Chapter 12

A single dart cut a long, low path across a moonlit landscape, stealthily delivering two disparate figures into a small clearing in the middle of a lightly forested area. Both beings were clearly affected by the sense of disorientation that followed the beaming process and, based on their individual physiology, took varying amounts of time to pass.

Not surprisingly, Todd recovered his balance first and immediately glanced around the clearing as he waited for Sheppard's equilibrium to return. Head tilted slightly to the side, he watched with interest as the Atlantean took several deep breaths of the clear night air and he wondered fleetingly what effect the nurturing auras of the hive had on humans. They were essential to his own well-being, but could humans sense their presence too and if they did, how did the auras manifest themselves? As energies or something different, something less tangible? He shrugged his shoulders vaguely, yet more questions for another time.

Turning slowly, he started to cast his gaze further into the night, getting his bearings on a world that was familiar yet alien. It was at his insistence that they had come under the cover of darkness, the time wraith preferred coming to human worlds and all their senses were focused solely on the culling process. Yet interestingly, his senses now were attuned in a way he had not felt since his younger days during his mandatory training as a hunter, stalking a single human runner who had only his own wits to defend himself. His face morphed into a mask of satisfied contemplation, thinking of the tall Satedan runner who now followed Sheppard, and imagining how stimulating it would be to hunt that one.

Enjoyable as this thought was, he knew the chances of it happening were slim so he shook his head to clear his thoughts and bring his mind back to the job at hand. By mutual agreement they had beamed down a safe distance from the underground facility to minimise the potential for any noise from the dart penetrating the buildings. They had also avoided the stargate in case Kolya had a sentry posted there. If, as they hoped, the rebel was already ensconced in the facility, they needed to minimise the possibilities of alerting him to their presence and making a run for the gate. Of course, there was a risk he would manage to do that anyway, but this whole venture was based on risks and assumptions they had no way of controlling. The greatest risk of all is that he might not even be there although Todd seriously doubted they could both be wrong in their belief that this was where he would come to ground to avoid the bounty on his head.

"Hope you know where we're goin' this time!"

While Sheppard's voice penetrating the still night air startled him slightly, Todd just grunts. He should have known this human would not let him forget his efforts to get them lost last time they needed to find their way on this world. A smile crossed his lips as he remembered the nocturnal journey they had made with him trying to lead them to the stargate when he had no idea of its actual location. He had been seriously wounded but the sheer exhilaration of freedom was all he had been able to concentrate on at the time but even he realised it was a stretch of any imagination to blame those distractions for his lack of direction.

"I told you, Sheppard, I came back to this world not long ago. So do not concern yourself. I will not get us lost again."

Ignoring Sheppard's grunted response, he put his head back and concentrated on ranging his mind further to gauge the exact distance to their destination. Vague but familiar vibrations soon filtered through the air, stirring his mind and tantalising his sensory organs. "We were right. There are other humans here. Are you ready to go?"

"Really? You can tell that from here? How many? Is it Kolya?"

As Sheppard watched Todd's intense sensory search, he was reminded of a highly trained hunting dog, straining and quivering as its senses strained to pick up the slightest trace of its quarry. He smiled at the thought of how useful it would be to have Todd with him on some of their more hazardous missions, a sort of alien early warning system. Far more effective and with a much broader range than the Lantean life sign detectors. It was just a shame his maintenance costs were so high.

"Not many." Todd tilted his head slightly as if listening to something barely audible in the distance. "Perhaps four, six at most. We are too far away to determine their identities." He shook his head as if to break the link. "Are you ready to go yet Sheppard?"

Not waiting for confirmation, he set off towards the trees and bushes. In the absence of any defined paths, they had to make their own, an annoying little obstacle that took up time. Todd knew his night vision was far superior to Sheppard's so he remained in the front although he tempered his pace against the Atlantean's. For his part, Sheppard was happy for Todd to take the lead.

