Stargate Atlantis: Sleep Before I Do

By: Shadow Chaser

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 & Stargate Atlantis and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, Gekko Productions, AcmeShark Productions, and Scifi Channel. This story is for amusement only and I didn't get any money for it. No copyright infringement is intended.

Category: Action Adventure, Drama, H/C

Pairing: Hints of Shep/Weir, hints of Ronon/Teyla, and hints of Shep/Teyla.

Notes: I wrote this on my Twitter page, but my beta said it would be much suited for his author's notes so you, the readers, could get a better visual image of certain characters. When I conceived this story a long time ago, the only actor I specifically had in my head to play one of them was Jamie Bamber of Battlestar Galactica. I'm sure you can guess which character.

I figure I give you the rest of the cast (guest starring) list:

Akiesios/Apollo – Jamie Bamber (Lee Adama from Battlestar Galactica)

Atredies/Artemis – Lena Headley (Queen Gorgo from 300, Sarah Conner from Terminator: SCG)

Logios/Hermes – Shawn Ashmore (Iceman from X-Men, Jake from Animorphs),

Taethos – the only one I haven't quite picked out yet (I have an image of Talon Karrde from Star Wars EU, but with more malevolence). If you guys can think of someone to pull him off, I'm open to suggestions.

Also, if any of you see someone else playing any of these roles, feel free to leave them in your review or PM me. It's always interesting to hear different takes.

Story:

Chapter 10 – Aegis

"How many minutes left?" Elizabeth glanced over to Chuck who was manning the console, ready to initiate Colonel Carter's speed dial program which had been modified by Rodney during their first few months here. Radek had made a few more changes to hopefully boost the dialing speed in this round.

"Five minutes, ma'am," Chuck replied grimly.

She nodded once, "Let me know when there is a minute left." She walked out of the operations center and headed down the steps where the small group of at least ten Furlings, plus Atredies herself, were milling about, checking their own equipment along with two more teams of Marines lead by Major Hicks. She noticed the uneasiness between the two groups, but it seemed like the Atlantis marines were getting used to seeing the Furlings in the gateroom.

Their plan was two-fold. As soon as they were able to establish a wormhole to M3R-154, the small strike force would go through and establish a perimeter. She had found out during the time she was gone that they were too slow the first two times. The Daedalus, standing by in low orbit would beam down its contingent of marines and they would launch their attack on the underground base and rescue their people. It was risky, but she hoped that by the time they were able to launch, the sensors would have already taken offline, if Apollo's plan was successful, and Taethos wouldn't be able to see the Daedalus coming.

They weren't able to alert Ladon and the Genii about Kolya's invasion, but Elizabeth hoped that the man was smart enough to know what was going on and hopefully defend his own government. There would be feathers to soothe later on regarding the lack of communication between Atlantis and the Genii, but that was something she would deal with later. Her people came first.

"Dr. Weir," Atredies loped up to her, giving her a very feline smile, securing what looked like a wicked looking sword across her back.

"Commandant Atredies," she replied with a slight nod, "less than five minutes. Dr. Zelenka thinks that the program should work this time with his modifications."

The female Furling purred in approval, "Your Dr. Zelenka has done well. I am rather surprised at the level of technology the Tau'ri has to modify one of the Alin'thus' own Chapp'ai. My congratulations."

Elizabeth took the backhanded compliment in stride, "Commandant, I know you probably have your own mission to attend to once we've secured the stargate and make our move towards the compound, but-"

"Rest assured, Doctor," Atredies tilted her head, "your men, and my own goals will be the same. Where the Sujunor is, your men will be."

"I understand," Elizabeth knew their tenuous alliance was like walking a tightrope at the moment. She still did not fully trust Atredies/Artemis, but she would give her the benefit of the doubt at the moment. "But you have to know, if you plan on destroying the Wraith'gul, it's something that my people would not allow. We would like to study the weapon and perhaps use it for our war against the Asurans, Wraith, or even the Ori."

Atredies gave her a smile full of sharp teeth, "We shall see, Dr. Weir."

"Dr. Weir, one minute," Chuck's voice blared in her radio and she tapped it.

"On my way," she replied before inclining her head to Atredies, "if you'll excuse me."

