I don't own Once Upon a Time or Stargate Universe.

It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Eli had come to Young after his last transfer with Telford. He said he'd been having nightmares, nightmares he was convinced were really memories of Telford's – and that, if true, meant Telford was working for the Lucian alliance.

Young had believed it at once. So many things slid into place, from the attack on Icarus to Telford's meeting with Young's wife.

And the dead. All the dead from the time Telford was undercover.

The Goa'uld had been able to brainwash people, to turn a loyal man against his own. With the destruction of the Goa'uld's empire, the Lucians had gotten their hands on every bit of Goa'uld tech they could find.

But, Eli was also Rush's man.

Oh, not completely. For one thing, Eli was still more boy than man. He had a naiveté that made him useless for some of Rush's more Machiavellian schemes. But, he respected the scientist, wanted to learn from him – and he had a wariness of the military side of the ship.

Coming to Young, accusing Telford, it might all be part of one of Rush's plots. Eli could be his accomplice or his pawn.

And, Young thought, Rush could just as easily be working for the Lucians as Telford – they might even both be working for them.

So, he'd let Eli go with some heroic plans of ferretting out the Lucians' plan, while quietly warning Stargate Command.

Only, Eli had been captured. Young could have rescued him in a minute, sending back Telford in his place.

But he needed to know what Telford knew.

And he thought he could break the Lucians' hold on his friend.

It had worked.

But not before the Lucians had found their own way onto Destiny.

Later, he would learn the story, how Eli failed to give certain code words, how he was captured, how he was tortured into helping.

Later, he would learn the true story, that Eli had only pretended to help them – till his attempt to discredit the only Lucian scientist with a clue had nearly resulted in the man's murder (Eli had thrown himself at the killer trying to garrote the man, something that would have gotten him killed if the Lucian commander hadn't been satisfied. She knew Eli's limits and she had learned his weak point. You didn't threaten Eli, you threatened the person standing next to him).

Young had managed to keep Rush out of most of it. Rush claimed to have been frustrated lately in his efforts to get more control of the ship. He'd been concentrating on more prosaic repairs, opening up new parts of Destiny, increasing the hydroponics – and not just hydroponics, since Rush said there was no reason not to use dirt if it had been properly treated to kill foreign organisms. Boxed gardens had shown up all over the ship. He'd even started a fishery in some tanks he'd found in one of the newly opened areas.

But, he'd come running when the attack started.

Young, who had already begun to suspect Rush had gotten further with the ship's controls and codes than he'd let on – this was Rush; why else would he move on to fish farming? – figured that was confirmation enough.

The Lucians had brought through 150 men and women, along with crates of supplies.

But, at the end of the transfer, Eli said, things had gone wrong for the Lucians. Ships from Stargate Command had shown up. There'd been an attack. The gate had destabilized. Eli was pretty certain the Lucians' gate had suffered the same fate as Icarus.

Which wasn't actually a good thing. It meant Young had an enemy who outnumbered them, were heavily armed – and had no route of retreat, even if Destiny's crew could drive them off. The Lucians had no choice but to win or die.

And Stargate Command couldn't send him any reinforcements.

Then, he found out they had TJ.

And Belle, the assistant Rush about as peremptorily as Spain had claimed any piece of land Columbus set foot on and with about as little regard for the opinions of people already living there.

But, to his surprise, Rush not only noticed when Belle was captured, he was upset.

And he remembered her name. That wasn't really a surprise. Orders always come across as more effective when you can use a name.

But, Rush seemed to swallow it when he told him to get out of the way.

By the time he realized he was wrong, the man was gone. Young held onto the hope he'd found a very good place to hide the fight was over – and that he hadn't decided to cut his losses and try to join the enemy – or that they'd kill him if he tried.

Other than that, all Young could do, then, was try to secure their position and wait for the Lucians' next move.

A move that didn't come.

Telford, looking battle shocked, had finally come stumbling down the corridors (the Lucians had tortured him while Eli was in his body, but his unsteadiness seemed more like shell shock right then). The Lucians, he said, were defeated.

Young had proceeded with caution – if Telford was still with the Lucians, this would be a pretty good way to lure Young into an ambush – but he'd realized pretty quickly it wasn't.

The bodies were everywhere.

Lucian soldiers who'd all been killed at their posts. All of them had knife wounds.

There were survivors, all locked in rooms or side corridors – ones the technology that had gotten them out of the gate room seemed useless to open.

Telford told him later what had happened. How he'd been able to lure off the Lucian commander, Kiva, in hopes of getting rid of her. It had almost worked, too, except that she'd realized at the last moment Telford wasn't under her control. He wasn't sure which one of them would have won that little quick draw contest, but the game had been called off on account of Kiva's very sudden death.

She'd been stabbed in the back, Telford said.

And, when she fell, Rush was the one standing there holding the bloody knife.

When he followed Rush out, he had to step over the guards Kiva had left at the door.

They'd reached the infirmary where the captured crew members were. Telford got past the guards, claiming to have captured Rush and to have been sent on ahead by Kiva.

Unfortunately, they walked in on a power play between Dannic, Kiva's personal executioner, and Varro, ostensibly the next in command – but the Lucian chain of command could be more fluid than Stargate's, especially when you killed off your rivals.

Dannic was in favor of killing off hostages. Varro was in favor of waiting for Kiva to actually order it.

Dannic had pulled his gun and aimed it at Von Spelker.

Not Rush.

Because Young could have understood what happened next if it had been Rush.

Not believed it. Because it wasn't believable, any more than the bodies lying all over the ship were believable.

But he could have understood it.

Rush had simply moved.

He'd given Telford his knife when he'd been his 'prisoner.' Telford said he didn't even notice when Rush grabbed it back. He didn't even notice when Rush came at Dannic, not really.

Nothing registered till Dannic was lying in front of him, his guts spilling out of the gaping hole Rush had opened in him.

Two more soldiers went down. Their deaths, Telford said, had been quicker and tidier (Young could see as much for himself when he found the bodies).

Then, Rush was standing behind Varro, his knife at the man's throat, advising him to surrender. When Varro hesitated, Rush informed him, very calmly, how many of his people were already dead and how many were captured (or, as it turned out, locked in rooms they couldn't get out of). He was able to give their positions and describe who had been at each location.

"You're the only ones left," he told Varro. "I don't care if you die or not. But, I'm giving you the choice. Because you tried to protect someone I care about. But I don't care about you. And I tend to forget gratitude really fast when people start annoying me."

And that was it. Varro surrendered. Game over.

Then, when all the Lucians left were disarmed and restrained, Rush had promptly had the blood drain out of his face and collapsed.