Hello everyone, I had this ready for... well, since the last chapter came out, but since it will be a busy couple of months for me, I preferred to just wait a bit, write the next chapter and all. But it's been more than a week and well, since it was already ready I said to myself 'screw this, I'll post the chapter' and here it is.

So it's a bit of an info dump at times, but it's kind of voluntary. If there was one thing I did not like in the original version of this fic, that was Voider's habit of having Lilith pull technology, resources and more importantly crafting stations out of nowhere. You're not able to create a super armor exoskeleton which can 'remember' martial arts with your bare hands. You need tools to forge and craft the delicate energy pathways, you need to create a powerful energy source, you need to engrave the processing crystals. And all of that can be easily noticed by Bastet since you have to go through her underlings to get said tools.

So I'm going really slow for the moment with new technologies, things will pick up a lot more once Lilith get her own planet away from prying eyes.

Now, I thank all of you who read this story, added it to your favorites and/or follow it. And I double thank those who added a comment too!

Yup, talking to you : iitrnr, thunder18, Fan01, karthik9, nachtdemon, OMAC001 and Phoenixbat. Thanks guys.

iitrnr, thunder18, Fan01, karthik9 : Thanks, I'll try to keep updating somewhat regularly but I'm busy as hell at the moment so it may be a little slower.

nachtdemon : Thanks. It will share a lot of things with the original, but there will be a lot more added too, and I want to be very thorough with what I write. I hate plot holes so I'll endeavor to try and avoid those.

Phoenixbat : Well, yeah, she does. It may seem a bit irrational right now, but the Tokra helped with the revolt of the Tau'ri and well, she's taking Iltani's defection real hard. And it's all the Tok'ra's fault. Yay!

OMAC001 : Thanks. I answered you in PM but for everyone else, it's the Ohnes, not Unas, the blue aliens we see in the 'Fire and Water' episode in season one. I'll try to stay as canon as possible (except when I warn you about it beforehand)

So, talking about it, I want your opinion on something. At first when I started to write about it, I had no real plans for the moment where the timeline will reach canon. But now I've thought about it quite abit and I was thinking of using one of the 'canon' Alternate universes to be the one where Lilith is based on. I was thinking on the one without Daniel Jackson on the team, the first one we see just before Apophis' attack of Earth. I just don't want an Earth that does like in the Stargate shows : has all the luck, never suffer any great defeat and ends up with every non human ally/enemy dead or neutered.

It's all very hypothetical for now, and we have quite a while to wait until we reach this point, but I wanted to ask you about your opinion, so don't hesitate.

Oh, and my beta is still MIA, so if someone wants to take the role, don't hesitate to ask. This probably will explain all the little mistakes that may lay around here and there.

So now that I got this out, enjoy!

2993 BC, Lilith's domain, Bubastis.

As I woke up after, I thought about all that I had to do. It was be a very long day that awaited me. I sighed, trying to cut off Maya's amusement over my situation and headed toward Kyra's quarters. I had an inkling that she was not in the best of conditions on this fine morning. The files I had on the Jaffa may not have been exhaustive, because I had not that much time to collect all the necessary data, but it was enough information to make her uncomfortable, especially hers. Having pointed your possible lack of loyalty by the very Goa'uld who hired you was a pretty daunting situation.

And indeed, when I entered the room I had given her, I saw her turn toward me and flinch, dread fully visible on her face. I kept my own expression neutral and move to stand a meter in front of her, simply looking at her and staying silent. I knew it wasn't nice to play with her fears like that but I felt it was necessary. I didn't have to wait for long though, after a couple dozen of seconds she broke the silence.

"Are… Are you going to kill me Goddess?"

I raised an eyebrow at that, knowing very well that she had doubts that we Goa'uld were gods. It was strange for her to be that respectful when I could just be about to kill her. Maybe she simply didn't want to die. It was of no consequence.

"I am fully aware of your views Kyra, and I told you already how you could call me in private yesterday."

