A late Happy New Year!
I have 6 different versions of this chapter and I hate them all. Well, maybe not hate, but I dislike them a lot. But I need this chapter to lead into the further story. So here it is...
The days of the next weeks blend together. John is allocated to one of the "gate teams". Atlantis Recon 1 is under the command of one Major Ford, and although it is a little weird at first to get ordered about by a younger man, they make do by developing a dynamic that leaves them on a friendly level. Ford still makes the final calls, but more often than not he will look for John's reaction.
In between, John sits through crash courses on what they have learned about Pegasus so far. (Which isn't much, considering that they've been busy trying to wake the city Atlantis and keep away all the things and people that are out to kill them.) So, slowly, he gets to know people. He learns to see past the man's arrogance and plays chess with McKay, eats and trains with Ford, Markham and Stackhouse, turns things on and off for the science guys who are still fascinated with the strength of his ATA-gene, and gives puddle jumper flight lessons to some of the marines. (He has to convince them to call the "gate ships" by that much better name, apparently he and Todd are the only ones who think it is the better designation.) It scares him a little how easily he falls into place here. He never really belonged anywhere, but he might just belong here.
He doesn't even realize that he hasn't had to deal with Todd for the whole inauguration time, until he has to visit the infirmary to get a stitch up. They went with Sumner on another trip to try and find some allies out here, and it blew up in their faces. Quite literally. Whoever called that planet home had planted some really nice land mines around the gate. It was sheer luck that no one was seriously injured; McKay dropping the apple he was munching on had saved their asses.
Anyway, he walks into the infirmary and finds the wraith sitting on top of an operation table, eating what appears to be a pear, while the one who has been introduced to John as Dr. Carson Beckett monitors him. Upon asking what's up, he is told that Carson has started the wraith-feeding-problem-solving by trying to find out just why the wraith can't draw sustenance from normal food, even though they do have a seemingly perfectly fine digestive system. Beckett knows they have one, because he autopsied the two wraith that were gifted to Atlantis along with Todd but didn't make it as long as he did. Todd himself has grudgingly allowed himself to be scanned by the ancient machines in the infirmary, adding to the certainty that wraith do have a quite humanoid body with a quite humanoid set of intestines.
Only "quite" doesn't help them though.
While Beckett explains, John remembers McKay telling him that wraith are hybrid creatures, part human, part bug. He finds it perfectly legitimate that things are messed up in a body made from a human-bug-combo, and wonders how it was even possible for something as viable as the wraith to come out of it at all.
Todd has finished up his fruit while John was thinking. The wraith has apparently been given other stuff as well, Beckett had taken a look at his teeth and started with different kinds of meat, then fish. Now, it is fruits, and John is interested enough to stay around for the bread, too.
It yields the same result as everything else. Todd's stomach acid is apparently so aggressive, it dissolves the food to a degree where there is simply nothing left to digest. All that remains of meat, fish, fruit and bread is a little gas that Todd emits in a little belch.
John suggests they could go out and find an Iratus Bug for Beckett to examine, maybe the answer lies in the bug part of the wraith rather than the human part.
"You hate bugs," is all that Todd says.
John doesn't understand why the wraith assumes that. He still insists that bug catching would probably be more fun than meeting angry, land mine hiding, people again.
"So, where can we find your distant relatives?" he asks Todd.
The wraith regards him and John suddenly feels inexplicably young. "You need one more friend before I tell you that," the creature finally says.
John frowns. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Todd gives him a gate address. John groans, but goes to convince Dr. Weir that they should go there, anyway.
He likes the Athosian people. Colonel Sumner probably didn't earn his military rank for nothing, but, as far as John is concerned, he sucks at establishing friendly contact. So John overrides the man and just starts talking. He earns Atlantis new friends and they are able to save most of them when the wraith come. He resolves to go and thank Todd for that.
But it feels weird. He now knows, from his own experience, why the wraith are considered enemies. When they went back to Athos a day after the hasty evacuation, they couldn't find a single survivor. All those that had to be left behind are lost. And Todd is one of those predators who took all these humans. Their little arrangement doesn't change the fact that the wraith needs to feed, and will do so if given the chance. But, this wraith is willing to work on a solution. John diligently keeps that in the back of his mind.
He finds the creature in the infirmary again. Beckett has given him something to calm that furious stomach acid down, hoping maybe that would wake the wraith's innards up. It ended in Todd puking the rotten but still perfectly undigested food. The wraith seems fine and doesn't complain, but Beckett insists on monitoring him.
