Author's Note: Haha, see? I promised that it would be longer! LOL :)
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Chapter Six
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The queen felt exhilarated. To be herself again, to feel that power coursing through her; it was incredible! But the hunger that was burning and growing inside of her screamed to be abated. And then there was the matter of Banht. She had stopped thinking of herself by that name as soon as her wraith half had taken over. What Teyla had not realized when she had tried to kill her on the hive was that in turning off her wraith half and almost destroying it, she had created an entirely new consciousness in Banht. Now the two minds were warring withing her, fighting for dominance. And her wraith half was wining.
She was desperately hungry, craving human life more than she remembered ever needed it, except maybe her very first feeding. She didn't want to go back to the village; these people were to weak for her taste. But the visitors... now they were another matter. She spoke to the other mind--- Banht's mind--- inside of her.
"Which one first, do you think? The runner or the listener? Or perhaps the healer..."
"No!" Banht screamed. The queen grinned as she continued to torment this created half, this too-human part of her.
"Perhaps I will take the village anyways; with the strength that I would gain from them all my seekers would never dare to defy me again." She reached out, trying to sense the listener; the one who had caused all of this. She was going to be the first to die, and wherever she was friends would not be far behind. But she could no longer feel her; somehow, she was hiding herself. Well, in the end it didn't matter. If the girl didn't come, the others would. The runner would want to kill her, and the doctor would want to help her. Oh, yes; she'd get her fill.
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Rodney tried in vain to convince Baka that he would be okay. But even dying the old man seemed at peace.
"You know that it would happen, my friend. What is important now is that I put things back in order, and pass my title on. And that I say my goodbyes." Now Rodney was very worried. This man had treated him more like a father than his own father had; and now he was watching him die, and no science in the world could save him.
"Do you want to go back to the village? We'll help you." Baka smiled.
"Yes, I would like that. But there is something important that I to talk to you about first. There's something that I need you to help me do."
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With Ronon's time-perfected tracking skills, they didn't need to use Teyla's wraith sense; so she concentrated on making herself invisible to Banht. Strange, that she thought of the wraith as Banht at all; but she did. She realized that it was because she did see Banht; when she had changed, Teyla had sensed her dual personality; her two separate minds existing in the same body. But she knew which half was in control, so it still made little sense.
Ronon was tracking the queen with a single-minded purpose; to kill. She had almost killed them, all of them but Beckett had been effected by her dreams and illusions. And she had physically almost killed Ronon himself... and she'd almost killed Teyla. If only for that reason, he was not going to allow her to live.
She'd turned out just like all of the other wraith that they'd tried to help; just like he'd said. But still they wouldn't listen to him. Well, this time he didn't care what they thought; he was going to make sure that the queen was destroyed once and for all; he couldn't stand the thought of her ever making Teyla bleed again.
John was confused. He saw every side of what was happening; and he had no idea what to do. He agreed with Ronon that the wraith queen should be killed; but after knowing Banht--- and knowing that she was born of Teyla's mind--- he couldn't simply write that part of her off as lost, assuming that she was still in there somewhere. And as for her minor transformations... well, his brush with the iratus virus had been much worse, and he completely understood the feeling of losing control. He wanted desperately to take a side in this, but everything was too unclear for him to know where he stood or what should be done; so he concentrated on the search, deciding to take the rest as it came.
Beckett's goal was the exact opposite of Ronon's--- which was to destroy the queen by whatever means necessary--- he wanted to save Banht. He had gotten to know her very well, better than the rest, and the sweet, innocent, and gentle mind that the queen's body harbored deserved to be saved, to be given a chance to live. He hoped that they could destroy the queen's mind--- completely this time--- but leave Banht's mind untouched. However, he was sure that Ronon was not going to go for such a delicate approach when he had the option of breaking her neck right there; so he was going to have to find a way to take that option away. He knew that it wasn't likely, but at least he could try.
"Teyla, what's she doing?" Ronon questioned suddenly. Her forehead creased in a frown of concentration as she stepped into the queen's mind--- carefully--- and saw through her eyes.
