Chapter Thirteen
"She is changing everything."
The others looked on at the events transpiring on Atlantis from their existence in the space between. The anomaly, Hope, was using her knowledge, their Ancient knowledge, to advance the humans. It was blasphemy. The mere fact that they needed her help proved that they were not ready. She was changing the course of their evolution, altering events of this timeline. There was no telling what else she would do, or what the consequences would be, for the humans or the rest of the multi-verse.
Rixton kept his gaze fixed on Hope as she moved about the city. He was a being of enlightenment, beyond the limits of human banalities, and yet he was stumped by the mere existence of this single woman. She was of them and yet not one of them. She had all of their power, all of their knowledge and gifts, and none of their responsibility, none of their code of conduct or moral obligation.
Millennia ago, upon reaching the level of ascension, they'd bound themselves by one true rule, non-interference. Hope's very existence negated that rule. By casting her own sister down from ascension and into the realm of the humans Kala had set into motion a chain of events that would alter the course of the entire known universe. With her actions she had undone everything they had ever stood for. She had created a being that would be unstoppable. Hope was more powerful and potentially more dangerous than anything the universe had ever seen or created.
"Yes," he answered simply, never taking his eyes off of the anomaly.
"We can't allow this. We have to stop her."
"We cannot. She is born of their realm. And therefore she is not bound by our laws."
"She is too powerful. And the very fact that she is not bound by our laws makes her all the more dangerous. We can't let this continue."
She was dangerous because they were bound by their own rules. Hope was born among the humans, she existed among them, and for that simple fact, the Others could not stop her actions. Like Anubis and Adria before her, Hope Sheppard was a problem, but unlike the former two, Hope was a problem of their own making.
Oma Desala was an ascended who'd spent her time in the space between showing the inhabitants of the lower realm the path to enlightenment. But she had made the mistake of showing Anubis the path to Ascension without knowing his true character. Once he'd showed his true colors the Others had tried to descend him, but the attempt only left him trapped between the two planes of existence.
Because of the knowledge he'd gleaned from ascended life, Anubis was able to amass unimaginable advanced technologies, gathering strength for hundreds of years before returning to take his revenge upon the Goa'uld System Lords and dominate the galaxy. With weapons and armies to rival the entire collective power of the System Lords, he posed the largest threat to ever enter their collective domain, as well as to hundreds of peaceful worlds that stood in the shadow of his destructive hand.
Even so, to the Others he was not much of a blip on the greater scheme of the universe and ultimately he was not their responsibility. They let him do his damage and they just stood by and watched. More importantly, they let Oma watch, to show her the consequences of her actions, of her interference. In the end it was Oma who had to make the ultimate sacrifice to undo her own actions by locking herself in an eternal battle with Anubis to prevent him from any further destruction.
Adria had been the human embodiment of the Ori, an Ascended people who were once part of the same ranks of the Ancients. But the Ori separated after choosing a path of worship over science, worship of themselves as a higher power. Adria, like Hope, had been born in the mortal plane as a human and was created by the Ori as a way to thwart Ascended law.
As she grew so too did her knowledge of the universe and the thirst for power that she'd inherited from her creators. She was able to gain great power through her own Ascension and the worship of the followers of the Book of Origin. It was a power that was too great for the Others to go up against.
Fortunately the humans of Earth were able to find and use Merlin's device to show the followers of Origin the truth about the Ori and Adria's power was reduced to a level that was again equal to that of the rest of the Ascended. This made it possible for Morgan Le Fay to make the same sacrifice as Oma Desala before her and lock herself in an eternal battle to stop Adria.
It had taken Ascension and the worship of billions of people for Adria to gain her enormous power. Hope possessed the same amount of power in her current state, as a human. There was no telling what would happen if she were to ascend or if it was even necessary for her. There was no way to shrink or stop her power. There was no one to stop her if she veered off on the same path of those before her.
The chaos and destruction that the Goa'uld and the Wraith, the Replicators or the Ori, or Anubis and Adria had brought would be nothing compared to what Hope could do. The impact that they all had on the universe was nothing. The Others had been so convinced of this that they had just stood by and watched. They'd let the beings on the lower planes fend for themselves.