"I see you found what was to find," Todd says when he sees John walking up to the bed he is sitting on, his ankles and wrists chained to the frame. There are two marines guarding him, who politely pass on a P90 to John and then leave them alone.
John leans against the neighboring bed and shrugs, absentmindedly checking the weapon. "We found the Athosians. We were able to save a lot of them and, even though I am grateful, I don't understand why you sent us there. Of what use is their safety to you?"
"As I told you, you need another friend to walk further." Todd says as if that is crystal clear.
"Yeah, but whom?" John asks.
Todd just smiles and turns towards the door. Just as Teyla Emmagan walks in.
The leader of the Athosian people stops cold in shock. "I thought I was mistaken..." she whispers as she stares at Todd, eyes wide. Then her face turns cold. "You work with the wraith?!" she hisses at John.
"We kinda work with this one..." John hesitatingly admits.
"You saved us from one of their clans to gift us to another one!" she accuses. "I will not let that happen!"
John resolves on telling Beckett that leaving sharp equipment out in the open will be a no-go from now on. Teyla has grabbed one of the doctor's scalpels and is heading for Todd. He lifts his P90.
He doesn't want to shoot anyone but he might not get to choose. Todd is their somewhat alley at the moment, and as such, he should be protected. Plus, no matter what John thinks about the how, the wraith has saved his life. Has given him something new.
Teyla, on the other hand, is a fellow human. War has taught John that this means little to a lot of people, but he likes to think that it means something to him. He likes her, too. She seems to be the kind of person you want by your side in a fight.
And while he is trying to determine what to do and whom to treat how, Wraith and Athosian have already clashed.
Teyla's borrowed scalpel is at Todd's throat, but the wraith has his feeding hand closed around her throat in turn. It is a rather bloody hand, forcefully and suddenly pulling it out of the metal handcuff has practically skinned the appendage. Flesh and bone are on show in many places, and sinews flex in a very creepy display of functionality when the wraith tightens his hold. But the most disturbing thing is the greenish skin that slowly but surely creeps back into place. John stares, fascinated, but can't help feeling a little sick.
He snaps back into reality when Teyla makes the distinct sound of a choking person. "Todd, let go of her! Teyla, drop that blade! Now!"
The only reaction are short glances at him, coming from two sets of very defiant eyes. John is pissed.
The lights flicker.
This time, Todd's gaze moves to John for good. "It is ill-advised to let anger blend into your ship's system," the wraith says, loosening his hand enough for Teyla to gasp for a single breath of air.
"That wasn't me," John tells him.
The intercom comes to live with a scratchy sound, a disembodied voice asking for John to come to the gate room. Hasty footfalls announce McKay even before the man steps into the infirmary and comes to a stop with a shocked "What the hell is going on here!?"
"I was about to ask you the same," John says, then remembers he still has a situation at hand. "Todd, let go of her. Teyla, drop that scalpel. Now."
No one moves. The lights flicker again. The wraith narrows his eyes, but obeys. Teyla gasps for more air as she reluctantly drops the scalpel. They keep wary eyes on each other as Teyla steps back and Todd leans into the pillow that props him up against the bed's metal frame.
"I'm listening," John tells McKay. The astrophysicist doesn't seem quite convinced that all is fine again, but other things apparently are of more importance.
"We have some very strange power fluctuations and don't know what is causing them. And while the gene-therapy did work on me, the city seems to like you better still, so we we're hoping you could get extra info out of her." John is quite convinced that underneath his annoyed expression McKay is actually pouting. The man's ego doesn't seem to take well to the fact that the ancient city ignores his IQ and knowledge.
He rolls his eyes, and agrees to come help. Finally, he throws Teyla a look that says they will talk later, then escorts Todd back to the brig while she walks off, heels slamming the rhythm of reined in anger into the floor.
John scrutinizes the wraith. The creature does this strange thing again, where he looks like he can hear and see more than what John's senses can figure out in the space of the corridor. "Do you know what's going on?" he asks.
"I know the children know," is Todd's cryptic answer. John doesn't bother to ask for clarification. The wraith doesn't look like he is being difficult on purpose, this time. In fact, Todd is frowning to himself, seemingly a little confused.
"I'll go ask them then," John shrugs. "You know how to get our attention if you have a more helpful idea." And he leaves the wraith in the brig and jogs to the gate room.
They tell him one of the athosian kids has been reported missing, and John suddenly thinks that Todd might have said something important after all. When they find Jinto, it is revealed they have a big problem. The little athosian freed something while playing in the vast, uncatalogued areas of the city, and that something is hungry. Like a wraith, it feasts on others' energy. The difference is that it's not specialized on humans. When it comes around, humans and lights are out just the same. Everything is out. The kids are right to fear the dark.