As they walked, the peace and tranquillity of the night was only broken by the odd animal sound that reverberated through the trees around them. The undergrowth became impassable on occasions so they stopped to allow Todd to take his bearings and check they were still following the quickest route to their destination. Both were armed with knives and wraith stunners. While the P90 had been returned, it still sat in Sheppard's small room on the hive after they agreed the stunners would be a better option when trying to make a quiet entry.

A couple of times Sheppard attempted to start a conversation but failed to elicit anything more than grunts in response. Todd was not inclined to talk, he had much weightier matters to consider than making small talk with a human just to pass the time. Sheppard eventually gave up and just thought about how different this journey would be if he were with members of his own team, especially Rodney.

On the edge of a wide meadow of knee-high grass, illuminated by the light glowing from the twin moons, Todd stopped suddenly. Sheppard kept walking before realising this was not a momentary pause to check their bearings, this was something more serious. Taking the handful of steps needed to bring him back to where Todd stood, even in the dim light Sheppard saw a range of emotions playing out across the other's face. He wondered how wraith can seem to have such a limited range of behaviours yet this one still managed to express so many emotions visually. It was something he had never noticed before and he smiled wanly. Obviously he and Todd were spending far too much time together.

Todd knew his face must be displaying some of the thoughts going through his mind, although he did not consider them emotions. Now that he was a safe distance from the hive, he had been considering whether to tell Sheppard more about his experiences at the hands of the Genii. Just thinking about it was forcing him to uncover memories that had been locked away in the furthest reaches of his mind, out of reach of some prying wraith who might have caught him unawares. Like all older wraith he was able to keep a very strong rein on the level of access he allowed others to his mind but still he was always cautious about giving something away in a moment of unguarded carelessness. Especially experiences such at the hands of humans that would only ever be viewed as weakness by other wraith and would serve as a powerful weapon against him.

Taking a deep breath he decided the time and the place were right to finally answer Sheppard's question.

"I was captured during a culling on the Genii home world, my dart shot down by a lucky barrage of shots from weapons these humans should never have been allowed to develop. We had become aware of their technological progress through agent's reports and I went down during the latter part of the cull to find out for myself if these reports carried any truth."

As Todd sensed Sheppard's gaze intensify, he felt the surprise and read the questions already forming in the human's mind, questions he was in no mood to answer until he had finished his story.

"I was injured and they came upon me before my body could begin to regenerate. Then they overcame me before I could activate my self destruct mechanism. As soon as I saw them I expected death but I was not so lucky. They meant to capture me alive and weakened by my injuries I could not fight back against them all." He laughed ironically. "Capturing me gave them an immense sense of their own power and they seemed to feel that they' had won some sort of victory."

Sheppard glanced down suddenly unwilling to look Todd in the face. His thoughts went back to the wraith they'd captured not long after arriving in Pegasus and he remembered feeling a similar sort of victory and power as he had watched that one in the brig on Atlantis. After all, they had managed to capture one of the dominant predators in the galaxy and he had always assumed he would have felt the same if he ever managed to snare a wild tiger on earth. But as he reflected on the tone of Todd's voice, a small stirring of something, could it possibly be doubt or even regret, started to form in his mind. But he remained silent.

"Almost immediately I was placed in chains and taken through their stargate to be brought to this place. At first I thought they just meant to keep me here and watch me starve to death, a fate that had been suffered by many Wraith unlucky enough to fall into the hands of humans." Finally Todd looked down into his human companion's face. "Especially when their captors were the original inhabitants of the city you now occupy Sheppard. Cruelty to a wraith does not rate as a crime amongst the human races of the galaxy but it is cruelty none the less."

Satisfied to see Sheppard's slight nod of understanding, he continued his story without waiting for a reply. "But what they had in mind for me was to be worse than that, worse that I could ever have imagined or thought possible. Those Genii were ruthless, full of ambition to become the dominant humans in the galaxy and there were always other humans who stood in their way. Before too long they began the process that finally ended when we escaped. They would allow me to feed on other prisoners, humans they wanted information from or simply wanted dead. In between times they let me to starve and tormented me about the fact that I was eventually going to die in that pathetic captivity.

