The Darkest Timeline

Summary: Welcome to the End of the World(Stargate SG-1 AU).

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Earth. The blue and white marble floating majestically in space.

From a distance it looks peaceful and untroubled.

The space high above rips open as emerging from Hyperspace comes a fleet of two dozen large oval shaped ships who have come to put an end to the resistance of this troublesome little planet.

Aboard the flagship of the fleet stands a beautiful young woman with dark hair. Adria. The Orici. The leader of the armies of the Ori. The ascended beings who were her fathers. Anticipation curled in her belly as the destined moment was finally here.

She is soon joined on the Bridge of the ship by another woman with dark hair with whom she bears a resemblance for a very good reason.

"Hello Mother. I am so glad you could join us."

Vala Mal Doran would keep her rather less than endearing thoughts about her offspring to herself if she could but you know, ability to read minds and all that. She shoots a glare at the Prior, the clergy of the Ori and teachers of their religion; Origin, who brought her. "Well it's not like you gave me much of a choice," the former thief remarks sarcastically.

"Now, Mother. Don't be like that," the younger woman gently chides her parent as if their roles were reversed. "You've been treated as the Honoured Mother of the Orici should be treated."

"Except from the whole keeping me prisoner part, you're absolutely right!"

Adria closes her eyes momentarily and tries not to lose her temper. "Your confinement is your own doing, Mother. All you need do is accept Origin into your heart and your freedom would be restored to you."

Instead of directly responding to that Vala asks, "Why am I here?"

"To bear witness to the Power and Glory of Origin and the final defeat of the non-believers."

Vala's eyes gaze out of the Bridge windows and fall upon Earth.

"You need simply let the light of the Ori into your heart and they will guide you on the path to enlightenment," the Prior next to Vala says.

"You do not get to speak to me, Daniel Jackson!" she spits furiously at him, anger rippling through her being as she recalls how this horror came about.

Daniel had been taken by Adria shortly after they found Merlin. They, SG-1, searched for him for weeks until they found him transformed into a Prior, preaching the Book of Origin, to a planet he was trying to convert.

They captured him, hoping to restore him back to his normal self. After all Adria must have done something. Clearly he would never submit to the Ori.

And at first it seems they were right. Daniel claimed that it was all part of a plan he and Merlin cooked up to assemble the weapon that could kill the Ori. He was bluffing Adria. All they need do is trust him...which they did.

SG-1 sneaked aboard the ship with the weapon which she assembled and took it to the Supergate so as to send it to the Ori galaxy.

They got ambushed when it turned out Adria was also aboard but then Daniel showed up from the Odyssey and that is when they all learned that he was bluffing alright. Double bluffing and they all fell for it.

Flashback…

Daniel appears on the Bridge of the Ori ship in a flash of light. Adria is there and she has Teal'c and Lieutenant-Colonel Samantha Carter disarmed, with their hands in the air in surrender, knowing they are no match for the powers the evolved woman possesses.

Adria steps forward towards Daniel, furious. "I should never have trusted you!"

"They're about to shut down the Supergate and allow our ships through. They've assembled the weapon and the Ancients didn't interfere," he replies calmly, turning to Sam and Teal'c. "Right?" he asks them.

Sam and Teal'c are staring back at him with expressions of shock and betrayal. Adria watches their reactions suspiciously.

"You did exactly as I said, right?" Daniel persists in asking them.

"Daniel, what are you doing?" Sam asks in utter disbelief. It just...this can't be real!

Daniel turns back to Adria. "We can destroy the Ancients right now and the Ori won't even have to fight. I've done all of this for you," he assures her of his loyalty.

Adria's eyes narrow, the only visible evidence she is using her powers to read his mind. She shakes her head. "Your mind is closed to me."

"Yeah."

Daniel's right hand whips in front of him, and he blasts Adria with energy. She is thrown back and collapses to the floor unconscious. Taking advantage of the distraction, Teal'c grabs his P-90 and immediately points it at Daniel.

"What the hell is going on?" Sam demands to know.

