The longest chapter yet I think. Hope you guys like it. It was fun to write.
The next chapter or two might be a bit more relaxed than these past few, just so the characters have a break from near death experiences. Else they might go crazy. That being said, on with the story.
It is, how you say, not mine. But enjoy it anyway.
The Wraith hybrid shoved its way into the room and slowly made its way towards the group. The humans unconsciously backed into the cell. "What now?" Rodney asked.
The hybrid leapt forward with its claws outstretched. Beckett stumbled away, scratch marks on his forearms. "Carson!" Elizabeth cried. A roar behind them reached their ears and the hybrid stopped. They group slowly turned, unsure of what to expect. Elizabeth and Vala's eyes widened in shock.
Dante stood near the middle of the cell, his eyes blazing white. Dark red fur covered a majority of his chest and arms, black lines showing where his tattoos were. His tattoos had extended to the back of his neck and part of his face. Silver claws extended from his fingers and toes. His pendants glinted in the light. A look of panic crossed Rodney's face.
Dante roared again at the other hybrid and leapt in. The blue-gray furred hybrid crashed to the ground. Dante slammed his fists into his opponent's stomach and face, faster than the humans could see. The vampire-lycan hybrid suddenly grabbed his enemy by the throat and viciously snapped his neck. He let out a slow breath and slowly reverted back to his more human form. He turned his head and looked at the humans.
"You guys all right?" he asked.
Rodney opened and closed his mouth, incoherent syllables emitting from his throat as he tried to talk. Dante rolled his eyes and looked at the others.
"I might have a problem," Beckett said, holding his left arm with his right. They all could see the scratch marks on his left arm.
"I might be able to find a cure given time," Janet said.
"Time is something we don't have," Beckett said. "The others changed in less than three hours."
"Then I guess I have a miracle to pull off," she said.
"This has more to do with magic than with science," Dante said.
"What do you mean?" Caldwell asked.
Dante held out his sword pendant. "This pendant is a symbol of my family and is said to protect us. Combine that with these," he said, indicating his tattoos, "and it provides powerful protection from harm."
"But why didn't you return to being a vampire?" Vala asked.
Dante shrugged. "I think the two serums were too closely related for the protection symbols to differentiate from."
"What about Carson?" Elizabeth asked.
"I'm not sure yet," Dante said. "I need to help Sam and the others take care of the remaining Wraith hybrids in here." He turned to Janet. "On my ship in the medical bay there should be a case full of a specific enzyme designed to suppress lycans from changing into their wolf forms. It might stave off the change long enough for us to find a cure," he said.
Janet nodded. "I'm on it."
"Caldwell, make sure she gets there. Vala, I'd like you and Rodney to help me take Carson down to the infirmary. Dante, think you can handle any hybrids on your own?" she asked.
"I'll manage." He looked at Caldwell. "Keep her safe, will you?"
"I will, though I'm sure she'll be protecting me as well," Caldwell said.
"Enough chatting. Let's move people," Elizabeth ordered.
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Dante confidently walked down the hallways of Atlantis, every sense he possessed on alert. He halted at the sounds of footsteps and quickly climbed the nearby wall to the ceiling and hung there, patiently waiting. Within several minutes, Sheppard and his team walked underneath of him. Dante grinned and dropped down from the ceiling in between the two teams. Ronon spun around, gun raised. Teyla and Sheppard were seconds behind him.
Sam merely shook her head and smiled at her brother, glad to have him back. "Nice to see you're back to normal," she said.
"We need to track down the rest of the hybrids ASAP," Dante said.
"Why?" John asked.
"Beckett was scratched by one before I could kill it," Dante answered. "Janet's getting an enzyme that will hopefully stall the change long enough for us to find a cure."
"Well, we managed to take down one hybrid, but it wasn't easy. We had to use a lot of ammo," Cameron said.
"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.
Dante exhaled loudly through his nose, silver claws appearing on his toes and fingers. "One's coming," he said.
"We barely have enough ammo to take another one out," John said.
