Chapter 18:The Face Off
For Colonel Sheppard, his team, and anyone else involved in the hunt for Edana, the next few hours were pure grief. They were able to track her on the sensors, but whenever they got close to her she'd phase through the wall or ceiling and escape. McKay and Zelenka were busy tweaking every stunner they had to emit a high voltage blast. And through all this, Lorne and Lexa slept peacefully down in the Infirmary under Beckett's every watchful eye. At one point Sheppard radioed to Beckett asking if it was possible for Alexa to leave the Infirmary and assist in any way. She had shared her mind with Edana, and he hoped she'd know something they could do. But to his dismay, Carson informed him that she was free to go, but that she had stayed and was sleeping. Of course, he had left out the part where she was sleeping all snuggled up with Lorne.
Just after dusk Alexa awoke and was starving. For a moment longer she lay with her head rested on his shoulder, debating whether or not to get up. Finally she realized that he'd be hungry too, so she decided to go grab some food from the Mess and bring it back here. Slowly she pulled up out of their embrace, being sure not to wake him. She gently kissed his cheek and began to walk to the door, but was stopped by the sound of Carson's voice, "And where are you off to?"
"Food, I'm starved. Mind if I bring some back for Marc?" Ah, Lexa's tongue didn't slip, she just gave into the fact that the senior staff knew what was going on between them.
"No, that's fine, but you need an escort. Oh, and Colonel Sheppard would like to speak with you about our, uh, intruder," Carson informed her of the Colonel's request.
Alexa sighed, for she wasn't in the mood to deal with this. "Right, of course he does." The SO moved to go with her, "No, stay here Sergeant. I can handle myself, just give me that." Lexa wasn't about to leave Marc unprotected. The SO gave her a hand-held stunner, which she tucked in the small of her back, and she left for the control room. The closer she got to Stargate Ops, the fewer people she saw, so she figured Weir had order a curfew to keep them out of the way of the search. Beckett had radioed Sheppard that Alexa was on her way, so he too made his way to the control room. Ironically they entered at the same time from opposite sides and continued up to Weir's office.
"So, Captain, any ideas on how to catch this thing," Sheppard asked hopefully.
Lexa still felt some sympathy for Edana, even after what she had done, "She's not a thing, she's an Ancient, and her name is Edana." She received a surprised stare from them both and sighed. "Honestly sir, I think we should just let things be, let her make a move. I can guarantee she'll try possession again. The good news is she can only possess those with a powerful, naturally occurring ATA gene, so that severely limits possible hosts."
"Oh great, not only do I have to worry about catching it," Sheppard received a foul stare from the Captain, "uh, her, but now I have to worry about getting possessed."
"I doubt it Colonel. She wants to live again, so I'm pretty sure she'll be going for a female host," Lexa pointed out with a smirk.
"Well that limits things even more," Weir concurred.
"Yes ma'am, and other than that, I'm not sure how much more help I can be. So if you'll excuse me, I'm famished."
Weir stopped Lexa as she took a step towards the door, "And just where do you think you're going? Alone?"
Sheppard laughed. "Um, I think she was unconscious for that announcement. You're headed to the Mess?"
Lexa nodded, "Yes sir, just to grab a few things to take back to the Infirmary."
"Well I'll gladly be your escort Captain. Lorne will never forgive me if I let you go alone." Sheppard smiled as he accompanied her out the door.
They made there way through the now empty corridors of Atlantis, keeping an eye out for Edana, neither one of them saying a word until Colonel Sheppard picked up a fast moving blip on the life signs detector, "Looks like we're getting company." Sheppard readied his stunner as Lexa pulled the hand-held out from her back and did the same. There eyes shifted back and forth between the life signs detector and the empty corridor in front of them, as they waited for Edana to appear.
