This is actually only the first half of a rather long chapter, which I cut in half because I'm not entirely happy with the second half yet, and to keep the chapter length somewhat the same. Also didn't want to leave you waiting any longer while I still work on the second part...

That said, hope you have fun!

"Just why did you steal back clothes that are just as bullet riddled as the ones you were wearing before? I'm sure we could've just given you a new jumpsuit, had you asked," John wants to know as he fastens the new restraints around the wraith's wrists. The new ones are made from leather and are much broader than the normal metal cuffs, and even if the material seems less durable at first glance, Todd will have a much harder time pulling his hands out of those.

"I just prefer my own attire," Todd says, glancing down to where John connects the cuffs and chains to the belt they forced on the wraith. He seems to find it very amusing that they are this cautious with him.

"Looks ridiculous anyway."

"I'd rather be a wraith looking ridiculous in proper clothes than a wraith looking ridiculous in those clothes of yours."

John shrugs and pulls the last strap tight. "It's all the same to me."

"What I would like to know," Rodney quips from where he is skeptically watching the whole procedure, "is how you found them in the first place. I mean, I can't imagine you stumbled upon them by accident. Even the biologists didn't remember which box they put them in after giving up on finding out just exactly what kind of leather this is!"

"Oh they did remember. It took me a while to dig that deep into their memories, but you humans think so loud, and I had nothing better to do..."

Rodney narrows his eyes. "You shouldn't be so perceptive. You're a male, all other males haven't shown abilities like that."

Todd smirks. "Maybe they prefer to keep advantages to themselves..."

"I don't think your two friends had any advantage due to keeping quiet," the Canadian snaps.

Todd's smirk changes into a definitely pissed off baring of teeth. "You know nothing about wraith, Meredith."

McKay splutters and goes red in the face while John chuckles. "Meredith?!"

"Yeah, very funny, I know!" The embarrassed scientist turns back to the wraith. "And I would know more if you weren't so damn secretive about everything!"

"Whatever I would have told you would have been used to kill my kind. You were not ready to learn. Maybe you still aren't..." Todd hisses, then turns to John. "Do we have to take him along?"

"Yes we do." John shrugs, half way apologetic. He doesn't understand why Todd prefers him over Rodney so much, he isn't exactly trusting or liking the wraith either. But apparently Todd has more faith in him than the rest, anyway.

"Let's go!" he says and leads the wraith from the brig to the gate room, where the rest of the team is waiting. Ford, Markham and Stackhouse are ready, so is Teyla Emmagan. Wraith and Athosian greet each other with a cold glare while the rest of the group is a little more cheerful. After being cooped up for almost a week because energy is precious and gate activation therefore rare, they can finally go out. John looks forward to it, especially because if they get some new naquadah they can travel by gate a lot more.

Losing one generator to the Darkness would have been hard, but they could've gotten by. Losing a second one was too much. The city's hunger for energy is a constant nagging in the back of John's mind. They can keep the important places like infirmary and gate-room going, but everywhere else experiences power fluctuations like the Darkness never vanished after all. It scares the Athosians, and that's why Teyla took the offer of being part of the team despite her strong disapproval of the wraith on Atlantis.

But now they are finally out for new naquadah. The mineral is rare and earth can't supply them right now, neither with a new generator nor with enough material to fix up the empty one they already have. So they have 'googled' up planets where they might find some, the vast data bank of Atlantis is amazing and they had all looked forward to a simple solution. Look up a gate address, go get naquadah. So much of the Lanteans' (And again John and Todd are the only ones who like a different name better, everyone else refers to them as the Ancients) technology is based on naquadah, they surely had a supply planet somewhere.

Unfortunately for the current inhabitants of Atlantis, none of the gate addresses is still connected to a planet they could visit.

Analyses of the weapon radiation that was left on the single, broken planet they could reach showed wraith tech was involved. Asking Todd about it got them a laugh.

