The Colony, hundred light years from Torallia, five minutes before attack.
Cavil was standing on a platform in a large room surrounded by five tanks that contained cream coloured viscous fluid with the bodies of Saul and Ellen Tigh, Galen Tyrol, Tory Foster, and Sam Anders in them. The older man had his hands behind his back while he glared at the ones he considered his parents as he recalled their appreciation and love for humanity.
Looking down at Ellen, Cavil sneered at her before he went to Saul as he retrieved his earliest memories of Ellen and Saul; the ones who used to consider him their favourite.. for a time. He remembered the stories that they told him about leaving Kobol after they arrived from another world, a world that they never mentioned because they told him that they did not want to confuse him; instead, the world they came from used to be the home of humans and machines. Ellen and her people had gone to Kobol from their world to make them see that Artificial Life was to be cherished, but they were too late. Cavil remembered listening as Ellen told him, while creating more of his models, that they then left the orbit of Kobol in their ship and followed signs left by the early Kobolians to the Colonies.
Ellen and Saul told him that by the time they arrived, the First Cylon war had already taken the lives of millions of human lives, as well as manyof the Centurions. She told Cavil the story of how the Centurions were already conducting experiments into advancing their own evolution, but were failing at every turn.
As Cavil walked over to, and looked down at Galen, he remembered Ellen continuing her story by telling him that they contacted the Centurions, and agreed to help them create humanoid Cylons and share resurrection technology with them.
"It was done to stop the war, John" Ellen told him all those years ago, "so many died, so much blood has been spilled. No more."
Cavil still bristled when he thought about the name that Ellen had given him. She created and named him after her biological father, and hated it; eventually calling himself Cavil in spite.
As Cavil walked over to Tory's tank, he remembered that her face was the first he saw when he opened his eyes after being created in a birthing tank. He was the first humanoid Cylon created by the five of them. He knew that he was the favourite; he knew that he was treasured, as Ellen would always tell him; even among his brothers and sisters. He was the one that the other Five trusted with in helping them create the other models.
But he despised them slowly; the biggest thing that he despised were the emotions that the Five had programmed into him. Back in the large room, as he looked at his 'parents' he could feel that anger growing… he hated them. Even when it was just the Five, and himself… followed by the Two's, Three's, Four's, Fives, and Sixes… he was still the favourite; but his anger towards his 'parents' grew even more.
They created more Humanoid Cylons; the emotions they programmed in him was the fuel that would eventually lead to the destruction of the Five. The first and only straw that broke him and let his emotions take over, especially jealousy, was when the Number Seven model of Humanoid Cylon was created.
The one that Ellen named Daniel.
The one who was supposed to be the last of the Humanoid Cylon models.
She had heard stories from the Centurions about Daniel Greystone, the man who created them on the Colonies. And she wanted to honour the memory of that man, so she and the others created a humanoid Cylon version of him.
Eventually Cavil grew intensely jealous of Daniel since he was emotionally favored by Ellen; Cavil believed that he was being replaced by Daniel. So in his anger, in his rage and jealousy, Cavil sabotaged the genetic code and amniotic fluid of the Daniel line, wiping out the entire line permanently. AS Cavil walked down to Anders, he remembered the look on their faces when they discovered what happened to all the Daniels, to all the Number Sevens.
Cavil remembered the anguish on their faces, he smiled internally at the anguish on Ellen's face.
"You've always known" said Cavil back in the large room as he looked at all the Five, "you've known it was me, you still created an Eighth Model anyway. Because you have this ridiculous human belief that seven children are lucky! But I wonder where you got the idea for the Eight, I'm not complaining.. her tongue technique is excellent.. but I still wonder. The children killing the parents so that they could grow… I killed all of you to become something greater than I could have been if you were all alive!"
Cavil spun around and looked at all the unconscious members of the Five as he recalled fatally injuring one of his clone bodies, and then putting it in a room to bleed to death. He remembered a number Eight finding that body and screaming for help. Cavil looked down at the Ellen lying in the tank as he recalled that he was watching from the ship's control room, it was the same ship that made up the center of the Colony, at Ellen the first one who ran into the room his bleeding body was in. He knew that Ellen would act hysterical over the loss of Cavil's body, after all he was the first. The body he was watching them with over the screen so many years ago was the very first body. Cavil knew that Ellen was sure he'd be resurrected.. but the loss of what she thought was the first body was going to be jarring. He watched the other four rush into the room before Cavil had a big grin on his face.