She headed back up to the control room and glanced over to Chuck before noticing Radek coming in again, looking nervous. Stargate Command had sent over the latest batch of translations and the man had told his team to put everything together while he was working on tweaking the program, but even he was quite nervous. She gave him what she hoped was a calming smile and all the Czech man did was just adjust his glasses before rubbing his hands together.

So far, they knew that the Wraith'gul had not been activated due to the Daedalus' monitoring of the surface and from the notes provided by the translation team which meant that the gate wasn't constantly active. It seemed that as soon as the Wraith'gul activated, it would connect permanently connect to an activate stargate, whatever address was currently dialed. If the stargate was not dialed, then it would default to its regular programming and run a simultaneous dialing program to launch its deadly payload.

"Twenty seconds," Chuck called out, "nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen, fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten-"

"Start dialing now," she glanced over to the technician sitting next to Chuck, one of the newest members of the expedition who had arrived a little over two weeks ago. She looked up nervously and she nodded her affirmation of the order.

"Yes ma'am," Amelia turned back to her station and hit the dialing sequence.

The lights to the Atlantis stargate flashed by quickly, the normal whine of the gate activating sped up to a higher pitch tone, almost to the point where Elizabeth thought she felt her teeth vibrate in her jaw. She noted out of the corner of her eyes that the rest of the staff were trying to suppress their own grimaces of discomfort at the noise when suddenly, the stargate hit the final seventh symbol and everyone held their breath.

Half a second later the stargate activated with a familiar kawoosh and Elizabeth smiled. "Strike team, you have a go," she tapped her radio.

"Let's get our people back!" Major Hicks called out loudly before his team entered the stargate, guns held at the ready. She watched as the rest of the marines and Klisan'thus disappeared into the wormhole before one of the security teams approached it and placed a small crate halfway into the wormhole, there by ensuring that they would hold this connection for the next thirty-eight minutes.

"Clock has been started," Chuck called behind her.

She absently nodded, "Sergeant Banks, restart the program."

"On it ma'am," Amelia replied.

"What now, Elizabeth?" Radek asked quietly as they watched the open wormhole, waiting for the radio transmission from Major Hicks that would give the okay to the Daedalus to beam down their contingent of marines. If the stargate was not secured by the end of 38 minutes, then Stargate Command and the IOA said to not send anymore to the planet and declare it a lost cause. However, she had no intention of leaving her men and women behind and planned to disobey that order, but she hoped it would not come to that.

"Now, we wait," she clasped her hands together, tapping it nervously on her lips. It was all up to them now...

The thing about hand held explosives, or grenades as Sheppard called them, or even blocks of C4, was that their shape and size was pretty much universal. Hand held, and designed for disabling, killing or just making a noisy distraction. He carried such a bandoleer across his chest while both of his hands held two za'kutus. His own gun was holstered by his side, but it would be easy enough for him to drop one of the za'kutus and pick up his own weapon. The halls outside of the armory and the medical ward had been lit by small glowing panels, emergency lights, but Ronon had hunted well enough in the dark not to be perturbed by the lack of lights.

He would kill them all, for what they had done to Teyla, what they had done to Sheppard, to McKay, to every one that was part of the Atlantis expedition – to his family. He gripped his weapons tighter. Teyla would have a hell of a time with these weapons. They were as long as her bantos sticks that she used to train and fight with. In his hands, he knew he could deal some serious damage with it.

Ronon paused, peering out of the corner of the hallway, perpendicular to the one he was in. He counted at least ten Furlings, milling by the door to the control room where McKay and the others were probably holed up inside. Two were ramming something into the blackened frame of the door while another was fiddling with what looked like a control crystal panel.

Half of the door was cracked open, but it looked like something else was blocking the door. Good, that meant that McKay, Lorne, and the others had boxed themselves in and were putting up a hell of an effort to not let the Furlings in. He cracked his neck, making himself loose for the battle before grabbing two of the grenades he had found and activated them before tossing them down the hall. Seconds later, a huge roar and boom along with a wash of heat passed by him before he activated the za'kutus and stepped into the hallway.

He thumbed the triggers to the shortened staff weapons, watching lancing gold bolts fire rapidly out from the ends, hitting a couple of the stunned Furlings who weren't killed by the initial explosion. Ronon shimmed to the side as a couple of them fired back, before running forward with a war cry. He slammed the head of the za'kutus into one Furling who was opening his mouth in a hiss before jamming his right one into the stomach of another and fired, the bolt piercing his skin, frying the dark fur before the Furling hissed and fell over, dead.