Hope was the true threat. Hope was a force that they would have fought. But their rule of non-interference kept them from doing so. Kala had seen to it that they wouldn't. She had used their laws against them.
"This is Kala's doing."
"Yes," Rixton confirmed.
"She saw this. She set it all in motion. She cast her sister down, sent her to him. She created the girl, but why? Why would she want to create such a being? Did she learn nothing of Adria?"
"I learned everything from Adria?" Kala said, suddenly appearing before them out of nowhere. "Now it is time for you to learn."
"Learn what, exactly?"
"That you were wrong," she answered.
"We were wrong? You created an instrument of insurmountable destruction."
"You all see things so black and white. That has always been your undoing. You look at her and see all the terrible things she is capable of. I look at her and I see all the good. Why is it so hard for you to believe that she will use her gifts to help? She is a part of us. And all she has done so far has only been for the betterment of them."
"It is not for us to say what is for better or worse."
"No," Kala agreed. "It's for her to say now."
Rixton turned to stare at Kala. "You have always been a loose cannon, Kala. But you have finally taken it too far. It's a shame you dragged your sister into all this."
"My sister? Chanis is innocent in this. All she did was live the human life that she was given. She did not break your rules. She had no knowledge of my plan or what would unfold. You have no right to punish her."
"You may have circumvented our law and our judgment but your sister cannot. She interfered with the lives of the humans on that Asgard ship. She was Ascended when she did that and had full knowledge of our laws. And now she is suffering the consequences of her actions."
"You're punishing her for saving the lives of her husband and child?"
"We are punishing her for breaking our law."
"Your law? What good are your laws doing you now? What good have they done them?" she asked gesturing to the city they watched below. "We have all existed, and watched, never participating and we have forgotten. So we don't get to choose for them anymore. She knows what it means to feel. Hope knows both sides of it. So it's up to her to decide now. She chooses the path we follow."
"You put too much trust in the hands of one single being, especially a being of such a flawed world."
"It's not trust. It's faith. I believe in her. And that's what you have all forgotten."
/
/
/
Hope walked into the control room of the city just in time to see Ronon's face staring back at her on the monitor of the main operations station. She could see the bridge of the General Hammond in the background. As she moved into the room next to the rest of Atlantis' senior staff, she wondered if the ship's crew were enjoying the company of their new guest.
"Todd giving you guys any trouble?" she heard Colonel Sheppard ask.
Ronon rolled his eyes. "Seriously? It's Todd, so what do you think?" he said in answer. "He has been asking a lot about you though. I think he might have missed you this last year."
"You can tell him the feeling's not mutual."
Hope poked her head into view of the camera transmitting back to the Hammond. "How far away are you from the target?" she asked.
Instead of Ronon and his team gating back to the city with Todd in tow, the Hammond had traveled through hyperspace to scoop them up from the planet Todd had been calling home. He required something before he agreed to return to Atlantis, and it would take the help of their new warship to help him get it. In exchange, he was to tell them all the secrets he still carried about the Wraith and the remaining Queens that would help the Coalition win this war.
Ronon glanced quickly away from the camera before he turned back to answer her question. "According to the coordinates Todd gave us, we're halfway there. Another day should do it, give or take a few hours."
"That's all well and good, but do we actually trust him to hold up his end of the bargain?" asked Rodney, pacing nervously behind the others hunched over the small screen.
"Why do you think I'm calling?" asked Ronon. "As a show of good faith he gave us this." As he said the last he nodded to someone off camera.
"We're receiving a data stream from the Hammond," alerted Chuck.
Rodney moved to the man's station and physically moved him out of the way to take his place. He typed in a few commands and opened up the stream. As he looked up from the terminal all eyes in the room were on him. "They're gate addresses," he informed them.
"He says," started Ronon, "they're the locations of several previously unknown, at least to us, Wraith outposts. Destroying them should be a considerable blow to the Queens."
Hope moved to look over the gate addresses given. She paused on one that caught her eye. "This one here," she said pointing to a blinking dot on the screen. "I recognize it from one of the catalogued databases in the archives."
