"Why is he back here?" Aceso demanded. She eyed the hallway to the holding room with disdain, as if some unclean thing had begun inhabiting it.
Sheppard thought about how to explain this to her without sounding too pathetic. "He convinced me that he could help Beckett get back to normal."
"And you believed it?" She asked incredulously. Sheppard had hardly ever seen her so irate.
"Yes, and that's also why I recalled you from New Athos," Sheppard explained. "Apparently he has some kind of special wraith telepathy technique he wants to try, but he needs your help."
Aceso rolled her eyes in a very human way. "What is this costing us?"
"Nothing," Sheppard said. "At least nothing that we didn't already agree to. He's going to be the second one to use the DNA alteration device after Rodney—whenever we get it back up and running."
Aceso stood just outside the door out of sight. Sheppard glanced in at Todd who grinned slightly, his deviousness on full display.
"He knows you're here." Sheppard said.
"I know that!" she said testily. "He could sense me the second I arrived."
"Fine," Sheppard said. "Let me put it this way. If you want to help Beckett, we should go hear what he has to say."
Aceso seemed to be breathing a little more heavily out of agitation, but was trying to calm herself.
Sheppard knew the history between them. It started when Todd kidnapped her. He had heard from Teyla the part about where Aceso threatened to kill Todd, only to have him assault her in return. When she escaped, Todd sent an assassin after her, causing her to nearly die.
There was some seriously bad history between these two wraith.
"Do you think you can do that?" Sheppard asked.
"For Beckett's sake, I will try," Aceso said. She rounded the corner into the holding room.
"Ah, we meet again at last," Todd said. "I am glad you've managed to make a home here for yourself."
"How do you think you can help Beckett?" Aceso demanded. She sounded terse and straight to the point.
"No greetings then?" Todd said as he regarded Aceso. She remained expectant.
"Have it your way," he continued. "In simplest terms, the two of us together can force the intruding personality from his mind if we connect to him while we are in a compromised state of mind."
Aceso took a second to digest that.
"Now I'm no expert on wraith telepathy," Sheppard said. "But if Teyla has a wraith sense, why couldn't Aceso and her do this?"
Aceso leaned in to speak softly. "Teyla has never been able to connect with a human mind. It's a limitation that she has not been able to overcome."
"I see," Sheppard said.
"You are stuck with me Sheppard," Todd said gleefully. "I would relish the opportunity to assist you in this endeavor."
"Only because it gets you what you want," Sheppard said.
"Why else?" Todd said. He turned between Aceso and him. "Do we have a deal?"
Sheppard deferred to Aceso. "It's her who you need to convince."
Todd's enthusiasm didn't waver at all.
Aceso stood silently, but finally nodded slowly. "I will do it to help Beckett."
"Excellent," Todd said. "I will require some specific things which I need you to retrieve from the luggage I brought with me."
"Yeah, what is that stuff anyway?" Sheppard asked curiously. Todd had brought along a case of various items that seemed unrelated to his mission here.
"Those are things that will help put us all in the correct mental state. This will be no ordinary procedure. We need to be under the stars for this to work."
"Under the stars—are you serious?" Sheppard asked incredulously.
"Colonel," Aceso said, touching his shoulder. "There is some merit to these requirements. Many wraith rituals involve such elements."
She turned to look at Todd. "Although, I thought the wraith had abandoned those rituals."
Todd shrugged. "Not all of us have forgotten."
"I can't believe there's a ritual for this," Sheppard said.
"There isn't," Todd said. "We have to make one. I have studied old wraith rituals in depth, and each one has an element that induces an altered mental state. It is these states that we must replicate in ourselves and in Beckett to force the errant personality from him."
Shepard crossed his arms as he conceded the point. He knew many of the Ancient's rituals had a practical element to them, even if the connection was subtle.
"All right," Sheppard said. "I'll see about getting a spot secured under the stars, If the weather's bad, there's nothing I can do."
Todd nodded. "Very well."
