one hundred thirty-nine days after Earth
"When do you think we should come up with a new system?" Rodney asked as he nibbled on a power bar.
Sam raised an eyebrow. "How many of those are left?"
"This is the last chocolate-banana bar in existence until we learn to make them," Rodney sighed as he licked his fingers. "How long do you think a year should be? Three-sixty-five? Three-sixty? I'm leaning towards four hundred because then I'd only be thirty-two."
"Three-sixty-five," Sam decided as she fidgeted in her command chair on the bridge. "Keep something of Earth."
"I still think we need a new system. New months maybe," Rodney thought aloud as his fingers tapped on the computer console. "Canada," he decided softly. "Russia, United States, Germany, think we could come up with twelve?"
Sam felt her frustration burn like a ball in her chest. She tried to ignore him. She had a whole Asgard database to search for vague references to Ancient technology and the 'human component' Thor had promised was in there.
"Czech, Spain, England. Japan, Scotland, Athos..." he counted them off on his fingers and spun in his blue-white chair to look at her. "Two more-"
She bit her lip and tried to keep her mind on what she was doing.
"India..." Rodney continued to think as he spun again. "One more-"
"China," Sam replied finally. It wasn't worth it to fight him. She could have snapped and ruined his idea, but time was too short. She lifted her eyes and watched him spin his chair around again. "Atlantis has five scientists from China."
"They aren't all from Japan?" Rodney wondered as he came to a halt and started typing it into his computer. "I could have sworn-" He typed again and then looked up at her. "Alphabetical?"
"By time zone," Sam offered as she pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Have you ever interfaced with the Atlantis computer directly?"
"You mean that hologram?" Rodney asked over the rim of his coffee cup. "The patronizing one?"
"No, she corrected as she left her chair. Sam set down her coffee cup next to the pot of coffee and wished it was full again. The little hand on her watch read oh-three-hundred. They should sleep, of course, but neither of them were ready for that. "it says here there's another system. An interactive representation of the city itself. Something we can talk to."
"Why haven't we seen it already?" Rodney asked as he munched his way through a bag of pretzels.
"How many of those are left?" Sam wondered oddly watching the foil leave dancing patterns on the floor of the ship as the light reflected.
"Four," Rodney answered sadly as he popped another pretzel into his mouth. "But...they're less complicated than power bars. I'm sure we can-" He stopped suddenly and stared at her. "We had three ZPMs before we smashed up the city. Why wasn't this program active then?"
Sam shook her head wearily and yawned into her hand. "Look at this," she pointed as she reached for one of his pretzels. "Apparently we didn't ask."
Nearly spitting half-chewed pretzel mush across the bridge, Rodney stopped, reread what she'd pointed to and started to laugh. Sam glared at him through exhausted eyes. It wasn't funny.
Rodney set down the pretzels and wiped his eyes. He knew it wasn't funny. Sam could see it in his posture, but he was still giggling. "We didn't ask?"
"We didn't activate the system," Sam answered as she felt herself start to snort. "We never asked the city to speak to it. We didn't ask it to repair itself. If the Ancients were there it would be one of the first things they did, but we didn't ask."
Rodney slumped over in his chair, laughing in near hysteria as she started to giggle along with him. It was oh-three-hundred, the sockets of her eyes felt like someone had poured dust into them, but she couldn't help laughing along with him.
Two hours later they were there, standing on the darkened floor of the control room. Rodney took the lead, clinging to his computer and his thermos of coffee with equal determination he rushed across the catwalk to Elizabeth's office.
Sam's stomach turned at the smell of state air. The city was sleeping, waiting for them in the nebula like a faithful dog under the porch. "You should just have to ask for it."
Rodney was ahead of her. Standing in Elizabeth's office, staring at the wall and feeling like a pathetic, childish version of himself, Rodney set down his computer and looked up at the ceiling.
"Help me," he asked softly. "Atlantis, I don't know what I'm doing. I can't fix what's wrong. Help..."
Blue light poured from the floor and the ceiling equally and started to form a figure. Three ZPMs sang in harmony as the entire city came to brilliantly lit life.
A glimmering representation of Elizabeth Weir stood in front of Rodney and looked him over with a patient eye. "How may I assist you?" she asked in neatly clipped English.
Rodney's thermos bounced once on the floor of Elizabeth's office. Not-Elizabeth, the computer representation of Atlantis, bent and retrieved it for him. "I am in a state of disrepair," Not-Elizabeth announced calmly. "I require raw material components."
Sam rushed into the room behind Rodney. She hadn't thought it would be so quick. It was apparently so easy to fix what they'd flown billions of kilometers to ask. The Elizabeth staring at her didn't smile, didn't look as if she knew her and was most thankfully, not pregnant. Her holographic stomach was flat beneath her breasts and a white version of Elizabeth's red uniform top. Her eyes were off as well. Pupil-less white eyes stared back at her patiently.
"You are not Alterran," Not-Elizabeth accused her softly.
