Chapter Twenty
The sun beaming in her face was what woke her. The heat of it alone instantly telling her she was no longer in the cockpit of her 302 as she last remembered, but on some world not yet ravaged by the Wraith or the war. She opened her eyes to find herself lying on a cot in a portable medical habitat devoid of any life other than her own.
Her head hurt, her stomach ached with a certain hunger, and she felt weaker than she had ever been in her life, but she couldn't remember having been injured. Slowly she sat up on her cot, her head swimming as she did. There was an IV line running through her left arm and as she drew her eyes to the drip she saw several empty bags left on the stand next to the fresh one, telling her she had been here for a while.
Throwing her legs over the side of the cot she tried standing but found it quite difficult, as if the gravity in the room had been turned up to maximum. Her legs buckled beneath her and she caught herself by quickly grabbing ahold of the cot. Finally able to steady herself a minute or so later she slowly made her way to the door, dragging her IV drip along with her, but before she could reach it the door swung open and a man in an old fashioned white lab coat stepped inside.
"Oh wow, you're up!" he exclaimed, obvious surprise in both his voice and on his face.
"Yes. I'm up. Was that not expected?" she asked.
"Honestly Colonel Sheppard, we didn't know what to make of it," he said in answer.
"What to make of what? What happened? How long was I out? And where am I?"
"You're on Beta 6. You've been here for over a month," he told her as he moved to help guide her gently back to her medical cot.
"A month?" she questioned, half falling back into a seated position.
One minute she had been on her ship in the middle of a war and now she was on a planet lightyears away being told that a month had gone by without her. What could have happened in that time? How many more souls had the Wraith War claimed while she had been out?
"What's the status of the war?"
He steadied his gaze on her. "You really have no idea, Colonel?" She shook her head. "The Wraith are gone," he told her.
"Gone? Gone where?"
"To hell probably," he responded.
"Lieutenant," she tried to bark, on the edge of exasperation.
He straightened up and looked to her with a serious face. "They were all destroyed. In the last battle there was a massive release of energy that swept across the system. No one can figure out what it was or where it came from but it fried everything it touched. All our ships and facilities went down. By the time we recovered and sent out teams to investigate we found all the Wraith dead. Every Wraith on every single Hive, everywhere, all gone. The War is over Colonel."
She took in the information, a million thoughts running through her mind. "And my crew?" she asked.
His face turned somber at that. "I'm afraid there were some casualties, one being General Sheppard. He was able to save most hands on board by beaming them to the surface to gate to safety before he piloted the ship into the lead Hive. The impact and resulting explosion took out the remaining Hives." He looked pointedly to her then. "The General sacrificed himself to save everyone, and he did."
"I know that, I watched it happen," she said sadly, trying desperately to hold back her tears in front of the junior officer. "What happened after that? How did I end up here? Everything else is what's coming up blank. What were the other casualties?"
"The explosion of energy, Colonel. It knocked out systems all over the galaxy, not just the Wraith. There were people trapped in facilities without life support. By the time rescue parties made it out to some of them, it was too late. Many of your F302 squadron in range were also disabled, some caught in the planet's atmosphere crashed, others drifted in space. You were the only one we found still alive. We're still not sure how you survived, Colonel."
That was a good question, one she was not inclined to answer lest it bring even more scrutiny to her or her circumstances. She knew what had saved her and she had a sneaking suspicion about how her squad as well as the Wraith had been killed. They were all dead because of her. She had let her emotions overcome her and lost control of the power inside of her and it had killed them all.
"How many?" she asked.
"Colonel?"
"How many dead? How many of our people are gone?" Her voice was on the edge of tears, she was trying so desperately not to break down again. She knew what that would do now. She couldn't have anymore deaths on her conscience. She could never lose control again. The cost was too great. She was too powerful, too dangerous.
"There were a total of 307 humans lives lost in the incident, Colonel," the Lieutenant informed her.
307 souls and the entire Wraith species, lost now because she had lost control. Everyone she had ever loved or cared about had been taken from her and her very nature had lashed out against her. Those thousands of souls would weigh heavily on her now for as long as she lived. She had not meant to cause their deaths but was responsible nonetheless. She was a weapon, an unstable and unpredictable one. What other atrocities would she be responsible for in the future? How many more lives would she claim to weigh down her soul?
It was a few days later, after she'd had some time to gain some of her strength and mobility back and come to terms about her new reality, that she left Medical to walk around the villages on Beta 6. She saw an obvious difference now that the war was over. She looked out at the village, at the people going about their lives. They were free now and they knew it through their entire beings. It was as if a physical weight had been lifted from them.
But the opposite could only be said of her. She had ended the war and brought them freedom and peace from the Wraith. But to end the war she had committed genocide and even snuffed out the lives of her own crew. She had killed her own people, her friends. She wouldn't risk anyone else. She knew what she had to do. She had to isolate herself, work on controlling her emotions and their link to the power inside of her. She would never let it out to hurt another living soul as long as she lived.
And so she spent years in isolation for fear of what she might do on accident, years trying to hone in her power and her emotions. But all she could do was feel. All she could think about were the many lives that were no more because of her. The faces plagued her in her dreams and the guilt crushed her while she woke. And the years just ticked on that way. It was enough to drive anyone mad. It was too much to live with.
And all she had was time, so much time she soon learned. Months turned to years, years to decades, decades to centuries. All that time alone, never moving on while the universe changed around her. But she was stuck. It was many more years before the idea finally came to her, but in her solitude and her madness she came up with something that could change it all. What if she could go back to where it all began and change the course of the war? What if she could end it before it spread past Pegasus, before the Wraith made it to Earth? What if she could save all the lives she'd taken and even more?
She spent years researching both Janus' and Ba'al's time machines and anything else she could get her hands on. She plotted out the perfect destination in time to arrive and alter. She went over millions of scenarios and strategies. She worked out the math over and over until she was absolutely certain. And then there was nothing left to do but change the entire course of human history. She started up her machine, determined to save them all. Determined even more to save him.
/
/
/
Ronon and his men could see the explosion in the sky from the battleground on the surface of Satira. It stopped the entire battle momentarily as all eyes, human and Wraith alike, were drawn to the spectacle above. Ronon didn't know what was going on up on the ships above but he used the opportunity to get the upper hand over his enemy.
He took out five Wraith before anyone knew what he was doing. His men saw this and followed suit. In no time the two dozen drones that had marched on them were defeated and Ronon was left wanting another fight.
There were more explosions in the sky, each bigger than the one before it, and Ronon was becoming more and more worried for his friends. Not long after the hail came, and so with it the news that shook his foundation to the core.
His friends were dead and someone was going to pay for that. This would be the last battle they would ever have to fight against the Wraith, he would make sure of it. He'd go through every single one of them by himself to make it happen if he had to.
He was in a blind rage and he had a planet full of invading Wraith to take his frustrations out on. He killed any and every Wraith that got in his way and ordered all of his men to do the same.
By the time the Hammond arrived to collect his team the village and surrounding areas were strewn with the bodies of the fallen Wraith and still Ronon was not purged of his rage. He was happy when the decision was made for the ship to head back to Atlantis. He hoped there were more Wraith there for him to kill.
