Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

1. The Mark is The Mark is The Mark

It’s the first, second and last rule of the con; the mark is the mark is the mark.

Vala reminds herself of the rule as she smoothes a hand down her tight black leather outfit and checks her image in the mirror.

Don’t think about the mark as a person, as someone with feelings and emotions that will be hurt or humiliated by your actions. Don’t think of their history or their future.

Don’t think about their kind blue eyes.

She snaps shut the case with the tablet and bracelets. Daniel Jackson is just another mark.

2. Don’t Get Caught

The problem is that she’s not good at being good when she knows the rules never mind when she doesn’t. In hindsight, her attempt to pretend to be Sallis was doomed from the start.

She can see Daniel struggling, begging for her to be released. She’s fighting to get free but she can’t. She finds herself shackled to a bench in the middle of an elaborate structure with liquid fire racing toward her.

Vala’s done many, many things but she believes with all her heart that she doesn’t deserve a fiery death. She hears Daniel cry out as the fire takes her.

And then she’s alive again.

But as the Prior leads her and Daniel away from the village, she can’t help but think that they haven’t truly escaped.

3. Don’t Give Away Your Secrets

Vala misses sex.

That’s all it is.

That’s the only reason why she finds herself in Daniel’s bed. Daniel is a man and conveniently attractive. She is a healthy, attractive woman. They can have some fun.

His dispassionate dissection of her psyche cuts her too close to the bone. She’s hurt and talking before she thinks, letting slip all the horrifying truth of her past. She stumbles to a halt and is appalled at herself.

Daniel starts to sympathise. She really doesn’t think she can take that and, as if he knows, he suddenly changes tack and accuses her of lying.

The relief is almost overwhelming and she lets him think the worst. It’s better than him truly knowing who she is.

4. Never Tell The Truth

The truth is a fluid thing. Vala believes that wholeheartedly. People will believe what they want to believe; hear what they want to hear. There is no value in telling the truth.

None.

Daniel thinks otherwise which doesn’t explain why Vala gives in to his plea to do the right thing and tells the inhabitants of P8X412 that she’s not a God.

Truth is the path to enlightenment. Ha! Truth is the path to prison.

And if the trial wasn’t enough to convince her that telling the truth is a Bad Idea, the Prior showing up is.

5. Only Look Out for Number One

The answer to the problem of the Supergate is obvious but they’re not listening. But then why would they? Sure, they play ball games with her but she’s still just a backing singer.

What she should do is ring over to the Jaffa ship, commandeer it and get the hell out of there. But there’s a memory of fire licking across her skin; another of the people she had protected as a God forced to prostrate to the Ori; Daniel and his insane attachment for the truth.

So she’s saving the galaxy and risking her life and cursing Daniel under her breath because this is All His Fault. She heads to the rings with the vague hope that it isn’t too late to save herself too, but then…

She wakes up in a bed. A man is watching her; Tomin. He tells her that he found her, that she’s been sent to him by the Ori.

Vala’s heart sinks but she shoves thoughts of Daniel and Earth and home out of her head. She smiles at Tomin and remembers the first rule of the con: the mark is the mark is the mark.

fin.