"She is a friend," Rodney interjected as he changed the subject back to the important one. "What material components do you require?"
"Metals, minerals, raw elemental forms," Not-Elizabeth answered as she looked over Sam quickly with her terrifyingly empty eyes. When she turned to Rodney she performed the same action, as if she was scanning him. "Lk-476 has been severely diluted a population of humans at your level of genetic development will have trouble managing Atlantis." She looked away for a moment, as if having another separate conversation in her mind.
"I need to enter hyperspace," Not-Elizabeth explained patiently as Sam's commlink began to crackle.
"Sir," her technician's tired voice had a note of panic. "We're being pulled down to the northern pier of the city. It's some kind of..."
"It's all right Lieutenant," Sam insisted immediately. "Just let it happen."
"The Artemis is docked and I am ready to enter hyperspace," Not-Elizabeth announced as she handed Rodney his thermos. "Do you wish to fly the city manually? If that is the case, please proceed to the control chair."
Rodney shook his head and stared at the hands that had just recently touched his. "Why do you look like Elizabeth?"
"The appearance of the interactive hologram always matches that of the Governor of Atlantis," Not-Elizabeth explained as she tilted her head and brought the city into hyperspace. Instead of the loping, swaying motion that John couldn't get out of the city when he flew it, it flew perfectly.
Rodney stared at the hologram and reached for her arm. Not-Elizabeth did not acknowledge the hands on her arm.
"How are you doing this?" Sam asked as she peered out the window in the gateroom. The stars were twisting awkwardly outside of it, and despite what they felt inside, Atlantis was flying like a wounded bird.
"I am continuously adjusting the internal gravity to match the direction of the ship," Not-Elizabeth, the Atlantean hologram Sam corrected herself, explained. "It is difficult, but this is a short journey."
The ship fell out of hyperspace and the deck shot up to meet all of them. The city creaked and rumbled it's displeasure. The hologram had remained on her feet, but her surprisingly solid hands reached down to help Sam and Rodney back to their feet. "The internal stabilizers are barely functioning," the hologram explained easily. "That was the best I could manage."
"Millions of calculations a second," Rodney whispered in awe as he checked himself for bruises. "Readjusting the gravity would mean millions of calculations a second and she still couldn't come out of it without stalling."
The lights dimmed around them, as if the power was being diverted somewhere else. The hologram led them to the screen in the control room and activated it with a look. "I will consume this asteroid belt for raw materials, it will take forty-six Tau'ri hours."
Rodney gave the hologram an odd look, but Sam was more comfortable with the terminology. Why a hologram designed by the Ancients was using it was not important as she watched the screen in astonishment. Asteroids, hundreds of them, were all moving towards the city. "I thought Tau'ri was a Goa'uld word?" Rodney muttered as he watched the asteroids start to disintegrate when a white beam of light from Atlantis hit them.
"Must be borrowed," Sam decided as she stared at the hologram of Elizabeth. She, if it could be called that, wasn't even slightly pregnant, as Elizabeth had been when she took the oath of office to the city. "Will I distract you if I speak?" she asked softly as Rodney left to get a better view.
"The nanites will handle the repairs without my interference," Not-Elizabeth answered easily as she turned her white eyes towards Sam. "My appearance is disconcerting to you."
"Elizabeth Weir is pregnant," Sam blurted out as she looked down quickly at her hands on the control panel.
"This hologram is not," Not-Elizabeth replied easily. "Tradition insists that I take on the appearance of the governor of Atlantis, I did not think taking on her medical conditions would be included in that tradition."
"Why the governor?" Sam asked as she forced herself to stare into the face of the woman across from her. It was going to be even more difficult to see the real Elizabeth. To stare at her and know that what had been an accident between Elizabeth and Colonel Sheppard had been denied to her and the man she loved. Jack deserved better.
"To facilitate immediate trust with the people of Atlantis," Not-Elizabeth explained as she closed her eyes for a moment. The lights of the city dimmed and Sam could feel systems shutting down around her. "The repairs require nearly all of the energy of your power modules. This repair would be accomplished more rapidly with the presence of more of the gene."
"LK-476?" Sam asked softly, her scientific mind was starting to wonder how that would work when the hologram explained for her.
"Alterran, Lantian-" the hologram corrected, "- technology depends on the presence of LK-476 to function. For many years the Lantians incorporated themselves into their city, building in systems that depended on their life force itself to function and it was not until..."
"...There were humans without it that you realized you might need another way to power the city," Sam realized as pieces started to fall into place in her head. "LK-476 is the gene that keys Atlantis into the life-force of the individual."
"It means their sub-atomic resonance is compatible with the power systems of the city, yes," the hologram explained with the patience of a grandmother. "Would you like to see the schematic designs of the subject?"
"Yes!" Sam exclaimed immediately forgetting her frustration. Sub-atomic resonance energy explained everything. It was of course purely theoretic, so far removed from human technology that it was myth rather than science, but now an image of the woman she couldn't help hating was telling her that fairy dust was real and could really make her fly. "Yes, please," she corrected as she stared at the screen. "You have no idea what this means..."