"I told you that hunger burns like a fire for wraith, Sheppard." The Atlantean nodded his head, recalling the exact moment in the adjoining cell to Todd's when he had finally woken up to the fact that he was sharing his imprisonment with the wraith who had just fed on him. "Well, I experienced that fire time and time again until, in the end, I could see no hope of ever escaping it and longed for it to finally devour me."

"Do you know what it is like Sheppard, to be separated from everything that defines your life, your whole being? Wraith do not have the personal ties, they are not prey to the emotions that seem to define human relationships, but still we draw strength from the collective power of our brothers. The hive itself is part of our biological system, we are linked inextricably and without that nourishment a wraith's whole consciousness is starved to the point of oblivion. So to be separated from that, to have only your own thoughts for company instead of the collective voice of the hive, to be unable to draw sustenance from a cold, hard environment so different from the nurturing essence of your home, that is a torture that drives even the strongest mind to lose touch with its reality."

"Is that what happened to you? Did you lose touch with reality?" Sheppard took advantage of a brief pause in Todd's recital.

"I suppose I did although when you are in such a situation, it becomes difficult to remember other realities, other pasts or imagine a future free from the despair that is torturing your mind." Again he uttered the ironic little laugh. "You know from time to time my captors tried to justify their treatment of me by comparing it to our treatment of the humans we keep on the hive after a culling. But it was not the same; there were no similarities at all. Those human captives are put into a form of suspended existence, yes, occasionally one might manage to remain semi-conscious but the vast majority are not tormented with their destiny on a constant basis. They are a valuable resource and are treated as such."

Under normal circumstances Sheppard would have challenged such a simplistic view of a process that he had seen cause pain to its human victims, but he realised it would not serve any useful purpose here. Todd was clearly too caught up in his memories to want to listen to a human perspective on anything, let alone try to understand that perspective.

Yet as Sheppard was forming this opinion, Todd realised he was finally getting some insights about how Sheppard must have felt back in that deserted village when he had spoken about his response to being fed upon. Wraith tended not to dwell on the past, so for Todd not only bringing these memories to the forefront of his thoughts, but actually talking about them was proving far more intense than he had anticipated. He took a deep breath before continuing.

"I can not begin to estimate the amount of time I spent here, especially not in terms of the short timeframes you humans use to measure the span of your lives. But I watched as my original captor grew old and then disappeared only to be replaced by another. It was one of the few things that gave me any degree of pleasure, the fact that this human who was responsible for and took his own obvious pleasure in my situation was now dead and could torture me no more."

Todd's eyes moved away from Sheppard's face to look farther into the distance. He thought he had dealt with all the negative feelings he had been harbouring when he went back to the prison before he had started this hunt. But the depth of the hatred burning inside him at the mere thought of this long dead human indicated that perhaps he still had some way to go.

"So Sheppard, you can understand why my feelings towards Kolya are so intense. He was merely the last of my tormentors but he is the one from whom I can finally exact some retribution. This whole experience changed my view of humans and how I relate to them forever. In the Genii I have seen humans in a way very few, if any, of my kind have ever seen them and certainly in a very different light to the one in which you want to place them. I saw that humans possess the same type of ruthlessness and ambition that drives many of my fellow wraith, including myself. I saw them not as victims but as the perpetrators of their own brand of cruelty. One that they indiscriminately inflicted on wraith and human alike, one that served only a single purpose to advance their own fortunes at the expense of all others, one that we both tasted."

So it was done. Surprised at the candour with which he had been able to tell this story, Todd felt a sense of relief that he had finally been able to release some of the negativity the experience had imprinted on his life. He assumed Sheppard's silence, which had allowed him to speak virtually uninterrupted, showed that this human companion had also been affected by the story. He could just look into Sheppard's mind to confirm this but somehow that would diminish the value of what he had just done in revealing his story. He wanted to hear Sheppard's thoughts expressed by the human himself, expressed in words and sentences that took this story and assessed it within the attitude of Atlantean superiority that Todd found so annoying.