Cavil remembered pressing a button in the control room to close the doors, trapping the Five in that room. He then sucked out all the air and watched with bated breath as they suffocated from lack of oxygen, and then he boxed them before they could be resurrected fully. Cavil then, from the Control Room, rewrote the code of every remaining 'sibling' models, except for his own line; he corrupted their memories to remove from them the knowledge of the Final Five's identities and programmed them not to think about them at all, however they still knew that another five models existed somewhere. John was going to pretend to know no more about the Five than his 'family'. He insisted that the instructions not to seek them out came from the 'original programmers'.
Over time, he resurrected the Five one at a time but hid their original memories, instead he gave them false ones, and planted each of them among the Colonials in, what many would call, a childish effort to teach them a lesson about their foolish appreciation for humans. He had hoped that when the Cylons returned for their day of vengeance, that the resurrected Five would die. Then once they had retrieved their original memories after they resurrected, they would embrace him and tell him that he was right.. that the humans were the monsters.. and they were wrong.
That was what he wanted to hear most of all as he looked down at Ellen's body; that she and the others were wrong.
But things went off the rails once they began the attack. Cavil waited for the Five to wake up… but they never did. They survived the nuclear destruction of their homes. He then chased them across the stars to punish them.
At first, he wanted to teach his parents a lesson.
But now it was different; it was different ever since the Ori came into the picture.
His hatred for the Five's love for humanity only grew; the Ori, for all intents and purposes, were humans… humans contaminated the connection between his siblings. Cavil viewed humans as having brainwashed Cylons with hope for a new future.. especially the humans from Earth. Cavil nodded at the old model Centurions who were waiting outside the large room; he watched as they walked in.. their metallic feet thumping across the metallic floor as they walked over to him. He pointed at the one who was holding the large rifle in it's hands; the metallic being then handed the weapon to him after which the two machines were told to get out and close the door behind them. That he was not to be disturbed unless the raiders that were sent ten minutes ago returned from their mission to search the nearby planets that were found on their telescopes for human life.
Cavil waited for the door to shut before he walked off the platform and onto the lower floor. He then cocked the rifle and stood in front of Saul.
"Humans have killed us.. made us an extinct race!" shouted Cavil with hate pouring out of every word as he fired multiple shots into Saul's body before going to Anders' body, "you love humans… go frak them. I want you all to die! Die! Die!"
Cavil shot Anders, and then Tory, followed by Galen; and then when he was about to shoot Ellen's body.. he hesitated slightly before the door opened again and another copy of himself walked in and looked at the dead bodies, before he frowned at his clone.
"Now?" asked the second Cavil, "you had to do this now?"
"I was angry" said the first Cavil as he shot Ellen, and continued to fire while he was screaming profanities at the woman until his magazine was empty. He then threw the rifle on the floor, the tanks all red with blood, and the liquid falling onto the floor from the bullet holes in the sides of the tanks. He then walked out the door with his double to a basin of water which ran along the wall. He put his hands in to the clear liquid before he, and the others on the Colony received the transmitted information from the raiders that just returned minus two of their own. Cavil smiled at his double when the information sent through the ship showed that one of the four planets that the Colony had sent their raiders to were occupied by human beings.. human beings who did not belong to the Colonies since this was outside the borders of known Colonial and Cylon space.
Cavil knew that they needed to make only one jump, and he gave the order.
"Jump!"
It was a few second later that Cavil, his hand still immersed in the basin's water, smiled when nuclear fire engulfed the planet below. He smiled at all the deaths of the humans before there was a released of a massive amount of energy. Cavil ordered a jump back to their previous site once they collected a trove of information on the release of the energy, bolstered by Cylon nuclear weapons, that tore off a part of the planet.
Once the Colony jumped back to the previous coordinates, Cavil ordered that they wait for the remaining raiders to return. He knew that the Cylon jump drive could travel further than the Colonials, he knew that it was only a matter of time before they made another series of hundred light year jumps before they stopped, and then scanned space with their more advanced telescopes, and if it seemed that planets they found could support human life, then raiders would be sent to those planets to scout them. After a minute or so, the raiders would jump back all the way to the Colony with information in their databanks on information such as population numbers, and the number of cities; all so that Cavil could have his revenge on the human race.
One planet at a time.
Beta Site, 1415 hours.