Atlantis, comfortably in the form of Elizabeth Weir, smiled softly. "Welcome home, friend of Alterra," she paused and found Sam's name in the human part of her database, " Colonel Samantha Carter iuro O'Neill."
"'Iuro' ?" Sam puzzled as she watched the Lantian computer dissect a particle of human DNA down into the sub-atomic into pieces she'd never seen before.
"To take an oath with," the hologram translated with a blank expression, "the Lantian way of signifying marriage."
"Right," Sam murmured as she forgot everything she'd known about biological resonance. The answers to everything from the existence of ZPMs, genetic components to technology, to the limitless power the Ancients would have needed to construct this city were unfolding in front of her and she was barely grasping how it worked. "How did they come up with this?"
"When all fossil fuels had been depleted, and population growth was severely limited to the point of near extinction-"
Sam couldn't help wondering what extreme measures the hologram was glossing over.
"-the first Alterrans to ascend gifted their people with this technology, so they would never again have to let something as simple as power dictate life and death. As long as there were Alterrans, there would be power."
Sam touched the screen and her lips parted in amazement. Beyond the sub-atomic, on the level of particle physics were nothing should be able to exist, something resonated within everything and one simple genetic marker was all it took to power the city. It was poetry on the same level as Da Vinci's masterpieces, or Mozart's opera. It was like looking into the face of God.
A cold shiver ran down her spine and Sam realized in an instant that was why the Wraith existed, why the Goa'uld had enslaved millions, this power had to find a balance in the universe. Pure energy couldn't exist without darkness. Light couldn't shine into light. For a moment she heard her father's voice in the back of her mind.
"Everything good has a cost, Sam."
one hundred forty-one days after Earth
Carson pulled himself back into his body and tried to shake the residual aching of his muscles. They weren't real, they were a projection of his mind meant to make him more presentable to his still-human friends; they weren't allowed to hurt. As he made his hands solid and met the eyes of his friends, he was immediately drawn to Elizabeth.
Sweat was already starting to bead up on her forehead, and when he reached out he could feel the virus multiplying in her bloodstream. Mab had been trying to make a difference, create the right combination of DNA that could rewire everything else. Bring LK-476 back as a dominant trait and bring this poor universe out of the darkness before it was too late.
Elizabeth wasn't quite strong enough. He could feel her immune system trying to fight the invader, responding to a virus her body couldn't possibly understand. She staggered and John's hand on her back caught her. Did John know what was happening? Would he ever understand how important he was? Why he had sat in that chair back a lifetime ago on Antarctica?
"I will be able to hold off the Wraith long enough for you to escape," Carson explained calmly to the shocked faces of those around him.
"Can't you just smack them out of existence?" Jack suggested with a venom Carson could feel in the air. Daniel nodded and Carson felt the ripples of agreement in everyone but Elizabeth.
It was happening too fast. He'd thought he'd have more time before he triggered the growth of the virus. Elizabeth's eyes were already starting to dim. He felt her sink against John and the rising panic in his friend.
He met John's eyes only when he nudged John with him mind and made him look up. "She can't be around me," Carson explained as calmly as he could. "The virus in her blood is unstable, imperfect, my presence resonates in a way that feeds it."
John bent to scoop her into his arms, something that took was going to take more effort than it once had. He wasn't sure where he was taking her. If getting her out of the room would be enough.
Elizabeth resisted him for a moment. "Carson?" she asked weakly as sweat glistened on her upper lip.
"It's all right love," he promised as he tried to reign in his powers as much as he possibly could. "I'll be gone in a moment."
"Gone where exactly?" Jack demanded with his general's tone.
"I need to use Imprimis to defend the planet," Carson explained as he stretched back out to the ancient city. Its shields were holding and it was maintaining orbit but only just. He couldn't divide himself much longer; he didn't have the practice. He wasn't strong enough. "If I defend this planet long enough, Atlantis will save you."
"Take us now," Elizabeth suggested as she sank to the floor. John's hands were on her shoulders, but she managed to lift her head on her own. "There's nothing- nothing here- worth fighting for." Her voice was a panting and Carson was impressed at how well she was fighting off the delirium.
"Imprimis lacks the energy to enter hyperspace again, even with you all aboard, I can't get enough power," Carson explained as he felt the confusion ripple through them all. "There isn't enough of the gene," he tried again to explain. Daniel looked as if Carson had triggered an old memory and for a second Carson debated with himself before he took a step forward.
Daniel's mind was calm and organized and in a moment of shared thoughts Daniel opened his eyes again with renewed understanding. "Not even with the villagers? All of them?"
Carson reached outward. In his hurry, he hadn't thought of the villagers. He hadn't considered that they would come willingly if he asked them. There was something to be said for their unconditional loyalty to ascended beings. Carson reached outward, losing the ability to hold his physical form together as his extremities dissolved into light. He felt Elizabeth's hand tighten painfully on John's arm and wished he could apologize properly for the hell he was putting her through.
