Evan was back to crawling through the ventilation tunnels. As expected, McKay hadn't been thrilled about his plan, especially the part about acting as bait, but he was as desperate for this all to be over as Evan was, and so had begrudgingly agreed that it was the best way for him to get into Ops and for Evan to get to Hans. After a quick stop at the warehouse, the two had gone their separate ways; McKay to turn himself in and Evan to figure out a way to get into the gate room unseen.

"Hello, Hans," Evan heard over the city-wide radio. "This is Doctor McKay. You know, the guy you held at gunpoint earlier." He paused for a long moment before adding hastily. "You can push the red button on the main control console to talk through Atlantis' radio."

"Doctor McKay," came the reply a moment later. "I knew you would return."

"Yes, well, we would still appreciate you getting out of our city," McKay said.

"I assume the other Lantean is with you?"

"He's… around. Listen, the reason I'm calling is because I want to make a deal with you. Obviously we're a little outnumbered here, which puts us at a bit of a disadvantage. In light of that, I'm willing to give you the device you want, and in exchange, you promise to leave."

There was a laugh before Hans responded. "Ah, Doctor McKay, you wish to negotiate. Not as suicidal as your friend, are you? But why would I agree to leave when I currently control the city?"

"Look, Hans, we're not idiots. You already know that I took back control of most of the city's functions. Including self-destruct. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the idea of blowing us all to hell, but like you said, my friend is a little more suicidal than me. He's prepared to start the countdown if you don't leave."

A pause. "Lies. You would not destroy Atlantis."

"You would know if I was lying. I'm not good at it."

"Then why give us the device?"

"As a show of good faith, so you'll give us our people back. You said before you have no grudge against us. Well, we don't much care about you or your device. We just want our people back safely, and we want you to get out of here and never come back."

Another long pause. "We accept your terms. Bring the device to the gate room. Come unarmed. Once we ensure that it is what we are looking for, we will leave and return your people to you."

"You're not very good at lying either, are you Hans?" Evan murmured to himself as he continued his journey toward the gate room.

By the time he snuck up in the vent under the staircase leading from the gate room to Ops, he could already hear McKay's voice echoing in the room, even though he couldn't see anything. Settling down to wait for the signal, he tried to make out the conversation, hoping this whole thing didn't go sideways. It all hinged on McKay's ability to convince the bad guys he had the device they were looking for long enough for him to turn it on, which would hopefully cause the distraction needed for Evan to get the jump on all the soldiers in the gate room and somehow nab Hans…

He took a deep breath, pushing aside all the ways this could go wrong. It was going to work.

He could hear McKay saying something about the device being in the box, and that he would be happy to demonstrate it for them to prove it was the real deal. Of course, the device they'd chosen as the decoy didn't actually do anything other than make an obnoxiously loud sound. Evan supposed maybe the Ancients had used it to give each other headaches, since that was about the only use they'd managed to find for the thing. But for now, he hoped it would have the same effect as blasting an air horn in a quiet room.

The talking got quieter as they went up the stairs into Ops, McKay complaining of being escorted more roughly than was necessary. Evan tensed, waiting anxiously for the signal...

The ear-splitting screech from the device went off a moment later, and Evan popped out from his hiding spot, gun raised and already shooting at the soldiers guarding the gate. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw McKay ducking behind the control panel in Ops, and heard the doors to the room slide shut. Good. They wouldn't be getting any reinforcements.

"Stop them!" Hans shouted over the awful noise as his guards immediately began herding him away.

Evan took cover next to the stairs as energy bolts began to fly in his direction. He spotted four shooters, and with dismay realized that two of them were Eaton and Clarke. So they weren't staring at the wall anymore. They got off a couple more shots, but their aim was a lot worse than the alien soldiers, which made Evan wonder if they were somehow subconsciously fighting the hypnosis.

Whether or not they were under complete control, they were in the way of him getting to Hans, which wouldn't do, so Evan took a second to hope his weapon was set to stun (he was pretty sure it was) and took them both down. That left two aliens by the gate, plus two more that were covering Hans' escape.

He couldn't get a good angle from where he was to take out the guys near the gate, so he rolled across the exposed floor to hide behind a corner. He picked off one before a shot from behind warned him that he was exposed to the guards that had gone with Hans, who it seemed had set up their defensive line having no where else to go. Evan scrambled back further so they couldn't get a clear shot at him, hoping McKay could deal with the last soldier by the gate. His priority was Hans.

They'd pushed their commander back into a strategic corner, impossible to get to without going through the guards, who had better cover than he did. He managed to graze one of them, making the man's arm flop uselessly, but in the process, the other one managed to hit Evan's weapon, sending a stinging jolt through his hands and making him drop his gun. He slumped back behind the wall at the same time the shrieking sound finally stopped, grimacing at the tingling sensation shooting up his arms, and opened and closed his hands to make sure they still worked.

