SUMMARY: Two times Teyla - tricky!
Genes In A Twist - Part Three
If Elizabeth was shocked at the transformation of the men she knew, the appearance of Teyla through the Stargate - again - was even more shocking.
The marines had their weapons up and pointed at the woman before she'd taken more than two steps into the city. As she saw the weapons rise, Teyla dropped the items she'd been carrying, lifting her hands to show she wasn't a threat, and lifting her eyes to Elizabeth's balcony in wary question. "Dr. Weir?"
"Teyla?" Elizabeth rested her hands on the metal railing for balance, staring down at the figure on the floor. She hurried down to the Gateroom floor. "Teyla?"
This Teyla looked considerably the worse for wear; her hair roughly tied back, her skin smudged with dirt and her fatigues loose and grubby. But the steady gaze that looked back at Elizabeth was very familiar. "Is there something wrong, Dr. Weir?"
"Where--?" Elizabeth caught herself. Until now, she'd thought the three women really were the Colonel, Rodney, and Ronon. They'd certainly behaved enough like them, and she had been seeing faint glimpses of the men they'd been yesterday in the women they were today.
"I do not know where Colonel Sheppard and the others are," Teyla said immediately. "We were exploring the ruins in the afternoon, when there was a flash of light. When I woke I was alone and judged it to be morning." She indicated the things she'd dropped on the floor - two flak vests and assorted weaponry. "I did not see what happened to them, but it has taken me most of the day to release my bonds. I searched the ruins but could find no sign of them but for their equipment."
Her wrists were red and chafed, rubbed raw from the struggle, and there was a note of desperation in Teyla's voice - if it even was Teyla.
Whoever this person was - whether Teyla or someone else - they were exhausted. Even as Elizabeth watched, the woman swayed slightly.
"Get her to the infirmary," she said. "We'll sort this out there."
Teyla wasn't a fool. Even if she didn't understand all the nuances of Earth culture, she was sharp enough to realise that something wasn't quite right. Rather than moving off with the marines, she regarded Elizabeth. "Dr. Weir, has there been trouble in my absence?"
"Not exactly. Teyla, please go to the infirmary and we'll sort it out."
The other woman didn't move. "And four marines are necessary to escort me there?"
Elizabeth could understand the slightly tense note in Teyla's voice. It wasn't the first time the Athosian woman had been under suspicion, although the intervening years had established her as one of the expedition. "It's a precaution, Teyla. You'll understand when you see Carson."
She wasn't so sure the other woman believed her, but Teyla lifted her chin and walked ahead of the marines, dignified as any queen.
One of the marines scooped up the dropped flak jackets as she contacted Carson. It was convenient that three of their 'mystery people' were still with him - but the absence of the other Teyla was worrying. She sent some spare marines to scour the city, looking for Teyla - another Teyla that was wandering the city, then went back to her conversation with Carson. "Is there any quick test that you can perform on her to prove she is who she says she is?"
"I--" Carson hesitated. "We're just waiting for the DNA results to come back - but, Elizabeth, if this is what I suspect it won't make a difference."
She wanted to ask what he suspected right there and then. She held off. Why make him go through it twice? "I'm about to call Lorne and his team to keep an eye on things in the infirmary, and I'm heading there myself."
"All right. The PCR is done, Nurse Corell is setting up the charts - in another fifteen minutes we'll have some of our answers."
"But not the important one." Not the solution to the problem.
"No," said Carson.
Lorne and his team intercepted Teyla and the marines in one of the side corridors, so when Elizabeth got to the infirmary, the section where Carson was working was...crowded.
She dismissed the marines and closed the doors. They hissed shut behind her, sealing her in with Carson, Teyla, the sex-changed trio, one white-haired aide, and Major Lorne and his team.
Teyla was sitting on one of the gurneys, staring warily at female-John, who'd come up beside her as Carson examined her wrists. John - or Johanna - was staring warily back.
"Rope?" Carson asked.
"From our packs," she said, dragging her gaze from John's. "And well-tied. It took me some time to find the knife with which to cut them." As he let go of her wrists, she stepped carefully away from John, clearly disturbed by the lack of personal space that was being granted her. "It hurts a little when it is touched."
"It should heal clean," Carson said. "But I'd like to get some antiseptic cream on them." He turned away and began rummaging in a nearby drawer.
