Okay, that took a little longer than expected...sorry people, school has started, but I'll do my best to keep updates coming as quickly as possible. :) So anyway, enjoy this chapter, which, thank goodness, is longer, and please review and let me know what ya think! Thanks!

Chapter 10

The stars rushed by the viewport in their hyper speed bluish/purple haze as Tomin stared at them. It was the same sight that had greeted him at any window for the past five years. Often he simply sat in the main control room, watching silently.

Instead of holding his staff or laying on the ground beside the only chair in the room-the command chair-he had eventually found in therapeutic to hold it vertically beside his seat in midair with his mind, keeping it in the position it would be in if he were standing and holding it. The action helped him to focus, to keep his mind away from certain thought lines….one of which had recently shown up unannounced on his ship to slap him full in the face.

The Ori Prior winced involuntarily and pushed the thoughts from his mind again, even though he knew she was coming, was keeping an eye on her by way of the monitors surrounding him as she made her way to the room he occupied. He shouldn't be thinking of her…at least not the way he'd once thought of her. Not anymore. Tomin knew he should be focused only on achieving the goal the gods had sent him to accomplish. If he let himself be sidetracked they would become angry with him, and might not grant him ascension at his death.

He had to be careful. Thank goodness, at least, that Vala wasn't making any detours on the way here. If she tried it, he would have to stop her, and he didn't want to hurt her….at least not yet.

An almost physical pang of regret in his chest made him suck in a sharp breath. His orders regarding Vala…No. He couldn't go there. Not yet. But he knew what the Ori had told him to do, and knew he couldn't risk not doing it--all of it. Even if he vehemently didn't like some of the smaller details.

Yes, he would do what he had been ordered. He would complete the smaller task given to him to complete before carrying out the final mission. He wouldn't like it--not at all. But he could not disobey the will of the Ori.

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Vala stopped just outside the door to the control room, hesitating. She wasn't really sure that she wanted to go, and if she did she wasn't sure what she was going to say.

Taking a deep breath, she stepped through the doorway. She'd thought that, with his prior's senses, he would be aware of her presence even before she'd come in, as he had the first time, but Tomin didn't even turn, and seemed to be lost in thought as she slowly crossed to the middle of the room to stand beside his chair. His staff floated upright in the air on the other side of it, but when she called his name it clattered to the floor and he looked in her direction in surprise.

He blinked. "Sorry," he said simply, looking ahead again.

So he could be easily distracted. That was good to know; they could use that.

Vala took a deep breath and forced a smile. "Well, you know, you are about to destroy yourself and, billions of other people and thousands of other planets. I'd be nervous too."

He looked at her again and frowned. "Vala…" He sighed heavily. "I don't know what else to tell you. You know I can't disobey the Ori. I don't have a choice."

"Yes you do. You wouldn't listen to me back there. Please, Tomin, just hear me out."

The prior's lips pressed into a thin line, but he nodded. "Fine. As long as you know it won't help you any."

"Whatever," she said in mild annoyance. "As long as you listen…" Vala gulped and continued. "Tomin, you really do have a choice. You don't have to do this; the Ori are gone. They have been for years. They sent you because they knew we were going to destroy them. They knew we'd found Merlin's weapon."

"The sangraal is only a myth. Nothing can destroy the Ori."

"Yes, something can! And something did. Why else would they have sent you?"

"They chose to do it this way. Who am I to question the gods?"

"You're whoever you want to be," Vala stressed. "You don't have to follow them anymore. They're not around to punish you if you don't do what they told you to do. And not only did they never help their followers ascend, but they certainly can't help you if they're all dead."

"I can't take that chance, Vala," Tomin said quietly.

"Why not? You can stop this ship. You can forget about this and come back to earth with us. You'll be safe there," she said desperately.

"The people of your world would never accept me."

Vala blinked, sudden hope sparking that maybe he was seeing the possibility of what she was saying.

"Well…most of them don't know life on other planets exists yet. They wouldn't even know. And those that do know would accept you. The Tau'ri have an uncanny ability to welcome just about anyone. I should know. I was something of an enemy myself at the beginning…"

"It doesn't matter," Tomin interrupted her. He frowned again. "If you're only here to feed me more lies, then I suggest you leave."

"Tomin, I'm not lying!"

He had looked away from her again, and his shoulders tensed when she yelled, but he didn't answer. Sighing, she made her to the other side of the chair and perched on the arm rest, sliding her arm around his shoulders.

"Tomin, please don't throw me out yet-"

"Stop!" he yelped, standing quickly and backing away from her. "Don't. I know what you're doing. I know now that the months you spent in our village you weren't yourself. You were trying to blend in and you did it well. But now I know that wasn't the real you. I know you're really like--like that. Don't; it won't work." His face was set now, determined not to yield to her, not to back down in any way.

"I can't be distracted from my task. I can't let old relationships sway my decision. Only the will of the Ori matters."

Vala swallowed hard. "Tomin…"

"No, Vala. Just go."

She sighed. Then it was over. He wasn't going to listen to her. But she couldn't give up! There had to be something she could do….

And without thinking, Vala quickly bent down, snatched his staff from the floor, and bolted for the door.

"Stop!" she heard him call behind her. But she kept going. She was at the door. She just had to outrun him, maybe…

But no, apparently he could still use his telekinetic abilities at close range without the staff, and something grabbed her and flung her to the ground, sending the staff skittering from her hands across the floor toward the prior. She cried out when she landed wrong, her left ankle twisting painfully.

