Legacy Scrap
(Same as before--Announcement ch 14 spoilers. Same ones, I think. Maybe not. Just typing to see what people think.)

David waited nervously in a room with Dehrwin, hoping only that Sarah wouldn't find out what he was doing unless everything turned out okay. "Tell me one more time why I should trust this guy?"

Dehrwin rolled his eyes as he sat on a chair beside the door, relaxed. "He is a Tok'ra, and they are allied with the Tau'ri."

He shook his head; the information was no comfort when he already knew it. "So just because we're allies, I'm supposed to automatically trust this guy?"

"You believe he may be untrustworthy?" the Jaffa replied disdainfully.

"I believe I don't like having to trust someone I don't know," he replied tersely. "Can't you tell me anything else about him? What's he been up to in the last year?"

The Jaffa, who was easily twice as massive as David, sent a warning glare his way. "Many times, it is extremely obvious that you are Tau'ri."

Suddenly, the door opened, allowing in the subject of their discussion and closing again. Vandrof scanned the room, taking note of its occupants. "You wanted to see me?" he asked Dehrwin, who pointed to David.

"We met once," David said. "You already had your host by the time I got there."

Vandrof frowned. "You left shortly after that. We didn't have time to speak." He glanced behind him to Dehrwin then back to the human. "Why are you serving as a lotaur?"

David shook his head. "Only after you tell me why you're serving a Goa'uld. Sarah's pretty freaked out about that."

"Wait," Dehrwin broke in. "Why did you not say before that you knew each other?"

"We don't know each other well," David answered, not taking his eyes off Vandrof, "but we apparently should."

Vandrof nodded. "I have not seen Vinnet since she obtained permission from the council to remain on Earth for another year. How is she?"

"She was doing fine until you showed up," David replied venomously. "Whatever you told her while you were chatting, it really unnerved her."

Dehrwin's eyes widened, and he interrupted again. "You lied to me! You said you wanted the Goa'uld out of Senane, but you don't, do you."

"Not now, Dehrwin," Vandrof replied. "No one wantts to see any harm done to her." He turned back to David. "Tacita is not a Goa'uld, but she does not want Vinnet to know. This entire palace is a test designed to show the character of those who request to serve her. I was sure she'd pass until I heard that she'd brought a lotaur and Jaffa. None of us ever have lotaurs." Both he and Dehrwin looked to David for explanation.

"If it makes you feel better, she told me not to come," he admitted, "but I promised her back on Earth that I wouldn't let her go. When I caught up with her offworld, I was able to convince her to let me tag along."

"You had to convince her?" Dehrwin interrupted disbelievingly.

Vandrof nodded impatiently. "The Goa'uld in the throne room of this palace is, in fact, a Tok'ra, a friend of mine." He turned his attention back to David. "And of yours as well. But who are the Jaffa?"

"How do I know I can trust you with their identities? Vinnet feels responsible for their well-being; I'm not going to poke holes in their safety net."

"Despite a shift in priorities, I am still who I've been--I have not changed as much as Vinnet has."

"I think it's that priority shift that's got her worried."

Vandrof's eyes shifted uneasily from David to some indeterminate infinity behind him. "The highest priority of any Tok'ra is to protect Egeria and to futher her cause. Ever since Egeria was lost to us, her cause has been in the forefront of our minds. But now some of us have to switch back to our previous committment."

Legacy
(Warning: Announcement chapter 14 spoilers)

After finally getting his wife calmed down, David roamed the caste's dim, high-ceilinged halls in search of water for both of them. After twenty minutes, he found what appeared to be a kitchen, though it was a far cry from the kind of kitchen he was accustomed to. He wildly began searching the bizzare cabinets for cups, sliding open many of the stone and gold doors with enough force that they rebounded from the end of their tracks. Two cabinets in a row, he heard extra bangs and suspiciously spun to find a tall, muscular Jaffa in full armor, whom he recognized as Dehrwin, one of the Jaffa Tacita had sent.

Suddenly nervous at his presence, David bowed exactly as Vinnet had taught him and straightened up while watching the Jaffa's toes. He couldn't help but notice that Dehrwin
had cornered him the first time he left his wife's presence. "May I help you?"

