xt1me

I was re-reading Stargate Brotherhood by esama (a great crossover fic, I highly reminded it if you have the time) and I ended up writing this.

It’ll make absolutely no sense if you haven’t read Stargate Brotherhood & it takes place in some nebulous future after the fic ends.

His eyes looked but he did not see.

His mouth ate food but the taste meant nothing to him.

His body moved but it was not under his control.

And eternity had passed since the demon Ba'al had enslaved him. His torment all the worse for have felt a true partnership before, leaving him now only with this twisted perversion.

He no longer knew how long it had been since he had even breathed under his own power.
His last act of defiance had been mocking laughter as Ba’al had fled earth. The false god could make all the excuses he wanted but, trapped inside as he was, a broken host could still see enough to notice fear.

And oh had he been punished for that.

And he had broken.

The long years passed him by without thought or awareness.

Sometimes Ba’al might stir to torment him, but it had been an age now since the goa'uld had done even that. There was no need to look at a host’s memories when all he had known were long dead.

Left to drift with no control, no attention nor even sense of self, one might call it akin to sleep, were it not for the constant misery. An eternity of screaming board even the victim when nothing changed.

When suddenly something did.

It would be wrong to say he awoke for he was already awake. Or that he became aware for he had never been allowed to not be so.

But for the first time in an aeon Ba’al search not his own expansive memory but his hosts.

And Umar Ibn-La'Ahad realised as soon as Ba’al did just who stood before him.
Ages might have past and the boy may have grown into a man, but there could be no mistake. Before him was his beloved son, clad in the strange garb of the Tau'ri, strong and unbowed. Before him was Altair. And not alone. The look on his face showed the truth just as much as the flash of his eyes, his true partner was with him. He had lived.

Of course his son would take up his father’s burden, of course now that the Tau'ri chased and harried the goa'uld among the stars the Assassins would follow, waiting in the shadows.

Umar laughed as Ba’al felt the echo of an ancient fear and the ghost of a wound from a poisoned blade. A wound delt with Umar’s own hand.

His last true act, but a worthy one. And even Ba’al lashing out at him wasn’t enough to stop the laughter.

A physical body may not be able to scream and laugh at the same time let alone speak. But a mind can do that and more. Even a broken one.

Your death approaches worm. Umar taunted even as he writhed in agony. You fled across all or space and time from this but your end is at hand.

You fool! Ba’al snarled at him, that cannot be an Assassin, they are dead and dust. This is a trick! He yelled for his jaffa “Kill them! kill them all!!”

But it was too late. As the room filled with smoke from a hidden bomb and the Assassin disappeared from view, Ba’al struggled with the gift he had always failed to master, for the Eyes of the Eagle were Umar’s inheritance not the goa'ulds.

See how my revenge comes at last.

You shall die as well, even if they reach me I will never let you escape. They are doomed.

Whether I die or not I shall be rescued either way. I welcome my death with open arms knowing I shall bring you down with me. You are the one who trapped me in this hell, now you shall join me in it.

Never! Ba’al turned and ran.

And, as Umar felt the gaze of a staking predator upon him, he laughed and screamed and laughed.

Yeah, Umar’s gone a little bit insane from being Ba’al’s host for so long and he has no idea what’s actually happening but Desmond looks an awful lot like Altair anyway, so he has no problem with his leaps in logic. Especially if it freaks Ba’al out.