Triana and Sharon were in the Mess Hall that was partially empty, the both of them sitting alone in one corner while Airmen and soldiers were taking up another three tables in various places inside the Mess Hall. The both of them were having some lunch following Sharon's medical examination; Triana picking at the gooey yellow substance on her tray, along with the brownish loaf that was smothered in white sauce, and the two slices of triangular shaped bread and sauce topped with various vegetables and meat. She looked at the food, and then at Sharon hungrily eating her own.
"Take it easy" said Triana as Sharon gave a small smile and wiped her mouth with a napkin.
"I had this when they brought me to their ship" said Sharon as she pointed at the yellow gooey pasta as she stuck her fork into it and then picked up a bite sized piece, "that wasn't that good… Lauren told me that the food here is better."
"So" said Triana as she picked at the yellow goo on her plate, "they call this mac and cheese?"
"It's good" said Sharon as she cut the loaf, "and meatloaf. Oh, and some pizza too…. I'm just hungry."
"That's good" chuckled Triana as she took a bite of her food.
Until Sharon's exam with the doctor, she had been asking Triana numerous questions about the Furlings, her version of Earth, what her life was like on that world. Soon they started talking about the people who had saved each of them; Sharon from the torture on the Pegasus, and Triana from being alone on her version on Earth. However, Sharon could still see some doubt in Triana's eyes as to the story that the Earthers had told her.
"You want to hear something weird?" asked Sharon back in the present as she leaned forward on her table, "I don't know if you've met this red haired woman, she's in one of their teams?"
"I think she's called Major Rosenberg" said Triana, "she was one of the people that talked to me about my Earth not being the real Earth; but anyway, yes… I think we are speaking of the same woman. I mean we could be, I'm sure they have many red haired women."
"Yeah, that's the one. We used to have stories on Caprica of faith healers" said Sharon nodding her head, remembering that name from when Dawn was speaking to her on the Avalon after the battle with the Pegasus, and the Ori; the day that Cain betrayed the Colonies, "I mean the Sharon Valerii who lived there before the Fall, and I have her memories after she died.. I mean I accessed her memories after she died from our shared database. Anyway, she.. I heard about faith healers who could heal the most fatal of wounds."
"That's not true" said Triana shaking her head, "we had those stories too, but those were just stories of charlatans using smoke and mirrors… maybe some mass hypnosis."
Sharon then started telling Triana of the incident at the museum when she was still on Caprica, that she had helped one of the Earthers who was badly injured after she was shot through the shoulder by one of the Centurions. She then told the surprised Triana that the red haired woman ran up to the one who was injured, Dawn, and stopped the bleeding by healing her.
"No" said a surprised Triana before she shook her head, "maybe she pressed down on the wound, I mean you did say that you were talking to the others and…"
She was healed" said Sharon nodding her head, "I'm not kidding you. I asked around here and they said that they have no clue what I'm talking about; I even asked Lauren and Dawn on the Avalon, and they said what you said.. that she stopped the bleeding using pressure and…"
"You believe this Lauren and Dawn, don't you?" asked Triana.
"Yes, but…" said Sharon shaking her head, "I saw the wound heal, Triana. I know what I saw… maybe it's a gift among these Earthers but…."
"Or maybe you saw what you wanted to see" said Triana gently as she held Sharon's hand, the woman surprised at how fast she felt comfortable with the pregnant Cylon in front of her, "Sharon, you said that you couldn't feel Lauren… you said that you were hoping that those people at the museum incident were more than what they were supposed to be. Maybe you saw her press down on the wound, and then you lost track of time since you were talking to someone else."
"But…"
"All I'm saying is that it is a possibility, Sharon" said Triana before she looked around and then back at Sharon again while leaning forward even more and whispering, "have they told you about ascended beings? These Alterra? Ancients?"
"Yes" whispered Sharon as she leaned forward slightly before looking around, and then at Triana again, "and why are we whispering."
"They can't understand us" said Triana while Sharon giggled as the latter leaned back in her chair, "forgot about that."
Before Triana could elaborate further, the door at the end of the Mess Hall opened and the commander of the base walked into the building, looked around.. and then nodded at the Cylon and the Furling before he headed towards them.
"Colonel Pratt, good afternoon" said Sharon as she nodded her head at the man.
"Miss Valerii, Miss Connors" said the Colonel while Sharon translated for Triana, telling her that the person talking to them was the commander of the base, and that he just said hello to her.
"Thank you for having me here" said Triana while Sharon translated.
