Chapter 57: You share more in common than I would have guessed
"Ouch," I moaned, coming back to consciousness slowly. The first thing I noticed was that my shoulder hurt like hell.
Then everything came back to me in a rush ... Carson somehow alive, pointing a gun at me; Michael with his hand around Teyla's throat ... and worst of all the fact that John and the others had been there but I hadn't managed a way to get to them.
I was feeling so sorry for myself, I could actually feel tears welling in my eyes ... God, talk about pathetic!
"Suck it up Sabina," I urged myself in disgust.
Raising myself up from the floor on my elbows I craned my head to look ... Michael had put me back in my cell but he'd also taken the trouble to treat my bullet wound, if the bandage was any indicator. So clearly he still had plans for me.
"Sabina?" The whisper inside my head had me lurching to my feet unsteadily, putting a hand on the wall until the head rush of dizziness had passed.
"Teyla!" I thought back. "Are you okay?"
"Thank the Ancestors!" Teyla's mental tone was heavy with relief. "I have been trying for hours to contact you."
"Sorry," I replied. "I was ... occupied being unconscious. Michael patched me up though so I'm good to go."
"We are in hyperspace," Teyla informed me, "and I have been unable to get through to Kanaan, although there have been moments I was sure he would help us. Back on the planet he would have freed me, had Michael not returned too soon."
"You have to give up on that!" I meant to make that gentle but my frustration and anger must have leaked through.
"You should have escaped while you had the chance," Teyla said dismissively.
"I didn't mean that the way it sounded," I thought apologetically. "I just ... I have to get you out of this Teyla. You said it yourself, Michael wants your baby and it's pretty clear there isn't anything he wouldn't do to achieve his objective."
"It is the gift ... the Wraith DNA," Teyla explained. "Both Kanaan and I have it, and so does our son. Michael believes him to be genetically unique."
"And he wants that for his hybrids," I concluded.
"He has not hurt me," Teyla reassured me. "He injected me with something but he said it was to help the baby. I felt nothing ... no different than before the injection. I believe he will continue to treat me well for the good of my child."
"You'll tell me the instant that changes," I ordered sternly. "No arguments."
"You sound like John," Teyla said in amusement. "Be assured, I will inform you if my circumstances change."
"What happened?" I asked in a more reasonable mental tone. "I was here on the Cruiser for hours before they finally came for me."
"I saw them," Teyla's tone was tearful but also happy. "My people – Halling and some of the others. They were on that planet Sabina."
"Which means that John and the others have already rescued them," I smiled for the first time in days. At least something good had come from our ordeal.
"Yes," Teyla agreed somewhat sadly. "I was relieved to see them but ... their numbers were much depleted."
"Michael?" I asked gently.
"He took them and he experimented on them ... and he killed them or worse converted them into his hybrids," Teyla confirmed. Her tone turned harsh as she continued. "One day I will make him pay for what he has done."
"I'm sorry Teyla," I said softly, not sure what else I could say to comfort her. "Just ... concentrate on winning over Kanaan. But don't do anything to provoke Michael."
It wasn't much but I didn't have anything else ... despite the hours I spent trying to come up with a new plan.
oOo
That's the way things were for the next week, Teyla bearing the brunt of all Michael's attention while I was ignored in my cell, only seeing others when one of the hybrids brought me food. I used those visits as my marker of time passing, taking us ever closer to Teyla's due date.
She was true to her word, letting me know after each session with Michael that she was okay, showing me flashes of his visits and the way he was monitoring her unborn son.
It was all disturbing at the deepest level and I couldn't help but worry about the strain on Teyla and wonder how much more she could take before she broke. Every time he visited, every time he made her feel like nothing more than a vessel for his sadistic purposes, I heard the pain and despair in her mental voice.
"Have you made any progress with Kanaan?" I asked after one such session.
"Michael lets Kanaan escort me to and from my cell," Teyla admitted. "He knows how much it tortures me to see Kanaan like this."
"Are you getting through to him?" I persisted.
"At times," Teyla replied. "But then Michael returns and I am back to square one."
"The mental control Michael programmed into all his hybrids," I acknowledged grimly. "We need to do something about that."
"I am stronger with my pregnancy but nowhere near enough to oppose Michael openly," Teyla said worriedly.
"I wouldn't want you to do that anyway," I denied, thinking hard. "I'll come up with something."
"He talks continually of my son's future," Teyla admitted. "Of how he will use what he is to shape the future. He means to take my child from me ... and I am not a part of his plans."
"I won't let that happen," I promised.
oOo
It took me about two days to get desperate enough to have an idea, and another four days before I'd convinced Teyla there was no other choice. I had to divert Michael's attention away from her, give her a chance to recover some of her emotional strength. Give her more time to win Kanaan over without Michael always around to enforce his mental controls and undo any progress she was making. The only way to do that was to give him something else he'd hopefully decide was even more interesting.