"Archives?" John asked.
"My time," Hope said shaking her head. "As Pegasus was evacuated we inventoried and catalogued anything of note we found on the planets. There is definitely a Wraith stronghold on this address."
"All right then," began John looking to his team. "Let's suit up guys." He turned back to the monitor and Ronon. "Thanks Chewy. We'll let you know what we find. Try not to have too much of a good time with Todd."
"No worries there. I won't. Good luck," he said closing the communication.
Sheppard and the others began moving out as John activated his com. "Major Lorne, round up your team and meet us in the gear room. In about twenty minutes we're going on a little field trip."
Lorne came back on the other end. "Copy that Colonel. We're on our way."
It was then that John noticed Hope was keeping stride with them as they were making their way to the gear room. "Where do you think you're going?" he asked her.
"With Ronon on the Hammond your team is a man short. I'm coming with you. I've been cooped up far too long. This outing seems like just the thing." She noticed the look that came across his face. "Unless you object?"
Slowly, after a moment's hesitation, he shook his head. "No, you're right. We're short-handed," he said as they continued down the hall.
Trailing slightly behind the pair, Rodney whispered in confidence as he walked by Teyla's side. "This should be interesting."
"Yes," the woman answered nodding, a smile threatening in the crook of her mouth. "I agree."
/
/
The puddle jumper descended from the jumper bay into the gateroom. With a full complement of passengers onboard, John Sheppard dialed the gate address of the planet provided to them by Todd and the event horizon mushroomed out in front of them. John and Teyla watched from their front row seats in the cockpit of the jumper as four marines moved to toss a round of grenades through the gate to eliminate whatever might be waiting for them on the other side. With a nod from them after the task was done, the Colonel activated the jumper's cloak and piloted the vessel through the gate.
"Thirty-eight minutes and counting," John declared once on the other side. "Any idea what we're looking for or where to start?" he called to the back of the cabin as the heads up display came to life showing them the topography of the planet.
Hope stood from her seat and made her way to the front section. "If memory serves there's a structure about ten klicks due east," she said standing over John's shoulder. She reached out her hand and tapped the screen. "Here is a good place to set down. The rest of the way we should approach on foot," she suggested.
"And about how far is that exactly?" asked Rodney from his vantage at the back.
Teyla turned to address him. "About a mile and a half," she said answering.
"Oh, perfect," he said flatly, as if it were anything but. He was not looking forward to another trek towards impending doom.
Lorne and his men tried to hold in their laughter. If Ronon were with them he would have been the one to say something smart or maybe even vaguely threatening, or at the very least glare and mumble in Rodney's general direction. They were content with the look of uncomfortableness that was written all over Dr. McKay's face.
A few minutes later the jumper touched down on solid earth and the two teams exited out the back, the craft re-cloaking once all boots were on the ground. The men looked around at the terrain, at least what they could see of it. There was a dense smog that filled the air. They couldn't see more than a hundred yards in front of them. The air was heavy, barely breathable. This was definitely not a planet worth settling, or even exploring voluntarily for that matter. But this was not a voluntary mission.
"Well isn't this just lovely," commented Rodney, sarcastically.
John glared at the man. "Can it Rodney. We're not here to sightsee."
"Yeah?" he said nearly hacking up a lung. "Well how about breathing? We here to do that maybe?"
"You'll be fine," Hope said to him as she stepped to her father's side. "When we explored here there wasn't much they'd left behind. But we did find evidence that led us to believe that the Wraith used this sight to develop a lot of their weapons and conduct some of their medical research."
"What kind of research?" asked Major Lorne.
"The kind no one wants to be the subject of," she turned to answer.
"I don't even want to imagine," breathed Jefferies.
"We should get going," Teyla said. "No doubt the Wraith here have already been alerted to our presence."
"Agreed," said John. "Let's move out. Lorne's team take the east, my team, we're going west."
Everyone nodded and moved off in groups of three as directed, leaving Hope behind to decide which team to join. This was something no one had discussed while they had been prepping for the mission, nor did it seem much like the Colonel was inclined to discuss it now. After a few tense beats the Major, finally taking pity on her, turned back and gestured for her to join his men.
