Ophiucus

[Penfold]

Well, since the new season of BSG is starting today, I decided to wirte a fanfic in honor of the occasion.

...okay, I had been thinking of it since last season's finale, but I only got around to writing recently and just finished the first chapter.

Well, here goes.


Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, BtVS or Angel. I also don't own any of the shows I'll probably end up referencing over the course of the story.

Note: This fic starts with nBSG: "Maelstrom" and SG-1: "The Shroud" and post-"Chosen" and "Not Fade Away" then runs onward, dropping episodes, implying others are unchanged by events, ignoring the comics, and cherrypicking concepts and plots from everything that I threw out. SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING, including rumors, just to be on the safe side.


Ophiucus
by Quasipenfold

Chapter 1: There Must Be Some Way Out of Here


"…coming up after the break, we've got the Hendrix cover of 'All Along the Watchtower' for David in Colorado Springs. You're listening to KPJX 97.5, the best classic rock station in the Rockies."


***


Lee could just see the telltale three glows of the Viper's engines. "Kara, I'm coming to get you!"

"Lee," Kara said, voice unusually calm, "I'll see you on the other side."

"Kara, please listen to me. Come back!"

"Just let me go," she whispered.

"Gods damn it, Kara! You come back! Come back!"

"It's okay. Just let me go." Dimly, she was aware of the alarms going off in her cockpit. The Viper wouldn't last much longer, but it didn't matter. "They're waiting for me."

Kara closed her eyes. Despite the fact that her fighter was coming apart around her, she felt more at peace than she ever had. She knew that this was the moment her entire life had been leading up to. The feelings of peace and joy increased with the source less white light that suffused the cockpit.

Just as she realized the engines exploded, the light flared brightly and there was a strange thrum sound.

And she was elsewhere.

Unfortunately for her, "elsewhere" had no chairs, and she unceremoniously fell to the cold metal floor. Brought back to reality by the impact, she began to stand. Pain shot through her backside, and she realized that she may have fractured her tailbone.

By somehow being plucked out of her Viper and dropped onto the floor of a—no, the—Heavy Raider.

Right in front of a Cavil.

The Toaster was obviously expecting her, given the weapon trained on her. It was obviously some sort of pistol, but stylized to look like a snake about to strike. Surprisingly, there was something even more interesting in his left hand. It appeared to be a quartz crystal, glowing with a soft white light. Kara stared at it as the glow faded and Cavil put it in his pocket.

Everything around her distorted as the Heavy Raider jumped.

"Just a little something I picked up from a friend," he said. "They have some rather interesting things on Earth, don't you think?"

Kara slowly got to her feet, making sure it couldn't be misinterpreted as a aggressive action. After all, she didn't want to be shot before she could make the real aggressive action. "Who the frak are you trying to kid? Last I checked, you were a step behind us in the search for Earth."

Cavil laughed at that. "If you’re talking about the path in the Sacred Scrolls, then you're in for as much of a shock as the other Cylons. The Scrolls don't lead to Earth, they lead to something even more important."

To say that Kara was skeptical was an understatement. "And what would that be?"

"What else? That so-called destiny of yours that everybody's talking about."

"You may as well shoot me now, because I'm not going to go through a repeat of New Caprica."

"Please," he scoffed. "Your destiny has nothing to do with playing house with Leoben. The Scrolls are something of a treasure map. The problem is, they don't mention the keys to the chest, so to speak."

"And you think I can find them," she concluded.

The Heavy Raider shuddered. They had obviously docked with a Basestar.

"We know you can find them. A seemingly unbelievable chain of events led to you being the only person who could."

Kara glared at him. "You know what's really unbelievable? The fact that you think I'd help you or your friend."

Cavil had the smug look of someone who knew that he not only held all the cards, but several decks of extras as well. "I think you'll come around eventually. My friend can be very persuasive."

With that, his gun simultaneously let out an electronic warble and spat out a bolt of blue light. Unable to dodge, Kara was struck in the chest.

Everything went dark.


***


The shock of travelling through the gate woke Adria. Quickly, she reached out with her mind to stop Merlin's weapon from activating, but found her powers still blocked. Looking around the bridge, she found the device Daniel Jackson used in betraying her. After picking it up and smashing it on the floor, she tried to stop the device again.

She was too late.

