Chapter Twenty-Four

Lorne was the first to wake. Feeling that horrible tingling, stinging sensation like acid coated needles stinging him all over his body he groaned slightly. Looking around from his prone position on the cold, slick floor he quickly spotted the rest of his team. What he saw next had him groaning for a whole different reason as he banged his head on the floor.

"Morning, sunshine," Colonel Sheppard called with a half-grin.

"Do I even want to know?" Major Lorne asked, pulling himself up to a sitting position.

"Nope, not really," Sheppard replied with a significant look.

"Great," Lorne replied, giving up and flopping back on the floor. "Damn those things hurt! How long?"

"About an hour."

"Et tu?"

"About two days."

Before he could comment further, Daniels had started moving and Sheppard was toeing Oaksford gently in the shoulder from where he sat. So far the only one that hadn't moved was Alex.

"Are you kidding me?" Daniels said, opening her eyes.

"I knew it," Oaksford said pulling himself up. "You owe me fifty bucks, Daniels."

"Stuff it."

Since Alex seemed a little reluctant to join the party, Lorne reached over and shook her gently. Waking up to find herself in a Wraith cell was bad enough. Seeing her entire team and Sheppard's entire team, she lost it. All present exchanged worried looks as she started laughing. Inside Alex was sobbing. But she wasn't about to let them know that. Waving off offers of assistance, she sat up.

"You okay?" Ronon asked gruffly.

"If I answer that, it's probably going to come out sounding like Doctor McKay, and one of those is more than enough."

"Hey!"

"So, has she said anything?"

"Nope," Sheppard replied, crossing his arms and leaning back.

"Now that we're all here, that's likely to change soon enough," Alex commented.

"Yep."

Scooting herself to the furthest, darkest corner, she propped herself against the wall. "Well, in that case, we wait."

"Why?" Lorne asked. "I thought you said you could get us out of here."

"I can," she agreed from the shadows. "I'm not ready yet."

Not liking the sound of this at all, Lorne walked over to her and squatted. "What do you mean 'not ready yet'?"

Tilting her head back cursing the feeling of acid covered needles being stabbed all over her body, she tried to determine where the effects of the stunner blasts ended and the effects of her change had begun.

"You're not going to like this."

"I already don't like it," he said darkly. "What did you do?"

Heaving a sigh and letting her head fall back against the wall she closed her eyes against the pain. "I stopped taking the retrovirus."

Lorne's face paled. "No…"

"Yep," she said. "It's going to be a long night. I'm assuming that whatever she has planned she wasn't ready for, but for some reason she had to move fast. Probably threat of another hive attack."

"Do you have any on you?" Sheppard asked, his green eyes hard.

"Nope. I have other plans."

"What other plans?" Lorne asked, a dangerous edge to his voice.

"Sorry, guys. If I have any chance of pulling this off, you're just going to have to trust me."

"Trust you?" McKay practically squealed. "You're joking, right? We're just going to trust her as she turns back into a Wraith?"

"Shut it, McKay," Sheppard growled.

"She's just told us she's turning!" he said incredulously. "That's going to make her an easy target for the queen. There's no way—"

"McKay!"

"No, let him draw attention to us," Alex interrupted, her voice dripping sarcasm. "The more he does, the sooner she will come. And, please, don't bother to hide me."

Lorne took her by the shoulders and shook her enough to make her face him. "You can't do this. I wanted you to get us out of here, but not like this. Carson told me what the change was like for you. There's got to be another way."

"I'm sorry, Evan," she whispered low enough only he could hear. Turning to the others she said, "When she comes, let her see me changing. Let her do what she wants. I won't be a threat to her and she knows it. But I will provide hours of amusement."

Even Sheppard's lips thinned at this idea.

"You mean torture," Ronon supplied.

"Trust me," Alex said with a grunt as a twinge of pain in her chest made her hunch over for a moment. "She won't be needing to torture me for her entertainment." Sitting back up and trying to focus through the pain, she added, "When she's ready, she'll come. And either she's going to take great pleasure at seeing me suffer, or we're going to get some inkling of what it is she does have planned. Either way, it works in our favor."