"Almost like old times again," Ayala commented a few minutes later as they were coming up on a ridgeline overlooking the site they were to infiltrate. They'd been without their fourth team member for months now. They all felt Layna's loss, but Hope's presence went a long way toward filling that void, and for more than just them.
There were a dozen drones patrolling outside of the structure, a few hundred meters from their position. If they wanted a look inside, they were going to have to go through them. The other team were making their way up the ridge a few hundred meters to their left. Hope signaled them to move on and flank the drones from their side while her team moved in opposite them in a synchronized strike.
The operation moved quickly and quietly, with each of their party taking out two drones apiece, Hope and John both taking out one extra on their own. After throwing a few grenades through the door and waiting for the resulting blast, the teams moved into the compound, guns ready. They met no resistance at first, the grenades doing them the favor of taking out the four drones posted inside. They split off into their teams, going in opposite directions.
/
John led his team down a dimly lit corridor. As they made their way through the structure they each placed individual wedges of C-4 throughout in key sections that Rodney pointed out to them along the way. Every time John looked behind him he expected to see Ronon backing them up. Missions were always different when one of their team were missing. It had been the same when Teyla had been on maternity leave, and that god-awful time she had been with Michael. Going without one of their own was like learning to function after the loss of a limb. They were all looking forward to Ronon's return.
As they walked their minds involuntarily flashed back on all their time spent on Wraith Hives. "I swear, all these Wraith places are the same," John commented. "Cold, dark, damp, and creepy."
As he said this Rodney reached out to open a hatch leading into the next chamber and came back with a handful of organic sludge. "Not to mention slimy and utterly disgusting," he said, mirroring the same sentiments as John as he flicked his hand trying to get the slime off of it. After a few futile tries he finally opted to wipe it on his tactical pants as they continued on.
"Well, this is new," Teyla said as they entered the next chamber and had a look around.
"Yeah," seconded John.
"I'll say," said Rodney as he stared at the equipment spread throughout the room.
They didn't know what they were looking at, but it was like nothing they had ever seen when dealing with the Wraith before. The room was sparse, but what was there was unbelievable. The space was immaculate, even by human standards, let alone the Wraith.
"Any idea what the hell this is all for?" John asked, casting a glance in Rodney's direction.
"Well don't look at me," he said in response. "It's like the freaking Twilight Zone in here as far as I'm concerned."
"Hope said that the Wraith might have been experimenting with new weapons here," Teyla reminded the men. "And medical research."
"Yeah well, these don't look like any kind of weapons I've ever seen," was John's reply as he reached out to touch one of the odd looking machines in the room with them.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said Rodney stopping him. John looked over to the man. "You don't know what it is or what it could do. My advice, definitely leave it alone. Trust me, I learned my lesson with the Atero device."
John slowly pulled his hand back and nodded. "Point taken. Set some charges and let's get the hell out of here," he told them.
/
"Anyone else finding it odd that aside from the guards at the door, we're not meeting any resistance here?" asked Lieutenant Jefferies as their team entered another empty chamber.
"This is a secret Wraith instillation. It has been untouched by outsiders for millennia. I'm surprised there were any guards here at all," said Hope. "Whatever they're doing here, it must be worth protecting."
"Weapons usually are," said the Major. "How are we doing on time?" he asked.
"Twenty-three minutes," answered Ayala checking his watch.
"Five more minutes to clear this place and lay our final charges and we're bailing," Major Lorne told them.
"Copy that," Jefferies and Ayala said in unison as Hope nodded her agreement.
"No more time for sightseeing guys," Hope said leading the way through the structure, clearing the chambers at twice their previous speed.
"I think we hit the jackpot," Ayala said not a minute later as they entered a large illuminated chamber.
"Geez," exclaimed Jefferies. "You think this might be why Todd wanted us to hit this place?"
"That'd be my guess," answered Major Lorne as they all stared amazed at the vast chamber before them. It was filled top to bottom with Wraith Hive torpedoes. There were thousands of them.
Lorne looked to Hope. "You didn't know this was here?" he asked her.
