Chapter Text
With a loud thud, Sam’s body was thrown through the stargate. Sparks flew all around the small cave as her body was thrown out of the fuming ancient device.
The blonde woman let out a pained groan. Her body kept rolling down, hitting sharp stone after sharp stone before it finally hit the wall on the opposite side of the Stargate.
Blood dripped down her forehead and chin, coming to pool down on the dirty ground of the cave. Glassy blue eyes blinked once and then twice before they didn’t open again.
In another section of the cave, not too far away, large golden eyes opened and turned sharply towards the sound that had disturbed the Bronze Fury’s sleep. Vermithor blinked a couple of times before lifting his heavy form from where it had been curled around Silverwing.
The silver and blue dragon also rose from where it had been lying. The two dragons seemed to communicate with each other as they turned their heads towards each other. Vermithor was the first one to move forward, his nose sniffing the ground as he went down the path that led to the sound that had disturbed the two dragons.
It didn’t take the dragons too long to find the woman who lay broken and bloodied on the ground.
Silverwing approached the vulnerable human first, gently nudging the woman with her wing.
Sam let out another groan but still didn’t wake up from her state of unconsciousness.
The silver dragon huffed, as if annoyed, her breath sending Sam’s hair into further disarray. As gently as she could, Silverwing nudged the unconscious woman around, causing Sam to shift and end up lying on her back.
Vermithor’s large form moved around Silverwing and Sam. The bronze fury’s huge tail hit the Stargate.
The device shook and more sparks came from it hitting both dragons.
Enraged Vermithor unleashed his flames on the device and feeling like that hadn’t caused enough damage, the huge beast swiped at the ancient device with its tail, sending, what most believed to be an indestructible creation, into little pieces that could not have been much bigger than the woman who lay on the ground.
Silverwing, gentle and caring as she was despite her size, covered Sam with one of her wings, making sure that none of the flying pieces could do further damage to the already battered and bruised body of the unconscious blonde.
The silver dragon let out a low growl as the last of the decries settled on the ground. Slowly she lifted her wing, lowered her head to the ground, and looked intently at the blonde woman before nudging her with her head.
The injured figure on the ground let out a pained whimper but remained unconscious.
This time both Vermithor and Silverwing snorted, neither of the two knowing what to make of the woman that had appeared out of nowhere.
After a few more moments of careful consideration, Silverwing gently moved her head, opening her mouth and gripping Sam's backpack with her huge and terrifying sharp teeth.
Sam was held above the ground like a little kitten would be held by its mother.
Now with her new friend firmly in her grasp, Silverwing made her way back to where she and Vermithor had been lying down. With the utmost care, the silver dragon lowered Sam to the ground and curled her huge form around the broken woman. She let out a low rumble when Vermithor too laid down next to her and curled his form around her. His tail came all the way around and was carefully, or as carefully as he could, placed around Sam.
She ran as fast as she could. One foot in front of the other until she could see the stargate only a few clicks away.
Daniel was already by the DHD his hands flying over the device as he entered Earth’s address. Teal’c ran only a few steps ahead of Sam, carrying in his arms an unconscious Jack, with blood covering most of his shirt.
Suddenly the stargate came to life, the wormhole forming and retreating almost in the same breath.
“Go, Daniel!” Sam ordered. Her voice was hard to hear over the noise of the Jaffas staff weapons.
The archeologist did as he was told, glancing back one last time before stepping through the gate, only barely able to avoid the blast that had been aimed at his head.
Teal’c was already up the stairs but the alien was unable to move quickly enough to avoid the shot that came in his direction. The force of the blast to his back sent him propelling forward and to Sam’s relief towards the gate with the Colonel still firmly in his grasp.
Sam was only a few feet behind the rest of her team. She glanced back one last time at the approaching enemy. Just as she was about to step through the gate, a blast hit the DHD. Sparks flew everywhere, coming from both the gate and the dialing device. There was nothing the blonde Air Force officer could do at that moment, with one leg already through the gate and the momentum of the run, the only thing Sam could do was stare in panic as her body was thrown into the malfunctioning gate.
Vermithor shifted again, his huge form causing the floor around him to tremble slightly.
Sam curled deeper into herself, sending more dust into her wounds. She moaned in pain.
Rhaenyra was making her way to Syrax when she heard Vermithor's deep rumble, causing her to stop almost immediately in her tracks.
