Prologue

She walked proudly between the pillars of the Sun God's temple, skirts swirling around her graceful ankles, head held high as fitting for a Queen and a Goddess – despite the armored guards that surrounded her. The figure awaiting her on the throne regarded her through an impassive golden mask.

"You are as beautiful as a star in the night sky, Amaunet," Ra said in the deep tones of a Goa'uld. He stood, and the mask retracted, revealing the finely-chiseled face of a young man. He moved slowly toward her, trailing shimmering golden robes behind him. The guards withdrew to a respectful distance.

"I thought you preferred the shining light of the day, Supreme Lord. Fair skin, hair as red as the dawn..."

Ra's eyes flashed in sudden anger at the reference to his first Queen. "You know what I desire."

"Of course, Supreme Lord. All Goa'uld know what you desire. You need a queen to supply your Jaffa."

"Yes, I need a queen. And the coloring of the host is not important." Like one of his cats, he stalked around her, pausing briefly to stroke the dark, silky hair that trailed down her back, so much like his own. Then he turned, and walked over to touch a spot on the temple wall not far from where Amaunet stood. "The last one had eyes like the sky and hair like the midday sun, but unfortunately, she proved to be a complete disappointment."

Amaunet's resolve wavered, and she couldn't prevent a glance in the direction he indicated. Her unwilling eyes traced the carved symbols which marked the place where Ra's most recent queen had been entombed alive.

She forced her attention to the heavy chains around her wrists. "Perhaps she didn't like the jewelry you chose for her."

Ra gave a cruel laugh. "No, it was my seed that she rejected. She thought that she could usurp me by imprinting the spawn with her own seed." His eyes narrowed. "Of course, her deception was revealed when her first child took a host. It was a simple thing to confirm the child had her memories, not mine."

"Foolish, indeed. She must have been very young." Or else she so hated you that she preferred certain execution to continued servitude, Amaunet thought.

"She was young. I believed that she would give me children for long ages to come. And now I am presented with a problem. I need children for my Jaffa, and I have no Queen to produce them. "

"I am the Queen of Apophis. Why would I produce children for the enemy of my lord?"

"Because I cannot permit him to have a queen when I do not. And because I think that you would not want to join her in the wall."

"Has this not been the end of every queen that has caught your interest? Or is Hathor bathing in your pool? Is Egeria walking in your garden?" She looked around, as if she expected to see them at any moment.

Ra's smile faded. "You know that it is death to speak those names in my presence. But such is my need that I will overlook your error, this once." He ran a long finger over the carving on the wall. "Perhaps I should have said that you would not want to join my most recent queen this moment. Produce children for me, from my seed, and I will permit you to live. I may even allow Apophis to ransom you after you have filled the bellies of my Jaffa. Refuse me, and I will have another queen to decorate the wall of this temple." He nodded to his First Prime.

Amaunet felt heavy hands on her shoulders, pushing her down. Resigned to her fate, she went to her knees before Ra without resistance. She had expected this ending from the moment Ra's Jaffa appeared in her temple. There had been no time to escape or call to Apophis for help. Her lord had been far away, engaged in a battle with one of Ra's underlings – a battle that she now knew to have been a diversion, to her bitter sorrow. Though she might pay with her life, she would never provide children to the enemy of her lord and pharaoh.

She felt her host's heart begin to pound, and cursed the intricate strands that linked her superior systems to those of the slave. She couldn't suppress a slight flinch when the First Prime pointed his staff weapon at her chest, and then snapped it open.

"Do you refuse me?" Ra demanded.

Amaunet kept her gaze fixed straight ahead, denying the Sun God even the small pleasure of seeing her look up at him. "I will die before I betray my Pharaoh."

Ra stepped back from her, and reactivated his mask in preparation for her sentence. "If you will not produce children for me, O Queen of the Night, then you will not produce them for my enemy. You will either die with this host, or you will leave it and be sealed into the wall of this temple until it is my pleasure to release you. Know that if I find another queen, you will dwell in your chosen darkness for all eternity."

"My Pharaoh will rescue me," Amaunet said softly.

"I think not," Ra answered. "But a Goa'uld queen is a great treasure. I do hope you choose to leave the host before it dies." He turned away with a terrible finality.

The last thing that Amaunet heard with her host's ears was the roar of the staff weapon. There was a dazzling flash of light and sudden, searing pain. The room tilted crazily as the impact threw her backwards, slamming her violently to the floor.

The host was dying. She considered allowing herself to perish along with it, but her faith in Apophis was strong. He would save her. Quickly, Amaunet severed the links between the host's body and her own, and then drove herself through the back of the throat and out of the mouth. She was surprised by the sensation of the smooth, cold tile of the temple floor against her true skin. But before she had a chance to regain control of her natural form, the First Prime of Ra grasped her tightly and lifted her into the air. She flared her neck, flailed her tail, and screamed in rage and anguish. He held the canopic jar up before her, taunting her with the sight of her prison, and then swiftly plunged her inside. She had only a moment to grieve for herself and her Pharaoh before she was swallowed by the darkness.

On Earth, Daniel Jackson was enrolling for his first semester at UCLA.

A/N: After rewatching the first season, I had many questions about Amaunet. Before she takes a host, Apophis describes her as "his future queen" and "my love." Just after taking a host, she is already devoted to him enough to risk her life to shield him from Jack's bullets in the pilot episode: behavior that is very unlike the typical Goa'uld. How could such a deep relationship have developed between a mature Goa'uld and a larva?

At the end of season 1, Korel describes himself as the son of Apophis, stating that Apophis had "seeded the Queen Mother." But we see with Hathor and Egeria that Goa'uld queens reproduce asexually. So which is it? Aside from that problem, there is never any indication that Apophis had another queen besides Amaunet. If both Amaunet and Klorel mature at the same time, how can she be Korel's mother? If Amaunet has just taken a host for the first time, then where has Apophis been getting the symbiotes for his Jaffa? So, I decided that Amaunet must have been a Goa'uld queen not in title only, but in fact. She must have been capable of spawing symbiotes, and she must have had a host prior to the pilot episode, especially since she existed in Egyptian mythology. It seems unlikely that there would have been two Amaunets among the System Lords, or that a newly-matured symbiote would take the name of a previous Queen. Maybe some of these questions will be answered differently in the re-release of the pilot, but until then, that's my analysis.

Finally, I always wanted to see some interaction between Daniel and Amaunet, beyond the moments we get in Forever in a Day. So, later chapters will have an encounter between them that could have happened in the series.

As always, I'm looking forward to your reviews!