She shook her head. "Like I said, when we got here in my time almost everything was cleared. We surmised that they might have been making weapons here but nothing on this scale."
"All right," he said turning to his men. "We obviously found what we were looking for. Ayala, document this cache, the rest of us will set the charges. We're bugging out in two minutes, so set your watches."
"Aye sir." They each set about accomplishing their tasks, Ayala pulling out his camera and the rest of the team setting their remaining blocks of C-4.
When they were all done they made their way back to the entrance and found the other team waiting for them. "Cutting it a bit close, don't you think?" said the Colonel checking his watch as they were headed toward them.
"Sorry, the bay full of torpedoes slowed us down a bit," said Lorne.
"Did you say torpedoes?" asked Rodney.
"Affirmative," the Major answered.
"The Wraith queens won't be happy to part with those, I'd bet," said John.
"That's a pretty safe bet," Lorne answered as the teams stepped out of the structure and into daylight.
"Kind of a shame to blow it all up though," said Teyla.
"Don't worry, I've got pics," said Ayala with a smirk.
"I've got something better," said Hope pulling out some sort of scanning device and offering it up.
Rodney moved to the shiny new toy eagerly and took it from her.
"What is it?" Teyla asked.
Rodney looked up from the device amazed. "It's a complete breakdown of everything this device passed within five hundred meters of."
"So pretty much everything?" Jefferies said.
"Yes. It's basically a 'How To' guide to disabling the Wraith's primary weapons," Rodney told them.
All eyes turned to Hope.
"You may have just handed us the key to winning this war," John said.
"That's kind of what I'm here for."
/
They were double timing it back to where they'd left the jumper when the Wraith stunner blast shot past them from behind, just missing Lorne's right ear. The group stopped their retreat, dropping to one knee and spinning around to return fire. There was a group of drones down the ridgeline mounting an assault on their position. They were advancing fast.
"So much for making it back to the jumper before they call in for reinforcements," Rodney cried out above the popping of their P90s.
"We've still got three minutes. These guys must have already been here," said Jefferies.
"Anyone got any bright ideas?" Rodney asked.
"Killing them is usually a good one," John said.
As he said this Hope signaled to Lorne's team to move. She led them down the side of the ridge while the others continued to draw the full attention and fire of the drones below. They moved down the ridgeline unnoticed. When they had a good advantage they fired on the unsuspecting drones. The distraction was enough to clear the path for the others. Defending one position from two angles proved too difficult for the drones and they were all eventually disabled. The other team found their way back down the ridge to the sides of their counterparts and they all began collecting the downed Wraith's stunner rifles.
"Anyone else hear that?" Lorne asked.
They all stilled and quieted until they could hear it too. It was a faint but distinct beeping tone. Hope and John pinpointed it first. It was coming from underneath one of the dead drones.
"What is it?" Lieutenant Jefferies asked as the group gathered around and watched as John moved to turn the Wraith over. Once he did he instantly wished that he hadn't. The source of the beeping was an active self-destruct on the drone's vest and it was already counted down to the last few seconds.
"Run!" Hope yelled trying to warn the others but it was already too late. They had all begun to turn to run and flee but were nowhere near fast enough to escape the blast radius.
Hope and the Colonel had been the closest to the downed drone. She instinctively jumped on top of him just as the blast hit. John looked up from his vantage point on the ground beneath Hope and saw the fire and debris swell above but by some unexplained miracle never touching the pair of them. There was something he could not see shielding them.
It was all over in a matter of seconds. Hope stood and helped her father back to his feet and they looked out at the aftermath of destruction around them. He and Hope had both managed to come out unscathed, but the same could not be said for the rest of his teams.
Teyla and Rodney had been the closest besides them to the epicenter of the explosion. Their bodies were badly burned. Major Lorne and his men had been a little further out. Their bodies were only slightly less burned. But one thing was clear, they were all dead. All of his friends were dead.
For the last few months all he had known was loss and pain. This war was taking everything from him. But somehow he always managed to endure where others did not. Today, looking at the lifeless bodies of his closest friends, was not the first time that he wished that he hadn't survived, that he wished it was himself lying burned and lifeless on the ground.
