Chapter 25

"You're alive," Aja replied in a voice that was so weak it was heartbreaking. "She kept her promise."

"Who kept her promise?"

"Qetesh," she replied as she ran her fingers thru his dark hair. "She promised me if I went with her willingly, she would spare your life."

"Willingly for what?"

Netan soon regretted his words. The look that came upon Aja's face could only be described as wild. She practically jumped off of his lap and onto the floor of the Al'kesh.

"Stay away from me!" she screamed as she back away from Netan so fast, he thought such a thing was not possible.

Netan looked at his wife in confusion, "Aleajandra, its me."

"You're dead! You're not real. She didn't keep her promise to me!"

Netan watched helplessly as Aja grabbed the side of her head looking as if she was in utter pain. However, any attempts of his to reach her, only caused her to pull back even more.

"She won't get out of my head! She won't leave me alone!"

"Who? Kebechet?"

"Not Kebechet. She protects me," Aja said in a half sob.

"Protects you from who?"

"The child of fire is coming and the son of water will awaken. Boom. Boom. The universe will bleed. I can see it all. Why do I have to see it?!"

Aja squeezed shut her eyes as if trying to protect herself from the horrible images in her head. Netan could take this suffering no more.

"Kebechet!"

Within seconds her eyes flew open and a sickly orange glow signaled that the Goa'uld was back in control.

"I hope you understand now why I must remain in control."

Netan wiped the tears from his eyes, "What was she talking about? Who was in her head?"

"No one," Kebechet replied guardedly as she lifted herself off of the floor. "Just the ramblings of her broken mind. She is lucid sometimes, until something triggers her and she goes off like she did. What you saw though is tame to some of the battles that go on in our mind on a daily basis."

Netan was overwhelmed with disgust.

"She shouldn't have to live like this!"

"No, she shouldn't. No one should. Do you think I like to hear her suffer? To hear her cries in my head everyday and know I can do nothing to stop them?"

"Then why do you allow her to live? To suffer like this?"

"I cannot believe you would say such a thing?"

"As much as it breaks my heart, I would rather see her dead than to know she continually suffers like this."

Kebechet slapped Netan so hard that it threw him across the room, causing him to slam hard into a nearby bulkhead. Immediately he stood up and reached for his gun. Closing her eyes Kebechet focused on Netan. Within seconds the gun flew from his hand and into her own. Netan could only stare at her in brazen wonderment. Kebechet was about to reply to his amazement when a strange sound caught her attention. She closed her eyes to focus on its source and was saddened when she figured it out. She looked at Netan, tears catching in her eyes.

"That's why you went looking for her, isn't it?" she asked as she threw the gun down and walked toward Netan. "After so many years?"

Netan did not respond.

"You see before my time in my ice prison, I began to develop strange abilities. I can move things with my mind. I have an acute awareness of people and things around me. Which is why I knew that it wasn't really Ba'al that stood before us. When I was entombed they lay dormant, but always on. I know what happened to my father and my mother. I know about the destruction of the Goa'uld and the coming of the Ori. When you ringed to planet, I couldn't sense you. You were too guarded. I guess speaking to Aja brought down your defenses, so when I took the gun from your hand . . . I could hear it. Sickly. Irregular."

Netan again said nothing as he took his seat at the head of the console.

"So I closed my eyes and I concentrated. Found that it was coming from you. From your heart."

"I got it from my mother," Netan said trying to keep back his emotions. "She died when she was around my age. I don't really remember alot about her, I was so young. She was fine, she never seemed that sick. Then one day she seemed so tired. She spent so much time in bed. When she wasn't in bed it looked as if it took all of her strength to stand. I wasn't there when she died. All the An Tal's told me was she passed away and was at peace. It wasn't until years later did I overhear my step-parents talking about her. How her poor heart just gave out on her and that it was genetic. Which would explain why they always had a doctor hovering about me when I was there. But I never got sick. Showed any sign of illness and then all of a sudden feeling as if there was this weight on my chest. After a few minutes it went away but it began happening more and more, only this time, I was awake. I traveled to a nearby merchant planet and the doctors there confirmed what I already feared. So I put aside all of my other plans and focused on finding my wife. If the rumors were true, I had to see her, to be with her, when I . . ."

"Died?"

"Yes."

"You are not going to die."

"I would rather die than be healed by anything touched by the Goa'uld."

"I am not talking about the Sarcophagus. What if there was another way?"

"What other way could there be?"

"There is a ship that is going to be passing thru our orbit soon. We must be on it."

"Why?"

"I was less than honest before when I said Aja's ramble meant nothing. She can see things, things that have yet to happen. She cannot control it and its an ability unique to only her. I cannot see what she sees, but when she is lucid, she tells me. There is a being coming: part-Human, part-Goa'uld with the powers of an Ascended being. Because this being is human, the Ascended Ancients will do nothing to harm them. This being, the Child of Fire, will reign destruction over the universe and we will be powerless to stop it. Aja has said, however, that there is hope. Another being, she calls him the Son of Water, is the only one in the universe with the power to stop the Child of Fire. The Son of Water lies in secret, unaware of what he is until the time comes for him to awaken. She has said that we are the ones who will awaken him. The Son of Water will be on the ship that is passing by here. It is on its way to an Ancient base known as Atlantis. It is there we must go."

"Why do we need to go to Atlantis?"

"Atlantis is where Aja said it happen."

"What would happen?"

"Our Ascension," she said non-chalantly as she set turned the ship auto distress beacon.