Authors Note:

Apologies for the lack of review replies - thanks to everyone who took the time to review the last chapter. Here is the follow up and it's a doosey so ... if you haven't reviewed in the past, this might just be the time to let me know what you think!

Chapter 37: You can't go home

"Evan? Please ... oh God," Prue's voice shook as much as the hands she placed gingerly over his chest. Lorne was shifting in and out of consciousness, just barely with it enough to know that somehow she was beside him.

He wanted to answer her ... he tried to but the effort only sent him back to the blackness.

"Evan ... please come back to me," her voice was still shaking, thick now with tears. She sniffed, and one of those tears landed on his cheek.

"Don't ... cry," he whispered through lips red with his own blood. He wanted to add that he'd be okay but he knew this time that wasn't going to be the case. Everything was pain ... the parts of himself he could feel anyway. That didn't include any of his extremities - he knew enough to understand that wasn't a good sign. He wanted to touch her but trying to move ramped up the pain and he lost touch again.

"Help me please!" Prue was standing beside him now, her voice a hoarse plea. "Somebody help me!"

Evan struggled to open his eyes ... the edges of his vision were fuzzy but he saw Prue clearly, saw the spiralling light that appeared above them and slowly drifted down.

Prue's reaction wasn't surprise or fear. Instead she addressed the light with familiarity. "Fee ... it's really you. Oh God ... I remember now! I remember everything!" Prue stepped closer to the light. "You know it isn't meant to be this way. You can help him. Please."

The light brightened and then coalesced until it was replaced by another woman, dark haired, slender, and of a similar height to Prue. "Who can say what is meant and what is not?" she returned emotionlessly.

"I can!" Prue shot back desperately. "We both know what the others believe. Without him we will all perish or be taken over by those without purpose or scruples. They will destroy everything. I would heal him myself but you know I no longer have the power."

"Because you gave it up to be with him," the words weren't harsh or judgemental, but merely factual.

"I gave up everything to help him – to help his people so that they would be ready to help us!" Prue exclaimed.

Evan lay on the floor, the physical pain receding into numbness. He didn't want to believe what his eyes and ears were telling him – that Prue had summoned an ascended being, one she knew from personal experience. Her best friend – the one she'd told him she'd lost just before coming to Atlantis. There had to be an explanation he could live with ... Evan tried to cling to that but the pain in his heart sprang into life to mock his trust. "Prue?" he whispered her name despairingly.

"Evan," Prue dropped to her knees at his side, one hand smoothing his hair back, her eyes swimming with tears. "You're going to be fine, okay. I'm going to fix this," she promised him determinedly. Looking back over her shoulder to where her friend stood watching, she continued. "We're going to fix this."

Fee looked at them both silently before moving closer. "You are sure?" she asked Prue. "He will not forgive you Devia."

"I don't care!" Prue got up again, grabbing her friend's hands and clinging tightly. "He must live ... I can't continue in this task if you let him die Fee. For what we once were to each other ... for Occulus. You must do this now ... before it is too late." She took a shuddering breath, stepping back and sitting beside Evan again. Taking his hand she held it to her face, her eyes on his. "He doesn't have much time Fee. I will take full responsibility," she said with quiet intent.

"Very well," Fee finally agreed. She moved to Evan's other side, kneeling down and putting her hands on his chest. "Be ready Evan Lorne," she warned. The light around her brightened, the warmth centred on where she was touching him. He knew the Ancient's had healing powers – he'd read the report from Colonel Sheppard's time at the sanctuary – but nowhere did it say how much it hurt to be healed.

The pain was excruciating – at least as bad as the injuries themselves and without the welcome numbness. He couldn't help but cry out, his body writhing on the floor.

"Hang on Evan," Prue was at his shoulders now, leaning over him so that his vision was full of her.

Fee continued her invasion – every molecule of his being was touched by her power as she repaired damaged organs and knitted back together every one of his broken bones. The heat was intense – it came off him in waves that raised beads of sweat all over him. His heart galloped unevenly, every breath he took insufficient to stop the feeling of suffocation that had panic swirling through his mind. His insides crawled with a host of unpleasant sensations. He'd never wanted to get away from himself more than he did right then but he couldn't. Reality ... time itself seemed to lose its meaning.

And then abruptly it stopped and he could breathe easy again.

"It is done," Fee announced.

"Thank you," Prue got up, moving to stand before her friend. "I ... I don't have the words," she whispered brokenly.