Daniel is breathing heavily with effort. "Eh, sorry about out that. I…had to be sure this…was working on her first," he says, revealing from behind his back that he holds the anti-Prior device.

"You got past her personal shield!" Sam exclaims.

Teal'c stops aiming his weapon at Daniel.

Daniel smiles at them. Yeah. That took a lot," he says, out of breath before he crumples, still holding the device close to him as Sam helps manoeuvre him into the command chair. She takes the anti-Prior device from him.

"Are you all right, Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c asks.

Yeah. Little dizzy. Look, I don't have much time left. Go arm the device," he tells them, still struggling to regain his breath.

Teal'c and Sam exchange wary looks.

"Jack's on board Odyssey. He's gonna shut down the Gate. Now go!" Daniel tells them intensely and it finally gets them to do that.

Daniel pants and struggles to regain his strength as he activates the communications. "Jack, give the command."

Nothing.

Daniel's gets desperate and begs his friend in a weak voice. "Please!…I'm running out of strength to do this."

Then over the radio he hears, "Daedalus, this is General Jack O'Neill…"

And suddenly a tiny smile of triumph comes to Daniel's face...

Meanwhile Sam and Teal'c rescue Vala and Colonel Cameron Mitchell from a group of Ori soldiers.

"So, what's going on?" Cam asks.

"Daniel's flying the ship," Sam answers SG-1's CO.

"Daniel?" Vala queries, surprised.

"Mmm. He wishes us to arm the weapon," Teal'c replies.

"General O'Neill's on board the Odyssey," Sam explains.

"And…?" Vala asks what she is to do.

"Do it," Sam says, showing her trust and faith in Daniel.

Vala nods. She goes over to the weapon and replaces a crystal with the timer crystal. All the crystals pulse with a blue light as the weapon activates.

Outside the ship the Supergate disengages.

Daniel, keeping to the plan, reactivates the Supergate, dialling the Ori galaxy. He then manoeuvres the ship past the other Ori ship guarding the gate. As soon as it is out of the line of fire the other Ori ship fires its immensely powerful beam weapon, striking directly at where the Odyssey sits under cloak.

And because it is cloaked it currently has no shields which means the beam rips the ship apart in a single blast. General Jack O'Neill doesn't even have time to recognise the act of betrayal that just struck him.

The ship then stops and turns in space away from the Supergate.

Within SG-1 is racing back to the bridge. Upon getting there they find Daniel slumped in the command chair, seemingly unconscious. Their eyes widen as they look outside to see the wreckage of the Odyssey.

"My God," the words slip from Sam's lips.

"Your Gods cannot help you now," a powerful voice declares.

Then in an instant Cam, Sam and Teal'c are hoisted into the air, grasping at their throats as if some invisible hands are choking them.

Vala's eyes go huge as she turns to see her daughter back on her feet, looking none worse for wear. "Adria, put them down," she requests.

"No," the young woman states coldly.

Vala's voice gets a commanding tone in it. "Adria. I mean it. Put them…"

SNAP!

With a flick of her head Adria breaks all three of their necks, killing them instantly.

"What...what have you done?" Vala asks in shock.

"Well I think we just won the war."

Vala's brow furrows and her gaze drifts to her right as Daniel moves to stand beside Adria, a disturbing gleam in his eye. "Daniel."

"Vala."

"What is going on?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"No. Not really."

"Daniel has seen the light of truth and righteous," Adria answers.

"With your guidance," he praises her.

"You already had opened the door to the possibility. I merely help you step through it."

Vala is kinda nauseated at how...nice the two are being to each other. "This...this whole thing was a con," she gets with increasing horror and they all fell for it, as the people on Earth say, hook, line and sinker.

"This I must give full credit to Daniel," Adria admits, smiling, glowing with happiness.

Vala looks at him intensely.

"I was tired of it. Of them," he points upward.

"The Ancients?" Vala thinks he means.

