A/N: Ah, hello again. I give to you the balm to cliff-hanger anxieties: the next chapter!
Sorry for the delay; my life's been getting rather hectic lately. Luckily, I still have enough time to work on my stories. :D
Disclaimer: I don't own SGA or any of the characters like John, Ronon, Teyla, etc. My characters are my own, though; Lori, (the) Devourer, Kyle, Leo, etc.
Also, I'd highly recommend checking out a story on here by Kinetikat; it's called Blind Guide. It's super awesome, so go read it!
Now, let's resume our adventure, shall we? :D
"Lori!" John opened fire, killing the first few Wraith near her. But it wasn't enough.
Backing up, she fired off her first shots, being careful not to waste bullets. Headshot, headshot. Repeat. Even using such a method though, she didn't have anywhere near enough bullets to keep herself safe. Then…
"Lorelai!" Ronon's voice boomed from above, amplified by the room's auditorium like aspects.
She looked up, and saw his hand outstretched. Understanding his intention, she spun around managed to use a Wraith as a stepping-stone and vault into the air.
It occurred to her while she was jumping that a normal human wouldn't be able to jump thirty feet in the air, even with a six-foot Wraith's shoulder to leap off of. It was one of the few times she was grateful for her stronger half, for the Wraith side that let her do things a regular person would be incapable of accomplishing. Odd, though, that there'd yet to be any drawbacks.
Ronon caught her hand and hauled her up over the edge while Sheppard and the others kept up cover fire.
"Are you alright?" the Satedan asked once he'd pulled her up.
She nodded, still short of breath.
"Alright, there's no way we can win this. Everybody pull back." Sheppard ordered.
"So…" Sheppard leaned back in his chair at their debriefing that night. "We figured it would be best if we got out of there."
Carter nodded. "Good call. It doesn't sound like you would've had much of a chance." She turned to Lorelai. "What about you? Are you alright?"
The girl nodded. "I'm fine. Just a little tired."
"Do you think it's true, what she said about Yolan and the others?" Carter asked. "Could they have put you in stasis to protect you?"
Lorelai shrugged. "I have no idea."
"It's definitely possible." McKay said. "That Wraith could have found a way to pinpoint the energy coming from their facilities. But the stasis pod doesn't give off much of an energy signature on its own; they could have powered down the facility and left in order to keep the Wraith from finding her."
"But why bother?" John asked. "Why not just take her with them when they left?"
"Well, maybe they….." McKay sighed. "I don't know."
Lorelai closed her eyes. Neither do I.
An hour later, Lorelai was running through her tonfa sparring exercises with Kyle.
She was being careful to rein in her strength though, to be entirely certain she wouldn't hurt him by accident.
"Hey. Lori." A low voice came form the doorway.
She looked over, surprised. "Ronon."
The Satedan smiled a bit. "Why don't you spar with me for a bit?"
She stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "You're not serious."
He grinned. "Scared?"
She growled.
"I'll be over here." Kyle said, backing away.
"That's probably a good idea." Ronon agreed, grabbing two tonfa.
"You are serious." she realized.
"Yep."
She smiled, baring her teeth. "Then I'll be serious, too."
"Good."
Half an hour later, they walked into the infirmary together, mutually battered but grinning ear to ear.
"What happened to you?" Sheppard demanded, distracted from his conversation with the doctor.
"Sparring match." Ronon said.
"With what, a Yeti?"
They both frowned. "A what?" Lorelai asked.
John shook his head. "Never mind. Who won?"
"We tied." Lorelai said, sitting on the edge of one of the infirmary beds.
"Oh. That's new. Someone besides Teyla who can fight Ronon to a standstill." John grinned.
Doctor Keller smiled as she dabbed at a cut on Lorelai's forehead. "Do you need any Avoren?"
She shook her head. "No, thank you. These scratches will heal fine on their own," she added, smirking at Ronon, who chuckled.
"We have reports of the Wraith ship from MR5-673 leaving, and moving on towards another planet." Carter told them at their morning meeting the next day.
"Where's it going now?" John asked.
"It seems to be heading towards MR9-278." McKay said. "Which is bad. That world is actually inhabited by something other than little forest critters, so if that Wraith stops there..."
"The people on the planet are in danger." Sheppard finished for him. "Well, why don't we go have a little chat with Todd, see if he knows anything about this 'Devourer'."
"The Devourer?" Todd repeated, looking up from the computer McKay had given him to work on.
"Yeah, that's what she called herself." John frowned. "Why, d'you know her?"
Todd shook his head. "Not personally, no. But all those centuries ago, there was a Wraith Queen called the Devourer, who was feared even among the Wraith. We thought she had been killed; she's not been seen or heard from for almost seven thousand years."
"What'd she do before she disappeared?" John asked. "I mean, she'd have to be pretty bad if even other Wraith were scared of her."