Ronon grunted his approval. By this point Lorne was gritting his teeth, but he could see no way out. Turning her attention back to him, Alex smiled briefly through the pain. She lowered her voice again so only he would hear.

"You asked if you could trust me, and I said yes. Now trust me when I say that this is the only way. It can be reversed later, but this is the only way out of here alive."

Lorne's expression was agony. "It better be."

Alex smiled again reassuringly. Then she turned to the others. "For Major Lorne it's already too late to cover it. She's been inside him and knows how he feels. The rest of you just need to back off and show her how much you despise Wraith. It's as simple as that."

"What?" Daniels asked.

"As the change becomes more and more visible, move away from me. Look disgusted. Convince her you've never trusted me. Whatever you do, don't give her the edge. Don't let her know that I can be used against you. Say what you want. Your words will be the least of my concern," she huffed a pain-filled chuckle.

"For some of us there's no acting involved," Doctor McKay grumbled, earning glares from all present.

"Very good, Doctor," Alex added, again with enough sarcasm to make Sheppard grin. "Just like that…"

This time she couldn't disguise the pain. As her insides twisted and her skin crawled, she lay sideways along the wall and curled up. For a few minutes the pain was all she knew. Slowly it receded, leaving her mind a bit foggy. Seeing Lorne's white face staring down at her from where he'd put her head in his lap, she frowned.

"You shouldn't—"

"You already said it yourself, she knows. What does it matter?" he replied gruffly.

"Thank you," she said, accepting what little comfort he could offer her.

With that, he resumed stroking her hair soothingly in a way that was similar enough to Carson's she very nearly wanted to cry. She missed him already. At least she had the comfort of knowing he was safe. Now she just had to hope and pray she could get all of them out of this alive, too.

~o~o~o~

Alex lost all concept of time. The pain came in waves that left her biting back screams. She wasn't ready yet and didn't want to draw attention before she was. This desperate plan hinged entirely on her ability to control the minds of the other Wraith as well as being able to feed. Escaping this nightmare was not going to happen without some injuries. She just hoped she could minimize the damages.

At one point, she was consumed in pain and left violently shaking. She had some vague sensation from far away that Evan was holding her tight to keep her from thrashing. He had taken her request to heart and was trying to muffle her screams in his chest. But her caring for this faded swiftly. As her brain realigned itself along with the rest of her, she began to feel numb toward him. By no means was he just an animal for her to feed on, but the feelings she distantly remembered sharing with him in another life no longer mattered. He was just another person, as was John.

Alex couldn't remember how long it had been. It could have been hours or weeks, and it no longer mattered. In one of the calmer moments when Lorne had fallen asleep with her head in his lap, she felt it. Her hunger was back. It was a light, burning sensation that left her feeding hand tingling in anticipation. Watching the slow rise and fall of Lorne's chest she was hypnotized. She wanted it. She wanted him. She needed his strength now.

Apparently he wasn't as deeply asleep as she thought. She hadn't even realized her feeding hand was inching its way towards his heart until his hand came up and gripped her wrist in an iron fist. His blue eyes had flown open and were glaring down at her now.

"Alex!" he hissed trying to bring her back to the present.

Gasping in shock at what she had almost done Alex yanked back her hand and rolled away. On her hands and knees she shook her head as if to shake off the intense sensation of what it meant to be a Wraith. Looking around, she found the others just stirring in the sudden commotion. As requested, they had moved away from Lorne and Alex and were now watching warily. She found herself surprised they were all present.

"How long?" she asked Lorne, deliberately ignoring the rest of them.

"About thirty-two hours," Sheppard answered, looking disturbed still by what he had probably just seen.

Looking down at her feeding hand, she knew it was time. She only hesitated at the fact that the queen had left her alone. She had left them all alone. That could only mean she had more important issues to deal with. Alex could only hope that it meant she would be distracted and an easy target.

