Rodney was about to speak when Serenity merely glared at him and he took a step back. "Point taken."
"Who's to say this isn't cosmic payback for what you did to her? She put none of this in motion, didn't even know there was anything beyond her planet before she was sent here." Nik was using John's knowledge of Elizabeth and felt as if he were somehow betraying her, and himself. "Leave it, Serenity. Leave them alone. Leave her alone. You want to destroy something again, destroy me. Let's face it: it's what you're here to do."
Serenity smiled, tilting her head back and stretching, somehow still not a single raven hair out of place when she looked back at him. "Always were the noble one, weren't you? Believing mankind could be so much more than we ever saw. You were destined for great things amongst our people. But you had to take a little Athenian woman into your heart and your bed. I'm not sure which disgusts me more."
"Because you all missed out?" Nikomedes taunted.
"Oh trust me, not one of our women wanted anything to do with you once they knew you'd been with her."
A muffled - almost hysterical - laugh was heard from Amarante at that moment. She ripped her hand away from Nik's and walked away, toward Serenity. "Because they were jealous that for all their power and supposed superiority, I could hold his attention when they could not."
"Do not provoke me, child," Serenity spat.
"What difference does it make?" she continued. "You are here to kill me whatever happens now, so I am going to say whatever I damn well please and know I said it well, rather than let you silence me twice." She glared up at the Ancient woman defiantly, making several of her companions wonder just how much of Elizabeth was present in those words.
"Should we not call for reinforcements?" Teyla whispered.
"I got it," Ford replied, activating his link to the communications system. "This is Ford. All available teams report to the central Atlantis systems contr-" He was abruptly silenced as a pulse of amber energy hit him head on, making him slump to the floor, dazed.
"Be silent," Serenity commanded, annoyed with the interruption. "This is none of your concern. Leave and you will live. This city is yours. Not his and certainly not hers." She glared back at Amarante.
It was Carson who folded his arms and leant back against the wall. "If you don't mind, lass, we'll be just fine here. It being 'our city' and all." He sighed, glancing across to Ford, who scrambled to his feet, trying not to show great concern in case Serenity decided to knock him down again. He met the young man's eyes and nodded.
A slow smile spread across Amarante's face. "This city is mine. Elizabeth, Amarante, it doesn't matter. What matters is that my people are here and I will protect them until the day I die. They are mine to protect and so is this city. If it means I die today and you leave them alone, then so be it."
Nikomedes nodded as he strode to stand beside her. "Not so insignificant now, huh?"
"You are fools." Serenity fumed.
"Maybe so. But at least we're fools together."
Amarante set her jaw and glared up at Serenity. "Get out of my city. Now."
"I'll destroy it before I leave it to you!" the Ancient cried.
"Did you hear something? I swear somebody was making a threat." Nik tilted his head. "Destroy Atlantis? Empty threats, dear sister. You'll never destroy this city, it's your last remaining great achievement. Destroy the Ancestors' home? I think not."
"Sister?" Rodney stammered.
"As much as that disgusts me," Nikomedes mumbled.
"I assure you the greater sickness is mine, brother," Serenity hissed. "Think of all you could have been, all our family could have done. All of us branded by your betrayal. I only achieved my status through your little pet's death by my own hand. And even then I wasn't good enough. Replaced by that brat Selene."
"So you took turns making us believe you were gods?" Amarante raged.
"We are gods! More power than you could ever imagine flowing through us, something you will never comprehend. Somebody had to give some order to your lives."
"Order? You call that order? Wasting tribute and prayers that went unanswered, unless you felt like toying with us again. Miracles and acts of gods; women with half-breed children being exiled because nobody could explain how these children performed such miracles as seen by the 'gods'; no fathers because they left to become something more. People struck down because you felt like it. Anyone who dared to question you, even your own. You call yourself a goddess!"
"I didn't get to be a goddess thanks to the two of you," her voice was deadly low.
"So correct the mistake and pretend it never happened? Wipe us from existence and move on?" Nikomedes questioned.
