Fanfic / River of Stars

River of Stars is a Stargate SG-1 and Saiyuki crossover fic written by Vathara on Archive of Our Own.

Two years ago, an SGC/Tok'ra mission on Shangri-La went badly wrong. The local Goa'uld Queen took advantage... and the survivors just found their way home.

Genjyo Sanzo, meet the Tok'ra. It's going to be messy.

Contains the following tropes

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Oh, boy...
  • After their mission went bad, Dr Kouryuu Genjyo and Captain Joseph Sha were stranded upon a Death World, with Sha being turned into a hanyou through medical torture and Genjyo almost drowning in a river. Both were extensively mind-fucked by their experiences.
  • Cho Hakkai gets possessed by his brother-in-law against his will, is forcefully turned into a youkai and later is accused from said brother-in-law's crimes.
• Adaptation Species Change: A lot of this, since it's a fusion fic. First and foremost, Kanzeon Bosatsu and Gyokumen Koushu are Goa'uld queens, and a lot of their subordinates are their spawn.
  • After Kanzeon meddled with his DNA, Sanzo isn't pure human as in the manga. He's a variant human called a kami.
  • Son Goku is a Furling.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Cho Hakkai is quiet and painfully polite and very much not an homicidal maniac. Maniac implies he has no control over his bloodlust, when he's nothing but meticulous when going on a rampage.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Youkai are clan-oriented, with a tendence for acting like Alpha and Beta Wolves. That means Dokugakuji is perfectly alright with beating Sha Gojyo into the ground and encouraging him to indulge his primal impulses, as the full-blooded youkai sees it as helping a relative to settle in his new life instead of torturing and brainwashing a prisoner.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Sha Gojyo desperately wants to stay part of Stargate Command, but he cares far too much about Sanzo and his friends to leave them behind. Hammond solving his dilemma by naming him Earth's liaison to Shangri-La almost reduces him to tears.
• Determined Doctor: Janet Fraiser doesn't let armed gunmen stop her from extracting a rogue Tok'ra from an unwilling host, slaps Selmak into submission and shows no fear when giving a physical to Hakkai without his limiters.
• The Empath: Hakuryuu, something that apparently is a racial trait for dragons. It's also rather frequent on Shangri-La, with Kanzeon gleefully encouraging humans to develop the potential, but it's not without drawbacks — see Sanzo and his sparkling personality for how it affects the mood.
• Fantastic Racism: The Tok'ra hate youkai for being difficult to manipulate and trick, calling them cannibalistic monsters with Selmak outright refusing to consider Sha Gojyo as smarter than a tiger — a wild beast that will maim anyone if not kept cowed.
  • Becoming Jaffa is a Fate Worse than Death on Shangri-La, since Gyokumen Koushu uses them as her household slaves. A lot of people will outright commit suicide when threatened with turning.
• Going Native: Both Sanzo and Sha Gojyo were stuck on Shangri-La for two years, and blending in literally was a matter of life or death for them. After going back to Earth, they quickly realize they feel more at home amongst the youkai and Goa'uld.
• God's Hands Are Tied: Because she promised the Asgard that she wouldn't interfere in her subjects' lives, Kanzeon is unable to directly oppose Gyokumen Koushu's attempts to ignite a race war or to stop the Tok'ra from sabotaging her. She only can use the Sanzos as her troubleshooters.
• Good Is Not Nice: Sanzo's brand of compassion manifests itself in making the sufferer so angry at him, they won't think about dying anymore.
• Has a Type: When introduced to Cho Hakkai, Selmak identifies him as not fitting Gonou's criteria as a host but the ones as a romantic partner, allowing him to identify the youkai as Cho Kanan's brother.
• Innocently Insensitive: An airman asks if Sanzo is a Jaffa after seeing the crimson chakra on his forehead, triggering memories of a youkai almost turning Genjyo into such to be sold as a Sex Slave.
• Living MacGuffin: Genjyo Sanzo, for multiple reasons.
  • As the rightful holder of the Maten Sutra, he's a walking weapon of mass destruction and as such, Gyokumen Koushu really wants to kill him. The Tok'ra also want to study him to learn how he can use the sutra, with Selmak trying to lean on SGC to keep Sanzo in their custody.
  • To Kanzeon Bosatsu, he's the only foster parent that Goku will accept so she needs him for her plan to bring the Furlings back from extinction.
• Locked into Strangeness: Captain Joseph Sha was a brown-eyed brunette, but getting turned into a hanyou against his will colored his hair and eyes crimson.
• Love Makes You Evil: After his beloved Kanan was abducted to be raped by the Centipede Clan, Gonou forced her brother to become his host and went on a rampage.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Kanzeon is utterly serious and focused when negotiating with the SG-1 team, because a) she really wants for the current mess on Shangri-La to end, the sooner the better, and b) she's a troll of epic proportions but she's not dumb or arrogant enough to make a bunch of godslayers angry at her.
• Our Souls Are Different: Egyptian myth maintained a soul has several components, something that Kanzeon can use to prove transmigration is possible.
• Poor Communication Kills: Several thousands years of conflict resulted from Kanzeon Bosatsu being unable to admit that she was a Tok'ra agent intended for deep cover and was trying to bring the Furling race back. Hammond kinda wants to beat his head against the wall when he understands how much of a mess the situation is.
• Power Stereotype Flip: O'Neill first refuses to believe the perpetually grumpy and moody Sanzo is The Empath because he's not a fount of smiling kindness — only for Daniel to point that having to feel people's pettiness and cruelty would turn the kindest soul into a miserable asshole.
• The Reveal: Kanzeon Bosatsu is a Tok'ra, and she aims to bring the Furlings back from extinction through Son Goku.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation:
  • Konzen Douji was Kanzeon's offspring, but she insisted on calling him her nephew.
  • Gonou formerly was Hakkai's brother-in-law.
• Sex Slave: Gyokumen Koushu enjoys turning pretty boys into Jaffa to rape and torture them. Sanzo almost was kidnapped to this end when he was Koumyou's apprentice.
• Stockholm Syndrome: What Dokugakuji tried to do with Sha Gojyo, by forcing the former Air Force captain to accept his youkai instincts and acting like a gruff but decent brotherly figure — Gojyo concedes it was more than half effective.
• That Man Is Dead: Hakkai politely tells O'Neill to stop calling Sha Gojyo "Joseph Sha", as the Air Force captain was rewritten to be the hanyou attendant to a Sanzo after several months of medical torture.
• Took a Level in Badass: For everyone in Sanzo's party except Son Goku, but it's extremely blatant with Sanzo himself — Daniel Jackson can barely believe the gun-toting, charismatic priest is the nervous academician that left for Shangri-La.
• What's Up, King Dude?: Sanzo's party is quite irreverent towards Kanzeon, blatantly calling her on her flaws and admitting they want to shoot her when she's too annoying. It floors Stargate Command since they are not used to people being that openly critical of the Goa'uld they serve.