Looking around she was pleased to see no guards. Settling herself in a seated position in the middle of the floor, she summoned the queen. The queen was near frantic over something. Alex didn't care. She wasn't here for information. Lashing out angrily, she demanded the queen release her. The backlash of the queen's fury knocked her backward where she found herself writhing and screaming on the floor. Lorne tried to hold her, but she no longer trusted herself. Violently she shoved him away.

Finally the pain ended. For a moment she lay huddled on the floor just trying to regain her shattered thoughts. Then she sensed it.

"She's coming," she announced, pulling herself to her feet.

Seconds later the queen entered the room naked fury on her face. "How dare you—"

Alex hissed like a feral animal. "Release me!"

What took place next left Alex twitching and hissing but it was a conversation the others were not privy to. Whatever happened, though, they both relaxed after a few moments.

"Very well, prove it," the queen finally said. "Feed."

"Which one?"

"That one," she said pointing to Lorne.

Again Alex hissed. "He's mine. I'll take him when I choose. He is my pet!"

"And if I wish to take him?"

Alex hissed again. For a few more seconds there was silence as the two battled on a telepathic plane. Giving a screech, Alex stood her ground, but obviously lost. An instant later she had Lorne by the throat against the wall as she used her feeding hand on his chest. The rest stood back watching in horror and disgust as the Major's screams filled the room. Looking quite pleased with herself, the queen watched. Only when Lorne was aged and drained to skin and bones did she stop. Not hesitating, she dropped Lorne's corpse and picked the target she knew most valuable to the queen. Pouncing on Sheppard she repeated the process.

Now the others jumped into action. Ronon was the first, gripping her by her hair and trying to snap her neck. That was when the queen decided to intervene. The two warriors fired on all but Alex, Lorne, and Sheppard. She reached for Sheppard a second time, but the telepathic command stopped her.

"You've proven your point. But you still stink of human. I will accept your help…for now."

Glaring hatefully, Alex nodded once. The doors parted allowing her to step out. Not bothering to look back, she followed her queen.

~o~o~o~

Lorne watched the exchange between the queen and Alex. He had very nearly betrayed his surprise when Alex had called him her pet. Then she'd had him by the throat, slamming him against the wall so hard it stunned him.

Forgive me, Evan, her voice spoke in his mind.

And then his body, his world, his entire existence narrowed to fiery agony that burned through his entire body from the spot where her feeding hand had latched on to his chest. He could not hope to hold back the screams he only distantly heard. He felt his life and essence draining out of him too fast to comprehend. There was a flash of…something…beyond the agony. She was there, in his mind, suffering with him. Knowing he would not survive this, he somehow found the last shreds of his sanity and projected his feeling towards her.

It's okay, Alex…

And then the darkness took him away from the pain.

~o~o~o~

"…that bitch! I told you not to trust her! But nooo. You just had to offer up yourself as a tasty—"

"Rodney!" Sheppard roared. "You are one word away from finding my boot up your—"

Major Lorne's groan broke into their argument dropping them both to dead silence. After Alex had left with the queen, Sheppard had been the only one of them still conscious. Now feeling, and probably looking, more like eighty than forty he shook off the effects of having been fed on and checked on the Major. Considering the man's condition, he was amazed to see him breathing at all. Though, given what he'd looked like, Sheppard didn't think he was likely to survive more than a few hours.

Coughing slightly, Lorne looked around. His body didn't want to cooperate, so all he could do was move his eyes.

"Welcome back," Sheppard called in a snarky voice. "Enjoy your nap?"

"Alex…" he whispered almost too tired to breathe.

"Gone," McKay said. "Took off with the queen like they were best buds. So I hope you'll excuse me if I point out—"

"Ronon, shut him up!" Sheppard said, too tired to do it himself.

Ronon stomped forward and put his angry face inches from Rodney's. "Are you done?"

McKay's blue eyes widened in disbelief at the unspoken threat. "Yeah, sure, whatever. I'll just, um, sit. You know, right over here. And wait for Alex to come back and—"

"Shut up!" Daniels finally said from where she sat next to Lorne. "Just…shut up, okay? We get it. She's betrayed us. Whatever."

