Chapter Forty-Seven: Vengeance


Monday, 11th September 2000 - Loop Day 38.

Harry sat quietly as the other members filed in and sat in their place, acknowledging each with a nod of his head as they greeted him. His mind was awash with things he hadn't thought they would need to discuss today, but his earlier conversation with the man who was now entering had changed matters.

He heard the stargate engage nearby and the two holographic figures of Richard and Natalie formed once again, but as they did, Harry was distracted by a second set of holograms forming on the other side of the table between Elizabeth and Luna. Neither of whom he had seen before. He was about to ask who they were when Weir stood, still leaning heavily on the table, drawing everyone's attention.

"Good afternoon, I know you have a lot to discuss, so I'll be brief. Thanks to Luna's assistance, we have been able to create a basic version of the interface you were discussing for the Aurora crew. As such, I'd like to introduce Captain Seber Lal and First Officer Lia Trebal who requested an audience with you. I figured what better time than the council meeting."

Weir sat and the two figures each gave a short nod of acknowledgement to the new council seated before them.

Harry gave a slight smirk as Weir quickly introduced the crewmembers to the council members and others present before she turned to Harry and gestured for him to begin.

"Well, not how I expected to begin, but here we are. It's nice to finally meet you both." He said, nodding to the additions. "I guess that segues us perfectly into the upgrades to the Aurora. How are the rest of them coming?"

He turned to Luna who leant forwards to address them. "The new beam engine is installed and functioning optimally. We have a few more tests to run before we're sure it's suitable to fully replace the onboard facilities, but we should be done with all of that by month's end. As for this particular upgrade, we hadn't quite tested it yet, this is the first proper test. If it works correctly though, it should allow those within the interface to actually operate the Aurora's systems."

"You mean that the crew could actually fly the ship from within their stasis," Natalie questioned, looking fascinated at the idea.

"That is correct."

"If I may interject," Seber said, leaning forwards and drawing the attention of the council. "I am unsure exactly what Doctor Weir has relayed to you all, but when she first offered us this option, I wanted to make it clear that the crew of the Aurora shall not be called into service by this council. They have endured enough, and they have earned their rest."

"You have my assurance, Captain," Harry said, "that if your crew are ever asked to pilot the Aurora again, it would only be as a transport vessel. I would not ask you to fight a war you left so long ago."

"Why not?" Ronan asked. "They have the experience. It would be foolish not to take advantage of that."

"Yes they do, but they are also at the very precipice of life and death." Weir rebutted. "Ten thousand years in stasis is not as easy as it might seem. Their bodies are wasting away even as we speak."

"The probable effects of asking someone in that state to enter an actual battle scenario could push their bodies to fail outright," Hermione noted.

"I would only ask," Harry continued despite the interruption, "that if some of the crew did take up the offer to move to the city, they would run some training simulations where we might learn from their experience."

Trebal and Seber silently conversed for a moment before he turned back to the council. "On a volunteer basis, I would agree to those terms."

"Excellent. Have you spoken with any more of the crew about the offer?"

"Only the senior staff so far," Trebal said. "Some of them seemed excited by the chance to return to their home, even if it were incorporeally. One or two seemed tired and wished only to move on."

"We offer the choice to you all," Neville said. "Anyone who so desires may take the offer. But any who decline will be allowed to pass on or continue living in the virtual environment until nature takes its toll. There is a program that Hermione was working on that she found in the database that might allow them to mentally prepare for attempting to ascend if they so desire. Most who abandoned the city seemed to do so. It's possible that achieving it could allow them to reconnect with some of those they have lost."

The Captain nodded and it seemed for now that the matter was being allowed to rest pending the crew's decision. Harry sighed before his eyes flicked to Ronan, who was looking at him expectantly.

"This morning, I was given a request to bring before you all. In fact, I'm glad you both are here to offer your extensive expertise on the matter in question." He said, addressing Seber and Trebal. "The Wraith problem."

