Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, I appreciate it. This story is taking a bit longer to finish than expected as I'm in the middle of a move interstate. I will endeavour to post at least one chapter a week though.

Chapter 13: In pursuit of the queen.

Ronon walked along in silence with Todd pointing a gun at his back. He knew that it was all part of a ruse to fool the queen, but he still wasn't happy. Why couldn't Todd just walk into the chamber and kill the queen? When he had asked the Wraith that question Todd had answered with a grunt, which didn't give him any extra information.

At least Torren, Dave and Carson were safely back at the jumper– well he certainly hoped that they were safely back to the jumper by now. Hopefully, they would put their heads together, and think about coming to pick him and the others up – not that he had any idea where John and his team were right now. He sure hoped that he wouldn't come across them somewhere in the hive. He hadn't seen too many wraith wandering around the hive, so he suspected that they had all headed to Arastica, or they had gone back into hibernation – those that weren't dead at least.

The Hive ship was practically deserted as they rushed through it, the smell of the burnt hive and decimated corpses filled the air, and it was enough to make him gag. He had no idea how the few wraith left on the ship tolerated it – the smell was usually bad enough. They continued on and Ronon saw a few wraith had returned and started to hibernate waiting for a rescue that would never come – at least not in the next ten thousand years. He suspected that many of these drones would end up feeding on each other eventually.

They were approaching the queen's chamber when Todd grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. When he looked into his face, he saw that the big wraith was smirking, which took him totally by surprise as he had no idea what Todd had to be happy about.

"What's going on Todd?"

"I believe that my queen is still in her chamber and she does not seem happy."

Now it was Ronon's turn to smirk, "that could have something to do with the fact that half of her wraith are dead, and her ship is destroyed, although if she wanted to, she could still infect Arastica to exact revenge."

"I must warn you that anything could happen in there. She may wish to interrogate you, or even feed on you."

He wasn't impressed by what Todd had just told him, "can't you just walk in there and shoot her?"

"No, because until I know how many Wraith are guarding her, I cannot raise suspicion. Do not worry I will restore your life if it is taken from you, as I have just fed."

Ronon sighed, he'd seen Sheppard hold off a queen's interrogation on many occasions, so perhaps it wouldn't be so bad, "just do what you have to do Todd, so that we can get rid of her once and for all. Then we can get back to our own times and get back to doing whatever it is that we do."

"Come with me then," Todd said shoving him in the back and forcing him to walk into the chamber.

"My queen I have captured you a human, what will you have me do with him?" Todd hissed when he caught the queen's attention.

Looking around the room, Ronon was happy to see that there was only one guard on duty at the moment, so with Todd's help it should be relatively easy to take the queen out.

The queen was on her feet in an instant and before he had a chance to blink, she was running her long cold slimy finger down the side of his face, "Kneel," she said, although he was positive that the word's didn't come out of her mouth.

He felt an intense pressure in his head, and he had the uncontrollable urge to drop to his knee's – although he managed to resist.

He was desperately trying to remember everything that Sheppard had taught him about resisting the queen, when she ran her long cold fingers down his cheek again, and he instantly heard her voice in his head.

Trying to close his mind, he thought about anything he could to not let her into his mind, he thought about horror movies, songs that Sheppard had played to him, video games he had played with Sheppard and McKay, and it didn't seem to be working though because he could feel her delving deeper into his mind and it was beginning to hurt.

Suddenly she let him go and he was disgusted to find that he was on his knees and Todd was nowhere in sight. The pressure in his head had let up a little, but it was still intense, so he immediately fell to the ground.

"I do not wish to interrogate you now as I have other things I need to be doing. I will need a little snack later, so I look forward to feeding on your strength."

She turned to the Wraith in the room and hissed, "guard him and do not feed on him. If he tries to escape stun him and put him in a cell."

The Wraith nodded his head and bowed, "yes my queen."

Even if he'd wanted to Ronon didn't have the strength to get up and shoot the queen at the moment, so he hoped that Todd would have it under control. He wanted to go to sleep – no wonder Sheppard always looked so tired after a visit to the queen. He did his best to glare at the Wraith in the room with him, but the wraith just kept staring straight past him. For now, he knew that he wasn't going to be able to escape, so he just closed his eyes and let sleep come.

oOo

Teyla watched as Sheppard approached looking for any sign of injury. They hadn't seen him in over an hour so in her mind there was a strong possibility that he would have to be hurt. Her suspicions were confirmed as he got closer when she saw a feeding scar on his chest – he was looking a little jittery as well.