Teyla's team-mates had been watching her during her conversation with Carson, hawklike in their intensity. She smiled at them, brief and distant, and otherwise ignored them.
Of course, they weren't about to do the same. "Who tied you up?" John asked.
Startled at the question from an apparent stranger, a polite veil dropped over Teyla's features. "I do not believe we have met," she said.
At her words, John's expression set, the rather pretty features grim. "Oh, we've met."
"Teyla, it's us," Rodney said.
Her expression remained blank.
"Sheppard, Rodney, me," Ronon said, pointing from John to Rodney to himself.
Teyla blinked, then turned unerringly to Elizabeth, bewildered by the declaration. Elizabeth felt both amusement and pity at the other woman's confusion. "It seems that they've been...changed into women."
There was a snicker from one of Lorne's team, standing back around the edges of the infirmary. Elizabeth quelled it with a glance - or maybe it was Rodney's fierce glare. At any rate, the man subsided, although his eye still danced with amusement.
All things considered, Elizabeth was glad that most of this had been kept quiet. As the military leader of the expedition, John required respect of the men and women in his command. And, in spite of the alleged gender equality present in western society, men still commanded more respect than women with greater ease.
With her years of negotiating experience behind her, Elizabeth was very aware of this.
But she doubted any of this was in Teyla's mind as she regarded what Elizabeth had just told her with frank surprise.
"Changed?" She looked them up and down, still wary, but with a growing recognition.
"It's still us," John said. He was resting his hands on his hips the way he did any time he was waiting for something, and Elizabeth saw comprehension dawn in Teyla's face as she took in his stance. "We're just...not in our bodies."
Carson had moved to Teyla's side and began smearing cream on her wrists. "Actually, Colonel, given that some of the physical characteristics have been...inherited by these bodies, it's entirely possible that you are in your bodies - just the bodies you would have had if you'd been born female." He glanced at John as he put the cream aside and took up the bandages.
"But that's not our bodies," Rodney argued. "I mean, we're not women. We look like them, but we're not."
"And it is...you?" Teyla was still watching her team-mates, her eyes wide. She didn't find any amusement in the situation, at least, which was a sop to their pride.
"It's us," said John. "We were talking about movies on the walk to the ruins. You still haven't seen 'Nightmare on Elm Street'."
Something in her face eased. "And I do not wish to," she replied, smiling. "As I indicated."
John muttered something about taste in movies or lack thereof, but Teyla just smiled, then turned to Carson as he finished binding her wrists, and then began putting things away.
"So who did tie you up?" Rodney asked.
"I do not know," she said, easing herself back on the bed. Her shoulders slumped a little. "I remember your shout and the flash of light - from the walls. After that, I woke up and was alone in a room at the back of the ruins."
"We checked all the rooms before we left," said John.
Ronon shrugged. "Looking for our clothes," he said. "You weren't there."
"Well, you were," said Rodney, hastily. "But you were with us - unconscious and-- What are you wearing, anyway?"
For the first time, Elizabeth realised the shirt and trousers Teyla wore had clearly been made for a larger person. "My clothing was gone when I woke." She sounded slightly annoyed. "However, there were other items of clothing - I believe this is Colonel Sheppard's clothing. They were the closest fit."
"Did you bring back the rest of our stuff?" Rodney asked, looking huffy and quite comical in her annoyance. The expressions Elizabeth was used to in Rodney looked very odd on this woman who resembled him. "You know, this is quite ridiculous. We should be going back to the planet to work out what was done to us!"
"Actually," John said, her eyes resting on Teyla, "we should be looking for the other Teyla we brought back with us. Because if this is Teyla, who was the other one?"
"The other one?" Teyla looked to Elizabeth.
"They returned with another woman," she explained. "She looked like you."
"Didn't behave much like her," said Ronon.
Rodney glared over at his team-mate. "And you bring this up now?"
A nurse entered the room and began talking to Carson in a low voice, handing him a couple of folders and a sheaf of loose paper.
The shrug came from shoulders that were only slightly less broad and muscled than Ronon's usual form. "She looked like Teyla."
"And we don't look like Rodney McKay, John Sheppard or Ronon Dex - but we're still them!" Rodney exclaimed shrilly.
"Rodney, will you calm down for just a minute, please," Carson interposed without looking up from the charts the nurse had given him. "In fact, everyone sit down and be quiet!"
