Fic Update: Our Lives As Happenstance - Chapter 2
Title: Our Lives As Happenstance
Author: Milena D.
Rating: T (PG-13) for now
Genre: Action/Angst/Romance
Pairings: Daniel/Vala, some Cam/Sam can be seen as shippy
SPOILERS: HUGE SPOILERS FOR CONTINUUM.
Summary: A divergence in the lives of our team from one of the last scenes of the movie causes their future to change radically and permanently. Daniel/Vala and HUGE spoilers for CONTINUUM.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Stargate Continuum, the Stargate Series, any of the characters, I don’t even own the premise which is the plot from the movie. Basically I own nothing and am making no money so please don’t sue.
Author’s Note #1: Another huge thanks to Susan and Gioia who beta’d the chapter and endured the author through her ego-lacking phase!
Chapter 1: Divine Intervention
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Chapter 2: Another Incarceration
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“Do you think she saved him?” Sam asked quietly in the surprisingly well lit brig.
“Sure she did.” Cam replied from the other bench.
“She killed Ba’al.” She pointed out. If she did that to her own husband...
“Yeah, but that was before she knew he was from another timeline and could have valuable information for her.” Cam returned more confidently this time.
Sam stayed silent.
“I remember seeing Sha’re and Skaa’ra as Goa’ulds,” she said, “how they looked so different just by their eyes. But even then I thought I could see a part of them. It was probably just wishful thinking but...I don’t see that in Qetesh.”
It was Cam’s turn to stay silent. Seeing a goddess in Vala’s body attack them at Praxion had been a shock to his system. For over a year he’d hoped that the timeline had altered in such a way that she had been saved from being a host entirely. Instead it seemed she had been taken but this time around, no Tok’ra had come to save her.
“She’s in there somewhere.” Cam decided on the spot, if only for the sake of their morale.
“And we didn’t fail anyone.” He spoke again quietly. Sam’s head shot up from its position on her knees in shock. How had he known what she was thinking?
“We didn’t fail Earth, they didn’t give us a chance to save them.” He elaborated, turning his head to make sure she was paying attention.
“We could have tried harder.” She retorted, her throat closing as she thought of how she’d given up any aspirations at a life involved with the Stargate at the government’s insistence. Who knows what she could have accomplished in a year? Maybe their entire planet wouldn’t be dead now. Innocent billions dead, shot from space. There was nowhere they could have run.
“We can try now.” Cam assured her, unfolding his crossed legs to move to her bench. Sam looked up and shifted to the side to make room for him.
“Earth is...gone.” He admitted with difficulty. “But there are other people out there we can help. What we need to do is find a way out of here and meet up with the Jaffa Rebellion in this timeline, and the Tok’ra. We join a movement and we kill these snakes like we...or you...did in our timeline.”
Sam couldn’t help but smile. He made it seem so easy.
“Is there anything that can get you down?” She asked him. They both looked over to the second bench on which Daniel should have been resting and she had her answer.
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He woke up slowly, languidly, and completely refreshed. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten such a great night’s sleep. His body was comfortable, his mind was cobweb-free and the fingers running through his hair was...
Daniel’s eyes snapped open and he sat up quickly to find a woman smirking beside him.
“Vala!” He exclaimed in shock and joy but the woman narrowed her eyes curiously.
“How is it you know that name, human?” Her metallic voice questioned him firmly. That’s when Daniel took stock of his surrounding. He was sitting in a sarcophagus in an ornate room of gold and red design.
“I’m in a mothership.” He said aloud, inadvertently ignoring her question.
“You are.” The Goa’uld affirmed peculiarly. “You’ve been in one before?”
Daniel’s eyes landed on the familiar features of the woman he hadn’t seen in over a year and he finally allowed his denial to break down as a lead weight settled in his chest.
“You’re Qetesh.” He stated morosely.
The Goa’uld smiled sweetly and placed a soft hand on his cheek as she leaned in closely.
“I am.” She said quietly before raking her nails down, drawing blood. “And you would do well to answer your God’s questions or I might just take that leg back, slowly.”
Glossing over her threat, Daniel’s eyebrows furrowed as he tried to understand her threat. Qetesh understood his confusion and took back her hand, wiping the blood off on his shirt before leaving his side. In her absence, Daniel’s hands hovered over his left pant leg that looked amazingly full. Without touching whatever was inside it, he slowly pulled up his pant leg and his eyes widened as they took in hairs and skin. He quickly yanked up the rest of the pant leg to his knee and finally touched the limb under his hands in awe. He slowly flexed his foot at the ankle and wiggled his toes in his boot.
“How...?” He choked out, looking up to find Qetesh. The goddess accepted a glass of beverage from her slave and slowly made her way back to inspect the sarcophagus’s work.
“You know of motherships and Goa’uld but not of sarcophagi?” Her metallic voice lilted curiously.
“I’m familiar with sarcophagi,” Daniel retorted irritably, “but I’ve never seen one regrow an entire limb.”
“You don’t seem surprised to be alive,” she pointed out, “how do you suppose the sarcophagus recreated the organs the staff blast had partially destroyed?”
Daniel searched his memory to remember what she was talking about. The fight at Praxion, he’d been shot! And then he’d seen...Qetesh. His hands felt his chest and found it solid as usual.
“You saved me, and my leg.” Daniel realized, frowning at her. “Why?”
Qetesh took a sip from her chalice, her eyes staying trained on him over the rim, as she contemplated her answer.
“I did nothing for your leg. My Jaffa put you in the sarcophagus to heal the staff wound, and it healed the rest of you. As for your life, well, your friends made quite a plea for it. I was quite moved.” She mocked him. The human seemed to ignore this as well as his eyes widened.