Aceso left the area to go prepare herself. Sheppard spoke with Todd a little more and they worked out that a location near the water would be ideal, but they would also need a campfire. Sheppard suggested a safe beach on the mainland that Atlantis personnel sometimes visited, and Todd agreed.
Sheppard wasn't sure about some of the stuff he brought with him, but it didn't seem immediately dangerous. Sheppard figured the safest way to transport the wraith and Beckett was to carry them to the mainland separately, so he enlisted two jumpers for the transport.
Convincing Doctor Keller took a little more work, but after Sheppard explained that the two wraith were going to try a ritual on Beckett, and that he wouldn't be forced to ingest anything, she relaxed and agreed that it would be safe to transport him. Keller seemed sure that the ritual wouldn't work, however Sheppard knew there was more to this than superstition.
After a silent and awkward ten minute flight from Atlantis to the mainland, Sheppard instructed his security personnel to keep watch of Todd while he helped with preparing the site. The timing for this was perfect since the sun had just set and the first stars were coming out. The balmy, humid air felt soothing as it rolled gently off the sea.
Sheppard wandered into the tree line along with Todd, watching him move amongst the winding branches to find dead dry ones for building a campfire. Atlantis visitors had already made a fire pit in the sand and lined it with stones, so that problem was easy to address.
Once they had the fire going, Sheppard sat nearby and watched. Aceso positioned a few large pieces of driftwood by the fire. Todd proceeded to take a small pot and suspend it over the fire with a tripod and fill it with fresh water. He then put leaves into the pot.
"What is that?" Sheppard asked.
"A mild psychogenic tea," Todd explained.
"I hope you don't expect us to force that on Beckett." Sheppard said. "I promised Keller that we wouldn't do anything to Beckett that would compromise him medically."
"No," Todd explained. He pointed between him and Aceso "The tea is for us,"
Aceso seemed to be taking this as well as could be expected, and she sat intently, watching Todd work on building the fire.
"In preparation for this, I studied many wraith rituals. There were aspects to the rituals that involved all manner of chanting and singing, however I deduced that the most important factors for achieving the proper mental state would be the physical setting and chemicals in the tea."
"Good," Sheppard said. "I don't know if I could stand hearing you sing." Sheppard shifted a little, sitting down on the sand cross-legged. "What now?"
"Just be patient and wait for the sky to go dark," Todd said.
"Just wait," Sheppard repeated, looking up at the sky.
The sky did eventually get dark, displaying all the stars of the galaxy vividly as if they were a cohesive cloud of gas. The tea boiled, and Todd poured a cup for himself and for Aceso, which she took reluctantly.
"When we drink this, our eyes will become more sensitive to light." Todd said. He pulled out pieces of black cloth which he proceded to tie into a mask for himself, and for Aceso. "Put this on after consuming the tea," Todd said. "We will take them off just before we enter his mind. In that state, we should be able to observe both souls as specters hovering over the body."
Aceso went along with this, and fitted the cloth to herself. Sheppard found Todd's explanation a bit out-there, and started to doubt if any of this would work.
"It's night time," Sheppard observed, "The fire isn't really all that bright."
"To your eyes," Todd said. "To ours, it is as bright as daylight right now."
Sheppard shrugged. He likely wouldn't understand.
Todd brought out several fresh leaves from the bag. "These burn fragrantly," Todd said. He put a flat stone right on top of the fire and placed the leaves on the stone. "The scent will permeate the smoke, helping bring us all into the right state of mind."
"You mean you guys, right?"
Aceso shook her head. "Your presence here will be important as well. Your minds will act as guardians, think of it like a barrier of sorts to prevent anyone's spirit from getting lost."
"Well, we are guarding," Sheppard said. "I just don't want my people being affected."
They ignored his concerns and began meditating. Sheppard relaxed a bit, seeing how little smoke the leaves produced. He doubted that the effects could be that strong.
"You should bring Beckett here now," Todd said. "We are ready to begin." Todd proceeded to drink the tea, and urged Aceso to do the same, to which she complied.
Sheppard stood up and made the radio call. Meanwhile the two wraith sat still and meditated. Sheppard watched for signs that the tea was having an effect.
