Fire
By: sleepie_kid
CATEGORY: Hurt/Comfort, Vignette
WARNINGS: None
AUTHOR’S NOTES: It’s maybe a little spoilery towards Stargate: Continuum, but I’m not yet sure of the movie’s storyline, so the spoiler-fact may just be rubbish. I want to say that I think being host to a goa’uld is a little like having two minds in the same body – like the SGA episode ‘Duet’ where Rodney and Laura got stuck in the same body – ergo: one being “asleep” while the other is awake would be possible, but only for the host. I don’t think the goa’uld would let go of control even at night.
AUTHOR’S WEBSITE:
http://sleepie-kid.livejournal.com/
1 Fire
Heat, terrible fires are licking her very being as she wakes
up to realize it is only her skin. Or maybe it's the beast's skin, scorching
her from the inside. She can't be sure - just like she can't be sure of how she
got to the room they are in now. But she doesn't linger. She doesn't linger on
much these days.
Walking over the floor of the dim quarters, she feels her back ache. The snake
has been busy. Curious, she tries.
Found anyone to carry your lover around
yet?
Be silent.
Well, I didn't think so.
A sharp pain hits her in the stomach, as if it's entire content shrinks into
nothing. Punishment - the small tastes of reality keeping her lucid, alive.
You shall not think. Nothing of the host
remains.
Oh yes it does. My name is Vala, and I was free of you once. I will be again.
Her courage is rewarded with another short reminder of who's in charge. Tiny
droplets of blood fall to the floor, fingernails leave pierced flesh. She feels
the smirk on her own face - a strangers smirk.
She tries to remove it, tries to change it, tries to move a hand and slap
herself, slap Quetesh in the face -
even if she knows that it isn't going to happen. But she remembers, remembers
the feeling of moving by own free will, and she knows that her friends are
coming for her. They never leave a man behind.
No one is coming, fool. They know there's
nothing left of you.
She remembers Sam and Teal'c; the scientist and the warrior. Landry and
Mitchell; the leaders. And Daniel, sweet annoyable Daniel who she'd give a
world to see again.
The world is not yours to give. It is
mine, but since you asked so politely...
She doesn't try to respond, Quetesh has lied before. All snakes do. And then,
her head turns left as the
The snake doesn't answer her, but she has a pretty good idea what has happened.
She knows he was perfect. Who else knew enough about the Tau'ri, and would be
foolish enough to get caught looking for her? Who's sight in this state would
torment her the most? Help break the fragile shell in which she still has
fractions of control? Control Quetesh does not feel any urge to share?
But she is unsure, still. Even when his lips meet hers in a battle of tongues
and teeth, she is unsure. He could fake it, he could pretend, use some advanced
form of hypnosis, drugs, delusions. But don't the goa'uld feel the presence of
other goa'uld nearby? The answer comes slowly, tormenting.
Yes. We do.
When his eyes flash the color of fire, she wishes she was able to cry.
2 Cagebirds
He's thinner than he used to bee, more bony. It hits her that the goa'uld must prefer them that way, and takes two looks at her own body the next time. Bones, skin. Hard, cold.
She tries to catch glimpses of him during the daily duties of the demons, but her head is not her own to turn. But she picks up his walk's changed, and that he doesn't speak like she remembers him too. Silently, she prays that it's not him she's seeing, but the snake in his head, sculpting his body to its own standards. That he's still somewhere, inside.
When he touches her, it isn't his touch. It's nothing like she imagined it too be, and she hopes he knows that it isn't she who is touching him back. That it hurts her more than it hurts him. When their touch evolve, she blocks it out moaning silently, and has no part in the ungodly abuse.
Sometimes she dreams of him, the way he used to be, back on Earth. She dreams of him smiling, joking, rambling on about some old artifact, or writing in his journal despite her endless efforts to get his attention. Eventually the look on his face back in the 'gate-room after the lifetime in the time-bubble, pops up to torment her, and reminds her that, ironically, life won't be too short. Not this time around.
Then, one morning comes along when she wakes up a little before dawn, and stretches. Suddenly her body freezes, and responds. She shuts her eyes wide open and reaches for his hand beneath the covers, squeezing hard, before the snake regains control. Fighting Quetesh every inch away from him, she hopes once again that he will understand - know - that she is sorry, truly, deeply sorry for giving his life away without meaning too.
In the depths of his own hell, Daniel is forced back into a shallow sleep, and something about the way his knuckles hurt where her hand grabbed them, has him dreaming of canaries.
3 Flight
The bullet-cases are raining upon the pavement. He can hear them as clear as the orders coming out of his mouth. Orders to kill those who brought them through the gate. But they're here, and that counts for something.
For a brief moment he seems to see the back of her cloak disappear into the Glider-bay. As least she'll be safe once she's off the ship.
"
His own voice sounds distant and hollow. Maybe the snake caught the scent of death as well.
You should not fool
yourself, Dr. Jackson. There will be no death for me. But for you, on the other
hand.
They move quickly
through the hallway, and reach the nearly abandoned bay just in time. While the
And what? You're just
gonna leave them like this? Leave them to die for you?
They sacrifice
themselves for their God.
No they don't, you
force them to fight for you! You can't pretend like it's anything else.
You disappoint me,
Doctor. You of all should know what it is like to be a God.
He doesn't even try to respond. It doesn't matter.
A wise decision. The
lives of a few
Daniel falls silent, watching the planet close in on them. The wide, blue-black oceans beneath them stretch out for miles and miles, and when the glider finally reaches it's destination, he is happy to see that she's there, waiting.
Jumping out, he tries not to think of Sam, Teal'c and Mitchell. He pushes the thought of their survival out of his mind, and tries to mean the smile now spreading across his face. For he is - undoubtedly - happy to see her. And even though she is not herself, and he is not himself, and their friend's lifeless bodies might be circling the planet in orbit, he lets the warmth of her arm upon his spread.
"The engagement with the Tau'ri went rather badly." The snake sounds just like she would.
"Yes. Yes... We'll have to do something about them."
To be continued…
Stories by Rating and Category
Copyright©2004-2011
Midnightstorms.net
All Rights Reserved.