A/N: edboy4926 asks, "By the way, what season in Atlantis does this take place?" It's roughly four years after Season 5, about the time SGU Season 3 was supposed to resume post-timeskip. Some of the details in later chapters about what happened when Atlantis returned to Pegasus are derived from what's known about the plot of Stargate: Extinction. (I'm relying primarily on Gateworld's Omnipedia for information I can't garner from rewatching Season 5.) I chose this date because it's almost exactly six months after the Girl Genius "Through a Door" page was posted, the significance of which will become clearer in the next chapter.

Chapter 3
How to Win Friends and Influence Royalty

Carson Beckett was not a psychiatrist. (Well, technically, he wasn't even a licensed physician anymore, not that anyone in Pegasus cared. Being legally dead was a decided advantage for keeping his whereabouts secret but a decided disadvantage for keeping his credentials current.) But he did at least know the difference between Multiple Personality Disorder and a foreign consciousness trapped in one's brain. He'd also taken both video and still shots of the mechanism in Lady Heterodyne's locket and thought he'd figured out how it worked, though he still needed one last set of test data to be certain. If the fMRI bore out his suspicions, however, it wouldn't be difficult at all to undo what had been done to her—provided, of course, that he could locate the one piece of technology needed to overcome the most significant obstacle.

And then there were the chimeric cells with two completely different sets of DNA to ask about, not to mention the synaptic activity spike Jennifer had recorded that morning. The latter would worry Carson more after Rodney's brush with forced ascension had Lady Heterodyne not been able to end the spike as if it were an everyday occurrence. Perhaps that had something to do with the "Spark" she had mentioned.

(If so, Carson wasn't going to tell Rodney about it. The poor man didn't need the bruise to his ego of learning that yet another woman was smarter than the self-proclaimed smartest man in two galaxies, never mind finding out that this one might still be in college. Carson might hold onto it for one of the increasingly rare occasions on which Rodney became completely insufferable, however.)

Just as Carson finished one final check of the semi-portable short-bore fMRI machine, the door opened and Lady Heterodyne and her companions walked in. "Ah, hullo, Lady Heterodyne!" he called and walked over to greet her properly. "Carson Beckett, at your service."

"Pleased to meet you, Herr Doktor," Lady Heterodyne replied and shook his hand, ignoring the door as it closed.

"Likewise. Dr. Keller told me what you told her this morning about your mother. If you'll have a seat, I've a few more questions to ask, and then I'd like to run a short series of tests to make sure the procedure I have in mind will work."

She nodded toward the fMRI machine as she sat down on one of the chairs that had been left in the room. "That is what you use to test?"

"Aye. It's called functional magnetic resonance imaging, and it allows me to monitor changes in your brain activity in response to various stimuli."

Her eyes lit up. "Ooh! Magnetic resonance—so it is not an invasive process?"

"No, not at all. But I'll save the explanation for a few minutes, as one thing I want to test is how your brain reacts when thinking about scientific questions."

She cleared her throat and settled back in the chair. "Ah, yes, right. Forgive me."

He smiled and sat down in another chair. "Quite all right, milady. Before we get to the neuroscience, though, I've some questions about a few anomalies that our scanners found in your system. Now, I'm sure you've already been told you have the ATA gene."

"Yes, Teyla explained. And Lantea tells me the expression is quite strong, as I am able to talk to her."

"Aye, that it is. Col. Sheppard's always been the strongest natural gene carrier on the base, but you're not far behind him."

"Natural gene carrier? Does that mean it can be artificially induced?" There was an edge to her voice this time that made Carson very curious as to what her brain was doing.

"Concentra!" Lady Mondarev barked.

"Ah, well, it can," Carson admitted, "but that brings me to my first question. You see, we found some cells in your heart muscle that appear to belong to someone else. Two other people, actually—both men."

Lady Heterodyne blinked rapidly for a moment and looked at Lady Mondarev, who looked equally surprised. "Oh," said Lady Heterodyne. "We did not know that could happen, but... it would explain so much."

Carson raised his eyebrows. "That means something to you, then."

"Yes. Ah, forgive me, Herr Doktor... you do not by chance know the reanimation process called Si Vales Valeo?"

Now it was Carson's turn to blink. "Reanimation?"

"Well, they were not all the way dead," Lady Mondarev clarified.

Lady Heterodyne raised a hand. "We should back up. My friend Tarvek had contracted a disease known as Hogfarb's Resplendent Immolation, and because I was trying to care for him, I somehow caught it from him before we found Gil to tell us what it was."

Carson nodded slowly. "That explains the foreign organism we found in your bloodstream and in your urine. The infection's been killed, but your body's still purging itself of the dead bacteria."

