"It's Atlantis." Max said. "They're practically under us, right between the Hive and Earth."

"How do you know that?" McKay asked, his voice full of doubt.

Max glared at him and said, "Because Angel's driving, and she told me. Let's get out of here."

The ship shook as if to enforce her point.

"This way!" Ajax yelled, running to the front of the group. "I left a trail!" The group dashed through hallways as quickly as possible, with Aragon casually dropping a few grenades that he had brought with him to ward off the advancing attackers.

"Get on it, McKay!" Sheppard called, tossing McKay the remote which he snatched from the air without losing stride. Rodney was kneeling before the DHD, feeling under it for the catch when Lorne announced, "We've got company!"

The mermaid trio jostled together in a V formation and from their palms a bright, blue light shot out, stretching over the hall before the group. As the Wraith fired the beams soaked into the shield, expanding it.

"How's it comin' Rodney?" Sheppard asked, holding his fire for a moment.

"I just got it!" Rodney replied, sweat dripping from his face as his fingers worked rapidly. "Dialing the Alpha site now!"

The ship quaked as Aragon's grenades went off, vaporizing several sections of the vessel.

"Who dropped that one?" Sheppard asked in wonder. A wall of fire dashed past the shield being projected by the mermaids, though the walls began to shrivel in the fiery inferno.

"I did." Aragon answered, preparing to launch another grenade.

"Well, I'd like to get more of them if I can." Sheppard replied, still awed by the power. "They seem to work real good!"

"Maybe another time," Aragon smirked.

The wormhole stabilized, and the group retreated through the active Stargate.

Sheppard entered the commands to detonate the nuke, then left the device sitting on the DHD before jumping through. The connection cut off several seconds before the nuke fired, completely destroying the Hive in a fiery detonation.

In the next instant they were standing in an open field, with a small military installation nearby.

"We did it." Sheppard said, his voice quiet. Then, "WE DID IT!"

The group celebrated for several moments but froze as Max threw her hands up and yelled for quiet as she rubbed her temples. They waited, hearts pounding.

"Just before we left," Max started somberly, "Angel told me that Atlantis was pretty close to losing shields, and that the incoming fire from the Hive knocked them out of orbit. They were scraping the top of the atmosphere towards the end of the fight."

"Atlantis had five ZedPMs at her disposal!" McKay started, outraged. "What happened?"

Max glanced at him then said, "Apparently, one of them was just about all in, dropping them to four, and they cooked the two extras with the wormhole drive. The two that were left weren't enough to compensate for the stresses of battle combined with maintaining altitude and returning fire. She isn't sure if they have enough shield to survive re-entry."

The group was quiet, then McKy whispered, "We'll know in about five minutes. At that point, it should be safe to dial Earth, or rather, Atlantis on Earth."

The news sobered the group. Eragon was worried for Saphira's sake, Max for Tigrus and Angel, the other members of the Flock were worried for Angel's sake as well, and the others for the friends they had left behind on Atlantis.

"They knew the risks." Sheppard said at last. "Right now, there's nothing we can do."

Atlantis:

Angel grimaced as the city burned through the atmosphere, it wasn't good for the city, and by extension it wasn't good for her.

The wormhole drive had really taken it out of her, and she was glad that there had been all that excess power from the additional two Zero Point Modules. The moment they arrived, Angel ceded control to Dr. Beckett saying, "I'm not fit for the Chair right now." Dr. Beckett had nodded, concerned, but left the matter of Angel's health for a later time, focusing on firing at the Hive and keeping the city up. In the end, he focused more on firing at the Hive than maintaining altitude, and the city plummeted shortly after the Hive exploded in a glorious explosion of blinding blue light.

Angel had, unfortunately, remained conscious through the entire ordeal, despite the pain from systems shorting out. Carson had taken pity on her during the battle, asking that someone take Angel to the infirmary.

Once Angel arrived in the infirmary, Dr. Keller gently asked if she would object to being temporarily knocked out. Angel didn't object, just held out her arm for the injection.

One of the more significant relays blew out, and Angel shrieked from the pain before the drug was able to kick in, and she swiftly fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

When Dr. Beckett finally stood, trembling slightly, Atlantis rested in the San Francisco Bay, her cloak engaged, and the area under full naval quarantine.

The Stargate in the Atrium connected as the Alpha Site dialed in.

"Well, who could be knocking right now?" Woolsey asked jokingly.

"Receiving ICD now, sir." the tech answered. "It's Sheppard."

"Well, let them through." Woolsey said.

The shield faded away from the gate, and the miniature army that had been on the Hive stepped through.

"Did you miss me?" Sheppard asked.

"We missed you enough to bring the city here, and risk all our lives with a highly experimental drive." Woolsey bantered.

"I can see that." Sheppard replied. "I woulda had the Hive dead to rights on my own, you know."

"Oh, I know, but we couldn't let you have all the fun, besides, Jackson wanted to be on Atlantis quite a bit. I imagine he'll take up residency here for a while."

"How long?" McKay asked, slightly irritated.