McKay humphed, and then, for a wonder, shut up and sit down. For a while Lorne contemplated the ceiling. There was something he was supposed to remember. He saw something. She had been in his mind, sharing his pain when she fed. She had told him something. Cursing himself for his weakness, he slowly drifted off.

~o~o~o~

At some point Lorne woke again, almost surprised he had woken up at all. He could not remember ever being so tired, even when he'd been suffering from pneumonia in high school. His body was fading away. He knew it wouldn't be long now. But something in the back of his mind screamed at him not to give up. Alex was coming back. She was…there was something he couldn't remember.

"You back with us, sir?" Oaksford asked, seeing Lorne's eyes open again.

"Alex…" he struggled to breathe deeply enough to speak. "Coming back."

"I don't know, sir."

"Hey, buddy," Sheppard said, scooting over to look down on his second in command. "Hang in there."

"She's coming back," Lorne struggled to get out words louder than a whisper.

"I know," Sheppard said, his green eyes boring into Lorne's. "Just rest, okay. Hang in there, Evan."

"How long?"

"Don't worry about it. Just rest."

There was something else. He struggled to remember, to breathe, to hold on. But his strength was gone. He wanted to tell Sheppard to give her a message for him. He wanted to tell her himself that he forgave her. He wanted to see her one more time. He wanted to know that she was going to be okay. But there just wasn't anything left. He was so tired.

His last thoughts of Alex, Lorne slipped away.

~o~o~o~

It hadn't taken Alex long to learn what was going on.

Within minutes of having Lorne and his team secured, the queen sent her instructions to the Delta Site to begin the attack. That would at least ensure the human ship didn't attempt to fire on her hive; since it would likely be too busy trying to help in the defense of the human encampment. By the time the Daedalus realized what was going on, she and her hive would be far away from where they had been. She waited for word to come back only to find she had been thwarted a second time. Screaming in rage she had attacked her own Hivemaster for his failures. First they had lost Atlantis, now they had lost the Delta Site. The humans had been prepared for the attack. They had quickly removed Doctor Weir and she was nowhere to be found. That damnable, arrogant human female had been one of the keys to her plans.

The other part her generals had failed in was confirming the location of Atlantis. As before, the planet appeared barren. Thinking it might be cloaked, they lightly bombarded the last known location. Nothing. The city was gone. It was as she had feared, they had found a way to move the city. So the information she had gleaned from Lorne and Church had been useless. She now had one last chance to prove herself before the queen leading the alliance came down on her for her failures.

After finally confirming the location of the Alpha Site and its handful of people, the queen had setup a trap. After spending a couple of days converting three of the men there into worshippers the hard and painful way, she had had them wait for a check-in from Atlantis. Within an hour Sheppard and his team had come to figure out what was going on with some of the Ancient tech that was supposedly going haywire. Instead, they had been captured. The queen had intended to keep them and use them. She was going to convert Sheppard, at the very least. He would be useful in locating Doctor Weir. He could draw her out.

But, before that could happen, they had been distracted by another hive; and not a friendly one. Forced to move time and time again to avoid confrontation with her already crippled ship, she became more and more enraged. Alex had become a distraction in her mind she could no longer ignore. Desperate, she had agreed to let Alex help her in exchange for being able to keep one of them as a pet. But her punishment had been to kill the one she wanted, first. After all, she could always kill the filthy creature later. She stank of human, even now.

Distracted and enraged, she momentarily forgot about Alex's presence as she brought the hive out of hyperspace at the Delta Site. One way or another, she would have Weir and the address to Earth. And, with Sheppard, she would soon have the location of Atlantis as well.

Sensing Evan fading further and further, Alex, herself was becoming desperate. If she didn't make a move soon, he would die. She knew she was going to have to feed on someone. She had hoped it would be that obnoxious astrophysicist. But the queen had been adamant. To prove herself, she had to kill Major Lorne. She had drained him as far as she dared, and then gone after Sheppard to spite the queen and, hopefully, distract her from the fact that Evan still lived. But he wouldn't last much longer. She was out of time.

