Teta Prime
Written By: The Ascended Ancient
Chapter VIII: "Retaliation"

In the reactor room of the Ancient city on Teta Prime, Colonel John Sheppard dives behind the Z.P.M. reactor for cover as an unknown life form races towards him on his life-signs detector. He shuts the device off to keep it quiet and waits, the newly-found Ancient weapon gripped tightly in his hands. He peeks around the side of the reactor in time to see a Wraith go running right past him. The colonel's brow furrows. Why would a Wraith be running that fast if it wasn't in pursuit of a prey.

Sheppard's eyes widen as he realizes that there may be Ancients alive in the city. Not wanting to wait, he bolts from his hiding place and follows the Wraith. John keeps his distance, using primarily the life-signs detector to track it. After many twists and turns, the colonel is led to the opening into a science lab. Pressing himself against the wall, Sheppard peaks in, and his eyes widen at what he sees.

There are three Wraith in the room. Two of them are lying on tables while a third injects them with a drug.

"How much longer do we have to do this?" one of the Wraith on the tables asks.

"Only another seven days," the Wraith giving him the injection replies. "Then we'll be the future of our race."

"We'll return to our kind," the third Wraith says, "and they will have no choice but to accept us."

Realizing he's seen enough, Sheppard turns away from the sight in the lab and runs away.

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They're doing some sort of gene therapy to themselves, Sheppard thought as he returned to the reactor room. It was the only explanation to what he had seen. After all, gene therapy wasn't that difficult. Doctor Beckett had done it on a lot of personnel on Atlantis to give them the Ancient Technology Activation gene, allowing these people to use certain sensitive pieces of technology.

Now that he knew why the Wraith were here, what was he going to do about it. On one hand, the three Wraith he'd just seen were the most Wraith he'd ever seen at one time during his month on Teta Prime. It could be that they were all who were left.

In the end, Sheppard decides that he has no choice. Genetically enhanced Wraith were a threat to the whole galaxy. He had to try and take them out.

But how? Sheppard wonders. These Wraith have taken a full clip of P-90 bullets to the chest and were barely slowed by it. How could he kill them?

Before he had time to finish pondering that question, the life signs detector started to beep. Acting quickly, Sheppard shuts it off and puts it away. Hiding behind the Z.P.M. reactor again, he hoped the Wraith would just walk by.

Five minutes passed, then ten. Finally, Sheppard decided that the Wraith had definitely gone past him by now. He stands up... and finds himself inches away from a smiling Wraith.

End of Chapter VIII

Author's Note: Uh oh, Sheppard's in trouble. Will he survive? Can he take out those three Wraith? Find out in "Escape", Chapter IX of Teta Prime.

Additional Note: I know it's kind of weird for Wraith to be talking to each other like that, but I needed some way for Sheppard to get the final pieces of the puzzle as to what was happening on Teta Prime.