However, he wasn't done yet as he brought the weapon back around and slammed it into the head of the Furling he had originally knocked down and broke the creature's face and jaw, spraying oozing black blood across his own chest. Ronon dropped his weapons and drew out his gun and fired twice at the two remaining Furlings. Suddenly he nearly tripped as a claw wrapped around his leg and he stared downwards to see a severely injured Furling trying to injure him with a last ditch effort and he sneered down at the blood-matted feline face.

"Too late," he bared his teeth before firing his gun into the creature's head, splattering it into bloody pieces across the floor and his boot. He lifted his boot, shaking off the now limp claw and entrails from his boot before stepping over to the battered door. He whacked his gun against it. "Little Man, you still alive in there?" he asked, feeling the rush of adrenaline and combat still flowing through him. That felt good, killing those murderous bastards.

"Ronon, that you?" Lorne's voice came back just as a slightly muffled shout of triumph came from farther in the room.

A split second later, the lights came back on in the facility and Ronon winced at the sudden brightness.

"Yeah," he replied, glancing down at the blackened, bloody carnage he had inflicted on the Furlings who had been trying to get through the door, "you should see the guys out here, though..."

"Give us a second," Lorne replied before shouting, "McKay, we good?"

Ronon thought he heard an affirmation from the over zealous scientist, but he couldn't be too sure with all of the debris and closed doors between him and the others. However, a few minutes later and some heavy shuffling and banging, the door creaked open and Lorne's weary, but relieved face poked through and stared down at the carnage.

He gave a low whistle and Ronon grinned as he saw the Major's eyes light up with approval. Lorne was a funny man, he supposed, similar to Sheppard, yet different in his own right. He liked the man's sense of humor. "Anger issues?" Lorne asked with a wiry smile as he braced himself against the door and started to push it further open.

Ronon shrugged, moving to help him and together the two of the managed to get the battered door half open, enough for him to step through somewhat comfortably. He glanced behind Lorne as he shuffled past him to see Pearson and Brown hurrying it up and McKay fiddling with something at the station before sliding out from underneath and grabbing his P90 and tablet computer.

He stepped back as McKay exited the threshold before pausing, his eyes growing wide as he surveyed the carnage before him. "Holy...what the hell did you do?! Blow everyone to kingdom come?!"

"Got the job done," Ronon knew that McKay wouldn't understand why he did it, the man was too much of a soft-civilian, not battle hardened enough like most of the military personnel in Atlantis were.

"And, what's with the Conan look?" the shorter man stared at him and Ronon was confused for a moment before he realized McKay was staring at the bandoleer across his shoulder.

"Grenades," he gave him a wolfish grin before picking a couple and tossing it to Lorne, Pearson, and Brown.

"The armory?" Lorne asked and he nodded.

"Um, as much as I think that would be nice, but I've just managed to shut down the stargate and it looks like the sensors are telling me," McKay glanced at his tablet, "we've got some seriously pissed Furlings coming our way soon."

"We're not going anywhere except back to the medical ward," Ronon frowned.

"But why?!" McKay looked terrified, "I mean, seriously, that's like in the middle of the compound! What the hell is in there that makes you want to face off against five million angry cats? Okay, there aren't five million, but its close enough to that number-"

"Teyla's in the sarcophagus," Ronon glared at McKay, shutting him immediately. There was no way he was leaving this facility without Teyla. Then they would go find Sheppard and they would leave this shithole of a planet. He had a pretty good feeling that Taethos had probably taken Apollo and Sheppard to the Wraith'gul, but his main concern was to make sure Teyla was alive and to rescue Sheppard. Apollo could be left behind for all he cared.

"Wait," Lorne looked at him shocked, "did you say sarcophagus? As in Goa'uld sarcophagus?"

Ronon shrugged. He wasn't sure if it was a Goa'uld sarcophagus like Lorne was talking about. He never really bothered reading any of the mission reports that Sheppard had offered him, and knew that his commanding officer was probably disobeying orders of sorts to even offer him the mission reports themselves. His only encounter with these...Goa'uld was just a glowing-eyed Colonel Caldwell who had an eerily flanged voice and a somewhat pompous attitude that was soon rectified when Sheppard tased the man. Then again, Caldwell did have a pompous attitude to begin with in his opinion.