/
/
It was a shock to everyone on Atlantis when they received word of the demise of John and Hope Sheppard. After taking onboard the away team the crew of the General Hammond had stared at the debris field through their viewports and monitors for what seemed like hours hoping for some kind of miracle.
They had all seen the explosion. There was no way anyone could have survived that. Even Hope with all her gifts and John Sheppard who seemingly had more than the nine lives of a cat. But there was no miracle coming today. Finally they had no choice but to pack it in and abandon their sector of space, setting a course to rendezvous with the city of Atlantis.
They arrived to find two Wraith Hive ships dead in the water ready to be boarded by several teams of marines and medical transports preparing to head down to the planet's surface to lend aid to the injured. It was all they could do to keep Ronon from commandeering a puddle-jumper and boarding one of the Hives himself to lay waste to who or whatever he found there.
It took several of his own soldiers to practically drag him to the gateroom. Teyla and Rodney unloaded their own cargo of unconscious Wraith and shipped them off to the med labs accompanied by heavily armed guards before they headed after Ronon to the control room of the city with Colonel Carter.
As expected the mood was somber when they walked through the doors. You could feel it in the air. The Colonel was gone and nothing would be the same again. They were in the middle of a war battle, but the entire city was frozen in shock and grief.
Surprisingly, it was Rodney who spoke up first. "Sheppard," he began but stopped with a sudden onslaught of uncharacteristic emotion. He took a moment to collect himself and prepare his next words. "The Sheppards, John and Hope, they gave their lives for this fight. They gave their lives to give us the chance to win this war." He looked around at the faces in the room staring back at him. "I, for one, don't want to let their sacrifice be in vain. I don't want to let my friends down." He looked around the room filled with his friends and colleagues. "What about the rest of you?" he asked.
He received some nods of agreement in return. Mr. Woolsey stepped out of the crowd and onto the center of the floor, patting Rodney on the back as he passed by him. "Dr. McKay is right," he said to the room as he exchanged a solemn look with the man before looking out to the rest of his people. "Now is not the time to feel sorry for ourselves or wallow in our grief. God knows there's plenty of time for that later. But we have to get there first. John and Hope, they gave this fight their all. The best way that we can pay them back is by not giving anything less. We can honor them and everyone else that we have lost these years here in Pegasus by winning, by defeating the Queens and their Hives. By bringing peace back to this galaxy after millennia of war and terror. So let's get back on task, regroup with one of the other teams out there and do it for the Sheppards."
No one moved and the room was still silent until Teyla stepped from Rodney's side and into the center of the room beside Richard Woolsey. "For John and Hope," she cried out, raising her hand into the air.
"For Sheppard," nodded Ronon.
"For Hope," piped in Colonel Carter.
"For John and Hope," said Rodney.
"For the Sheppards," was the cry throughout the room.
/
/
Sheppard came to on the floor of the gateroom in Atlantis. He sat up rubbing his head as he looked around at the familiar yet odd surroundings he found himself in. He had no idea how he had ended up here. The last thing he remembered he had been on the Wraith hive ship, dying from a very large knife embedded in his gut.
"Oh good, you're up," Hope said, and her voice echoed in the emptiness of the large room. He looked to where he thought her voice was coming from and saw her sitting on the steps leading up to the control room. She stood and began making her way down the stairs to his side.
"Where is everyone?" he asked as she helped him to his feet.
"Well that's kind of a tricky question to answer. Time here doesn't quite work the way it did where we came from. In fact, here there is no time. It's all jumbled together, the past, present, future, it's all the same here. The simple answer is they are not here. But I can tell you that the team is safe. They got away from the blast in time."
"Uh huh, but we didn't," he summed up for her. "And don't think that I'm not pissed that you didn't listen to me and get yourself the hell off of that Hive," he said pointing an accusing finger at her. "You didn't have to end up here with me Hope."
"Yes, I did," she answered him simply. "Believe me when I say there was no other place I could have ended up other than right here with you."
He took in her words. He would battle through hell in order to save her, and apparently she would do the same for him. There was no stopping them from eventually ending up in this very spot. If it hadn't been the Hive explosion it would have been some other calamity. From the moment she stepped off of her timeship, they were destined to end up right here.
"So I take it this isn't my Atlantis then," he said looking around a bit more.
Not since first stepping foot through the Stargate and into the city that very first day had he heard the place so quiet, seen it so deserted. Well, there was that other time during the storm and the would-be takeover from Kolya's Genii. But there was something about this place. Something that set it distinctly apart from his home Atlantis. This place was downright creepy by comparison.
"No."
His head snapped to look back at her. "Where are we then?"
Her eyes were staring intently at him, gauging his responses and his body language. "In the space between life and death."
"How did we get here?"
"I didn't have time to get to you and save you, so this," she said gesturing around them. "This is the next best thing. We needed time, so I bought us some."
He turned to her, a vague recollection of an old briefing from Dr. Jackson running in the back of his mind about something similar. "Why here? Why Atlantis?" he asked her. He thought he remembered something about a diner in the reports following the battle on Dakara.
"I may have brought us here but the scenery, that's all you. Everything you see here, down to the last potted plant and scuff on the floor, is a conjuring of your own mind. This is where you feel the safest, the most at home. And this is where you chose to come to answer the ultimate question."
"What question is that?"
"When you know the question, you will know the answer."
He turned on her suddenly then. "Are you really my daughter? Because you're talking in that complicated Ancient way that always frustrates the hell out of me."
"I am part Ancient."
"Yes, well we can thank your mother for that," he said rubbing the back of his head in aggravation. Hope just stared across the distance at him unflinchingly. From experience, he knew there was only one way he was going to get out of this, and it wasn't going to be fast or easy. So he decided for once to give in to his fate. "Okay," he said staring her in the eye. "I give. What do you need me to do?"
"I need you to become more than you are. I need you to let go."
"Let go of what?"
"Everything you've ever known."
/
/
Zalenka was still in the lab. It had been days of him going over and over the specs from that device of Hope's trying to figure out a way for the information it contained to help their efforts in the war. Rodney had come and gone many times, as well as other staff members, but Zalenka never did. He ate here, slept on the cot in the back at intervals just to stay fresh. He only ever left the labs to shower and then he was right back at work. And now all that work and dedication was about to pay off.
Grabbing his laptop which contained the latest sims he'd been running he headed out of the doors to the labs and started a full out sprint through the city. He didn't stop until he arrived in the control room, almost colliding with Mr. Woolsey on his way up the stairs.
"Mr. Zalenka," Woolsey started upon reentering the control room after following the scientist back up the stairs and inside. "I assume your urgency means that you've found something significant."
"Yes, exactly," Zalenka answered the expedition leader. "For the better part of this last week we've been working non-stop trying to find a way to utilize the information we gleaned from Hope's scanning device."
"The torpedo schematics," Woolsey offered.
"Right," Zalenka nodded setting up his laptop at a free station in the middle of the busy room and taking a seat. "Until now we were unable to come up with a way to detonate the torpedoes within the Hives without also getting our own ships caught inside of the blast radius." As he said this he demonstrated the scenarios with a simulation on his monitor.
"And now?" Richard Woolsey asked over his shoulder. "I'm assuming by your enthusiasm that that is no longer the case."