She seemed shocked and completely lost after that comment of mine. I was correcting her for something like that and at the same time I had ignored her question.

"I do not understand Go… er, my Lady."

I let a small smile appear on my lips at that and nodded.

"Of course you do not." I moved to sit on a chair not too far from her. "Contrarily of what you may think, no, I am not here to kill you. I have chosen you to become my first prime for a reason after all."

She blinked, her body losing some of the tension she was under.

"I… I am grateful, but why? You know what I think." She turned to look toward the computer. "There wasn't a lot of details, but there was enough for anyone else to kill me."

I sighed and nodded curtly.

"Of course, and if it was any other Goa'uld but myself, you may be already dead by this time. I think that most would have killed you in your village in front of everybody to teach them a lesson in loyalty and obedience. But I did not. Do you know why?"

She made to shake her head in denial before stopping with a pensive look on her face.

"Because I do not blindly obey the Gods? Are you Tok'ra my Lady?"

A good conclusion with the information she had, but totally wrong as it was. I couldn't help the anger that was bubbling inside me though. It must have shown on my face because I could see her fear at the face I was making. I growled through my teeth.

"Never call me a Tok'ra. I'll personally slaughter any of those backstabbing scumbag I'll find." I closed my eyes and breathed deeply to recover my calm. In a matter of seconds, I was in control of myself again. "Sorry about that, it's a bit of a sore point for me. But yes, your lack of a blind obedience is one of the reasons why I chose you. Fact is, most of the Jaffa are simply minions. Don't take it personally, it's not an insult, simply how you were brought up. Blindly obeying orders of your gods in fear of being killed. I have no need of a minion as my first prime. I need someone able to think, someone intelligent enough to be able to disapprove of some of my plans and propose a better alternative. That's where you come in. I do not know who or what gave you the idea of us not being gods, but you took that information and kept it, believing it above what you were taught all your life." I looked at her in the eyes and smiled tightly. "And you are right. We are no gods."

She let out a gasp at that, maybe at having her theory confirmed or maybe because I was admitting it myself, despite being a goddess.

"I don't understand, why telling me that? I mean, do you not fear that I could turn traitor?"

I raised an eyebrow at her, my expression slightly disbelieving.

"I think you are far too intelligent to try and turn traitor on me. You know what would happen in that case. And to be honest, why would you? I am giving you a post of responsibility, one in which you will have a voice to convey your opinion. I believe myself a fair leader and I think you, and the other Jaffa I will choose as my army, may thrive under my rule. By telling you the truth, I show you some trust and at the same time remove one way the Tok'ra can turn you against me. If you tell the other Goa'uld what I just told you, and we will get executed. I did not choose you because you were a traitor Kyra, I chose you because you were intelligent and a potential asset for my future domain."

She was shocked by what I said and I could see her embarrassment at my praise. I knew she was thinking about her choices and she sighed before answering.

"I am grateful my Lady, and I trust you. May you be as cruel a leader as the other Goa'uld, I will try my luck elsewhere though."

I grinned when I heard those words. I knew I made the right choice with her, she did not hesitate to tell what she was feeling. That's what I wanted for a first prime.

"Then I guess I have nothing to fear." I turned serious a few seconds later and gestured toward the computer. "Let's talk about your choices for my Jaffa first, and then we'll take care of your formal introduction as my first prime."

She nodded hesitantly and turned toward the computer, slowly bringing up several Jaffa profiles.

"You told me you had the right to have a hundred Jaffa, me included, so I thought about having two divisions. Ten would be your guards, myself and nine others, and we could have ninety regular fighters. Here are the ten I thought were the best for your personal guard."

I looked at the Jaffas, taking in their strengths and weaknesses, accepting several and refusing some. They were all good warriors and all of them were female, which was a bit surprising, but some didn't have the mindset that I wanted for my personal guard.