"Time and time again when presented with doing what was right or sticking to their rigid, dogmatic laws they always chose the latter. When Oma made the terrible mistake of ascending Anubis instead of destroying him, they let him cause chaos, kill millions, just to teach her a lesson. And of course when I tried to fix their mistake they punished me. Descended me, robbed me of my memories. If it wasn't for Oma cheating I would still be on Vis Uban to this day, lost and alone with no memory of who I was. Then there was Morgan who they wouldn't even allow to tell us where in the galaxy to look for the Sangraal. Another punished for simply trying to do what was right. And then of course, there's Merlin," he laughs bitterly.

"What about him?"

"I was telling the truth. He uploaded himself into my head. Another Ancient who decided Daniel Jackson was just another poor mortal they could use and manipulate."

"Do you see, Mother? Who are the real evil here?" Adria asks her.

"Adria saved me. She helped me destroy Merlin...or what was left of him. Purge him from my mind."

"A task I could never have accomplished alone, Daniel. Only together could we do so," she says.

"And together we concocted this whole plan. To get you to shut down the Supergate and build the Sangraal without the Ancients interfering. Now the weapon is activated...there is nothing they can do to stop it," Daniel says, triumph in his tone.

"No," Adria shakes her head. "You did this," she repeats what she said earlier when giving him the credit, pride clear in her voice and expression along with something else Vala can't quite name.

"But you played your part. Excellently I might add. You almost had me fooled," Daniel praises her, gently brushing her hair back into place.

Vala's eyes narrow at the soft tones both use when talking to each other. The way they look at each other with something beyond fondness. If she didn't know better...she shakes her head. "And the Ori, Daniel? The beings we've been fighting against for over a year," she inquires about.

"Oh yeah. I was wrong about them," he just comes out and says it. "You didn't listen to me did you. I told you the whole truth in how Adria helped me find the true path. She also helped me remember."

"Remember?"

"The year I was ascended. I remember how much I hated it. Hated them for their ridiculous rules. So many times I wanted to help people. It wasn't even anything big. Just to make some people's lives easier in small ways but time and time again I was forbidden."

"But the Ori don't forbid it. Instead of the cruel indifference of the Ancients, all those who embrace Origin can know the love and generosity of the Ori," Adria says.

"Like them!" Vala sneers, pointing at the corpses of the SG-1.

"It is only temporary."

Vala stares at her daughter. "What do you mean, 'only temporary'?"

"After all the trouble they have caused...we have special plans for them," the Orici says in a tone that makes cold shivers run up and down Vala's spine. The former thief isn't sure she even wants to know what her daughter means.

"You're upset," Daniel states.

"Your fancy mind powers give you that startling insight, Daniel!"

Both Daniel and Adria give her a look of sympathy which only boils her blood more.

"It's ok, Mother. We know you'll need time and when you're ready we'll both be here for you," Adria says in what is suppose to a reassurance. To Vala it is anything but.

"It's time," Daniel says, his gaze elsewhere.

"Time?" Vala queries before she gets it. "The Sangraal."

Adria gasps, breathless, her face flushed with colour, her eyes glow with the fire of her power, small moans escape her, almost as if she experiencing some sort of high. "It's over," she says in elation and then she lets out a laugh of joy.

Daniel smiles brightly at her and the two hold hands, gazing lovingly at each other.

Dread digs deep into Vala's gut. If that is true then it is over. For the whole galaxy and for her. "So...are you going to kill me now too?"

Adria gives her mother a look as if she is the parent scolding her child. "Of course not Mother."

"After all," Daniel says as he moves behind the Orici, wrapping his arms around her and placing his hands on her stomach. "We would not deny our child the chance to meet her grandmother."

Vala must have misheard that surely but she finds her gaze fixated on where Daniel has his hands placed. On Adria's stomach and her daughter's hands also come to rest there. She looks up just in time to see the two share a kiss. Her daughter and the man she is deeply attracted to...combined with the fact they just lost the war...nope, it is way, way too much to absorb and her eyes roll into the back of head as she falls to the floor.

The Present…

Vala's eyes fix down on her daughter's now bulging belly. Can't be long now before she is a grandmother. When Daniel moves to embrace Adria she snaps her head away. It still sickens her to think that her daughter and Daniel…

Ugh.

