disclaimer: I own nothing

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who read chapter one! Long note with an update at the bottom, please read. This chapter was not beta'd.

Thanks to dpdp and Pattie (guest reviewer) for their kind words.

Enjoy!

All acknowledged her as a mother. But she did not care much for that title, except for the power and respect it gave her.

She was a goddess.

She was meant to be worshipped and followed. Meant to be honored. Meant to rule.

Ruling was something that was taken away from her, after a time. She had been forced to make an alliance she had not been particularly interested in. Though it had given her power and respect and dominance and that, above all, was what she wanted.

She deserved to be worshipped and adored. Being a mother, furthering her race, gave her even more of that. She spawned many. Her many ruled and respected her, ever loyal to the one that spawned them. As they should. She was the reason that they existed and they should never forget that. That they owed her. She was the reason they had power and she deserved a fraction of that power returned to her. It was only right.

The humans, ridiculous, feeble things that they were, adored her. She stood as their queen and she portrayed herself as kind and benevolent, granting fertility and happiness. Ruling through fear, as her king-husband-father did was one way. It incited much more dissent and rebellion than was truly necessary. Why inspire those things when, with some simple wishes granted, the nish'ta snaked into their simple minds made them love and adore you?

They practically handed her power for those things. She became even more adored as the mother of all pharaohs. That suited her, though otherwise, mother was a title for weak, simpering women who whelped child after child for their human husbands. And she was not a weak woman. She was not human.

Her children were pharaohs. Gods. Goddesses. They were above other children.

She flaunted her power, her influence. Took human men who were more than happy to adore her without the influence her nish'ta, the kind only she could produce. She didn't strictly need to keep bringing them to bed to continue aquiring the code of life for their species. She did need it for each new spawning, because she was inside a host, but she did it for pleasure. What use were humans if they couldn't bring her pleasure like she gave them?

The humans viewed her as the woman from which their kings descended. She was above a queen. She was their goddess. She made certain that the humans never forgot it. She was more beloved even than her king-father-husband and that brought her immense pleasure. The humans believed she brought them pleasure, so why not take some for herself?

Her spawnings, while somewhat rare, were glorious things. The Jaffa attended her. Her Lo'tar -a selection, for her pleasure- were on hand. Her attendants. Even the king would be on hand. It gave her power over him that he had taken away from her. She reveled in it. But she knew how to keep those emotions beneath the surface.

Once the spawnings were complete, the larva would be taken away. She held no emotions for them, not truly. Not until they were mature and could pay their dues to her. Only one truly rose high enough for her to feel pride. To hold it over the others of her kind. Not only was she a goddess of the planet they ruled, she had borne another ruler as well. One that rose above many of them, though that did bring enemies.

But enemies were only gained when there was a threat. Enemies were a sign of her power. The power of her children.

She would have been content -happy, perhaps if, happy were an emotion regularly felt by her kind- to not have been a queen. The rarest of her species. She was revered, honored, given tribute for that status. That pleased her. But had she not been among the rarest, she would have maintained her dominion. Her planet. Her own power, not having it likened to that of her king-father-husband.

By being a queen, she had been stripped of her own power. The power that she had built and fought for. It had been stripped from her because she was the rarest and most revered among their kind. Supposedly.

The humans filled the gaps that were left after that. They helped her cultivate what power was left to her. Honored her, strangely, for the same reason she had lost her independance among her species. It amused her. It angered her. So she bided her time and allowed them to worship her. Flaunted their greater love for her in the faces of the others, who were unable to do anything about it without inciting her wrath. The wrath of her children.

Children were followers. An army. Those who were required to remember what she had done for them. With each spawning and in the years following, as the larva matured, she gained more power. More soldiers. Only one rose as high as she had, but one was enough. The ranks of those below them were seeded with her children. With those who had no choice but to be loyal and obey.

That was something she enjoyed immensely.

With each new generation of humans, with each one she 'blessed' she reaffirmed her importance to them. She was the mother of their pharaohs. She was their connection to the divine. To their gods. She had blessed them as their goddess.

Children. Mother. Both words afforded their own power. And, to Hathor, that was more important than anything else.

Author's Note: Hathor was a mother too! Weird to think about. And also potentially Egeria's daughter. But I wanted to show the different between Hathor and Egeria with the first two chapters, especially since I'm going in chronological order with these women.

I purposefully left the names out in the previous chapter and this one until the bottom, because they were Goa'uld. But I find it an interesting way to write. Should I keep doing that for the following chapters or write normally for the humans? Answers are appreciated in the reviews.

Also, a note on Bird Cage! The crashed computer is being fixed! (Finally!) The drawback is the two fanfictions I had on there were 'fragmented' and they are in the process of being put back together. If all goes well, I should be able to begin posting again sometime soon, but in the meantime, I'm focusing on 'Our Mutual Destruction', 'Bleeding Through the Blue', and 'Come Now, Little One...'.

As always, any and all reviews and questions are welcome at any time! Please review!