"I got him, Commander," the guard said, making Evan freeze.

"Did you kill him?" Hans asked.

"I only stunned him."

Hans grunted. "Make sure the other one is neutralized. I'll take care of this one myself. Shoot him in the head as I should have done before."

"Yes, sir."

Forcing himself to go limp, Evan closed his eyes and listened as the guard's footsteps jogged past. At least he knew McKay was still up there since he must have been the one to turn off the screaming device, and from his observations earlier, Evan knew he could handle himself in a fight. Hopefully he'd had the sense to grab a weapon off one of the stunned soldiers.

Another set of boots came closer, stopping in front of him, and then a relieved chuckle. "A shame you cannot look me in the eye before I take your life," Hans said, and Evan heard the sound of his weapon charging.

He jumped into action, launching himself at Hans and tackling him to the ground. The alien commander yelped in surprise, but recovered quickly, catching Evan in the ribs with a knee and nearly knocking him to the ground. But Evan was determined, headbutting him with enough force to stun him long enough to wrangle the rifle out of his hands. Hauling him up by the collar of his shirt, Evan threw his arm around Hans' neck and shoved the gun in his temple.

"Don't," he told the soldiers running back to help their commander. "Drop your weapons, or I swear I'll blow his head off."

They hesitated for only a moment before lowering their guns to the floor and holding their hands up in surrender.

Hans had gone still in his grasp, his own hands up and trembling slightly. Not so tough now that he was the one in the line of fire. "Tell your men to surrender. All of them. Now," Evan ordered, motioning toward his radio.

"I will not," Hans snarled, the blood leaking from his nose turning his teeth red.

Evan tightened his grip on the gun. He was tired, sore, and sick, and he really just wanted this bullshit to be over. "I'm in no mood, Hans," he hissed. "You call them now and I'll let you all leave in one piece. Otherwise, I shoot you and then I take out all of them, too. And don't tell me I can't do it. You've already seen that I can."

His threat must have sounded sincere, because Hans reached slowly for the radio clipped to his breast pocket. "All troops, be advised, this is your commanding officer. We are surrendering the city back to the Lanteans and returning to Uliruah."

"Good," Evan said. "Now, walk."

He led his hostage out from the corner and into the center of the gate room, right past the guards. They watched him darkly, waiting for him to make a wrong move so they could rescue their commander.

He wasn't going to let that happen. "McKay," he called, "get over here."

McKay, who had procured a weapon and was holding it on the computer lady, looked around in confusion, like maybe he was talking to someone else. "What do you—"

"Get over here," Evan repeated, shooting him a look. "I need you to tie his hands."

"Oh." McKay glanced at the woman, who wasn't going anywhere now that her commander was being held at gunpoint, and lowered his gun. Walking down the stairs, he smiled smugly at the soldiers before stopping next to Evan. He looked around, the smile disappearing. "Do you have any rope?"

Evan narrowed his eyes at the scientist. "Does it look like I have rope?" he asked.

McKay bit back what Evan was sure would have been an insult (which was probably the closest thing to a "thanks for saving Atlantis" he was going to get from him) and instead began searching for something to use as handcuffs, mumbling grumpily to himself. "Try Eaton," Evan suggested. "He probably has zip ties in his vest."

"I knew that," McKay said, turning back toward where the lieutenant lay unconscious on the floor. Out of the corner of his eye, Evan saw one of the aliens shift his weight when McKay passed him. There was his wannabe hero.

"Hey!" he barked toward the soldier, who froze immediately, eyes snapping back to where Evan was shoving the gun in the side of Hans' head. McKay spun around as well to see why he was being yelled at. "I said no funny business, or your commander here is toast."

"Stand down, Tarhale," Hans ordered, and the soldier relaxed reluctantly.

Realizing that the soldier had been thinking of attacking him, McKay watched him dubiously as he searched Eaton's pockets for the zip ties and then hurried back toward Evan.

"I underestimated you, Lantean," Hans said as McKay slipped the zip ties over his wrists and pulled them tight. "You have proved to be a worthy adversary."

"Yeah?" Evan answered, finally feeling like the end of this was in sight, which meant the exhaustion and pain from the last however many hours were all hitting him in full force. "Well, yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker."

McKay blinked and then his face broke into sudden understanding. "Oh, Hans Gruber. Die Hard. I get it." He frowned and looked at Evan like he was an idiot. "Really?"

Evan ignored him, a slow grin spreading across his face. It wasn't quite over yet, but he felt safe to call this a victory.

Whew, it's almost over...