Sorry for the long wait! Things have been very busy of late, I'm afraid . . . However, back on schedule and I hope to have the next chapter up tomorrow. Thanks so much for your patience!

Chiara and Janus arrived arrived at the astria porta in good time; however Chiara's heart sank as she saw it . . . A small armada of five darts surrounded the great ring.

"What now?" She asked quietly. Janus leaned over and pressed a series of coordinates into the console.

"We wait," he replied calmly.

"For what?" Chiara asked, staring at the now-active astria porta. It was so close . . . almost as if she could . . . . just barely touch freedom.

"The astria porta will stay open for at least 38 minutes, during which time we can let the Wraith stay on their toes." Janus turned his chair around to her.

"So tell me . . . what happened to you?" he asked. Chiara swallowed.

"A lot. They kept me locked up in one room the whole time . . . only with Amara, a Worshipper set to watch over me. And then . . ." she trailed off a bit but soon picked up again, " . . . then you died. It was awful, Janus, I didn't know what to do, what to think . . ." Janus nodded.

"I know," he stated softly.

"What happened to you the whole time? Where were you?" she asked. Janus sighed.

"After I thought they had killed you . . . I decided that you would want me to escape if possible. The first thing that I wanted to do was try and destroy the machine though. The Wraith still wanted answers, so I gave it to them." Chiara smiled at this. Just like Janus.

"So you fixed it enough so that it would work, but if they tried anything big enough it would explode soon afterwards," she said, remembering her side of the story.

"Yes," Janus said. "Since I thought that you had died then if I escaped, I highly doubted they could get out of it in time." Chiara nodded slightly in reply.

"So then you escaped," she said.

"Not right away, I wanted to make sure my plan worked first, however, they made a jump just small enough for it not to overload. It was exactly forty five years as I recall. After that, I did escape . . . ." Janus trailed off and was silent for a moment. He looked out that window at the astria porta and darts surrounding it for a small while before he continued quietly.

"Everything was falling apart, Chiara. We were losing and . . ." Janus took a deep breath before taking up the tale again. "Sometimes, back in Atlantis . . . in an odd, distorted way, I was glad you weren't there . . . You would have died amidst all the fighting, you would have gone out in one big bang of glory, taking out a Wraith hive with you . . . Just as so many of our warriors did. But it was never enough. No matter how many died, no matter how many Wraith hives were destroyed . . . there were always more. More Wraith, more battles, and more lives to be lost." Chiara stared at him, her blue eyes huge. She had known that Atlantis was destroyed, that they lost . . . but seeing the whole five, terrible years play in the expression on Janus' face and in his words . . .

"I understand," was all Chiara could manage to say. Janus sighed and continued again.

"Everyone had thought that I was long since deadd and were very surprised at my return. Trebal . . . she heard that I had returned and somehow managed to somehow slip past the guards into the infirmary in order to see you . . . I thought you were dead and told her . . . She was heartbroken, Chiara, she had to go through your dying twice in her mind. From all accounts she swore that either the Wraith would die or she would . . ." Chiara shook her head. That was just like Esme . . . Always the warrior, never hardened by the deaths she was surrounded by.

"What happened to her?" Chiara asked.

"The Aurora was gathering information about the Wraith ships . . . They got into a battle and . . . they lost," Janus said. Chiara leaned back in her chair. Of course, this far into the future, of course Trebal would have died . . . But . . . Chiara wasn't sure. She wanted to here that her friend had finally married, perhaps had a few children, and then grew old . . . But just to have her life extinguished like that. Like so many others. Chiara shook her head slightly, leaning forward again.

"Go ahead," Chiara said with a nod after a moment. Janus examined her carefully, taking Chiara's hand in his before he once again began to speak.

"I only spent five more years in Atlantis before we lost the war. After that, we left Atlantis for Terra. Once there things continued to get worse . . . The Ancients managed to live, however. Some of them ascended, some of them stayed back on Terra, inter-breeding among the humans. A few of them survived though. We escaped through the stargate, to another long-since forgotten world. And the Ancients stayed there for ten thousand years, blocking themselves off from all other races, until their name became a legend and their existence thought a myth." Chiara sighed slightly, for the first time a smile playing on her lips. So . . . Esmora had been wrong. The Ancients had lived, they had survived, in hiding, granted, but they were still there . . . Janus thought as well for a few moments before he continued.

"Back in Atlantis they had run tests and found the drug in my system . . . Because of that they were able to discover what had happened to you. They said the hive had disappeared, you were long gone . . . But you had to be somewhere." Janus smiled slightly. "I had built a working time machine but the Lantean Counsel had forbidden me from using it. Once I got to Terra though no one was watching me, so I built a new one and left. After that I spent years searching all over for you. I finally came to a human world in the home galaxy, watching the people there . . . but another group of humans came along through the astria porta. They thought that I had died a long time ago or something of that sort . . . and for such reason they stole my time-ship." Janus gave a side smile at Chiara, shaking his head. The humans were an interesting race, always trying to dive after any technology more advanced than their own. He continued after a moment, however.

"This, of course, placed me in more than a small predicament. If I went after it then they would figure out who I was . . . and if I left it then my search was as good as done. I couldn't figure out any way to get it back, and so stayed on the human world. That is until the humans, being the bright and helpful creatures they are, decided to use the time-ship . . . The Ancients didn't take it from them, but they did put two-and-two together as to the scientist who built a time machine and magically disappeared ten-thousand years ago . . . and then the humans with a beautiful time machine now. The Ancients easily tracked where exactly the humans had retrieved the ship from . . . A few days later a few of them came trooping through the astria porta with gifts for the local populace . . . And a call home for myself . . . They brought me to their new home-world, Terrana, where I stayed for several years . . . That is until a young woman named Aerlyn came through the astria porta on Terrana. She claimed to be the daughter Chiara Elata, and in such case, looked exactly like her mother . . . With that information, I convinced the council to allow me to journey to the Pegasus galaxy in search of you. They agreed, but sent me to Atlantis under the guise of some human scientist from a destroyed world . . . And then I spent the next several months there, trying to discover which hive you were on." Chiara's mind was still caught a long ways back in the narrative. Aerlyn? But . . . she had disappeared, she worshiped the Wraith and . . .
"But . . .but . . ." Chiara stuttered, unsure of what to say. "Aerlyn is a Wraith Worshipper, Janus!" Chiara's voice cracked as she said the words.

"She apparently turned. You can ask her about it once the Ancient Council tells us to come back though," Janus said quietly. Chiara nodded and looked out the window at the waiting darts and open astria porta. After a moment, Janus turned back to the controls.

"I think we have made them wait long enough . . ." he said, placing his hands back on the console. As he did so the ship moved forward, and with a wild burst of speed went through the stargate. As soon as the darts saw they followed the gate-ship. Chiara felt almost nothing, and then the ship jolted to a stop in the astria porta room . . . . in Atlantis. Chiara looked up as she heard a shout and then the sound of the astria porta shield being raised . . . She then heard the distinct "bang . . . bang . . ." sound as the Wraith darts landed against the shield. Chiara looked almost warily around as she felt the ship rise to a hangar above. She was back. Back in Atlantis.