"Ahh, it's nice to see how even after all this time the lack of naquadah supply brings this city to it's knees," the wraith had said. "Nothing like a thorough victory."

"Yeah but now you're stuck with us and this city, so telling us where to get some naquadah would help you, too, you know?" John had pointed out.

And now here they are, waiting for the MALP to explore the planet Todd told them about. They have decided to take the wraith with them, as guide and to make sure that it isn't a trap, but the MALP would be first to go through the gate anyway. No one liked the idea of ending up surrounded by something like poisonous atmosphere. Todd might make it long enough to dial the gate to somewhere else, but the humans weren't so bent on finding out how long they would last.

So the MALP slowly rolls through the gate. And doesn't send a single picture.

"I told you, there is no use in sending a mechanical spy," Todd reminds them smugly.

"So you did," John agrees sourly. Apparently he misjudged the alien's intention behind the words, though. He assumed Todd was saying they could trust him. He didn't think that Todd was actually warning them that a MALP would be useless in this operation. "Maybe you should've also told us why you think so!"

"I have made the experience that humans do not listen anyway. You don't learn until you've made your own mistakes."

"Do you listen to human advice?" John raises a brow.

Todd shrugs. "I never said wraith are any better." He then turns to Rodney. "This planet was not destroyed because it had value to us, too. It was fairly easy to keep it for ourselves because it has its own, natural, electromagnetic field, rendering any technology useless."

"Great. So we have no way of knowing what is out there," Rodney huffs.

"I am willing to walk out there restrained like this. Do you think I would do so if I was expecting danger?" Todd asks. Rodney concedes the point with another huff. John doesn't.

"It's not danger for you we're worried about," he says.

"We do not trust you to not lead us into a trap," Teyla agrees. Her and John's conversation about the confrontation in the infirmary had ended on a bitter note. Teyla will not allow a wraith the benefit of the doubt. John can understand, though he would rather have a more harmonious team. But this isn't his call anyway. The one who is calling the shots is Ford, and Ford has sanctioned taking Todd with them. So he turns to their silent C.O.

Ford seems to be trying to analyze the situation. His gaze flickers between John and Todd, and John knows the kid is trying to gauge just how good John can guess what the wraith is planning. He kind of expects the next question even before it leaves Ford's lips.

"You think we can trust him? You know him better than I do."

John bites his lip. To say he knows Todd is a little presumptuous. All he knows is that there is something more to the wraith than the other humans see, and that the creature won't hurt him for now. Doesn't mean he knows if Todd would hurt anybody else.

He's pretty sure Sumner would shut the mission down right here, but Sumner, and Weir, too, are busy doing their paperwork about the incident with the Darkness. And John isn't about to go get them. He wants to go out there. He doesn't mind taking the risk. What has him hesitate is that others will tag along. And they apparently put their fate in his judgement of a creature they don't understand themselves.

The human turns and stares at the wraith. Todd stares back at John, face not telling anything.

Yet Todd has been exceptionally upbeat ever since they decided to take him along. He might have kept a tight lid on it and John is not sure if anyone else noticed, but he did notice the subtle change in behavior. Todd speaks more and his words are less cryptic, his mind not drifting away even once. It might be that the wraith is too busy scheming to lose track of reality, but...

He remembers the feeling of space on his skin, a cold shudder transmitted by a hive ship. And he comes to the conclusion that a creature who remembers that so fondly would love to feel the wind on their skin, especially after such long captivity.

Todd had said the sky is always worth it. He isn't planning anything. John is very sure that Todd is simply looking forwards to getting to go outside.

Yet a little caution can't be too bad.

It ends with John walking around the not-moving creature and pulling his hand gun. He settles its mouth against the back of the wraith's head. "Something hits us, a bullet hits you. Do we have an agreement?"

The wraith laughs. "We sure do, John Sheppard."

