Yes, I know, it's late. Yes, I know, it's shorter than I would like. Yes, I know, I suck. To be fair, though, this chapter was a bitch to write. Plus my basement flooded. Which sucks even more than I do.
Quick question: I'm pretty sure I already have a good idea, but if Daniel Jackson were to show up in this fic- like next chapter- what if any power would be best for him? Just make one up, it's what I've been doing.
Disclaimer: me no own.
----
Chapter Four- Learning- of the Wraith, the Ancients, the Stargate, and General Jack O'Neill
A less patient woman might have gotten annoyed by now.
Elizabeth threaded her fingers together, hands in front of her, and took a measured three steps in one direction. Then she turned to the left and walked the same distance, then turned left again. Soon she was repeatedly etching a neat little square into the carpet, too controlled to be true pacing yet too systematic to be anything but. Her cell phone sat on the corner of the nearby desk, silent and still. She wasn't worried- Evan Lorne had already called and told her of their success.
Beside the phone was a framed picture, glass side facing away from her. She stopped moving to regard it properly. The man who lived in this particular apartment was not an emotional, nostalgic person; a picture in such a place of honor and meaning was incongruous. She reached out to pick it up and started to turn it around.
"You've been here for an hour and you're only now getting nosy?" a sharp voice asked. She started and twisted around to face the newcomer, whom she recognized immediately. As she watched he removed the hand that had been resting on the butt of his holstered gun. "Guess that means the stuff in my sock drawer's safe."
Brigadier General Jack O'Neill was aware. He had figured it out for himself; during his long and storied career with the Air Force he had been to at least three places with free power, and the weird shit that happened there and to the people who went there even after they left had been too much for him. He'd started nosing around, asking questions and paying attention, and one day Elizabeth had been in one of her stores- the one in Cincinnati, to be specific- and he'd walked in and told her he knew what she was and what she could do. It had been the first and last time in her life that she had been so completely blindsided.
O'Neill was what Ronon Dex called a blind- he could not be sensed, seen, or otherwise affected by the power. It was as if he simply wasn't there. Even the most powerful of spells slid right off him without hitch. The day he had met Rodney McKay, he nearly destroyed the Keeper's safe zone by simply strolling in. They'd managed to calm Rodney down then before he worked himself up into a truly impressive fit, but it had been a close call. O'Neill's unusual gift wasn't really a power at all but it could still be used all the same- their various enemies had to use conventional means to ferret out his identity instead of scrying or using any power-based searches. So far none of them had proven themselves innovative enough to figure that out on their own.
Somehow this particular gift allowed O'Neill a clear shot up to general and landed him in charge of the network he had been more or less spying on. To this day he still maintained that he had no idea how that had managed to work out. Elizabeth, who had been a part of the large and complicated world of power and its users her entire life, had wondered the same thing herself. Like O'Neill, though, she didn't ask too many questions. He was useful and well-connected and trustworthy and there. No point in looking a gift horse in the mouth.
Elizabeth placed the picture back on the desk without looking at it. O'Neill strode past her and casually tipped it over so the picture side was flat on the desk. "I'd ask how you got in, but I don't think I'm gonna like the answer."
There was a brief silence here. Elizabeth got the feeling she was supposed to tell him anyways. She didn't say anything. He looked at her, watched her, then groaned.
"All right, fine. How'd you get in?"
"I have a key," she said easily, trying not to smile. He frowned and she held up her keychain. "Daniel gave it to me."
"Daniel gave it to her. Gonna have to have a nice long chat with Daniel sometime soon." O'Neill muttered to himself. He caught her elbow and guided her out of the office, depositing her on the couch in the living room and heading into the kitchen. A moment later he reappeared with two bottles of Bud Lite. Elizabeth accepted one and immediately set it aside. O'Neill draped himself across the recliner and drained half his beer in two long swallows.
"So," he said finally, studying the brown glass bottle in his hand. "Heard you were pulling a Houdini. Any particular reason you decided to hide out in my apartment?"
She didn't ask how he knew she had decided to vanish for a while. There was no point, really, because just as she had her ways he had his and he was no keener on sharing with the class than she was. She had gotten used to his covertly checking up on her a long time ago.