Rodney opened her mouth. John propelled her into a seat and rolled her eyes at Elizabeth who smiled in spite of herself. If it was weird to see her colleagues as female, it was weirder still to realise that she was almost getting used to the unfamiliar person behaving in familiar ways.
"All right," Carson said after a moment's more study. "Well, genetically, you're definitely who you used to be - the electrophoresis of your PCR shows an almost precise correlation with your original DNA tests."
Silence.
"Which means?" John asked.
"It means you're basically the same genetic person - just female." He glanced up.
"Just female?" Rodney huffed. "So how do we become basically the same genetic person - just male?"
"I don't know," said Carson. "But it probably has something to do with the flash of light and whatever you touched before it went off."
"I didn't touch anything!" At the looks Rodney's team-mates gave him, he protested, "Well, nothing dangerous."
Somehow, Elizabeth doubted that. "I think we might have to ask the other Teyla," she said at last. "Since she seems to have disappeared."
"Which makes it rather difficult to ask her," Lorne noted from the side.
"The marines are looking for her through the city," said Elizabeth.
"But will they find her?"
"Uh, there may be a slight problem with that," murmured Carson.
Elizabeth focused on the doctor. "Carson?"
The doctor sighed as he set the board down on his lap. "The electrophoresis of Teyla's PCR - the other Teyla - matches Teyla's record in everything except one point."
"Her Wraith DNA?" Elizabeth asked.
Carson shook his head. "Actually, that's still there." He looked at Teyla. "However, according to this graph and our tests, Teyla is also in possession of the Ancient gene."
The Ancient gene?
"Teyla's got the Ancient gene?" Rodney's voice shrilled in disbelief.
"I'd say it's the person imitating Teyla who has the Ancient gene."
"And very strongly, too," Carson said. "Sue ran the gene tests twice because she didn't believe it the first time. It's even stronger than John's gene."
Elizabeth was startled. As far as they'd been able to tell, none of the Pegasus natives had the Ancient gene. To find one who had it - and stronger than John... "An Ancient?"
Carson shrugged. "It might be. Even when compared to John, it's nearly off the chart."
Ronon sat forward, the tension clear in her shoulders. "Why'd she return with us, then?"
"To watch our reactions," said John. He looked disgusted. "It's a practical joke, and she wanted to watch us and laugh." One hand made a gesture that encompassed himself, Rodney, and Ronon.
"Doesn't seem very...Ancient-like."
"It explains her mirth when she woke up." Carson said, sitting down heavily in his chair. "And I let her out into the city."
"You had no reason to know it wasn't Teyla," Elizabeth said, trying to comfort him. Her mind was already working through the ramifications. "And it might not even be a 'she', you know." They stared at her. "If you could be changed to become female, then the other Teyla might not be originally female either."
It was Lorne's turn to enter the conversation. "You mentioned an old man at the ruins."
"He was crazy!" Rodney exclaimed.
"And the Ancients can't be crazy?"
"So you're saying that a crazy, practical joker of an Ancient turned us all into women just for laughs?"
"And now has free run through Atlantis." John sat up. He both looked and sounded grim. "We need to find her."
"Agreed," Elizabeth said. "The marines are out looking--"
"With nearly forty-five minutes head start? She could be anywhere in the city by now!"
"The life-signs detector was calibrated to detect a Wraith," Teyla said, cutting across Rodney's protest. "Can it not be adjusted to show only the people in possession of the Ancient gene?"
Elizabeth smiled briefly at Teyla's offering to the conversation, but Rodney was faster to the criticism. "That would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that one-third of the expedition has the Ancient gene."
Ronon frowned. "It's still better than the whole expedition."
"And you could calibrate it so it only picks up the people with the strongest manifestation of the gene," pointed out John.
"What? Why me?"
"Because," said John with mild malice, "you're the genius around here - as you like to remind us so often."
Various smiles and smirks appeared and were hidden, although Carson rolled his eyes and Teyla sighed.
"Oh, so when it comes to saving your ass, then you actually remember I'm the genius?" Rodney huffed and folded his arms. "So you're going to go out and hunt the Ancient once I've finished tinkering with the life signs detector?"
"If I have to."
"I will hunt her down," Teyla said, her voice quiet but clear in the silence.
Carson nodded. "At least there won't be any question when you've caught her."
"I'll help," Ronon offered immediately.
Elizabeth opened her mouth to veto that idea and was beaten to it by John. "Uh, no offence, Teyla, Ronon, but neither of you have the Ancient gene at all."
