Being allowed as a guest in someone's house was a unique experience for her. Her relationships with humans usually had been at arm's length, consisting mainly of conveying information about the wraith activities in the system. This meant unfortunately that whenever she was sick or injured, she usually had to fend for herself, although there had been exceptions. She never imagined that someone she had met decades ago would remember her and take the time to care for her when she was injured. She wasn't sure if she would have the chance to express how much she appreciated what Cedrus had done to help her. So much time had passed since the events Cedrus recalled and at the time, she never considered that she would be thanked.

Time had revealed to her the extent of the damage that fall caused. She continued to notice new blood stains and bruises from where the sharp rocks had cut and impacted. Every bone in her body ached as a result of the strain imposed by the impact, but her leg hurt most of all, almost completely drowning out the other minor aches.

Cedrus had given her a drug which in addition to relieving some of the pain would help her to sleep. It would be better that way to keep her body in a more relaxed state.

She heard movement in the hallway, the sound of the wood floor creaking slowly, as if someone was standing outside the door. The door opened a crack, but was not pushed open.

It stayed like that for just a moment before another set of footsteps approached.

"You don't have to be afraid of her," Teyla said.

"I'm not afraid," A woman's voice said irritably. There was more stomping of feet in the hall, and someone knocked on the door.

"Enter," She called out to whoever it was. She considered that may have sounded too authoritative. She remembered thankfully that she wasn't acting as a wraith queen anymore.

Teyla entered the room, leaving the door slightly open. She had a plate of food with her, still steaming. "Cholla was hesitant to disturb you." Teyla explained as she brought the plate over to her.

"Thank you," she said gratefully.

Teyla turned to leave, but glanced back quickly. "Why…" she faltered, seeming to be unsure what she wanted to ask.

"Why am I not like other wraith?" Syntyche guessed. It wasn't so much a guess as Teyla's mind projecting what she was thinking. She tasted one of the various items on the plate, trying to liken it to something she had eaten before.

"Yes," Teyla said, now projecting some annoyance at having her thoughts known. "Why?"

"Because of kindness," She replied. She knew Teyla probably wasn't entirely prepared to have all of what she believed about the Lanteans shattered, but she did have a strong mind. She sensed Teyla's habit was to search for truth, no matter how uncomfortable it seemed.

"What do you know of the origin of the wraith?" She asked, wondering how much Teyla already knew.

Teyla looked thoughtful for a moment, retrieving what memory she had of the subject. "We have-speculated that your kind evolved over time, from a creature called Iratus through it feeding on humans and mixing human DNA with its own."

That was the answer she expected. It was the same lie that had been spread all those years ago to the human populations, fearful of the new and terrifying enemy.

"What if I told you the wraith were deliberately engineered, to be the most terrifying and powerful enemy to humans that the mind could dream?"

"I would ask," Teyla answered. "Who would do such a thing?"

"Your history has been manipulated," She said, making the point in a roundabout way. "Many people in this galaxy still regard the Lanteans as gods, and that is what they wanted all along."

"Are you implying it was the Ancestors?" Teyla asked, disbelief spread over her visage.

"I was there Teyla," Syntyche said calmly. "I endured being implanted with false memories, the torture," she looked directly at Teyla, emphasizing the point; "the hunger."

Teyla stared back, her visage dark as she clearly saw what she remembered. She allowed Teyla to draw out her own memories, memories which had been buried.

He was brutally beating her. She curled up, attempting to protect herself, but it didn't matter, each blow stung and bruised. It was always a human, both men and women.

Teyla gasped, and she knew that Teyla had been feeling it empathetically.

"They trained us to hate humans." She explained through the flow of images.

The one who had been hurting her was bound in front of her. "Take revenge!" the voice said. She knew what that meant. She had seen the images, seen what that would do. She felt the impulse, stemming from the innermost parts of her mind. She suppressed it, terrified by its strength.

"No!" She pleaded, "I can't!"

The bound man spoke. "I despise you!" he yelled. You are an abomination, I am superior to you!"

"You must feel hunger by now," the voice taunted. "Why don't you feed on him?" It was true she had been starved. By now, ordinary food wouldn't help her; at least that's what she'd been told.

"Feed on him," the voice said again. "Satiate your hunger; take revenge." She felt aggression, the baser desire to feed stronger than ever. The thought of losing control kept it in check.