"Yes. We were all in Castle Heterodyne, and it was too dangerous to try to move to the hospital. So Gil recommended that the three of us undergo the Si Vales Valeo."

"It was slightly more complicated than that," Lady Mondarev noted.

"We do not have all day!"

Krosp chuckled. So did Carson.

"Anyway," Lady Heterodyne continued, "the process ordinarily occurs between only two people and uses the life energy of the stronger to reanimate the weaker. Because of various complications, each of us ended up needing to be revived by the other two. There was no exchange of fluids, but... when we were synched for the energy transfer, we did all display identical symptoms. Perhaps more was exchanged among us than we thought."

Krosp frowned. "And you say these foreign cells were in her heart?"

Carson nodded. "Aye."

A wistful look crossed Lady Heterodyne's face as she started to put her hand over her heart. But then she caught herself, drew a deep breath, and returned her attention to Carson. "Forgive me. Does that answer your question?"

"Aye, milady, it does. Thank you. I did just want to say one more thing before we begin the test, something I hope will be a comfort to you."

"That sounds ominous," said Lady Mondarev.

"Well, possibly, though more so for me than for you. Milady, are you familiar with the concept of cloning?"

Lady Heterodyne frowned. "Cloning?"

"The making of a genetically exact duplicate of someone."

She shook her head. "None of my professors at Transylvania Polygnostic ever spoke of such a thing. I understand what you are saying, though I cannot picture how it would be done."

"Well, I don't quite know how it was done, either, but... it happened to me. The original Carson Beckett had been captured, and somehow his captor—we called him Michael—gathered enough genetic material from him to be able to create me."

Her eyes went wide. "You are a construct?!"

"Aye, if you like. While I was still Michael's captive, the original Carson was killed in the line of duty. Nobody in Atlantis even knew I existed until Michael captured the Athosians as a trap to kidnap Teyla, and Col. Sheppard stumbled across me looking for her."

Lady Mondarev whistled.

Carson leaned forward. "My reason for telling you, though, is this. Michael used some form of mind control on me. We still don't know exactly what he did. All I know is that at one crucial moment, I had him at gunpoint, and I couldn't pull the trigger."

"I am sorry," said Lady Heterodyne quietly.

"Lady Mondarev's told us about the revenants, the people controlled by your mother's wasps. I don't think that's what Michael did to me, precisely, but... I know what it is to find your body suddenly no longer under your control. And I'm going to do everything in my power both to undo what was done to you and to help you get back to free the revenants in your own world."

She sniffled and nodded. "Thank you, Herr Doktor. And I would be happy to help you if I can."

"Och, no need for that, milady. Michael's been dead nearly five years now. Teyla killed him—kicked him off the central tower when he tried to destroy the city."

"Good," ladies and cat stated with equal ferocity.

Carson smiled, both amused and touched by their reaction, then stood. "Right, well, now that's out of the way, shall we start? You'll need to take off anything metal apart from the locket."

"Very well." Lady Heterodyne stood and took off her glasses, belt, boots, and bodice, leaving on her blouse and trousers, then followed him to the fMRI machine. "Restraints," she noted, looking at the examining table. "You intend to take off my locket also, then?"

"Not precisely, though I may need to stop it temporarily if it causes interference with the readings. Do I have your permission?"

"If it is necessary, or if you need to measure the difference between us, then yes. But you must not let her tempt you to release her."

Carson smiled coldly. "Don't worry, milady." He pointed up to the observation room, then glanced up just as Ronon waved at Lady Heterodyne. "Nobody leaves the room until Ronon says so."

"Excellent." Lady Heterodyne nodded to Ronon, then looked at her companions and said something to them in Romanian.

Lady Mondarev nodded, then turned to Carson. "We will stay out of sight. You must say the Council sent you—that is the High Council of the Order of the Knights of Jove—to separate her from Lady Heterodyne because my lady's plans have become too dangerous."

Carson nodded back. "Got it. But I'm not planning to do anything with the locket just yet, so we've a bit of time."

"You should still strap her down," said Krosp. "If you plan to test her Spark, that might be the only way to stop her from running off in the middle of the test."

"Krosp!" Lady Heterodyne chided.

"I have seen you in the madness place," Lady Mondarev retorted, picking up one of the straps. "It is a wise precaution."

"And it will help you to stay completely still," Carson noted, "which is necessary to get the clearest images."

Lady Heterodyne rolled her eyes and lay down but didn't actually protest as Lady Mondarev strapped her down.

"Madness place?" Carson asked Krosp.

