Chapter 18: The Return Part 2

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They had arrived in the Pegasus Galaxy and collected Teyla and Ronon. Loros and McKay were doing some last minute adjustments in turning the Puddle Jumper's cloak into a shield, having anticipated that the Asurans would have weapons to use against them. They did hit a small snag, however, when they had finished.

"It's ready…but there's a small problem" Rodney said.

"That's not what I wanted to hear as we're about to go through the Gate into a Replicator infested city, Rodney!" John said in a frustrated voice. "What's the problem?"

"The shield is directly tied into the Puddle Jumper's power supply which is quite vast when it is only capable of running the cloak. With a shield, it will be a quick drain on the power supply and even with my codes, it is unable to protect us from anything heavy for too long" Loros explained and the military commander sighed.

"I suppose it's better than nothing" he said, dialling the Stargate.

"The moment it's active, I'll activate the program to take down the shield"

At Rodney's go ahead they went through, knocking one of the Asurans as the rest began to bombard the ship with weapons fire, doing virtually no damage to the shield. Rodney released the explosive device as John back the Jumper up and out the window, as far away from the tower as possible as it exploded.

"That went well" John said as Elizabeth allowed herself a small smile.

"Shield strength is at eighty percent…" Loros reported as they headed into orbit.

"It's good to be back, however briefly" McKay said.

"I feel like I'm gonna be ill" Carson said and Loros turned to put a hand on his shoulder as Ronon sternly told him not to be.

"Alright, just take some deep breaths, Carson" Elizabeth said gently.

"Aye…"

"Should we not have informed General O'Neill of our plan?" Teyla asked.

"He knows we're here. We'll contact him again as soon as we get closer to the city" John said and Rodney sighed.

"Well, that is gonna be easier said than done. With all those hits we took, it's gonna be impossible for me to convert the shield back to a cloak" he said and Loros went back to a console so he could look into it.

"He is right. We may not have lost much shield strength, however for some reason, the program we have in place to alter the properties of the cloak is no longer responding. It would not be entirely impossible, but our given time frame does not allow us sufficient time to repair it" Loros said and John sighed.

"Just focus on our regular plan. Hopefully we took out the sensors when we blew up the Central Tower" he said and Loros sighed. "How is the city?"

"It is more than a little displeased with the measures that we had taken to start this plan…expect cold showers in retribution" he chuckled as John grimaced at that. "He hated cold showers. Only time he took them was to wake himself up quickly in the morning when he was feeling particularly groggy.

"Back on topic, you said they could rebuild remarkably fast. How long before they restore critical systems?" Elizabeth asked Rodney.

"A couple of hours?" he guessed.

"Plus the painting and redecorating…" John added on.

"If we time this right, this could work to our advantage" Rodney said. The HUD appeared on the windshield and soon they were registering the location of someone rather crucial to the plan, even though Loros was concerned.

"Got him! Right where we left him" John said.

"That's him" Rodney said, pointing out the obvious.

"Who else would it be?" the Satedan asked sarcastically.

"True. His power levels are barely registering. It's no wonder the Replicators didn't find him" Rodney said and Loros was thankful for that. Despite the plan having a tremendous amount of risks involving this Replicator, he was crucial, Loros was begrudged to admit.

"Alright, I'll swing around and pick him up. Watch yourselves, I'm closing the bulkhead"

"Will we not be vulnerable to the same nanovirus with which Niam infected Elizabeth?" Teyla asked.

"He's been floating in space for over a month now. Existing in such a harsh environment, direct solar radiation has severely diminished his power levels. We're fairly certain he's almost completely incapacitated" Carson said.

"Is he dead?" Ronon asked.

"Mostly dead. We do not have a choice as he is crucial to this plan" Loros replied.

"Alright, but if he so much as twitches…" Elizabeth said and Ronon brandished two of the weapons, as did Loros.

"Don't worry" the Satedan said.

"Thank you"

Both Ronon and Loros stand either side of the door, weapons ready as John is able to get Niam into the back compartment. Carson takes the seat at the military commander's order and when they knew that the compartment was re-pressurised, the door was opened.