Ten minutes later, the second jumper settled down and Lorne's team escorted Michael out of the back. Michael seemed put-out at the same time as he tried to appear in control.
"Everything okay sir?" Lorne asked. He must have observed the blindfolded wraith by the fire.
"Oh sure," Sheppard said, pointing at the fire pit. "Those two are just getting high right now."
Lorne coughed. "Really?"
Sheppard shook his head. "Yeah, I guess it's part of some ritual they're going to do."
Lorne scowled. "Just another day in the—" he coughed. "Pegasus galaxy—what is that, incense?"
Sheppard couldn't smell anything, but he might just be used to it. "Yeah, apparently it's part of the ritual."
"Sheesh," Lorne said.
"We're also part of the ritual," Sheppard said. "We're supposed to be guardians or something."
"I can guard," Lorne said. "Am I part of the ritual?"
Sheppard grinned. "You are now. We just need to bring Beckett over there and make sure he doesn't run away."
"Sure thing," Lorne said, turning on his flashlight. Even with their eyes closed, both wraith winced at the light.
"No lights," Sheppard said, pointing at the offending beam. "They said the light needs to be dim."
"Right," Lorne said, extinguishing the light. Sheppard followed up by shutting down the jumper's lights.
"What is this?" Michael asked as the team led him over, his hands cuffed behind him. They sat him down in front of the fire across from the two blindfolded wraith.
"Why am I here?" Michael demanded.
No one answered. Sheppard gestured for his teams to keep a perimeter, but to stay at a distance.
Everything proceeded silently, with only the dim orange glow of the fire to let them see what was happening. They proceeded in this state for several minutes, while Michael could only sit there.
Suddenly, Todd removed his blindfold, and Aceso followed suit. Sheppard was taken aback at the fact that their eyes had dilated, making them appear almost black.
"What are you doing?" Michael demanded. "I demand to know what this is!" He shook his head back and forth. "No!" he shouted. "I won't let you."
Beckett seemed to struggle for a bit, then fell backward, seemingly unconscious. Sheppard crept over to him to check his pulse, and found it fast, but his breathing was steady.
He glanced up at the two wraith. Their eyes reflected red from the fire's light, and their open eye staring gave them the appearance of living statues.
It really creeped him out, and Sheppard withdrew a few steps.
Beckett writhed a little while on the ground, but otherwise seemed fine—at least physically.
"What do we do?" Lorne asked.
"Nothing," Sheppard said. "Whether or not this works is entirely up to them."
Nothing much happened for around a minute, but then Sheppard began to feel strange. He couldn't quite place it, but the energy of the area had changed. Even with Beckett unconscious, he could swear he heard him talking—even yelling.
"You feel that?" Lorne said.
"Yeah," Sheppard said. "Did it just get colder?" Sheppard tried to sense the air temperature, but it felt as hot and balmy as ever. Something else was going on.
A wraith shadow darted across his vision, as if something attacked him head-on.
"Woah," Sheppard exclaimed.
"I see it," Lorne said. The others in the group raised their weapons.
"Keep em down," Sheppard said, gesturing for the others to lower their weapons. "It's not real." He glanced at the wraith, who were still meditating.
"It's them. Something they're doing is having an effect."
"What effect?" Lorne asked.
"How the hell should I know? I'm not even sure they know."
"What do we do?" Lorne asked.
"Just hold on Major," Sheppard instructed. "Don't lose your…"
A shadow form darted between each of the guards there, jumping in front of them and attacking.
"Don't panic!" Sheppard yelled. "It's not real, just hold your ground and don't engage."
The men, trained for dealing with weird and stressful situations, complied exactly as ordered. Suddenly, Sheppard understood what Aceso had meant about them guarding. The shadow danced along like wisps of smoke, attacking and trying to get past each of the men in the circle, but it was completely contained.
Suddenly, Todd stood up, then sat down again promptly. He seemed a bit dizzy.
"You okay there?" Sheppard asked. Todd didn't speak, but glanced at him, in some kind of pain.