Sheppard felt confused though. He had asked the question but was surprised by the amount of detail Todd had revealed in response. He recalled how difficult it had been to share his feelings about the whole experience when he had returned to Atlantis. Now, after listening to Todd, part of him felt a sense of something akin to humility. He almost wanted to apologise for the treatment meted out to an alien creature with whom he might actually be starting to feel some affinity despite the huge differences between their races. But another part of him was wary, conscious that he could not afford to let his defences down around this creature who had an unnerving ability to change his mood from ally to potential foe at the drop of a hat.

Judging by the quiet calm that seemed to have descended on Todd, Sheppard sensed the wraith has said all he meant to say on the subject. If he was going to take the risk to respond it had to be now.

"I can understand how the whole thing would make you pretty pissed with humans. But the Genii are only one race, one that I've also found to be different from others in this galaxy, one that obviously I, or rather we on Atlantis, have had our troubles with too. Shortly after we arrived we made contact with them and they immediately betrayed our trust, they tried to take Atlantis with Kolya leading the raid, an attempt that led to needless death on both sides. Look, what they did to you was wrong but I guess their whole society has grown around a fear of your race, as a wraith you can't begin to know what that's like."

"No, I can not. It was something that never crossed my mind until my experience with the Genii and I suppose I must see it as something else I learnt."

Sheppard nodded his head but as he considered the ramifications of Todd's story, he thought back to the other issue that existed between them, something Todd had effectively brushed aside when they had talked in the tavern on Kolya's deserted base world. The decision to bring him back from the edge of death.

"Tell me, what about me? Where does our," Sheppard stopped, searching for the right word but had to settle for one that seemed slightly inappropriate when applied to a wraith. "Our relationship fit with all this. If you had such a jaded view of humans why did you bother to give me my life back?"

"As I told you, I was repaying a debt. Besides you showed me a different side of human behaviour to any I had ever seen before. A side that was totally different to what I had experienced at the hands of the Genii. Besides, you had convinced me that your friends would come to rescue you." A slight grin started to pull at the corners of Todd's mouth. "If they found you just an empty husk, they would have hunted me to exact their revenge. I did not really expect you to fulfil your part of our agreement but I knew you needed to at least be alive if I had any chance of getting off that world."

Sheppard just nodded and smiled. Trust a wraith to put a complex issue into basic terms that cut away all the emotion and complexity. He watched as Todd's face again took on an edge of seriousness.

"I must admit though, I thought returning your life might have created a bond between us but the mistrust you showed when we met again on Atlantis told me very quickly that I had overestimated the importance of such a connection."

"Look I've told you why it's been so hard for me to trust you." Despite this ingrained attitude, Rodney's words about him and Todd having some sort of mutual reliance thing sprang into his mind. But it was not something he wanted to even think about while they were on this mission together.

"Yes, I know and I understand you a little more now as, indeed, I hope you might have gained some insights into my experience."

The words carried a note of finality that Sheppard accepted without hesitation. Truth was all this sharing of experiences and feelings made him very uncomfortable even when the process involves an alien rather than someone he was close to like Teyla or Sam Carter.

Todd looked around and quickly reappraised how far they were from their destination. Confession time over, he saw no point hanging around on the edge of the open meadow and was keen to be moving again. "Come. We have wasted too much time here. We still have a way to go but we should arrive at the facility well before dawn."

"Good, before we risk the chance of running into Kolya, with or without his supporters, I could do with a quick sit down and a feed." Sheppard was thinking of the energy bars in his pocket but as soon as he finished the sentence he realised the implications of his words and glanced over towards Todd.