"Well, it explains the staff weapons, shorter ones, explains the language, why not have a Goa'uld sarcophagus," McKay looked nervous.

"Why not even have Goa'uld here at all," Lorne muttered before McKay turned a few shades paler.

Ronon looked between the two before turning around and headed back down the hall he had come from. He heard the others following him, but they did not encounter anyone else when they entered the medical ward. However, with the lights back on, Ronon nearly froze on the spot at the stark grimness of the tableau before him. He saw the puddle of blood where Teyla had initially been shot and the puddle of blood in the far corner where she had found his gun. In between that were reddish-brown streaks across the floor where she had made her slow, painful trek across to ensure his freedom.

However, he forced himself to continue walking to the far corner where he knew the sarcophagus was hidden and frowned. Kicking the wall in the dark was so much easier...with the room lit up; the wall just looked completely blank.

"Ronon?" Lorne prodded him.

"It's somewhere here," he poked parts of the wall, trying to remember where the damned Furling had touched on the wall to reveal the sarcophagus.

"Um...try there," McKay pointed a finger at a part of the wall above where he was touching and he glanced at the smaller man who was looking back down at his tablet.

He shrugged and touched the area indicated and suddenly a panel popped out, reveal the same keypad he had input in to reveal the hidden compartment. "Not bad," he murmured before punching in the corresponding numbers. He smiled grimly as the wall hissed open and revealed the golden sarcophagus, a really gaudy object in his opinion, but nonetheless, he hope it had successfully revived Teyla.

He heard Lorne and the others raise their weapons, pointed at the sarcophagus as it slowly opened with a quiet hiss and Ronon peered inside. Teyla looked exactly as he had left her, except the ragged hole where she had been injured was now replaced with the warm golden skin tones of newly recreated flesh and skin. "Teyla?" he asked gruffly to her still prone form. He didn't want to reach in and check her pulse in case something was going on within those bright rays of lights in the sarcophagus.

"No kidding, a real sarcophagus," Pearson whispered behind him.

Suddenly Teyla started, her eyes blinking open before she sat up abruptly, gasping. Ronon moved back a bit, letting her adjust to her surroundings before she looked down at her wound and then looked towards them. "You...put me in there?"

Ronon shrugged, fighting a smile as he was glad that she was alive and healthy once more. "Got me freed, had to do something for you."

She smiled gratefully at him before he reached out and helped her out of the sarcophagus. Holding onto her hand just a little longer, he made sure she was steady on her feet before releasing her hand and she gave him a small smile. Turning to Lorne and the others she tilted her head in acknowledgement. "Major Lorne, Rodney, Captain Pearson, Lieutenant Brown, it is good to see all of you well."

"Ma'am," Lorne grinned, easy going as the sarcophagus, sensing no other occupant started to retreat back into its hidden compartment and closed with another quiet hiss. "You okay?"

"I have never felt better, Major," she nodded.

"Good, we're heading back to the armory before we go get the Colonel-"

"Oh no..."

"What now McKay?" Lorne held the look of a long sufferer. Ronon secretly sympathized with him; even he didn't want anymore bad news.

"The stargate just re-activated," McKay looked stricken.

"Can't you turn it off?" Pearson broke into their conversation, annoyed.

"No, I need to...wait," the Little Man made a few adjustments to his tablet, "it's an incoming wormhole and...huh..."

"Rodney..." the corner of Ronon's lips quirked up in a grin when even Teyla sounded a bit annoyed.

"All those Furlings, I think they're headed back to the gate...and they're dropping like flies!"

"What?!" Lorne took the tablet out of McKay's hands and stared at it. Ronon peered over his head to see indeed some of the yellow dots winking out by the layout of the land where the stargate was. "That's Atlantis, it has to be!" the Major sounded excited as numerous blue dots came pouring through the stargate and suddenly a bunch of blue dots appeared in the middle of a perimeter around the stargate.

"So what now?" Ronon asked as Lorne handed the tablet back to McKay.

"Armory and then we're going to the Wraith'gul. Since Atlantis is setting up a perimeter, we'll get the Colonel and Apollo and get the hell out of here."