Harry left that statement to sit in the air as the others glanced between themselves, and the two crewmembers became suddenly solemn.

"Ronan asked me to send a vulta to his homeworld and we found it utterly destroyed. It sent back another report about forty minutes ago, and so far it seems that after the culling in which he was captured, the civilization was bombarded from space. For whatever reason, the Wraith decided Sateda needed to be permanently destroyed. Ronan seems to believe it was due to his people developing too far. That they were becoming a future potential threat to the Wraith."

"Damn right, we would. We are fierce warriors, and our weapons were developing more and more every year." Ronan said fiercely. "The Wraith were right to fear us, and they should have done a better job. I will not rest until they are wiped out."

Harry ran his hand through his hair and tried to figure out how best to phrase this. "Ronan has accepted our offer to remain, and help our efforts. However, this is conditional on us committing to fighting the Wraith, and by the sounds of things, annihilation is the only form he will consider acceptable."

"You want us to wipe out an entire species?" Carson asked.

"I don't want to hurt anyone, Doctor. But I have learned that some people simply will not be rehabilitated." Harry returned. "I know a dozen Death Eaters that spent over a decade in a hellish prison so inhumane that most sent there die before their sentence is complete. Not one of them hesitated to go right back to torturing and murdering those they saw as beneath them the moment they got free. The Wraith…"

"The Wraith are a real and present danger to all life in this galaxy," Trebal said. "We attempted diplomacy a long time ago when the threat first became obvious. The delegation was heard out, refused, and fed upon. My great-grandmother was a member of that delegation."

She looked every bit as committed to the slaughter of the Wraith as Ronan. Harry felt his heart go out to them both. He couldn't understand losing his entire people to this enemy, but he knew what loss felt like. And right now, the Earth could very well be lost to him forever as well, taking everyone he loved besides those around him right now from him as well.

"Officer Trebal has always been a vocal advocate for their destruction," Seber said, placing a hand on her arm as she slowly sat back. "But she is correct. The former High Council tried everything they could think of. The only thing that remotely worked was military force. Unfortunately, the Wraith managed to overwhelm us with numbers. And that is when we were many. I doubt so few could hope to overcome them by force now."

"What about a medical solution?" Carson argued. "From our research, the Wraith appear to be a divergent evolution of a species of bug called Iratus. They fed upon humans and took on traits from their food. Hermione once suggested, and I agree, that it might be possible to develop a treatment that strips away the bug DNA and leaves the human behind."

"You believe such a treatment could be viable?" Seber asked, genuinely intrigued by the premise.

"I've had a significant section of Alteran medical theory uploaded into my mind, and as advanced as you were, there are some developments we have made on Earth in the past few decades that could make such an avenue successful that your people never had cause to explore. I would strongly suggest we at least try." The man finished, almost pleading against a military solution.

Harry gestured for everyone to calm down. "Alright, Doctor. The entire point of this meeting is to have a discussion on that very topic, not me informing you all we're at war. Unless anyone objects, you have the council's blessing to continue looking into a medical solution to the problem." Harry said.

He looked over to Ronan to see the man's reaction. He did not seem overly pleased that they would seek a method that left Wraith alive. "Anything to say?"

"You can dress them up however you like, but underneath, they'll always be Wraith," Ronan growled through gritted teeth. "If a medical solution can cure them, who's to say one can't be developed to turn them back again? Or into something even worse."

"It's possible such a solution could only prolong the battle, forcing it onto your descendants," Trebal added. "Mistakes made by my ancestors are the reason I was left to wither away in a stasis pod at the edge of the galaxy. I would beg you not to make the same mistakes we did."

"We're new to this galaxy, so you'll have to forgive us for not understanding the full extent of this war for you all," Luna said, trying to get both sides to come to terms. "Nobody sane ever truly wants to go to war, especially not when we are so few. And I don't think any of us are truly ok with the concept of the genocide of an entire race of sapient life. However, based on all evidence before us, the Wraith feed on humans and only humans. From what little information and memories I have taken from our guests, peace is not likely to ever be an option. Their very existence requires that they feed on us. And as such, they view us as nothing more than cattle."