"You'd be correct in your assumption," he answered and began typing in more commands on his laptop. A new sim began playing on the screen. "I believe this is the solution to end our dilemma," he began.
The men watched the sim play out on the screen and at its completion Richard Woolsey had a new outlook on the future. He turned to the rest of his team in the control room. "Get this out to our other ships. I want this implemented immediately. Mr. Zalenka," he said staring down at the man. "I think you just might have just finally brought peace back to Pegasus."
/
/
"I'm waiting," Hope said to him.
"Yeah, well Kid you're going to be waiting a long time," John said with his head resting lazily against a bulkhead.
"Ah, so I see you were always hard-headed and stubborn and it's not just in your older years."
"Oh no, I'm proud to say I've been this awesome my entire life," he said turning and grinning at her. Hope just stood there across the room shaking her head at him. "I can't do what you're asking" he told her, more serious now. "I never could." And at that she laughed. "What?" he asked. "What's funny?"
"The fact that you believe that. You've always had it in you. But its that stubborn streak of yours that holds you back. It held you back in the Cloister time dilation with Teer just as it's holding you back now."
He avoided eye contact with her. He didn't like where this whole thing was going. He knew what she wanted of him now, but knew that it really wasn't in him to give it to her. He wasn't that guy. He never was and never would be. He didn't like it here. It was too much and yet still not enough. It was the after but he was still stuck in the now.
"What's going on outside of this place?" he asked her, deflecting.
He wanted to know about his people. He was the Colonel, the Sheppard, the protector ever since stepping foot through that very first gate back on Earth. He would always be that man.
"The realm of the living is no longer any concern of yours. You need to focus and look ahead, not behind you."
"How can you say that?" he asked her.
It was as if she didn't know him at all. His people and their well being would always be one of the main driving forces of his character. And she was asking him to change that, to leave them and everything he had ever known behind, to make the conscious choice to do so. But he could never let go, she had to know that. John Sheppard would never let go.
"I need to know if they are safe, Hope," he pleaded. "I should be there fighting with them."
"No. Your battle is here now. And the enemy you face here is far more formidable than the Wraith."
/
/
"Commander, we're receiving a transmission from Atlantis," informed the communications officer onboard the bridge of the Spitfire.
"It's about damned time," Larrin mumbled to herself. "Open it up," she ordered.
She read the information on her screen, watched the accompanying simulation and was momentarily filled with hope for their chances here. The Atlantians had figured out a way for them all to turn the Wraith's own weapons against them. It was a genius play, but she was still being asked to use restraint. She would have laughed if she weren't so frustrated.
"Get this to our pilots and engineering," she ordered. "Atlantis has sent us a little surprise for the Wraith."
/
/
"Why Hope?" John asked her, finally breaking the silence that had filled the air for the past few minutes.
He was sitting on the floor, his back to the wall, head perched back, as she sat casually across the gateroom on the stairs, as if she had all the time in the world to wait him out, until he finally came to the realization that his stubbornness was indeed futile. She sat herself upright and looked to him. "Why what?" she asked in return.
"Why me?" he asked. "What makes me so damned special?"
"After all this time you still don't understand, do you?" At his blank expression she shook her head and pushed herself up off the floor and onto her feet, walking over to crouch down in front of him. "Layna. The connection between the two of you. That's what makes you special. That's why you're important. What the two of you can do together, it's incredible."
"We can't do anything together. She's gone."
She shook her head. "You're wrong. You and my mother were together long enough to change everything. A single year, that was all it took. Long enough to fall in love. Long enough to create life." She looked him in the eye. "Long enough to alter the balance."
He saw it then. Everything she had showed him since her arrival had been to bring him to this point, to get him to see this one thing. He knew now what made him important. She did. Hope. He was important because he was her father.
She was the next step in the evolution of the human race. There was no one else in the universe like her. She possessed all the wisdom of the Ancients, the abilities of the Wraith and the strength, heart and perseverance of the human race. She was potentially the most powerful being that had ever been created, and she was his daughter. He was responsible for her well-being, for her safety. He was responsible for molding her into the great person she had the potential to be. That was why he was important.
"Who are they?" he asked her as he realized they were no longer alone in the gateroom. Slowly the space they were in had been filling up as they talked and now there were a few dozen or so strange, silent faces walking about, not paying them any attention but still inhabiting the space they occupied.
"The Others."
"The Others? You mean the Ascended?"
She nodded her head. "Yes. This is where they exist."
"Right," he said, stretching out the word as he looked around. "Just when I thought I would finally have a bit of peace and quiet."
He stared at them from his vantage point across the room as they moved about the gateroom. They moved about the room with indifference. They moved as if they had a purpose or destination, but none of them seemed to actually go anywhere or really even do anything.
The sight of them only reminded him of his own Atlantis and his people back in the real world. They were in a war and he was here in the relative safety of the in between with the ascended. He would have much rather have been back in the middle of the war with his friends.
"What did you say was happening in Pegasus?" he tried asking her again.
"And now you're just stalling," she accused.
He looked to her deliberately then, his eyes practically staring daggers at her. He was about to let her down, a thing he'd hoped never to do. "It's not happening," he told her bluntly. "No matter what you say or do, I'm not ascending."
/
/
Dr. Jennifer Keller walked back into the holding cells to check the progress of the silver-haired Wraith Queen and was greeted by another Queen with red hair and a male Commander, both now also fully transformed to human form. And soon, if things went according to plan, there would be hundreds more to join them.
All three recently transformed human faces looked curiously towards the door from the viewpoint of their cells to watch her enter. The male, formerly Commander Todd, was the first one to speak.
"Are you the one to thank for these lavish accommodations?" he asked and she cringed a bit as she heard the Wraith Todd in his tone. There were some things even a complete DNA re-sequencing and amnesia just couldn't erase.
"I'm Dr. Keller. I'm here to check on all of you. See how your progressing in your treatments."
"Treatments?" questioned the red-haired woman.
"Yes," Jen nodded, placing her bag down and starting the process of unpacking it. "It really was a terrible outbreak on your planet. You three are the first we've tried this treatment on to combat the infection. I'm just here to monitor your progress and its effectiveness. And what we learn from you guys we're hoping will help us in treating any other survivors we might find."
It was the story that the powers that be had agreed on after she'd blurted out the first thing that had come to mind when confronted by the first Human Queen. It was as close to the truth as they were willing and comfortable with sharing to the former Wraith. They just hoped it would turn out better than the last time they had played a similar hand.
Keeping a safe distance from the charged bars she ran her portable medical scanner over her three subjects. The results were quite pleasing. The Iratus DNA was completely eradicated from their systems. And based on the tests she had run on the first Queen who had been a "guest" of the city for the past several weeks now, the conversion was permanent with no ill-affects other than the amnesia, which was the side affect of the drug that worked very much in their favor.
"Why are we in a cell?" came the male voice looming over her.
"This was the only feasible place in the city to set up a quarantine on such short notice. "We couldn't risk the sickness spreading once you were brought here."
She looked up from her scans to find the male leering at her through the bars of the cell. "I want out of this place," he said. It sounded very much like a threat to her ears. She had always been threatened by Todd. It seemed as a human things were no different.
