DISCLAIMER – I do not own Stargate: Atlantis. It is the intellectual property of MGM/UA and associates. This is a work of fan fiction, written for entertainment only. I am making no profit.
A/N – Drabble, based on the first season ep "Rising (Part 2)" This is prompt #19 from BiteMeTechie's "100 Themes". John Sheppard reflects on killing Sumner to spare him the agony of dying slowly after being fed on by the Wraith.
Grey
Grey.
That was how Sumner looked after the Wraith took him; fed on his essence to replenish itself. What the Wraith had left him might have been hours or days of existence.
Existence, but not life.
Ending it hadn't been easy. Sheppard would've defied anyone who might have told him he shouldn't have squeezed the trigger. Maybe on someone's moral compass, his actions didn't point to right, but he'd done what he thought was necessary at the time.
There were no rules in war, no decisions clearly marked in black and white. The best anyone could ever do was to choose a shade of grey.