"Rodney is alive," she said, partly because it was important for him to know and partly to see how much he already knew. He nodded once and gestured for her to continue. "He's back at the house now with Teyla and Sheppard, as well as Ronon." Another pause, no reaction. This was unusual- the military aspect of their network wasn't very fond of Ronon Dex. "The plan is for them to stay there until told otherwise. Being near a Keeper and a Warder should help John's powers stabilize quickly and without incident."
"Without more incidents, you mean."
It had to be Lorne reporting in to both of them. It didn't bother her- he was Air Force, which made for split loyalties- she just hadn't thought he even knew who O'Neill was. It was the general's call, not hers, so she let it be.
"The woman who tried to kill Rodney was Genii," she said instead. O'Neill nearly spat out a mouthful of beer.
The Genii had yet to prove themselves a real threat to anyone, but that wasn't for lack of trying. They were being very careful to stay just under the radar and were doing a maddeningly good job of avoiding attention. Most refugees that came through the 'gate knew next to nothing about the Genii, but those from the more advanced societies- like Sateda- had borne chilling rumors of arms dealers and mercenaries and double-crossers. Nothing solid, no real reason to deny them safe harbor on Earth, but enough to warrant keeping an eye on them.
Going after a Keeper, which qualified as one of the dirtiest moves in the book, warranted a lot more than that.
"Dex tell you that?" the general asked, recovering fairly well. Elizabeth nodded and edged her beer over towards him. He glanced at it, shook his own bottle and realized it was empty, and leaned over to take it.
"He would know best," Elizabeth confirmed. O'Neill grunted but didn't rise to the bait.
"Then we have a problem," he said instead. She sighed tiredly. They had plenty of problems. Looming threat of Wraith invasion, since it was almost criminally stupid to assume Earth could avoid notice forever. A rapidly advancing society that constantly verged on exposing the truth. Power that was expanding beyond normal rates, producing wild powers and giving people abilities they'd never heard of before. And now the Genii were making their move.
"So what do we do?" she asked. Division of responsibility between the two had left her acting as something of a politician, governing the people in the network, while he played up the military aspect and protected them. It had been divided that way due to personal preference and really had very little to do with the fact that O'Neill himself could be most easily described as 'antagonistic'. Therefore this was his problem and she acknowledged his lead.
"What we need to," O'Neill answered flatly. His tone chilled her almost as much as the words themselves. Open war between the networks never ended well, but letting the Genii get away with attempted assassination would be doing no one any favors.
"Then we need to call in reinforcements," she offered cautiously. He tilted his head to the side and studied her.
"You suggesting something here, Doctor Weir? Something like combining networks?"
"The Genii are not natives of Earth. Most likely we're far from the only enemy they've made."
"You know why they're targeting us," O'Neill said quietly, not letting her deny or ignore the truth, and she sighed.
"The Stargate," she replied, equally quiet.
Their network had stumbled across the ancient device about fifty years ago. In the decades since, it had become apparent that the Stargate- or at least Earth's Stargate- was very much a one-way window. While refugees from other worlds reported being able to use their world's 'gate to wander an entire linked network of planets, Earth's 'gate only opened from off-world. Leaving the planet was, as yet, impossible. The Genii seemed to think they could change that. If they could or not, Elizabeth didn't much care. She wasn't handing over her planet's Stargate to a group of people who had only been on Earth for four years.
"So... you go and chat up the other network heads, and me? Business as usual?"
Elizabeth rose to her feet and gazed down at the man in front of her. He could almost be mistaken as a tired old bastard- a laughably false image. Power and age be damned; he was still one of the most dangerous people she had ever met.
"Business as usual," she agreed.
---
In a Keeper's house, nothing went unnoticed for too long. When Teyla found the boxes piled in the back corner of the garage in what was clear banishment, she knew Rodney would be along soon. She was right.
"Rodney, what is this?" She looked at him, hovering in the doorway, and held up a string of lights. Rodney paused, clearly trying to decide if he was going to turn and run or try to chase her away from the boxes before too many evil ideas could be formed.
"Jeannie bought it all," he said instead. "She's, you know, into the whole holiday thing."
