A presence nagged on her mind, vying for attention.
Queen Ice spoke with Sheppard, but Aceso didn't pay attention.
"Be ready to flee," Nyx communicated to her. Somehow, he knew to wait for her.
Aceso understood then that Nyx would not let her come to harm, even at the hands of his queen.
The lights cut out.
While the humans scrabbled around in the dark, the faint luminescence of the chamber walls allowed her to see ever so slightly.
The queen retreated out of the chamber through the main entrance, however in the confusion, no guards followed, an oversight that left her vulnerable.
A bright flash of light from the transporter sent the remainder of the wraith somewhere else, leaving only the team.
As the queen escaped, a nagging impulse sent her moving forward two steps, when she stopped abruptly.
No, she needed to stay with the team.
But the object of her vengeance was so close.
Indecision kept her planted only for a second.
Standing up and moving swiftly, she followed the queen out of there. Aceso followed her with purpose. Anger burned within her like molten metal, refusing to be wasted. Gone was her naïve hesitance at refusing to feed — She would have her revenge.
(0)
Sheppard couldn't see anything right now. There were the sounds of wraith scrabbling around. He felt the breeze and the sound of someone running past him. There was another bright flash of light in which the entire chamber was bathed in light from the transporter system. Then the environment blinked back into darkness. Sheppard had no idea where he was now.
Just as he thought that, the lights blinked back on, emanating their cool blue from the ceiling and walls. Whipping his head around, he noticed that he was still in the center chamber, along with his team, but all the wraith had gone.
A quick head count revealed that Aceso had disappeared.
"What the hell just happened?" Ronon asked.
"I don't know," Sheppard said, standing up slowly. He looked around the room, trying to find an explanation for what just occurred.
Movement from the opposite side of the room caught his eye.
"Hey," Sheppard said, getting Ronon's attention. McKay and Teyla turned as well.
Nyx emerged from the shadows, giving Sheppard a jolt of adrenaline. He recognized him from his time spent imprisoned in his facility.
Ronon stepped forward, squaring up and preparing to fight.
Nyx carried a bundle of things that Sheppard slowly began to recognize as their weapons.
"Sheppard," Nyx addressed.
"Nyx," Sheppard replied. "Can I call you that?"
Nyx didn't answer immediately, but looked between the four of them. "Where is my sister?" he demanded.
"I'd like to know that too," Sheppard said. "She was right here a second ago."
Nyx seemed genuinely confused and disturbed. "I sent everyone to a dart bay, except your team. I know that she wasn't caught in the transport beam."
"She is pursuing the queen," Teyla said. "I could sense her desire for revenge."
Nyx's eyes conveyed despair in response to Teyla's revelation.
"You must help her," Nyx said. He stepped forward and set their weapons on the ground. Ronon stepped forward and grabbed his blaster, promptly aiming it at Nyx's face.
"Ronon?" Sheppard said calmly. "What'cha doing buddy?"
"He is helping us Ronon," Teyla said.
"They've helped us before," Ronon said tersely. "That hasn't stopped them from betraying us later."
"You can't just shoot him." McKay said.
"Why not?" Ronon said.
There was a pause, thick was tension and the sound of his own heart beating as a moment of silence passed.
"Because Aceso wouldn't forgive you," Teyla answered, breaking the silence.
Ronon's eyes broke their lock with Nyx, showing that Ronon was genuinely affected by what Teyla had said. Slowly, Ronon lowered his gun and stepped back.
Nyx looked vaguely relieved when Ronon lowered his weapon. "I have locked out the ship's command center to only accept input from my sister. Please, find her and save her."
"Why can't you save her?" Sheppard asked. "You've gone this far."
"I can't challenge the queen directly," Nyx said. "Her influence is too pervasive. I must stay in the shadows for now."
"Coward," Ronon spat.
Nyx glared at him, "I am risking everything by just freeing you!"
Ronon stepped forward, glaring at him only a foot away from his face. "If it were my sister facing down that queen, nothing would stop me from helping her."
Nyx broke his eye contact.
Ronon continued. "She wouldn't let us kill you when we had the chance because she understands what family means! Do you?"
Nyx seemed shaken by Ronon's outburst, and stood motionless, his face turning down to the floor in an expression of regret. "I must go," he said. He turned away and left swiftly.
Sheppard waited until he was out of sight before collecting his weapon.
"That was just weird," McKay said, grabbing his sidearm.
"How so?" Teyla commented. "He has protected her before, why not now?"
"We're lucky he still cares about her." Sheppard said. "We have to hurry and find Aceso, before it's too late."
(0)
Ice bolted through the ship in a panic at being pursued so closely by another powerful wraith. The darkness prevented Ice from moving swiftly enough to escape out of sight, and sent her bumping into walls and bulkhead doors. She seemed to be running down passageways to the lower decks, for what purpose, Aceso couldn't guess.
As Aceso closed in on catching her, she realized that Ice was trying to escape the ship on foot by exiting through an airlock. Aceso lost sight of her around a corner and paused for a second, listening.
Behind her, advancing drones created an echo of footfalls. The lights came on again, blinding her for a second before her eyes adjusted.
Aceso ran forward, and to her surprise, saw Ice there at an open bulkhead door that opened into a solid wall of soil. This airlock led under the ground presently, making escape impossible.