Todd nodded, looking trouble. "Her name comes from her reputation. She originally started out as an ordinary queen, but she possessed a unique ability. She was able to consume others to gain their strengths. She began with her own Hive; she devoured her own subjects. From there she took her ship, and traveling to other planets began to consume inhabitants of those worlds as well."
"Like a locust." John said. "An evil cannibalistic locust."
"But why is she suddenly back again?" Lorelai asked, frowning. "It's been seven thousand years, you said. If she disappeared all those years ago, why start up again?"
"Oh no."
"McKay?" John asked, turning around. "What do you mean, 'oh no'?"
"Well, it's kind of like when we first came to Pegasus, actually."
"Care to elaborate?"
"You remember how we were the ones to first wake up the Wraith here? Well, this isn't so different." He walked past them and pulled up a file on his computer. "When we went to the lab where Lorelai was in stasis, and turned everything back on, the Devourer's sensors must have picked up the energy levels coming from the planet."
"The same energy levels the scientists shut down the lab to avoid sending out."
"Um…yes." McKay looked down.
"So, this is basically our fault?"
"Well, I mean, there's no way we could have possibly know that going there was going to-"
"McKay."
"…Yeah."
Sheppard was in a particularly foul mood for the next four days, and nothing any of them said seemed to do any good.
"I believe it reminds him of when he and the Atlantis expedition first awoke the Wraith." Teyla had told her when she'd asked.
"So…he feels guilty?" Lorelai had said hesitantly.
"I believe so, yes."
Sitting in her room, Lorelai couldn't help but feel guilty, too. If she didn't exist, there wouldn't be any reason for the Devourer to have returned. It was her awakening from stasis that had prompted the Devourer to make a comeback.
But why does she want me? Lorelai wondered. The only strengths I have come from my Wraith side, and obviously she'd have all those strengths, too. So why?
"Am I threat?" she muttered, remembering what the Devourer had said. 'The experiment created to even the score.'
Suddenly decisive, she swung out of bed, and left her room.
"Lori." McKay said, looking up from a computer screen he and Todd were peering at. "What're you doing here?"
"I want you to finish the tests you were running before, the ones on me."
He looked surprised. "You do? Why?"
She fidgeted nervously. "That Queen is after me for some reason. She tried to find me eight thousand years ago, and I don't doubt that she'll try it again. I need to know why."
McKay nodded. "Makes sense, I should have thought of it earlier." He grabbed a nearby clipboard. "Let's get started."
"Aside from your reflexes and healing capabilities, the only thing I can think of is your hand." McKay said two hours later, after he and Todd had run as many tests as they could think of.
"But my hand doesn't do anything." she said, frustrated.
"Ah, that's not entirely true." McKay argued. "It has some sort of weird osmosis, remember?"
She rolled her eyes. "I don't even know what that means, McKay."
"Your scar, or whatever it is, can absorb energy."
She frowned. "No, it can't"
"Oh, but it can."
"Since when?" she demanded.
"How should I know? But the files Yolan left are extremely clear about it. It takes conscious effort, but you can absorb almost any type of energy. Not life energy, though." he added. "Apparently they built some sort of preventative measure into your genetic code to disallow that kind of energy."
"Well, what other kinds of energy are there?"
"Oh, all kinds. According to this you can drain electrical energy from a console if you try to. Your hand absorbs it and your body turns it into energy you can use."
"I have never done that before in my life." she said flatly.
"Yeah, I sort of figured that. But it's interesting that you can, right? Oh, and there's more." he said excitedly, hefting his laptop off the table.
"What, energy types I can absorb.?"
"No. Well, yes, there are more of those as well, but there's something else your hand can do."
"What is it?"
"Your hand can also send energy out."
"What, like my energy?" she asked, feeling alarmed.
"Yes, but don't look so scared. Remember the getting-power-from-a-console metaphor from before?"
"Yeah."
"Well, now imagine you take energy you got from that, and gave it to something or someone else." he continued on excitedly. "Your body won't use the energy you absorb unless it has to. Until then, it stores it. And you can expel that energy into other things.
"Like how Wraith can give back life to those they take it from." she said, looking at Todd for confirmation.
The Wraith nodded. "Exactly."
"And even better, while you can't absorb life energy, you can take your stored energy and give it to other people. As a sort of adrenaline boost, apparently."
"All this was in Yolan's files?"
McKay nodded.
"When did you have time to learn all of this?" she asked suddenly. "You spent the last two hours running tests on me with Todd, you didn't take a break once."
"Oh, well, I forgot."
"McKay."
"Sorry, sorry. But now we know, so that's good, isn't it?"
She rolled her eyes. "You're unbelievable."
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I'll have the next one up soon. And it's rather awesome (from my standpoint anyhow; more action = awesome. :D) Oh, and review, please!(And check out Blind Guide, by Kinetikat; it's a super awesome Todd story). :D