"Take him back to Atlantis?" Sheppard asked.

Mitchell shrugged, but Rodney interrupted.

"We can't take him back to Atlantis."

They all looked at him, and Melony opened her mouth to reply, but it was Ford who asked the question.

"Why not?"

"Because if he's really carrying a transmitter, then we can't risk him bringing the Wraith to Atlantis with him."

"I thought the Wraith were gone?" Dex asked. He, of course, hadn't said he was going to go anywhere – and wouldn't without hearing more – but he couldn't help but be hopeful at the idea of finally ridding himself of the tracking device.

"They are gone," Sheppard said, scowling at Rodney – and fairly certain that wasn't really the reason the astrophysicist didn't want to take Dex back to Atlantis. "And there's not enough of them to do anything to Atlantis – even if the place was abandoned."

"Which it is not," Teyla said. "Between my people and yours, the Wraith can do nothing – even if they could somehow manage to follow Ronon Dex to Atlantis."

"But they won't follow him there," Mitchell said. "Not if they're following the transmitter."

"What do you mean?" Rodney asked.

Melony looked at Ford, who had already figured it out.

"Lieutenant?"

"We put the transmitter somewhere else once it's out of his back?"

"Exactly."

"Someplace nasty," Sheppard said, nodding his agreement with the plan.

"Even better," Melony said, "We can use that transmitter to get what Wraith have escaped the initial ambush."

Excellent idea, Hot Shot!

Talon couldn't have thought of a better plan himself – and he had had a lot more practice at it.

"You mean ambushes?" Sheppard asked.

Melony nodded.

"Why not?"

"Ambush the Wraith?" Dex asked.

"Yes."

"Using the device in my back?"

"Yes."

"Rather poetic, isn't it?" Sheppard asked, grinning.

"Poetic?" Dex repeated, uncertain what he meant.

"Well, the Wraith have been chasing you for years, right? Using that thing they put in you to follow you around trying to kill you. Now you're going to use that thing against them."

"To kill them?" Dex asked Melony – since she was the one who'd brought up the idea.

She nodded.

"Yes."

"I knew there was a reason I didn't shoot you when I first met you."

Melony smiled.

"There is; I shot your gun out of your hand."

Dex grinned as well.

"You know, it's always possible that Carson won't be able to get the transmitter out of him," Rodney said, the meat in his hand ignored for a moment.

"Carson?"

"The doctor who's going to get that thing out of you," Ford explained. "And if he can't do it, then no one can."

"Which won't change anything, really," Melony said. "We just take Specialist Dex with us on the ambushes."

"Use him for bait?" Teyla asked, uncertain if that was really a good thing to do.

"I would go at any rate," Ronon told them, looking at all of them. "I owe the Wraith for what they have done. To me, and to my world."

Melony nodded. She knew all about the need for vengeance. More than most, for that matter.

"Well, it'd be better if we got that thing out of you," Sheppard said, standing up. He had been sitting far too long already and was more than ready to head back to the gate. "So that should be the first order of business."

Everyone else stood as well, although Rodney grabbed up the skewer he'd been holding.

"We need to warn the villagers, also," Melony said, looking around the camp. "They need to know about the whatever it is that's running around these woods."

"We must help them," Teyla said quickly.

"We will," she said. "But I have a team returning to the forest to back us up, and I can't run the risk of them running into that thing while they're looking for us. We'll return with more people – and some Jaffa trackers – and then we can deal with that thing."

Sheppard looked around the camp as well, and then at Dex.

"Can we have our weapons back?"

"I left them where I captured you."

"What? Why would you do that?"

"Because they didn't look like anything I wanted, and I didn't want them to be used against me if you somehow managed to escape."

"Which you didn't," Rodney said, with just a little smugness. Not like he had anything to do with Dex keeping the away team captured, but he couldn't help but be amused that it had happened – at least, now that they were safe.

Sheppard scowled.

"Yet."

Amused, but doing a fine job of hiding it, Melony turned to Ronon.

"Where are they?" She asked. "We should probably get them before we go."

Especially since Sheppard and Ford both carried zats, which Melony wasn't prepared to hand out to some unknown villager who might happen upon and accidentally use to disintegrate a fellow villager.

Dex pointed in the opposite direction they'd emerged from the bushes.

"Not far."

"We'll need our radios, too," Ford said, feeling a little foolish, and scowling at McKay for pointing out how easily they'd been caught.

"You left them as well?" Teyla asked. She didn't feel foolish at all. It was obvious Dex was a fine warrior, and there was no shame in being captured by a warrior. It wasn't like it was McKay who had caught them, after all.

Dex shook his head and ducked into the small covered shelter, emerging with a handful of equipment; radios, packs and even foodstuffs. As he handed them over, he looked at Teyla.

"I just turned them off."