Dehrwin's loud, demanding voice unnerved him even more than his imposing presence. "How long have you served your master?"

He shrugged, belatedly realizing a real lotaur might not. The real answer was that he didn't serve her, but he couldn't say that. "About a year."

"How often does she treat you poorly?"

David quickly glanced up to see Dehrwin's expression, but there was no emotion to be read. He still had no clue explaining the Jaffa's purpose. His mind reeling for an answer, he improvised. "She treats me much better than I could ever deserve." It wasn't a lie, and it even sounded humble and subserviant--score one for the fake lotaur!

"Is that so?" Dehrwin retorted. "I heard she reprimanded you this afternoon." He stared at David's folded hands. "Did she also bruise your hands?"

"Yeah..." He looked at his hand, where Sarah's extra-strong grip had been focused while she gave birth. "Um..."

The Jaffa's voice softened. "You need not be treated in such a way."

He frowned, desperately trying to rein in the frustration he felt at not being able to truthfully justify his wife's actions. "You weren't there; you can't judge her by the result of a situation you're unaware of. I was there for her when she needed me."

"I understand your loyalty, but you must not sacrifice your well-being for it."

"It was an isolated incident," he insisted, now forgetting the humble servance facade and glaring at the Jaffa.

Dehrwin stepped forward menacingly. "If you continue in her service, it will no longer be an isolated occurance."

"You don't know that, because you don't know her! You've only known about her for a single day." Shaking his head, David took a quick, deep, calming breath. "You've only been around her for less than a day. After a while, you'll see that she wouldn't do anything to me. Besides, why do you care?"

The Jaffa lowered his head and his voice, as though he were revealing a secret. "I believe in freedom for humans and Jaffa. The Jaffa already have a strong start; humans are still subject to the oppression of the Goa'uld."

"So do you see me as an equal?"

Dehrwin hesitated just a little too long.

"That's fine. It's just a question." He had asked only to determine where he stood in the other's mind. "And it sounds like you're very noble. But I'm not feeling at all oppressed at the moment."

"Vandrof said Senane used to live among the Tau'ri. Is that true?"

He took a moment to recalled what "Tau'ri" meant--Earthlings--before answering cautiously, "Yes."

"Then you are a Tau'ri?"

He swallowed, wondering if he was about to get into trouble. "Yes."

Dehrwin shook his head. "Then how can you have no complaint here? I have heard much of the Tau'ri; they are the ones who end systems such as we have here. How can you be content with that?"

At a loss for an answer, David shrugged. "I just... can."

"Is her host a Tau'ri as well?"

"My wife."

Dehrwin nodded his understanding. "So being her lotaur, you have ample opportunity to sabotage her efforts until you can find someone to remove the Gao'uld and restore your wife to you."

"Of course." It was so nice of him to provide David with a cover story.

"I can do that for you."

The Tau'ri panicked for a moment; he couldn't really let anyone remove Vinnet, who was as much his wife as Sarah was. Then he feigned regret at a lost opportunity. "The SGC gave me this mission. They want me to find out as much about her and where she same from as I can--in case any more Goa'uld can make it to Earth the same way. So until I know that, I can't let you do that."

A bright grin grew on Dehrwin's face as he listened. "We could always interrogate her first."

"No! I couldn't put her through that!"

"But you could allow a Goa'uld to control her, to invade her mind that much longer?" the Jaffa snapped, disgust clear in his empathetic tone.

"To prevent others from going through this? Yes!" Beginning to wonder if the other believed him, David hoped he wouldn't have to resort to the truth; his wives would be furious.

"Interrogation would be an effective means to get that information in a time frame that would allow you to prevent any similar Goa'uld action among the Tau'ri."

"When I say no, I mean it," he insisted, his voice growing louder. "The other Jaffa, the ones she brought with us, are intensely loyal. If they hear wind of any action against her, we're both going to be up a creek."

Dehrwin frowned, missing the meaning of the phrase. "Then when you have your information, how will you put it to use?"

"I'll contact the SGC, who'll send a team here to extract us. I've got it under control. All you should do is create a diversion for the Jaffa when the time comes."

