Chapter 40

Kebechet walked the main hallway back towards the entrance of the city when she was disturbed by a cold prescence. Stopping abruptly she turned to see Morgan standing behind her.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm carrying out the plan, what does it look like?"

"This is not what I planned."

"Who said it was yours?"

Morgan's eyes widenend with astonishment.

"Don't act so shocked. You tried to kill me! What did you think I would, just follow along?"

"I assumed you would be able would understand that my way is the best for all involved."

"Well you assumed incorrectly now, didn't you?"

"What do you plan to gain by all of this?"

"I plan to disable the security barriers that shut the device down at the thirty minute window."

Morgan stood thunderstuck, "You cannot be serious?" You will kill him!"

"No, I won't. I know what really happens after thirty minutes. What did Daniel call it -- a heart attack -- sufficient lie. It gave even Daniel pause."

"If he goes past the thirty minute window -- he'll become a monster."

"Accoring to whom? You?"

"I have seen what happens once a being breaches the barrier. It is ... horrifying."

"The ignorant tend to fear what they do not understand. You're kind did not even try with The Others, did you? You just tossed them aside like you did with my ancestors. It is ironic how both situations have come to bite you back, isn't it?"

"So this is your idea of revenge?"

"Not revenge, accountibility. Your kind never takes responsibility for your own mistakes and it is others who must suffer for it. If you hadn't been so stuck in your logical ways and dealt with the Ori when you had the chance, none of us would be at this moment. Instead, you wait until there is a problem and then you try to fix it in your own half assed ways. The Thirteen were people, living beings whom you sold out as lab experiments in order to find someone else powerful enough to fix the Ori problem because you obiviously weren't going to. Daniel and Aja were innocents. Just as Gaia and my ancestors whom you tortured and slaughtered because they were so primative you deemed them as inferior. Victims of your carelessness. It is clear that nothing short of universe altering is going to change that about you. So thats what I plan to do."

"You have no idea what Daniel is capable of. Oma didn't either. When she realized it, convinced him to descend. She sent him back as human and the most important, no access to the knowledge he gained as an Ascended. If he gains access to those memories he will be just as much a threat as Anubis was."

"Father was only a threat because you deemed him so. Oma's attempt to deascend him upon learning that he was a Goa'uld fractured him mentally. He was left listless and broken, unable to do anything but sit and watch as his family was systematically destroyed. His soul along with it. I refuse to let you do that to Daniel. If he is destined to become an awakened mind, so be it."

"Not like this! No being should awaken to enlightenment in such a way!"

"Why, because its not they way you wanted it to be? That is the problem with the Ascended. It is either your way or no way."

"This way is cruel."

"This way gives him a choice. If Daniel is to become the Prophet then he should do so on his own terms. Not the way you want him to come by it. Puts him in control, not you."

"He won't be able to control it! You are dooming us!"

"And by us you mean the Ascended. If Daniel becomes the Prophet and he does so by his own terms, you will be unable to control him. And, if as it is written, he will lead us all to the Great Path, Where does that leave you? As it stands you're kind are the hierarchy when it comes to Ascension but if Daniel opens doors to enlightenment for all beings, then that hierarchy disappears."

"You need to stop and think about what you are doing."

"I have. It is as Daniel put it, either you will adapt or evolution will find you unecessary and be rid of you. It is that simple."

"I will stop you."

Kebechet grinned, "I would like to see you try."

Morgan lifted her hands to her sides, her face stalwart and unfeeling, she raised them up to strike. But nothing happened. Kebechet could only laugh.

"You see that loophole that existed for my Father regarding the rules of the Ascended, kinda apply with me as well. Which means that still being human, albeit a power and enlightened human, you are powerless to lay a finger on me. That protection, sadly, doesn't go both ways."

Kebechet threw up her arm before her and the hall was engulfed with a bright light. Morgan tried to scream but her breath came out only in gasps. She struggled to move. To fight back against the ebbing pain the radiated down her body. As the realization his her that for the first time in longer than she could remember what pain was, there was an explosion in her chest. A loud and hard thumping filled her ears and it only took her seconds to realize what was happening. She was being forced to descend. She was becoming mortal. Her eyes widened in terror as she felt the blood rushing thru her veins, as her heart beat painfully. This shouldn't be possible. Not even the collective power of The Others could force another being to descend. She tried to speak, tried to ask but found she did not have the breath. She knew then, she was being more than descended. Morgan looked to Kebechet and watched agonizingly as her iris turned a bright orange. Similar colored vein-like tendrils began to bleed into her pupil as the pain in her chest grew unbearable. She breathed deeply just once more and then the nothingness of death took her. Kebechet watched as Morgan's body fell to the floor with a large thud. Lowering her hand to her side she allowed her own heart and breathing to return to normal and her eyes to their normal color. Once she had felt sufficently recovered she walked over to the corpse, kicking it gently with her foot as if to ensure she was dead.

"Trust me when I say I know what I am doing," she said looking up at the cieling as if speaking to unknown forces. "Do not make me have to do this again."

Kebechet stood momentarily waiting for any reaction to her words. When none came she turned and walked quietly back down the hall.