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sga_episodefic2009-01-21 09:03 am
Fic: Devil's In The House of the Rising Sun by Sian1359 (Vegas)
Title: Devil's In the House of the Rising Sun
Author: Sian1359
For the SGA Flashfic 2008 Amnesty: Gods and Monsters Challenge
Series: First in my Vegas 'Verse
Pairing: YMMV; this can be interpreted as slash or gen
Rating: Anyone
Genre: Episode Tag
Warnings: None
Episode: 5.19 Vegas
Word Count: ~600; don't think I've ever written something this short intentionally
Disclaimers: Think of me as a modern day Mallory or a garage cover band. The characters aren't mine, but this interpretation is.
Notes: A link for this was up on this journal briefly right after the episode, but I'd violated the posting rules here in order to not violate the ones over at SGA Flashfic; now that the particular challenge has finished, I'm posting it here, at my own lj and over the SGAVegas community.
Summary: After the fade to black
"Where in the hell am I? I was --"
"Dying in the desert? Yes, you were, John Sheppard."
"Okay." John blinked away the after images of two Warthogs screaming overhead and an explosion fading into a darkening sky. He was pretty sure there had been stars.
"So this is heaven? Hugh and Georgie will be so relieved. Or is this Hell?"
He spent another few seconds looking out over the skyline of The Strip, having already automatically placed himself in one of the rooms on the top floor of The Palms despite that being one of the casino hotels he wasn't exactly welcome in these days. Not after he'd busted one of young
When he turned around, the woman behind him took a seat, but not before he catalogued her … assets. A redhead with flawless skin, a young face and old eyes. Someone his father would have called a bombshell and his mother an old soul -- like she was something unique and special in a town that produced showgirls by the thousands. Instead of a Playboy Bunny's get up, or even the sequins and feathers of a
In front of her were two hands of two cards, dealt face down. She picked up the rest of the deck (no logo on the back that he recognized; some sort of stylized open A with a circle over its apex) and began expertly shuffling them through long, elegant fingers without ever breaking her gaze with him.
"Okay," John repeated and took a step toward the table. "I lose and it's Hell? I live in
She only offered him a
John took a seat. "You have a name?"
"I have many. Some call me Ancestor, other's Ancient. The creature you defeated before he killed you called me Enemy."
John flicked his eyes down his torso. The blood was missing, the bullet and shrapnel holes gone too although he could still feel the phantom pains of bleeding out. Nothing new; he'd been feeling that pain for six years. He was still wearing the same shirt and jacket from earlier, could feel the scruff of a couple day's worth of beard and a lifetime's worth of failure.
"You may call me Chaya."
He looked up into waiting eyes and then nodded.
"So this is what, a chance for redemption?"
"Do you need redemption, John?"
"I'm human, aren't I?"
That earned him a twinkle in her other-worldly eyes. Funny, how that word had suddenly been redefined in the last couple of days.
"If you like," she offered and tapped one of those manicured fingernails against his cards. The polish was a shimmer of aqua green that managed to look natural instead of an affectation.
"What's the game? Poker? Blackjack? Baccarat?"
"Do you play any of those better than the others?" Her smile returned, all-knowing, the kind he hated although he was pretty damn good at sporting one of them himself.
"If I played any of them well, I wouldn't be here." In Vegas -- in Purgatory.
"Then it shouldn't matter, right?" she laughed with the tinkling of church bells. Her hands again shuffled the deck and offered it to him.
"What would you prefer, John?
John waited a slow beat, letting a slow grin take over his face. The flash of startling blue eyes and a crooked frown blotted out her perfect features.
"Deal. I'm all in."
And he turned over a pair of Aces.
- finis -
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thanks!
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http://community.livejournal.com/sga_flashfic/844529.html#cutid1
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