The hybrid rounded the corner. Dante smiled. "He's mine."
"Are you…" Sam began when Dante took off down the hall. "Mental?" she finished with a shake of her head.
Dante ignored Sam's question and quickly changed into his hybrid form. He slammed into the other hybrid and began punching and clawing it. Dante drove the other hybrid back and slammed it into the wall with enough force for the wall to crack and break. The two hybrids continued to fight, clawing and punching each other.
Dante suddenly ducked his opponent's punch. He swiftly shot to his feet, claws outstretched. The Wraith hybrid was quickly gutted and dropped to the floor, dead. Dante shook blood and fur from his hand as he changed back.
"Nasty," he muttered. He turned as the cocking of a gun met his ears and found himself staring into the barrel of Sam's shotgun.
"What the hell is going on Dante?" she demanded.
He shrugged. "I'm a vampire-lycan hybrid now. Look, I'll explain later. Right now we need to stop the others. Please," he added.
Sam slowly lowered her gun. "Where to now?"
"How many are left?" he asked.
"I don't know," she said.
"The bracer should be able to tap into the main computer of Atlantis and show you the data," Dante said.
Sam shrugged and lifted her left arm. She studied the display for several minutes. "The remaining two are down at the south pier area," she said.
"Let's go," he said. He led the way through the halls, keeping the claws on his hands and feet. They soon made it to southern area of Atlantis. They stopped in a hallway, the sounds of bones crunching and gulping meeting their ears. The stench of decay was overpowering to Sam and Dante.
"Now what? We can't just go in guns blazing," Daniel said.
"Wait here," Dante ordered. He changed into his hybrid form and ran down the walls of the hall towards the other two hybrids. The sounds of fighting reached the humans' ears several seconds later. Two loud yelps of pain met their ears and Dante came back down the hallway, Wraith hybrid blood on his chest and arms.
"Nice," Sam commented, her nose wrinkling in disgust.
Dante made a face. "Sure there aren't anymore?" he asked.
Sam looked down at her bracer. "That's all of them."
"Let's get back then," John said.
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Dante walked into the infirmary, still covered in blood. He passed a table loaded with towels and grabbed on. He began wiping the blood off as he approached Elizabeth and the others. Elizabeth arched a brow in question at the blood but said nothing.
"Just did a quick sweep of the city," Dante said, slightly breathless. "Couldn't smell any hybrids."
Elizabeth nodded. "Thank you for checking so fast," she said.
He shrugged. "Least I can do. How's Beckett?"
"Not so good," Janet said. "He's starting to change, but it's slow."
Dante nodded. "Took me a few days to fully change into one of those things." He glanced down at himself and smiled. "Think I'll shower before I help you."
"Good. You stink," Sam said.
Dante rolled his eyes and left the room. He walked into the showering area of the infirmary and stepped into a stall. He stripped off the remainder of his clothes and tossed them to the side. He turned on the water. Steam began rising from the shower as he began working out sore and stiff muscles from his fights with the hybrids. He turned up the temperature of the water to as hot as he could stand and washed the dried blood and dirt off of his skin. Within twenty minutes he was done. He pulled on a pair of gray sweatpants and a loose white shirt. He picked up his dirty clothing and placed it in a biohazard bin before returning to the infirmary.
"How goes it?" he asked.
"Not so great," Beckett said. "Even with that enzyme, I can feel my body changing. And it doesn't feel all that great."
"The enzyme only suppresses the lycan part of the problem. We need something that can suppress the Wraith part as well," Dante said.
"What about the vampire part?" Rodney asked.
Dante shook his head. "Vampires and Wraith are closely related enough that one serum will work on the other."
"What about the retrovirus?" Teyla asked.
"Retrovirus?" Janet asked.
"It's something we developed to combat the Wraith. It suppresses the Wraith genes and turns them into humans," Elizabeth said.
"It's still being perfected though," Beckett said with a wince.
"Interesting…" Dante murmured, looking at the charts of the personnel who had changed into hybrids.
"What?" Daniel asked.