"I agree with some of these, but there are others that I cannot accept. I want my personal guard to be able to act without my direct order for my interests. Strength and skill can be taught, but personal initiative is something that a soldier either has or simply hasn't." I stopped myself for a second before looking toward Kyra with a smile on my face. "And all female? Are you trying to emulate Lady Bastet's guard?"

She seemed to blush a little at that, much to my amusement.

"Well, she is the only one to use female as guards and soldiers, so I thought why shouldn't we try to recruit them too? They are an untapped and valuable resource."

I nodded with a smile.

"Exactly, I agree with you on that point. Too many Goa'uld ignore such a massive portion of the Jaffa population. Not that I do not understand them, with their reckless use of the Jaffa warriors, there is a need for a great number of women to help maintain the population. But some of these women are more at ease on the battlefield than at home, and those are the ones I want as my troops." I then stood up and smiled toward Kyra. "I'll let you a couple of hours to choose the nine Jaffa that will serve as my guard… or, well, replacements for the four that did not suit my purpose in your original choice. I will be busy during this time so don't bother to look for me."

She bowed and I nodded back, making my exit. I had some equipment to buy.

To say it was a profitable endeavor was a mistake. Oh, I managed to buy some basic equipment to forge the naqahdah, create the naqahdah-iron alloy I would use for the armors and weapons and engrave crystals of various sizes, but it could only be the very basics of any laboratory, and it cost me nearly a fourth of a ton of naqahdah. It did seem like a lot, and in a sense it was, but with the equipment I bought and the naqahdah I had left, I had enough to create the weapons of my Jaffa and maybe even improve on them. There would be a problem for the armor though, a hundred armors to make was a huge expenditure of naqahdah, one that I could not make blindly. I had also bought a set of Jaffa armor, a ma'tok staff and a Zat'nik'tel. Those would get useful for me to experiment on.

I sighed and entered my house silently, thinking about the future. There was only so much that I could do with the resources that I had. Maybe I should even reconsider getting all of the one hundred Jaffa that were allotted to me and simply get half. That would definitely be easier to handle from a logistical point of view. I risked to weaken myself though, so I had to take it into consideration.

I was broken out of my reverie by the sight of Kyra pointing her weapon toward me. I was taken by an irrational surge of rage before I saw her relax and bow toward me.

"My excuses my Lady, I thought it was someone else."

I understood where she came from, but that didn't mean I was totally rational about it. And from my overwhelming anger, I knew I wasn't over Iltani's betrayal. My tone was cold when I answered.

"I understand, but that doesn't mean that I accept it. Do not point your weapon toward me ever again. I will not be as nice as I am right now."

I sighed and forced myself to relax, being helped in this by Maya who sensed my emotions go haywire. She seemed to understand that I was not really happy right now so she simply bowed once again.

"Of course my Lady, it won't happen again."

I nodded before sighing and sitting next to the computer on her desk.

"Let's forget about this little incident, do you have your recommendations for the guard?"

She nearly immediately switched to a more professional stance, which made me smile despite myself. She was good at what she did.

"Yes my Lady, here are the replacements for the four who did not suit your purposes. I especially took into consideration their independence and tactical thinking."

And indeed for three of the four new profiles, all the information provided was in accordance with my desires. It was the fourth that made me frown. There was no indication of anything like that in the profile itself. I looked toward Kyra.

"You know her?"

It was the only thing that made sense, she was obviously competent enough, so there must be a good reason this particular Jaffa was chosen. And indeed she nodded.

"Yes my Lady. Her profile was… incomplete, I worked with her in the village and she suits your purposes, I can assure you."

I looked at her for several seconds before nodding. I let her make that choice, so I had to trust her at least a little, loathe as I was to trust again. I would keep an eye on her friend though, just in case.

"So be it, if you say she is good, I will trust your judgment. We will get the nine of them tomorrow. Now though, I will ask your opinion about our situation."

