The Athosian survivors had made it their goal to help others who had lost their homes, having gone through that very same thing themselves several times in the past few years.
With that in mind, Halling travels to Atlantis with one of the co-leaders of the latest batch of refugees in order to pick out a new home for his misplaced people. The two leaders are to meet with Woolsey in order to learn of the choices available and make the decision.
Taking all of the precautions asked for by the IOA, the man with Halling travels to a neutral, uninhabited world where he is then blindfolded while the gate is dialed again and Halling pulls out his GDO, punching in the code in order to get into Atlantis without impacting the shield and dying.
The leader of Atlantis is there to greet the two men when they arrive, "Welcome back, Halling. It's good to see you again. Who is our guest?" He asked, holding out his hand to shake the newcomer's. His gesture is ignored and he awkwardly drops his to his side once more.
The man ignores Woolsey altogether, looking all around the place and sniffing loudly once as a look of fear crosses his face. Turning to Halling, he demands, "What trickery is this? I sense DEATH here!"
The Marines standing guard look alert, raising their weapons and aiming them at the possible threat.
Woolsey steps back in alarm as the "man" lunges for him.
The Marine with the best angle fires, with no effect on the target except blood spatter.
Woolsey is knocked out of the way completely by a small blur entering the room.
Atiya launches herself into the air toward the foe shrieking, "Vampire!"
The Marines stop firing, for fear of hitting the Colonel's niece.
Drawing her fourteen and a quarter inch V44 Bowie knife mid flight from the sheath between her shoulder blades and hidden by her backpack, the tiny slayer hacks off the hand the creature reaches out with to grab her, making it roar in pain.
The girl swings her knife back around to decapitate her prey with one swipe of her blade and the body falls to the floor long before the head hits, bouncing along a corridor off of the gateroom. She hits the floor on both feet and her free hand, whipping back around, just in case.
Woolsey stares at the obviously not human blood pumping vigorously from the neck and wrist of the body lying not far enough away from his current, nearly prone position and shakes his head with disbelief.
Ronon and John, along with a lot of Marines come running into the room, guns out, only to find the action all over with.
Staring with stunned incredulity, Halling shakes off his shock long enough to apologize profusely. "Sheppard, I had no way of knowing, no warning at all. He looks, looked, human. How did my people not sense that was a Wraith?"
Sheppard stands back up from checking on and congratulating his niece, who is beaming proudly up at both him and Ronon. Shaking his head as he speaks, "I don't know, Halling, but we'll run tests on the body and see what we can find out."
One of the Marines puts in a call for a gurney to transport the body to the labs.
Ronon reaches down, ruffling Atiya's hair when she stands back up from cleaning her blade on the body and he winks at her when she looks up at him again.
She giggles and then slides her knife back into its sheath.
"How many more hidden Wraith might there be among those now with my people?" The color drained from Halling's face at that thought and he asked, "Might I request permission to return immediately and warn my people of this new danger?"
"I'll have to ask you to wait a little bit, I'd like to put a team together and go back with you." He looks over at Woolsey, who is being helped to his feet by Ronon, "I'm taking my niece with us, since she seems to sense these disguised Wraith just fine."
Woolsey nods, still too shaken to form a coherent sentence and is surprised when Atiya moves in front of him.
"Are you all right, Mr. Woolsey? I'm sorry I knocked you down, but the vampire was about to try to eat you." She looks up at him, so earnestly wanting him to believe her and show the man respect like her Uncle John wants.
For the first time, Richard smiles at the girl and says, "Thank you for saving my life, Atiya. A few bruises are more than a fair exchange for getting to live long enough to see another day. Be careful when you go offworld, I'd hate for anything bad to happen to you." He holds his hand out to the child who beams up at him and shakes his proffered hand with both of her own.
Smiling impishly as she replies, "I will," before skipping over to her Uncle and coming into the already started conversation there.
"And this is her," John says with a laugh, picking her up to sit on his hip. "Atiya, this is my friend Halling, the one who took over leadership of Teyla's people when she stepped down."
She waves with a little, "Hello," and looks excitedly at her uncle, "I get to go with you and kill more vampires?"
Laughing out loud, "Yeah kiddo, you do, but this kind is called the Wraith. Now because this kind usually carries guns that would even hurt you, something I do NOT want to happen, what I mostly want you to do is quietly tell me and my men who all the Wraith are so that we can lure them away from everybody else before we take 'em out. You know, make sure no innocent people get hurt, that sort of thing. Do you think you can do that?" He tweaks the end of her nose, easily avoiding her half hearted attempt to bat his hand away.
"Yes," the child agrees fervently with an obvious shiver of excitement.
Halling looks surprised by this exchange and asks, "I would never have thought it possible. You say the child is what is called a 'slayer' among her people?"
John looks back at Halling from grinning at the girl, "Yeah, but you're to keep that completely to yourself, understand? I don't want everyone, anyone else to know about her abilities. I only told you because you're both a friend and you saw her in action." The look he gives the other man brooks no argument on this point.
Blinking for a moment, the Athosian nods his head, "A trust I vow that I will not break," he nods his head at both Sheppard and the girl in his arms.
Major Lorne walks up at this point, checking over his Barrett CQC (Close Quarters Combat) .50 caliber rifle. "Ready when you are, sir."
Handing Atiya over to Ronon who puts her on his shoulders, he says, "Give me a minute, Major and we'll be all set. Everybody know the plan?" Another Marine hands over Sheppard's gear, waiting for him to put everything on before handing the Colonel's Barrett to him.
He gets a chorus of grunted affirmatives from the twenty-one gathered Marines.
Looking at Chuck on the upper level, Sheppard orders, "Dial it up" The gate activates and they prepare to step through.
Lorne growls out, "Let's go!"
A loud shout of, "Ooh rah!" answers him.
Sheppard looks over at his second in command and grumbles, "I hate you."
Lorne grins back, "That's not hate, sir. That's envy."
Ronon and Atiya laugh out loud as they all go through the gate.
Author's Note: That last exchange was suggest by Tjin. Marines only truly respect a fellow Marine. They can like and even respect an officer of another branch of the military, but their greatest respect is given only to their own.