"Until we get the city patched up enough to go back to the Pegasus galaxy." Dr. Woolsey replied. "Well also be hosting Stargate Command for a while, again, until we leave for the Pegasus galaxy."

"Is Saphira all right?" Eragon broke in. He didn't bother waiting for an answer, just dashed up the stairs and onto the balcony before jumping off and gliding down to the deck.

"Right, a deal's a deal." Ajax said. "I'll inform Carter that she's done studying the Phoenix for now. We'll have you back home inside of a week, Aragon."

Turning towards the gate technician, he said "You wouldn't happen to know Chulak's address, would you?"

"Chulak?" she asked.

"Yeah, Teal'c homeworld."

"No, I don't know that one." she replied, still slightly confused.

"Okay." Ajax replied. "I'll just ask Command. I promised I'd get something for Teal'c." He left the room whistling tunelessly.

Ronon winced again, and the group realized that Ronon was still wounded.

"Let's get you to the Infirmary, Chewie." Sheppard said, but Emma overruled him.

"Don't bother, I'll heal him." she said.

Of the others in the room, only the other mermaids understood exactly what she half said, half sang over Ronon. Everyone else just thought it was an exquisite line of poetry from a beautiful poem in a long-dead language.

Woolsey was so moved by the emotion in it that he found himself wiping away tears from his eyes.

"Thanks." Ronon grunted, rolling his shoulders.

"No problem." Emma smiled. "Come on guys, let's go!" she and the other two mermaids left the room, ready to put in some time in the water.

"The IOA will want to debrief you." Woolsey said. "But you may decline the 'invitation' if you wish, Aragon. I understand you want to get home as quickly as possible."

Aragon nodded as if he'd been expecting something like that to come up. "What exactly do you mean by 'decline'?"

"We'll cover for you, saying that you'd already left for the Pegasus Galaxy aboard the Phoenix." Woolsey replied, smiling.

"I see." Aragon replied, amused. "Ah, what the hell. I'll do the debriefing."

Three days later, Aragon was sitting in a meeting room in the SGC with his feet up on the table. Thelduin was on his shoulders, and Dragonforce was playing off of his iPod.

He'd been waiting for nearly five minutes when three arrogant IOA representatives stepped into the room. The door clicked closed with a rather solid clank as the reps sat down.

"Your name?" one of them asked.

Aragon lazily looked in their general direction. "I am Aragon the Grey, Last of the Exiles, the Heretic Inquisitor, Dragon-Tamer, the Savior of Caledor, and many other names besides." he said in a bored tone.

The man's face tightened ever so slightly at Aragon's tone, then relaxed again.

"What was your role in the mission aboard the Hive that was destroyed in orbit over Earth?" he asked.

"I figured that due to the organic nature of the vessel, cutting the support pillars would cut off or slow key systems, not to mention the fact that it would probably ruin structural integrity." came the easy reply.

The third representative finally looked up from her report with an irritated look. "Would you please shut off that shit some people refer to as music?" she asked.

Aragon grinned. "I would, if I were so inclined." he replied. "But I'm not."

She pursed her lips as she formulated a response to that. "My name is Camile Wray." she said. "And I'm in charge of the IOA. Turn off the music, that's an order."

"That's an order," Aragon repeated, pausing briefly before continuing, "that I'd be only too happy to follow if you were my superior."

"Are all these so-called Riders like this?" the second one asked. He was the most even-tempered of the group, and the second in command of the IOA.

"Can be." Aragon replied cheerfully.

The man's only response was a quick raising and lowering of his eyebrows. "Great." he muttered. He made a note in the file.

"Aragon, please detail for us, from beginning to finish, what you did, starting with the moment you traveled via Stargate to the Hive ship and ending with the moment you returned to Atlantis. No embellishment, please."

"You take all the fun out of it." Aragon complained. "Very well. After we exited the Stargate, Dr. McKay tried to pinpoint where the Zero Point Module was located aboard the ship. We were met by several Wraith as I've decided to call them, and we lost Ronon during an engagement against them. After that engagement, I began slicing through pillars in every room we went through.

"We were about halfway there when we heard Sheppard over the radio, asking Colonel Carter of the SGC to tell Atlantis that he said goodbye, he was arming the nuke. McKay told him to stop and that we were headed for his location. We picked up Sheppard, meeting light resistance along the way, then returned to the gate after McKay wired up a remote detonator. Eragon and I finished the hacking job that we were doing, actually cutting pillars out so it wasn't just a slice through it, and then we heard Ronon screaming."

"You said you had lost Ronon during an engagement with the Wraith. You meant dead, right?"

"That is correct." Aragon replied. "A Wraith commander revived him through the feeding ability. Apparently, they've been known to grant immortality to their followers by reverse feeding into them. This can also revive dead people. Ronon had been revived so that the commander could gain the information Ronon had. We went in and Sheppard pretty much tore up the various Wraith standing around with his P-90. We got to the gate, and McKay was busy reconfiguring the gate to accept local coordinates when Carter radioed in, saying that the Hive was powering weapons and we had run out of time. Sheppard was about to fire the detonator when Atlantis showed up, and intercepted the Wraith weapons fire. McKay started to finish his job on the DHD when a large group of Wraith closed down around our position.