Me.
Not the me he thought he had ... Mrs John Sheppard, bargaining chip and possible test subject for his hybrid treatments ... something I was sure he'd eventually get to once he got sick of feeding me.
No, I was thinking the only thing that would divert his interests was if he knew everything ... that I was a full Lantean, with multiple gene skills. That I had Wraith DNA too and Wraith skills I'd been able to use in ways even Teyla hadn't managed before her pregnancy.
It was thinking about Diamantia's words that had given me the idea. Not that I believed her when she'd said there was something about me that could save all the humans in the galaxy. But she had urged me not to hide what I was ... perhaps it was as simple as revealing secrets I'd become so accustomed to holding tight to.
"Very well," Teyla finally agreed reluctantly. "I will reveal your true nature to Michael."
"You'll need to make it look like he's forced it out of you," I pointed out insistently. "Otherwise he won't believe you; he'll think you're just trying to divert him."
"That is in fact what we are doing," Teyla returned.
"Yeah, but with something true," I countered. "Once he takes the bait I fully intend to show him that."
"You will be careful," Teyla said sternly. "John will not forgive me should something happen to you because of this attempt to spare me."
"Back at you," I grinned before adding, "You know you sounded like someone's mother just then." She didn't say anything but I felt her sadness and buried down beneath everything else her fear that she wouldn't get to be a mother to her son. "I shouldn't have said that, I'm sorry Teyla. But I know this will work," I said confidently. "If you can win Kanaan over then the next time we land he might help us escape."
"It is the only plan we have and so we will make it work," Teyla agreed.
Neither of us said it but with all the jumping into and out of hyperspace along with the very short stints at each of Michael's outposts we'd given up on the idea of Atlantis finding us in time. If we were going to get out of this then it would be up to us.
oOo
I didn't hear what Teyla said to Michael, didn't see what she let slip to out me as a Wraith gene carrier but I knew almost immediately that she had been successful.
"You have the gift!" Michael strode into my cell and got right up into my face angrily.
"What gift?" I asked innocently, putting on a puzzled expression as I tried not to flinch away from him.
"There is no point in lying to me," Michael smiled triumphantly. "Teyla did well to hide the knowledge from me for so long but I took it directly from her mind. You share more in common than I would have guessed."
"She wouldn't have ...," I began grimly, getting into the spirit of my role.
"I can assure you that she did, despite her struggles to keep your secret," Michael interrupted. "Now all that remains is for me to see how adept you are at making use of it."
I knew what he was going to do next ... I'd been preparing the whole time he was standing there congratulating himself on finding out my secret.
His mental strike hit hard but bounced harmlessly off the noise I was projecting... my own little version of sticking my fingers in my ears and chanting 'I'm not listening ... I'm not listening'.
"You have some skill," he acknowledged in surprise, breaking off his attack.
"You're not the first Wraith I've had a conversation with," I smiled casually. "Although in the past it was Queens so this is a bit of a step down for me."
"You think to provoke me," Michael laughed almost as if he was delighted with the prospect.
"Not really, but I have to get my entertainment somehow," I pushed out forcefully with my own mind, seeking to make a connection with him. He wasn't expecting that – in his arrogance he'd assumed there was no one who was a match for him. I saw glimpses of his thoughts before he blocked me ... the future as he imagined it devoid of both Wraith and humans alike, filled only with his own sick and twisted army. A host of thousands, all created in his own image.
"That's a part of it isn't it?" I said intently. "You're different ... we made you different and the Wraith spurned you for it. You're just a lonely hybrid who doesn't want to be the only one!"
"Are you not just a hybrid too?" Michael snarled angrily. "Do your own people truly accept you despite your differences? And Colonel Sheppard – did he know what you were before he got involved with you?"
"If you're trying to suggest that I deceived John, that he wants to get out now he knows the truth about me you couldn't be more wrong," I smiled complacently.
"I have seen inside Teyla's head," Michael countered. "I know the Gift sets you apart ... they trust you but they are wary."
"Maybe the Athosian's feel that way but it's not the same for my people," I retorted. "Of course it helps that Teyla and I aren't out there killing thousands of innocent people! Maybe if you'd tried to work with us instead of twisting the entire galaxy to suit your purposes you wouldn't be so pathetic."
"You did not want to work with me," Michael denied grimly. "You only wanted to force me into your own image ... can you really stand there and claim your retrovirus is any different than my own alterations?!"
"I never said I agreed with that," I said quietly. "But was what you had with us so much worse than where you are now?"
"I grow tired of this," Michael tried again to gain control of my mind but again I blocked him out.
"That's not all I can do," I knew the mental thing wasn't enough – if I was going to divert him from Teyla I'd have to give a full demonstration.
Flicking a glance at the open doorway I accessed the ships neural network and commanded the webbing to close.