The young Targaryen princess had been hoping to fly into the skies for a few hours to get her mind out of the chaos that was her life in the ground, but the sound Vermithor produced made her realize that she probably wasn’t going anywhere.
With a raised eyebrow, Rhaenyra swirled around in her place and started heading down the path she was sure would take her to Vermithor who was most likely curled around Silverwing.
Rhaenyra had to admit, even if it was only to herself, that the two dragons were rather endearing. It was lovely to see that the bond between the late king and queen continued alive, even if only through their dragons.
Vermithor let out a louder and somehow more frightening growl, which had Rhaenyra picking up her pace.
Her feet carried her through the dragon pit with speed she had rarely used there unless it was to go see her sweet Syrax.
It only took her a few more moments before she arrived at the place where Vermithor rested. The beast's rumble was even more deafening from here. It made Rhaenyra’s bones tremble.
The young Targaryen princess took a deep, fortifying breath before walking down the stone path that would put her face to face with Vermithor. Her steps were sure and in mere moments she was close enough to peer down.
What she saw shocked her. Vermoithor and Silverwing were curled around each other like they usually were. That didn’t surprise Rhaenyra at all, what did surprise her, was the fact that this time the two dragons were curled around another figure.
The two dragons seemed to be protecting the broken body that lay on the ground of the place they both called home
Rhaenyra was thankful for the fact that she knew the dragonpit like the back of her hand. She might not know it as well as Rhaenys, who could navigate it in the dark, but she knew it well enough, and in no time at all she was descending the steps until she could reach the two dragons and the blonde woman.
As soon as Rhaenyra placed her foot on the ground, Vermithor’s head snapped around to stare at the young princess. At the same time, Silverwing’s wings extended and one of them partially hid the body on the ground.
Rhaenyra swallowed hard before squaring her shoulders and staring right into Vermithor’s eyes. "Gīda ilagon, nyke jaelagon naejot dohaeragon"
The bronze dragon kept looking at her for a few more moments before finally giving in and retreating. Silverwing did the same thing, lifting her wing and allowing Rhaenyra to see and inspect the blonde woman.
Biting her lip, Rhaenyra stepped forward, her eyes still on Vermithor as she walked until she reached the woman.
Once she was sure she was safe, or as safe as she could be in front of two dragons she was not bonded with, Rhaenyra knelt next to the woman and swept her chin-length blonde hair away from her face.
Rhaenyra gasped. The blonde’s face was covered in bruises and cuts. One of the said cuts was quite large and on her forehead. The cut bled like there was no tomorrow and stained the hair red.
“What the?” Rhaenyra muttered. The clothes the woman wore finally registered in the young princess’s mind. The green pants and jacket were unlike anything Rhaenyra had ever seen before.
That was it for Rhaenyra. She started making her way back up the stone steps, calling out to the dragon keepers as she did so.
Two men appeared at the top of the stairs just as Rhaenyra arrived at the top too.
She was panting when she got there and said in between gasped breaths, “Send for the maesters! There’s an injured woman with Vermithor and Silverwing.”
The two men looked at each other before one ran away to do as he was told, and the other followed Rhaenyra back down to Vermithor’s lair.
When they got there the blonde was starting to come around. She blinked once, twice, before letting out a groan.
Rhaenyra stepped forward, looking down at the blonde and offering her a smile. It seemed that the blonde wasn’t quite ready to meet Rhaenyra yet, for she passed out again only moments later.
Thankfully Rhaenyra could already hear the other dragon keeper and the maesters rushing down to help them.
“Sammy!” Debra Carter’s voice echoed through the wind, her laughter reaching Sam as the toddler ran ahead of her mother with blonde pigtails that were blown back by the wind.
Sam giggled, using her little legs to run away as fast as she could. Just as she looked back again at her mother, she stumbled forward and fell to her knees.
She bit her lip as her eyes started welling up with tears. Debra reached her just then, kneeling in front of the young girl and offering her a little smile.
“Did you get hurt?” she asked while sweeping back Sam’s bangs which always seemed to get in her eyes.
Sam nodded and when she blinked, a handful of tears fell down her cheeks.
“Oh my sweet girl, that’s alright,” Debra murmured, gathering Sam in her arms and wiping the dirt from the little scratch on her knee. “Can Mama kiss it better?”
Sam nodded and buried her face in her mother’s neck, “Please,” she said pitifully.