And with that, I started to explain to her our resources, the number of Jaffa that I was allotted and the logistical problems that I feared to encounter. She immediately agreed that I could not, with a little less than 750 kg of naqahdah, make weapons and armors for a hundred Jaffa. She had seen a full Jaffa armor before, as did I, and we both agreed that it was clearly impossible. With the weapons to create two, we both agreed on fifty Jaffas at first, with a full set of armor and a weapon, and then we would see what was left.

I thanked her for her work and ideas and told her to train as she was used to. I then decided to go to my workshop to think of a way I could improve the standard weapon and armor of the Goa'uld. While they were impressive, it was the only advantage they had. The staff weapon was slow and lacked precision at long range, the Zat'nik'tel while more efficient was far more costly in resources, and the standard Jaffa armor was good to fight and scare primitives, but against modern weapons, even relatively weak ones like the staff weapon, it was hopelessly outmatched.

If I even wanted for my small amount of Jaffa to be competitive, I would need to make improvements. And fast.

It had been a long day. I had worked from the very moment I entered my workshop, making plans of the traditional Jaffa armor and the ma'tok staff weapon. My first priority while working on the weapon was to think of what I could do to improve it. The range and power of the weapon were good but the precision was not that good and the rate of fire was simply crippling. Those were the first points I should improve. A second part is that the blast itself is fairly large, which meant a huge penetration power in the center and far less on the sides of the blast. That was a problem in that the power in the center was great enough to kill the victim, so anything else was useless, and even worse, a waste of energy and time to charge the weapon.

I was orienting myself toward a smaller plasma weapon, with blasts of energy emitted in an increased cadency. The cadency was easier. The power would be continuously transmitted to the muzzle of the weapon and as soon as enough energy was collected to form a small pellet of plasma, it would be projected and another would take its place. With the charge rate of the current weapons, I could easily achieve a rate of fire of two or three blasts a second. Not a lot, but still a huge improvement from the blast every two or three seconds of the standard staffs. I was pretty confident I could create the weapon pretty easily in the future.

I had to wait half an hour to get all the equipment that I had bought, and I used both the armor and the ma'tok staff immediately, putting the armor around a wooden mannequin and firing on it from close range with the staff. The result was immediate, the armor was destroyed on the point of impact and the wooden target underneath was transpierced by the bolt of hot plasma. Hell, even the other side of the armor was damaged, not fully destroyed but it had become red hot. The interesting thing though, was that the blast had been diffused by the armor, the heat spreading to a far greater surface than simply the point of impact. It was somewhat normal, with naqahdah being an excellent energy conductor, and it would be useful to improve the armor. The greatest problem with the current armor was that the diffusive factor of the naqahdah was not sufficient to fully evacuate the heat from the blast before the armor melted. To make a new armor I would need to superpose different materials, one heat resistant next to one heat conducting and so on. The heat from the initial impact would be spread to an important surface, and then decreased by going through the heat resistant material. Then another weave of naqahdah armor underneath would spread whatever remained of the initial blast and a second layer of heat resistant armor would fully protect the body. The armor was quite heavy despite the very thin layers of naqahdah since I was forced to use weapons grade naqahdah to build them, and they wouldn't be efficient against repetitive assaults, but the Jaffa would be able to survive a couple of hits in the same place or a bit more if it was in different places. More than that and they risked to be cooked in their own armor.

I just had to find what material I could use with the naqahdah, and that was pretty easy with my genetic memory. There were several that could be used. A kind of expensive but comfortable fabric and a specially treated leather, far cheaper could be used. I was pretty sure that my Jaffa would prefer the fabric, but I just didn't have the funds for the moment, so they would do with the leather. I personally liked my comfort and the cost for one suit of armor was not prohibitive so I would use the fabric. Each armor would have to be custom made for each Jaffa, so I couldn't determine how much of the leather I would have to buy, but I could make a bulk order to start with.

After a word to Kyra, I was once again off toward the quartermaster of the palace. I knew he would have enough to make my armor and even Kyra's. I had time for the others.