"She is just standing there," she said. "Waiting for us." She did not want to linger in her mind--- she was too shielded right now for her to break in again, anyways--- and she was about to detach herself when she felt the touch of another mind. She gasped.
"What?" Ronon asked quickly, his eyes darkening as his rage at the queen deepened.
"Banht it still in her."
"We already knew that," Sheppard said.
"No, it is not just that. She is asking for our help." At her words, Carson looked hopefully at Sheppard and Ronon, hoping that the news would cause at least a little hesitation. But there was none there; apparently, John had opted to take Ronon's side.
"She's a wraith," he said. "We can't take the risk of trying to save only half of her. It's all or nothing."
"No," Ronon said simply. Beckett decided not to even attempt to change his mind yet, and instead focused his efforts on Sheppard.
"Colonel, you know the poor girl; she must be scared silly-"
"She's not a girl, she's a wraith, Doc! It's too dangerous." But Carson couldn't just stand by and let them kill her without even giving Banht a chance. He stopped and blocked their path, hoping that the fact that he was their friend would keep them from simply throwing him aside.
"Banht is more human than most of us can ever hope to be. She is an innocent being, and she had no part in what happened to us before; and we cannot simply condemn her life for sharing the queen's body now." He looked at Teyla. "What you did to her before, the first time; can you do it again?"
"Maybe..." she seemed far from certain. "Would that not merely create a third mind?"
"What if you stamped out the queen's mind completely?" he tried to talk fast, seeing that Ronon was becoming restless. "Do you think that you can destroy the queen but not touch Banht's mind in the process?"
"I cannot be sure; Carson, there may not be anything that we can do for her." While Teyla could not fully find it in herself to condemn Banht, the doctor was asking her to take a very risky alternative that could kill them both or have no effect on the queen at all, which would mean that she would kill them anyways. And even if she could do what she had done the last time, the lack of control that she had had over herself--- the lack of awareness--- scared her; and she did not want to be in that place again.
"You just said that Banht is still in the queen's mind," Carson spoke so earnestly that she had to stop thinking and simply listen. "But she cannot control what the wraith half of her has done; and I am not going to let the three of you kill her for those actions."
"Look, I'll give you one shot to change her back," John sighed. "If you can't or if she tries to kill us first, Ronon gets to shoot her."
"I suppose that this is the best offer that I'm going to get from you," Carson sighed. "Teyla, will you help me?" Very slowly, not daring to look at John or Ronon's faces, she nodded.
"I will do what I can," she said. "But I cannot promise you anything."
"I'm not asking for promises," he said. He turned his gaze towards Ronon, his case already made, now just sending him a silent plea with his eyes.
"You have no idea what you're asking me to do," he said. "And I can't let you. If I find her first, I'm shooting her. If you find her, she had better be dead or on the ground when I see her, or she'll be both." Without another word, he pushed past Beckett and ran, ignoring all of them as they tried to convince him to stay. But he was not going to let them talk him out of it this time; this time, she was going to die.
They had all called for Ronon, but none of them had made an effort to follow him more than a few steps; they knew that they couldn't stop him. But Teyla watched him sadly, suddenly afraid for him. She had never seen him ths way, except on Sateda; and his total lack of interest in controlling himself scared her. He had confided in her once that he never wanted to feel that way again, because he was sure that if he did come that close to losing it, he would hurt them; and he was sure that he would be too far gone to help. They had to find Banht first, to keep him from that breaking point.
"I can't believe that I'm letting you try to save the cause of a bunch of our problems," John muttered to Beckett, bringing Teyla out of her thoughts.
"It's the queen that's the cause," Carson corrected him. "Not Banht. The queen is the one who is going to die." He didn't add the last few words on his mind. 'If Teyla can get in before she kills her.'
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A/N: So lets see the damage I've caused... Baka is dying, the team is split up, Ronon's about half a second away from crazy, and Teyla is ready to risk her life to save Banht; doing the very thign that could make Ronon snap. Another fine mess that I've gotten them into. Keep reading!
