you take the blue paian

For Bra'tac and Jaffa Alphabet Soup and (oh so late, mea maxima culpa) Gen Fic Day! With many thanks to fignewton. ♥

Title: Cha'hari (added April 2014 while archiving at AO3)
Rating: All ages
Words: 1240
Season: Post-series, post-Ark of Truth
Spoilers: Everything except Continuum and other Gateverse shows
Summary: At long last, homecoming.


Cha'hari

Bra'tac strode across the trampled meadow towards the shimmering chappa'ai amidst a rumble of staff weapons butted hard on Chulak's ground in respect. No honor guard, the Jaffa posted here; some of the most able and courageous warriors of this planet, they performed, in deadly earnest, a duty as vital in this strange new era of peace as it had been in the countless generations of war that preceded it. And what better delegation could a returning warrior desire?

No priests. No Priors. Only Jaffa, now, at the gateway to this Jaffa world.

Teal'c stepped through onto the stone platform in a swirl of robes. As ever, Bra'tac's heart soared at the sight of him, pleasure tinged with only a mild dismay at the greying temples, the new lines around mouth and eyes. He knew of Teal'c's entrapment in time on the Tau'ri ship and the price he had paid for saving his comrades and the Asgard's legacy. He had also heard of Teal'c's ordeal on Celestis. Surprisingly, the wear of years and suffering paled in comparison with the ravages wrought on him by the Dar Eshkalon massacre and its aftermath. Imposing and inspiring a figure as ever, he seemed more balanced, more at peace, than Bra'tac had seen him in a great while.

He could not suppress a smile and nod of approval as he moved to meet his onetime protégé at the foot of the platform steps. But he sobered as he got a closer view of Teal'c's expression.

For Teal'c, this was the poignant joy of reunion after a long and gruelling campaign, magnified many times over. What had been for Bra'tac a scant -- albeit momentous -- few weeks had been decades for his old friend. Teal'c had tears in his eyes when they gripped each other's arms.

Never had they met this way without another battle on the near horizon. Never had they met this way in a time of peace. Never, in all their lives, had they known a time of peace.

"Tec'ma-te," Teal'c said.

"Tec'ma-te," Bra'tac replied -- greeting him with the honorific in turn, acknowledging Teal'c as equal.

Teal'c's brows lifted almost infinitesimally. He inclined his head, briefly closing his eyes. Bra'tac gave his forearm a bracing shake, his shoulder a hard squeeze, and stepped back.

They turned as one and set off down the road.

"How fare you, old friend?" Teal'c said.

"My armor sits heavy on me now, a councillor's robes heavier still, but in peace and freedom the weight is nothing."

"I bring tidings that may lighten them further."

"News of your triumph with the ark reached us days ago," Bra'tac said. "I witnessed the device's effect at first hand -- a Prior's delusions were lifted away before my eyes." He snorted at the memory of the Ori propagandist's epiphany. "We Jaffa confronted the truth of oppressors we had served for millennia, and no man, woman or child among us crumpled into such a pathetic mewling thing."

"They did not take it well," Teal'c agreed. "But it is not the Ori War of which I speak."

"What, then?"

"Research conducted on board Odyssey suggested that the life-prolonging properties of tretonin far surpass those of the larval Goa'uld. What we have lost in physical power and accelerated healing we should by all indications regain in an increased life span." He laid a hand on Bra'tac's shoulder. "You should have many years to chafe in those councillor's robes."

Enough time to make his peace with the prospect of an unknowable afterlife, or no afterlife at all? Bra'tac's belief in the gods had not been torn from him; he had lost it gradually, over years, contradiction by inconsistency, as the evidence of falsehood had mounted. Dakara they had lost in violent cataclysm, a blow to the fledgling unity of the Free Jaffa. But in a deeper, more grievous wound to Bra'tac personally, they had lost Kheb, finding the place of the glorious warrior afterlife to be a world like any other. He feared only death with dishonor, not death itself; he had been injured to the point of death as many times as he had fingers to count them with; with the gods and the afterlife discredited, he had filled the void of faith with a cause he had expected to die for. Now the battles were done, and he found himself, somewhat perplexingly, alive -- with no idea, now, what he did believe.

He would welcome the time to find out.

"Such news must be celebrated," he said. "My house weathered the Ori bombardment and stands ready to receive you."

"I would enjoy nothing more than to share the noon meal with you," Teal'c said, "but I have business to complete in the city and my time is somewhat short -- "

"This gift of prolonged life and you cannot spare an hour for your old master? Indulge your elder, Teal'c."

With the beginnings of an amused smile, Teal'c said, "You are still my master, Bra'tac, as you have ever been and will ever be. But you are my elder no longer."

Bra'tac cast him a sharp and curious look, then did a quick, approximate mental calculation. Chulak took longer to orbit its binary star than Earth took to orbit Sol. It was quite possible that the thirty years' difference in their ages, as reckoned here, was roughly equivalent to the fifty Terran years Teal'c had aged in one blink of Bra'tac's eyes.

Bra'tac shook his head and chuckled. "I once called you the son I never had. Now it seems you are also the brother I have always had."

"You honor me," Teal'c said. Then he took a look around, and frowned. "We have taken a wrong turning."

"Not at all," Bra'tac said, having altered their path deliberately while Teal'c was absorbed in the conversation. "It's only a little farther now."

Teal'c began, "But this is the way to ... "

Then they were over the rise and rounding the bend in the road, and Teal'c pulled up short.

Teal'c had long desired to raise a new house on the site of the one Apophis burned, and his business in the city was to arrange for the start of construction. He had no idea that after their wedding Rya'c and Kar'yn had undertaken the building in secret, and through two long years of conflict with the Ori had shepherded the project to completion. The last Ori attacks had done some damage, and since Teal'c had messaged his intent to visit they had been feverishly making repairs. Bra'tac was charged with keeping Teal'c busy while they applied the finishing touches -- without letting him near anyone who would casually mention the new house, and without letting him disappear into the city on errands into the evening hours. But Teal'c was stubborn, Bra'tac knew when a tactic had failed, and this was really the way he'd thought all along that it should go: no prearranged presentation, but Teal'c coming upon Rya'c and Kar'yn unnoticed while they did the things that made a house a home -- working, laughing, bickering, teasing.

In an hour, others would arrive. Ishta, Raknor; other friends from the city and from Hak'tyl; neighbors old and new. There would be food, drink, festivities. For this brief moment, there was just Teal'c and the sight of his children and their labor of love.

And Bra'tac, who stood by his side, and said, "Welcome home, old man."

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