———-
Rhaenyra trailed behind an entourage of guards and maesters as they carried the blonde woman through the castle and towards one of the chambers that had been hastily arranged so the maesters could tend to the woman, and so she could rest somewhere more comfortable.
Once they reached the door to said chamber, one of the guards opened it and the other one who was carrying the blonde stepped inside.
The maester stopped at the door and turned to look at Rhaenyra, “Your Grace, perhaps you should stay here while we-“ he was cut off by Rhaenyra who shook her head.
Rhaenyra looked the older man squarely in the eye and said, “And I believe it is best I stay, at least until we know how she came to be in Vermithor’s lair.”
The Maester stared back at the young princess, ready to argue that he knew better and that she should leave. He was, however, prevented from doing so by a gasp and a groan coming from inside the room, which were quickly followed by one of the guards rushing back outside.
“The lady, she’s waking,” he said, his eyes wide as he looked at the Maester.
Rhaenyra and the Maester looked at each other for a split second before both walked inside the chamber with the guard following behind them.
The blonde woman was just starting to come around when they all stepped inside the chamber.
Everyone seemed to hold their breath as her eyes moved back and forth under her eyelids before she finally managed to slowly blink them open.
She blinked once, twice, and then a third time before her ocean-blue eyes locked onto Rhaenyra’s.
Rhaenyra in turn looked back at the woman and offered her a small smile.
“Where-” the woman started but couldn’t say much more as she was overcome by a coughing fit that had her doubling over in pain.
“Do not try to move,” the Maester said as he placed his hand on Sam’s shoulder, preventing her from moving anymore and injuring herself further.
“The colonel,” the blonde said in between gasped breaths as she tried to get her coughing fit under control.
Rhaenyra frowned, looking down at the strange woman who had lost consciousness just as fast as she had gained it.
She moved back, allowing the Maester space to work, her eyes still narrowed as she whispered to herself, “Colonel.” The word felt foreign on her tongue.
She watched as the Maester worked, removing the blonde’s strange clothes and leaving her in even stranger underthings.
The body that was uncovered piece by piece was full of bruises and cuts Rhaenyra couldn’t help but wince, sure that it all had to be extremely painful.
She was also sure that were she the one in that bed she wouldn’t have been able to regain consciousness once, much less twice like the woman before her had.
Once the Maester was finished he turned back to Rhaenyra his eyebrows drawn into a deep frown, “The lady is gravely injured but what worries me most is the fever that has taken hold of her.” he glanced back at the body on the bed before adding, “I shall try and see if we can break it through the night.”
The young Targaryen princess nodded, her eyes drifting back to the figure on the bed. “Very well,” she finally said, “I shall inform the King of our new and quite unexpected guest.”
She left to do as she said she would, but before going to see her father she stopped in another room. The one she had seen the guards take the blonde’s belongings to.
They were strange. They were things she had never seen before in all her life.
One of them in particular captured her attention. It was weirdly shaped, it seemed almost like a snake.
Rhaenyra stepped closer to the table. Her hand moved closer to the strange object. With a deep breath, she took it in hand, turning it this and that, trying to figure out what the object could be for.
With a last turn of her hand and last look, Rhaenyra placed the strange object back on the table. She gave everything on top of it a last look before leaving to go in search of her father.
She found him, not surprisingly, working on his model of Old Valyria, working on tiny little details that she was sure no one would ever see or care about.
“Rhaenyra,” her father said once he noticed she had walked into the room.
She greeted him with a soft smile, “Father.”
Viserys looked at his daughter, his brows furrowing as he noted her pensive look. “Were you not going to fly with Syrax?”
The princess nodded, her eyes fixed on the tiny pieces that would be added to the miniature model of the city. “I was, but something rather important came up,” she said vaguely and Viserys' interest was picked.
“Is everything alright?” he asked.
She nodded and finally looked away from the city’s model to look at her father. “There was a woman in Vermithor and Silverwing’s lair,” she revealed at last, “An injured woman,” she added only a few moments later.
Viserys was quiet for a few moments before he found the question he wanted to ask first, “Was she alive?”
She nodded, “Yes, she was with the Maester when I left her,” she answered, “She came around two times, but not long enough for the guards to ask her anything.”
Viserys nodded, running his hand over his cheek and through his platinum blond hair. “How were Vermithor and Silverwing?”
“Protective of her. They were both curled around her. She looked like just a dot in between their massive forms.”