"Teyla where is Nickel?" John asked when he finally reached them.

A terrible sadness came over her as she replied,"I am sorry John, but he has passed."

"He was fed on by one of those giant wraith and it was terrible," Rodney ranted.

She watched John's face as the realisation of what had happened sunk in. He held his hand up in front of his face and turned to Rodney, "McKay why am I not fading away?"

Looking at Rodney she saw a grin cross his face, so it was clear that he knew something that she didn't, "Rodney what did Nickel tell you before he died?"

"Yes, I'd like to know that too," John said, and Teyla didn't miss the sweat that was beading on his brow, or the fine tremors that were beginning to wrack his body.

"He told me to tell his friend Johan to look after his wife and children when they get to earth."

John looked relieved, "well that explains why I'm not fading away."

Teyla looked at John trying to figure out whether she should ask him about the feeding scare or not. In the end she felt that she needed to confront him about it, "John have you been fed on again as you look like you are beginning to go through withdrawal?"

"You don't need to worry about me, right now we need to head into the hive to help Ronon."

A voice came out of the darkness, and it was a voice that Teyla instantly recognised, "I will go and help Ronon. Sheppard, you need to go and see Carson."

"How about you just give me a little enzyme to keep me going so that I can complete this mission!?" John growled.

"You know I cannot do that."

She watched the scene playing itself out in front of her, how could Todd be here, surely, he should be inside with Ronon and the others?

"Todd, how is it that you are here?"

"Yes, yes," Rodney ranted, "I thought you were supposed to be protecting Ronon, Dave, Torren and Carson."

"That's not future Todd!" John said angrily, "that's Todd from our time, I think that future Todd is still with Ronon."

"Yes, it's lucky for John Sheppard that I came along when I did, as he was being fed on by an enormous wraith drone. I must admit I have never seen one that big and I suspect that the withdrawal is going to be much more difficult than from a normal feeding."

"Yes Todd," Sheppard growled, and it was clear to Teyla that the withdrawal was coming on quickly, "you get a gold star for stating the obvious!"

Todd turned to her without even bothering to acknowledge John, "get him back to your craft as soon as possible. He should not be out here, as there are still wraith walking around. I have no idea why they are ignoring us, but I do not know how long it will be before one of them notices that we are here."

Before she had a chance to reply Todd was off and heading in the opposite direction of the hive, John looked ready to follow, when his knees seemed to buckle, and he fell to the ground.

"John you cannot follow Todd as we have to get you back to the jumper – although she suspected that was where Todd was heading. The only question that needed to be answered was, if Todd was heading to the jumper why didn't he just pick up Sheppard and carry him?"

"But what about Ronon and the others?"

Rodney interjected before she had a chance to reply, "be real Sheppard, you can't even stand so there is no way you are going to be able to help anybody."

"Just you wait McKay, I'll be on my feet and helping them in no time!" John yelled while trying to get to his feet.

Teyla placed her hand on John's shoulder, "please sit down and stop yelling? She pleaded.

She was relieved when he acquiesced to her demands and lay down on a soft patch of grass and closed his eyes.

Once she was sure that he was quiet she took time to take in her surroundings, both moons were now high in the sky, and they were casting eerie shadows over the charred remains of the hive ship, the smoke was beginning to dissipate leaving a burnt smell, in the air. The area surrounding them was littered with the bodies of wraith and ancients that had been fed on and she suspected that when they entered Arastica there would be many more bodies. This was something that she would never get used to and she prayed that at some point in the future the culling would stop, and Wraith and humans would be able to live together in peace.

oOo

By the time they reached the Jumper, Carson was not happy. His lungs were burning, and his eyes were irritated by the constant smoke in the air – although it was beginning to clear up a little. He had seen plenty of dead wraith, but the thing that disturbed him the most was that many ancients had been fed on as well. John and his team saw this kind of thing all the time, but he didn't think that he would ever get used to it. He knew that he was a clone and when he'd been held captive by Michael, he had done some horrendous things, but that didn't mean he liked it.

Sitting down in the back of the jumper he looked to see what Dave and Torren were up to and he was surprised to see that they didn't seem concerned at all by what they had just seen. Perhaps the two of them had seen more than he could possibly imagine.

A voice interrupted his thoughts, and it took him a while to realise that Dave was speaking to him.

"Huh," he replied looking up at Dave and Torren.

"Are you alright Carson?" Dave asked again.

