A/N: Hello everyone! When I first started this chapter, I thought it was going to be a real chore, but when I actually sat down to write it, I got super into it and now I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I hope you all enjoy it, too.

To everyone who read and reviewed my last chapter, thank you so much! I'm happy you liked it and I'm happy you're still with me.

Enjoy!

Not a week before Eva had been taken by the Wraith, before all of this mess had started, it was the end of term at school. And just like any regular student, the end of term meant taking finals. Thinking back, she had probably failed her trigonometry final, likely gotten Cs in history, Ancient, and physics, but had hopefully done well on her final art project…not that any of it mattered now. Somewhat obtusely, in this particular moment with the doors to the fighter bay opening, she thought of her English final. It was the last one she needed to take and she distinctly remembered sitting in class, staring out the window at the ocean in a braindead stupor, waiting for the teacher to pass out the final essay topic. When the paper landed it front of her, she was pleasantly surprised to see that the question was about one of the only books she had actually read that year: Dante's Inferno.

And although the deeply freezing cold

Had taken all sensation from my face

And left it feeling like a hard dead callus,

I now thought that I felt a breath of wind

And asked, 'My master, who has stirred this breeze?

Are not all vapors snuffed out here below?'

The bit of the passage Eva could remember more than accurately described the Wraith fighter bay. A chill, which she only half blamed on the significant drop in temperature, traveled down her spine as the door closed and the bay consumed them. Not only was it cold, it was loud, too, as though harsh gales of wind were swirling together in a trapped vortex. As they ventured farther, she planted her feet harder with every step, expecting to be whipped about by the storm, yet the air stirred not a single hair on her head.

From under the protection of the personal cloak where she now walked along with the others, Eva chanced a glimpse upward. The bay itself was an impossibly tall, dome-shaped structure, which housed multiple runways and walkways, all stacked on top of one another in concentric circular levels, making it difficult to shake off the Dantean imagery. They might as well be in Cocytus itself – the deepest circle of the underworld, the last hellscape Dante would encounter before his ascent into Purgatory, the realm of traitors. She looked up ahead at Janus, whose back was turned to them, and her stomach twisted into a knot. This whole time she had considered him their Virgil, their guide…what if she was wrong?

"Ow! Will you watch it?" McKay whispered harshly to her as she stepped on his foot.

It was significantly darker in the bay than in the corridors of the ship and in such close quarters, they kept bumping into one another. The only source of light were the dots of dark red that marked each level, flanking the runways and illuminating various paths toward pockets clustered in the walls. She was immediately reminded, for obvious reason, of the cells of a beehive. With a leaping, nauseating sensation in her stomach, Eva made the mistake of looking down. Sheer blackness peppered with little red lights, it had to be at least a thirty-story fall. Mindful of the darkness and the drop, the group watched their step as they tried to stay within the confines of the cloak while also keeping pace with Janus who deftly wound his way through the place like an eel through seaweed.

An ear-splitting squeal raised the hair on Eva's neck and she watched as a dart, returning to the bay to dock from the culling, pierced through the veil that shielded them from outer space, landed two levels above them, and found its way into its own pocket in the wall.

She couldn't help but think that there were human beings inside that dart – so many, in fact, that the hold had probably been filled to maximum with dematerialized cargo, forcing an early return. Within the next few minutes, some fifty people would either be fed upon or forced into cocoons, waiting and wasting away until it was their turn. She wondered if any of the villagers they had spoken to were in that cargo hold.

Why had the Wraith even come to that planet? They had left that world alone for nearly thirty years. Had her presence really been significant enough to warrant a trip across the galaxy to find her? Enough to warrant a culling? And if so...how had they found out she was there? Her tracker was gone. She knew it had left no residual effects; if it had, they would have come for her weeks ago back on Atlantis. Was this all somehow her fault?

There was something the old woman in the tavern had said that haunted her then, and it haunted her now. "I believe there are other things," she had said, "other forces at work, that have kept the Wraith away." Maybe those other forces not only had the power to keep the Wraith away, but had the power to call them back, too.

"Here it is." Janus' voice separated her from her thoughts. He had led them into a far, somewhat secluded corner of the bay and as he stopped, she thought she saw him sway to one side before catching and righting himself, but maybe it had been a trick of the light.

Looking past him, her eyes fell upon a Wraith ship. Upon first glance, it looked similar enough to a dart, perhaps a bit larger, but when Janus disintegrated the cover of the cockpit, she noticed that instead of one pilot's seat, there were two.

"You need a copilot to operate this thing?" Sheppard asked.

Janus steadied himself with a hand upon the dart and cast his gaze in their general direction, appearing uncharacteristically self-conscious. "Unfortunately...yes," he answered. "It was installed as a safety precaution, should I have posed a flight risk. I cannot operate this dart without a Wraith to pilot it alongside me."