Yet in the end, they sit in the lightless gate-room, they have no choice but to hide in one kind of darkness to escape another. Hoping their problem will leave through the gate, they wait. But it doesn't. The Darkness, and John thinks it definitely deserves that capital D, feasts on one of their naquadah-generators, which is fine because they set it out as bait. What isn't fine is that the Darkness also incapacitates the MALP that carries their precious bait.
"What now?" he hisses quietly to McKay.
"How should I know!" the man hisses back.
"I thought you're supposed to be the smartest guy around!" John needles on because the situation leaves him tense, and a little friendly fight with McKay calms his nerves.
"Well, I am, but that doesn't mean I'm omniscient!" The Canadian is red in the face by now.
"I should probably go get Todd, he knows stuff." John tries to grin not too obviously.
"He grew up in this galaxy, that's his only advantage!" A quiet huff. "But fine, let's go!"
Two marines in tow, they leave for the brig. Only to find it empty.
The door is wide open and McKay curses at the tiny, lock-opening black-outs caused by power-fluctuations and at all the people who didn't remember that this was how Todd got out in the first place. He doesn't pay attention to the fact that he could've remembered the black-out caused by the other wraith's attempt at calling the hives in the desert around Area 51 himself, but gets out a gadget they found in a puddle jumper. The life-sign-detector doesn't differentiate between species, yet one dot marks a living being far away from everyone else and they run there. And it was the right guess.
The wraith looks different. He is no longer wearing the tatters of his gray jumpsuit but an equally bullet riddled coat, which falls down to his ankles in the grayish-brown colors of leather that used to be black a long time ago. Still as a statue, he stands and watches the stars, white hair swaying in the light breeze on the balcony. When a P90 clicks, he turns, and John flinches a little in surprise. Out here in the twilight of dusk, the usually yellow eyes glow as blue as the stargate from the depth of the shadowed face.
"You know, breaking out of the brig and looking that creepy could motivate people to shoot you," he tells the wraith.
"Everywhere and every time the sky is worth it," is the creature's answer.
"To all Todds?" John doesn't want to be so curious, but he is.
Todd nods. Then laughs. "You understand quick, John Sheppard."
"Handling the weird alien is apparently my job," John shrugs. Todd only grins wider.
"Now that you're done flirting, can we go back to problem solving?" McKay interrupts them.
"What, pray tell, is the problem?" Todd asks.
"An energy parasite."
"I'm hardly a problem, I'm behaving myself," the wraith grins a sharp toothed grin.
McKay splutters. "Your jokes are bad!" he finally hisses.
"So is my luck, but I get by..." Shrugging, the wraith turns to John. "Follow me, Sheppard."
In the end, it is McKay who finds the ancient shield in the laboratory the wraith leads them to. They discuss it, Dr. Weir says it is Rodney's choice, she will not order him to put his hopes of survival into a piece of technology that might or might not be enough to keep the Darkness from killing him. But then the bait generator is sucked dry and Rodney runs without thinking. He runs for a second one and runs for the gate and saves the day, Atlantis and all people there.
John is impressed. And surprised at the amount of fear he felt when for a moment it seemed like the shield failed. It seems he has counted McKay a friend, even though he once came to the conclusion that he would never make new ones again.
So maybe he does really fit in here. Maybe this is really a home and a life.
He just hopes that it won't turn to dust.
Turning, John glances at the one who might know the answer. Even arguing with McKay about whether or not he can keep his clothes that he stole back, Todd looks quite regal. But also very not-human. Why didn't the wraith try to flee? He could have probably made it through the Darkness. Run through the gate and dial home from whereever he will end up being... John would probably try.
Probably.
Todd has a purpose and John has been told that the wraith can become very old. Older than he can imagine, even if no one knows an exact number. It doesn't matter, what matters is that this old, almost immortal creature has time for the most elaborate plans if only there is enough patience. And John has a feeling that Todd is more patient than anyone he ever met and will meet. That cunning spark in the yellow eyes has marked the wraith a schemer. Damaged he may be, but he should not be underestimated.
If John would probably stay to fulfill his plan, then Todd will for sure.
And as Todd proudly wins the argument about his tattered coat, John can't help but trust that this story will end in a happy end. A schemer the wraith might be, but the human can't shake the feeling that there is also a shred of honor involved.
Where Todd dug up his coat will be explained in the next chapter, it just didn't fit in here.
Today's action was stolen from/inspired by an actual SGA episode, but action made up by me is to follow soon. Probably in the next chapter. Hope this chapter didn't scare you off and you'll stay around for new adventures.