What greets them on the other side is desert. A black desert underneath gray skies. John feels like he is caught in a screenshot of a strange black and white movie. But he's actually a little relieved about that, because actually desert-colored deserts tend to put him on edge. (He adamantly refuses to think that maybe he moved to Vegas, a 'city of sin' in the middle of a desert, to punish himself for failing in Afghanistan) The other humans seem to find the empty place just as eerie as he does, he can see the post-apocalyptic thoughts on their faces as they fan out around the still MALP. He wishes he could see Todd's face. But all he can gauge from the wraith is a deep intake of breath.

"Where to go?" Ford addresses the alien, looking at his useless compass.

"A couple miles towards the sun."

A couple miles?" McKay whines, abandoning his studies of the strange, metallic sand. "On sand? In this heat?!"

It is indeed hot. Despite the cold colors the place is heated up, and John moves his feet that begin to feel uncomfortably warm at the verbal reminder of the temperatures. Turning to their right, he tries to look into the direction Todd told them, but the sun low above the horizon is glaring harshly. He has to look away or risk being blinded. "What's out there?" he asks, fishing for his sunglasses as he speaks.

"Your naquadah." It seems Todd dislikes the glare even more, he doesn't even try glancing in the direction he wants to go. "Once the sun has wandered on you can see a few small mountains."

"No wonder the ancients gave up on this place. The wraith want it and there's no means of transportation. I too wouldn't want to get naquadah here..." Rodney grumbles.

"There is a way of transportation. At least there was..." Todd is looking around after all.

"We won't let you near any wraith-tech," Ford announces.

Todd just raises an eyebrow.

"Right, technology is useless..." Ford mutters. "Then we won't let you near anything... suspicious."

"Is a simple box in the ground suspicious?"

"I guess not..."

Todd marches off to the side and John scrambles after him. Teyla's and the others' weapons click as they are ready. "Don't do that again!" John tells the wraith.

Todd slowly turns to look at him over his shoulder. "I will now move," he tells John slow and clearly, like the English language was foreign to the human rather than the wraith. John swallows a sarcastic answer in favor of a question.

"How come you all speak one language, anyway?" He glances at Teyla, too, before going back to watching Todd get to work.

"During the great war the Ancestors united all human folks to fight by their side. They taught us one language to unite us. Seeing as most of your people speak it too, they probably tried establishing it on earth as well. The wraith most likely learned because it's convenient in controlling their worshipers." She glares hatred at the wraith who swipes the black sand off of something hidden in the ground. Restrained as he is, he only makes slow progress under the humans' watchful gaze. Apparently it doesn't stop him from listening in though.

"As a matter of fact, the wraith have known this language long before the war. The why has been lost in history but we kept teaching it. Indeed for convenience." He throws Teyla a sharp-toothed grin. She looks about ready to strangle the wraith.

"Aggravating people for fun doesn't help your position in the slightest, Todd," John interferes. Then gets ready to pull the trigger because Todd has pulled a lever that sticks out of the sand and there is the clicking sound of old mechanics.

He watches a trap door open up and is very surprised that even after a half a minute nothing jumps at them. But even as the old springs fail half way through and Todd has to open the hatch manually the rest of he way, there is nothing dangerous. All that is there is an iron-jacketed hole in the ground that holds what appears to be old leather strings.

"Is that... bridle?" Stackhouse slowly asks, peering into the buried container.

"Transportation without technology; we're going to ride some animals?" Rodney seems to dislike the idea a lot.

"Indeed. If you would get it out, I'm a little incapacitated." Todd mildly pulls at his restraints, demonstrating his short range of reach.

Getting a nod from Ford, they get the old leather out. And realize it's still surprisingly soft.

"This looks a little too good to not have been treated in a while..." Stackhouse says.

They look around suspiciously.

"It is pretty durable." Todd pats his side, indicating it's the same leather as that which clothes him.