"Sounds like a plan," Ronon let the feral grin work its way up his face as they headed out of the medical ward and towards the armory.

Apollo paused, resting a hand on the thick bark of a tree as he squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated on breathing.

"Arileon?" the voice of his companion Logios was like a distant murmur to his mind, but he cracked a bleary eye open to stare at the smoke-colored Klisan'thus. Hermes was his human-formed name, but to Apollo, Logios was a god-send at the moment. He had revealed himself to be a hidden agent of the Agentus, personally sent by Commandant Atredies herself to be his support system if he decided to take action. Even he did not know about Logios' existence until the fellow Klisan'thus had saved his life and killed the other guards before injecting him with the antidote to the blood-hallucinogen that had been injected in him.

"I'm fine," he wheezed out, "the antidote is still running through my system." According to everything he had read about the blood-hallucinogen, aptly nicknamed by the Goa'uld as the Blood of Sokar, since he had been injected directly instead of ingesting it through his mouth, it would take a while to get over its effects if an antidote was administered.

During his time under its dreadful effects, he had been seeing the death of his father by shadowy assailants who had attacked their home long ago. He saw his father die defending his home and extended family from their attackers before his assailants had kidnapped him.

Apollo did not remember most of his time in captivity, having been a very young Klisan'thus back then, but he remembered the funeral held for his father. How only a handful of Furlings made their presence known, yet he remembered a few of the Alin'thus attending it. He had blamed himself for allowing his father to die for him, blamed himself for not being strong enough to fight back against his captors...

He knew now, why there were so little people at his father's funeral. Why even his own mother refused to attend it. It was because the Klisan'thus saw him as a lowly half-breed, not worthy of attention. He had long suspected it was renegade Klisan'thus who had attacked and killed his father and kidnapped him in an effort to keep the race pure, but there had been no proof. Soon after, his mother had taken him into custody and forbade anyone from making comments about his own heritage and her order was obeyed because she had been part of the High Council back then.

However, it did not stop the subtle discrimination he had encountered when he had applied for his apprenticeships and eventually decided to join the one place that would even think to accept him, the Agentus. Members of the Agentus, the Agenti, were often called suicide-runners because even though they did the High Council's bidding, their missions were often times, fatal ones. By then, Apollo was cynical enough to recognize that it was the only place he could feel somewhat at home, and it was not because his older half-sister Atredies was their Commandant.

He squeezed his eyes shut once more and shook his head roughly, before running a hand through his hair and pushed off from the tree. He looked at Logios, "If what you said is true about the Chapp'ai sending more reinforcements from the Tau'ri, it would be prudent for you to change to your human form." Logios had mentioned the radio chatter from Taethos' men stationed by the Chapp'ai that it had been activated some time ago.

"We won't blend in as easily if Taethos' forces are about," Logios was only ranked a Teino, two ranks below him, and a recent addition to the Agentus, but Apollo knew that he would not have been sent on this mission if Atredies had not seen something in the young Klisan'thus that would be an asset when the time came.

"We won't be shot by the Tau'ri," he countered before stalking forward, headed towards the Chapp'ai. As much as he wanted to go back and rescue Colonel Sheppard, he knew that he needed weapons first to shoot all of the other Klisan'thus before tackling Taethos himself. And going back into the compound was not an option as finding his way to the armory would take more time than heading quickly back to the Chapp'ai and perhaps procuring some weapons.

It was his hope that the others survived, but considering that Logios was reporting an incoming wormhole instead of a continuous outgoing one, that meant Dr. McKay had figured out how to disable the Chapp'ai and was probably still alive.

"How do we know that these Tau'ri won't shoot us on sight?" Logios' voice lost its guttural quality and he turned slightly to see him in his human form, a lanky, youthful dark-haired young man dressed in the Agentus body armor and surprisingly a pair of very human-looking glasses on his face. Youth and its rebellious ways, he supposed, turning back around and continuing tromping a path through the rough brush, ever wary of any Klisan'thus nearby.

"I communicated with Dr. Weir of the Atlantis expedition. I would hope that her people would recognize my face and not shoot us," it was a weak explanation, but the only one he could come up with to try to reassure the young Teino.

"Really?" Hermes sounded excited.