Carson argued, "And yet, we have a Wraith Queen in stasis who survived being trapped, starving in a cruiser at the bottom of the ocean for ten thousand years."

"You what?" Trebal and Ronan said in unison.

"How is that possible?" Seber asked.

Carson glanced at the three most opposed to his point of view and sighed. "It would seem that when denied food, the Wraith can enter a form of hibernation. I would need to inspect the cruiser and its facilities in detail to be certain, but I think she was in this hibernation until we came aboard. It's possible such hibernation, if properly nourished when going in, and adequately powered throughout, could keep them alive for centuries, or even millennia."

"That's exactly what they do," Ronan growled. "They cull the humans in their territory, feed their numbers and when the populations grow thin, they sleep. Sometimes for centuries as the population recovers. Unless they deem your people a threat, then they simply wipe them all out."

"So it's likely that the Wraith are currently mostly asleep?" Harry asked, seeing options now that he didn't before.

"Yes."

Seber seemed to consider this as well. "That could be a huge advantage. We were acting on the assumption they were all still active."

"I had been wondering about that. The human population of this galaxy as we understand it could not sustain that level of feeding," Hermione noted, considering the data they had recovered on population sizes of the planets the vulta had already scanned. "Unless there was a substantial, and I mean substantial decrease in the numbers recorded around Lantea during the latter parts of the siege, they would need to hibernate in large numbers for significant periods."

"Rarely does a sleeping enemy leave itself unprotected," Trebal added.

Harry sighed, leaning back in his chair. "We need more information."

"I suppose it's a good time to have finished my little project then," Neville said sitting forwards and tapping on his remote as a hologram of a vulta appeared above the table. "These little guys work great through the stargate network, but they can't give us a full view of the galaxy. So I developed these."

The vulta shrank down to a couple of inches in diameter before a much larger sphere appeared beside it. It was massive in comparison, almost as large as the navi were long.

"It's as small as I could make it with all the required bells and whistles. They can interface directly with the vulta, and even carry a complement of a dozen internally to deploy in-system, so they can also gather data from any other local vulta and relay it back if a gate becomes inaccessible to us. It has active cloaking to remain hidden while on the job and they also have an onboard hyperdrive and a powerful but secure subspace communications system."

"Meaning it could feasibly explore any system, whether they have a stargate or not, and report its findings directly," Richard said, sounding impressed. "Nicely done."

Most around the table seemed to mirror Richard's sentiment and Harry turned to Ronan again. "Are you willing to stick around while we figure out our options? I know you want a decisive military solution, I can understand that after what you've endured. But we've seen that method attempted before, and the Wraith not only survived, they chased those who attempted it out of the galaxy and ruled over it like ravenous vampires for ten thousand years."

Ronan seemed to actually consider what they'd discussed. "I don't have anywhere else to go right now…" He finally said, seeming resigned to that fact for the moment.

"It's not that we don't want to fight, Ronan," Natalie said. "We will do so if that is the best way to solve the problem. But first, we need to understand what that fight would entail."

Ronan leaned back in his chair and stared around the room for a moment. "Fine. But don't expect me to hold back if I see any Wraith."

"I think we can agree to that," Harry said, and the others nodded their agreement. "For the moment, we remain concealed while we learn everything we can. To that, I suggest we use the three combined beam engines to bring the sunken cruiser under the shield. We're certain there are no further concealed inhabitants. It would be nice to inspect it without worrying about the sea creeping in."

"That's a good idea," Trebal said. "If only our mission had been successful."

Most of the council turned to face her, the database had records that they were on a vital mission, but not what the mission itself was. "What was your mission?"

Seber glanced at Trebal before he addressed them. "We were dispatched after the council received intelligence that there was a weakness in the Wraith technology. But instead of finding a weakness to exploit directly, what we discovered was how they had so overwhelmed us. They had captured several of our ships, slaughtered the crew, and stripped out the potentia aboard. They then somehow figured out how to use those power sources to fuel massive cloning facilities."