"I'm not sure, what we just witnessed was quite disturbing."

Torren came and sat beside him and for some reason, he felt comforted by his presence. Although he sometimes found it hard to come to terms with the fact that it was Teyla's son.

"It never gets any easier, but you do learn to handle it."

He wondered what kind of things that Torren had gone through in the future, "how often have you seen this kind of thing Torren?"

"I saw Atlantis culled on more than one occasion when I was growing up and I lost many friends. Arastica was culled once while I was living there, that is one of the reasons Dave and I ended up working alone. The culling's in my time are not as frequent as many hives are still in hibernation, but Todd is still working on a formula so that the Wraith can stop feeding on humans and Maddie and Charin are helping."

He smiled at Torren, and he was surprised how much of Teyla he could see in him, "Jennifer has been working on something similar, we tested it on Todd once, but it didn't work. She's been trying to continue, but she needs help from Todd and these days it seems impossible to find him – well at least the Todd in our time does."

"I'm sure that he will turn up, at some point," Dave muttered from the pilot's seat.

"Did I hear my name?"

Carson looked to the open hatch, and he was surprised to see Todd standing there, which was weird because the last time he saw him he was with Ronon.

"See I told you he'd turn up eventually," Dave smirked.

"Todd, where's Ronon?" He asked with apprehension.

"I am sorry Dr Beckett, but I haven't seen Ronon the only person I have seen is John Sheppard and he had been fed on by a wraith, so I had to return his life to him. I have just seen him with Teyla and Dr McKay, and he does not look good, so I suggest you get this jumper in the air and find him. Perhaps you can pick up Ronon and head straight to Arastica while you're at it."

With that Todd was off and for a wraith he seemed to be moving at an incredibly fast pace.

A feeling of fear overcame him, and he wasn't worried about himself, "perhaps we had better go and look for Colonel Sheppard and the others."

"I'll drive, "Dave informed them from the pilot's seat.

"Make sure you put the cloak on," Torren instructed from beside him.

"Yes, Torren thanks for stating the obvious," Dave said sarcastically.

Carson wasn't in the mood to listen to Torren and Dave's banter, he's seen enough of it between Sheppard and McKay at the most inappropriate moments and right now it definitely wasn't the time, "and can you please hurry up because I need to see how Colonel Sheppard is doing."

He sat behind Torren as the jumper took off and although he was anxious to see Sheppard and assess his condition, he knew that there wasn't much he could do for him right now. If he'd been fed on by one of the super drones again the withdrawal would be painful – excruciatingly so. All he would be able to do was offer John pain medication and watch as he rode out the symptoms. He'd seen drug addicts and alcoholics suffering from withdrawal, but those people chose to drink or take drugs – the majority of the time anyway. No one he knew chose to be fed on by a wraith – although there were wraith worshippers out there who chose to.

Sighing he looked out the widow over the Scorched landscape and for some reason it looked worse bathed in the glow of the pale moonlight. There didn't seem to be many wraith moving about, but there were still plenty of bodies – wraith and ancient alike.

oOo

Ronon was shocked out of his slumber by weapons fire in the distance. He was about to go and find out what was going on but thought better of it when he realised that the Wraith guard was still there. The gunfire continued and Ronon knew that Wraith stunners were being fired – the only question was who were the wraith firing on? He got his answer a few minutes later when two Todds walked through the door. For a moment he was confused and thought he'd hit his head harder than he thought; until one of them spoke.

"Ronon it is good to see you again."

He knew instantly who it was, "I guess you're the Todd from my time then?"

"Yes, he is, now can we hurry before more wraith figure out what is going on," future Todd hissed, while quickly disintegrating the guard in the room.

Ronon looked at future Todd and grimaced as his head began to pound, "so have you managed to kill the queen yet?"

"No, I have not, and I fear that she may already be in Arastica."

"Well in that case we'd better get going then," Ronon growled.

"I do believe that Dave and Torren should be on their way with a jumper, which is probably a good thing because Sheppard is not doing very well." The Todd from Ronon's time informed them.

"What happened?" Future Todd hissed.

"He was fed on by one of those super big wraith," the other Todd informed them, "but I gave him back the years that were taken. The problem is that withdrawal seems to be starting already."

"Yes, those drones are from the future, "future Todd explained, "and they have been bred to be stronger and faster. The queens in the future are thinking of ways to make humans suffer or become more addicted to the feeding enzyme."