"Then why don't you-"
"Because I don't want to," he interrupted, staring at the boxes as if he couldn't meet her gaze. Teyla looked at the box she had opened, then sighed and closed it. She knew Rodney well enough to know how desperately out of her depth she was with him, and that was pretty much it. He respected her, respected her power, was slightly afraid that every time he said something inappropriate she would whack him on the back of the head with her sticks and therefore attempted to restrain himself around her. Most people mistook this as her having some sort of ability to influence or control him.
"How is John? He seems to be having a good deal less trouble with this than Elizabeth thought he would." She stepped away from the boxes and walked to the door, watching Rodney relax a little more with every step.
"Oh, he's just fine. I gave him some of Radek's cleaning compound and the first thing he does is call it 'magic soap'. He's using it now." Pause, smirk. "Maybe."
Teyla couldn't help but smile at that. The 'maybe' could mean anything, but most likely it was some form of retribution on Rodney's part. She would probably never understand the Earth peoples' refusal to call it magic. Then again, she would probably never understand how Earth had managed to reach such an advanced level of civilization, or how its people could be so blind to the vast power its planet had.
Except she understood it completely. Earth had advantages no other planet did: it had been home, however long ago, to the Ancestors, and it had never suffered the wrath of the nameless ones.
"Evan Lorne just called," she said to distract herself from those thoughts. "Everything is being taken care of. He found your car and is bringing it here, as well as supplies for us."
McKay sighed and rolled his shoulders. "Great. Thus begins the term of indefinite house arrest. Which, ironically, I submit myself to voluntarily all the time, yet now that I'm told I can't leave, I find myself wanting more than anything to get out."
Teyla nodded and smiled in sympathy. She knew she would be getting restless within a few days, but Rodney's contrary nature was no doubt already encouraging him to do exactly the opposite of what he was ordered to do. Ronon and John were far more difficult to predict. Of all the ways to keep John safe, the combined efforts of a Warder and a Keeper were probably the best way to go. They would have to convince him to stay here for as long as it took him to learn to control his power.
Ronon, on the other hand, was apparently free to come and go as he pleased. Hopefully he understood what such an open-door policy meant when dealing with Rodney. Whether he did or not, though, he was in no hurry to leave himself. He had just thrown in his lot with Elizabeth Weir's network yet wasn't actually a part of it, and in doing so he had probably made the Genii very angry. To walk away from this place, where he was safe and, allowed if not welcomed, would be as good as killing himself. And Ronon Dex had made surviving his specialty.
Teyla found herself following the gravel pathway back to the pool house. Rodney drifted after her for a moment, then stopped and pivoted on one foot to glare at the main house. No doubt Ronon was up to something Rodney wasn't too keen on.
"I will bring John up to the main house," Teyla offered. "Doubtless he will have many questions that need answering, and we have many things to explain that he won't know to ask about. It would be best if I handled that part, since you and Ronon..."
"Suck at people stuff. Yeah, I got it."
Not quite how Teyla would have put it, but she had been something of a diplomat for her people and therefore understood the definition of 'tact'. She gave a half-nod. "Do you have food or should I call Evan and request he pick up a few things?"
"No, I have- stuff. Some stuff. Jeannie bought it. I threw out a few things but- hey, I had a five-year-old running around my house for two and a half weeks, I have at least peanut butter and jelly."
Making a mental note to call Evan and ask him to bring some real food when he came out, Teyla nodded and smiled. Rodney turned to head back up to the main house while she continued down the path.
John was out of the shower, dressed, and wandering down the stairs scrubbing at his hair with a towel when she walked into the main hall. He yanked the towel off his head and shot her a cocky smirk.
"So how am I now?" he asked.
"Much better," she said, and meant it, at least in regards to his aura. Judging by his current physical appearance- borrowed clothes, hair even more rebellious than normal- he most likely wasn't referring to how he looked. She half-turned to indicate the door behind her. "There should be something to eat in the main house if you are hungry, and knowing Rodney there will certainly be coffee."
"Food sounds good," John replied, laid-back and controlled as always, as though he hadn't brightened at the mere suggestion. Teyla tried not to wince as she thought of how hungry he must be. He hadn't eaten at all when she'd had the control glamour over him- she'd had other things to worry about- and using the power was a large strain on the body.