Aceso meanwhile opened her eyes, stood, shakily at first, then walked away into the trees.
"Where are you going?" Lorne asked. The sounds of retching answered that question.
"Did it work?" Sheppard asked, approaching Beckett cautiously.
"It has," Todd said. Sheppard noticed that he was a shade greener than usual. "We found the intruding personality, and it has been destroyed."
"Good," Sheppard said. "Now he just needs to wake up."
Aceso returned from the woods and grabbed a canteen of water to sip from their small pile of supplies. "There may be a problem," she said hoarsely.
"Problem?" Lorne asked.
She nodded. "When Michael's personality was destroyed, parts of Beckett went along with it. We discovered their personalities were fused from the beginning, making it impossible to separate them completely."
"Wait, what does that mean for Beckett?" Sheppard asked.
"In short," Todd said. "It may manifest as brain damage."
"Brain damage!" Sheppard said incredulously. "You never said anything about brain damage!"
"I could not know," Todd said.
"How could you not know?" Lorne said. "You're the one doing the ritual!"
Aceso curled up on herself, shivering and rubbing her knees. "No one has done anything like this before," Aceso said. "There was no way to know."
Sheppard could distrust Todd, but he knew Aceso was being genuine.
"Okay, well we need to get him back quickly before this gets worse," Sheppard said.
"Agreed," Todd said.
Sheppard looked to Lorne. "Get him back to the infirmary. Explain what happened."
"On it sir," Lorne said.
(0)
Aceso stood with her shoulders slumped and head hung a little lower, looking on as Beckett lay back in the hospital bed, unconscious and hooked up to all sorts of monitoring equipment.
Aceso tried her best not to sway, but her body wouldn't comply. Her vision spun in circles, and she winced at the lights which were altogether too bright.
Dr. Keller stormed out, almost getting straight into her face. "What did you do to him?" Keller said irately.
Aceso almost fell over at the noise, and had to catch herself on the infirmary wall.
Keller turned to Sheppard. "That goes for you as well!"
"We didn't expect this," Aceso explained. "These kinds of rituals don't normally cause this." She tried to remember what had happened earlier that evening, but it had the quality of a dream, slipping through her fingers as she tried to grasp onto what had happened. All she knew is that rooting out Michael caused some problems.
"You told me that he'd be brought over to the mainland for some kind of meditation ritual," Keller said. "I wouldn't have approved this."
"It was a meditation ritual," Sheppard said. "I said that Todd and Aceso would try to put Beckett back to normal."
"You didn't say that they would damage him," Keller argued.
"I'm betting the problem is that you didn't believe the ritual would do anything." Sheppard said. "Is that the real reason?"
Keller stopped and stared. Her inner conflict swirling. Keller had a skepticism for all things that didn't fit into her notions of the world. To her, wraith telepathy was almost mythical, even though it was very real, and could be very powerful.
She turned around, avoiding the subject. "He's showing mild signs of a concussion. Are you sure he didn't hit his head?"
"Positive doc," Sheppard said. "He was either sitting or laying down on soft sand."
"Well then I can only assume that the telepathy is the cause of the concussion symptoms," Keller said. "Unfortunately, I have no way to know if the usual treatments will be effective because I've never seen this before."
Sheppard glanced briefly at Beckett in a nervous sort of way. "Is there going to be like—permanent changes to his personality?"
Keller shook her head. "I can't tell you. Physically, I don't see any reason for that, but it's impossible to know."
They both looked at Aceso. Of course, they would believe that she had all the answers, but truthfully, she felt just as blind to the outcome as anyone else. Aceso inhaled nervously. "I will not know until you do."
Keller seemed even more annoyed. "I'll let you know when I have more information," she turned and stormed off.
Sheppard shared a nervous look with her. "Hey uh," Sheppard stammered. "Sorry for putting you in that position. It's kind of my fault."
Aceso nodded gratefully. "I know," she said. She could only hold out hope that something good would come of all this.
Sheppard scratched his neck. "There's not much to do now except wait."
(0)