Niam was covered in frost, eyes closed, and showed no signs of waking back up again. John stood alongside the Ancient and the Satedan, gesturing for Rodney to enter the rear compartment so he could start his work. The Canadian entered somewhat nervously whilst the other three aimed their weapons at the inactive Replicator, ready to test out the weapons if they had to.

"Ok, ok, ok" Rodney said nervously as he scanned Niam with the device. "OK. This is good. His power levels are minimal but not too minimal. I'm fairly sure he doesn't have the juice to regain consciousness..." he said, just as Niam's fingers twitched causing the doctor to jump and the three aiming their weapons to move in more. "I was fairly sure…" he said.

"Just load the programme" Sheppard said. A little bit of time passes before the Colonel begins to get a little impatient. "Well? Done yet?"

"I think we're good to go" Rodney said.

"Alright, I'll take us back"

There was a discussion and a brief argument on whose plan it was before McKay revealed that they wouldn't be able to activate the plan from orbit. They had to get as close as they possibly could to the city with no cloak and a shield that can only stand up to their hand held weapons fire. Loros' began trying to extend the shield life with no success.

So the moment they got close to the city, they were spotted by one of the ones that were on watch and five drones were launched to take them out of the sky. John decided to fly between the buildings, some of the drones damaging those sections of the city and one of them hit the shield, taking out a large chunk of its remaining power, which Teyla quite helpfully pointed out. They dodged one more drone which struck another building.

"If we keep this up, there won't be much of a city left to save" Elizabeth said.

"I'll try to run the drones into your least favourite buildings. McKay!" Sheppard called angrily.

"It should be working!"

"Well it's not working!" Beckett pointed out.

"Look, if I give him any more power, he'll wake up and kill us all!" Rodney retorted rather angrily.

"Sheppard can't keep this up forever!" Ronon said.

"Alright, I've had enough. I've got a different idea" John said.

He veered off and headed out of the city. As the Jumper reached the edge of the city, its engine pods retracted and the ship plunged straight into the ocean. The drones, unable to detect the ship once it's under water, head off into the sky before returning to their storage rooms in the city.

"General O'Neill. Are you there, sir?" John activated his radio.

"Yes we're here. You're late"

"Sorry, sir. Had to go into space and pick up some...frozen goods" he said.

"Whatever. Where are you now?"

"We're not exactly inside the city yet. We're headed toward an underwater Jumper Bay" John explained.

"Well it might be a Jumper Bay" Loros said.

"Is that the Ancient I hear?" O'Neill asks.

"Yes, sir" Loros said with a small smile.

"You should know this city inside and out. Is it or is it not a Jumper Bay?" he asked and Loros sighed and answered with a positive answer. "Well then why didn't you say that?"

"Honestly, sir, I am just guessing" he snapped a little.

"Someone's a little tetchy. I'm surprised Landry sent you on a mission like this…"

"Well, sir, General Landry didn't sanction this mission" Elizabeth answered.

"Doctor Weir?! Never mind. So, am I to assume you are not surrounded by heavily-armed S.G. teams and young strapping marines?" he asked and she looked around. Loros offered her a half-hearted smile whilst Ronon gave a full one and raised his ARG.

"You've got Colonel Sheppard, Ronon, Teyla, McKay, myself, Doctor Beckett and Loros"

"Ooh! Doctor Beckett is it? Well I'm comforted"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Carson asked with a small frown.

"Okay, we're ready to open the lock" Rodney said when his laptop beeped and Loros tried to connect to the city manually, frowning when his mental commands were not being accepted. He could only blame the Asurans. Carson noticed then as John explained the plan and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You alright, son?" he asked.

"I cannot connect to the city anymore…they are blocking my mental commands…"

"We've got a plan, sir…a good one"

"Yes, Colonel, I'm sure you do. But in the unlikely event you don't fail miserably, you're fired" O'Neill said and all of their eyes widened in surprise at that, John's included.

"Yes, sir. Looking forward to that…" he cut the radio link. "You really can't connect to the city?"

"I am sure…I can sense the city, but I cannot control the doors, or lower the water level in the bay for that matter…"

"Which puts a small crimp in my plan as I was counting on your ability to control the city. We could have made this all the more simpler…" John said as they touched down. "Guess we'll just have to do things manually…"

"Huh?" Rodney said in surprise.

"What?" John asked.