"Bringing order to chaos," Serenity answered. "You never saw what we saw. You never Ascended with us. Past, present and future as one, every path, every possibility in an instant. If you had awakened the city you would have killed it. We discovered a human woman in our long lost city and didn't dare remove her from it. Time had been warped, distorted, we couldn't see the end. So we left her there and we hoped. But you would have destroyed it all."
"She saved your precious city."
"A version of Elizabeth Weir saved the city. If you can call it 'saving'."
"Elizabeth Weir is Amarante. So you have already killed her twice," he muttered.
"What happened to your 'no interference' policy?" Amarante demanded, using Elizabeth's knowledge. "Caused too much destruction in my time?"
"Serenity folded her arms. "This is not interfering. This is dealing with the aftermath of multiple errors."
"And what, you'll make another recording and stand before both our corpses and proclaim yourself superior, that the deed is done and Atlantis is finally safe?" her 'brother' scoffed.
"I will silence your souls forever and this city will prosper."
"Not without them it won't," Carson mumbled.
"Sibling rivalry? Jealously? Somebody should document this, 'Ancients not so superior after all'." Rodney commented.
"You want Atlantis to prosper? Leave us to our city," Ford barked.
"You are nothing. You mean nothing. Do not pretend to know anything of my kind." Serenity glared around the room. "You are merely tools to bring Atlantis back to life."
"Better check this one, 'cause I think the power setting's wrong." The words were John's, but the power was Nikomedes', activating every power centre within that his future self was unaware of, glowing with a brighter light than that of even Serenity as his eyes pulsed silver. "Sorry, sister. This ends now." An energy discharge from his body hit the ceiling as light whirled round his wrists - power he flung full-force at the Ancient whilst concentrating and trying desperately not to burn out.
"Such power. Faith, hope, love, nothing, absolutely nothing." Serenity raised her right hand and effortlessly deflected the attack, smiling when she noted just where it would strike.
Amarante told herself to move, yet everything slowed down around her as she remained still, limbs not responding. She saw the trail of light, the horror in Nikomedes' eyes, and closed her own tightly as the energy struck her in the chest, sending her backward and crashing to the ground with no time for any exclamation of pain.
"Mara!"
Serenity stepped down from the platform, smiling cruelly. "You think love brought you back? Love brought you this. Watch her die again, by your own hand."
"Mara…" Nikomedes knelt, crouching over Amarante. He slid a hand behind her head to support her, whilst blood streamed from the corner of her mouth.
"Nik…" She coughed, forcing her eyes to open.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry… Not again," he whispered. "My fault…all over again."
"Love you…forgive you…" Amarante gasped for breath. "…I…willingly." She smiled faintly as her eyes fell shut. "Let's go to Atlantis. Let's go…today…" Her head lolled to one side and she was all too still.
Serenity laid a hand on Nikomedes' shoulder. "Now you can't even Ascend. You will live, tortured by the knowledge you killed her. Again. And I might just be able to live with knowing that pain destroyed you too."
He stood, whirling round, furious, and shrugged her hand off his shoulder. He snatched a tight grip on her. "I can't Ascend, you're right. But you don't win here twice. You were right about one thing." His whole form pulsed brightly, glowing again, forcing energy to pass to her as she struggled to wrench her hand from his grip. "I could have been so much more. But so could she."
Serenity cried out in agony, trying to counter the charge he forced through her system.
"You don't get to be a god because you think you're fit to be. It happens when you're not looking, when you're too concerned with others to care about yourself. They make you a god, they make you the world, not your selfish desire." He pushed her away. "You would never have made goddess." He stumbled back as a thin shriek was heard from the changing form of Serenity, until no human form could be seen, only a faint light, that swiftly vanished. He exhaled, nodding once, before Nikomedes fell face down on the floor beside Amarante.
Teyla was already checking Elizabeth's pulse as Carson pulled John onto his back, checking for any sign that he was still breathing. He cursed under his breath and went to check his pulse, looking across at Teyla, to be met with a panicked look that he certainly hadn't wanted to see.
"Well, are they breathing? Pulse?" Rodney demanded.
Carson looked back at him, expression saying it all.
"…No."