John's face was tight with concern. Carson even thought it was a death glare he was getting out of the corner of his eye. All around him the peasants moved and breathed steadily without concern for the Wraith ships closing in on them. Some of the refugees from Earth had the right gene, and all of the peasants did, but was it enough?
Carson reached up for Imprimis, feeling for the ancient city like he was searching for a part of himself. The Imprimis computer responded slowly, like he had woken it from a long nap. That city was tired. Worn beyond her years and the fatigue of her metals, Imprimis had one final task. Atlantis had heard his distress signal. Atlantis was coming.
"It's not enough," Carson explained softly as he pulled his extremities back to himself. "Atlantis could hold them, but Imprimis is too old, too inefficient. Get everyone into the safest parts of the castle, as deep beneath stone as possible."
John lifted Elizabeth into his arms before she could protest. Chuck started to speak into the radio and people started to move.
Jack barked orders and people started to move. 'Leave whatever you don't need to keep on living and get your asses out of here," he snapped and held his rifle a little closer. "I'm going to need Marines," he reminded Cameron as the colonel started rallying the troops they had.
Carson felt the first few shots start to impact Imprimis' fragile shields and shuddered with the city. "I have to go," he announced to nearly deaf ears as he faded. "I will hold out as long as I can."
Elizabeth's eyes rolled back into her head and John wiped sweat from her forehead with the edge of his sleeve. She fought her way back to consciousness and forced her delirious eyes to lock on his face. "Where are we going?"
"Down where it's safe," John whispered into her ear as he tried to navigate the winding staircase without hitting her against the stone walls around them. "Just hold tight, we'll be down there soon."
She tightened a fevered hand on the back of his neck, but Elizabeth didn't respond to his voice.
Someone jostled him and John looked back over his shoulder at Simon. "Hold still for a moment," Simon asked softly as he reached for Elizabeth's wrist. He took her pulse as he tried to judge her temperature. "It's worse than before," he offered gently. "But she doesn't seem to be in any danger. It should pass when Carson moves on, as long as it's the same as before."
"Thank you," John offered as he straightened Elizabeth in his arms. "She responds when I ask her questions. She's listening."
Simon slipped past him in the staircase and smiled carefully as he tried to ignore the weight of the rifle in his hands. One of the marines must have pressed it into his hands and he had carried it all the way down into the cellars of the castle. John tried to ignore the burning of his arms and the weight of her body against his chest. Her hair smelled wetly of sweat, but the soft sweat of illness instead of exertion. Their child stirred within her and he felt it against his stomach.
John's body clamped down internally, tensing up in preparation for the fight to come. He could almost hear the Wraith stampeding down the stairs. Even with Elizabeth in his arms, his fingers itched for his weapon. Did he dare leave her and join the fight? Which was more important? Where did he belong?
"John?" her voice was soft, nearly lost in the rustling of bodies around them. "Carson can't," she murmured as she struggled to lift her head. "He can't, John--"
John stopped in the catacombs of the castle cellar and pulled her out of the way. Leaning back against the cool, dusty wall, he put his body between her and the refugees pushing past them. "Carson can't what?" John asked as he held her chin up so she could look at him.
"He can't fight her," Elizabeth insisted through her fever. "He's not-" her tongue licked across dry lips and she tried to shake herself back.
"He's not what?" John prompted her as he brushed damp hair away from her forehead. "Not what?" he demanded again when her eyes tried to close.
"I saw it," she swallowed and grabbed the front of his shirt impossibly tightly with her hand. "I saw what's going to happen, John-" Elizabeth pulled him closer. "John you have to stop him."
"Carson's okay," he pushed her back further out of the way between two barrels that seemed older than either of them. "He's got a whole city up there, he's going to be fine."
Elizabeth pushed off his shoulder and startled him as she tried to drag herself to her feet. Clinging to him and the wall behind her, she stood shakily for a moment before he had to grab her shoulders and keep her on her feet. "Carson," she insisted again as she tried to push him away. "You have to help--"
"And leave you here?" John asked rhetorically as he stared at her. Her eyes were starting to clear, but her stolen black t-shirt of his was still sticking to her skin. "You can't even stand up."
"It'll pass," she protested as she tried to straighten up. Elizabeth's hands were still trembling but her grip on his arm was steely with desperation. "Something's wrong up there," she pleaded as her hands crept up to his face.
"I didn't shave," John apologized vaguely as her hands brushed across the stubble on his cheek. "Sorry."
"It's all right," she whispered with the tiniest of smiles. "Carson," Elizabeth demanded again.
"I don't know what I can do," John replied seriously as he moved her hand to kiss it. "I can't get a hold of him. I don't have the right radio, I can't- I can't get up there."
She sank against the wall, weakening as her adrenaline faded. "He's not safe," she repeated as they sank together back to the floor. "I saw--"
Teyla stood on the command deck of the lead hive and watched as Michael led the preparations for the assault. Without Queen Mab to defend her planet, Ceol hung in the sky beneath her completely helpless.