"That shouldn't be a problem. Your treatments are coming along well enough. With the data we're collecting the three of you should be out of here very soon," she assured them, and as she did the city shook beneath her feet.
"What was that?" asked the red-haired woman.
"I don't know," Jen answered, raising her eyes skyward, as if she would be able to see through the city structure and to the heavens.
A few seconds later one of the armed guards outside of the door walked into the room. "Ma'am," he said, indicating that he had news to share in private.
She walked to him as he stood just inside the door. "What's going on?"' she asked him.
"The Wraith are attacking the city," he told her.
"Are you serious?" she asked him in a worried whisper, hoping that her voice wouldn't carry to the Wraith in the cage.
"Yes ma'am. There are several Hives surrounding Atlantis." As if to stress the importance of his statement the city rocked again as the shield was impacted from several blasts.
"Okay, fine. I'm going to have to get back to Medical. No telling how many injuries this is going to bring to my door." She looked fleetingly back to the cell. "Any idea what I should tell them?" she asked the marine.
He told her what Mr. Woolsey had relayed to him previously and she nodded her head. "Great, well, I'll just go and get my stuff then," she said heading back to the cell and her equipment.
"I demand to know what the hell is going on!" It was Todd again. And the others were getting antsy as well.
"The city is being attacked," she told them. "By the people who spread the virus to your people," she added. "I have to get to my labs." she began packing up her gear. "You'll be safe here. I'll be back as soon as I can." With that she headed out of the doors, leaving behind two scared women and a brooding former Wraith Commander.
/
/
"That's what you're getting at right?" John asked her after her response of stunned silence. "That's why you brought me here. You want me to ascend," he realized. "This is all a part of your plan, to try and save me somehow."
Everything she had done, all to bring him to this point, to save him, and all her efforts were being thwarted because he was just too damned stubborn and pig-headed. She had come here to save him, and he just wouldn't let her. He refused to do the one thing that would save him, the only thing that would save him now.
"Yes," she answered him, eyes closed in exasperation. "I've only ever wanted to save you. Now, the only way is for you to ascend."
"To what end Hope? Why would I want to ascend? So that I can be like the Others? Like them?" he gestured out towards the cavernous room, where the strangers still walked about as if they were completely unaware of their presence, or they just didn't care at all. He was pretty sure it was the latter. "No, I don't want that."
"Fine," she said, giving in. "You don't want that. What do you want then?" He was silent as he looked at her defiantly. "What about Layna then? Is she something that you want?"
"Stop it Hope," he begged of her.
"Because she's here," she said turning on him suddenly and gesturing around them. She kneeled in front of him again. "She's here and you can save her, but only if you're willing to save yourself first."
"Where is she?" he asked her.
She just shook her head at him. He stood from his place on the floor, a new determination in him. He was going to find her, get her back. Now that he was here, so close to her, and knew who to fight, he wouldn't let them keep her from him any longer. He made a move to leave the gateroom and all eyes in the room that had previously been oblivious to his presence there were on him.
He started towards the entrance and Hope was fast on his heels but their path was quickly blocked by a half dozen of the Others. "Get out of my way," he said practically nose to nose with one of them.
Hope put her hand on his shoulder. "They won't let you get to her," she told him.
"I'm really not seeing how any of them are going to stop me," he countered. They all just stood there, blocking his path, still unmoving and silent. They were the enlightened, the all powerful, the Ancestors, the people who were responsible for the Stargates and the building blocks of civilization on Earth and in that moment he hated them more than anything.
"You think you're enlightened. I disagree. As humans you played God with the universe. You created life across galaxies. You made mistakes like any of us. Hell, you made the Wraith. And for a time you fought them, but then you turned tail and fled and left them to prey on the lives of the inhabitants of Pegasus. You people think you're so much better than we are. That we don't matter. But look at yourselves. You have the power to change everything, to help people, and yet you just stand by and watch as millions and millions of lives are destroyed. Destroyed because of your mistakes. And you punish anyone who thinks any differently than you. But I won't let you do it to her," he declared.
Finally a male voice spoke up from behind them. "Chanis is beyond your reach at the moment," it said and both Hope and John turned towards it to find a man who stood out from the others. He had an air of authority about him and spoke with a conviction that gave John pause.
"I'm here, you're here. This is where you exist. Which means that she is here somewhere too," John said.
"You are here because she brought you here," he responded nodding in Hope's direction. "But your place is not here, you do not belong to this place as Chanis does."
"She doesn't belong here," John yelled.
"Where does she belong? With you? On your plane? In your war? In your bed? She is one of us. She made the conscious choice millennia ago to leave that all behind, to be better. She is an Ascendant. And the only place she belongs is here. She is not meant for your world as evidenced by the mess she has made of it." At that last he was clearly indicating Hope and his disgust was clearly written on his face. "And you being here is not going to change anything for her."
John was really close to punching the guy in the face before he continued. "But it might alter the course of events for your friends," he added, and John couldn't help but to be curious.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
"The anomaly might not have told you but you do have another option. We can send you back."
"Wouldn't that go against your rule of non-interference?" he questioned.
"By coming here she has altered events in time. You were not meant to meet your fate for many more years. By sending you back to your people now we would merely be correcting one of several aborations the anomaly has created."
"You'd send me back, just to keep me from her?" he queried.
"No, you have the choice. You can ascend and live here among us with Chanis, or you can go back to your plane without her. But you must choose. Choose between saving her and saving them," Rixton told him.
"That's not a choice," John argued.
"Yes, it is. It's your only choice. You can be with her or with them, not both. You can exist with her in our realm or return to your own."
"I'm not going anywhere without her."
"She has already done enough damage in your mortal realm. We will not allow her to return to inflict more."
"Who are you to keep her here?"
"She is of us. She must abide by ours rules and laws."
"So free will means nothing to you people?"
His question was met by only silence again.
/
/
Lorne walked back into the chamber that was temporarily housing his team onboard the Asgard ship and greeted his waiting men with a telling glance. He'd just come from the bridge where he'd been on a video communication with Atlantis and as usual, things were developing rather rapidly with the Wraith.
"Uh oh," said Ayala as the Major walked in. "I don't like that look."
"What's up?" asked Jefferies. "What'd they say?"
"We've got one more mission guys," he told them.
"I thought we were already on a mission," said Ayala eyeing their surroundings.
"Oh, it gets better," Lorne added. "Grab your gear, let's go. Soin is waiting for us in the hangar bay."
"We're going off-ship?" Jefferies asked.
"Don't worry," Lorne said heading out. "We're not going far."
"Okay, you weren't kidding," Ayala remarked from the cockpit of the cloaked jumper as it sat just meters away from the lead Hive the Asgard ship had been tracking. Perkins was at the conn exhibiting his deft piloting skills. The others were admiring the view and trying not think about their precarious proximity to the deadly ship of their enemy.
"Are they serious?" asked Jefferies. "This is the plan?"
"Buck up," said the Major. "If we follow orders, this should all be over soon."
"Yeah, if it works," said Ayala.
"Yeah," Lorne agreed nonchalantly before standing and starting to move into the back where Soin awaited him. "And it's not like you're the one who has to go up there anyway," he parted with.
