Start Chapter 29
"Coming out of hyper-space now."
Atlantis's re-entered normal space to find itself near absolutely nothing but a single ship. A few scientists recognized it as the first of their latest assortment of toys, "Sheppard what's that ship doing here?"
"It's my ship Rodney."
John tapped a button initiating a comm. link between Atlantis and the ship, "Virgil report your status."
"Virgil?" Rodney asked.
"AI's name."
"I thought he was named Ancient?"
"No, that's what the ancients call him because they call me Ancient and he's my ship/AI."
Virgil appeared nearby on a console, "The wraith have all received the message and should be here within a few hours."
Lanti appeared on John's shoulder, "Virgil it's good to see you again."
"Et tu, I was worried about you when I was on the planet; I was unable to sense you and the ZPM was active."
"John," Teyla entered the room quietly interrupting the talking computers.
"I sense the Wraith approaching."
Virgil chimed in quickly, "Considering the amount of Wraith converging on this location she would be able to sense them from a much farther range than normal.
"Teyla, if you would like I can shield your mind from the Wraith."
Morgan materialized behind him, "Ancient." She warned simply.
"I will not harm her or take anything merely build up the walls protecting her from intrusion."
"That's what I'm afraid of, you will take away the pain you find there for her son and she can barely feel it as it is now."
"Morgan it is ok, John please do the Wraith in these numbers may threaten to control me."
"Teyla are you coming to the meeting?"
"John the Wraith are almost here!"
"Lanti will handle them besides the initial communication." He paused for a moment, "It's going to be an amazing show here perhaps you should stay out and watch it."
She nodded, "Morgan?"
"The Wraith have tortured your people for millennia I think it is only fitting you witness their downfall and extinction."
"Every Wraith will be here?"
"No, I will be destroying any that are not here via, Ancient and my own abilities."
"I would like to stay outside if it would be acceptable."
"Of course, but I must go now."
They disappeared into the meeting room.
***
"Colonel Sheppard the Wraith are entering in system."
"Excuse me for a moment I have to send a message." John stepped out as the Wraith ships exited hyper-space surrounding the city.
John emerged in his usual Atlantis attire, "receiving a message from the Wraith armada."
John stood before the screen as a wraith queen appeared on it. Teyla, Carter, and anyone else around gathered around behind him. "Surrender our quarry now," the queen hissed.
"I don't know what you are talking about."
"Our prey, the immortal, will be given to us NOW." She repeated angrily.
Teyla stepped up next to him and placed her hand on his shoulder, "John, are they talking about Ancient?"
"Yes, they are Tey but we're not handing over anyone." He brushed his hand over her cheek.
"YOU WILL DO AS I COMMAND OR BE DESTROYED."
John laughed, "I don't think so."
"The Ancients could not resist a bombardment of this size so what makes you think you can?"
John smiled, "remember what happened to the final fleet that seized Atlantis?"
"They searched for food elsewhere."
"No they were totally and utterly destroyed."
"LIES."
"No, I was there, I'm the one who did it."
"Impossible." Despite the proclamation the queen still showed some fear.
"I'm giving you one last chance, stand down or be destroyed."
The Wraith laughed, "if you will not hand him over we will destroy you and your whore," she spat motioning towards Teyla.
She heard John utter a primeval growl, and his eyes blazed with anger as he cut the comm. channel.
Teyla intertwined her hand with his and placed her other hand on his shoulder hoping to calm him, "Sir, we are getting another message from a different hive."
The screen flared to life again with a familiar male wraith this time.
"Sheppard."
John worked to control his anger, "hello Todd."
"Turn over the immortal it is your only chance to even have a shot at living."
"No Todd this is your only chance to survive either take the retrovirus or be destroyed."
"You are in no position to negotiate with me."
"On the contrary, I as the one contributed to the rise of your species am in every position to negotiate your surrender. Your kind have killed far too many humans to be allowed to survive."
"You…You…You are…the immortal?" His entire body showed defeat, he knew his species was dead and accepted his own fate.
The Wraith fleet opened fire minus Todd's ship which joined in a minute later. Todd cut the comm. link leaving them to stare at a blank screen the image of his blank stare convening the enormity of the situation he found himself in, and while he knew he wouldn't win he had to join his species and fight.
"Make it a quick death for him."
"And the rest?"
"Let them suffer."
John stared out a window as an energy beam erupted from one of Atlantis's piers; it impacted Todd's ship instantly killing everyone on board. He shook his head, knowing that he would once again be forced to commit genocide.
"John, you had no choice."
"I always have a choice; I just chose what's best for the future."
He disappeared back into the conference room as Lanti opened up the rest Atlantis's weapons systems.
She smiled as she felt the city's firepower being brought to bear fully for the first time under her control. She felt her drones cutting into the Wraith cruisers smashing through bulkheads and detonating in the center of the ships. She felt the directed energy weapons charging and discharging throughout the city as they precisely cut through Wraith ships. She felt the plasma discharges as they boiled through the space engulfing darts that were to slow to get out of the way and then impacted both hives and cruisers superheating their hulls and boiling their way towards the center of the ship. She controlled the anti-matter weapons as they fired their engines and rocketed towards Wraith ships; they impacted enemy ships causing the destabilization of their containment chambers and the release of the anti-matter. She controlled Ancient fighters and bombers as they engaged the darts in combat, pulling maneuvers that would kill any human or Wraith. She controlled the shields as they shrugged off the massive bombardment and simply drew more power from their near infinite energy source. She looked into some of John's more potent weapons systems but disregarded them as overkill. She prepared a singularity, for the cleanup.