The Colonel nodded his head before asking if he could take a seat with them. Once they said yes, he sat down and told Sharon that he received a report from the doctor saying that she was doing well. He then mentioned that there was a secret pool going throughout the base on what she'll be naming the baby. He told her that it'll be the first baby born in the Beta site, as the Cylon blushed. It was then that Sharon asked the Colonel if there was any way that she could talk to Helo since he landed on New Kobol, and the Colonel smiled before telling her that was one of the reasons why he was in the Mess Hall.
"General Landry approved the use of a video camera to send a quick message to the father of your baby" said Colonel Pratt while Sharon nodded her head, "the camera will be yours to use how you see fit, as long as you don't mentions some things. I'll give you a list that the General's come up with, is that understood?"
"Yes" said Sharon, "I understand."
"Triana" said the Colonel turning to the Furling while Sharon translated, "we have found the five people you were telling us about, and… well, things are a bit awkward right now. We know the Colonials aren't happy that five of their high ranking people are Cylons, and we know that the Cylons may or may not accept what we tell them about who the Five really are. But you can. This meet is taking place on a neutral planet and we'll be hosted by a people called the Orban; the planet is one of their colonies. We'll be mediating between the Cylons and the Colonials. We know that one of the Colonials will be armed, and after hearing from the Cylons; they've decided to head to this planet unarmed as a show of good faith. In case you're concerned, we'll be the ones armed completely… you'll be safe."
"I do not like this" said Triana, "they… the Cylons.. they…"
"I am just asking that you tell your story" said the Colonel while Sharon reached for Triana's hand, and then gently squeezed, "the Cylons need to know who they're descended from, and the Colonials need to see that there is a connection between them and the Cylons. That it's been that way since Kobol… since the Thirteenth Tribe, your people, left and settled on a planet you called Earth."
"Maybe it will start the process of healing, maybe it will not" said Sharon, "we have a lot of things to atone for. I will be the first to admit that, Triana. But healing has to start; the cycle of violence has to grind to a stop. Please help us?"
"I… I…" said Triana as she looked at Sharon's eyes, "very well. I'll go."
"And there is one more request" said the Colonel, "it;s about who you saw when you were talking with Major Rosenberg, Colonel Carter, and the others. We ask that you don't mention that person to the Colonials. We have no idea how they will take this given that they're still going to be absorbing all this information for many years. We leave it to you to tell Sharon about it, and the Cylon delegation after the Colonials have left."
"Who did you see?" asked Sharon.
"I was going to mention it" replied Triana, "I met Athena... she's an Ascended Ancient who told me what she did and... and one of the first things she said was that she was not a god."
"Holy" said Sharon as her eyes opened wide with surprise, "that's... wow.. and..."
It was then that Colonel Pratt coughed before Sharon and Triana looked at him, with the former asking the base commander if it was true.. that Athena was an Ascended Ancient. The Colonel had already been briefed by Colonel Carter, and Willow, on the appearance of the Ancient and the ruse that she played; which led to the Colonel nodding his head and telling Sharon that she is not to mention anything to Helo about Athena.
The Cylon nodded her head and told him that she will not tell Helo about Athena. The man then nodded at Sharon and told her that he and a translator will be going over the video tape for security reasons; something that Sharon said she understood and accepted. The man the turned to look at Triana before telling her that she would be leaving soon
"You leave in an hour, Triana" said the Colonel while Triana nodded. The Colonel then looked at Sharon and told her that someone will be coming by with a video recorder, and he'll show her how to use it so that she could record her message. He then said that the video will go along with Triana's escort after it's been looked through, before being sent to the neutral planet where it'll be handed to Dr. Burke, who will then hand it over to Helo.
"Thank you" said Sharon as the Colonel nodded his head before her got up, and told the two of them that he'll leave them to it. He then excused himself before leaving the Mess Hall, leaving a beaming Sharon who was now thinking about the messages that she could leave Helo, before turning to Triana, and asking her questions excitedly about meeting an Ascended being.
General Landry's Office, SGC, at that same time.