"It's not letting me re-pressurize the compartment…"

"The water's not draining out…"

Just as Rodney made a sarcastic retort, Ronon tapped both Loros' and Elizabeth's shoulders and indicated to them small leaks in the Puddle Jumper's hull. Whilst John and Rodney bickered a little bit and Elizabeth explained there situation to them, Loros immediately had an idea and activated his own radio.

"General O'Neill, this is Loros"

"The Ancient?" he asked.

"Yes. We had ourselves a small situation that requires your assistance"

"You require my assistance? Isn't it meant to be you guys rescuing me and Woolsey, not the other way around?" he asked rhetorically and then sighed. "What is it?"

"We are in the underwater bay, however we are unable to drain the water from here due to damaged controls and the outer doors are unfortunately not opening. The manual override to drain the water is in the Bay's control room and we cannot reach it from this side, but you can. We need you to activate it so we can get to you…"

"You guys can't do this from the Jumper?"

"No…we are also taking on water and more fractures are appearing…"

"Alright…"

Whilst McKay guided General O'Neill, Loros had set to work with the program. The first time O'Neill made the attempt, he wasn't able to find the correct controls and the second time he started but then abruptly stopped, revealing it to be a dead man's switch. Third attempt and he was successful however they lost contact with both him and Woolsey which could only meant that the Asurans had found them and had taken them for probing, which was bad for them. Loros decided to let Rodney continue the work so he could head out with the rest of the team.

"McKay, you stay here and reprogramme Niam. We're gonna go and meet General O'Neill and Woolsey, alright? We'll wait for your OK"

When they got to the hatch that led down to the Bay Control Room, they found many bullet casings and both men were gone, confirming that they were captured. Loros made the decision to head back, having to take the same route when he was grabbed by an Asuran, disarmed and dragged back to what he knew as the brig and put into the same cell as O'Neill and Woolsey.

"Nice rescue" Jack said sarcastically.

"My sincerest apologies, General. I did not anticipate them capturing me…" he said as one of the leaders came up.

"It would appear that you are the only survivor of the Lanteans" the one said. "How did you go unnoticed?" he asked and Loros didn't answer. Woolsey and O'Neill watched as he was the first to be probed.

He was stood opposite to the Asuran in a dark place illuminated only by the event horizon effect. Neither of them moved, Loros gave no indication that he was in any pain or that he would find anything out from him. Ten thousand years in stasis have allowed him to condition his mind and has made it stronger.

"Your resistance is quite strong…" the leader noted with a small smile.

"Ten thousand years in a stasis chamber allows the mind to strengthen" he retorted.

"You are not of the ones we have already killed?"

"I am not. And I assure you, you will not find anything in my mind. We have not even formulated a proper rescue plan, preferring to improvise" he said and once more the Replicator smiled. "I could tell you this is futile, but then again, you would not listen to me"

"You are no longer in control of us…"

"I am aware. I am curious, however. How have you managed to sever my connection to the city?"

"The female commander had accidentally revealed your ability whilst we probed her mind. We took measures that would stop you from accessing all of the necessary systems you would need to stop us. It has to be said that such an ability caused us great surprised. We searched the city all over to find you, but you were either well hidden, or as you told me, you were not here. It would appear that was the only detail that the Lantean commander kept from me. Not that it matters as you are here now"

"You will not kill me. Despite the fact that you cannot get the information from my mind, I still possess it. You would resort to alternate methods of information extraction…" Loros said with a small smile on his face.

"There are other methods that we will make use of…"

"By then…my team will retake this city. You are no more than failed experiments" he spat.

The leader withdrew from his mind and he ignored the pain in his head as he left to help his cohort in probing both Richard and Jack's minds for information, not that they could give much. It didn't take long however before they withdrew, no doubt having got the information from Woolsey and soon they left.

"That was the worst thing I've ever experienced" Woolsey said.

"It gets worse" Jack added on. "How did you do that? You were gone for a while? Were you having a tea party with him in your mind with little cakes as well?" O'Neill asked sarcastically and Loros chuckled a little.

"When you are put into stasis for ten thousand years, your mind strengthens…"

"So your mind was active for ten thousand years?" Woolsey asked now that the pain was gone.