"I'm sorry, what?" Sheppard whisper-shouted. "You're telling me that we can't blow this popsicle stand unless we take a Wraith along for the ride, too? Why the hell did you wait until now to tell us this?"

"I figured, at some point, we would cross paths with a drone and we could... persuade it to come along with us."

"And by persuade, you mean threaten?" Ronon asked.

"Something along those lines, yes." Janus scrunched his eyes closed and brought a hand to his forehead, as if he were in pain.

"Oh, this is a terrible plan," McKay whined. "This is a horrible, no good, very bad plan. First of all, do you see any extra drones lying around? Because I certainly don't. Second, don't you think it's a bit –"

"John," Teyla said softly. "Perhaps I can do it."

Sheppard quirked an eyebrow up at her. "You think ..."

"What specifically does the dart require from the Wraith co-pilot?" she asked of Janus.

He cleared his throat. "Ironically, I designed the interface myself."

"Gotta love irony at a time like this," Sheppard muttered.

"You designed it yourself but you can't find a work around for it?" McKay asked.

"I designed it to operate much like Lantean technology," he explained, ignoring both Sheppard and McKay's snide commentary. "When a Wraith touches the controls, the interface either senses or does not sense the presence of Wraith DNA. If the sensors detect Wraith DNA, the controls unlock themselves."

"Then I can do it," Teyla said. A look of determination spread across her face, while suspicion tinged Sheppard's. "I have flown a hive ship before, have I not?"

"Yeah, but you were pregnant then, Teyla. You were the one who admitted that Torren kinda gave you a leg up on that one."

"Yes, but that was an entire hive ship. This is merely a dart. You have flown darts before and you do not have any Wraith in your blood."

Sheppard released a reluctant sigh.

"Does she – do you possess Wraith DNA?" Janus asked, his eyebrows arched in astonishment. Eva was sure this time that he was leaning a bit too heavily against the side of the ship.

"I do," Teyla replied.

"Well then that might just –"

Out of nowhere, the sound of a thousand souls all shrieking at once screamed overhead, making her jump. A siren.

"Care to tell us what that is?" Sheppard shouted over the sound.

"They've—" Janus blinked hard, then shook his head. "They've sounded the alarm. Your escape has been detected. They must have found the bodies of the drones in the armory."

"Yeah, or they finally noticed our cell was empty," Ronon retorted.

"We must make haste," Janus said. "Come, Teyla."

Teyla left the security of the cloak, hurried to Janus' side, and leapt quite elegantly into the cockpit of the drone. She set her hands upon the controls and the display came to life, lighting the contours of her face in an orange-green glow.

"Well I'll be damned," Sheppard murmured.

"We will beam you into the cargo hold," Janus instructed, "but in order for us to do so, you will need to lower the cloak. We will not know where to direct the beam if we cannot see you. Wait until we are in the air, then lower it." He turned toward the dart, ready to board it, when his knees gave out on him.

"Janus!" Teyla stood in her seat and leaned over the edge of the cockpit, her eyes wide with concern.

Sheppard raced to his aid and helped him to his feet.

"I am fine. Just a brief moment of disorientation." He took a deep breath and lifted his chin high. "Now, we must hurry."

"Forgive me if I don't totally trust your flying capabilities in this exact moment," Sheppard said sharply, still holding tightly to the Ancient's shoulders.

Once again, Janus lost control of his legs. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he passed out, Sheppard's grasp on him the only thing preventing him from toppling over entirely. The colonel leaned him against the dart, his ear close to Janus' mouth, eyebrows knitted with confusion.

"Rogers! Get over here! I can't understand a thing he's saying. I think he's speaking in Ancient."

There was a disturbance in the cold air from behind Eva and soon Emma was also outside their invisible forcefield, kneeling to hear what Janus was saying.

"Fly. Hurry. They are coming. Fly. Hurry." She translated with stoicism and a shake of the head, looking into Sheppard's face. "Colonel, he's not saying anything important. We need –"

Sheppard didn't waste a second. He jumped into the pilot's chair of the dart while shouting out orders. "Chewie, get Janus back under the cloak."

Ronon clapped a firm hand on Eva's shoulder. "Stay here," he said before he sprinted toward where the Ancient, phasing in and out of consciousness, lay. He grabbed him by the wrists, Emma took his ankles, and together they began to drag him back toward the cloak.

"Rogers!" Sheppard called. "Hang on! I need you!"

Eva could only see the back of Ronon's head, but she saw Emma's eyes lift and presumably meet his before gently setting Janus' ankles down and running back to Sheppard.

Sheppard had begun the series of pre-flight checks, but was clearly encountering difficulties. "This thing's different than the other darts I've flown. The dash is half in Ancient, half in Wraith…" he said, glancing over at Emma who had hoisted herself halfway up the dart and was leaning over the cockpit, studying his controls. "This is still the throttle…"

Eva watched as Emma pointed to the various controls, only catching a fraction of her words. "Inertial dampeners." "Cannon." "Beam."