Ice turned around swiftly, facing her attacker head on. The two queens locked eyes, one regarding the other. The psychic tension between like an overwhelming noise. Aceso could feel it in her head like a pressure threatening to crush her mind. Ice attempted to infiltrate her mind, but Aceso brushed off the attack like one swats at a fly.
"What are you going to do child?" Ice taunted. "You don't have the strength to exact revenge on me."
"Are you certain?" Aceso retorted. She advanced, taking one of Teyla's fighting stances.
Ice moved her eyes up and down, examining Aceso's stance, and gauging the threat.
Without giving a warning, Aceso bolted forward and wrestled Ice down to the ground, locking her arm and getting the upper hand quickly.
The quick victory shocked Aceso. She stared at Ice, raising her hand in a feeding stance, and then paused, staring directly in her eyes. She stared back with barred teeth and gray, ice-like eyes. Despite her outward cruelty, Ice lay there on the ground, terrified — terror that Aceso felt in herself.
No — not now.
No!
She hesitated. Damn this hesitation! She wasted a second, brought on by Ice's fear, but the moment passed too soon.
Some force struck Aceso, sending her flying across the hallway. Picking herself off the ground, she noticed a wraith drone had appeared suddenly. The drone wrestled her back to the ground, overpowering her with a combination of brute strength, and his queen's influence.
Ice stood up and hovered nearby as the drone held her down. Aceso fought, kicked, and even tried to mentally command the drone to let her go, but it was no use, the large male was too strong for her to fight.
"Kill her," Ice commanded.
The drone dutifully settled on the most efficient killing method it knew — feeding.
The brute ripped off her body armor with incredible strength, and slammed its hand into her chest. Its armored claws ripped through her shirt, collar and the spines pierced her skin, injecting enzyme.
Fire — it felt like being dropped into flames.
The pain spread throughout her entire body.
She heard the barking of the human's weapons fire. In the distance, a fight raged. Ice scrabbled away from the scene, fleeing and leaving the drone to carry out her wish to see her killed.
Aceso cried out in stilted breaths. "Help me!" she yelled, unable to get the drone off of her.
Her breath caught, unable to make a sound for the extreme pain.
In a flash of red light, the pain stopped. The drone flew backwards from the force of the weapon's fire. It's hand ripped away in an uncontrolled manner, tearing her flesh along with it.
Ronon ran forward and struck the drone with a kick, sending it tumbling backward into the wall, completely dead and limp. He turned his attention to her.
"Are you all right?" he asked, reaching out to help her up. Aceso tried to breathe out a word, but speaking hurt for the moment. She dare not try to stand yet, so Ronon knelt down with her.
"Sheppard!" Ronon called out. The rest of the team appeared quickly around the bend in the hallway.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Sheppard demanded of her. "You can't just run off like that!" His anger subsided when he got closer and looked at her. She could feel blood pooling down from her collar and down her shirt. Her healing capacity couldn't keep up with the damage, which destined her to remain weak for quite awhile.
"What happened?" Sheppard asked.
Ronon answered. "A drone was feeding on her," he explained.
Sheppard took stock of his team. "Damnit! Why did you have to run off and chase after Ice. I told you explicitly not to do that!"
Aceso only shook her head, focusing only on breathing and calming down. Her chest ached, indicating possible broken ribs.
She felt ashamed at her foolishness. She'd disobeyed orders, putting herself and her team in serious danger, all for enacting revenge of which she proved incapable.
Sheppard knelt down. "Are you going to be able to move? How can we help?"
Aceso struggled to find the strength to speak. Her body cried out for energy. Her primal hunger instinct sent out the alarm, causing her body to experience the burning, wraith-like hunger. She looked to her friends, and found to her dismay that for the briefest moment, she perceived the humans beside her as a means to quench that fire, a resource to be used for her survival. The stress caused her wraith instincts to become dominant.
She felt fear, not for herself, but for her friends. She didn't want to hurt anyone.
No, she remained in control.
Despite feeling drawn to the humans around her as a predator is drawn to prey, she couldn't help but see her friends, and feel the familial connection they provided. A test like this had only happened a few times in her life, but each time, her instincts never totally dominated her actions. She had learned to accept these instincts, but not to let them define her.
Gathering her thoughts, she found the fortitude to say something. "We need to get to the command center before the queen does."
"That won't be necessary," Teyla said. "Your brother used the internal transport system to beam most of the wraith in the center chamber to the dart bay, and then locked out everyone except you from giving the ship commands."
"Only you can control the ship," Sheppard clarified. "The only thing the queen can do is try and escape."
Aceso looked to the drone. "Where did he come from?"
Ronon looked down to the dead drone. "A few escaped the transport beam, but we got them."
McKay held up his hand and counted on his fingers. "Are you sure? Cause I think there were six that got out, and I only counted five so…"
"Whatever," Sheppard said, shooting an annoyed glance at Mckay. He looked to her and spoke with some sympathy in his voice. "I'm sorry this happened, and I know how this feels, but can you move?"
"I think so," Aceso answered, standing up with Ronon's help. She leaned on him for support, which he provided without hesitance.
"Help get her to the command center," Sheppard said. "We still need to try to salvage this mission before the other teams get here, or else the whole rescue is a bust."
Right now, she wanted nothing more but to curl up into a ball and hide out of shame and agony from the feeding, but she didn't have that luxury. She needed to help save lives — to play her part.