"The Tau'ri have come along way since we departed their home galaxy," he shrugged, "they apparently have space-faring warships."

"And only projectile weapons? That is quite odd," the young Klisan'thus sounded puzzled.

"I believe they had contacted the Serin'thus for assistance with their ships," Apollo didn't quite know the details, but when he had seen Hermiod, it had been quite a shock and it made some sense, especially regarding their beaming technology. He suddenly stopped, holding up a hand, making Hermes pause. He narrowed his eyes, looking around him. There was something that seemed...off...

He wished his human form was more advanced, able to sniff out anything that didn't seem right. He was about to tell Hermes to change back to his natural form when suddenly a blast from a za'kutus lanced out from nowhere and hit the young soldier on the side, sending him spinning to the ground. Apollo cursed and ducked, seeing a quick ripple in the air where the blast came from before diving to the side.

A za'kutus blast hit the tree trunk where he used to be and he scrambled to Hermes' side. The young soldier was lying awkwardly on the ground, his face screwed up in a grimace of pain as he held his bleeding wound. Apollo cursed as he grabbed the leftover medical kit that Hermes had been carrying with him and pulled out the gauzes. The blast had turned the edges of his skin black and burnt and little wisps of acrid smelling smoke were coming from the wound. Black blood seeped out and though he was trained primarily as an infiltrator, his twenty years being Taethos' group physician told him that the wound was serious and deep. He pulled out another small black bag of the white paste that was a healing compound he had found on this planet and scooped a good amount out.

"S-Sir..." Hermes' was almost hyperventilating and was staring at him with frightened eyes. He realized that this was probably the young Furling's first mission...and wondered why did the Agentus assign someone with so little experience on a mission like this? Could they not spare the resources?!

"You're going to be okay," he smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner, "this is going to hurt a little, but it should help control the bleeding." With that, he put the whitish paste on and heard the hiss of pain from Hermes, but the young soldier did not cry out, and instead bit his human lips in an effort to contain the pain.

Apollo shook his head slightly as another wave of lingering dizziness swept over him before he quickly spread the paste over the gaping burning wound. He was still not quite over the hallucinogenic drugs' effects and he saw his vision blur slightly before he forced his eyes to work with him. He spread the last of the paste and reached over to start bandaging the wound with the gauze when he felt something cold and metal lean against the back of his head just as Hermes' eyes widened in fear as he stared past his shoulder.

He raised his hands away from his body. "I am unarmed, treating a wounded man."

"Get up, traitor," the snarling command was enforced with the push of the cool metal of the za'kutus leaning against his head.

"Let me finish-"

"Get up!"

Apollo stood up slowly in stony silence, glancing down at Hermes who looked like he wanted to do something again and shook his head almost imperceptibly. He knew that the Furling was well versed in speed-kills, judging by the way he saw, or at least thought he saw him kill the three other Klisan'thus who had dragged him out to be executed. But right now, the young soldier was wounded and in no condition to do anything with his skills, much less shapeshift. For one, shapeshifting when severely wounded put an incredible strain on the body and did not heal wounds. At times it was used as a last resort, but even then, the risk for pulmonary failure was great.

As he stood up, he saw the shimmers of four other Klisan'thus materializing near them, all training their weapons on him and Hermes. Suddenly the sounds of machine gun fire rattled the air and one of the Klisan'thus further away from them pitched forward, gurgling a rapid death and Apollo leapt into action.

He twisted around and quickly grabbed the bulbous end of the za'kutus and pulled, getting a handle on a smoother part as more gunfire filled the air. The Klisan'thus that had been holding the weapon bared its teeth at him and tried to yank his weapon back, but he held on. Apollo knew he was at a terrible disadvantage and nearly yelped in pain as he felt his end heat up before the high pitched whine of a discharge of a bolt ripped past his ear, singeing the hairs on his head. He held on though, knowing that he was outmatched in strength and height, but to let go would ensure his own death.

He heard gunfire behind him along with za'kutus blasts, but kept his concentration the warrior in front of him. He couldn't afford to pay attention to anything else and seriously hoped that no stray za'kutus blasts hit him. Grimacing, he felt himself pulled forward some more as the Klisan'thus leered angrily at him before lifting an arm to swipe his black claws down on his face to take his head off.