As soon as her mind touched the device, the countdown reached zero, and it activated. Unimaginable amounts of energy were channeled from subspace to the dimension the Ascended Ori called home. In the process, the weapon was consumed by the very energy it manipulated. The entire section of the ship was destroyed, and with it the records of the creation of the weapon. There would be no way to deploy such a weapon against the Ancients.

Having just returned from a raid to distract the Ancients, they were caught unaware when the very thing they were distracting their cousins from happened in the wrong galaxy. They were helpless to stop the rapidly expanding wave of energy, and all were destroyed.

Except one.

During the raid, several Ori took the opportunity to observe the Milky Way Galaxy, seeing things hidden even from the Priors and the Orici. One such Ori snuck past the Ascended who watched over Earth, many of which had left to intercept the attacking force.

While there, he discovered something amazing. A being whose entire existence defied the natural order. Such a being, who appeared to be nothing more than a male hybrid of the humans created by the Ancients and the monstrous natives of Earth provided a unique opportunity. Any child he fathered would be as impossible as he was, and an Ascended could use this to create a physical form for themselves. The individual who did this would not lose any knowledge or power, and any action they took would not violate the letter of the Ancients' rules.

Before leaving, the Ori scout took a quick look at the SCG. What he saw gave him reason to suspect treachery on the part of Daniel Jackson. To be safe, he avoided entering the Ascended dimension's equivalent of the Ori's home galaxy. This proved wise, as the weapon devised by Moros activated and destroyed the other Ori.

The plan had failed, but this suited him just fine. With the other Ori gone, he no longer had to share the power given by the worshippers. Unfortunately, the situation also meant that more direct action was needed in the Milky Way.

The last of the Ori entered the body of the Orici, bonding with her soul. In such a state, his ability to directly influence the universe around him was limited, but as long as he acted within certain limits, the Ancients would not bother him. Once the bond was complete, he made contact with Adria's mind, and instructed her to immediately return to the Milky Way with the fleet that had been waiting for the gate to reopen.

They had a miracle child to find.


***


Lilith was angry. A month had passed since the capture of Kara Thrace, and the human had proved to be the most stubborn being she had encountered in her life.

All one hundred eight millennia of it.

Nothing she had been offered would convince her to begin the search for the artifacts. Cavil had even offered to stop the pursuit of the Colonials and box the entire Leoben model, but could not change her mind. Mind probes actually made her less receptive to the artifacts. Worse, attempts to force her, both through Goa'uld technology and Tau'ri magic, caused the dampening to linger. In fact, she had still not fully recovered from the liberal usage of Sokar's Blood during last week's attempts.

The time had come for more elaborate measures.

Unfortunately for Lilith, she had to do all the work. She understood that the Jaffa were not subtle or smart enough to perform the task at hand. What she did not understand, however, was why it could not be done by Bacchus or Savitr. Given their current hosts, either would have been perfectly justified. Even Klorel, with his newest host, had the advantage of anonymity. She, on the other hand, had to resort to stealth to get what she wanted.

As the crowning humiliation, she was doing this on the instructions of the parasite infesting the Tau'ri corpse that was the head of Ba'al's legal team.

If this didn't work, she vowed to personally kill Ba'al, all of his clones, and his re-kill lawyer. Slowly.

She held the crystal she had been given, and uttered the Tau'ri bastardization of Ancient that activated it. Now under the protection of the glamour it generated, she could only be seen if someone who already knew her, which was a large number of people, looked directly at her face. Otherwise, she and her actions would not seem out of place, and the observer would be compelled to ignore her.

She also had the ability to free anyone she chose from the power of the glamour. Because of the flawed nature of using her for this task, she ironically had to draw attention to herself then hide again, to separate those she had to avoid from those she could be seen by.

Her gambit drew the attention of someone she knew would recognize her. This she found acceptable, as the investigator was alone. She drew his attention and quickly hid again, ensuring that he would not give up his search. When the time was right, she got close to him and released him from the glamour a final time.

The look on his face when he saw her almost made up for having to do this. She decided to speak before he regained the presence of mind to realize just how much danger he was in.

"Hi, Lee."


***


"That was the latest cover of "All Along the Watchtower", for Danny in Colorado Springs. More new music coming up after the break. This is KCCS 107.3, your station for the latest hits."