Not knowing what to say about that, Viserys did nothing else but nod.
Seeing her father’s struggle, Rhaenyra spoke again, “She wears clothes I’ve never seen before. They are pants, but of a material I have never seen before. She also had some strange objects with her, but I cannot figure out what they are for.”
Finally, Viserys found his voice, “I’d like to see her once she wakes up.”
“I will ask the maester to warn you once she does,” Rhaenyra said before she turned to leave the room without looking back at her father.
Sam trashed back and forth. Sweat dripped down her brow, her chin blonde hair curled and clung to her neck.
Her body was burning up with a fever and nothing the maester had done so far had helped lower it. She had been stripped of most of her clothes, leaving her only in the underwear she had been wearing when she was found.
Her bandages had been swapped out two times already, for her wounds had bled out and rendered the bandages useless.
Sam woke with a start, her body seemed to start over as she shook awake. Bleary blue eyes opened a few times. A groan left her lips as she tried to open her mouth.
A man appeared before her eyes, his clothes strange and not like something she would see every day.
Sam tried to sit up in bed but she wasn’t strong enough and her arms slipped out from under her.
“Do not,” the maester said as he helped Sam rearrange her injured body on the bed.
Sam looked frantically back and forth. Somehow she managed to lift herself into a sitting position while trying as hard as she could to hide the panic that was slowly starting to creep in.
With great effort she opened her mouth and spoke, “My team?” she managed to say, immediately feeling her jaw and bone cheek explode with pain.
The maester frowned, unsure of what the strange woman could be speaking of.
“Colonel, Daniel, Teal’c?” Sam tried again.
The maester still didn’t understand so he simply ignored her, “You have a fever,” he started, “It seems it has lowered some, but it is not as low as I wished it would be.”
Sam didn’t answer; she simply let herself fall back against the mattress with a heavy groan.
“You should rest, it’ll help you heal faster,” the maester said with a note of finality in his tone.
Any other time Sam would have fought, would have asked where she was, what had happened where the hell her team was, and why weren’t they with her. But this time she didn’t. She was far too hurt and tired to do more than close her eyes and fall back into unconsciousness.
The maester glanced at her one last time before leaving the chambers and finally leaving Sam alone.
Rhaenys was making her way to Viserys chambers when she saw the Hightower girl walking in the same direction as she.
It didn’t take more than a couple of seconds for Alicent to realize Rhaenys was also there. The girl stopped walking all of a sudden and looked at Rhaneys, the princess who was the perfect mix between the Baratheon and the Targaryen.
“Lady Alicent,” Rhaenys greeted as she looked down at the redhead.
Alicent’s hands immediately began to fidget and she pulled even harder at her already torn cuticles, “Princess Rhaenys, it is good to see you well,” The young girl said. Her eyes darted nervously back and forth, never really focusing on the Targaryen princess in front of her.
“May I ask what you are doing in this corridor at this hour of the day, or night, one might say?” It wasn’t really a question, more of a demand and Alicnet knew it, so she answered.
“My father thought the king should not be left alone after the events of today, and since King Jaeherys once found comfort in my reading, my father thought King Viserys could benefit from the same,” Alicent explained.
Rhaenys’ eyes narrowed of their own accord. For several seconds she didn’t say anything. She simply studied the young girl in front of her, who was not much older than her own daughter, Laena.
Finally, Rhaenys spoke, “I think your best friend, Rhaenyra, will benefit far more from your company than the king will. After all, he has me and Daemon, and Rhaenyra has no one.”
Alicent opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. Her eyes however shone with gratitude as she tilted her head down and stared at the floor.
“Send my best regards and my love to Rhaenyra, when you see her.” when Alicent finally looked back at Rhaenys, the older woman offered the younger one a slight smile. “Off you go.”
Alicent simply nodded before she hurried back down the way she came.
Still rooted to her spot, Rhaenys shook her head.
Did Otto really believe that Viserys would fall into bed with Alicent on the same day his daughter had burnt her mother and brother’s dead bodies in front of them all?
Did Otto really think Viserys would have fallen into bed with Alicent only hours after his wife had been sliced open so their son could live?
Would Viserys have?
The questions lingered in her mind, but she didn’t have time to answer them, for the ground shook and not far away a loud growl was heard.
Rhaenys steadied herself on a wall and closed her eyes.
How much worse could this day get before it ended?