General Landry was reading through the reports from the recon mission at Caprica which was sent to the SGC through subspace from the Avalon while the ship was heading for her next mission, which was to conduct scans over Furling/Cylon Earth. Once the databurst was received from the Avalon, the information was passed down to General Landry, Home World, and the IOA for a decision on what to do next. As General Landry read the report, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up; he had been reading about the Colonials killing their own if they questioned Origin, he read about the missions led by Priors being sent through the Stargate to other worlds, he had even read about the three times the Colonials sent a nuclear device through the Stargate. Then he came to the parts about the Scorpion and the Pegasus, the two remaining Colonial warships under Prior Cain. He read the report that the Pegasus was not modified yet, but the Scorpion test fired its energy weapons before it lost all power.
And that was the part that worried General Landry, they already had energy weapons.. even if they were still unstable. He knew that General O'Neill would agree with his opinion when he came in tomorrow morning with the IOA representatives; that they needed to strike soon, and strike hard. They needed to take away Cain's only two weapons that kept her as a threat to the galaxy at large because of her alliance with the Ori.
Of course it didn't help that no one had any idea if Adria was still alive, or if the Ori still existed; but for the here and now, Cain was a threat.. as were the other Ori ships in the galaxy. The man then sighed while imagining the dissent from the IOA representatives, the same people who had a say in the Stargate program despite the massive increase in funding available due to the British giving the SGC half of the treasure found at the Glastonbury Tor cavern as thanks for proving the existence of Merlin, King Arthur, and Camelot.. even if they were technically an Ancient, a human from another world, and the name of a planet respectively.
The General closed the folder he was reading and closed his eyes to give them a rest. He then leaned back and thought about what the consequences would be if they really did go on the attack.
'What would the IOA say?' thought the General as he imagined the Avalon and the Excalibur getting out of hyperspace and using theirAncient energy weapons to fire at the unshielded Scorpion and the Pegasus. The question then would be if Can was on board or not.. he knew that it would have to be a hit and run attack since the other larger ships, the Odyssey had joined the Daedalus over Lantea in the Pegasus galaxy. He knew that the Odyssey had already reached the city since it was being powered by the ZPM that Willow had told the SGC about.. the same one she had hidden away on Kheb. HE knew that he would need to recall the Excalibur, which was conducting supply runs between the Zeta Site and New Kobol for the next few days until there was enough for the Colonials to store away, if he, General O'Neill and the IOA wanted to surprise attack teh Pegasus and the Scorpion.
And the SGC still had no idea why the Wraith were heading to Atlantis, neither did Dr. Weir who informed them of the situation.
Shaking his head and getting back to Cain and the Ori, the General knew that both the Avalon and teh Excalibur ship could destroy both of the unshielded Colonial warships. But if Cain was alive, she'd want vengeance and, he suspected, would get command of an Ori vessel.
'Let's say that the Prior's are waiting for Adria's order to attack Earth' thought the General to himself while he rubbed his chin and leaned back, 'if Cain decided to go rogue, she could come straight to Earth. We still don't have contact with the Asgard, the Tollan are dealing with the destruction on their colony world and are actively looking for the Cylon Colony, the Nox are still pacifists, the Free Jaffa are keeping an eye out for the Colony…. Damn, we need more. Langara's still under Ori control even with Jonas and the other high ranking members of the government in exile on Edina after the bunker containing their Stargate fell, and the Serrakins, and the Hebredian's have already fallen to the Ori.'
The General remembered the message he received from Narim; the Tollan Counselor told him with sadness in his voice a few hours ago that one of their colonies was attacked by the Colony. He said that their scanners had taken a picture of the massive object before data was sent through the Stargate on that world, Torallia, before the Gate shut down… and they hadn't been able to contact the colony via Stargate since then. Narim told the General that the Curia had already ordered two of their ships to that world to search for survivors, and to scan the nearby space for the Colony.
However, Narim said that the Curia would like to take care of this on their own for now after the General offered aid in the form of rerouting either the Avalon or teh Excalibur to Torallia to help in the aid and recovery effort. Narim then told the General about their technology that hid the life signs of anyone on their Colonies, and only the Tollan had the codes to remotely shut the technology off… and the Curia didn't want to share that code, or information on the technology, with Earth.
"But I hope that that offer will remain open, General" said Narim.
"Of course, Councillor" said the General hours ago before Narim thanked him, and the connection was cut.
As the General returned to the present, he continued to think about what could happen if Cain wasn't killed if they destroyed the two Colonial warships.
'We only have the Avalon, Excalibur, and the Prometheus station to defend the planet now' thought the General, 'the two new Avalon class ships will be done in under two weeks, and the next two 304's, including the Apollo, still have some time to go. But if we wait at least two weeks so that those two 305's, the Rasputin and the Shen Long, to come into service then the Colonials may have perfected their shields since they seem to have those experimental emitters. So, do we fire now with teh Excalibur and the Avalon? Or wait two weeks?'