Teyla stopped drawing out the memories, clearly too disturbed to continue.

"Such hallucinations were employed daily in order to bend me to their will," she said, trying to keep her mind from straying too far into that time. "I escaped from there before I succumbed."

Teyla remained silent, her hand resting on her forehead as if trying to rid her mind of what she had just seen.

"Why?" She asked, succinctly.

"My kind are not hateful by nature. Such behavior is learned, or in this case, programmed."

"You said the ancestors did this to you." Teyla said, raising her voice. Her gestures were defensive. "What possible reason would they have to do that?"

"Many reasons, primarily for their own benefit. Because of the new threat, the less advanced human populations called out to them for protection, allowing the Lanteans a measure of control over them. It stimulated the development of new technologies for the purpose of war and most of all, it made the Lanteans seem as gods in the eyes of everyone else."

Teyla paced, clearly upset over what she had just heard. "I am sorry," Teyla said, her voice wavering angrily. "You have earned my trust, but I cannot believe the ancestors were capable of such…"

There was a loud thud, like somebody breaking down the door. The two of them stayed quiet and still, uncertain of what this was. A multitude of heavy footfalls reverberated through the wood frame of the house, heading closer. She heard the woman screaming in the next room, followed by Cedrus yelling something. There was the sound of two stunner blasts.

Her heart sank, knowing those people had been hurt because of her.

The door of the room opened with a bang, and a lieutenant strode confidently into the room, no emotion discernible in his demeanor. Behind him, a group of drones stomped in, filling the small room. Each had its weapon pointed at someone in the room.

He turned straight to Teyla. "You will come with us," the lieutenant said dryly, showing no emotion whatsoever. She noticed the conspicuous ornament on the wrist of each one of them, presumably a device of sorts. The headache which had been persistent had grown into a numb feeling in all her limbs. She started to make sense of how they had approached both her and Teyla unawares.

The lieutenant's interest in only Teyla provided a more believable explanation of why they had been followed after departing the ship. Someone must have recognized her.

The lieutenant turned to her. "We were not given specific instructions concerning you, I will ask you return with us."

"I cannot walk," she explained, gesturing to her obviously bandaged and splinted leg.

"You will come with us regardless," he said uncaringly. One of the drones raised a stunner at her.


-_iIi-_

"Enter the code now!" Rodney shouted over the radio. Sheppard stood in front of the wraith control panel, looking over the symbols. All of them were stargate symbols.

"Enter the address to Earth or we'll all blow up!" Rodney said further, emphasizing the direness of the situation.

This didn't make any sense. He seemed to be thinking that a lot lately. Wait-when had he thought that before?

"Colonel," Teyla's voice pleaded over the radio. "We have less than ten seconds!"

Hearing her plea snapped him to attention. He had the address to Earth memorized, all he needed to do was enter it. He touched his hand to the first symbol in the sequence. He stopped and retracted his hand.

"Hold on," Sheppard said over the radio, "Teyla, you've been missing for over a month."

He was jolted from that place, and found himself sitting in a chair. A bright light shown down on his face, causing him to squint. He tried looking around him, but couldn't see anything. The chair he was in was somewhat like a dentist's chair. He tried moving his arms and legs and found that they were bound. Okay, make that a macabre dentist's chair.

"What's going on?" Sheppard addressed to whoever may be present.

"Take him back to the cell." A grating and annoyed wraith voice demanded. He saw the silhouettes of wraith drones approaching him and untying his arms and legs. Just as he was about to be completely untied, the light went out, leaving him blind. Someone tied his hands together behind him.

He was grabbed bodily and shoved to his feet. "Wait," he protested, "I can't-aggh!" He exclaimed as the blood rushed from his head, making his head hurt. He remembered all the scenarios which had been presented to him, each one after the other. He suspected his mind was being messed with, but this was real. His back ached and his head was still throbbing; definitely real.

A heavy hand grabbed his shoulder, digging its claw-like nails into the skin and leading him along. This was definitely uncomfortable; being touched by a wraith was pretty high on the freak-out-o-meter.

He was led along a short distance into a larger, slightly better lit room. A wraith female stood in the center, looking triumphant. Kneeling at her feet, bound and bruised, was none other than Teyla.

"John!" She called out to him, looking terrified and surprised.

"Teyla," he said, showing equal surprise. He heard more movement behind him, and a quick glance allowed him to see Rodney being led into the room.