"Your ground teams are ready, my queen," Michael announced as the report came in. "We are detecting just over two thousand humans, mostly beneath the surface. They do not appear to have any major weaponry."
Teyla smiled and stretched the talons on her hands. Perhaps the humans and their feeble planet would provide enough life to seed another child within her. She let the air seep out of her lungs and let them stay empty. Breathing wasn't exactly necessary anymore. Rolling her head across her shoulders, she looked out at the stars before her and felt for her family.
John's mind was a knot of concern and she was almost disappointed that he wasn't more prepared for the fight. Ronon's thoughts were quiet and nearly as hungry as her own. Teyla's eyes flicked across Michael's back and she toyed with the idea of taking a second consort. Ronon's ingrained hatred of the Wraith might make turning him more difficult than Sheppard.
There were minds she recognized vaguely. The resolve of Colonel Mitchell, and the plotting of General O'Neill weren't entirely familiar. Zelenka was busying himself with something and Rodney was strangely absent. Teyla's eyebrows narrowed as she pushed her abilities further.
Elizabeth's mind was a maelstrom. Teyla felt a rush of heat run through her body as soon as she touched it. Elizabeth was barely conscious, and her mind didn't even notice the intrusion. Teyla knew her way as she searched Elizabeth's memory.
Atlantis was absent. The city was still in disrepair and it was going to be almost too easy to take everything and finally put an end to the human problem. The Wraith were the true descendants of the Ancestors. Teyla filled her chest with air and opened her eyes.
"Begin," she purred low enough that only Michael heard her. He repeated the order louder and Teyla could feel her people attacking their duties with the joy of the hunt fresh in their hearts.
"I will lead the ground assault personally," she instructed Michael as her ships fell into orbit.
He replied, but she missed his words as something tickled in her mind. Her order to raise their shields came only a moment before the bombardment begin in earnest.
One of the missing minds, someone she'd thought was simply with Rodney on some mission of mercy, blinded her with power. Carson, sweet, naive Carson, was flying a city ship as if he had been born to it. As he brought the city out of the shadow of Ceol's second moon, Teyla felt the familiar longing for the silhouette that had once been her home.
Carson's city was no Atlantis. The ship that was firing on her was so old it didn't even have drones to throw at her darts. The city felt like rough stone as she ran her mind over it.
Dropping into herself, Teyla called on her reserves of strength. Bypassing Michael and the crew of her ship and each ship around her, she took direct control. Carson was flying his ship as an extension of himself, and to beat him she needed to outfly him on that level.
Her darts were ineffective against his shield. Her cruisers were worthless against his ion cannons. Two hive ships began their attack run, but Teyla felt one of the start to disintegrate as soon as it got within range of the great particle cannons of the old city. Teyla felt Carson's flash of triumph and used it as one of her hives burst into burning fragments in black space.
Sending the other two in an immediate, spiraling attack from beneath, she managed to keep them out of the worst of his weapons fire. Carson started to turn his city; moving to get a better shot at her only left his understand vulnerable. His city shuddered as her hives punched through his shields. She could feel air starting to leek into space from his vessel and fed on that.
"Launch the ground teams," Teyla demanded and her voice rang through the mind of each Wraith. Her people hurried to obey, feeling her strength in their veins as they set to their tasks. When she let go of herself she could feel their need for the hunt filling them with purpose. She shared her pride and her quiet resolve that they would overcome everything that lay before them.
Feeling the drone's minds turn from stone to molten lust for the hunt, Teyla set them free on the planet. She paid for the moment's distraction when Carson destroyed another cruiser. Her daughter, seventh and youngest, died when her vessel exploded into the emptiness of space.
Screaming her frustration and grief into the air, Teyla felt outward with her mind. If the old city proved too much for her offenses, the planet would just have to fall that much quicker.
Jack threw himself behind a snow-covered rock and fired one of the precious anti-aircraft guns at the Wraith dart. His first few shots missed the mark, but he tracked onto the ship and it fell from the sky in a burning arc. Behind that one, more than he could count raced towards them, culling beams screaming beneath them as they tried to burn through the rock.
He fired again, and managed to take down another one but the pale blue winter sky was dark with ships. Cameron sank into the snow next to him, firing as he fell. Jack hadn't even seen the explosion, but he felt the heat melt some of the snow around it. Smoke burned acrid in his mouth as he looked for the rest of the front lines. Lorne and the marines would holding their own, but the Wraith kept coming. For each ship they knocked out of the sky, three more came to rain fire down on them.
Jack didn't see how the first death happened, but he saw one of the Wraith ships pick up three of the line and knew how those men would die. He slammed the shells into his gun and kept firing. He wasn't going to die like that. He was going to die old, older, wrinkled and staring at the most beautiful woman in the world.
"I asked Jeannie to marry me," Cameron offered as he passed a set of shells over through the snow.
Jack grunted and watched a dart take out part of the castle wall as it fell from the sky. "Did you mean it?"