"So?"
"So you can't use the life-signs detector."
"And neither you nor Ronon will be going anywhere into Atlantis to hunt down an Ancient." Both women stared at Carson, their expressions disbelieving. "I'm sorry, but you're not yourselves."
"We're fine," said John. Elizabeth winced at his belligerence. "And we'll be much better if we're allowed to hunt this prankster down."
"You are not accustomed to those bodies," Teyla said.
"We still know how to fight." Elizabeth thought it odd how Ronon could still growl as an alto.
Teyla stood and moved into a clear space in the centre of the room. "Then come at me."
Under any other circumstances, Elizabeth would have said it was suicide. Ronon was a match for everyone in the base except for Teyla.
But when Ronon stood and lunged at Teyla, she turned easily and used the momentum of the attack to unbalance her team-mate. Ronon sprawled on the floor, although he rolled and was back on his feet again. He - she - bounded in again, lashing out with one fist, and was easily blocked - without any effort. Elizabeth didn't know much about fighting, but even she could see the way Ronon was trying to use a weight and reach that didn't belong to him in this form.
Ronon was laid out within seconds, easily vanquished. "Do you understand?" Teyla asked.
He understood. He didn't like it, but he saw. Dark eyes blinked in angry understanding of the point, and Elizabeth regretted the necessity of the example.
Teyla held out a hand to pull Ronon up. "You know how to fight in the body you had," she said, solemn as a teacher lecturing a student. "Not in this one." Ronon made a grumpy noise and dusted himself off. He seemed only a little self-conscious at being beaten, although Elizabeth gathered that it was okay for him to be shown up by Teyla. If it had been one of the men, it might have been a different story, but Teyla was okay.
"So we're basically stuck here," said John with a huff.
"I'm afraid so, Colonel," Carson said. "Elizabeth?"
"Major Lorne will accompany Teyla," she said. "He's got the gene to operate the detector."
Lorne glanced at Teyla, then back at Elizabeth. "Necessary force?"
"Disable," John said. "Don't kill." The expression on her - his - face was tense, but Elizabeth suspected that John understood he'd just be in the way.
"Dr. Weir?"
Elizabeth found Teyla looking at her, waiting for the formal approval. She appreciated the gesture. "Do it."
Teyla met Major Lorne's gaze. "I must change into my own clothing first."
"You go do whatever you need to," he said easily. "McKay still has to get the life-signs detector recalibrated."
For the first time since she'd arrived through the gate, Teyla's mouth curved in a smile. Even the sight of her formerly male team-mates hadn't been cause for laughter to her. "So there is time for me to have a wash?"
Lorne glanced at Elizabeth, who nodded, half-smiling herself at the Athosian woman's plain desire to be clean again. "Yeah, guess so."
"Colonel, Major, Ronon, I'd appreciate your assistance in mapping out search patterns through the city," she said.
Technically, Ronon wasn't necessary, but it would give him something to occupy himself - and it would be better than watching him - or her - pace in caged frustration. As he'd said to Elizabeth once before, he didn't deal well with waiting.
"Rodney--"
He held up a hand. "Yes, I'll get the calibrations done. I'll probably have to set up in the conference room - it's the only place close enough. Get Miller to bring one of the control laptops in and I'll work on it there."
"How long will it take?"
"Oh, thirty minutes, maybe an hour."
Elizabeth looked around the room, a glance to be sure everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing. "Then let's get things moving."
--
Teyla moved briskly from the infirmary, eager for a shower and some clothes that fit her properly.
Her day had begun on cold stone, waking naked and uncomfortable with her hands tied behind her and her ankles bound. Her body ached from the cold and from scrapes she'd incurred while toiling to release herself, and from the weariness that came from a lack of a good night's sleep.
Relief filled her as she started out the infirmary towards her rooms. Even the presence of Sergeant Dachaus didn't dismay her. She would go to her room and collect some fresh clothing, and then shower and return to the conference room before hunting down this person who had taken on her form to deceive the city.
"Teyla?"
She turned at the call and waited as Colonel Sheppard came up to her in the corridor, familiar motion in an unfamiliar form.
He had lost none of his height, but the face that looked back at her looked only vaguely like the man she was accustomed to. It was as though she was looking at a relative, perhaps a sibling.
"Colonel."