The wraith merely shook his head. "Don't worry Sheppard; I took the precaution of boosting my energy levels before we left the hive." He lowered his head and his voice took on a conspiratorial tone. "It seemed fitting that I should use the energy of Kolya's supporters to sustain me through this task."

Again Sheppard was reduced to silence and again he wondered exactly what he had got himself into.

-o-o-o-o-

Kolya stood with his hands on the back of the old chair that Sheppard sat on during their last meeting here, when the future, for him if not for Sheppard, had seemed so much brighter. Well, brighter in the beginning anyway. Looking over at the old video equipment he had used to show the other Atlanteans what would happen if they failed to agree to his demands, he thought about the series of events that turned the venture from success to failure.

Sheppard's capture had been planned down to the last detail but he had seriously underestimated the possibility that two beings who were sworn enemies might unite against him. Trusting that wraith had been a mistake although at the time he had seemed broken in body and spirit, a pathetic creature waiting to finally die. Trusting Sheppard had been an even bigger mistake, a man he knew would look for any opportunity to survive, who would always fight to the end even if the odds were stacked against him.

His thoughts were broken by the entrance of the follower who had watched that escape with him, one who had never taken on the role of a lieutenant but was always foremost among his loyalest followers. One who also seemed to have taken on a level of responsibility he had shunned previously.

"I have set one of our young friends to guard the entrance. I know he is relatively inexperienced but he is fast enough to get down here and warn us if we get any visitors. The other two are sleeping, it will be better if we take turns in resting and watching. I suggest we wait to begin burying the dead until we are certain no one is coming after us." Watching his commander nod agreement to this course of action, he asked a question, even though he was sure he already knew the answer. "You are expecting them, the Atlantean and the wraith?"

"Yes." Kolya saw no reason to lie to a man who had followed him on what may well be his last stand. "We both know how effectively they worked together to escape and all the evidence so far indicates they have probably joined forces again. I should have expected they would want to seek some retribution one day, especially the wraith."

The follower was concerned by the introspective tone of his commander's words and tried to provide some support and enthusiasm for their prospects. "There are five of us Commander and we know this place far better than they do. We are well armed and we have supplies to last several weeks."

A strong laugh echoed around the room before Kolya replied. "You are assuming they will come alone, we can not make any assumptions where the behaviour of these two is concerned."

The soldier went to leave but turned back, his face clearly reflecting the question that he was about to ask, although his voice was slightly hesitant.

"Why have you come back here if you were sure they would return?"

A good question and again Kolya had no hesitation in answering. "Because sometimes plans go awry and it becomes necessary to stop running and face your demons. You know, it is not too late for you to follow your own destiny, you can still make your peace with Ladon."

His follower laughed ironically. "Ladon and I never really saw eye-to-eye over much before I joined with you. No, I have made my decision and I will not be changing it now."

-o-o-o-o-

The large raindrops starting to fall on Sheppard's face roused him from his state of rest. Looking up to see a sky full of dark grey rain clouds, he immediately got to his feet and remembered the early morning surprise Todd had delivered the last time they had dozed together on this world. The wraith was nowhere to be seen so Sheppard walked quickly over to some shelter under a large tree and took a closer look at the derelict buildings that could be glimpsed through the thick curtain of trees.

"Ah Sheppard, I sensed that you were awake. Are you feeling better?"

He spun round quickly as the wraith had appeared behind him. He had not fallen asleep and for some reason found Todd's assumption slightly annoying. "Yeah, I felt fine to begin with and I did no fall asleep, I was just resting, waiting for it to start getting light. Where've you been?"

Todd joined him under the tree while casting a disgruntled look at the sky, reminding Sheppard of the distinct dislike for rain that had been revealed in Kolya's village. "I have been looking around the buildings. Five humans are here." He watched Sheppard's face. "And I am reasonably certain one of them is Kolya. An underling stands guard outside a small building that marks the entrance to the underground bunker."