Cameron shrugged and fired. "Yeah, I really did," he admitted as he flashed a quick smile. "Should be all right."
Jack shrugged along with one of the men he'd be proud to call brother and looked him over with new respect. "So far, so good," he offered of his own marriage. "Get bigger blankets than you think you need."
"Go up there," Elizabeth whispered as she pushed John away from her. "You're a good shot, they'll need you."
He looked around the huddled refugees. Two military officers, techs by the look of their suits, held P90s and stood at the doorway. "They're science geeks with guns, and they-" he lowered his head to her shoulder, "-are a bunch of peasants and sub-urbanites. I can't leave you down here." Down at the end of the room were the stretchers and the wounded. The only smell that cut through the dust of the cellar was that of fresh blood.
John glanced over and watched as Simon tried to keep one of the expedition members, Doctor Sylvana of the geology department, from losing her leg. "I can't," he repeated as Elizabeth tried to push him away.
"Are you doing more good here, watching me, than you could up there?" she begged him to explain as she finally got her eyes to focus on his face. Elizabeth dropped one hand to her belly and John followed it with his eyes. "I think I freaked him, her, out a little bit."
"Well, the baby's not the only one," John admitted as forced himself to stop biting his lip. "You were pretty gone there for awhile."
Elizabeth leaned back and closed her eyes as she guided his hand to the sore spot just over what he assumed was a baby foot. "It's like getting pushed out of reality," she murmured before she opened her eyes. "I could hear everything but it was all mushed together. Carson talking and worrying, Teyla-" she suddenly tightened her grip on his hand. "I could hear her voice."
"She's probably leading the attack," John agreed as a chill crept into his bones. He had to get up there, if only just to see what Teyla had become. "I can't leave you down here. If Carson comes back you won't even know what's going on. You'll--"
Elizabeth's finger covered his lips. "Jeannie's down here, so is Simon and the medical staff. If I'm going to pass out and lose myself again, this is the place to do it."
John tried to ignore the icy fingers running up through his chest. "Don't say that," he insisted as he kissed the damp skin of her forehead. "I can't leave you like this."
"You can't protect me down here either," Elizabeth pointed out as she shifted slightly against the wall.
"If the Wraith come down those stairs..." John began to shake his head.
"If the Wraith come down those stairs," Elizabeth repeated with incredible calm. "We'll both die. If you're here, you'll die with me, and if you're up there, you'll already be dead." She patted his cheek, but it only intensified the horror of what she was saying. "You'd die before they got to me either way. John," she licked her lips again and fought for resolve, "You up there is the best way because that's where you belong."
He shoved the rifle into her hands, bending her trembling fingers around the grip. John read everything he needed to know in her eyes. Elizabeth believed something he was having trouble grasping. She'd already accepted that they might both not live to see their baby draw breath. He couldn't face that thought. He couldn't even think that thought and there was calm in her eyes.
"Be here when I get back?" he asked softly feeling the question fall to the ground like a spent shell casing.
"You just make damn sure you come back," Elizabeth answered with her lips on his cheek.
He started to speak but failed. John usually managed to come up with some kind of witty remark and he waited for his mind to come up with something. His eyes scorched her into his mind. Her hair had gotten so long that curls tumbled down to her swollen breasts, breasts that were full and ripe beneath his black t-shirt, beneath that was her belly, their child and his rifle. Her hands were steady as she clutched the P90. Sweat was still drying to dampness on her skin, but her fingers were in all the right places.
When he still failed to speak, Elizabeth kissed him again, and this time her tongue lingered against his lip. Elizabeth was a taste all her own. Tonight, she was salty with sweat and fear but he was going to remember the resolve in her brilliant green eyes. Eyes that never faltered when they looked at him.
Carson sat in the control chair, at least, that was what he would be doing were he still tied to his body. When Teyla stood across from him, she saw only light. He was awash with it, filled with it inside and out. His body had faded more than hers and she wondered if that was what made him different. His flesh was purer, more wholesome because he had ascended on the right terms.
He was pure and she was the parasite. Teyla felt outward with her mind. He was so involved in fighting her hive ships that he hadn't even noticed her approach. He hadn't felt her in the inner sanctum of the city and he was completely defenseless before her. He might be able to pretend at being a warrior when he had the power of Imprimis behind him, but Carson was no fighter.
His mind would certainly be no match for hers. Teyla found Michael and told him to concentrate all his attention on the planet. The distraction would certainly be enough to keep him occupied. Even once he began to struggle with her, Carson would never forgive himself if his self-preservation cost even one life on the planet.
Teyla took a last look around the old city before she steeled herself for the attack. Unlike the welcoming walls of Atlantis, Imprimis was old enough to have the appearance of stone. Some of it even was stone, precious bricks hewn from the soil of the original home planet of the Ancestors. A planet dead so long that even it's star was starting to falter.
The whispers of the Ancestors were in her mind as she pounced. To his credit, Carson was more aware then he seemed. The light of his body faded and he jumped away, more nimble now than he ever had been as a human. He watched her as she picked herself up. His face was quiet as she roared her strength to the stones of the city.