"The people who changed the quickest were ones who only had some Ancient DNA or genes in them," the hybrid said.
"What about you though?" Caldwell asked. "Aren't you an Ancient?"
"Yes, but I'm a pure Ancient," Dante said. "The others only have some of the Ancient genetic code within them."
"So what does that mean?" Vala asked.
"Beckett doesn't have long," John answered.
"Let me see the retrovirus," Janet ordered. Teyla handed Janet a vial from a storage container and the doctor placed a small amount of the liquid on a slide. She then placed some of Beckett's infected blood on the slide and placed it under a microscope. After several minutes she sat back, a thoughtful expression on her face.
"What is it?" Sam asked.
"The retrovirus doesn't permanently change a Wraith into a human," John said.
"Dante, give me the lycan enzyme," Janet said. She took the enzyme and placed some of it on a slide.
"What are you doing?" Daniel asked.
"I have an idea," she said. She took some of the retrovirus and placed it on the slide as well and looked at the results. With faint traces of a smile, she took some of Beckett's infected blood and added it to the two serums. She peered into the microscope. A huge smile broke out on her face.
"You did it," Sam stated.
Janet nodded. "The lycan, vampire, and Wraith genes are all being destroyed."
Dante looked into the microscope. "And so are the human cells," he said.
"What?" Janet demanded. She pushed Dante out of the way and looked. "Damn it!" she snapped.
Dante looked down at his necklace. He pulled it off and pierced his skin with it. "What are you doing?" Ronon demanded. Dante ignored them and placed the pendant with his blood on the slide. After several moments he removed it and looked. He pulled away, his face unreadable.
Janet looked in and started laughing. "I don't know how, but that did it. The human cells are healthy and there are no traces of any other genetic material."
"How is that possible?" Rodney demanded.
"Magic," Dante said. Beckett grunted in pain. "We don't have much time," Dante said, looking at the Scottish doctor.
Janet nodded and quickly combined the retrovirus with the enzyme. Dante then dipped his blood tipped pendant in the mixture and it turned clear blue. He pulled it out and Janet placed the contents into a syringe. She turned to Beckett only to find herself facing a large Wraith hybrid.
Dante tackled the Beckett hybrid to the ground and held him down face first. He wrapped his legs around the blue-gray furred figure, trapping an arm. He grabbed Beckett's left arm with his own and twisted it against Beckett's back. Dante then used his right hand to wrench Beckett's head to the side, exposing his carotid artery. During the takedown, Dante had reverted to his hybrid form.
Janet swooped in and, after making sure there was no air in the syringe, she plunged the needle into Beckett's artery. She slammed the plunger all the way down, emptying the syringe. She pulled the needle out and backed away. SG-1 and Sheppard's team had their weapons trained on the infected doctor.
Dante felt Beckett weakening and cautiously released him, returning to his normal form. The vampire-lycan hybrid rose to his feet, his muscles still tense. "How long?" he asked Janet.
The petite doctor shook her head. "I have no idea."
"Restrain him to a bed and keep at least four guards on him if you're not in the room Dante," Elizabeth ordered. She turned to Caldwell. "Start bringing the personnel back, but bring the military personnel back first."
The Colonel nodded. "Yes ma'am." He turned and left the room.
Elizabeth watched as Dante picked Beckett up and set him down on a bed. Ronon and Teyla strapped the Scotsman to the bed. Everyone seemed to be standing around, not wanting to leave their friend's side.
"Try to get some rest if you can," she said.
"Why don't we let Sheppard and his pals take first watch?" Cameron suggested. The rest of SG-1, along with Janet and Dante and Vala, nodded and left the room. They headed for the cafeteria since it was close by.
Will Beckett be okay? He better be. He's one of the four people I like on Stargate: Atlantis (the other three being Weir, Ronon, and Teyla). But for this story, that decision is ultimately up to Elphie Muse and Muse/ViH. So, until the next update, review please! Reviews make the muses happy and they let me write longer chapters :hinthint: So just click the little review button. Reviews can take as short as ten seconds or something like that.