With a strike to the neck, Alex stunned the queen and used a telepathic burse of pain to knock the three present males unconscious. Just to be on the safe side, she kicked the queen soundly in the head. Her hands trembling, she tried to shove Evan out of her mind so she could focus. She filled and emptied syringes one after another. She had put possibly three times the amount Carson had used on her into the queen before stopping. Sensing the males stirring, she turned her attention to them. Pouncing, she fed on two of them before the third managed to stun her.

Still reeling from the effects of the stunner, Alex was dragged back to the cell. Leaving her body to be carried by them, she reached out to Lorne.

Nothing.

Her heart nearly stopped. Though her human emotions were gone, she still felt something for him; even if only as a queen's pet. He was hers. He could not die on her. They threw her into the cell where she landed on her hands and knees. There she found Sheppard gripping Lorne by his jacket and shaking him.

"Damn you! You're not going to do this, Major! Breathe!"

With a growl Alex scrambled over to the scrawny remains of Major Lorne. She shoved Sheppard out of the way and put her hand to his chest. Yes! There was still a pulse, but he had stopped breathing. It was enough. Focusing all she had on this one prayer, she began the restoration process. Somewhere outside her body she could hear them shouting. Sheppard had even knocked into her roughly trying to keep McKay away, but she would not relinquish her connection to Evan. Simultaneously she connected with his mind, trying to drag him back from the darkness he had given in to. Eventually the other saw what she was doing. Within the span of a couple of minutes, Lorne was looking more like himself. Still unconscious, he was at least breathing again.

Feeling drained, Alex flopped backward. Her head hit the floor harder than intended. But at least it shocked some sense of reality back into her.

"She did it," McKay said, wonder in his voice.

Taking a few deep breaths, she tried to calm her racing heart. She was so tired already. But she wasn't finished. Struggling to sit up, she found Sheppard's hand in her face.

"Thanks," she muttered accepting his assistance.

"My turn?" he asked, hopefully.

Had she been more human, she might have laughed at his ridiculously hopeful expression. She motioned to the floor next to herself.

"I never did tell you, John, but you look good with gray hair," she commented, with a grin.

"Sure, if I ever get that old."

"You will," she promised, putting her hand gently to his chest. "Sorry, by the way."

"No problem. I knew you were up to something. But a little warning would have been nice."

Instead of responding, she began the restoration. Much as before, but unlike Evan, she gave him back the essence of life; only without the telepathic connection she had shared with Evan. Despite her current Wraith physiology, she still could feel something for the men who claimed her as sister. And, for Evan, she suffered his agony with him. He deserved that much.

With a smile, she released her connection to John and let the darkness claim her.

~o~o~o~

Her next physical sensation was one she almost thought she'd never feel again. Evan had her in his lap and held her wrapped in his arms. For a moment the human part of her wanted nothing more than to stay there. But the Wraith part of her screamed to feed. She was so tired. Shoving away the need to feed, she looked up into his worried blue eyes and couldn't help but smile.

"Feeling better?" she asked.

Evan huffed a laugh that made the worry lines on his face disappear for a moment. "I was going to ask you the same thing."

She just nodded and sank back into his chest for a moment wishing she could take some of his strength without feeding on him. Trying to force her exhausted mind to work, she reached out to the queen. Silence. Most likely the queen was hibernating. It was too soon for the retrovirus to have killed her, she thought. But maybe she had used far too much. Then it dawned on her exhausted mind, the rest of the hive was silent, as well. The queen must have gone into hibernation hoping the ship would heal her, and she had taken the rest of her crew with her. If nothing else, that told Alex just how desperate the queen had been to preserve her life and hive.

"Are you going to fill us in, or am I going to have to tell Carson you've been cheating on him?" Sheppard called from across the cell, having noticed she was awake.

If looks could kill, Lorne's would have set Sheppard aflame on the spot. But Alex just chuckled, knowing it was Sheppard's way of dealing with the stressful situation and not wanting to ask directly if she was going to live or not. Heaving a sigh, she hugged Lorne for a moment, before moving away and standing up. Seeing the others sleeping, she sent her senses outward. For the moment, they were alone; not just on the ship, but in the general space around them for a very long ways.