He dodged when she came again. He knocked her hands aside when she reached for his chest. Carson's mental shields were better than she expected. Mab's mind had been chaotic, unfocused, but Carson's was patient and neat. His weaknesses weren't obvious. When she brought the full force of her mind to bear against him, she impacted against his control and ran off like water.
Teyla hissed and felt for his weakness. Carson just stared her down, still patient, still. Perhaps he would just be able to wait it out and sit behind his walls until her energy was spent. She threw herself at him again, but it was half-hearted. She felt him begin to relax. He took some of his energy away from her and directed Imprimis back into the fray.
She reached into the wellspring of the Wraith, reaching down to her humblest of servants and attaching herself. It was a longshot. Perhaps Michael was right and she wasn't strong enough to feed on a truly Ascended being.
Teyla didn't give up. Long years of fighting the Wraith had taught her that sometimes the last resort was the best plan of all. As mother to all her people, she asked for their help.
Willingly, even eagerly, they began to give.
John seemed to have reached the party just as it was ending. He took a anti-aircraft rifle from the hands of a dead marine and closed her eyes as he took her package of shells. He took aim at a dart only to have it suddenly break off. John searched the sky, but they were all pulling away. Slinging the heavy gun over his shoulder, he dared the run across open ground and made his way to the ridge.
Dropping to the snowy ground behind an old stone wall, he turned to Jack and Cameron. "Are we winning this?"
"We shouldn't be," Cameron offered as he wiped blood from his forehead. A Wraith shot had gotten a little close, John realized as he looked down the line. Lorne was down, but he could see the major's chest moving. Daniel was down too, but Vala hovered over his body with two P90s in hand.
"Get the wounded below," Jack snapped and his voice carried in the wind. "Make the most of our lunchbreak."
Cameron wiped the rest of the blood clear from his eyes and shook his head. "I'm staying," he insisted as Jack looked him over. Zelenka and one of the Genii who had lived dragged Lorne below. Vala stopped the men who came to move Daniel. Jack looked to Cameron before he nodded his okay. Trust ran in silent lines through the defenders. Cameron knew those from Earth and John commanded Atlantis, but everyone deferred to Jack. Jack was their general, their lion.
"General," Caldwell's clipped voice broke the silence. "Imprimis has stopped attacking and all the Wraith ships seem to be waiting for something."
"You mean they're just sitting there?" Jack demanded into his radio incredulously.
"Every ship is at a standstill," Caldwell clarified. John pictured him starting at the monitors of his ship with the same look Jack had.
"What the-" Cameron muttered under his breath.
"We should check the city," John suggested as Elizabeth's delirious mutterings weighed heavily on his mind. Teyla wouldn't stop. The Wraith wouldn't stop.
"Can't trust doctors with anything," Jack complained as he weighed the situation. "Mitchell, you're the man down here, keep me informed if anything changes. Sheppard, you know these cities better than anyone, you're with me." He touched his radio and looked skyward.
"Don't suppose we could get a lift up there?"
By the time they materialized in the chair room on Imprimis, it was over. John barely had time to look over the strangely familiar, though ancient walls of Imprimis before he heard Teyla's laughter.
it had been months since he'd seen her, and in that time she had been lost. Her eyes were black and bottomless, like the Wraith. Her fingers were long and ended in talons and her skin glowed grey-green and wet in the weak blue light. Light crackled within her, like a captive storm and as her eyes met his, she continued to laugh.
Carson stood across from her and his gaze was fixed on her face. He was full of the preternatural calm that came with being ascended. The sense of everything filled him with the patience that he would overcome. That the light would win out. She tossed her head and heavy brown curls hovered in the air a moment before she dissolved into light. Tinged with green, Teyla's light engulfed him. It surrounded him and blocked him from view. She got brighter, completely hiding Carson and glistening off the stone walls of the city.
The air itself started crackle, as if it was filled with electricity. It started to stink of ozone and John wondered if they'd both survive what was about to happen. At his side the general lowered his gun and looked over at the chair. They needed this city to hold off the ground assault. Neither of them were paying attention, one of them could slip by.
John had more experience as a pilot of the city. He didn't doubt Jack could do it, but he was the better choice. He tried to ignore the prickling sensation that covered his skin when he got too close to the ball of light. He couldn't see so he felt forward with his hands. He found the arm of the chair first, then the base; when he started to sit something broke.
He felt the shockwave cut through his body, heard Jack grunt as he felt the same thing, and tasted blood in his mouth. His body hurt as if he'd been torn through a thunderstorm. His eyes were burning as his vision started to return. John's retina's let the light came back in reverse. At first Teyla appeared as a dark spot, but she was only there for a moment. Instead of her, he only saw a figure made of light. When his vision began to improve, they were both gone.
Rodney couldn't believe what he was seeing. He stood safely behind a force field as nanites reassembled the city. Nanites that could have saved him weeks of time if he had just known about them earlier. He shook his head in disgust and kept watching as the girders extended themselves into space. He couldn't see the actual nanites, but he could picture them realigning the asteroids into metal and crystalline structures.