"How did you ...?" Michael glanced at the controls. I kept a firm hold, feeling him trying to reopen them but getting nowhere as I held them closed. "Impossible!"
"I've flown a Hive ship," I began the list of skills I knew would tip the balance. "Stood up against more than one Queen, bested one in physical and mental combat."
I paused to let him digest that before making the check mate move.
"I've killed with a single thought."
I saw his eyes widen as the implications registered. "Yeah, that's right," I bit out. "It was me, that day on that planet we abandoned you and the other converted Wraith on. I used an Ancient device we stumbled across so I could take out as many of you as possible sure, but it was my thought that killed them, my control of the Hive weapons that destroyed your camp."
"You?" He looked shell shocked for a moment but I knew it was coming, the moment when his disbelief turned into calculation. "This is ... interesting."
And there it was.
I could practically see the wheels turning in his head as the possibilities registered and overrode his anger.
"Release the door controls," Michael commanded. "Release them or I will hurt your friend."
"You won't hurt her and risk the baby," I countered. "Despite what you might think I can do for you, you still need her."
"There are many ways to hurt," Michael approached me slowly, running a finger down my cheek assessingly. "Many that will preserve Teyla as a vessel for the life she carries."
"Well, since you put it that way," I leaned away from him, raising an eyebrow, silently letting him know I wasn't doing anything until he'd gotten out of my face. Laughing mockingly he stepped back and waved a hand towards the door.
I let the controls go, watched the webbing contract again, knowing that my easy run was at an end. It would be all downhill from there.
oOo
It wasn't that bad to start with ... Michael took a perverse pleasure in strapping me onto his examination table and hooking me up to his devices but all he did the first couple of sessions was take readings and lots of blood samples.
Of course I had the past to contend with, flashes of Walker and my treatment back on Earth making me shake inside. I held to everything tightly to give the outward appearance of being relaxed because Michael would jump on anything that looked like a weakness, and exploit it for his own purposes. It was hard to start with but as the days and sessions with Michael passed I began to feel numb ... was it really possible to get used to something like that or had I just buried it so deep I couldn't access it anymore?
Michael was still keeping tabs on Teyla's condition, but not every day like before. Teyla had made some progress with Kanaan as a result, and had got him to admit that Michael was spending a lot of time by himself, presumably analysing my DNA and working out how he could use it.
There was a moral dilemma in that I hadn't considered prior to coming up with the plan ... the fact that for all intents and purposes I was helping Michael make his army stronger. That hardly sat well with what Diamantia had said about me – that I would help stop human suffering in the galaxy.
"You cannot hold yourself responsible for what Michael perpetuates," Teyla advised during one of our daily mental check-ins. Luckily for us Michael hadn't made the connection between my obvious mental strengths and Teyla having the gift too. Maybe he thought she wouldn't be strong enough – she'd kept a secret the fact that her pregnancy had enhanced those abilities. "Just as you would not hold John responsible for what the Wraith have done since he awoke them."
"Of course not," I dismissed. "Still, helping someone so dangerous as an individual is a little different than waking a familiar enemy. I'm helping Michael create something he might not have done otherwise. John did something that only sped up the timetable – the Wraith would have come eventually without his interference."
"There is no assurance your DNA will help Michael," Teyla pointed out. "Kanaan let it slip today that Michael is becoming frustrated ... perhaps because he is unable to do what he was hoping."
"I don't know whether that's a good thing or not," I admitted glumly. "From a purely personal view I don't want him getting too frustrated because then he'll come after me."
"Do not give up hope," Teyla urged. "Atlantis is looking for us and we have many allies. Someone will have seen us and get word to them."
"They'll be playing catch up," I shook my head at the thought, knowing how much that was gonna piss John off. "Michael's changing locations too quickly."
"I must go," Teyla broke in quickly. "Kanaan comes."
Sighing at the usual interrupted conversation I sat back against the wall of my cell dejectedly. My plan was working, Michael was distracted and leaving Teyla alone. But it had been almost two weeks and I was missing John so badly it was like a constant ache I couldn't ignore. A girl had to be strong in the Pegasus galaxy but she should also know when to all right to let out a little emotion.
Now seemed like as good a time as any so I put my head on my raised knees and had a good cry.
Authors Note:
Timing wise there seemed to be a gap from the end of The Kindred Part 2 to the beginning of the next episode where Atlantis followed up leads from allies and then John is missing for twelve days during The Last Man ... Teyla must have been close to eight months pregnant when the Kindred begins so I guessed about a month goes by before the beginning of Search and Rescue.
PS - Sorry I haven't replied to reviews from the last chapter - I WILL - but it's really late and I guessed you'd all rather another chapter than have me delay until I'm awake enough to do everything.
Next Up? The Other Side of the Story Chapter 14 ... and the beginning of The Last Man ... FINALLY!