The Jaffa seemed to ignore him. "You could obtain the information you seek from Vandrof. He seems to know much of Senane."

"Yeah, he does." But if he were really a traitor to the Tok'ra, would he be safe speaking to him alone, even if the information he obtained could be valuable to Vinnet?

Haven't forgotten about the Announcement. But as I'm trying to wind down the story, it's getting really sappy, and I can't stand it. I need to get it over and done with, whether it's good or not, but I'm having a hard time thinking with the characters while everything's going on in my life. I'm guessing it may take me until July to get over this bump in the road, but I'm not sure. School won't wind down until June, at which point, I'll be going to SC and either PGSS or PGSA for creative writing, depending on whether I get accepted to the latter. That doesn't end until July, but I'll probably have AP stuff to work on over the summer. So... It's not looking good. Legacy's been bugging me for a few weeks now, and I can't help but work on it. Probably up to fifteen or twenty pages by now, and I can't share until I finish the next two chaps of the Announcement. It's annoying, because I'm really falling in love this with story. It's so different from everything that I've written, which is pretty funny, because it's still fanfiction. But the entire thing has this intense irony permeating each scene which makes you (or at least me) really frustrated with the characters. (Which is fun--it's not often that an author can be frustrated with her characters!) I know what I'm working up to in this story, and have even gotten inspired for a sequel, though I doubt anyone will want to read it. At least it gives me direction for this one. II just wish I could hurry up and finish the next two chapters of the Announcement so I can try to debut Legacy. I doubt anyone's going to like it as fanfiction, though; I should look into switching it over to original fiction, though that'll add some serious amounts of exposition that I'm not sure I can stand. GRR!!!! I wanna write it, but besides being a little stuck, I should be working on other things. Anne's coming in two days, and we're still not ready for her. (Can you imagine me having a sister for a month? This'll be odd!) The guidance office still hasn't gotten back to me on what I'm supposed to do. I'll go to the main office if I don't hear back by Wednesday, though that's cutting it pretty short. The GC's going to wait until I have a study hall, I bet, and that's a whopping three hours before we pick her up. Feels like that'd be cutting it awful close. And this isn't the time I really want to get shortchanged on study halls. I'm behind in about everything. Big history test on Thursday and Friday that I can't stand to study for, but I have to. Reading The Great Gatsby, too. Sorry, Mrs. S, but that book needs to be burned! I don't care if he's got that symbolism stuff and silent depth going throughout it. I'm starting to believe some authors can do that without putting too much forethought into it--that's what it feels like I'm doing in Legacy! It started with my huge plans for Sarah and Vinnet, and then a few more plot bunnies attacked (two), and now it's amazingly complicated. I mean, I don't think I even really considered whether I was going to do the scene with Vandrof (amazing irony, I'm telling you, kinda like the end of Reeses, only more dramatic); I just wrote it. *sigh* Back to the real world. I'm stuck reading Gatsby again. I was so hoping we'd get it over with at the beginning of the year, when it was fresh in my mind and I wouldn't have to read it again. There were some points I wanted to cry when I was reading it, and not for any sympathy for the characters. They can all become Goa'ulds for all I care. *grin* There's a crossover for you! Daisy was really one of Hathor's hosts. Not too pleased with physics at the moment. But, hey, I got accepted to PGSS!!! Now if only I can prove to myself that I can do this science and engineering stuff. The longer I fail at it (aka high B's), the more I wonder if this is really what I want to do. I know it's not my first option, but it is my second. I doubt I can make a living off of writing, not now with my moodiness and laziness.

Ego's getting a nice watering this week. Amanda and Jenn from the school's literary magazine have been complimenting my submission, which is always nice. (Apparently, I wasn't supposed to put my name on it, but when all I saw were the posters, I wasn't so sure about it.) Anyhow, it's nice to know some people around here appreciate it. Like I said, I got accepted to PGSS, too, so that's shiney. Hopefully, though, I'll get accepted to PGSA. Creative writing is *so* much higher on my priorities than science... It comes more naturally.

Wish me luck when I send my story off to Analog magazine. I'm hoping to get a response.
It's getting late, and I should probably be able to think tomorrow. I'll get on later maybe.