"I don't understand," he breathed, falling to his knees beside his friends' bodies. He crawled to Teyla's and Rodney's sides. Tentatively he stretched out his hand to touch Teyla's but couldn't bring himself to do it, pulling back at the last minute and instead weeping into his open palm.
"I'm sorry," he heard Hope say to him. "There wasn't enough time for me to extend my shield to everyone."
"Your shield?" he asked looking up at her, lost.
Hope stared at the mess around her. From the moment she'd stepped off of that jumper into the gateroom of the city she had changed the way events in this timeline unfolded. Her mere presence had caused the death of those her father held dear, of her closest Atlantis family.
Teyla had always been her father's closest friend. After Hope had been brought from Earth to Atlantis to live when she was six, Teyla had practically been like a mother to her. She and Torren had helped Hope to understand a part of herself that no one else could. With the Wraith DNA coursing through their bodies, they were different from the others in a similar way to her. She never felt out of place being herself around them.
As the Ancient knowledge in her head began to manifest it had been Rodney who had spent his days and nights by her side trying to understand it all and put it to use. Over the years they had gotten lost together in the depths of their work more times than she could count. Rodney had been one of the only people she could talk to on a highly intellectual level and there had been several times that she greatly appreciated a helpful ear.
These people had helped to shape her into the person she was today. These people were meant for more than to die on an unnamed planet of Pegasus, the victims of another Wraith incendiary device. There were still things out there left undiscovered by Dr. Rodney McKay. There were still people left unhelped and unsaved by Teyla Emmagan. There were still planets left unexplored and Wraith left unchecked by Evan Lorne and Matthew Ayala and Kenneth Jefferies. And there was John Sheppard left behind, a man destroyed by their loss.
She couldn't let any of that happen. She wouldn't. "It might not be too late for me to save them," she offered the broken man she no longer recognized as her father.
"Save them how?" he asked.
"There are still many things you have yet to learn of my existence, father," she said. He looked to her quizzically. "I need you to help me," she told him. "Quickly, before it's too late. Help me gather them together."
As she said this she walked to Ayala's body at the outer edges of the blast zone and began to move him back toward the group. Carefully, John moved to lift Teyla into his arms and place her gently down beside Rodney. Next he moved to Major Lorne while Hope took hold of Jefferies. Once the circle was formed Hope took her place at its center.
She kneeled to the ground without another word, John Sheppard watching her every move from the outside. She closed her eyes and touched her hand to the earth. In that touch she reached out to all the life and energy flowing through the planet. She felt the grass and the trees blowing in the wind, the waves of the oceans crashing against the surf, the flutter of butterfly wings, the buzz of every insect, and she drew from it all. Like a current of electricity it flowed through her, coursing through her body, steadily building and building. And when she had enough of it, she let it go.
John watched, stunned, as bursts of energy flowed out from Hope and into the formed circle. She reached out to run her hand across the foreheads of the fallen and he stared transfixed as the energy began to flow to them. He could see the shield she had mentioned as the energy within ricocheted off of it. It was like the energy shield of a starship, only it was emitted not by a ship, but by a single person, Hope.
As the energy surged within the shield, John watched captivated as the burns and wounds on the bodies of his friends began to slowly heal. Soon, all he could see inside the circle was the energy. It was so bright the people within disappeared behind the light of it. After a few seconds, the energy and the shield keeping it at bay both disappeared and he was left staring at Hope.
"Are they alive?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Not yet," she answered before she moved to Teyla's side. "I've only restored their bodies." And then he watched again in utter shock as Hope attached her right hand to Teyla's chest, as a Wraith would for a feeding. To his surprise, Teyla sprang awake seconds later coughing up the phantom smoke in her lungs.
"Teyla," John breathed aloud in shock, coming to the woman's side as Hope moved on do the same to Major Lorne.
"What happened?" Teyla asked him.
What did he tell her? What had he seen? He wasn't sure that he truly understood any of it. Whatever it was, he knew that this was something big. Like a Wraith, his daughter had breathed life back into Teyla. He'd known since the day she was born that she was special, that she was different somehow. But he hadn't fully grasped how completely unique she was until this very moment.