Atlantis would live again. They'd rescue what was left of humanity and build a new world. He smiled to himself and realized Elizabeth was starting to get to him.
Rodney felt something touch his shoulder and he turned, expecting Sam or maybe if she was lost, Jennifer.
Instead of either woman, Carson smiled at him. "City going to be okay?" he asked peacefully.
"These nanites are amazing, in less than twelve hours the city will be completely repaired and Elizabeth- well, she's not Elizabeth really she just looks like Elizabeth but she--" Rodney babbled in excitement as he watched chaos become function. "How'd you?" he realized with a start.
"Ascended," Carson shrugged as he tucked his hands into the pockets of his uniform pants. His uniform looked better than Rodney remembered. Carson was clean shaven, and smiling as if he knew the answers to everything. "Queen Mab and I, and then I, well--" he let it remain unsaid.
"Shouldn't you be do something more important?" Rodney asked as he started to get suspicious. "Like not scaring the hell out of your friends."
"You're my best friend, Rodney," Carson's eyes were soft for a moment. "You know that, right?"
"Of course I know that," Rodney answered with quick annoyance. "What are you talking about?"
"Nothing," Carson's smile only grew brighter. "Take care of yourself, okay?"
Rodney whirled back to his friend, dropping his computer as he realized Carson was gone. He pounded his radio, sending a rush of pain through his ear as he activated it.
"Carter, Carter we need to get back to the planet."
Her reply was dull. "We'll have repairs completed in twelve hours, Rodney, can it wait?"
"Carson just came to see me," he started to explain as he picked up the computer and started jogging up towards command. "Carson just came to say goodbye--"
He held the computer to his chest and started to run. "Get the damn hologram, ask her if we can reach hyperspace yet, ask her if we can halt the repairs, ask her--"
All of humanity was waiting on a god-forsaken planet, and he had precious little time to save them. He couldn't face Carson being gone, so his mind focused on the one thing that could drive him to be his best. Once again, Rodney McKay had to save the world.
Heavy feet were coming down the stairs. Elizabeth could feel the vibration as she dragged herself up with her hand on the wall. She was still too weak to stand on her own, but she had too. She lifted the incredible weight of the P90 and aimed it at the doorway.
Jeannie surprised her as she came up behind her and took a place at her side. The magazine clicked as Jeannie checked her gun. "No one gets past us," Jeannie promised through tight lips as Elizabeth looked for Madison. The little girl was hiding beneath one of the sheets on one of Simon's gurneys. The doctor took a moment to smile at Madison before he keep working on the stitches on Major Lorne's shoulder.
Elizabeth heard her own heart beating in her ears and her blood was impossibly loud. The last three times it had been marines. They wouldn't be that lucky, would they? She wrapped her finger around the trigger, hearing John's voice remind her how to squeeze instead of pulling; how to aim ahead of her target.
In her belly, their child was still. Maybe she slept, or maybe he could sense her terror. Elizabeth spared a thought to thank her child for being with her for the time they had.
At the end of her gun was another gun, and Vala Mal Doran pushed through ahead of the men carrying Daniel Jackson. "The Wraith just stopped, some of the darts started falling out of the sky."
Ladon was behind her and his expression was more predatory. "The Wraith inside are dead, drained, as if they had started feeding on themselves." He helped Simon's medics maneuver in the crowded cellar.
Beside her, Jeannie lowered her rifle just a bit. "Just like that?"
"We've been making sure they're going to stay dead," Vala explained as Elizabeth noticed the black blood on her hands and clothing. A knife at her side was still dripping black goo onto the stone. "I don't like it."
Ladon shook his head and made way for Zelenka and more wounded. "General O'Neill and Colonel Sheppard went up to the city when it stopped moving. I hope your Carson is still all right."
"Have you heard from Colonel Caldwell?" Elizabeth forced herself to ask. John was in the line of fire, trapped on some impossibly ancient city with only million year old shields between him and the frigid eternity of space.
Ladon and Vala both shook their heads. "We're taking the able back up to the surface," Ladon explained as he reloaded his gun. "We'll try to keep in radio contact."
"You feeling better?" Vala asked as she took the time to clean the bloody knife on her uniform pants. "You look better."
Elizabeth hadn't noticed but her hands were steady and the incredible exhaustion that had come with her fever had left her mind. Carson being in orbit hadn't been enough for her to feel better. If being that far away wasn't enough, why did she suddenly feel better now?
Radios crackled on all of their chests. The stone made Caldwell's signal weaker than it should have been. "...system...retreating, I repeat, Atlantis...tem...the Wraith are retreating."
Vala answered Caldwell and Elizabeth turned away. Her eyes were starting to tear up. Atlantis. Caldwell had seen Atlantis, not the old city, but the living Atlantis. It was a fluke. She had to feel better because she was getting over the virus. Atlantis was back and they were going home.
All of them.