"Technically, it is called a Spark-induced fugue state," said Lady Heterodyne.

"It puts the 'mad' in mad science," said Krosp, leading Lady Mondarev back to the chairs, which would be both out of sight and out of range of the magnet.

"And what's this Spark you're talking about?" Carson pressed.

"Difficult to define and fairly uncommon. It is a combination of intellectual gifts and abilities, most commonly scientific. A person like Agatha who has the Spark is called a spark."

Carson nodded thoughtfully. "And when a person starts to show those abilities—that's what ye call 'breaking through'?"

"Yes," Lady Heterodyne replied. "Most sparks break through in their teens, or even later. But the stronger the spark, the earlier he breaks through. Gil was eight."

"And you?"

"Well, Uncle Barry gave me the locket when I was five. I think I was starting to show signs of breakthrough even then. I finished breaking through after it was stolen, and now my mind is too strong for it."

Carson nodded again. He'd suspected the locket worked by creating a harmonic that interfered with certain kinds of synaptic activity, and what she was saying confirmed that hypothesis. Now the only question was which kinds of synaptic activity—and whether they could be used to separate her consciousness from that of her mother. "Right. Just relax as much as you can for the moment so I can get a good resting baseline."

Lady Heterodyne nodded, closed her eyes, and took some deep breaths to relax herself. Then Carson slid her head into the bore and waited to make sure the locket's action wasn't going to cause undue interference. There was some slight distortion, but nothing he couldn't correct for, and the images looked like those of a normal resting but wakeful eighteen-year-old girl.

"So far everything looks good," he reported. "Are you feeling any discomfort, milady?"

"Nothing beyond hearing a slight buzz and sometimes a thump," she replied, "which I assume is from the magnets—electromagnets?"

"Aye, very good." He kept an eye on the images as he explained the theory behind the procedure in a fair bit of detail, noting the increase in activity as she listened and the marked jump once she started a low heterodyne hum under her breath, evidently to block out the interference from the magnets. The readings spiked again as she started asking application questions, most of which weren't terribly outlandish despite the rising level of excitement and disconcerting edge in her voice. When she started asking how to make liquid helium, he realized she was trying to figure out how to make an MRI machine from scratch.

When he asked her, she replied, "Yes, yes! Although I suppose I ought to see whether Dr. Sun already has one—but even if he did, it may have been destroyed when the hospital was attacked." The next batch of images showed yet another spike in brain activity as she continued, "Those fools who besieged Mechanicsburg dared to shell the hospital in an attempt to kill the baron. HA! I wish I had found out who gave that order so I could have let the Jägers teach him better than to attack the sick and wounded. Oh, well, the baron's forces probably killed him anyway. And if they did not, the castle probably did."

Slightly alarmed, Carson looked at Lady Mondarev, who smirked. "We told you she is a madgirl."

"And that is all Agatha," Krosp added. "Lucrezia would be upset only that they might have killed another copy of her that was in the hospital."

At almost the same moment, Lady Heterodyne continued in a less dangerous tone, "Of course, Zola was in the hospital, too; I suppose she is my first cousin. She tried to steal my castle and set herself up as the Heterodyne, all to aid someone—either Tarvek or Martellus, probably—in his bid to become the Storm King and overthrow the baron. She talked Mother into copying herself into her brain, too." The latest spike ended in the next images, though her brain activity was still far higher than an average person's, as she went on. "I do not know whether to hope she was killed, although if the baron escaped the hospital, she might have as well. If she did, we will have to trace her—I will have to get Tarvek to help me with that, assuming we can cure him of the poison."

"Er, right," said Carson. "Milady, if you can relax a moment, while I get one last set of baseline images?"

"All right," she replied and did so. Astonishingly, her brain did in fact return to baseline.

"Very good, thank you." He pulled a plastic toothpick out of his pocket and went over to the table. "Now, just for reference, I think I had better stop your locket for a wee bit."

She sighed. "Very well. I apologize in advance for anything she says or does."

"Understood. Lady Mondarev, would you come watch the monitor?" He rolled the computer cart out of the patient's line of sight but still within his own peripheral vision. "I need at least three sets of images for comparison. Signal me when you've got the third."

"Signal you how?" Lady Mondarev asked, coming over to take his seat.

"Just a thumbs-up or something."

"Yes, I can do that."

"Right, here we go." He gently opened the locket, moved Bill Heterodyne's portrait out of the way, and cautiously inserted the toothpick in a strategic point to stop the tiny gears from turning just before the next block of image recording began.

Lady Heterodyne groaned—and then her face took on a look of unholy glee as she cried, "Ach, hier bin ich wieder! Wie schön!"* Then she blinked as she took in the bore of the coils and tried unsuccessfully to move. "Ähm..."