"We were escaping the system to return that intel to Atlantis when we were attacked. We managed to survive the battle, but couldn't get the information back to the council in time." Trebal finished.

Harry looked at the others. This suggested that the huge number the Lanteans had faced was due to these cloning facilities. "Do you happen to know how many they might have?"

Seber shook his head. "Our deployment team managed to bring back some intelligence, including the location of four such bases, but there could easily have been more."

"This intelligence, is it still stored in the Aurora's databanks?" Hermione asked, looking like she was about ready to head up there and devour the entire thing.

"It should be. The team would have packaged it into a communique to provide to the council once we got back to Atlantis." Seber noted. "Which, I guess, we are. And you are now the council."

Excitement now filled most present within the room. They had a defined course they could follow that might allow them to actually engage the Wraith and win. They just needed to learn all they could about the technology and these facilities before they decided how to proceed.

"Does anybody have anything else? Or do we call it here and get to work?" Harry asked. When the others all shook their heads, he smiled. "Very well, meeting adjourned. Thank you all for your attendance."

He felt a lot better about their chances now than when he had entered with the possibility of a war looming over his head.

ϟ

Friday, 8th August 2000.

Daniel assembled the photographs he had been studying into a manilla folder and turned to leave his office right as Jack and Teal'c arrived in the doorway, blocking his path.

"You're better off in here," Jack said, physically redirecting him back into the room.

"I was just coming to look for you," Daniel replied.

"I know."

Daniel placed the folder back onto the table and turned towards the monitor on the nearby desk. It still showed the digital images from P4X-639 that SG-15 had taken on their original mission to the planet. Shortly before the disaster which the following mission to Lazaria had become. And with nothing to show for it either.

"Um, I…I've managed to translate a section of the west wall." Daniel explained, tapping the glass screen audibly with the knuckles of his index finger. "It appears to be some sort of planetary history."

"Daniel," Jack replied, looking agitated, "that's very nice, but focus on the altar."

"Why?"

Even Teal'c seemed frustrated as he chimed in. "Malakai initiated the time loop by manipulating the symbols on the surface."

"Figure out the symbols," Jack added, with additional emphasis on the final word, "figure out how to stop this!"

"Just because someone can recognize the symbols on a keyboard doesn't mean they can run a computer…" Daniel argued before being cut off by Jack waving his hands at him in frustration.

"We've been over this!" Jack said, and Daniel watched him, surprised at the action. "I'm telling you, the only way to stop this loop…" Jack moved over to the monitor and brought up the images of the pedestal itself, "…is to figure out how to run that stuff." He finished jabbing at the screen with both his open hands, clearly trying to impress upon Daniel how important the controls were.

Daniel glanced between the images and Jack for a moment before he spoke. "If we really have had this conversation before then I probably pointed it out to you that there's no way I can translate this entire text in less than a day."

"Oh, I am so ahead of you," Jack replied, picking up a tape recorder from Daniel's desk in the centre of the room. "I put the whole thing on tape last time so you don't have to start from scratch."

Daniel and Teal'c watched as Jack tried in vain to get the recording that had never occurred in this loop to play. Even hitting it on the table in frustration. Daniel tried to keep a straight face as he spoke.

"If what you say is true, then when the loop started again then your recording wouldn't have happened… yet."

"Right," Jack said, defeated as he placed the recorder back on the desk.

Teal'c raised his eyebrow in a cheeky manner that Daniel had come to appreciate in their alien friend as he spoke. "Did I not say that your plan would be unsuccessful?"

Jack interrupted him, raising his finger in the large man's direction. "Careful…be careful." He said sharply, before turning back to face Daniel again. "What about notes? Indelible ink?"