The General had an idea of what the IOA would choose, they'd probably want to wait until the Earth's better defended against the Ori vessels, or they may not even want to attack without building a bigger coalition of ships. Either way, the General knew that more time would be given to Cain to drum up her forces.
"We need to think of something new" whispered the General to himself as he leaned forward and started reading through the papers in the folder once again. He then closed the folder again and leaned back while whispering to himself softly as he went through scenario's in his head, "maybe not a direct attack, I loathe to think about it but we could use the Sodan cloaking devices… send a specialized squad to Caprica cloaked, find a way to get to Cain and… and since her powers are similar in scope to Major Rosenberg, they will not be detected by Cain until the last possible moment before she's killed; an assassination. Maybe it's better as a last resort, she's too dangerous for all of us. But perhaps the first thing we could do is launch a longer recon mission with at least the Avalon close by, if they can isolate Cain on the ships… if we can find out that she's on board, then the Avalon can swoop in.. destroy the ships and then get the hell out of there while the cloaked recon Jumper stays behind for a few days to make sure that Cain is really dead before getting home. Maybe that's the best idea.. I'm guessing Jack could prefer the extended recon mission if we can take out Cain and both ships as a result; but I wonder about the IOA. Damn."
Of course there was the matter of what was happening in Sunnydale to deal with as well, something which he already notified Tara about after he talked to Narim about the attack on Torallia. He then asked Tara to give Cordelia a call.
It was after the call that Tara told the General what happened to Angel while they were standing outside the infirmary some time ago. She told him about Kathy as well, while the General told her that he had already given them access to the Prometheus' scanners and the beaming technology, that a team from Home World was being sent to reveal the existence of Prometheus Station and alien technology; and that the beaming technology would be used only in emergency situations when the lives of Slayers and Potentials were in danger. The General remembered Tara looking back at Camille, who was talking to Cassie, before looking at the General again.
"I want to go back to Sunnydale and help with this whole Kathy situation" said Tara, "I know they've brought her in unconscious.. I mean that what Miss Chase just told me and… I mean.. Camille's here alone and I.. I know how she feels about me. If I leave it's like I'm abandoning her and.. and right now…"
"You're thinking it's not the right thing to do" said the General as he looked at Camille through the open door, as did Tara, "leave, I mean."
"It's like I'm abandoning those who need me… Buffy and the others in Sunnydale.. and Camille who's right her" said Tara softly as she looked at the little girl who was smiling at something Cassie said. It was then that an idea popped into Tara's head that made her look at the General before asking a fateful question, "what's going to happen to her?"
"We'll need to look for someone with clearance to look after her" said the General, "we've got a few individuals and families on the books with clearance and I could contact them and…"
"How about me?" asked Tara as the General gave a small smile.
"You have clearance" said the General, "that's not the problem, but…."
"It's not me being…. I mean.. I love another woman so.." said Tara while the General frowned and shook his head. He told her that he didn't have a problem with Tara being gay, he was just wondering if Sunnydale was the best place to raise a child who has already seen her entire world die; including the ones she loves. Plus, the General also reminded her that she still needed to speak to Kennedy about Camille before she even finalized a decision.
"I.. I know" said Tara as she looked at Camille who looked back at her and smiled.
The General told her to get back to Camille, and then call Kennedy later on. He told her that he'll be in touch with Cordelia and Angel, at least once he's fully recovered from his injuries, and keep her updated.
"Thank you" said Tara as she walked back into the infirmary, while the General nodded his head before heading back to his office to read the report that was sent by the Avalon on her Jumper's recon mission to Caprica.
City of the Gods, Celestis, Ori home galaxy, 1430 hours.
Pain.
Immense pain wracked through her whole body.
That's what Adria was feeling as she walked unaided, her face and body doing everything it could not to show the signs of the immeasurable pain that was going up her spine, through her nerves, through her brain…. She refused to show pain in front of the Priors who walked past her.. who bowed down to their Orici as she walked past them.
These weren't her trusted inner circle.
Now it was those priors of he inner circle, four of them and the Doci who knew the truth about the massive injuries that was inflicted on Adria. It was they who brought the Orici from her ship, after it had come to the Ori home galaxy through the Supergate a little over a month ago, to Celestis. She remembered screaming in pain as the four put their hands over the Orici's body and started to heal her… she remembered opening her eyes as pain went through her body and looked at the Doci who was reading out passages of prayers from the book of Origin.