She possessed more than just the knowledge of the Ancients passed along to her from her mother. Somehow she had Wraith abilities as well. The only thing that he did know was that nothing was certain anymore. He had no idea what this meant for any of them. He only knew one thing. Hope was his daughter, and his one and only job was to protect her, from anyone and anything, no matter what that entailed. He would do that in any timeline, with any version of her he encountered. She was and would always be his to protect. He had failed her mother in that, but he would never fail her.
"I'm not exactly sure," John answered Teyla, eyeing Hope and noticing that Lorne's chest was now once again rising and falling with even breaths. She moved on to restore Rodney, and then to Jefferies and Ayala in turn. By the time she came to a rest, it was almost as if the explosion had not happened at all. His teams were alive and well, seemingly without any residual damage or injury.
"Why aren't we all dead?" asked Rodney as he looked around. The fact that they were sitting in the middle of a crater had not escaped his attention.
John's eyes were glued to Hope as she moved away from the group. He brought himself back to his feet and found his way to her side. When he reached her he noticed she wasn't looking very well herself now. She was sweating and had become pale after whatever she had done to bring them all back. She tried to walk back to the group on her own power but faltered and fell back down to her knees.
"Hope?" he said, kneeling swiftly to her aid. He reached over and cupped her cheek in his palm, brushing her sweat-drenched hair out of her face. He didn't like what he saw when he looked down at her.
"I'm all right," she assured him. "I just need a minute."
He was unconvinced. His previous experiences with the Wraith had not prepared him for this. But what his daughter had done was not quite the same as what he'd seen Wraith do. The Wraith took the life-force of another being and could restore what they had taken. However, not many chose to give back. Hope had not taken a life at all, only restored that which had been lost. Whatever she had given to Teyla and the others had come from her. And it looked like the effort had nearly drained her. She needed something to replace what she had given away.
He wrapped his arms around Hope, hugging her close to him. "Take whatever you need from me," he whispered in her ear, so low that only she could hear. If she was similar to the Wraith in that restoring Teyla and the others had weakened her so badly, then surely she could restore her own strength by taking from him as the Wraith did when they fed. He would give her as many years of his life as she needed to survive. Even if she had to take them all from him, drain him completely, that was a sacrifice he was willing to make for her. She had risked her own health to save them. He would risk everything to save Hope.
She smiled at him sadly as she shook her head. "It doesn't work that way." She lifted her hand to show him that her palm was not the same as that of a Wraith, that she was not the same as a Wraith. "I don't feed like Wraith. I can't take from you," she informed him. "Not in that way. And I won't."
He looked her over, the worry of a father in his eyes.
"Do I look that bad?" she asked, trying for a small smirk.
"Worse," he answered. She smiled weakly at him. He couldn't bear to see her in this state. There had to be something that he could do. He had to do something. He would not sit by helpless while he lost someone else he loved. He would never let that happen again. Especially not to Hope. "What can I do? What do you need?" he asked.
"Rest. I need to rest."
He hoisted her up in his arms and got to his feet. She offered no resistance. Instead she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Ok Kid, you rest. I've got you now."
She smiled at the familiar moniker. It felt good to hear it again from him.
"We're moving out," he called to his people as he started back to the waiting jumper. He looked down to the woman in his arms and found that she had already drifted off. He secured her tightly in his arms and carried her that way all the way back to the waiting jumper, his teams following behind him.
When they reached the spacecraft John sat in the rear, unwilling to let Hope go as Lieutenant Jefferies moved to take the helm. "Major Lorne!" John called when they were in the air and headed back to the gate.
"Colonel?"
"Blow it," he ordered, as Rodney began dialing the address back to Atlantis from the co-pilot's seat.
"Yes, sir," he said pulling out the remote detonator from a pocket on his flack vest and flipping the switch.
The sounds of the exploding compound behind them mingled with the sounds of the activating gate. As the ship made its way through the Stargate, John held the unconscious Hope protectively in his arms. He didn't let her go until they reached the medical bay at Atlantis.