Ronon was becoming sick of the conversation by this time, and he knew that they needed to get going, "are you two just going to stand around talking all day, or are we going to find Sheppard and the others and get to Arastica and kill the queen before she has a chance to infect her systems and this whole thing will start all over again?"

Luckily, they both nodded and left the room and he very quickly followed. The scene in the hive was worse than it had been when he came in as there were many more dead wraith on the floor. He suspected that the casualties were probably a lot higher because he was fairly sure that Todd from the future had disintegrated quite a number of them.

There was no one around so they reached the exit in no time and the first thing he saw when he left the ship was Rodney and Teyla huddled around a body on the ground. His heart skipped a beat, he had a bad feeling that it was Sheppard and he hoped that his commanding officer was still alive. If he wasn't someone was going to pay, and he didn't care who it was.

It took him a few seconds to reach the group and the first thing he did when he got there was drop to his knees beside Sheppard. He looked over his friend and didn't like what he saw, the man was trembling all over and it was obvious he was in pain by the way he was thrashing about and moaning.

"Can't you do anything for him?" He asked looking up at the two Todds in front of him.

"I could give him a little more enzyme," future Todd suggested, "just to help him finish the mission."

Before he had a chance to reply, a shaky voice from the ground caught his attention, "report."

Ronon was shocked at how strong Sheppard sounded given his condition, "The queen has left the hive and we fear that she may already be back in Arastica."

"Well in that case how about one of you Todds give me some more enzyme so that I can complete the mission?" John hissed while trying to sit up.

"John that is not a good idea, but you do not have to worry because help is on the way," Teyla said soothingly.

Ronon looked into the night sky, and he was relieved to see the shimmering that accompanied a cloaked jumper. That was a good thing because maybe they could get to Arastica and stop the queen from infecting the city.

He looked back down at his friend and realised that he'd lost consciousness again. The fine tremors that wracked his body were becoming more intense and he knew that Sheppard was right, he needed to complete the mission, so he gave future Todd a knowing glance hoping that the big wraith would understand what he wanted him to do.

oOo

Excruciating pain in his chest followed by a feeling of euphoria greeted John the next time he became aware, and he never wanted it to end. Loud yelling reached his ears, and it didn't take him long to realise what had happened – one of the Todds had obviously given him more of the enzyme and Rodney and Teyla were shouting about it.

Opening his eyes, he saw the distraught look on Rodney and Teyla's faces and behind them, he saw a jumper landing.

Jumping to his feet he felt a renewed sense of strength. He then looked at his friends with an intense look, "Rodney, Teyla, will you stop it? We have a mission to complete and believe me when this is over, I will be glad to spend as long as I need in the infirmary recovering."

Before anyone had a chance to respond the jumper hatch was open and Carson was by his side grabbing his wrist and trying to check his pulse, "Carson will you stop it, we have to get to Arastica and kill the queen as soon as possible?"

"I know lad, but you've been fed on, so you should not be running around Arastica."

"I'm fine Doc, so can you please stop fussing, so that we can get going?" He told him running past him.

When he got inside, he found Dave sitting in the pilot's seat, so he just glared at him, and he was happy that Dave moved out of his way without too much complaint. Torren was in the co-pilot's seat and didn't seem to want to move, so Dave just went and sat in the back with the others. Ronon sat behind him, and Rodney sat behind Torren. Future Todd sat in the back with Teyla and Carson, but he had no idea where Todd from his time had gone – the sneaky wraith just kept disappearing all the time.

At the moment he felt on top of the world, but he knew that it wouldn't last long so he needed to get on with things before he went into withdrawal again – at least he had on wraith with him to give him more enzyme if he needed it. When he arrived at Arastica, and the queen was dead he was going to ask her to heal him though and if Arastica couldn't do it, he was sure that Atlantis would.

Sitting at the controls he slowly took the jumper into the air and turned the bird around and headed towards Arastica. The dead bodies that littered the landscape and the charred remains of the hive were unsettling and although he had seen the aftermath of many other cullings he never got used to it. If there was one thing that he knew for sure it was that he couldn't wait for this mission to be over. Then he would gladly spend time in the infirmary unconscious so that he didn't have to go through withdrawal – that's if Arastica or Atlantis weren't able to heal him.

A few minutes later Arastica came into view and his heart almost broke at the state of the once beautiful city. It was obvious that the hive weapons had managed to hit the city on more than one occasion and the wraith had managed to infiltrate her. He only hoped that they weren't too late and the queen hadn't managed to plant the virus as yet.

TBC…