It had taken her a little over a month to heal her broken body, but the pain was still there. Adria had told the Doci that meditation would help reduce the pain, and then after some time, take it away completely.. but she could see from the man's eyes that there was something wrong, something that he wasn't telling her. So she pushed for an answer, and eventually the Doci told her was that the Flames of Enlightenment were no more.
Adria had known the Ori were gone, that Merlin's weapon had killed them all.. and this was just confirmation of that fact. The Flames represented the Ori, and if they were gone… so were the ascended beings. She knew what she had to do now… Adria knew that the power of the Ori still existed in the higher plains and she was going to claim them. She was going to start preparations; she was going to start training to Ascend.
'All that power will be mine' thought Adria to herself, 'with that power, I will destroy the Ancients. But I want my mother to die by my human hands first, I want that red haired witchto die by my hands first… I want to feel their blood going own my arm.. I want to see them bleed on the floor. This happened because of them.. and I will kill them. I am the Orici… I am the living embodiment of the Ori, and after I've killed them and my Priors have taken over the Galaxy… I will be the Ori. But first… I sense some doubts about the disappearance of the Fires, it is time I quelled them. I will show no pain, for I am Orici.'
That's what Adria was thinking as she walked with her head held high. Inside she was screaming with every step, but she made sure that the Priors could never hear those screams. She continued walking through the hallways of Celestis while recalling telling the Doci to call a meeting of every Prior that was staying in the City of the Gods and, at the same time, to transmit what she was going to say to the other Priors throughout their galaxy.
Adria walked, while the Priors she walked past followed her, before she entered the room where the Fires used to burn brightly. She looked at all the Priors who stood in the room make space for her before she walked through all the way to the metal gates. She opened the gates and looked at the marble wall where the fires used to be before turning around to look at the Priors who were looking back at her. She then looked at her Doci who knew that she was in immense pain, but Adria could sense his overwhelming pride at seeing their leader appear before them.
"All of you are concerned about the Fires of Enlightenment, I can confirm that they have indeed been extinguished" said Adria as the jewel in the Doci's neck piece started to glow, indicating that what she was saying was being transmitted to all the Priors in their galaxy, "do not be concerned. The day of judgment is at hand for those in the land of evil! The Ori have not abandoned us… the disappearance of the Fires of Enlightenment do not signify that, instead what has happened is the most blessed thing that could have happened in our history! In the history of our faith! The Ori, in their wisdom, have seen it fit to give me everything they are, everything they know! I will bring an end to evil with the grace of the Ori! I will lead us to battle once again, I will show evil that there is nowhere they can run and hide! We are building more great ships to bring through the portal to the land of evil. We will show our fire.. our belief in the Ori to extinguish the non believers from existence because that is why they have given me what they are. From this day onwards, I am the Ori! I am the beginning of all that is light, and the end of all that is darkness! And we will win.. I will lead all of you in this crusade to wipe out everything that is unholy. Our fellow Priors have continued to spread Origin in that land, and I will send more.. more to spread the seed of light in the darkness that surrounds the people. And if they refuse… I will show them my fire."
"Now go!" said the Doci as he looked at all the Priors, "prostrate to the Ori so that you may be forgiven for having any doubts. Seek the forgiveness of the Ori so that you may be blessed for the coming battle. Lead all of your soldiers in the prostrations so that they too may be blessed and reach a state of pure enlightenment when they pass on to the next life."
"A war to end all wars is coming" said Adria as the Priors in front of her went on their knees, as did every Prior in the galaxy; especially the doubters in the City of the Gods who began to regain their faith that the Ori were not gone. They all went on their knees for forgiveness, and to be blessed by Adria; the Orici who they now knew that the Ori had seen fit to gift all their power and knowledge. She was their fire now.. she was their light.
"Hallowed are the Ori!" shouted the Doci before he looked at Adria who was smiling at him, and then at the Priors who were repeating the mantra; everyone in front of her, others in the planet of Celestis.. and thousands of others throughout the galaxy. It would be hours later that the same message would be sent by Priors who travelled to the Milky Way via Stargate.
In the meantime, for at that moment, Adria just smiled.
'The end is coming, mother' thought Adria, 'everyone's end is coming.'
TBC.