Daniel simply stared at him. He knew that Jack was an intelligent man, despite how much he tried to hide it. And that he understood what would be required, but he was obviously deeply frustrated by the repeating events. The man even turned to Teal'c as if his friend would proffer the answer instead. When the silence continued between them, Daniel felt he needed to state it aloud.

"Look, if you guys are the only ones with memories of previous loops, then you're going to have to help me by learning and remembering," Daniel said, indicating the piles of photos and paperwork on his desk.

"Fine," Jack replied, resigned to the task as he picked up one of the nearest images. "How hard can it be?"

Daniel tried not to sigh as he took the upside-down image from Jack and turned it one hundred and eighty degrees around before returning it to him. This was going to be immensely frustrating. For all three of them.

ϟ

Wednesday, 13th September 2000.

Cyla stood silently watching over the city as she felt the air underneath the shield charging more and more by the minute. It was a strange feeling, normally contained solely to the body when experiencing the transfer. It was a sign of how powerful the transfer was to move the nearly seven hundred metre long vessel out of the sludge of the ocean floor nearly two hundred kilometres away into the city itself.

Coupled with the odd quiet between herself and her current companion, it made for a very strange feeling in her stomach.

"So." She said, at last, trying to nudge the large man beside her into speech.

"You don't have to do that," Ronan replied.

Cyla smirked at his reply. He was a man of few words in her experience so far, preferring to let his actions speak for him.

"I know, but you should."

"They said you have no memory before being woken. How can you advise me on what it's like to be the last of your kind when you don't remember them being around?"

Cyla's smile widened. "It's less knowing how to deal with it and more finding something to do. I know there will always be a hole in me where my people once lived. I feel it even now, although I could not tell you their names or describe their faces. But being here, in the city where I was born… I can feel them. And I feel their absence. Especially the ones I loved."

She felt Ronan shift uneasily beside her, and she knew that was a rabbit hole that went deeper. "You lost someone in particular?"

"It doesn't matter." He replied as if the very thought made him deeply uncomfortable.

"It matters to you. Who was it?"

Ronan stood silently for several minutes and Cyla was beginning to wonder if she had pressed too hard.

"My betrothed. She died during the attack that destroyed Sateda. Trying to get me to save more people."

"She sounds wonderful," Cyla said softly.

"She was."

"And what do you think she would want you to do now?" Cyla asked as the air around her became so charged that she could feel her hair beginning to rise up from her head.

A large white mass began to form over the pier that their balcony was overlooking as the three powerful spacecraft worked in conjunction.

"She wanted us to prove to the Wraith that some people just weren't worth the trouble. I intend to show them how right she was."

"A valiant cause. And if you were to die achieving it?"

Ronan glared at her for the first time in their discussion. "Then I would be with my people once more."

"And yet you Ran. For two years. You could have ended it at any time. But you continue to fight."

"I won't lie down and die like a coward." His firm will was evident in every syllable. "I will fight the Wraith until my last breath. If these people won't do it, I'll find someone who will. Or I'll do it myself. I survived just fine on my own for two years."

"So you did," Cyla admitted, watching the field thicken and grow until the entire south pier was no longer visible beyond its brightness. "And what did that time alone accomplish?"

Ronan growled beside her and Cyla figured she was beginning to press on the right point.

"You survived. You killed any Wraith that came after you. But did you alter the problem as a whole?"

A crack filled the air as the field reached its zenith and a shockwave swept through the area under the shield. Even the mighty energy field itself rippled under the impact, giving off a sound like steel twitching and shearing as both Cyla and Ronan were knocked back against the wall of the balcony. The pair stepped back over to the edge and peered down at the massive ship now perched on the nearby pier, globs of mud and debris sloughing off of it onto the surface of the pier or into the water. Clouds of dust were billowing off the exterior surfaces of the city itself, having been dislodged by the shockwave.

"One man cannot do this alone, Ronan. At least here, among us, you can work at achieving your purpose. And you might even find that you enjoy our company, once you let your guard down." Cyla turned away from the sight below and focused on him directly. "I for one would definitely like to speak with you more."