"Yeah, well maybe we're just worried about you," he heard Perkins call after him.
"Major Lorne, I trust you're ready for the task at hand, despite appearances," said Soin as a greeting.
Lorne rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I can't wait."
"Am I sensing some apprehension, Major?" Soin asked.
"Good catch there Soin. Okay, so how do I get in this thing?" he asked the Asgard as he moved to handle one of their exoskeletal suits.
"Merely step into them," he instructed. "The technology will do the rest."
Lorne did as instructed and stepped around to the opening of the back of the suit. He eyed the Asgard before stepping into it. "You're sure you don't want to be the one to do this?" he asked.
"I believe the orders were yours."
"Right," Lorne nodded and stepped into the suit, which sealed around him. He moved carefully, testing it out on his body. It felt less like a suit of armor and more like a second skin. He wondered why Rodney disliked it so much. It was kind of amazing.
He watched through the view lens on his helmet as Soin moved across the cockpit to his side grabbing his arm. "This is your control unit," he said and proceeded to demonstrate how to use the controls the Major would need to complete his task.
"What does this one do?" Lorne asked pointing to a tempting red control on the arm piece.
"You won't want to touch that one," Soin said ominously.
"Why not exactly?"
"It initiates the armor's self-destruct."
The Major stood up just a bit straighter. "Yeah, I'll be real sure to avoid that one. Thanks a lot Soin."
The Asgard handed him a tablet-sized device. "We built it according to the specifications sent by Atlantis," he informed. "Of course our version is far more sophisticated."
"Right," Lorne said rolling his eyes as he moved to the back. He did a cursory scan of the compartment to make sure that everything was secured properly. Seeing that everything was in it's place he saluted Soin goodbye as the Asgard stepped into the cockpit and sealed the door shut behind him. He reached to the command pad on his arm and activated the suit's com. "Com check," he tried.
"Reading you loud and clear Major," came Perkins' response through the speakers in his helmet.
"Major Lorne, the command sequence is ready to be transmitted on your command," said Soin.
"Yeah, copy that Soin. Just gotta get past the hard part first."
He moved to the external hatch and after engaging the magnetic locks on his boots he disengaged the safety protocols and opened the airlock. The magnetic boot locks kept him put as the cabin depressurized. A couple of small items that hadn't been secured flew past him and out into the cold of deep space. He was glad it wasn't him as he stared out of the back of the jumper at the massive Hive ship.
"All right guys, I'm heading out," he informed once the pressure was stabilized.
"Copy that," said Ayala as Lorne disengaged the boot locks and used the suit controls to start to navigate himself to the hull of the Hive. "We've got a clear signal from the suit. Soin says you're right on track."
"Yeah, thanks, I was worried for a second there Soin," Lorne said a bit sarcastically as he reached the Hive. "All right, I'm on target. Preparing to hand over our special gift," he informed.
"I think they're really going to like it," said Ayala in his ear.
Lorne moved to get the device Soin gave him and move it into place, attaching it to the outer hull of the Hive ship. He did as Soin showed him and initiated the sequence required to activate it.
"And that should do it. We're up and running. Are you guys getting anything from the Hive?" he asked worried about any sensors the hull might have.
"No activity from the Hive," responded Jefferies. "You're clear."
"Roger that. Making my way back to the jumper. And then we can start the party."
/
/
"Choose," the Other prompted him and all eyes in the grand room were on him.
"No," John said determinedly. He looked from the Other and to his daughter who had been silent throughout the entire exchange, a question in his glance that he didn't have to voice but he did anyway. "Where?"
He heard her answer in his head. "This space, Atlantis, this all just your interpretation of the space between and Chanis... Layna is a prisoner here," she told him. "Where do they keep prisoners on Atlantis?"
With the question he saw the picture clear in his head. He saw Layna through the bars of the cell they were holding her in and he took off without a word toward the Atlantis brig. He didn't care if the Others chased after him or how many were in his way. He would get to her. He wouldn't let them keep her from him any longer.
"John?" Layna questioned as the doors to the holding room slid open and he finally saw her again. "It's really you? You're here?"
"Yeah," he answered moving toward the bars. "I'm getting you out of here."
"No, don't," she yelled as he reached for the bars and was zapped by the invisible forcefield.
"I'm not leaving you here another minute," he told her nursing his tingling hand as he moved to the control panel to try and disengage the field. He tried the control sequence used on his Atlantis but it was useless here. The locks and the forcefield remained in place, keeping her from him still.
"I told you, time and again. They won't let this happen, John," Layna said.
"I don't care what they want or think they can do," he snapped trying more combinations and codes. She smiled at him then. "I don't get the joke," he said when catching her.
"All those times reaching out in your dreams, trying to keep you from this place. It was all useless, all of it. Because of your stubborn determination, the thing I love most about you. We were always going to end up here."
"This isn't the end," he told her, still fighting. He looked behind him. "A little help here," he said to Hope who had entered the room just after him but stayed at the doors unmoving, watching the scene play out in front of her.
She had never seen her mother before, never been able to see her parents together. Looking at the two of them was like magic. Here, in this space, they pulsed with a magnetic aura around them that was unmistakable. Their bodies and hearts called to each other through time and space and dimensions. Her aunt Kala had known all those years ago that this would be. They were powerful together. They had the power to change the evolution of a species in their combined DNA, and that was a threat to the Others.
"You won't ever stop, will you?" Hope asked him.
He paused in his attempts to open the cell and looked to her. "Stop?"
She nodded her head. "Fighting. The Others, ascension, fate, you'll keep fighting it all to the bitter end won't you?" she said, finally realizing.
He nodded his head slowly. "I was born to fight. And I decide my fate. Not the Others."
"But you're forgetting something," she countered. "Something very important."
"Everything important is right here," he declared.
Layna closed her eyes, bracing herself. "What about Hope?" she asked him softly.
He turned quickly to look at her. "This is Hope," he told her.
"No," Hope said from behind him. "Not me. Your daughter."
He turned back to look at her once more. With the grown version of Hope Sheppard at his side for the last few weeks it was easy to forget that she wasn't actually his daughter. She was the daughter of another John Sheppard, a John Sheppard that would never exist now that she had come to alter every event of her past. His daughter was still brand new, a baby sent to the other end of the universe with an incredible future still ahead of her. A future that he would never see now, he realized.
"That baby you left on Earth is still there, waiting for you. So what happens to her? If you stay here or die on that Hive ship what will she become without you?"
"Listen to her John," Layna begged him through the bars.
He hadn't thought about any of that these last few weeks. With the grown Hope here he had been so enamored with how incredible his daughter's future would be that he had forgotten that he still needed to help shape that future for the baby on Earth. He had been so caught up in looking out for the well-being of Lt. Col Hope Sheppard that the precious little baby he had held in his arms and promised to protect with every breath in his body had been neglected by the only parent she had left. And now she would have no one, because he was here.
Hope took a step into the room, drawing nearer to them slowly. "I'm an anomaly to them, a mistake whose creation the Others tried to prevent for millennia. That is why Layna is being punished. My existence is a threat, a disruption to the balance of the universe. They're afraid of what I might do, what I am and what I might become."