Glaring up at the set of claws, Apollo suddenly pushed against the loosened grip on the za'kutus and drove the smaller end into the Klisan'thus' stomach, startling him and making him fold over slightly – just as he suddenly arced his back as two za'kutus blasts impacted his back and the Klisan'thus suddenly fell over, dead. Apollo looked beyond the fallen body to see the last thing he thought he would see...

"Artemis?!"

He had quickly finished the dressing on Hermes' wound before a couple of the Atlantis medical personnel hurried to the young soldier's side and placed him in a stretcher to take back to the stargate before being transported to Atlantis herself. Now, Apollo stared at the black blood on his hands, his vision still a bit blurry, but otherwise a lot better than ten minutes ago when he had been fighting for his life.

He had been through countless of missions, all with more blood than the streaks on his hands, but somehow, he felt more shaken with this mission than ever before. In the span of less than three days, he had found his whole life and purpose turned upside down. Much faster than many of his other missions – and he knew that the main cause was with the Tau'ri who had come through. They had changed so many things in such short time...

"You keep your human form, Arileon," her cultured tone made him turn around and stiffen before saluting, right palm to the middle of his chest. In his natural form, it was where their hearts were.

"Commandant," he greeted with a slight bow of his head before she saluted back and waved him to an at ease position. Around them, both human-formed Klisan'thus and the Tau'ri from Atlantis, lead by a Major Anthony Hicks, and troops from Colonel Caldwell's Daedalus, lead by Captain Erin Eckleston were about, cleaning up remnant patrols and most of them headed to the compound to find Major Lorne and his men.

"Status?" she asked her tone impatient. Apollo did not say anything about her still lingering in her human form.

"I need a unit to accompany me," he glanced back to see her small strike force and was surprised to see that not all of them were Agentus members. At least more than three-quarters of them strike team wore the body armor in the colors of the Raer'ar. He briefly wondered if these men and women were part of Diana's command, on loan to her twin sister Artemis.

If they were, he would be even more surprised considering that his other half-sister hated him with an unrestrained passion and would rather see him dead than help him in any way. It was one of the many reasons he had joined the Agentus instead of taking a civilian job or be part of the Gry'ar or Raer'ar.

"I shall go-"

"This is still my mission, Commandant," Apollo knew Artemis wanted nothing more than to see him fail, to have an excuse to take his command away and humiliate him. He would not let that happen while he was still breathing.

She looked at him, somehow managing to see eye-level to him even though he was a head taller than her. Apollo met her stare evenly, refusing to bow down to her wishes or commands. She was technically his superior, but yet the unspoken rule within the Agentus was that to each their own mission. If one decided to help another, then they became subordinates to the mission commander.

Suddenly the ground rumbled a bit and Apollo narrowed his eyes, staring towards the woods. That rumble...it felt like...

"Oh no," he whispered as he realized what was happening. He pointed at two unit leaders, "You, and you! Form up! The rest of you, scour the woods. Finish the remnants, no prisoners. Help in the compound and if you find a Dr. McKay, send him to the Wraith'gul."

He grabbed a za'kutus just as Artemis stopped him with an arm, her brows in a frown, "What's going on?"

"The Wraith'gul, it's being activated," he replied, a cold feeling in his gut. That meant Colonel Sheppard had been successfully manipulated into activating the thing that would kill them all before killing his own people. He tapped a radio that linked the Klisan'thus strike force and the Tau'ri from Atlantis and Daedalus together, "Colonel Caldwell."

"Online, good to hear your voice, Arileon," Caldwell replied.

"If the Chapp'ai activates and my men are not able to shut it off on time, I need you beam everyone aboard your ship and destroy the Chapp'ai."

"We don't-"

"Hermiod has told me of your naquadah-enhanced nuclear warheads. One should be able to bury the Chapp'ai forever," he replied grimly.

Silence reigned on the end as he collected a tac vest handed to him by one of the Atlantis crew and slipped it on before securing it and started back to the Wraith'gul. "Understood, good luck," Caldwell finally replied before he touched the radio again and terminated the link.

"Let's move!" he called, barely noticing his half-sister following behind him, a grim smile on her face. He needed to stop Sheppard, needed to stop Taethos...needed to make sure that he saved the right people this time. He would not fail.