"Deri." She said, looking at the general through the sheet of blue. "What happened?"

"You had a reaction to the medication. I'm so sorry Maia, I didn't know."

"There was no way you could know." Her voice was tired, but calm. "We're in the city, aren't we?"

"Yes. It was actually Liu that convinced me to bring you here. It was the only way to save you."

"It's alright." She said softly, "Thank you, for saving me."

"I'm afraid I can't take the credit." He punched a few buttons on the control panel, and the sheet of blue dissolved. Very slowly she sat up, and rubbed her neck with one hand.

Another man stood beside Deri. He was shorter, slightly older, and smiling. "I'll take the credit." He said, and bowed very slightly, "and you're welcome."

"Maia, this is Morai. He's one of the leading scientists on Atlantis, and he designed the device that saved you."

He held out his hand, and she took it. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Deri's told me about you…and Liu." He looked as if he might kiss her hand, but she pulled it away.

"Liu! Where is she?"

Deri looked away from her.

"What? What is it?"

He turned back, but would not meet her eyes. "Liu decided to give herself over to the scientists for study. She told me she thought you'd both be safer if she was confined."

"There's no need to worry." Morai added, "I'm the one in charge of the project, and I promise that no harm will come to her. You can rest assured, in fact, you'd better rest."

"No, I want to see her." She dropped to the floor and swayed on the spot. They both reached out to catch her, but she glared at Deri and tore out of his grip. "I'm going to see my daughter." She stood unsteadily and stormed out of the room.

Deri turned to go after her, but Morai stopped him. "Hey, give her a couple minutes to cool off."

"Another brilliant pearl of wisdom from your third wife?"

"Forth." He said with a smirk. Suddenly his face grew sober. "I promise that I won't let any harm come to Liu. But she won't believe me if I tell her myself."

Deri nodded, and slowly left the room. He walked though the corridors at an easy pace, remembering what his friend had said about giving Maia space. But eventually he made it to the lab where Liu was being kept, and he found Maia arguing with the armed guard at the entrance.

"She is my daughter, and I demand that you release her to me at once."

"Ma'am, my orders are to let no one inside." He shifted his firearm ominously.

Maia shoved her finger into his face. "Do you think you can frighten me with that? Do you have any idea…" Suddenly she trailed off and her hand went slack. Her knees went out, but Deri was there to catch her. "Maia, listen to me. Morai will be sure that no harm comes to Liu."

"And you trust him?"

His clouded green eyes were unfailing. "With my life." He put one of her arms around his shoulders and held her tight by the waist. "Come on, I want to show you something."

"I want to see Liu." She said softly.

"Well, it looks like you're too week to argue. Let's go."

Elizabeth woke, still on the bed in the newly discovered medical lab. "How long have I been asleep?" she asked.

"Only an hour." Rodney said.

She sat up and saw him walking towards her. "You've been here the whole time?"

"Yeah, I've been checking out some of the equipment here. It looks like amazing stuff, not that I can really tell what it does, and I can't get any of it to work."

"Funny, your gene therapy should allow you to operate anything on the base."

"Tell that to this thing." He tapped at the control panel, which refused to light up. "Damn." He whispered.

Dr. Beckett rushed into the room with John close behind. "Dr. Weir," he said hurriedly, "I'm glad your up. Are you feeling better?"

"I'm fine Carson. Is something wrong?"

"No, well maybe, maybe not. Possibly."

"The doctor says my DNA's screwed up." John said, crossing his arms. He stopped a foot away from the device and it hummed to life.

Rodney threw up his hands in frustration.

"Oops." John said flatly.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I've been running some tests on Major Sheppard, and I found something very odd in his genetic make-up. Major, your DNA has—mutated."

John looked puzzled. "Like the X-men?"

"No, not like that. You had normal human genes before, but now, they have a structure similar to the Ancient gene. All of them

Rodney spoke up. "That sounds a lot like X-Men to me." John rolled his eyes. "Well, not like I would know, I mean I don't—"

"Quiet Rodney." John muttered.

"It must have something to do with this—this—thing you've been going through. I suspect if I examined you Elizabeth, I'd find the same thing."

"Find what Carson?"

"John, and you too, don't just have the ancient genes. You—are ancient."

Sorry about the little unplanned hiatus. I had a couple of really late nights. Last night I saw Wicked. It was awsome.

Anyway, thanks for sticking with me. Enjoy!

Eveie