"Ah, I have a confession to make..." The Colonel glanced over her shoulder at Sergeant Dachaus, then took Teyla's arm and led her a little further away, out of earshot of the Sergeant. Teyla shot a reassuring smile at the man then looked back at John. "I raided your wardrobe."
She arched a brow. "You took my clothing."
"Not any of your Athosian stuff. But...I needed support."
Support? Teyla was momentarily confused, then followed to where John was looking. On himself, not her. Ah. She bit back a smile as he continued.
"One of the nurses found some stuff for Rodney and Ronon, but the stuff she had for me was...a bit large. And I figured that we were about the...same size and..."
Teyla was tempted to ask how he had estimated that. In female form, he had lost some of the depth of his chest - not counting the addition of breasts, and they were of similar sizes and body shapes, but she would not have expected such a calculation on his part. In the end, she chose not to question it - as Charin had once said, there were things it was better not to know. "Did you find something to suit you?"
"Yeah," John said, and although the voice was very different, there was no mistaking the relief in it. "I'll get it back to you at the end of all this."
He sounded more than a little depressed and Teyla hastened to assure him. "It will not be long. And it is not so bad being a woman, surely?" Her sense of mischief made her add the tail question.
"We're not even going to go there," said John, and this time it took only a little imagination for Teyla to both see and hear him in his male form. "You'll kick my ass, female or not."
"You should be accustomed to me doing that in any case."
"Then this is saving my ass at least one kicking."
Teyla smiled and turned away. "I will see you in the briefing room once I have showered and changed."
She got one step away before she heard him add, "Nice selection of underwear by the way."
Teyla stopped and turned back, knowing that she was flushing and only hoping that her skin was not showing it too clearly. She had forgotten about the other items in that section of her wardrobe. "Those are joke gifts by the other Atlantean women," she explained.
"Oh?"
It would take too long to explain why the tradition had begun, let alone why she kept the highly impractical items. Instead, she took the opportunity to tweak his chain. "You are welcome to borrow any of them if you wish, John," she told him sweetly.
The hazel eyes narrowed and he opened his mouth to say something, then stopped and looked away. "Oh, I don't think that'll be necessary. I'll...ah...I'll see you in the briefing room, later."
He almost ran away, hurrying along with familiar brisk strides in an unfamiliar body.
Teyla shook her head, smiling to herself. John was a handsome man, but the woman was...disconcerting. Or perhaps it was just her perception of it. Sergeant Dachaus had no compunction about watching the swing of John's retreat. She wondered if the Sergeant had yet realised that the body he was admiring might be female, but the mind inside it was male.
She wondered if it made a difference.
Continuing on, she reflected that appearance was one part of attraction, but not the whole of it. In spite of her team-mates' changed appearances, they were still the men they had been before - merely in different packages.
And there were things to think about other than the attractiveness of her team-mates, changed or not.
Once at her room, she looked through her clothing, noting that John had not been neat in rearranging her drawer contents. She was not ordinarily a fussy woman, but seeing the disarray, she felt the urge to neaten it all out.
There will be time for that later.
She wished to be clean - and to be rid of this clothing. The colonel's fatigues did not fit her with any degree of comfort and smelled of him in a manner she was finding both distracting and attractive. She would be very glad of her own clothing again.
Briskly selecting clothes, her muslin bag of toiletries, and her towel, Teyla strode from her room, wondering at the kind of person who would create such a situation as this and then watch it in amusement.
One of the Ancestors, she thought as she turned beneath the hot shower spray, ruthlessly scrubbing down her skin and ignoring the ache of fresh scrapes and scratches. I would not have thought it possible that one of the Ancestors might do such a thing in malice. And yet what else could it be? What reason would there be for causing such confusion in Teyla's team-mates and impersonating Teyla?
The ways of the Ancestors are not ours, said a little voice in the back of her head. Their reasons are mysterious and beyond our understanding.
As she held her wrists under the spray, enduring the sting of the faintly salt water, Teyla reflected that she'd come a long way from the woman who'd met the strangers arriving with Halling that morning on Athos. While many of her people still revered the Ancestors, she could not. Their knowledge had produced this city and many other wondrous things, but they had also created the Wraith. Unable to fight the Wraith, they had fled elsewhere, leaving their followers prey to the enemy.