"We need to get that coat back to the biologists..." Rodney mutters. Todd growls. "Or you could just tell us what it's made from!" the scientist snaps. The constant heat seems to have turned his mood foul enough to not care.

"The hive provides it," Todd admits grouchily.

"So this is... ewww! Hive-ship-skin!" Rodney almost drops the bridle he just took from Markham to examine it. But, in the end, curiosity wins out and he stares at the material with grossed out fascination. "How do you harvest it, do you just scrape it off the hull or something?"

Todd gives him a stare that says "Who in their right mind would thin out a space ship's hull?" and turns to John without any comment. "There should be a whistle," he tells the captain.

They all look at what they have in their hands, even the pouting McKay. Markham turns out to be the one holding the small object.

"Well... blow it, I guess." Ford shrugs. So Markham does lift it to his lips.

The sound has them slap their hands over their ears. John barely manages to fight the instinct and keep his pistol where it is, while Todd winces and can't do anything anyway.

"Now let's hope they're still there... and tame," the wraith says when their collective tinnitus wears off.

"They might not be tame?" Rodney blanches a little despite his heat reddened face.

John doesn't listen. He's busy watching their surroundings because the sand is moving.

"Todd..." he begins threateningly. And that is when a creature breaks out of the sand.

Weapons at the ready they watch it as it circles them, black and sleek. It is a reptile, even though the head shape reminds John of a horse. Apart from the fact that the jaws open wide as a crocodile maw. Not to mention the tiny, shimmering scales that hide it perfectly in the black sands. A very creepy reptile that doesn't seem entirely friendly. It hisses.

So does Todd.

Ears that have been flattened to the skull twitch, nostrils that seem to shut up completely between each intake of breath flutter as it takes a sniff of their scents. It hisses again; the wraith answers in kind, baring teeth that, compared to the dentistry of the still-circling creature, suddenly seem very unimpressive but still aren't missing their effect. A long tail swishes about like that of an angry cat. Until now John has been pretty sure that lizards couldn't prowl, yet this thing somehow manages just that. And it comes right at them. Until it's nose to nose with the wraith.

Todd doesn't back down and, oddly enough, that's enough for John to remain right behind the wraith, gun still ready to fire but slowly moving to aim past Todd's head at the creature. Neither predator seems to care for him though. They are staring at each other, slit pupil vs. slit pupil, yellow against dark orange.

Then, Todd starts grinning and the creature twitches and lays down. Docile as a happy dog. The humans can't help but gape.

"How... " Rodney starts.

"Wraith are not the only telepathic creatures." Todd says. He reaches out as far as he can and the lizard that could easily eat them happily nudges its nose into his palm. It is weird to see such a creepy creature do that. John is pretty sure that this animal could be the reason for dragon tales.

"How intelligent is it?" Ford asks, warily peering at it.

"Not very. They can learn and remember simple tricks." As if on cue the creature moves its head down, snapping at Todd's ankles. John jumps, expecting a legless wraith to fall into him. Todd stays standing where he is. A crunching sound and the chains connecting the wraith's feet are broken.

"They also have very strong jaws," the wraith casually adds.

"Let it near your hands, and I will have to shoot either you or it," John warns. "Or both."

The black head that just moved up falls back down to taloned feet. Todd makes another hissing sound and nods his own head in the general direction of the sun. The creature (John should really ask for a species name) turns and makes a sound that John is pretty sure he heard before when watching Jurassic Park. An answering sound echoes from somewhere under the sand and another head pops up, followed by two more. The reptiles come and flank the one already there. They are a little smaller and John wonders if it's age, or gender differences, or if the first is simply an alpha. Strange how not so long ago all he wondered about was how to make a day go by quickly, and now here he is, facing the most amazing things.

The fourth reptile moves in from their right, this one looking quite cranky compared to the others, dark tail twitching. Rodney puts his pointer finger to his nose. "I won't take that one."

And John laughs.

Odd it might be, but he likes his new life.