Pale Battalions, by Beatrice Otter (PG-13)

[sg-fignewton.livejournal.com]

Rec Category: Teal’c

Pairing: Teal'c/Drey'auc

Categories: Teal’c, Bra'tac, angst, drama, character study, pre-series

Warnings: none

Author on LJ: beatrice_otter

Author's Website: Beatrice Otter's stories at ff.net

Link: Pale Battalions

 

Why This Must Be Read: Teal'c goes home after a glorious battle in Apophis' name.

 

Too many people forget that Teal'c carries the burden of decades of personal history in the service of Apophis. In Pale Battalions, Beatrice Otter gives us a younger Teal'c, going through the motions – not quite ready to rebel, but all too aware that something is wrong.

 

There's bleakness contrasted by the easy convictions of those around him, and the hollowness of victory and reward when flashbacks of death still haunt him. This isn't the Teal'c we know, not yet – but this is the man who will become that Teal'c, and it's marvelous to catch a glimpse of the stirring of doubt and disillusion.

 

This story was remixed into the incredible None But Ourselves by cofax7, which carries the painful thread of this forward to SG-1's time. But Pale Battalions is a weighty, thoughtful piece in its own right: a Teal'c who wonders, and watches, but still goes through the motions. Read this one and savor.

 

Teal’c slogged through the mud using his staff as a crutch, his men trailing behind him. The stench of battle and of death lingered in his nostrils, along with blood from his own wounds. In the distance, he could hear the desultory sounds of staff blasts as the last resistance in the city was dealt with; he knew sieges well enough to fill in the other sounds of a city being sacked. It was not his custom to dwell on such things; Apophis had decreed the planet and its city be taken from his enemy, and it had been a glorious battle in His name. That the inhabitants had refused to bow down before their new god was predictable, as were the consequences. But it had been a long, hard fight, and his heart was elsewhere.