For the fourth time that day Teyla followed the path around the lawn and into the main house. From somewhere near the rear of the house she could hear a television set blaring loudly and Rodney yelling even louder. She caught a glimpse of him through the doorway, pacing and gesturing wildly with one hand. He was on the phone. Snatches of words filtered through to her, including barbarian and media-slave and similar such endearments.
John made a beeline for the kitchen, either following the smell of coffee or simply operating on instinct. By the time Teyla caught up with him he was sitting on the counter and inhaling what must have been the world's fastest-made turkey sandwich. He didn't quite swallow before he started talking to her, which was considered rude on every planet she had heard of to date.
"So how long am I gonna be staying here?" he asked, chasing down the last few bites with a few gulps of coffee. He reached over to the coffeepot and refilled his mug, then hopped off the counter and set about making himself another sandwich.
"You are free to go whenever you wish," Teyla replied carefully. "However, I would strongly suggest you stay here, at least for a short while. It will be much safer, both for yourself and for the people around you."
"You're the people around me," John pointed out, tossing a suspicious glance over his shoulder as he pulled the package of turkey out of the refrigerator.
"We are also more capable of protecting ourselves from your power, should it lash out again."
"Didn't look like it the first time." Having finished making his sandwich, he tossed the turkey back into the refrigerator and bumped the door closed with a hip.
"Good thing I'm still here then," Ronon cut in smoothly. He reached around Teyla to snatch up the sandwich before John could grab it away. There was still very little movement in his right arm, but as Teyla watched, his fingers flexed and curled into a fist, an unspoken answer to her unasked question.
"Hey!" John protested, scowling at the Satedan yet obviously knowing better than to try to retrieve his stolen meal. Instead he grunted and set about making yet another sandwich, pausing long enough to shake a slice of bread at Ronon in what could not have possibly been intended as an intimidating manner. "You could have at least asked."
Teyla chose to ignore him and instead turned to Ronon. "Then you intend to stay here, Ronon?" she asked. He shrugged carelessly in return, which most likely meant that he would stay as long as other people kept feeding him.
"So I take it he's not actually a part of your little... group, then," John interpreted, gesturing to indicate Ronon as he spoke.
"It is called a network, and he is not," Teyla answered. "But he is a friend and welcome to join anytime."
"Don't wanna," Ronon grunted, sounding very much like an oversized child being asked to share his favorite toy. Exactly why he 'didn't wanna' had yet to be made clear.
"Right. Network. Where's Elizabeth figure into all this?" John continued, ignoring the side conversation.
"She is one of the heads of our network. She controls the civilian branch."
"As opposed to..." he prompted. Teyla frowned in confusion, and he explained. "If she's in command of the civilian branch, that means there's a non-civilian branch, which would be what headed by who?"
"As opposed to the military, CO Brigadier General Jack O'Neill of the United States Air Force," Rodney snapped off rapid-fire as he walked in. He smirked as John's eyes went wide.
"General?" he echoed weakly, staring at all three of them. "Christ almighty, how many of you are there?"
"I don't know, about one hundred?" Rodney waved a dismissive hand. "On the civilian side, that is. I don't know about the military, I don't really pay attention to them. Or are you talking about the aware, not just out network?"
John just nodded, which wasn't really an answer, but Rodney appeared to understand it anyways.
"Uh, all the aware on this planet, about... ten million? About two-thirds of which actually have a power. O'Neill doesn't, by the way, which ought to make you feel better."
"Why?" John blurted. "I mean, how did you people even pull that off? Getting a general on your side-"
"We bought him off when he was a lowly corporal," Rodney snipped irritably. "Then we helped him get through the ranks by bribing his superiors and putting the whammy on anyone who said something."
"General O'Neill found us," Teyla spoke over Rodney. "He is a smart man, and he noticed... things. He and Elizabeth agreed to share command of our network."
"So you people are everywhere," John muttered. "Like cockroaches." He shuddered.