He stared at the woman before him, the daughter who had traveled back in time to save him, and couldn't imagine that his baby daughter would turn out any differently than she. Lt. Col. Hope Sheppard was an amazing individual. She had courage and determination and a drive that couldn't be stopped. And she had the biggest heart of anyone in the universe, full of compassion and understanding for all. But without him in her life would that change? And would that change be for the better or to the detriment of his daughter?
"You are the best of any of us," he told her. "Wraith, Ancient, Human, you give us all hope. You could never be anyone but who you are right now."
"But she could," Layna countered.
"But she won't," he argued further.
"Don't you see that that's the issue?" Hope raised her voice. "The knowledge of the Ancients." She made air quotes for the last sentence. "Weapons, creationism, ascension. All of it tucked away in here," she said tapping her temple. "Just waiting to be exploited, misused for greed and war and the conquests of man. All the trivial pursuits of earth and its inhabitants. I have the potential to possibly destroy everything. I could do it. I could do anything. The worst things imaginable, I have the potential to do them, given the right circumstances, the right influences."
"And they fear that," he said, finally understanding. "They fear what we might make of you."
"Exactly. They see and know all the flaws of humanity. And they know how dangerous a being such as me can become cradled in that influence."
"And now, much to their dismay, there are two of her," Layna added.
/
/
Every plan Atlantis had come up with throughout the war had seemed either far-fetched or downright impossible to Ladon. The actions posed and taken by Pegasus' newest inhabitants were those that the Genii would never have imagined or dared to try in their wildest dreams. But most had proved ingenious in the end, which is why Ladon had his men follow the orders that came down from the city without hesitation.
The crew of the traveler ship Anikahn were a bunch of ragtag individuals with no military training and their ship was a patchwork of salvaged Ancient tech scattered throughout the galaxy but somehow it all worked. He'd watched amazed as a teen-aged girl fashioned a device from schematics from Atlantis out of loose parts stripped from the ship and paired it with a drone from the arsenal to launch at the nearest Hive ship.
His people the Genii were all militarily trained from birth. It was ingrained in them, their only means of survival against the Wraith enemy. These Travelers didn't know the first thing about training or procedure, but in certain areas they put the Genii to shame.
In just a few years time the Travelers had gotten further in their endeavors than the Genii had been able to in the last hundred. By salvaging the Ancestor's technology they had been able to achieve space travel, a feat the Genii had tried to achieve for generations. Working closely with the Travelers Ladon had learned a great deal, and he admired them for being everything that he and his people were not.
And now on the bridge with the command team he watched on the viewscreens as the drone carrying what was hopefully their greatest weapon against their enemy was being guided to the Hive off of their port bow. The man piloting the drone brought it to within a hundred meters of the hull, well within transmission range, without the Wraith taking any notice of it.
"Open a channel," Captain Karel ordered his com officer from his command chair. He received a nod when the task was completed. "Hive ship, this is the Traveler ship Anikahn. Stand down now or we will be forced to destroy you," Karel said.
There was a slight pause and then their threat was answered by a torpedo fired at their bow. The ship rumbled with the impact. "I don't think they see us as much of a threat," remarked one of the men on the bridge.
"Yeah, I didn't really see that going anywhere but here anyway," said Ladon.
Karel let loose a pleased grin as he looked to his men. "Well, they can't say we didn't warn them," he said. He nodded to the drone operator. "Send the signal," he ordered.
With a few strokes of some keys on his terminal the order was carried out. The entire bridge watched as the Hive erupted in flames from an explosion originating from within. Ladon couldn't help but to feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Never had he felt so powerful against the Wraith. And as they watched the debris scatter in the void of space, the hails from the other Hives began to come in.
/
/
'There are two of me now.' The words echoed in Hope's head and the cogs of her mind began to turn at hyperspeed. She locked eyes with her mother through the bars of her cell and saw understanding there.
Layna was trapped here in this place as a penance, for falling in love, for creating life. She had sacrificed so much, all for her, the baby she had held in her arms for just a few precious minutes before they took her away from her to this place. Hope could see it all clearly, what she had to do now. It was their only way out. She would pay back her mother's sacrifice with one of her own.
Closing her eyes, she reached out with her mind and connected with Layna's, bringing both of their consciouses to a completely separate plane of her own making. She opened her eyes and fixed her gaze on her mother. She had never gotten the chance to meet her in her own timeline. But she knew her. She knew the kind of person that she was. She knew her heart and mind and story. And she loved her for it all. She loved her for her life. She loved her for her sacrifice. She loved her for everything she was and wanted to be.
"You are everything that I knew you would be," Layna said to her.
"Don't say that. I'm not what you think. I've done things," she argued.
"I know what you've done," Layna said quickly. "I've been here, watching, seeing everything. You are an amazing person Hope. What you did, that wasn't you, it wasn't your heart. I know your heart, because you have his."
She pulled her into an embrace. They could both feel it, the connection was undeniable. Hope took it all in. It was everything she had ever imagined it would be and more. The love of a mother's arms, unbeatable. It was her first and it would probably be her last, but it was everything to her. She had missed her mother her entire life. And she would miss her still. She would miss them both.
"You know what I have to do," Hope said to her.
Layna reluctantly pulled out of the hug, nodding her head slowly. "Yes," she said. She reached across the short distance and grabbed Hope by the arm, making her look her in the eye once more. "But he won't let you," she warned.
"You're going to have to make him," Hope pleaded.
"Make John Sheppard do something he doesn't want? Have you met him?"
"Yeah, stubborn as a mule." Hope smiled a bit at that. "Runs in the family." She moved to pull her mother closer to her. "But you have to make him understand." With that she opened her mind to her mother and showed her everything that she could see. She showed her the future that awaited her daughter if they stayed here. There were so many different possible outcomes, so many different futures. But in every single one of them without John Sheppard there, it wasn't bright for Hope.
"Can you see it?" Hope asked her.
"That can't be," Layna tried to argue.
"But it is." There was a great silence that fell between them as Layna thought on what she had been shown. "You said that I have his heart. But that's because he was there, he molded it, shaped it into a mirror image of his own. If he stays here, or dies on that ship, that won't happen for her. She needs him. So help me," she begged. "Help me save him. Help me save you all."
John took a step back from the cell as the shield powered down and the locks disengaged. A second later the door slid open and Layna fell into his arms. He held her tight, afraid that it might not be real, or that if he let her go they might take her away from him again. He'd missed the feel of her in his arms the most. He had missed her so completely, but with her back in his arms he felt like he could finally breathe again.
He pulled away just slightly, only enough to look down at her face, that beautiful face he'd missed so much. "From the moment I first laid eyes on you I knew you'd be the death of me," he said smiling down on her, so happy to feel the touch of her in his arms once more.
"We're not dead yet," she told him.
He looked to her curiously then. There was no way the Others had released her out of the goodness of their hearts. They were too strict about their rules and seemed hell bent on keeping the two of them apart. "How?" he asked her.
Layna pulled away from him slightly, her eyes moving toward Hope and John's followed. With that look he knew, he knew that she was responsible for this somehow. Time moved differently here, she had told him. She had somehow given them this gift. She had done something out of time, struck some kind of deal with the Others to convince them to release Layna, to let this moment be, let them be together. But he knew that something like this would cost them greatly. What had she sacrificed to save them? Whatever it was he couldn't let her pay it.