She gently rested her hand on his shoulder and gave him a soft warm smile for a moment before she walked inside, heading for a nearby transport cabinet to go and assist her new friends in their assessment of the cruiser. Hoping that her words reached Ronan. He could be a powerful ally if he could learn a modicum of patience.

ϟ

Sunday, 17th September 2000.

Luna climbed atop the delicate interface, stretching upwards trying to grasp the dangling piece of equipment while Neville was busy in the next room once again. It had been annoying her all morning as she toyed with the controls of the ship, trying to figure out just how it worked.

The Wraith design was fascinating at the least, and Hermione's discovery that they could channel their magic into the technology in place of true Wraith telepathy control had already allowed them to learn a considerable amount more about the alien designs than what was in the Atlantis database.

Hermione and Harry had already isolated the power generators somewhere in the rear of the vessel and were mapping and calculating their output so that they could compare it to their own capabilities.

Focusing back on her task, Luna stretched a little further, her hand finally closing around the dangling sensor when she turned her toes the wrong way and slipped off the console entirely. An entirely instinctive scream left her mouth as the sharp sensor in her hand ripped through the skin and tore a large gash up the middle of her hand before she landed poorly on her left leg. She felt the crack in the small bones of her foot as the support gave out underneath her and she tumbled fully to the extremely solid floor of the craft.

She lay in place groaning as she heard a shuffling noise nearby and a moment later, Nyx's head peered at her from atop the same console she had just fallen from. The thin feline creature had grown quite a bit since their arrival, now almost a metre long. She gave a mournful howl that echoed through the corridors and Luna could hear Neville's rushing footsteps approach.

"Luna? Where are you?" He asked, unable to see her from the doorway.

The footsteps indicated he had spotted Nyx and was approaching, but Luna was too busy trying not to yell in pain to actually speak right now. Neville rounded the console and spotted her on the floor.

"Luna! Are you ok?" She shook her head and lifted her hand gingerly up. Blood was flowing freely out of the wound and down over her leg. Neville's eyes widened at the sight and he quickly tapped his mini, most likely sending a message to Hermione to get up here asap.

Her attention, however, was fixed on the throbbing wound on her hand. It seemed smaller already, and the throbbing was slowly lessening. She stared at it intently as Neville checked her over for any other wounds. By the time she heard Hermione's thundering footsteps rushing down the corridor, the wound had already shrunk from between her index and middle fingers all the way across her palm, to only the middle of it instead.

She could see that Neville too was watching the progress of the healing as it occurred in almost real time in front of their eyes. Hermione dropped into place beside the two of them and raised her wand, her other arm digging through her shoulder bag before Neville raised his hand, gesturing for her to wait.

"Just a second. Look." he indicated, placing the handle of his wand gingerly on Luna's palm with the design on it matching the two extreme ends of the wound.

The three watched, Hermione pulling a vial of something from her bag as they did. Within moments, the wound had closed significantly further, its progress now visible against the design on the cherry wood lying beside it.

"How is that possible?"

Luna considered for a moment as the wound retreated fully from her fingers and she moved the two affected, noticing it still left her with a sharp pain in her palm where the muscles were, but the fingers themselves were no longer affected.

"Isis," Luna said, recalling what she had studied of the Goa'uld symbiotes. The Asgard breakdown on them noted that they had the ability to heal their hosts naturally as well as through technology. But they had no records of the types of healing, nor how quickly it could work. "Goa'uld symbiotes can heal their host."

"Why would she heal you?" Neville asked, watching as the wound's exterior closed fully, though there were likely still parts inside that were knitting back together, Luna could feel them.

"Let's find out." She said, closing her eyes and letting her mind drift inwards. As she arrived in the usual room, she saw Isis standing there glaring at her.

"What? Come to gloat?" It spat.

"Gloat?"

"Yes. Not like I can help it. You prevent me from leaving, which would be my only other recourse."

"You don't control the ability?" Luna asked, finding that curious.