Grasping the injured joint as she grimaced in pain, Vala quickly looked up with Tomin called her name.

"You shouldn't have done that," he said angrily, retrieving his staff. And as he straightened, one of the larger screens behind him activated to show Daniel and her friends, still gathered around the same door in the room that was their prison.

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"So, the radios still aren't working either?" Mitchell asked, trying his again.

Sam shook her head. "'Fraid not. He must be blocking them somehow to keep us from raising the Odyssey."

"Great," Jack groaned. "I don't guess you're having any more luck with the door, are you?"

"Sorry, Jack," she sighed.

Daniel was staring out into the corridor from where he still leaned against the wall beside the door, not paying much attention to the others.

"Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asked in concern.

Daniel looked up, blinking. "Huh?"

The jaffa offered his friend his version of a comforting smile to ease his distraction. "Vala is a formidable woman, Daniel. She will be fine."

Daniel started to return a smile, but stopped and turned to the other side of the room when a sound from one of the screen caught everyone's attention. One of the monitors flickered to life, the words "You shouldn't have done that" drifting in their direction.

Daniel paled. "Oh no," he gulped, when he saw Tomin standing over Vala, staff clutched tightly in his hands. Vala was holding one ankle, a pained look on her face as she looked up at him.

"What's goin' on, Daniel?" Jack asked.

But Jackson wasn't listening. He'd stumbled away from the wall towards the screen, eyes wide. Oh please, don't let him hurt her. He hadn't thought he would, though from the way she clutched at her ankle, it seemed the silent plea was already too late.

"T-Tomin--" Vala stammered weakly, at a loss.

"No, Vala! You turned on me again! I can't let it go unpunished." And with the last sentence, the staff began to glow.

"No!" Daniel shouted, on the chance they were on the screen there, that the connection went both ways. Vala looked at him. Their eyes locked. So it did, then. "Don't hurt her!" he begged.

Tomin turned, glaring at him. "I don't plan to hurt her."

Daniel barely had time to register what the prior meant, and to hear his friends gasp behind him in time with his wife's protest, before the same invisible iron grip closed around his chest again.

Daniel gasped as pain seared through his ribs from the already broken one, and it brought him to his knees. The squeezing sensation continued, left him gasping for air even though it only made the pain worse. Faintly he heard running footsteps behind him, felt gentle arms wrap around him, pull him close.

"Hold on, Daniel," Sam's worried voice said close to his ear. And in the background, through the haze of pain, he heard Vala shouting.

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"Daniel!" Vala shouted again, tears gathering in her eyes, watching helplessly as he curled into Sam's arms, shuddering in pain. "Tomin, stop! Don't do this again!"

But the prior's face only became more firmly set in stone. "I won't kill him."

The staff suddenly glowed brighter, and on the screen Daniel shouted.

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Daniel cried out as the pressure increased.

"What is he doing to him!" Jack yelled in frustration.

Sam O'Neill, however, was only concerned with holding her friend, offering what comfort she could, and she was looking at the screen, anger in her eyes. "Stop it!" she pleaded.

"Darn it, leave him alone!" Mitchell added.

But Tomin didn't respond, and Daniel only shouted louder, gripping the fabric of her jacket tightly. The squeezing force was pulling in on a smaller area, and he could feel two more of his ribs cracking.

"No!" Vala cried tearfully from the control room.

That was when Daniel screamed. Sam paled when she felt something inside him give way under her arms.

The staff stopped glowing blue. A muted sob from Vala was the only sound besides Daniel's moans as he slumped weakly back against Sam. And then the screen went blank.

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Tomin kept his back to her, and ignored Vala's protest when the screen went black again.

"Go," he said firmly, and the tone of his voice left no room for discussion.

Swallowing hard, Vala took hold of the wall and pulled herself to her feet. Once upright she wiped the tears from her eyes, and glanced in Tomin's direction again. But all she could see of him was the back of his head; he was sitting in his chair again, ostensibly staring at the stars. She inwardly debated saying something to him before leaving, but quickly decided against it. He had hurt Daniel again, and she was too upset to talk to him at the moment.

Without a word, Vala limped from the room, gulping back the new tears that were trying to form in her throat.

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Jack O'Neill threw a dirty look at the inert screen and crouched next to his friend. "Daniel? You okay?"

The archaeologist moaned again, but finally opened his eyes. "Do I have to answer?" he asked, his pained voice barely a whisper.

Jack winced. "Guess not."

"Daniel," Sam began worriedly. "Something-"

"Broke," he finished for her. "Yeah, I know-two of them," he announced weakly, grimacing as he gently folding arm around his chest.

Mitchell frowned. "That son of a-"

"Cool it, Cam," Jack ordered tiredly.

"-Goa'uld?" the colonel finished.

Daniel managed to smile. "That works too."

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He'd done it again, Tomin thought in despair after Vala had left with saying anything to him. He'd hurt her, and he regretted the pain in her eyes as Daniel Jackson shouted even though he didn't regret the action of harming Daniel in itself. On the contrary, he still hated the man that had stolen Vala from him.

But that didn't change the fact that he had acted rashly, angered that Vala had turned on him again in trying to get his staff away from him. If she had succeeded, the Tau'ri would have had an advantage, and that point was not lost on him.

But what truly saddened was that, in taking that kind of action again, he had most likely abolished any hopes of getting her to talk to him again. When he'd seen her on the ship for the first time, the hope that somehow there could be some sort of reconciliation between them before they died had taken root, but now he had killed the sprout before it had had much chance to grow. There was no hope of it anymore, and Tomin could only blame himself.