowed the smile to arc their lips. She also agreed with the Pangaran's words. She thought of them as misbehaving, unruly toddlers, in a way. They did do bad things, but they didn't know what it was they had done, and were too young to know better. They weren't her children, her precious Tok'ra, but she felt a sense of parental duty anyway.
The Chappa'ai activated, and Malek bowed reverently to Egeria and gestured for her to precede him. With a final nod to goodbye to the assembled humans, the three Tok'ra walked through the open portal.