"It is because of you that I am here Devia," Fee said simply. "You asked me to watch over you ... to watch over him. And so I have. I wish I could help you face so easily what is still to come."

"As do I," Prue murmured.

Throwing herself forward, she hugged her friend close. Fee looked uncomfortable, her body stiff, but abruptly she relaxed, returning the embrace. "I miss you still," Fee said.

"Me too," Prue returned. "That was one thing I never forgot."

Stepping back, Fee cast Evan an intent gaze. "This day's events are not as they appear Evan Lorne. If you fail to see this ... if you hurt Devia ... I will return and take back the gift I have given you."

"Fee!" Prue protested.

"It is done," Fee spoke to the heavens. Raising her arms side, she called back the light. It brightened until they had to look away. When they could look back she was gone, the chamber returned to its former dimness.

Evan sat up, hardly able to believe the truth. The pain was gone. His injuries were gone. It was as though he'd never fallen to his almost death less than an hour before.

Getting to his feet he turned to face Prue. "What the hell was that?" he demanded. "And who the hell is Devia?"

"She is me," Prue admitted tearfully, "or at least, she was. I'm so sorry Evan."

"You're sorry?" he asked incredulously, anger like he'd never known burning inside. "Everything about you is a lie Prue and all you can say is you're sorry?"

"There are reasons ... reasons bigger than me," she swallowed visibly, wrapping her arms around her middle.

"I should have pushed you!" Lorne said, keeping his anger in check with difficultly. "I knew there was something off but I ignored it because I ...," he bit back the words. Because he loved her ... that's why he'd ignored the warning signs, although God knows he'd never have pegged her secret for being as huge as it had turned out to be. "You're one of them?" he asked harshly. "You're an ascended Ancient?"

"Not exactly – I did ascend but I was never one of those you call Ancients. I wanted to tell you everything but it was forbidden," Prue admitted. "They would have removed me before letting me reveal myself. And then they would have sent someone else – someone who wouldn't have cared about you like I did."

"Right, sure, of course," Lorne scoffed with painful sarcasm, "because everyone shows who much they care by lying through their teeth every second of the day!"

"It wasn't a lie!" Prue protested forcefully. Rushing forward she grabbed his forearms, jerking him towards her desperately. "Only the origins of my existence were false Evan. Please, you have to believe me!"

His anger dropped away abruptly, overwhelmed by the sadness and regret that arrived to replace it. "I'm not sure I can believe anything ever again," Evan said quietly, turning away. For the first time in his life Lorne had no idea what to do next ... what to do with her. How in the hell was he supposed to handle this? Could he turn her in for not being what they'd all assumed she was? And how was that even possible anyway? She had a history – she knew things about Earth like she really had grown up there. The whole thing was confusing as hell and he desperately wanted a few minutes of mental silence so he could get his bearings back.

The room was dimly lit from the lights above but Lorne's eyes had adjusted enough that he could see where it was he'd fallen. In the drama of almost dying and then being healed he hadn't really paid any attention to his surroundings. Needing the distraction he glanced around with little real interest – until his eyes landed on the far wall and that pretence fell away.

"Evan, please," Prue began again, stopping when he held up his hand for quiet.

"Not now," he said tersely, pulling out his torch and shining it ahead of him as he walked quickly forward. His eyes translated what he was seeing but his brain struggled to comprehend. "ZPMs," he murmured, his torchlight illuminating three cylindrical objects slotted into place in a triangle. "We actually found them!" He wasn't sure why but he knew instinctively that they were fully charged, even though they weren't currently active.

"As you were meant to," another voice in the chamber had Prue and Evan both spinning around.

"Morgan?" Lorne's voice was incredulous as he took in an image he'd only previously seen in the hologram room back on Atlantis. He turned to glare at Prue, the anger back in full force. "Somebody better tell me what the hell is going on here!"

"It is time Evan Lorne," Morgan ignored his demands.

"Time for what?" Evan shouted, pacing away, a hand running through his hair in agitation. Turning back he held up a hand. "No, you know what? Don't even bother answering that because I am done here." Striding past Prue and Morgan he reached for the rope ladder Prue must have appropriated from the room above them to get down to him so quickly.

"You cannot be done," Morgan's voice resonated off the walls, stopping him in his tracks.

"I can," he promised grimly. "And I'm done with the lies and the manipulation and the cryptic crap too. So if you want me to listen then you'll start telling me the unvarnished truth."