"What did you do?" he asked her.
"The only thing I could," she answered. "It was the only way."
"The only way for what?" he asked.
"To save you. This was the only way it could end. The only way they would let it be."
"Hope," he started, but she continued on quickly, cutting him off.
"I made them a deal. The two of you go free. You can return to Atlantis, back to the plane of the living with no more punishment or restrictions from the Others. And in exchange I stay here."
"No," he said simply. It was one word but it was filled with conviction. There was no way he was going to let this happen. There was no way he was going to let the Others continue to pull their strings, to dictate how they existed, in any plane.
"If I am one of them, then I am bound by their rules. The threat they think I pose will be eliminated."
"Not going to happen," John snapped.
"It's already done," she said finally.
"No," John yelled. He looked to the Others that had slowly begun to fill the room surrounding them once again. "You can't have her!"
"John," Layna said, pulling at the hand of his that she still held, trying to draw his attention back to her.
He turned from the Others to look to her. "We can't let her do this," he said. "I'm not letting her."
"It's her choice."
"She doesn't have to choose this!" he practically screamed at her. He turned pleadingly to Hope. "Not to save us," he cried to her.
Hope shook her head sadly at him. "Don't you get it yet?" she cried out. "This is what I came back to do. This was my mission. There must always be a balance. The birth of your daughter upset that balance. But now me being here in this timeline can fix it." She looked to him pointedly, willing him to get what she was trying to do here. "Please understand what I'm doing," she begged of him.
He looked her in her pleading eyes, remembering her words. "There are two of you here now," he said, answering her. "You're their insurance policy," he said, finally understanding.
"Yes. If I stay here, the baby Hope on Earth can live her life as she chooses, free of the rules of the Others. That's what you want for your daughter isn't it? To be free? To choose her own path?"
"Yes," he answered. "But I want that for you too."
"This is my choice. This is the path I'm choosing right now. Because we are the same, should she ever abuse her power, I will be their weapon to stop her. An equal match, balance. But I know that she won't, because she will have you, the two of you."
"But you'll be stuck here," he said. "You'll be their prisoner."
She shook her head once more. "This isn't a prison, just a way of life. I'm binding myself to their rules and choosing to stay here. Where I come from doesn't exist anymore. My timeline disappeared the moment I stepped off of that jumper in the gateroom. I can't go back. And there is only room for one Hope Sheppard on Atlantis."
He looked ready to argue with her again but she moved to him, grabbing him by his free hand. "But don't worry, this isn't the end. I'll see you again. I promise. But for now, I need you to go. Take this chance and leave this place. Go before it's too late."
/
/
"God, how many of them do you think got through?" one of the Marine's on his team asked Ronon.
Ronon checked his pistol, winding it so that it was fully charged. "Don't know, don't care. How ever many there are, I'm going to kill them," he said before heading off down the corridor. His team followed behind him.
Despite Atlantis' threat to destroy the entire Wraith fleet surrounding them they were still taking heavy fire from the enemy above. The city shield had taken a lot of damage, so much so that some sections were failing and darts were finding their way into the city. There were Wraith running wild all over the city. And Ronon was about to have the time of his life rounding them up.
His team engaged a swarm of Wraith in a junction heading to the west pier. He left the Marines firing on the enemy so that he could circle around them and attack from behind. He took out the first one with his pistol. With it set to maximum the Wraith was dead instantly. The distraction bought his team a second and they fired, taking out two more with rapid fire from their P90s. The last one Ronon used his blade on for that extra personal touch, his years on the run from them coming back to him once again.
"Did that feel good?" asked another Marine approaching Ronon as he wiped the Wraith blood off of his blade on his pant leg.
"Yeah," Ronon grunted. "Let's go," he said leading the way.
Teyla was on the other side of the city with her own team of Marines. They had already cleared five Wraith soldiers from the city who had transported down from the darts above. Counting the Wraith they had just left, Ronon and his men had taken out seven, with Ronon personally handling five. But he was sure there were lots more where they came from. There were dozens of darts flying in the air who had made it through the failing shields and more coming. They were really going to have to fix that.
/
"Dr. McKay, what is your current status?" came Richard Woolsey's voice over the com in Rodney's ear.
"Um, kind of in the middle of something right now," Rodney responded as his back hit the wall and he ducked for cover as his Marine escorts turned and fired on the Wraith drones that had just caught up with them.
"As are we," Woolsey said from the control room, and to emphasize his point the city rocked from several blasts from the Hives surrounding them. A few made it past the failing shield. "We're really going to need those new ZPMs to get our shields back up to par."
"Yeah, well I'm working on it," Rodney said, firing off a round with his pistol before scurrying off down the corridor toward the city's power core. Two marines followed him while another two stayed behind to deal with the remaining Wraith.
He cleared the threshold and practically skidded to a halt in front of the power core. The two Marines guarded the door as he worked. He opened the core housing the ZPMs and held his breath as it rose slowly from its case, too slowly given how close the weapons fire from down the hall was drawing to their location. Finally, he could see what the problem was. One of the ZPMs was almost completely depleted.
"Okay, found the problem," Rodney said into his com. "But you're not going to like how I'm going to have to fix it."
"I'm sure," was Woolsey's curt reply.
"The fastest way to switch out the power supply will be to completely drop the shield. Otherwise, I'm going to have to reroute power throughout the entire city which will take some time," he explained.
"Just get it done Dr. McKay," was the order.
"Copy that." He opened up the channel and hailed the chair room. "Carson, the shields are going to drop completely in a minute, so you're going to have to give those Hives hell until I can get them back up."
"How bloody long am I going to have to do that for?" Carson asked from his place in the chair. He was already pulling more than his fair share of the weight keeping the city in one piece against almost a dozen Wraith Hives.
Rodney moved across the room to grab one of the spare ZPMs from a storage compartment. They were lucky they had them to spare now. Not long ago that was far from the case. But Hope had seen to fix that problem for them as well. "I just need you to hold them off for a minute Carson, max."
"Oh, just a minute. Is that all you need," he said sarcastically over the com. His voice was obviously stressed.
"Yeah, maybe less. I tend to work a lot faster under duress," was Rodney's response. "And there's plenty of that going around."
"Duress?" scoffed Carson. "You're under bloody duress?"
"Yeah, yeah, we know, you hate the chair. Get a new line," Rodney said, readying the ZPM to make the transfer. He moved it back to the power core and quickly consulted his tablet as he made the necessary adjustments. "Okay Carson. Power going down in three, two, one." He pulled the dying ZPM, and the lights of the city fluctuated as the shields went down, and the city shook.
/
Teyla had just split up her team when the lights in her section of the city went dark. There was a Wraith near by. She could feel him. She signaled Sergeant Thomas down one corridor and she split off down another. She was nearing the gym where she spent many an hour in training when she heard the Wraith approaching from behind.
She turned on her heels and fired off a few rounds down the corridor. She saw that a few of her bullets struck the Wraith but they didn't slow him down. He charged after her and she turned back to run, ducking into the gym. The Wraith was only a few seconds behind her, charging into the room on a mission to kill. She fired half a clip at him as he attacked her. He snatched the P90 out of her hands, tossing it aside before he lifted her into the air.