She rinsed out her hair. In the end, the Ancients were no more than men or women - wiser, perhaps, more knowledgeable, perhaps, but still prey to the faults and failings of lesser beings - of the Atlanteans, of the Gennii, of the Satedans, of the Athosians.
And she must hunt one of them down in Atlantis, capture her - or him - and persuade her to return her friends to their former state.
What was it that Laura Cadman said at times like these? Would you like fries and a coke with that?
She refrained from such a comment in the briefing room when Elizabeth asked if there were any questions. "There'll be several other teams looking for the other Teyla," she said, handing Teyla a length of scarlet cloth. "They have stun weapons with them and orders to shoot if you're not wearing this."
Teyla nodded. It was a sensible precaution. "The detector is working?" She asked as she tied the cloth around her hair, slipping it under the elastic so it wouldn't fall out, even if she was fighting.
"Of course it's working." Rodney said. It was strange to see and hear his petulance coming from a woman. Stranger still to see Rodney with hair - short and slightly fluffy, but far more of it than he was wont to have in male form. "It's showing the strongest Ancient genes in the city - which is the Ancient, Sheppard, and Dr. Ibsen, but she's been called to the infirmary for the duration of your hunt, so don't head for the infirmary."
Major Lorne was studying the detector Rodney had handed to him. As Rodney directed his comments at the Major, Teyla bit back a smile. In his eagerness to point out the details of what he had done, Rodney's breast pressed against the Major's shoulder and the Major shifted away while the other man - now female - chattered on.
A glance at Elizabeth showed a similar twinkle in green eyes at Rodney's oblivion. They would laugh over this later, in private - a shared moment of amusement at the cost of their colleagues.
"You will be watching from here or the control room?"
"Here," said Elizabeth. "As I understand it, there's a fair bit of gossip, but nobody's yet gotten hold of the whole story."
"And shouldn't until after we're back to normal," the Colonel said, her voice firm and clear. "We'll be watching, though - Miller's patched the city's life-signs detector through to this conference room so we'll be in contact." He tapped his earpiece.
Teyla nodded as she tucked back a strand of hair, checking that her earpiece was firmly fixed and looked at Major Lorne who was looking slightly overloaded with all Rodney's instructions. "Major?"
He shrugged. "I'll work it out as we go along."
With his guidance, they moved swiftly through the city, headed directly for the strongest signal on the detector. Teyla met a few marines also moving through the city, although they seemed content to let her and Major Lorne take the lead.
"They're co-ordinating the marines to act as a perimeter guard," said the Major at her query when another set of marines intercepted them and fell into line behind them. "They'll keep an eye on the bottlenecks for us."
But it was up to her to capture this Ancient.
She wondered what her people would say if they knew she was intending to capture one of the Ancestors. Was it even possible to capture one of the Ancestors? Perhaps she would be struck down dead the instant she touched her. Or him.
Lorne indicated a specific corridor and she moved towards it on wary feet, he and the marines following behind. She blocked them out of her consciousness, stretching her senses ahead, ready for whatever might come.
Behind her, she heard Lorne speaking into his headset, the words audible both in her headset and behind her. "Can we close off rooms ahead of the subject - or seal off the corridors behind us so she can't double-back?"
"We should be able to--" It took a moment for Teyla to recognise the unfamiliar voice: Rodney, working on something.
"She's a few rooms ahead of you, Teyla." That was Colonel Sheppard. He - or she - paused as a lower voice - still female - commented from further out in the room. "Ronon says we can do a 'Rangoon Triad' - whatever the hell that is..."
"I understand," she said. "If you allow it, ask him to set it up."
During their times on missions and off, Ronon had told her quite a bit about Sateda - his people's way of life, the procedures in his fighting squadron, the hunts and tactics they'd developed when the Wraith came to Sateda and began hunting down Ronon and his people. Teyla was surprised he had not discussed such things with Colonel Sheppard, whom she had imagined would be interested in such things. Then again, among her own people, she had observed it was often easier for boys to relate things of pride to older sisters than older brothers.
A Rangoon Triad was nothing more than bringing an enemy to you by making their alternative exits less enticing.
The Ancient they were hunting appeared to be remaining where she was. That would change once they had her in their grasp--
Something slammed into her with powerful force - harder than a Wraith stunner and twice as painful. Teyla screamed as every cell protested, agony throughout her body. Then there was only silence.
- TBC -
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I don't usually respond to the comments on my fics, but wella gets full marks for good guessing skills!