She was shaken out of her reverie by an innocuous question, "Lanti what is happening over there?"
She shook her head and directed her attention to the people in her control room.
Teyla was pointing towards an area near the base of the tower where a purple hyper-space window was located. "Those are drones being sent into hyper-space and will emerge just in front of the Wraith ships, because they lack any way of decelerating they will punch through the hull of the wraith ships and continue on through until they reach well inside the ships where they detonate causing significant damage."
Teyla returned to staring at the mesmerizing light show of weaponry crisscrossing the sky. The Wraith's weapons dissipated harmlessly on the shield while their fleet took heavy losses. The battle was horribly lopsided in favor of the lanteans and within a few minutes the wraith ships were turning to open hyper-space windows. "Oh no you don't."
She smiled as she activated a jamming field preventing hyper-space windows from forming.
***
They emerged from the conference room to find the control room mostly empty of personnel with a few watching the final hours of the light show. "Lanti report."
"Wraith ships destroyed, Virgil has a few left to destroy although I assume you might want to handle a few of them personally, I couldn't get the Wraith queen off the Hive though she self destructed her Hive before I could take out the jammers."
"No problem, they Ancients won't mind if I take out some vengeance on her."
"Resurrection? You haven't done that in my lifetime."
"I don't use it often but I think she earned her punishment."
"She did insult your mate."
"What are you doing now?"
"Cleaning up," she was using her plasma weapons to burn the wrecks of the Wraith ships into small molten cores.
"Tell Virgil, I'm taking out the rest of the Wraith but when you're finished here land."
John smiled as he walked out onto the balcony slowly allowing his body to take upon a fully ascended form. As he reached it he saw and felt the universe like no other, he sensed each bit in the universe and in a single moment of revenge tore each Wraith, and each Wraith ship apart. In one moment he eliminated the Wraith species.
***
"It's done."
"We should be home in a few hours."
"Where's Teyla?"
"Your quarters, but Ganos wanted to speak to you."
"Where is she?"
"Right here."
Morgan moved out to the balcony John was standing on, "what's the matter?"
"What were you thinking?"
"About what?"
"Teyla."
"I made my decision."
"She hasn't."
"Morgan, I'm sorry you disagree with my actions but I don't regret them."
"I hope you never do."
"They've returned to Earth to inform the IOA of the situation."
She offered her hand, "Well congratulations you managed to get most of your measures passed."
"Thank you, so did you although I'm sorry I couldn't help you keep your normal seat."
"I'll get it back in the next election when people realize mediation and compromise are the best ways to temper your ambitions and actions rather than going to an extreme and refusing to compromise."
"Good, you're right to."
"I'll say goodbye to Teyla tomorrow if it's ok with you, I'd like to walk amongst the city tonight."
"Go ahead."
***
John eagerly opened the doors to his quarters. He had been anticipating seeing Teyla again since Lanti had told him she was waiting in her quarters. "Tey you up?"
"John, you certainly took your time."
He just smiled at her as an answer. She returned his smile as his lips crashed onto hers.
***
She looked at the rising sun, "I should go."
"Why?"
"Kanaan, I must tell him that we're pursuing a relationship."
"He's not going to take it well."
"No he won't."
"Want me to be there?"
"No, I don't think he'd appreciate both us telling him."
"I'll be in the control room if you need me."
***
Teyla moved quickly through the halls knowing Kanaan liked to sleep in late. She arrived at his door a few minutes later. She waved her hand over the chimes and waited for him to admit her. "Hello Teyla," he greeted calmly stepping to the side to allow her in. "How have you been?"
"Well and you?"
"I've missed you."
"Kanaan we need to talk."
"You wish to discuss the bonding ceremony?"
"No, I…Me…We're over."
"What?"
"We're over, I am pursuing a relationship with John now."
"WHAT?"
"Kanaan I'm sorry I never should have started our relationship."
"SO WHAT THIS WHOLE TIME I'VE BEEN WHAT? SOMEONE TO DATE TO PASS THE TIME?"
"No."
"YOU'RE LEAVING ME FOR AN OUTSIDER HE'S NOT ATHOSIAN TEYLA."
"I…I…I love him."
"HE'S NOT EVEN FROM THIS GALAXY."
Her self-restraint snapped, "YOU DO NOT KNOW JOHN."
"I KNOW HIM WELL ENOUGH, HE IS LYING."
"JOHN WOULD NEVER DO SUCH A THING."
"YOU'VE CHEATED ON ME HAVEN'T YOU?"
"What? I…I, I'm sorry."
"You…You little…I'm leaving."
"What?"
"I do not wish to be in a society where you are the leader." Kanaan stormed out.
"KANAAN WAIT." She screamed after him already in pursuit.
He stormed off to the nearest teleporter. Teyla followed him and managed to get in before he teleported away. He ignored her the entire time she had been following him and didn't react to her getting into the teleporter besides tapping the button with a disapproving sigh. They emerged from the teleporter onto the gate room. "Kanaan talk to me."
"Dial the gate."
"What? No, Kanaan don't leave like this."
"Teyla you've betrayed me, it's either me or him," he gestured to John who was emerging from Carter's office.
"What's going on here?"
"Dial the gate."
John stared at him confused for a moment, "Is that what you really want?"
"DIAL THE GATE."
"Lanti make sure you don't dial a space gate." He was serious, he wasn't killing Kanaan like that.
Kanaan's eyes slid over to John hate filling them, "You'll pay for this." He hit the gate technician and grabbed his side arm. He first pointed it at John and fired two rounds, then he aimed it at Teyla. As soon as it got close to her it flew out of his hand.
"Run and hide, Kanaan, run and hide."
End Chapter 29