She instead looks out the window which admittedly is not a much better view. She watches as the fleet of Ori ships move to surround Earth. While the planet is far from defenceless it is alone. Over the last several months any other resistance to the Ori had been crushed and with the Ancients gone the ascended beings themselves were now free to intervene directly when they felt a cause to do so.

Earth stood alone in a dark, thankless galaxy. It also stood no chance. With the Supergate reopened the Ori have been able to bring through as many ships as it took to conquer the galaxy. They can bring here as many ships as it takes to overwhelm Earth's defences.

The Prior flying the ship speaks, "Orici, we are being hailed by the three Fleet Commanders."

"Put them through," she commands.

And appearing on the screen are the three faces of Vala's former teammates. Former in every sense of the word. For Adria, now able to channel the full powers of her fathers, resurrected them as nothing more than puppets. Their bodies and minds reconditioned to serve the will of the Ori. See the irony here. SG-1, the last hope for the galaxy actually ended up leading the armies of the Ori in the final conquest of the Milky Way.

"They will be given one chance," Adria speaks. "One chance to renounce their false religions and embrace Origin. If they do not submit you are to subjugate them by whatever means you deem necessary."

"As you command Orici," what use to be Teal'c replies.

"They will know the Glory and Power of the Ori," what use to Cameron Mitchell says, sounding just like another fanatic.

"Hallowed are the Ori," what use to be Samantha Carter conjugates the common prayer.

"Hallowed are the Ori," Adria repeats before the communication ends.

"They'll never submit you know," Vala feels it necessary to point out.

"Oh they will," her daughter contradicts her, her tone taking on a dangerous edge.

"In either case our daughter will be born on Earth," Daniel says without argument.

"And she will know love. The love of her parents. The Love of the Ori. The love of all those who follow the Path of Origin," Adria says smiling happily, joyfully, glowing with love. She turns her head and kisses her lover. "And all of this is because of you. Do you know how much I love you?"

"Yes. Because I can feel it in here," he taps on his head, "and here," he taps on his heart. "Do you feel my love?"

"Every second of every day since we first become as one," she replies, her voice overflowing with the joy of it all. She and Daniel, because of their mental abilities, can feel each other's minds, their souls, on a level no normal human can imagine. They are joined and intertwined in a way she could never describe with mere words.

"She's happy too," Daniel says, rubbing the swollen belly of his beloved.

"Hmm. I think she'll be happier once she's out of there," the mother-to-be says in light jest.

Vala is trying really hard not to be sick at the sight.

"It's too bad you can't feel it, Mother," Adria says to her parent. "How strong Daniel and I's daughter already is. She will be a true daughter of the Ori. Her Holy Path is already laid out before her."

That catches Vala's attention. "What path?" she asks.

"She will lead the Crusade to bring enlightenment to the Pegasus Galaxy," Daniel says as if it is obvious.

Vala stares at him.

"What?" he asks her back. "As if I don't know that's where they're falling back to right now," he nods in Earth's direction.

"We will take Atlantis. We will do what the Ancients could not and purge the Universe of the Wraith and then we will bring the Truth of Origin to the humans of that galaxy. All will know the Love and Power of the Ori," Adria says, her voice rising to its preachiest high. "Ooh," she suddenly says, her hands rubbing her belly. "I think she's excited," she remarks, practically giddy.

Daniel laughs lightly and gives her a kiss.

Vala can feel a migraine coming on. You know what, maybe she's dead. Maybe Adria killed her too all those months ago along with the rest of SG-1. She's dead and this is hell. Because if she is still alive this is definitely the Darkest Timeline she can imagine.

And yet over and over on her mind she can hear the chant. Telling her to submit to her daughter's wishes. Embrace Origin. And every day her resistance grows weaker. It would be so easy to just give in.

Hallowed are the Ori.

Hallowed are the Ori.

"Hallowed are the Ori."

The End.

Author's Note: The title says it all. Welcome to the Darkest Timeline. Thanks to everyone who has previously written reviews.