“Cam and Sam!” Daniel blurted, suddenly realizing they were missing. “What did you do with them?”
Qetesh let him suffer the silence for a while longer as she called her slave over to take her cup again. She could hear him stumbling out of the sarcophagus behind her but she was confident her Jaffa would shoot him before he could attack her. When she heard nothing, she turned around and saw him standing next to the regeneration device simply looking at her.
“They are in my possession, human, as you are.” She informed him authoritatively as she walked back towards him. Her walk was confident and intimidating but he didn’t waiver in his solid stance. She got close enough to see every shade of blue in his eyes and stared him down until he broke eye contact. Then she chose to circle him slowly.
“Your...friends...tell me you possess as much if not more knowledge about this galaxy than my dear former husband. Is this true?” She asked with a tone that told him it had better be. Daniel focused on not gulping in front of her, waiting until she was at his back to do it.
“Uhh, well I don’t have his knowledge, of course. We didn’t share a mind at any point in time. But I do know a lot about the galaxy, especially about different cultures on different planets.” He admitted. He’d die before he’d sell anyone out but he needed to buy some time to get to the others and get the hell out of here. “I’m a-a linguist and archeologist, I study...um...artifacts, histories, cultures.”
“Good answer.” She cooed at him as if congratulating a small child.
He could feel Qetesh’s hand sliding onto his shoulder and he closed his eyes. It might feel like Vala but it wasn’t. He didn’t give himself any time to come to grips with seeing Vala’s body be host to this parasite, he needed to stay focused on getting out of here alive.
Qetesh regarded his expression questioningly, it looked as though her touch pained him. It was impossible for him to have known her host, she would know it. But he was from an alternate timeline, it was possible that they’d met in his. She’d have to explore that later.
“My queen...” One of her Jaffa called from the doorway, adopting a pose of servitude.
“What is it?” Qetesh asked, still perusing the human’s face now that his eyes had opened again.
“Cronos hails you.” He replied simply. Qetesh waved him off and he left the room quickly.
“You will be taken to suitable accommodations and you will take the time to remember any and all information that I could possibly need.” Qetesh informed the man before her, all traces of congeniality lost in her altered voice.
Daniel nodded jerkily and felt a small measure of relief when she moved away from him. A Jaffa came forward to lead him to his new quarters but before they could make two steps of progress, Qetesh stopped in the doorway.
“Oh, and human,” she called saccharinely. Daniel and his guard watched her as she pulled the saber at her hip out of its sheath and brought it down over the golden cupboards near the door. The blade met no resistance and slide through the solid metal as easily as if it were water. Qetesh watched the cupboard slowly fall apart and resheathed her weapon before looking back at him. “I wasn’t kidding about the leg.”
With her message received, Qetesh left the room and the guard at Daniel’s back pushed him forward on shaky legs.
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“Daniel!” Sam cried as the footsteps approaching their cell revealed a familiar sight.
“Guys!” Daniel returned, relieved to see Qetesh hadn’t been lying. He moved toward the bars that kept his friends in the cell but the guard had different ideas. He pulled on Daniel’s arm so hard he thought it would fall out off, then he shoved his prisoner into the adjacent cell before locking the bars and leaving. The walls between the cells were thick but the rooms themselves were on an angle so they could still see each other.
“You okay?” Cam asked, wrapping his hand around the bars of his and Sam’s cell.
“Um...yeah.” Daniel replied slowly, taking in his new temporary home. “Better than okay actually.”
Sam and Cam looked at him questioningly and he lifted his pant leg to reveal his newly grown limb.
“Oh my god.” Sam exclaimed, her jaw dropping.
“Holy...wow. I did not know that was possible.” Cam added.
“Yeah, neither did I but there you go.” Daniel replied, letting his pant leg slide back down. “Are you guys okay?”
“Yeah, she didn’t do anything to us...yet.” Cam replied darkly.
“She, Qetesh.” Daniel echoed needlessly, finally having the time to consider the situation.
“Yeah.” Sam agreed sadly. “We were pretty shocked to see her ring down too. I mean, I kind of assumed that’s what had happened to her but to actually see Vala-”
“What about Teal’c?” Daniel cut her off, not wanting to think about it. “What happened to him?”
“We don’t know.” Cam replied, pursing his lips in frustration. “We know she brought him back up to the ship so he’s not dead at least.”
“She’ll make him her First Prime.” Daniel predicted sullenly, his eyes looking out into empty space.
“He didn’t seem to like her much last time I saw him.” Cam returned doubtfully.
“She can brainwash him.” Sam said from beside him. “Apophis did it once to convince Teal’c he was still loyal to him.”
Cam nodded his understanding and they stood at the bars of their cells in silence for long moments just thinking about what was happening. Daniel broke the quiet with a sigh before pushing himself off the bars and sitting down on the nearest bunk.
“Have you guys thought up our escape plan yet?” He asked his friends with a wry grin.
“We’re working on it.” Cam assured him with false confidence as he and Sam sat back down as well.
“Good,” Daniel replied as he leaned his head back against the wall, “‘cause Qetesh is expecting me to come up with a list of people she can attack and how to do it.”
“Well...we’ll have something before that for sure.” Cam nodded and looked over to the skeptic astrophysicist at his side. “We will.”
Sam was doubtful for a good reason. They hadn’t spent their incarceration thus far just twiddling their thumbs. After inspecting every inch of their cell, they had concluded that the only way they were getting out would be by overpowering the guards if and when they should come for them. But now that they were separated into different cells their problem had just gotten much bigger.
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Next one up in a few days! Thanks for all the reviews everyone. Please let me know what you think about this one!
Next - Chapter 3