A/N: I own nothing but my own creations.
When they got back through the gate, there was a collective look on their faces. Not like they'd seen a ghost - like they were the ghosts. From that moment on, the mission for the cores joined the long list of things that Atlantis' senior staff were not to be grilled about.
No one asked. No one wanted to. And, if they had, no one would've told.
And it made for a quiet in the chair room so clean that it could've been bleached, as John landed the city for the first time in...too long. He half-expected Rodney to radio him to say say 'nice kissing' but the man hadn't left Jennifer's side since the back yup team rescued them.
"I'm going for a walk. Last person out, make sure everything's turned off. Even the lights." The other personnel in the room replied with their 'yes, sir's and their 'of course, Colonel's. He strode through the door, letting his feet carry him to where he should've been.
That was another thing that had changed. The lights. Midnight came and went twice before they landed and the lights stayed on. That shouldn't have been a remarkable event.
He stepped out onto one of Atlantis' balconies. Not his usual. Nice and calm but the control room was too far away.
Like Elizabeth. Too far away, of course. Not nice and calm. Was she? He stopped halfway to the rail. No, he couldn't answer that. The majority of the time he'd been home - and free from the infirmary - he'd spent sparring with Ronon, measuring his friend's health by how hard he could throw a punch.
The bruises on his ribs were a good indicator.
A weighted sigh escaped John and the doors closed on the balcony as he covered the remaining distance to the railing. For six months and nine days, they'd been wandering through space. The stardrive had been inactive until that last stretch, after they were certain they could afford to burn up what was left of their ZPMs.
And now they'd landed. The relative nothingness of space had ceased to whir by them. The piers touched water once again.
But John wasn't ready to trust the ground just yet.
For some time, Atlantis would have a Do Not Disturb sign on its front door. Even though they did still have to set up trade relations and find a way to restock on Atlantis' choice drink.
If there were three things that Lanteans could never get enough of, they were power (just not the intergalactic domination kind), coffee and sleep.
On a balcony much closer to the control room, right next to it in fact, Sam and Elizabeth stood watching Atlantis' new sky. The balcony itself had seen so much change, so many different leaders. It struck Elizabeth that the only constant it had was John and he wasn't there.
"I still feel guilty... All that, just for power." She shook her head, staring out at the ocean. Did any whales live down there?
"It worked, didn't it? We'll have all three slots in the ZPM room filled up. Nobody died and, next time, we'll know what to do." When she didn't respond, Sam reached out to touch her forearm. "Everyone who was there made that choice knowing what risks they were taking. You did nothing wrong."
In response, she just patted the hand on her arm. "Sam, if I tell you something, will you not tell anyone else? I need someone to know but I don't think I'm ready for the others to find out just yet."
The blonde stood up straighter. "Of course, go ahead."
"I'm not entirely human. The reason the door to the outpost opened was because that screen took a sample of my blood and recognised Night DNA. Whatever that looks like..."
"You're still Elizabeth to me. You always will be." She didn't look away as the words left her mouth. "I mean it."
Her smile was enough of a thank you.
"Did you hear the news?" At Elizabeth's frown, she elaborated, "Jack was talking to Chuck earlier and, apparently, things weren't exactly quiet back here either. For starters, someone hanged Kavanaugh."
The diplomat blinked. "Hung him? Are you serious?"
"Completely. Down in one of the lower levels. They wrote something on the walls in blood - and a weird, dark liquid. 'I am here'." Sam's mouth was a thin line. "It gets worse, though."
A dry chuckle left Elizabeth. "It always does."
"They unmasked - or unhooded - the guy who's been following me and Jack around. Apparently, he tried to steal someone's family photos and then went to strangle them when they noticed. He ended up getting shot in the chest at point blank range." With one hand, Sam formed the shape of a gun and shot an imaginary bullet out into the city. "Natalia identified him as her lover, but what he was doing wasn't part of her plan. He was supposed to escape through the gate after she went down."
"The man she was telling me about..." Elizabeth ran a hand through her hair, the addition of a breeze all too welcome. "When the power went out that first night, John and I had to watch her to make sure she didn't escape and wreck havoc with the city. She told me there was a man here who shouldn't be, and that he's special because he likes her. I guess we found him."
"I guess we did. You know, the saddest part is that the post mortem found evidence of Night interference in his brain. He was wired to do their dirty work and we killed him."
"He would've lived a poor life otherwise." The pair turned, seeing Teyla stood in the now-open doorway. Her hands were clasped in front of her and she was collected as she'd ever been. And smiling - that part was important.
Elizabeth began, "Teyla-"
The Athosian held up her hands. "Please, don't apologise. If Rodney does not blame you, which he quite clearly does not, then I fail to see how anyone can. You've made a lot of decisions as leaders of Atlantis, this is no different."
Sam bit her lip. "But are we? Leaders of Atlantis, I mean. It's not like we've been in the city all this time."
"Do the people here follow your orders? Are important decisions something you can affect? Does Atlantis 'forget' to spontaneously lock you in your bathroom once in a while?" That drew a little laughter out of each of them.
"Does Atlantis spontaneously lock you in your bathroom?" Elizabeth asked, a smirk playing on her lips.
"No, but Rodney tells incredibly vivid stories."