"Five. That shouldn't pose too much of a problem." Sheppard was confident they could overcome five men. Suddenly he realised h had put so much energy into working through the rights and wrongs of Todd feeding on Kolya that he had given next to no thought about what to do with Kolya's men. While he would rather subdue them, he was prepared to use more force if they refused to surrender, the choice will be theirs. He was about to suggest a strategy to deal with the man guarding the entrance when Todd started to put forward one of his own.

"I suggest you distract this guard..."

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why am I the one distracting him?" Sheppard was not used to having decisions about his part in an operation dictated to him by anyone, especially not a wraith.

Todd took a deep breath. "I would have thought it is obvious." The look on Sheppard's face still reflected stubborn resistance rather than understanding. Todd grunted softly, clearly he was going to have to explain. "Do you not think it might be a little less alarming for him to see another human walking towards him rather than a wraith? This might make him easier to deal with perhaps?"

"Hmm" Sheppard raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, okay. Alright let's go."

Knowing that Todd would circle round behind the Genii, Sheppard started off through the trees looking for the best position to emerge and make his presence known. He did not need to walk far before he saw the soldier but he was not what Sheppard had expected. He was very young and the stance he had adopted confirmed his lack of experience in this type of situation. Alarm bells immediately rang in the Atlantean's head, he had seen enough men like this to know they can often shoot first and ask questions later if challenged suddenly so he decided to swing back and approach from further away. All he had to do is attract the man's attention, not his bullets, so that Todd can neutralise the risk.

As he walked out from the trees with his hands raised above his head, it took a couple of minutes for the Genii's attention to turn in his direction. As soon as it did, the young soldier stiffened and the familiar shape of a Genii rifle was quickly ranged against him.

"Stop!" Sheppard obeyed instantly. The voice was strong but a slight quaver gave away the young man's nervousness. "Who are you?"

"Name's John. Come to this world to hunt from time to time." Sheppard saw Todd moving quickly behind his quarry. "Don't usually find others here though, you here to hunt too?"

But there was no reply. As the soldier opened his mouth, Todd's arm snaked round his neck and the blade of a long, double-edged knife found its way through the soft tissue between the ribs into the youngster's heart. Sheppard shouts but knew his intervention was useless. Running up as Todd pulled the knife out slowly and let the body slide to the ground, he was annoyed with them both that such a young life had been lost without being given the chance to surrender. As he watched the body settle on the ground, Sheppard realised he has a grudging respect for these men who possesses the loyalty and courage to stay with their commander even when it was clear his cause was doomed to failure. Damn it, why had he not make sure that they had an agreed plan to deal with this handful of supporters before they started.

"What'd you do that for? We could have got him to surrender."

Todd was surprised. "And what would we have done with him then Sheppard? We are not here to take prisoners."

"We could've stunned him. He wasn't a threat to us."

"And he was no use to us either. I am here to finally finish something that started long ago Sheppard. If you do not wish to go any further I will finish it alone."

The rebuke was delivered with a hiss and the Atlantean got a glimpse of the cold, hard behaviour totally devoid of compassion that he had seen before in other wraith. Gone was all sense of the camaraderie he thought was developing between them and he realised that keeping control of the more aggressive side of Todd's nature may be far harder than he had ever anticipated.

They stood glaring at each other, both angry at the other's inability to look beyond this incident and their own preconceived ideas of how to achieve their common goal. Finally Sheppard took a step back.

"I know why you're here, it's why we're both here, remember. But Kolya's the one we want; if there's an alternative to killing the other three we should try that first."

Todd looked down his nose at Sheppard. "Very well." He does not really understand why he has agreed, these few humans are expendable he could see nothing about them that would warrant keeping them alive. But perhaps it would be to his advantage to show some flexibility, he had done it when on Atlantis and he has no prestige to lose by doing it here too.

Sheppard bent over the young soldier and slid the still warm lids down over the lifeless eyes. It was the very least he could do for one whose only mistake had been to follow a cause that for all intents and purposes was now irretrievably lost. He hoped Kolya at least understood the sacrifice that had been made in that cause.