It had been three days since I started to work on the armors and weapons, and Kyra and I had agreed to delay our recruitment of the troops until it was complete. I had received the materials to create the armor and I had bought enough crystals to complete the weapons, leaving me with a little less than six hundred kilograms of naqahdah to craft the weapons and armors, more than enough to complete everything.

I had made several tests with the new armor design and I was pretty pleased with its resilience. Oh, it was far from being the perfect armor, but with its two micrometric chainmail weaves of naqahdah, two layers of leather and enough naqahdah plates to protect the joints from any concussive damage from the blasts, it was the best armor I could make. It was a little on the heavy side, totaling twenty five kilograms for a full armor, but with their enhanced strength, the Jaffa would have no problem moving in it. It was still lighter than the traditional armor.

I had reconsidered making myself some armor, at first, knowing that I could add relatively easily a shield on my kara'kesh, but I also knew that some prudence couldn't hurt me. My personal armor was a red and grey armor, mixing a heavier naqahdah chainmail weave and a red fabric. I too had naqahdah plates protecting my joints but the principal use of my armor would be to repel primitive weapons and not ma'tok blasts. When I have the time and resources to do so, I would try to create a full purpose armor for myself and my troops, but it was years or even decades in the future.

The weapons itself was a frank success. Oh, I had to redesign it several times, to improve the stability and precision, but except for that, it went perfectly. The final draft was a forearm-length grey weapon, with two grips, one close to the muzzle of the weapon and another next to the trigger itself, and a butt added to rest against the shoulder for more stability and precision. Contrarily to the usual Goa'uld design, I chose to use a weapon that could be disassembled in multiple parts to facilitate maintenance. On the middle is the naqahdah cell that powers the plasma bolts and on top of it, a visor has been added and properly calibrated to increase the precision of the weapon itself. It was not a weapon of intimidation but a weapon of war, and it was what I wanted.

The weapon itself introduced several problems. First was that I had no way to bind it to my Jaffa, which meant they could be taken from them. The second was their power, since even my new armor, which was resistant to the traditional ma'tok weapon, lasted only four seconds when targeted. The last one and most important one was the huge impact that they would have on my Jaffas close range ability. All their youth, they were taught to fight using staff weapons. Now I would introduce a new weapon, one that was more efficient, but also totally different. That entirely changed the way a fight could go, and they would have to train themselves from the ground up to adapt.

One last thing that annoyed me was the lack of helmets. That was something that bothered me because it was obvious that the head was a huge weak spot. The problem was that I had no way to make a proper helmet that wouldn't hinder them with my current resources and time constraint. So I had to do without for the moment, like every regular Jaffa.

When I presented the weapons and armors to Kyra, she seemed dubitative at first. They didn't look that impressive after all. Then I showed her the increased performance of the weapon and the additional protection from the armor and there was no complaint anymore. If anything she seemed nearly giddy to get to work with them. And coming from a Jaffa, that was saying something.

As much as I hated that, I had a promise to fulfill. It was why before recruiting the rest of my guard, I was waiting for Lady Bastet to become ready to receive me. Were it a much more discreet piece of technology, I would have thought a bit more before giving it to her, but since all my troops would get the new armor and weapon, I couldn't avoid her scrutiny and decided to simply give her what I created. It wasn't as if I revolutionized Goa'uld technology, I just did a bit of thinking to improve what already existed.

It was soon that I was accepted in Bastet's opulent throne room, where she was comfortably sitting, attended by her servants. As she saw me enter with a crate, I could see an amused smile appear on her lips and she dismissed them, before standing up.

"Ah, Lilith, I didn't expect you to come and see me so soon after our last meeting."

I nodded at her words and smiled slightly myself.

"As much as I like being here in your company my Lady, it was not something I planned either. My last few days were much more productive that I expected them to be and I am here to fulfil our agreement."

She smiled slightly, seemingly amused by my words.

"You have a silver tongue as always Lilith, but please, let's not waste both our precious time and show me what you have created."