"Very well," Morgan agreed. "But you must agree to do as we ask ... the clock has already begun ticking."

"I'm not agreeing to anything before I get that explanation," Lorne insisted stubbornly. He was aware that Prue stood behind him but he had to shut her out – her surprise at seeing Morgan had seemed genuine but then, everything else about her had too, and look how wrong that had turned out to be.

"What you know of those who Ascended is not the entirety of our existence," Morgan began without further preamble. "We are as one in our purpose, in the control we place on our collective, but this is not by choice. During the dawn of this phase in our existence many of our kind struggled to let go of the concerns of our prior selves. We were weak ... the power we had to be in all places at all times was too much and many of us chose to use it to hover over the affairs of the lower planes, over those we had known. Changes were made ... history was altered all in the name of good intentions ... until our actions threatened the very fabric of creation. Unity was needed and so we agreed to abide by rules that would separate us from this plane. Together we corrected our wrongs and together we ensured that such events could never happen again."

"Thanks for the history lesson but I don't see what it has to do with us right now," Lorne commented impatiently.

"True unity is difficult to create," Morgan revealed. "An individual straying from the path is quickly detected and punishment delivered swiftly, but if more than one were to stray such swift action would not be as easy. A group of our kind will band together to create their own unity. They will be too strong for us to control. They will not be disciplined. And they will bring about the end of our kind, followed swiftly by the use of your kind as tools for their own amusement. The fabric will be irrevocably damaged until there is nothing left."

"You said will?" Lorne frowned. "Are you suggesting this new group doesn't exist yet?"

"Precisely," Morgan confirmed. "We are all places in all times. Our end has been seen ... experienced ... time and time again. We have attempted through our own efforts to avoid this fate but all of our paths lead to the same conclusion. As soon as we give up our rules to save ourselves our very existence spirals out of control and into chaos. It is inevitable."

"Wait a minute!" Evan shook his head, a harsh chuckle escaping him. "You think I can do what the collective power of who knows how many ascended beings can't? That's insane!"

"You have what is needed Evan Lorne," Morgan said serenely. "And you have come by it through your own efforts."

"Right, mine and the mole you planted in our ranks," Lorne shot back. "But I guess it's not cheating since you made Prue human to get the job done."

"Devia chose to return to human form," Morgan explained. "We took from her every advantage gained from being formerly ascended, leaving only what she was before her death and what she strived through honest effort to acquire after that. She is as much one of your kind as anyone else. Our only subterfuge was in taking from you all that she needed to be convincing in her role as one from your own planet."

"Look, I don't really care about any of that," Evan denied, even though a part of him wanted nothing more than to have every action and every mystery that was Prue explained to him in minute detail. But it didn't matter – because she wasn't even Prue. She was Devia – a stranger. His Prue didn't exist, she never had. That realisation rose sharply into focus, bringing with it a wave of grief that threatened to crush him. "Not the time," he thought harshly, reigning it all in. "Just tell me what it is you expect me to do."

"It began as soon as you found the alternative shield," Morgan revealed. "They form as we speak and they will come to destroy Atlantis."

"And I assume this alternative shield is the decide that needs three ZPM's to power it," Lorne shook his head. "How can that be a threat to them? They're ascended."

"Yes, but as a unity they are still weak," Morgan explained. "They can be contained. The shield was originally designed by your ancestors as a way to store energy sourced from beyond this plane of existence. They were unable to complete their research before the Wraith threat necessitated all resources be directed towards solving it. It is our belief that the shield can be used to stop the new unity before it is too strong. But only if operated by one with supreme control over the Ancient city. The new unity are aware of the threat the shield poses to them – as soon as you discovered it their course was set. They do not believe a mere human will be strong enough to stop them but we know differently."

"Yeah, like I didn't see that one coming," Lorne muttered, looking down at the ground, his mind racing. He wasn't sure how much of Morgan's story to believe. Clearly his judgement was flawed – the sooner he could get back to Atlantis and offload the whole thing on Doctor Weir and Colonel Sheppard the better.

"You must hurry Evan," Morgan intoned. "Already they approach."

"I'll take your story back to Atlantis," Lorne declared, "along with the ZPM's. But that's it – I'm not promising anything. It won't be my decision anyway."

"These events are unavoidable," Morgan insisted. "Go back to Atlantis Evan Lorne ... and be ready for what comes."

With a flash she was gone, leaving a grim silence behind her.