"Lexa." A ghastly voice echoed behind them, they turned to see nothing. "Lexa." Again the ghoulish voice echoed through out the corridor with no sign of Edana. Without knowing where she would strike from they took positions facing away from each other. "Boo!" Edana phased down from the ceiling between them and sent them both flying. Colonel Sheppard hit the wall while Alexa went tumbling down the hall. She pushed herself half up and looked towards Sheppard, "Colonel?" She received no response. As she climbed to her feet she glared at Edana, "Just you and me then, seems fair enough. But this time, we're on my turf."
Down in the Infirmary Beckett was checking on Lorne's bandages. His eyes opened and he flew up, "Doc, where's Lexa?"
"Not to worry Lad, she's gone to talk with Colonel Sheppard, and she'll be returning with some food," Carson replied.
"No, she won't." Lorne jumped out of bed and began changing back into his uniform.
"Major, please sit back down. That's a nasty laceration you've got there and you need your rest," Beckett tried coaxing Lorne out of what ever he was planning to do.
It was pointless, Lorne continued, putting on his vest and holster, but as he walked to the door he was stopped by the SO. "Stand down Sergeant."
"Major, I can't allow you to leave," Carson offered apologetically.
"Look Doc, I can't explain it, but Lexa's in trouble and I need to go." After seeing them together earlier Carson just couldn't say no. He nodded to the SO who moved out of the Majors way, and Lorne jogged out of the Infirmary.
Back in the dark hallway Lexa and Edana prepared to face of. "I beg to differ," Edana countered Alexa's previous statement while she ran towards the Captain. As she ran into her she pulled Alexa out and her body fell to the floor.
Alexa now stood as an astral body herself, but unlike Edana she radiated in shades of blue. "What the hell did you do to me?" She received only a smirk from Edana and then they began to fight. They were pretty much evenly matched, for every shot one threw the other blocked, and this continued for several minutes.
Major Lorne rushed through Atlantis trying to get to Alexa in time. His dream, or perhaps maybe premonition, had shown him what Edana was going to do and he knew exactly where he needed to be. As he raced down the final corridor he saw Colonel Sheppard lying in the corner with moving lights coming from around the bend. He reached down to check on his CO, make sure he was still alive, then turned around to find Lexa's lifeless body.
As Lexa fought she noticed Lorne enter the hallway, and she gathered everything in her to knock Edana back. She swung a Tornado kick and threw Edana through the wall into another room. As Lexa turned back to Lorne he was sliding across the floor over to her body. She spoke as she went over to him, "Don't worry I'm alright, well, sort of."
As he checked for a pulse he heard her voice and looked up to see a bright blue glowing Alexa, he was too late to stop his dream from becoming reality. "And how exactly is this alright?"
"Well, um, it's gonna be alright."
"Look out," Lorne yelled as he saw Edana come back through the wall.
Alexa turned around in the nick of time to almost miss a flaming bolt thrown at her by Edana. The bolt grazed her cheek, but as an astral being the wound healed almost immediately. Lorne was too distracted by the fight continuing on in front of him to notice the abrasion that appeared on Lexa's cheek or that Colonel Sheppard was coming to. It seemed that as Lexa's astral self healed, her body took up the injury.
Colonel Sheppard slowly opened his eyes to the light battle taking place a few feet away. After a moment or two he had collected himself and could now see that thee were two beings facing off and that one of them was Alexa. He quickly made up a plan, and with Alexa between him and Edana he knew what he would have to do. He grabbed the stunner and jumped to his feet, "Captain duck!" He shot the stunner at the spectacle of lights.
Alexa turned around and threw up her hands in protest. At that moment Edana threw a flaming bolt through her left shoulder, as Lexa yelled "Colonel, no!" and grimaced with pain. As her wound quickly healed she turned back around to Edana her hands still up. The blast from the stunner circled around Alexa and into Edana. As Lexa realized the power to move things was her own Edana fell to the ground. She heard Colonel Sheppard behind her radioing to McKay, but she kept her eyes on Edana, until she heard an "Oh no," out of Lorne.