I nodded and opened the crate.

"You see my Lady, I was… displeased by both the armor and weapon of our Jaffa. They were substandard at best, more suited to intimidate and defend against primitives than against our fellow Goa'ulds' armies. So I made to change that as much as I could with my limited resources. My first work was this weapon." I picked up and handed Bastet the new plasma rifle. "The ma'tok staff weapon had two glaring problems. A lack of precision and a poor rate of fire. So I made this weapon. It fire between two and three plasma bolts per second, with a great precision up to one hundred meters. The bolts themselves are less powerful than a classical staff weapon, but the increased rate of fire and precision more than make up for it."

She got up and told me to follow her with the crate holding the armor, and we soon found ourselves into a training room with half a dozen Jaffa training inside. The women, since Bastet's troops are all women like I planned to do, bowed toward their Goddess and moved to the side, letting her access to all the targets. After a few seconds, she placed the weapon correctly against her shoulder and shot at the targets. It was not perfect at first, but she adapted quickly and soon did not miss the targets anymore. A pleased smile was on her lips as she turned toward me, and I couldn't help to smile myself at both her expression and the awe of the Jaffa surrounding us.

"I am very pleased with your work Lilith, this weapon is impressive. How does it fare against…"

She looked at me and I nodded, knowing what she meant. Immediately, she turned the weapon against me and shot me, the plasma bolts crashing harmlessly on the shield I produced from my kara'kesh.

"As you can see my Lady, despite its increased potency it is still far from enough to harm us."

She nodded, once again smiling and held onto the weapon as she looked at me.

"Very well, what about the armor?"

I nodded and brought out the several pieces of armor, and quickly donned them, earning myself a curious glance from Bastet.

"As you can see, the armor seems to be made exclusively from naqahdah. It is false. The problem is that with a single naqahdah armor, ma'tok blasts transpierce the armor without trouble at short range. So I experimented and decided to use a composite armor, using both a microscopic naqahdah weave and a heat resistant leather. The results talk from themselves." Once I was fully donning the armor, I nodded toward one of the Jaffa. "Come here and shoot me with a ma'tok staff. Point blank, don't hesitate."

The woman was greatly surprised and looked toward Bastet in askance, our Lady simply nodding to authorize her to do it. She took the staff weapon and activated it before approaching me. The staff muzzle rested against my stomach for a couple of seconds before she fires, sending me tumbling backwards from the concussive force.

This was no surprise for me, I knew that the concussive impact of the plasma on the armor would be a bitch, but I did not experience it before and I was left lying on the floor for a second before I shakily stood up.

"As you can see, there is no damage from the blast itself. Well, the armor is damaged…" And indeed, all could see the red hot armor with a hole inside, the burnt leather underneath and even a second layer of naqahdah. "… but there is no damage to me at all, from a point blank shot. Well, the concussive force of the weapon was not stopped by the armor, but it was not the goal. Such a tumble is child's play to recover from for Jaffa and at a distance the impact can easily be resisted."

Bastet nodded once again, easily seeing my point. This would be a revolution for our troops, and I knew she could see her troops winning in situations they couldn't before thanks to these improvements.

"You did a very good job with those Lilith, and I trust you to be intelligent enough to know that these upgrades must stay between us." I rolled my eyes with a smile, showing her that I was at least intelligent enough not to waste such an opportunity. "Were it not for your… ambition, I would probably name you my chief researcher after this. You show great promise, and it will be my pleasure to reward you for those gifts you gave me. You will receive another ton of naqahdah in a couple of days. That should be enough to equip all of the troops you were granted and not simply a fraction of them."

I widened my eyes at that and chuckled softly. So she knew what she was doing when she gave me too little naqahdah to equip all my troops. The more I was near her, the more I respected her and disliked the thought of having her as my enemy. She had a great mind and clearly was more cunning than the average Goa'uld.

"I thank you my Lady, it will greatly help me and my future troops."