"They're hibernating," she told them. "Now we can escape."

"What did you do?" Sheppard asked, poking the others to wake them up.

"I gave her the female formula retrovirus. More than enough to kill her, probably. But enough to start the conversion process, at the very least. Any Wraith that is sick or dying will go into hibernation to let the ship heal them. A queen usually takes everyone on the hive into hibernation with her. Now all we have to do is connect the canisters to the fluid lines and the males will be converted. She'll most likely die, just as I did the first time."

"But you didn't…" Sheppard started before he realized. "Beckett resuscitated you."

Alex nodded tiredly. "I'll explain the rest on the way. First we need to get out of here and to the dart bay."

"Dart bay?" Sheppard asked, as she opened the door with her mind.

"We're above the planet where the Delta Site was setup."

"Do they have Doctor Weir?" Lorne asked, unable to mask his concern.

"No. Whatever you had planned worked."

"Good."

She led them over to a wall that she opened with her mind. There they were able to retrieve all their gear. Trying to shrug off her exhaustion, she accepted her gear from a concerned Daniels. With a weary smile, she tried to reassure Daniels she would be fine. Once they were ready, she led them toward the nearest dart bay. A couple of corridors down, she ran into a wall. Thinking she had just taken a wrong turn, she backed up. Suddenly none of the corridors seemed right. Confused and exhausted, she tried to regain her bearings.

"Something's wrong," she said, finally realizing that she was not lost.

"Maybe you just took a wrong turn. It's been a while since you were on a hive," Sheppard suggested.

Alex shook her head seeming distant. Casting out with her mind again, she tried to connect to anything. It all felt…wrong.

"No, there's something…"

Now trying to connect with the hive itself, she reached out and touched the wall. A moment later her scream rang through the halls as Ronon pulled her off the wall, breaking the connection. For a few seconds they could only stand there staring at her as she huddled in Ronon's arms trembling from head to foot trying to figure out what exactly had just happened. Regaining some of her senses, she tried to pull away from Ronon and stumbled slightly.

"Oh no…" Rodney said, working furiously on his tablet standing at the conjunction of three corridors. "She's right. The ship—"

Sensing the attack a split second beforehand Alex managed to put herself between Doctor McKay and the darkened corridors an instant before the knife came down. For a heartbeat they were all frozen not sure if they should be shooting at her before they all realized there was a crazed male Wraith standing right behind her. Alex screamed and went to her knees, taking McKay with her. The knife was lodged so deeply in her back that it was yanked out of the Wraith's hands as she fell. She couldn't even find the breath to tell them not to kill the Wraith, and that she needed to feed. The shock of the knife buried in her back just under her shoulder blade was all she knew.

When the shooting stopped, she sat on her knees, huddled and hunched over with her forehead nearly to the floor. McKay had scrambled away from her and was now against the opposite wall staring at her in pale-faced terror. All around her there were voices but her scrambled mind couldn't make sense of any of them. Finally one penetrated her exhaustion and agony.

"Alex, look at me."

That familiar voice…those words…they were so familiar it was almost comforting. He would make the pain stop. Struggling to regain her focus, she finally managed to breathe again.

"Take it out," she whispered.

"Alex, if we do that you'll bleed out," Sheppard said, his concern clear in his voice.

"Look at me, Alex," Lorne demanded again.

Gritting her teeth and trying to force herself more upright, she fixed her eyes on his blue ones. The fear was clear on his face. "Take. It. Out."

"Alex—"

Whatever Lorne was about to say was cut off as Ronon reached down and yanked the knife out. The unmistakable sound of bones being broken accompanied it. In too much pain to even scream now, Alex curled in on herself again. Somewhere far away Sheppard's shouting kept her focused enough not to lose consciousness, but only barely.

"What? She said to take it out."

Closer to her, Lorne said softly enough for the others not to hear. "You need to feed to heal."

Still reeling from the shock, Alex nodded.

"I don't care what she said!" Sheppard continued. "You could have killed her."

"Feed on me," Lorne whispered. "Take what you need."