When John entered the ZPM room, Rodney had the power cores lined up and ready to connect up to the system. He looked up and smiled. "Almost ready. Last ZPM ran out two minutes after you finished the landing. I'm having them put in storage until we can decide what to do with them." The scientist paused, then tagged something else onto the end of his sentence. "Nice kissing."
The corner of John's mouth curved upwards.
Jack sat in the corner of the room reading - that particular book just so happened to be the one Elizabeth was reading the night of the first blackout.
So it is Sam's copy, John mused, making his way over there.
He sat down beside the older man and said, "I didn't know you were into reading."
"I'm not. But I won't see Sam until later this evening and this amount of boredom has to be illegal. So... Books." Jack turned the page in his direction - the number at the bottom, beside his thumb, was ten. "I've been here thirty minutes. I'm starting to feel McKay's technobabble's more entertaining."
John shook his head, laughed and turned the book back Jack's way. "Where's Sam, then?"
"With Elizabeth, last time I saw her." At that moment, the door opened again and Teyla, Elizabeth and Sam walked in. "And here they are."
The pair stood up, John nodding to the three women. "Hi." He got two 'hello's back, but not the third he really wanted (and not just because it completed the set).
"Okay," McKay addressed all five of them. "We should be good to go. Everyone ready?"
"Don't hold us in suspense," Sam quipped.
"Wasn't planning on it." And, with that, he entered the last command into his tablet and took hold of the first core. After about thirty seconds of messing around, it began to sink into place. "Easy does it... There! All good. It's working. I'll put the other one in in half an hour."
Sam elbowed Elizabeth, whispering, "See, I told you it wasn't for nothing."
Oblivious of their conversation, Rodney tapped his earpiece. "You can activate the charger for those detectors now. Make sure you don't put them in the wrong way round or they'll- Oh, okay, you got it. Great."
Jack was the first to turn, but Sam pulled him back by hand when she saw Rodney's face change.
"What do you mean there was a message stored on one of them? Is it text or..?" His face creased under the confusion. "Okay, send it through to me. Elizabeth can translate."
"What's going on Rodney?" John crossed his arms, stepping closer to get a view of the scientist's tablet.
McKay just shrugged, picked up the tablet, and crossed the room to where Elizabeth was standing. "I don't know. Just... Here, Elizabeth, what does this say?"
She blinked but took it anyway. Within a few seconds, all the air left her lungs. "It's a final message. That must've been my detector. I think I must've been too difficult for them to reach, so they took an easier target."
"What does it?" Teyla probed.
"There is no day without the night and the Night will come again."
A/N: And that's the end. Well...
Technically, it's the absolute end. But I'll get to that in a second. First of all, I want to thank every single person who reviewed this fanfic, I'm so glad other people enjoy reading this even half as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Thanks to everyone who favourited, whether you left a review or not. You're all important too. Most of all, thank you for putting up with the vast changes in my writing since I started this.
Second, congratulations to anyone who got the Quarantine reference last chapter - it was about John climbing out the window and up the building.
Third, I am incredibly sorry for not including Torren and Kanaan in this story. I didn't forget Torren existed but I somehow didn't put him in there - that might change when I edit, but only by small amounts (e.g. Teyla holding him, him being mentioned in conversation). As for Kanaan, I'm not sure what to do with him. Which leads me into my next point.
I'll be writing several things at certain points during the series. The sequel is currently called 'No Day Without the Night' (NDWN). As usual, the ships in it are going to be Sparky and Sam/Jack. And, obviously, McKeller's a thing but it's not one of the main ships. Regarding other ships, because I have a lot, there will be several one shots or short multi-chapter fics to go along with this. Some of them won't work until I'm halfway through NDWN, some won't work until a while after that, but some smaller one-shots are going in there too.
One of the extra fics is probably going to be Teyla/Ronon, because I ship them quite a bit. But that's why I'm not sure what to do with Kanaan. I'll see what happens.
Before NDWN even starts, I have a multi-chapter fic lined up that's called 'The Enquiry' (TE) right now. It's set during Night Begins Here, back on Earth, with Cam, Vala and Woolsey. It's probably going to be a train wreck and I can't wait. XD
But there's a catch. After this chapter's finished, I'm going on hiatus. Kind of. I'm not doing regular writing projects. You'll get seasonal and other one-shots, maybe two-shots/three-shots (okay, sorry, three-shots isn't a term...yet). I'm using that time to sort out my home situation, recover in terms of mental health, study and take exams, try a Harry Potter fan experience, improve my art, do all sorts of things. Including edit this. I don't have a time scale. It'll take as long as it takes.
When I'm back, I'll be working on a manuscript for a novel that I'm incredibly passionate about and I'll have access to resources and people who can help me get published. Hopefully. I'll see how I manage with that and I might start writing TE at some point while that's still in progress. With the depth of TE's plot right now, it's not going to be as long as this.
Thank you for reading all this, if you have. It's pretty lengthy but that's all I have to say. If I get asked any questions, I'll be answering them via PM. If they're in a guest review, I'll be answering them in the next story I write in this verse. Or, if that'll be too far away, I'll answer them in the description on my profile.
It's been a long time writing this fic. I'm actually pretty happy with it. So, for the meantime, bye!