"Stop it with the 'you people'," Rodney snapped. "'Us people' saved your scrawny ass when your power was trying to kill you. You're welcome, by the way, no need to worry about it, we only had the Genii declare war on us-"
"Wait a minute. Back up." John made a slicing motion with his hand. "Back up. When you said ten million people are aware... on this planet?"
There was a long, awkward pause at that. Then Rodney huffed in exasperation and turned to Teyla.
"You really didn't tell him anything at all, did you? I mean, this one wasn't even that difficult. All you had to do was say, Hi, I'm Teyla, by the way I'm an alien."
John looked at her, stunned. She sighed tiredly.
"I am from a planet called Athos," she explained. "You might consider my people to have been primitive, but we lived a simple life of peace. Our planet was not easy to farm, so we became traders. We were friends to many."
"Past tense," John noted quietly. He didn't sound so upset any more.
"Yes," Teyla answered, holding her chin up. "We were attacked by an enemy as old as time itself. To my people, they are the nameless ones. To yours, they are Wraith."
"Wraith. Should... should we be worried?" John asked. He didn't look worried, although Teyla supposed that was more an indication of his self-control rather than any lack of concern.
"Oh, yeah," Rodney snorted. "Very worried."
"They attack planets one at a time," Ronon picked up the thread. "Send down a couple scouts first, figure out the people's weaknesses. Then they invade slow and quiet and by the time anyone notices them it's too late to do anything but run. Takes a couple years. Once all the people are dead, they get back on their ships and go to the next world."
"They tried to attack Earth once," Rodney added absently as he wandered over to the coffeemaker.
"We beat them?" John's brows furrowed in confusion. Rodney barked out a laugh.
"No. Not even close. This was about, oh, eleven thousand years ago. The Ancients were still here. They used their weapon- and don't ask what weapon, we have no idea what it is, just that they had it and it's not on Earth anymore- and chased them away. The Ancients, because I know you're going to ask, being a race that somehow figured out how to merge power and science and making ridiculous advances because of it."
"The Ancients are often referred to as the Ancestors," Teyla added. "They were the first people to live on this and many other planets."
"Except for some reason they decided they liked Earth and made a stand here," Rodney continued. "Fought off the Wraith, lived here for another thousand or so years, then randomly started dropping like flies. Some of them also disappeared, which translates as left the planet. No idea how or why."
"Dropping like flies seems like a good reason to leave a planet, Rodney," John drawled, and the Keeper snorted.
"What I meant, Sheppard, is we have no idea why they started dying."
"So how did you get on Earth anyway?" John turned to Teyla again. She glanced briefly at Ronon and John followed the motion. "Uh... both of you?"
"I'm from Sateda," Ronon answered shortly. Like Teyla, he was very much reluctant to speak of the Wraith invasion of his world. Unlike Athos, Sateda's people had been unaware of the existence of the Stargate. Ronon had only found out how to use it by following a Wraith scout, who was using the 'gate to move ahead to the next world. Near Sateda's 'gate, like any other, was a large black stone with the address for Earth in white. The stone also depicted an image, a different image for every different culture, showing that the symbols above would lead to a safe world. According to what Ronon had told Elizabeth, he had dialed Earth from Sateda. According to what Teyla knew, he had conveniently left out that there was a seven-year gap between Sateda's fall and Ronon's arrival to Earth.
She had confronted him over it, once. He hadn't denied anything; nor, however, had he admitted to anything. That he would do something to help the Wraith was laughable, so if he didn't want to speak of those missing years she knew better than to press.
"Right. Sateda." John nodded once. He then looked at Rodney, who had both hands wrapped around his mug of coffee and was smiling happily.
"He's one of yours," Ronon grinned smugly, and John snorted and muttered something softly.
"We arrived on Earth through the Stargate," Teyla said before Rodney could start paying attention and notice this new insult. John turned to her and she explained before he could ask. "It is a device created by the Ancients. It opens a..."
"A wormhole that connects between one 'gate and another," Rodney picked up where she left off. "Each life-supporting planet in our galaxy has a 'gate."
"So we can visit alien worlds?" John asked excitedly.
"No. The Stargate on Earth is one-way only. We can't leave the planet."
"Well, why not?"