"Yes. It got rather…boring been stuck in ice" he said. "However, the many benefits outweigh the negatives, as you have just seen. They were not able to recover an ounce of information from me"

"Maybe we should put you into stasis, Woolsey" O'Neill said.

"I'll pass, thank you"

John and Rodney arrived, the former masking his relief for the safety of his lover in the presence of the General. Loros merely smiled as they discussed the plan but he blocked it out. He didn't want to risk anything, no matter how strong his mind was when facing off against the Replicators, there was always a chance his mental defences could slip so slightly and then they would know all they needed to know.

"So we're going back to being vaporised" Woolsey said and Loros rolled his eyes. John would never allow the city to be destroyed.

"Did you know?" O'Neill asked.

"Not at all. Prior to our capture, we full intended on ridding ourselves of the Replicators and saving the city. Although I must say that I did not go through ten thousand years of mind numbing stasis to lose this city so if John fails then I will find a way to make him suffer in the afterlife"

"Amen" O'Neill said.

There was a brief moment of panic as the city's stardrive began to suddenly power up but as soon as they heard an explosion and the fact that the engines all seemed to shut down, someone had stopped it. He theorized that it might have been Beckett that did it considering John was too busy with the plan as was Rodney. If so, then Beckett really was good with the chair. A pity he couldn't deal with those countermeasures that stopped him from communicating with the city, but you can't have it all.

Later he was dragged into the same cell as the rest of the team and shoved roughly, Sheppard catching him before he hit the floor. The two in charge stepped forward then as Loros saw that the entire team had been captured.

"Did you really think you'd be able to stop us?" one of them asked.

"Well, of course we did. Why else would we be here?" Sheppard asked rheotorically.

"Colonel? Am I gonna have to fire you?" O'Neill asked.

"No, sir. I think you'll have that to look forward to when we get back"

"I'm afraid your plan has been discovered, Colonel Sheppard. It is over" one of them said and they all turned to look at Woolsey accusingly who argued his defence and Jack had said something about thinking about England in order to resist probing. Of course, Loros knew that it was sarcasm, though he did briefly wonder if it were true as the General sounded somewhat serious.

"Mr Woolsey informed us of everything we need to know. All of your C4 has been removed from the emitters. I'm afraid they won't be destroyed when the Daedalus arrives, which should be in any moment" he said and they all grimaced somewhat at the failure. Loros merely sighed in frustration. "Your plan has failed"

The report that the Daedalus had arrived came through and soon they heard the shield activating, although it sounded vastly different. A blue wave then passed through the room and all of the Replicators were instantly turned to dust.

"Ha! It worked. I can't believe it worked!" Rodney said.

"Rodney…Amazing!" Elizabeth grinned.

"You two have to explain…" Loros had a grin on his face.

Rodney explained how they had turned the shield into a large scale Replicator weapon by using the energy crystals from the ARG's and interfacing them with the shield emitters. They planted the C4 to sow misinformation and they also told Woolsey and O'Neill the false plan in case they were probed and gave up the information. The idea was to use Woolsey's weak resistance against the Asurans to lull them into a false sense of security.

After they succeeded in proving that they were themselves, they went their separate ways. Loros went to his room after re-establishing his connection to the city, followed by John when he was done telling Caldwell all that happened. The room was completely and utterly ruined. His furniture was tipped or missing, his table was smashed entirely, the console and screen that monitored for Wraith activity around Olesia was broken.

"Wow…" John said as he walked in.

"They must have come here searching for me during the initial attack. Although why some of my chairs are missing, I haven't the foggiest"

"I suppose it'll allow me, you and Lorne to redecorate" John said with a grin.

"Perhaps…" he chuckled. "It was a little bland after all…"

"Well we have the city back…"

"Providing that General O'Neill allows us to remain on"

Clean-up began in the city the moment they were all back through the Stargate with Loros leading the clean-up of some of the residential buildings. Lorne and Sheppard oversaw the redoing of their room and decided to move their personal things in later when prying eyes were not looking. To that end, Lorne stashed several screws and a drill to put up paintings while Sheppard moved in a bedside table for War and Peace to occupy in the event that John needed a way to fall asleep. Life in Pegasus would return to normal, with the continued exploration of the city, the Galaxy and all of the chaos that results.