"Teyla?" Rodney's surprised and high pitched voice called out.

"Yes Rodney," Teyla said.

"But wait," he argued, "we thought you were dead."

"Silence!" the female shouted, her grating voice echoing through the large hall. "I take it the mind probe did not succeed," she said, now looking annoyed.

"Their resistance to divulging the information was considerable." The same gravelly voiced wraith said.

"What of the other?"

"We determined he did not possess the address." John knew he was referring to Ronon.

"Then we shall find an alternative means of persuasion." She said, turning to Teyla. She knelt to Teyla's level, holding her hand up just as she was preparing to feed.

John was about to yell out, but the wraith paused in place, her hand suspended in the air as if she had become inanimate. She slowly lowered her hand and stood upright. She began to pace back and forth, looking extremely annoyed.

"Take them back to the holding cells," she ordered to the drones around them.

John was toughly turned around. He struggled to glance back to see what was happening to Teyla and Rodney. Both of them were being led out of the large hall and into the dark labyrinth. He heard a multitude of footsteps with him for a short distance, but then at least one group split off in a different direction, supposedly the group escorting Rodney and Teyla. Darn, they were splitting them up.


-_iIi-_

She stayed in the shadows in the corner of the cell, the dim purple light from the limited spectrum light in the hallway blocked by the wall. She was in essence having a conversation mentally with the facility's computer. Her access to the door had been restricted by her genetics, however that didn't prevent her from finding another means of opening the door. Perhaps she could convince the computer to run a diagnostic on her cell door.

Her leg was still sore, feeling only a slight pain when weight was placed on it. Thankfully, it had healed enough to where she could walk at least a short distance without encountering too much pain.

The door parted open, just as she had hoped it would. She treaded lightly and quickly to the opening, looking both ways through the hall to ensure she wasn't discovered. She stepped out, just before the door closed again.

Her priority now would be to find Teyla and to escape. She hadn't considered that Teyla's face would be recognized during her stay aboard her ship; she should have been more careful to conceal her identity. She currently didn't know who was behind this plot, but she had an idea. Whoever it was certainly had a very large and very secret ground base.

She moved along the hallway through a bulkhead into an adjacent section of cells, searching each one for occupants.

She moved quickly, only looking out of the corner of her eyes into the cells. When she came to the end of the hallway, having seen nobody, she re-considered where Teyla may have been taken. The thought came to her. She called up the link with the systems again, seeing if there was any life signs detection.

The schematic of the entire facility was laid out like a map in her mind, allowing her to see a collection of life signs in one of the main halls. The rest of the facility was almost empty, whichincreased the odds.

Her pace was so swift, that she almost missed someone resting on the wall of one of the cells. She stopped in front of the cell bars thinking it was Teyla. Instead, she saw a man reclining on the wall, one leg straight and one knee raised with his arms wrapped around.

"Who's there?" The man asked, his tone sounding almost uncaring. The man was familiar to her, at least the image of his face.

It was Sheppard. She'd seen his image transmitted among the hive ships of the alliance as a warning. It was more than that though; he was someone important to Teyla. She looked at his face again. He stared off in her general direction, his eyes nearly black and open wide. He couldn't see the color of light that was being cast from the lighting. Although she didn't know why he was imprisoned here, releasing him would be the right thing to do. He was a warrior, and would likely be able to assist in their escape, as long as he believed her intentions.

"Sheppard," she addressed, "you do not know who I am, but I am trying to help. We need to find Teyla." She opened the cell door.

"Who the hell are you?" he called out, staring vacantly in the direction of her voice.

"I am a friend of Teyla's. It is my intention to help her escape; I would like your help."

She sensed a very confused conflict within his mind as the man moved to sit upright. "That's good," he said, "but would you mind explaining a little more? Who are you, and why do I get the feeling that you're not human?"

She regretted for the briefest of moments even initiating this conversation. Would he be so reluctant to save his own friend?

"I am Syntyche, and you are correct, I am not human."

He stood up, resting his hands against the wall and feeling his way forward. "Well, 'Syntyche' I appreciate your allowing me to escape and asking me to help you, but at the moment, I can't see anything!" He ended his sentence crossly.

She commanded the lighting to change color, which occurred at the instant she thought of it.

Sheppard closed his eyes tightly and opened them intermittently. "That's-woah," he exclaimed as he blinked. "You're a wraith."