"Hullo, Lady Mongfish," he said.

Lady Mongfish looked at him as best she could and smiled very differently from her daughter—sweetly, but with a seductive glint in her eyes. "Oh! Why, hello, there. Am I in England?"

"No, milady, and I'm afraid I haven't time to explain. Prince Tarvek and Prince Martellus had a bit of a set-to, and now Prince Tarvek's dying and Prince Martellus has been captured." Strict truth, this!

"Oh. Oh, dear. What about Leopold?"

"I haven't heard, milady. But your daughter's taken Mechanicsburg, and the Council's concerned about what she may be planning next. They managed to get her out through the cathedral portal, and they've sent me to separate the two of you and get you to safety."

"And what about my daughter?"

Carson smiled the way he had when he'd tricked a Wraith into feeding on him after discovering Michael had treated him with the Wraith-killing Hoffan drug. "Leave her to me."

"Ooh, perhaps I will," she purred. "Be a dear and take this locket off, will you?"

He pretended to fumble with the clasp for several seconds, then shook his head. "It's no good. There's a lock on it. And with all these magnets about, I don't dare bring any tools over to cut it off."

She huffed and pouted, then frowned at the bore. "What magnets?"

"Ah, it's a test for—er, really, I'll have to explain it once you're out of here."

"Hmph. Seems Count Wolkerstorfer finally did something right, if you are actually using his work. He has always been obsessed with magnets, you know; it annoyed my father no end."

He chuckled. "Yes, so I'd heard."

Her voice dropped and took on an even more seductive tone, as did her smirk. "But surely there must be some other way to stop the locket from working, and I would be... very grateful, if you understand me."

"Oh, aye, milady," he breathed as if he were actually affected by her advances. "Quite well."

"So?"

"Right. Let me just—" He jiggled the toothpick a bit until Lady Mondarev flashed him a thumbs-up. "Almost—" And he slid the toothpick out of the works, which immediately started up again.

Lady Mongfish gasped. "No, you imbecIIIIIIIIILE—" Then she gasped again, and Lady Heterodyne said, "Oh! Ce—er—how-how did it go, Herr Doktor?"

Carson smiled kindly, closed the locket, and patted her shoulder. "Like clockwork, milady. No problems. Let's get you out of there."

Martellus sighed as he lay on the bench in his cell and stared at the ceiling. Reality had not reasserted itself to his specifications in the two days or so since he had first awakened here. He was always watched, even though his cell was secure; a few minor shocks had convinced him that the energy barrier between the bars was always on unless the cell door was open. And the cell door never opened except to admit a servant to deliver or remove his meal tray, during which time extra guards came in to stop him from attempting to make a break for it, or when he was escorted to and from the nearest water closet. (He had attempted to run during one such excursion, only to be stunned by an energy blast before he could get even a meter down the corridor. It was grossly unfair.) Nor was he allowed anything to read, anything to write with, anything to build, not even any conversation except when Herr Woolsey or Col. Sheppard came to interrogate him about Tarvek and Lady Heterodyne.

The only thing keeping him from dying of sheer boredom was the notion that this might be some elaborate test of his endurance, proving his worth to be the Storm King. After all, the Queen of the Mines had held Andronicus Valois captive for months until Van Rijn had freed him with Prende's Chronometric Lantern. No true Valois heir would capitulate or despair after only three days. Martellus could wait forever if it meant reclaiming Europa from that wretched upstart Wulfenbach.

His reverie was interrupted, however, when the energy barrier suddenly flashed and lowered. Surprised because it wasn't yet mealtime, Martellus turned his head to look at the cell door as it opened to admit a white-haired Jäger in a black greatcoat. The Jäger studied him a moment, then nodded to the guards; one of the guards did something that produced an odd chime, and the cell door closed again.

"Good afternoon, Prince Martellus," the Jäger said—in English, with an oddly distorted voice.

Martellus frowned and sat up. "Why do you speak English?" he asked, using the same language on a whim.

"I did not think you would understand the language of my kind."

"Mechanicsburgisch is hardly unintelligible to anyone who speaks Romanian."

"But I am not from Mechanicsburg. In fact, I had lived thousands of years before even the earliest tribesmen discovered the source of the Dyne."

Martellus's frown deepened. "Then what are you?"

"I am Wraith."

Martellus scoffed and stood. "So what, has that little toad Woolsey sent you to scare me?"

The so-called Wraith chuckled. "My appearance may not be the most fearsome you have seen. But hear me, little prince: I am far more dangerous and far more powerful than you know." It looked him in the eye. "Kneel."

