Title: Faith
Category: Gen
Summary: A Teal'c based fiction about beliefs
Disclaimer: The characters and premise are not mine.
I do not make any money
from writing this.
On Chulak many things have changed, but not all things have moved forwards. Some things have in fact moved back. Faith in old Gods. Kept alive in secret lest Apophis find the ruins of temples from before his time. Even during that dark time why I myself believed Apophis to be a God I visited the temples. It was comforting to me. I still do not know why I do so, I do not think many who frequent the worships understand why they defied their faith in Apophis to partake of ancient rites and hymns.
For six years now I have wandered the galaxy to free people from the Goa'uld. "They are not Gods!" I proclaim. "They are false Gods. They impersonate your beliefs so that you will serve them!" It is true of course, but something dies in their eyes when they loose their beliefs. Countless millions have lost their beliefs in exchange for freedom. Their damaged faiths. It hurts to behold. An old Jaffa saying tells me that 'a man is not measured by his actions in battle but by the faith in his heart'. I took comfort in this. Finding solace in my faith in freedom and my quest to free all Jaffa. At least I did.
How many Jaffa who I have endeavoured to save have met death by my hand? Can I really claim to help these people when so many Jaffa women and children are alone, even in their freedom? I have lost my faith in freedom. I still believe it is my duty to help bring it to my people but I know now that freedom is not the infinite healer I once thought it to be.
Yet even as I loose my faith in faith itself I am drawn to the old Gods. Yes the Goa'uld have taken their images and twisted them to serve their own sickening purpose but there was a time when Jaffa, or humans at that time, had faith in those Gods even though they did not walk among them.
Yes, if I must have faith then let it be in these silent and ancient watchers. Gods who do not ask us for war or bloodshed but who have outlasted the millennia's in wait for faith to be born anew. In this I may find comfort, as so many others have.
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