"Yes," she said tersely, "you're very clever in identifying my species, now shall we go?" His mind seemed to be a little slow in sorting out the information, but finally "Sure," he said, "lead the way."


-_iIi-_

Sheppard still had a hard time seeing, now on account that it was too bright, but among the first things he saw was this strange wraith. She was about as tall as he was, and looked like you would expect a wraith queen to appear, except for the clothing. Her clothes were torn and covered in dust and dirt. It was weird; it sounded exactly like the wraith female from earlier, but it threw him way out of his comfort zone to believe that she was actually releasing him from the prison.

She led him along a long straight hallway, lined entirely with empty prison cells.

"What is this place?" he asked, "A wraith prison?"

"It's a ground base," the wraith explained, "It has a multitude of potential uses."

"Wonderful," he muttered, imagining the potential pain in the ass it could be to Atlantis.

"Syntyche," someone else called. The wraith turned abruptly to the right. He recognized the voice as belonging to Teyla and promptly rushed up to the cell bars.

"Teyla," Sheppard said. He still couldn't get over the fact that she was right here, healthy and intact.

"Colonel Sheppard," Teyla returned. The wraith touched a control on the wall which opened the cell doors. Teyla rushed out, and promptly hugged him.

"Woah," Sheppard said, returning the hug awkwardly. "I'm glad to see you too."

"I thought I would never see you again," Teyla said, her voice sounding a little choked. John was normally steel faced to soft emotions, but hearing her like this affected him a little.

"Do you know where Rodney is?" Sheppard asked

Teyla looked to her left and was about to speak.

"Over here," Rodney's voice called.

"Can you free him as well?" Teyla asked the wraith.

The wraith didn't act right away, but seemed to be considering what she would do.

"You can trust him," Teyla re-assured.

"How do you know her?" Sheppard asked Teyla, referring to the wraith standing to the side.

"Hey," Rodney called, "I'm still here-in the cell."

Nobody answered him for a moment.

"It is a-very long story." Teyla said. "But suffice to say that I trust her." She nodded to the wraith as she said that.

"Teyla," The wraith said. "How can I be certain I will not be mistreated my these friends of yours?"

"I assure you," Teyla said, "no harm will come to you."

That assurance seemed to be good enough, because she walked the short distance to the cell which Rodney was in, and also opened that door.

"Uhh, Sheppard," Rodney called worriedly from inside the cell.

"Get out here Rodney," Sheppard coaxed.

He resisted laughing when he saw Rodney inch out of the cell nervously.

"Uh," Sheppard, what's going on?"

"Hell if I know," John answered, "All I know is I'm glad to see Teyla alive and well, and I want to get us out of here."

The lights went dark, blanketing their surroundings in complete blackness.

"Oh, that's just perfect," Rodney said.

"They have likely discovered out absence," the wraith said. "I can't illuminate the lights."

"Lets get out of here," John said. "Is there a stargate nearby by any chance?"

"There is," the wraith answered.

"Wait a minute," Rodney said, "What about Ronon?"

John hadn't forgotten about Ronon, but he had to face facts. He had no chance now of navigating through this facility without help, and would also be useless in the event of a fight. The way he figured, the only chance they had left is to try to escape as quickly and quietly as possible.

"I didn't forget, but we can't do anything now except try to get out unnoticed. We have to come back for him."

"Do we know the address to this place?" Rodney asked

"I believe I do," the wraith said, "We are also quite close to an exit from here."

"Colonel," Teyla addressed, "How are we going to see our way out?"

"Hold hands," the wraith said.

"What?" Rodney asked, "No, no, I'm not holding ha..."

"Hold hands Mckay," John instructed, finding his shoulders and taking his hand. It looked like they would have to suck up some dignity if they wanted a chance to get out of this alive.

"Teyla?" John asked.

"I'm with Rodney," she answered.

"Who's leading?" he asked. Someone took his outstretched hand and began leading. That was twice today that a wraith was leading him along. The freak-out-o-meter was going off the scale now.

He was led off to the side, around a corner to be blinded by a multitude of spotlights shining directly at him.

It reminded him of the lights attached to their P90's

A bright flash of red light fired out. He knew that noise...

...

...


John was beginning to hate being stunned. It was never very pleasant in the first place, but to have it happen twice in a day just plain rotten. He opened his eyes and searched around him.