"I heaved three plasma grenades, which bought us enough time for McKay to finish what he was doing, dial the gate, and get out after firing the nuke. We landed at what McKay called the Alpha Site, and we waited about ten minutes before dialing Earth again. The gate connected, and stabilized on Atlantis. We went though, Atlantis had survived re-entry, and we all celebrated a job well done."

"Thank you for your co-operation." the man said, standing up. Camile suppressed a reaction to the 'cooperation' part, and also stood. "You may return to Atlantis at your leisure."

Aragon picked up his portable speakers and iPod, then stood as well. He clicked the radio on for several seconds, then let off. "Bye." he said, then disappeared in a flash of transport energy.

"All in favor for not debriefing the others?" Wray asked.

The other two interviewers raised their hands. "It's settled then." she said, closing the file she had on the table.

The two others stood up, and followed the woman out of the room.

"I doubt they'll debrief you." Aragon said, sitting down.

"Oh?" Eragon asked. "Why's that?"

"I might have played around with them a bit." Aragon replied, shrugging and expressing a wry smile. "I don't even feel sorry for them; with that strange scent of bureaucracy all over them."

Aragon…never mind, I doubt I can get you to listen. Thelduin said, lazily looping her way to Aragon's shoulders.

Ajax ambled in, carrying a case. "Well Aragon, you ready to go?"

"I need to get my gear." Aragon said.

"Fine, meet me back here in five." Ajax replied. He vanished in a wide beam of light.

Aragon just twitched his eyebrows, then went to retrieve his gear, leaving Eragon to go upstairs to Woolsey's office.

Ajax returned thirty seconds later, without the case he'd been carrying. After several seconds, he took a seat out of the way of traffic, and waited for Aragon to return.

Aragon appeared with a near silent pop, gear in hand. Ajax stood up lazily. "I assume you're ready to go then?" he asked.

"Yes, I've got everything here with me." Aragon replied.

"Well, we're gonna be waiting for another few moments until Amaranth gets here. I trust most of the people of the Atlantis expedition, but I don't trust a large majority of the people on this planet. I don't want to come back and find her laid open on some table in a lab."

"Understandable." Aragon replied, picturing the image all too well.

"She should be here any moment now." Ajax said. "What's keeping her?"

"If it's something worth detaining a dragon, it's worth checking out." Aragon replied. "Unless you'd rather not?"

Ajax caught the slight sarcasm at the end. "Here she comes." he said, ignoring Aragon's sarcasm.

The door groaned open, allowing for a radiantly beautiful woman to glide through before it closed again. She stood as high as Ajax and was wearing an emerald green dress, with gauzy sleeves that billowed impressively with the slight air currents caused by her forward motion. Her face was regal, even a bit aristocratic, and reminded Ajax somewhat of the elf queen, Islanzadí. The raven black hair that framed her face served to take some of the aristocratic edge off, replacing it with an appearance of gentleness.

Ajax tried to restart his brain, but found it hard to do so until Amaranth's voice broke through the malaise.

"If you're done gaping at my apparent beauty, maybe we can transport to the Phoenix?" she asked.

Ajax clenched his eyes shut for several seconds. "Amaranth?" he asked at last.

"Yes, it's me. Can we go now?" she answered.

Aragon fixed Ajax with a significant glance. "Time isn't standing still, Ajax."

"Right…" Ajax replied, then pulled out the radio. "Ajax to Phoenix. Three for transport."

A moment later, they appeared on the bridge, where Ajax promptly sat down at the Master Control station.

Aragon shook his head. "Still holding on to that odd setup, are you?"

"Yes, I am." Ajax replied. "Makes me damn hard to hit in a firefight…at least, when the ammunition being thrown isn't about the size of a fighter."

"Yes, I know. And even when it is that big, you manage to not get hit." Aragon retorted.

"Yeah, only because I was hiding behind a flying space station." Ajax shot back.

"Flying space station?" Aragon inquired cooly.

"Yeah, DS9 called itself a space station, and your so-called ship was bigger in overall space taken up, and had less open space in it. DS9 had something of a paraframe design." Ajax explained.

"Ok." Aragon said, disinterested.

Ajax took that as a hint that Aragon would rather leave that topic. "Phoenix will show you to your quarters."

"Right this way, if you please." Phoenix said, walking out.

Aragon followed without comment as Ajax punched up the coordinates for Dakara, and swung the ship's blunt nose around to the specified section of space before jumping to hyperspace.

Okay, if anyone wants to take a shot at what might have happened or how, please feel free. I'd love reviews on the subject!

Answers to Readers:

Master of the Blood Wolves: There is much I could have done, but…yeah. I'll try harder with TI.

Forsaken by All: Right.

NinthFeather: CollegeHumor threw Jersey Shore and DBZ together, and I remembered it. I thought it was cool, so I used it. I'm glad you find the quality to be good, the next chapter may end up taking a while.

And now for whatever Avenging Angels might have on the subject.

Well, whatever is gonna happen will definitely be interesting! Can't wait for what happens next. As always, review, Hideout Writer deserves it!