"Because we can't," Rodney snapped. He hunched his shoulders up and stormed out, then doubled back to grab the half-full coffee pot and took it with him when he left once more. Teyla hesitated for several moments before looking at John.
"Our network has maintained control over the Stargate since it was first found some fifty years ago," she told him quietly. "We have not yet gotten it to work. Rodney devoted ten years of his life to the 'gate, and that he achieved nothing is a... disappointment to him."
John said nothing, just looked out after the departed Keeper.
"Do the Wraith plan on coming back?" he asked finally.
"Probably," Ronon answered shortly. "It's what they do. Ancients are dead now, nothing to protect this world anymore."
"And without a working Stargate..." Teyla added. There was no need to finish that sentence.
"Something tells me you two have a lot more experience with the Wraith than anyone else," John said. He waited until they both nodded before continuing. "All right. Since you're in the mood to share, I wanna know everything you do about them."
---
Three hours later the kitchen had been turned into something of an impromptu war room, with Ronon and John comparing military horror stories and mapping out battle plans for if and when the Wraith should come. Teyla had left almost immediately- the Athosians had never voluntarily spoken of the Wraith. Evan had come and gone twice; the first time he left armed with a list of groceries and necessary supplies. He'd sighed upon seeing the paper but said nothing.
Rodney was in the basement, as she had known he would be. The furniture had been shoved aside to make room for something anyone familiar with Rodney would recognize- a large piece of fabric, covered with notes and coffee stains and a life-size diagram of a giant ring. The Keeper himself was muttering into his computer. Teyla, recognizing the signs of an obsession revived, let him be.
Ignoring the two boys sitting on the floor, she headed back into the kitchen and made herself a large mug of tea. She then retreated to the front porch and studied the stars- so familiar yet so wrong. She thought of Athos, a quiet and peaceful world with a quiet and peaceful people. She remembered the night the Wraith finally broke cover and attacked- the burning fires, the screams and sobs, the bodies scattered like a child's toys. The Stargate, a silent witness to countless horrors, an imposing presence that always had and would intimidate her even though her people had needed it to survive. The featureless black stone, its white runes slowly fading into sight as the Wraith neared. The slow death of hope.
O'Neill, then a colonel, had been waiting on the other side of the Stargate when she came through. He had a team of twenty Marines armed and ready for war. He had caught her by the arm, made whirlwind introductions- hi I'm Jack welcome to Earth ignore the loud noises stay here and don't move until I tell you to- and put her in a corner with the few of her people who had made it through.
A Wraith had been following her. It came through the 'gate moments after she did. O'Neill had ordered it to be taken alive if possible, in one piece for study if not. The Wraith had understood his words and had triggered the self-destruct device on its wrist. O'Neill had had a few things to say then and the Athosian children entertained themselves for days afterwards by loudly and frequently quoting him. The people of Earth tended to react by gaping or turning interesting colors, then often muttering to themselves about idiot colonels who didn't know how to watch their mouths around children.
Since then her people had scattered to the new world's winds. Teyla had tried to keep contact, to maintain a connection between them, but had failed. Her people chose to forget their past and purge all connections, including each other. So Teyla had gone back to O'Neill, who in turn pointed her to a small used bookstore in the green-grey city of Seattle.
Elizabeth, naturally, had Known she was coming.
Teyla curled her feet up under her and sipped at her now-cool tea. Joining this network had been the best thing to happen since her arrival here. She wanted to fight the Wraith- giving them a name had taken away some of their power, had somehow made her less afraid of them. Perhaps there was wisdom in the ways of the people of Earth.
She recalled Rodney's words earlier, about how the Ancients had chosen to fight to protect this planet. She wished she knew why this world. And, more importantly, why they had taken that protection away with them when they had left.
With a sigh Teyla stood. She went back into the kitchen- John and Ronon were now in the family room playing a game called 'smash brothers' or something where one of their characters appeared to be a small pink ball- and washed out her mug. She headed back down to the basement, where Rodney was now making notes on the fabric with a permanent marker. She stood in the doorway until he noticed her and put her to work transcribing notes and sorting papers and making coffee.
Sleep was a long time coming that night, and once it did arrive, even the Keeper's protective field could not keep out the nightmares.