He threw her clear across the room and she crashed into the rack of Bantos rods and they rained down around her. Collecting herself, she grabbed a set of rods that had dropped to the floor and stood off against the Wraith. Her P90 was on the other side of the room, behind her Wraith enemy, as was the exit. She was going to have to fight her way out of the room.
She could hear the sound of more gunfire down the hall. Her men seemed to be dealing with their own challenges. The Wraith soldier in front of her was bleeding from the several bullet wounds in his chest, but it looked as if he were still up to the task of taking her on. No doubt he wanted to drain her life to heal his wounds. She had no plans of letting that happen.
He made a move toward her and she ran at him, sliding on her knees at the last minute and using the Bantos rods in her hands to take the Wraith's legs out from under him. In an instant she was back up on her feet, wrapping the rod around the Wraith's neck and applying pressure, cutting off oxygen, trying the difficult task of breaking his neck.
He reached back, grabbing her arms and using his leverage to flip her over his back. She managed to land on her feet instead of her back and turned quickly, smacking him several times in the face with both rods. She jumped in the air, kicking out both feet with all her strength and momentum into her opponent's chest. She landed on her back, skidding to a halt.
The Wraith was down, but not for long. She used the time to scramble for her discarded P90. She grabbed it just in time, turning as the Wraith recovered and was charging at her full speed. She fired the rest of her clip into his face and he fell lifeless inches from her feet.
/
The entire control room was silent as they held their breath, willing the shield to come back up. The seconds ticked by as the city was bombarded by blast after blast, each one seemingly getting closer and closer to the heart of the city. Their systems and panels flickered with the power fluctuations caused by the city running on two of the three required ZPMs. A minute didn't seem like such a long time, but with a Wraith armada overhead, a minute without their shield was a lifetime.
"Dr. McKay?" Woolsey called over the still-open com channel.
He was met by silence. He looked to Chuck at the main terminal with a question.
"Coms aren't affected by the core, sir. The channel is open. He should be hearing us." he told him.
"Dr.-" he started as all the power shut down for a split second before coming back online at maximum efficiency.
The room was busy again as the staff moved to their stations to check the city's systems.
"Sir, we have full power. The shield is engaging," informed Chuck.
"McKay to control," came Rodney's voice over the com finally. "We're back in business. Now I suggest we get the hell out of here."
They had offered the Wraith a peaceful surrender. Instead of accepting their offer they had launched an all out assault on the city. Atlantis had no choice but to use their weapon. With the other teams spread across Pegasus, they had salvaged enough of the Wraith species for them to continue on, even if in a new form. It would have to be enough.
"Good work Dr. McKay," Woolsey said. He turned to the staff in the control room. "Prepare to transmit the signal to all devices in range," he ordered. He hailed Carson. "Dr. Beckett, prepare to engage the STAR drive on my signal."
"Not that bloody thing," he could hear Carson mumble.
"We're going to need a quick exit. This is our only chance," Woolsey tried consoling his staff.
"Any place in particular you'd like to go?" Carson asked.
"Just away from here is fine, nothing fancy this time." He looked to Chuck, ready to give the command that would destroy all the Hives firing at them and end the lives of the countless Wraith they carried. "Transmit now," he ordered.
Chuck's hands moved deftly over the controls. A few seconds ticked by, and then the first Hive exploded. "Carson now," Woolsey screamed as another Hive erupted, followed by another. The last thing you could see over the city of Atlantis before it blinked away was the firework display that was the end of the attacking Hive armada.
/
/
"Unscheduled off-world activation," Chuck alerted from his position at the main terminal in the control tower. In a flash Rodney was right beside him. They waited for an IDC to transmit but nothing came through. "Sir, the gate shield won't engage."
Rodney clicked his earpiece. "Major Lorne, I need teams to the gateroom ASAP," he barked.
From the control room viewport he watched as a dozen armed men marched into the gateroom and surrounded the gate. Still nothing came through the event horizon. Rodney looked to Chuck. The other man shook his head in bafflement. The readings on his monitor were unchanging. There was still no IDC being transmitted and they had no idea why the shield was unresponsive. Without that shield in place Atlantis was practically defenseless against whatever was coming through that gate.
The gate sparked with a glow of energy that spun and spun around the outer chevrons, building and building in intensity until it shot out from the gate and into the center of the gateroom, blinding everyone. Slowly, the light began to fade and in it's place at the center of the room the soldiers could make out the outline of two figures, a man with his arms wrapped around a woman. Major Lorne and his men trained their weapons on them both.
"Oh my God," Rodney breathed as the two figures in the center of the gateroom slowly raised their heads. "That's….."
"Impossible," Chuck breathed, finishing Rodney's thoughts exactly.
Rodney headed out of the control room and down the stairs to the gateroom. Maybe his eyes were playing tricks on him. It couldn't possibly be who he thought he saw. There was no way. Because the two people he saw standing at the center of the gateroom were dead.
John Sheppard stared across the distance at him, his arms wrapped protectively around a tall brunette woman with the most piercing green eyes. Rodney had last seen Sheppard on the Wraith ship with Hope. But that was not who had returned to stand there by his side in the gateroom of Atlantis. Layna. She had come back, just as she had promised she would before she'd slipped away on that Asgard ship, only to ascend into the unknown.
"Rodney," Sheppard said in greeting, the guns trained on him holding him in place in front of the gate.
"What the hell Sheppard," Rodney started in on him, signaling the marines to lower their weapons. "We thought you were dead."
"I was," he responded.
Rodney looked at him for an explanation."Yeah... I'm going to need more than that, pal."
"It's a great story Rodney," John, grabbing Layna by the hand and taking a step closer to his friend. "And I'd love to tell it to you sometime, but right now I'd like to get back to the task of ending this war once and for all." He tried to make his way to the exit.
"The war?" Rodney questioned, stepping in his way. "That ended three weeks ago," he told the couple.
"What?" John asked. He watched as Major Lorne and his men nodded their heads in affirmation. He turned and looked to Layna.
"Time moves differently there," she reiterated for him as explanation.
He turned from her to look back across the room at Rodney. "So I missed it?" he asked.
"Yup, pretty much," Rodney summed up.
"All of it?" he continued, still somewhat confused and a lot disappointed.
There were a few snickers around the room.
"Yeah pal, you missed it all," Rodney confirmed.
"What happened?" John asked.
"We won," offered Lorne. "Thanks to that doohickey of Hope's, we got most of them to surrender by showing them that we could use their own weapons against them." He tilted his head toward the gate. "She coming back too?" he asked them.
Layna and John exchanged a meaningful look between the two of them before Layna turned back to answer Major Lorne's question. "Someday," she said.
"Where the hell were you?" Rodney asked, breaking the moment.
"That is a long story, buddy" John answered.
"I think we need to hear it," Mr. Woolsey's voice traveled to them from across the room as he'd finally arrived. They all turned and watched as he made his way to them. He turned to the marines. "Escort them both to Medical please," he ordered.
"Guess we'll catch up later," was Rodney's parting remark as Major Lorne began leading John and Layna out of the gateroom.
"Count on it," John threw back over his shoulder.