It was nice to see the inside of one of the rooms within the infirmary; it was a lot better than waking up in a prison.

He sat up slowly to be sure he was all present. Arms, legs, feet, hands-he could check the rest later. He wondered how long it would be before…

"Colonel Sheppard," Came Carson's voice, preceding his entry into the room, "glad to see you're awake."

"Me too," he said casually.

"Well," Carson said, "physically, you're fine from what I can see. Do you have feeling in your limbs?"

"Yeah," John said, "although Ronon's blaster always leaves me with a pins and needles feeling for about a day. Speaking of that, where is he? I'd like to politely remind him to be careful what he's shooting at."

Carson looked minutely uncomfortable. "He'll be here to see you in a minute, along with Dr. Weir."

"Where's McKay and Teyla?" John asked quickly before he left the room.

"They're here," Beckett said, "They're still unconscious, but they're healthy."

That was the best news he'd heard in a long time. Suddenly the weight that he'd been carrying on his shoulders, losing Teyla, lifted off. The feeling was so pronounced, he could almost imagine that it was real. How long had he been bearing that burden?

Beckett left the room abruptly.

This must be something special. A visit from his team and Dr. Weir?

Carson left the room. He thought of the events leading up the moment he was stunned. The wraith had been leading, and she should have been the one that Ronon shot. That thought left him confused until he remembered that they all had been holding hands. The shot must have traveled through all of them. Woah, this was going to be a bit of a challenge to explain.

His thoughts drifted to Teyla. He imagined that since he was knocked out, she would have been as well.

How long had it been since she had gone missing? A little over three months he gusstimated. He chuckled, trying to imagine what Teyla had accomplished by coming out of all that unscathed.

He remembered the female wraith, the one who had let him out of the cell. What happened to her?

Dr. Weir walked in, followed by Ronon. Dr. Beckett floated in, sitting off to the side as if he were just observing.

"Hello," Dr. Weir said, trying hard to sound casual, "how are you feeling?"

"Good enough," John said. He could tell something was wrong. Their faces painted it as clearly as a picture. Well, Weir at least, Ronon looked stoic as he always did.

"So how did you escape?" he asked Ronon.

"Major Lorne led a rescue, infiltrated the base and let me out."

"You have Doctor Zelenka to thank for finding a way to trace where the wormhole jumped to," Weir said. "He handled it very quickly considering he'd never seen that technology before."

"That's great," John said, fidgeting slightly. "So uh.." he tried to think of a way to move the conversation along. "What exactly were you shooting at?" he asked Ronon.

"Colonel," Dr Weir said. "When Ronon shot you, he was actually aiming for the wraith-that you were apparently holding hands with."

"The blast went through all of you," Ronon said.

"She was leading us through the dark." Sheppard explained. "We were trying to escape through the stargate so we could come back and lead a rescue."

The three in the room were silent as they processed that.

"Pardon me Colonel," Beckett said, "but I did notice that it was a wraith that was brought back with your group."

"Look," John said, trying his best to sound reasonable. "I know it seems weird, but I was in my cell, minding my own business when this wraith comes along telling me that she'll help me and Teyla and Rodney escape."

"And you believed her?" Ronon said.

"Well, it was either that or stay in the cell. What would you have done?" Well, that was a silly question, he knew what Ronon would have done, probably attack her and run out through the dark.

"Where is she now?" John asked, moving slowly to sit on the edge of the bed. His legs were still feeling a little numb, but he was getting tired of sleeping.

"She's being kept in the isolation room at the moment," Weir said.

"Aye," Beckett agreed, "she was the first to wake up."

"And you were the second," Weir said, "so that's why we're here."

"Has she said anything?" John asked.

"Not much," Weir said. "When we asked her questions regarding the unusual situation we found you in, she only said that you would have to explain. And when we asked her about the scars Teyla had, she again deflected the questions."

"Woah, what scars?" he asked.

"When we first brought her in," Beckett said, "We did a blood analysis and found the presence of wraith enzyme, along with some new proteins we have yet to identify. Then we noticed the scarring."

He could almost see himself becoming pale. "Wait, so is she...?" He couldn't think of a nice way to put it.

"Aged?" Beckett said, "Not from what I can tell, although we haven't seen her in months, so..." he trailed off.

"Tomorrow once all of you are cleared, I'd like to call you all in for debriefing."