"Shield?" she heard Sheppard ask. "Darts don't have shields."

"This one does," she replied. "Good to go? Think you can remember all that?"

"Coulda been in Mensa," Sheppard said with a wink.

There was a brief pause on Emma's side of the conversation. "That a yes or a no?"

"That's a …never mind. I got it. Thanks, Rogers."

She jumped down, brushed her hands on the sides of her pants, and started making her way back to the rest of them.

Ronon was close now. "McKay? Eva? Where the hell are you?" he asked, looking wildly over his shoulder for their invisible forms as he dragged Janus' limp body across the floor.

"Emma! Look out!"

It was Teyla's voice that had shouted the warning. Eva shifted her gaze from Ronon and Janus over to the dart and looked on in horror as a squadron of Wraith drones surrounded the ship, all with their stunners aimed at Sheppard and Teyla. Her eyes then focused on the foreground where a Wraith soldier with long, white hair that gleamed in the black-red dark, was holding Emma at knife point. Upon seeing this, Ronon instantly dropped Janus' limp weight and, drawing his weapon, charged toward them.

"Drop the knife!" he shouted.

"Take one step closer and I will not hesitate to spill every last drop of her blood!"

Ronon halted in his tracks but kept his weapon held high. "What do you want?"

"Give me the girl and I will spare this one's life."

The bottom of Eva's stomach dropped out from underneath her. They wanted her life in exchange for her mother's.

"What girl?" Ronon growled.

The soldier's grip on Emma tightened and she let out a strangled sound of pain as it dug the point of its knife into her neck, releasing a small trickle of blood. "You know perfectly well to what I am referring. Surrender her to me and I will release the woman."

"We don't know where she is." Ronon's voice was as steady as his gun, still aimed at the Wraith.

Eva, on the other hand, was trembling.

"What a shame." The Wraith lightly dragged the knife against Emma's neck causing her to cry out, leaving a shallow bleeding line in its wake. Its eyes flashed back to Ronon's. "This will be the last time I ask. Where is the girl?"

Eva could take it no longer. "Stop it!" she shrieked as she revealed herself, leaving her invisible haven behind.

Ronon tore his eyes away from Emma and the Wraith to look back at her. "Eva!" he shouted, anger mingling with shock in his voice.

She was shaking from head to toe, but took great pains to make sure it didn't show as she marched resolutely toward the Wraith. She made it no farther than Ronon's side before he caught her arm in his free hand to stop her from advancing any closer.

A smile spread across the Wraith's countenance as its eyes surveyed her. "Come with me and I let her go," it said to her.

"Take back your scientist, instead." Ronon made a vague gesture of his chin over to Janus' unconscious form behind them. "He's gotta be worth more than her. What good will she do you? She's just a kid."

"I am not here to entertain any other bargains. The woman's life – and those of your comrades," it jerked its head toward Sheppard and Teyla in the dart in the background, "for the girl's."

"Ronon," Emma whispered, catching his eyes with her own. Tears were forming along her lower lashes, but her gaze was intense and exacting. "Please…"

Eva's parents were always capable of having entire conversations solely by looking at each other without needing to say a single word; time and circumstance notwithstanding, Eva was a bit annoyed to see they were managing to do it now. She glanced over to Ronon who, still staring at Emma, nodded almost imperceptibly. With a frustrated sigh, he lowered his weapon, hesitating for the briefest of seconds before he finally holstered it. A lump formed in Eva's throat as she realized that was her cue to surrender herself to the Wraith. She took one step forward and in the instant she did, Ronon's arms closed around her, trapping her in an iron grip.

"What the –? Let me go!" she screeched. "It's going to kill her!" She kicked against him, tried to head butt him in the chin, tried every defensive maneuver he himself had taught her, but he was unrelenting. He wouldn't let her go.

"We won't let you have her," Emma said to the Wraith as tears fell down her cheeks.

The knife glinted red in the dark.

"You humans are all the same," it snarled. "What purpose does it serve to –"

Bam!

There was a gunshot, then a scream from Emma as the Wraith fell, its blood and brains splattered across the floor.

"Run!" The shout had come from McKay who had appeared out of the ether, gun in his right hand and a remote control in the other.

Needing no other explanation and suddenly freed from Ronon's grasp, she did just that.

"Sheppard, raise that shield!" McKay yelled into the radio.

The following events were a blur. There was a loud explosion, then a wave of heat. Next thing she knew, she was sprawled out on her stomach, covering her ears and her head. She felt, rather than saw, the dart above. A shining beam of white light captured her and an instant later, she found herself thinking purgatory smelled an awful lot like wet grass.

A/N: Hope you liked it! The excerpt from the Inferno, by the way, is from Canto XXXIII - probably best known as the Ugolino Canto. People eating people...Wraith eating people...it seemed to fit. ;)