He laughed. "What is this?"

KNEEL! thundered in his head, and to his astonishment, he crashed to his knees.

"What... what are you..."

"Ah, such defiance," the Wraith purred with a wicked smile that vanished almost as suddenly as it had appeared. "Now. The poison on your knives. Is it your own invention?"

Martellus gritted his teeth, but memories of testing the Nullabist potion flashed through his mind.

"Ah, I see. And is there an antidote?"

"Go to hell."

Is there an antidote? the Wraith's voice insisted in his head as one black-clawed finger ran down his cheek.

Martellus struggled a moment longer before "No" was wrung from him. "No point. No time."

"Hmmm. Speak to me of Lady Heterodyne."

The baron's son will kill you if you try to harm her, Tarvek's voice stole through his memory, but only if I don't do it first.

"Then you did mean her harm," the Wraith growled.

"Only at first," Martellus growled back.

"Then why did you take her through the portal?"

"I was... rescuing her..."

"To what purpose?"

"No... I will not..."

What did you want with her? the Wraith pressed.

Martellus shut his eyes, but flashes of imagination surfaced—dragging her into his secret lab in the Refuge of Storms, dosing her with Great-Aunt Rappaccini's formula, and then... her riding starry-eyed at his side into Vienna for the coronation, her adoring look as the archbishop pronounced them married... and the wedding night, ah, how she would giggle and simper as he prepared her and put her on the bed, how she would beg for his touch before he had his way with her—

Clawed hands grabbed the front of his jumpsuit as the Wraith snarled and snatched him off the ground, and suddenly he was slammed against the bars and screamed as the shock from the energy barrier went on and on. He had no idea how much time passed, what finally made the Wraith stop holding him off the ground. And then he was falling, tossed aside like a worn-out rag doll, landing on his back hard enough to knock the remaining air from his lungs.

He had barely enough time to draw a few gasping breaths and register the Wraith's boots walking away before his muscles twitched, then seized, and everything went black.

Ever since learning that Todd had met Agatha at lunch and seemed to like her, John had had a hunch that he'd be needed if Todd's interrogation of von Blitzengaard got out of hand. He hadn't anticipated needing to call a medical team because Todd had shocked von Blitzengaard into a grand mal seizure. Before John could yell at Todd over it, however, Todd stalked out of von Blitzengaard's cell and into the room that housed the other cell of the brig, then stopped in front of the empty cell's door, clenching and unclenching his fists. John, who'd followed, was about to say something when he realized what was happening.

Todd was quite literally shaking with rage.

"I have done many things to gain power," Todd said quietly without turning around, apparently sensing John's presence. "I have stolen, killed, lied, betrayed. You know this better than most."

"Yeah," John replied just as softly. "I do."

"Tell me truly, John Sheppard. When Teyla agreed to pose as my queen to meet with the Primary of my alliance regarding the gene therapy... was it her own choice, freely made?"

"Yes, it was. She didn't do it for you." And she almost certainly wouldn't have gone through with it if any of them had realized that Todd was going to kill the Primary and grab control of the alliance for himself, ostensibly as Teyla's regent, but there was no point in mentioning that now.

Todd let out what might have been a long sigh of relief, but he didn't relax any. "It has been many years since I took worshippers. But we only condition, train the mind to accept our lordship, our philosophy. The servant is of no value if he can no longer think."

John waited, but when Todd said no more, he asked, "What was he gonna do to Lady Heterodyne?"

"He would have forced her to become his queen. His mate. He would have overthrown her mind."

John raised his chin in understanding. Wraith society, like that of the bugs they'd evolved from, was matriarchal. He'd encountered clearly male scientists like Todd and essentially genderless warrior drones, but with the tragic exception of one teen raised by humans, every female Wraith he'd ever seen was a queen, feared and honored and obeyed without question. Todd was unusual in his willingness to live without a queen ruling him, but even he had deferred to Teyla on occasion and seemed to respect Col. Carter's authority when she'd been in command of Atlantis. And whatever Wraith mating looked like—John really didn't want to know—Todd's reaction to whatever he'd seen in von Blitzengaard's mind made it plain that rape was not just unconscionable but unthinkable to them.

"In the old days," Todd went on in a low growl, "I would not have made him run. I would not have made him serve. I would have tortured him until he no longer knew his own name."

John nodded slowly. "Are you sorry you can't?"

Todd huffed and relaxed at last, and only then did he turn his head to look at John with a small but genuine smile. "No. It was merely an observation."

John smiled back. "C'mon. Let's go brief Woolsey."

.

* Ah, I'm back! How lovely!