She nodded and smiled once again.

"From your choice of a first prime, should I expect you to follow my example?"

There was no need of saying more, I understood where she was going.

"Yes my Lady, I will indeed choose female Jaffa as my troops."

She nodded and put back the rifle in the crate, waiting for me to remove the armor, before leaving. She had me deposit the crate into one of her laboratories and, after a small discussion with the Goa'uld there, we went back to her throne room.

"I will be honest with you Lilith, as much as I approve of you taking an all-female army, I cannot give you more than the hundred that I have gifted to you. You will have to take your troops elsewhere in the future."

I knew that. One hundred females was not a lot and the local population of Jaffa would survive me taking them, but with both Bastet and I taking females from the villages, if I started to have an army counting in the thousands, it would quickly be a far too heavy toll for the population to endure.

"Of course my Lady, I understand. I will try to look into alternatives should I wish to expand my army in the future."

She nodded and called her servants to her once again. Knowing that I had been dismissed, I bowed to her and left the palace a smile on my lips. It had been a productive day.

I was now in front of the nine remaining members of my future guard. There were silent, used to be observed. The first was Eerie, Kyra's acquaintance. She seemed like a solid woman, with a good head on her shoulders at first glance, but in the end it didn't really matter what she looked like. I would know soon enough during the training.

The next two were twins. Zyr'na and Zar'na were their names. They were not the best in this group in independent thinking but they more than made up for it with their skills, strength and reflexes. Two strong warriors who were not simply minions, I could not pass them up.

The next one was named Mila. She was shorter, and looked frailer than the others but she was crafty and a good markswoman, even with the ma'tok staffs. With my new weapons, she sure would be a force to reckon with.

Next to her was Ayla. Big, strong dark skinned woman. Good strategist, very decent fighter.

Standing next to her was Eili'ac. It was a bit strange to see her here among Jaffa, she was visibly shy and nervous, but from what I gathered she possessed an uncanny ability to make good plans on the fly and an extremely good tactical mind, so I wanted her as my subordinate. Her simply being a mother at home would be a waste.

Then there was Nymia, the fastest Jaffa in all my guard. She wasn't very strong, nor was she a tactician. But she had the best base speed, reflexes and survival skills of all her village, and so she was here.

The penultimate one was named Erena. She was more of a healer in her village, but she knew how to fight and how to think on her feet. This mix of abilities would prove excellent for the future.

The last Jaffa was a woman named Ryala. What differentiated her from the rest was her mind. She was intelligent and despite the Goa'uld way of trying to keep the Jaffa to a weak technological level, I could see a lot of me in her. Trying to stunt her development would be a waste so I took her as my guard.

I glanced at the nine of them, Kyra standing next to me, before I started to talk.

"You probably know why you are her, so I won't insist too much on it. I am Lilith, and the nine of you, or ten if you consider my first prime Kyra, have been chosen to become my personal guard. I know you would probably expect to see more Jaffa in here, but it isn't what I am planning to do. I will train you all, all ten of you, so you can be up to my standards. I will teach you tactics, strategy, how to use what you would call the magic of the Gods. You will be my hands when I am not here, fully capable to complete any mission I assign to you. The training will be long, and, I can assure you, you will hate me at times. But I do not have a lot of Jaffa, I will only have a hundred at first. So you will have to become the best. I will personally make sure that you are the best. If you have any reservation, this is the last time to quit. I will not tolerate any quitter afterward, nor will I tolerate traitors."

I stopped here and looked toward them all, waiting for any reaction. The first to move was Ryala, who steeled her face and moved forward.

"My Goddess, when you said 'what you would call the magic of the Gods', does that mean that it isn't magic and that we can learn it?"

There was a gasp in the Jaffa and I could see on their faces that they expected me to kill her on the spot and painfully. I simply chuckled and crossed my arms.