That shocked her back to coherency. She was still sickened by the last time she fed on him. She would rather die. With an angry hiss at her own weakness as it burned with the desire to fee don him, she shoved him away from her. With a shocked look he landed on his ass beside McKay, who had only just recovered enough of his senses to realize what had just happened.

"You saved my life," the scientist in a voice just a little short of open awe.

Instead of replying, she tried to struggle to her feet. Seeing this, Sheppard gave up yelling at Ronon and turned to help her up. With a glare for their CO Daniels and Oaksford stepped in, one at each elbow and pulled her to her feet.

"Now, will someone please explain exactly what the hell is going on?" Sheppard demanded.

"The ship is sick," Alex said, still trying to get her shaking breath under control. The rattle in her lungs did not bode well.

"She's right," McKay confirmed picking up his tablet. "It's almost like its…melting."

"Not melting, trying to convert," Alex corrected. "Or something. I think the female formula retrovirus is affecting the ship."

"Fluid transfer," McKay said. "But how can it affect the ship? The male formula didn't."

"I don't know," Alex admitted. "But the ship is sick. It's dying. We have to get out of here before there's a hull breach."

"You don't need to tell me twice. McKay, find us another way to—"

"Oh no, no, no, no, no. This is not good," Rodney said with an edge of panic in his voice. "The dart bay on this side of the ship is gone. There's almost nothing left."

"What about the other ones?"

"We can't. Most of the corridors are…melting. They're changing so rapidly we'll never make it."

"Control room," Alex said. "We should be able to make it there."

"And then what?" Sheppard asked.

"I'll have to land the hive."

"There's no way! This thing is going to pieces already. It'll never survive re-entry."

"We have no choice. And the less time we spend arguing the more likely we will be to get the ship down intact. The whole ship doesn't have to survive, just the forward sections."

"Find us a path, Rodney. Don't argue! Just do it!" Sheppard ordered, cutting off any further protests.

Frantically McKay worked away on his table. "This way," he finally said, taking the lead.

So weak was she already that Alex couldn't make her legs move. Daniels and Oaksford just carried her, one arm over each of their shoulders and putting their other arms around her waist. Lorne gritted his teeth, but said nothing.

"Don't kill the next Wraith," the Major called to the others. "Ronon, set it to stun. She has to feed or she won't make it."

Colonel Sheppard nodded to Ronon and he very visibly adjusted his gun settings. Everyone else knew to hold their fire. Taking the lead, Ronon took his directions from Rodney. Within minutes they had already run into multiple barriers. As the ship kept changing, they kept having to double back. Disappointingly, they didn't find any other Wraith until they got to the control room. And he was alone. Alex knew this would only be enough to heal the wound, not enough to give her any real strength, but she had no choice.

Just as she finished feeding, the whole ship gave a massive lurch.

"The ship just broke apart!" Rodney called out in a full panic from where he stood at one of the consoles. "The orbit had already degraded. We're in the atmosphere. There's no time."

With a growl and an angry hiss, Alex leapt toward one of the main consoles. Throwing everything she had into taking control of the remaining part of the ship she tried to angle it with the remaining thrusters. Knowing they were still going to land far from the gate, she aimed for a massive lake hoping to cushion the impact. They were still going to land too hard and too fast. Rodney was screaming panicked information to all of them in between constant reminders of how they were all going to die on impact if the remaining section didn't break up during the re-entry.

Somewhere nearby she sensed Teyla. She could not take her focus off the control of the ship even for a moment or she would lose what little control she had. Reaching out to Teyla, she gave her last coherent thoughts.

"Alex says to brace!" Teyla called out. "Lay on the floor against anything that will support you! Hurry!"

Then there was just her and the ship. Alone here in this place struggling for control, trying to save her friends, she fought. Screaming inside her own mind she was thrown back to a time when she had done something similar. But now it wasn't a suicide effort. Now it was a desperate need to keep her friends alive. Some miniscule part of her mind not consumed with the struggle to control she ship, she sent out one last prayer.

The world exploded. The shattering pain leaving her feeling as if she'd been ripped apart.

Then there was nothing.