"No," Isis replied, contempt dripping off the word. "It is a natural trait we developed millennia ago when the Unas hosts could occasionally still retake control." Isis turned away as though the discussion physically pained her to recall. "They tended to get into contests for supremacy whenever they did. Leaving the bodies with open ragged wounds. If the symbiote did not heal the injury, the host would die and they would need to seek a new host, or die alongside them."

"So you developed this ability to heal your hosts in order to keep them for longer?"

"Finding a host on our homeworld was difficult. The Unas adapted fast to being taken. And early goa'uld would not cooperate as the modern groups do."

"This is you lot cooperating?" Luna asked amusedly, and Isis turned and scowled at her again.

"If it were up to me, I would have let you die from your wound. At least then you would have weakened to the point where I could take control." Isis rushed forwards, getting in Luna's face, but stopped short of actually attempting to harm her, having long since learnt her lesson on that front. She was also short for a human, having last been a host back when humans were shorter in general, but she still towered over Luna in here. Not that it intimidated Luna in the slightest. Isis snarled, "Why will you not free me? Or at least kill me?"

"If I let you go, you would seek out another host. One that would probably be far less able to contain you than I have. Right now, I have no reason to kill you. Your crimes are ancient and I personally consider thousands of years trapped in that canopic jar to be your punishment for them. We offer you a chance at a life of meaning now, all you have to do is accept that reality has moved on while you slept."

"While I was held prisoner." Isis spat back. "No different to now. Only the prison bars have changed."

Isis growled pointlessly as she stormed away, her attention seemingly drawn elsewhere and Luna realized she had finished healing her hand and the symbiote was now working to heal the crack in the bone in her foot.

"You really can't help it, can you?" Luna asked and Isis glared at her over her shoulder before returning to staring out the window into the meadows that Luna had been showing her today to prevent the symbiote from learning the details of Wraith technology that they were discovering. Regardless of what she may already know from the memories that Luna had funnelled into the symbiote whenever she questioned one of their Wraith prisoners.

Luna knew she would get no more from Isis when she was snippy like this, so she drew back out of herself to find the other two staring at her. "What?"

"You were speaking aloud. We heard your half of the conversation." Hermione explained, slowly waving her wand over Luna's hand, checking it had fully healed.

"Apparently the healing power is entirely innate. She can't help it. As soon as an injury occurs, the symbiote starts trying to heal it. Her only alternative would be to abandon the body, which she cannot do with me. Ow." Luna finished as the bone in her foot snapped back into place. "Though apparently, she can be somewhat malicious in the how if she focuses on it. Can you check my foot?"

Hermione shifted her focus down Luna's body and over both feet, quickly detecting the rapidly healing bone. "It's properly in place. The break must have shifted around some of the muscle or cartilage."

"She's not happy, but it is good to know she cannot withhold the ability. Perhaps, if we can come up with a better way to convince them not to be evil, symbiotes could be a way to improve our overall health. I bet they could fix your eyesight." She said, noticing Harry watching from behind the others.

"Glasses are not quite so annoying that I'd consider that, Luna. Besides, Carson and Cyla are already working on a plan for that as part of her practicing her healing ability, once we're sure she's safely able to try."

Luna shrugged and noticed that the pain in both her hand and foot was now gone. "I'd call that a win for the experiment." She said, looking happily between her concerned friends. "Aren't you glad you let me convince you?"

Harry couldn't help but smile at her behaviour, but Hermione still seemed to be concerned.

"It's ok Hermione. I promise." Luna said.

"How about you go back to the city and let her run a few scans? You know it will help settle her nerves. Besides, it's been over a month. We need to track your progress. For the 'experiment'." Harry noted.

Luna rolled her eyes but allowed Neville to help her stand. "Fine, if we must."

"It's that or we remove her," Harry returned, with a cheeky grin.

"Well, in that case. Take me to your healer." Luna joked and now it was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes as the boys both laughed and Nyx ducked between her feet, weaving around her legs, purring.