"I knew I didn't make a mistake in choosing you. You are right and wrong at the same time. Yes, it is no magic, and you can use most of it, and no, some of the technology needs some naqahdah in your blood that you do not have to activate." I looked toward all of them. "I said too much to let anyone go now. I will be honest with you. What I will teach you can get both you and I killed by the other Goa'uld, and our names erased of history. But I think it is worth the risk. I will not leave you to die. You are my troops, my guard. You will obey me, and I will protect you, I will give you the best tools I have, and will teach you all you need to know to be the best. All I ask of you is your loyalty and obedience to reasonable orders."

There was a sort of uneasy silence before they started to whisper to each other. Then Ayla started to talk.

"From what you told us, you and the other Goa'uld are no Gods, so why should we be loyal to you?"

I nodded at that, surprising them.

"Indeed we aren't. It was a ruse from some of my race to dominate our servants. But I do not believe it is the best. I do not believe in lying to you. Why should you be loyal to me? Well, right now you should not, you have no proof it would be a good thing. I just ask you to trust me, to give me some time to prove to you that I am a leader worth following." I started to pace in front of them. "I will do my best to protect you from the other Goa'ulds but I am not all powerful, and some of you may die. I freely admit it. But I will do my best, I promise you and I will show you."

They looked at each other and nodded. I grinned toward them as I talked once again.

"Perfect then. And when I said that I want you to be the best, I mean it. Kyra, take Ayla and bring the crate here. Let them see their new toys."

She grinned and nodded, signing Ayla to follow her.

It had been three months since I got all ten members of my guard. They had been very appreciative of their new equipment and had quickly adapted to it. The relatively lighter armor and much more efficient weapon did not pose many problems, except the glaring one that I foresaw, the close combat no longer adapted to their situation. After some discussions and a return to their village to get some information about new close quarter combat options, they told me of another, far less used since it necessitated no weapon at all. It was a martial art relying of high velocity kicks and constant acrobatic movements that was called Mastaba.

An ancient warrior of the village was the only one who knew it, and I was so taken by it that I asked him if he could move to the compound to both teach my troops and let me make records of the training sessions so I could train future troops should something happen to him in the future. The training was of course all but complete after three month, but I had recorded all that the man knew after a single month and thus his help wasn't needed anymore. I paid him generously for his help and let him come back to the village. I trained with my Jaffa, showing to them that I wasn't one to simply watch them training, that I was willing to train with them too. My increased strength and regeneration rate as a Goa'uld greatly increased my learning rate and I was soon able to spar with my Jaffa without risking a humiliating defeat. Not that I sparred with them before that point. I wasn't arrogant, but I wasn't about to let my troops beat me into the ground. Bad for morale that. I still conceded a few defeats here and there, and that made me more human, closer to them.

I also managed to determine the level of naqahdah necessary in the blood to use the healing device of the Goa'uld, and created a week long treatment that would give my troops this level of naqahdah. It was lower than the level of naqahdah I and the other Goa'uld presented in our blood so it would be exceedingly difficult to sense the naqahdah in them. I made a test and only managed to sense it with my cheek pressed against Kyra's torso. She was adorably red and flustered after this and I couldn't help but tease her ever since.

I also started to give my guard some basic notions about Goa'uld technology and explained the use of the computers and some other devices. Only Ryala was interested in a more scientific approach and agreed to become my lab assistant, much to Maya's annoyance. Apparently, my dear host thought that I was replacing her. Which was wrong of course. I needed her and her ideas, but another head and more importantly another pair of hands couldn't do anything but help me in my endeavors.

I was still limited in the number of things I could try to research and the proximity of Bastet's palace and the spies she and her lieutenants had, so I made sure those… special trainings and research was done in a secure room underground. Having nothing to improve with the level of technology at my disposition, I turned myself once again toward ship design, finding Ryala a most enthusiastic and motivated assistant.

All in all, everything was going well.

Thanks for reading and please don't hesitate to leave me constructive criticism, reviews and all that you want that isn't outright flaming.

Ttfn!