When Jack contacted Xander to tell him unascended Ancients had been found and had returned to Atlantis, then had kicked the expedition out of Atlantis, he'd been surprised. Why would they kick them out? 10,000 years was a long time, after all. They couldn't expect things to stay the same, could they? When Jack told him that he and a member of the IOA were being allowed back, in order to negotiate with the Ancients, Xander wondered what that had to do with him. Then Jack told him that he had mentioned the Protectors to the Ancients. They'd been shocked and demanded a Protector be brought to them for an explanation. An explanation of what? Xander wondered. What did they need explained? Why did the presence of Protectors on Earth bother them? Xander agreed to go. He wanted answers to his own questions.
Once he arrived on Atlantis, he and the Captain of the Ancients ship met privately to discuss Protectors. She explained that Protectors were considered the Heart of a ship or a city like Atlantis. They had minds that could connect even more easily to technology than the rest did. They kept the ship, the city functioning. Xander wasn't sure what she meant by that. Then Helia demanded to know why there were Protectors on Earth at all. Xander explained how after the war with the Wraith, the Ancients had returned to Earth, found the vampires and taught their ancestors how to make Protectors. Helia said, that they'd need more than knowledge, they'd need to be one of them. A normal human couldn't become a Protector. Xander assured her, he knew that, he'd seen what became of a normal person trying to become a Protector. At which point she scanned him and confirmed Willow's theory, that natural gene holders were descendants of the Ancients. Some Ancients had foregone Ascension and stayed behind. To produce offspring so that the potential could be passed down through the generations. Helia was in shock.
"You threw the children of the Ancients out of Atlantis. Out of their home. Wasn't this why you preserved Atlantis? So your children could have a home?"
"We always thought we'd come back, so yes it was."
Before they could continue their discussion, a call came in that Replicators were attacking the city. They hurried to the control room. Helia insisted the Replicators couldn't hurt them. That the shield would protect them and even if it didn't, the Replicators programming wouldn't allow them to harm anyone.
"Lady, you're in for a big surprise. Replicators hate humans and are quite capable of hurting us. You have to remember, it's been 10,000 years. Everyone's learned new things."
When the Replicators looked like they were about to breach the shield, Helia turned to Xander and asked him to go to the chair room and direct the defense of Atlantis. Xander had never even seen the chair room, let alone used it. But natural gene holders seemed to have an affinity, an ease with it, so he agreed.
The moment Xander sat in that chair and connected to Atlantis, he understood what Helia had meant about Protectors being the Heart of Atlantis. He was Atlantis at that moment. It was his job to Protect the people. There weren't enough drone weapons to do it, but thanks to the Ancients, they had three fully charged ZPM's and there was another way he could Protect his people.
Xander activated the stardrive and Atlantis rose into the sky, reaching for the stars. For the first time in a million years, Atlantis flew. Not since Atlantis had originally left Earth after the plague had Atlantis seen the stars for itself. As they passed the Replicators ship, Xander reached out with another weapon, previously unknown to the expedition, and swatted the Replicators ship out of his sky. As it exploded, Atlantis raced for the stars. This was why Protectors enjoyed Ancient technology so much. They experienced so much more with it. Star dust pelted Xander's skin, the shield. Colors he couldn't name bombarded his eyes, the sensors. His legs, the stardrive, leaped across light years.
Now he understood why Jack and Colonel Sheppard, who were not Protectors, could use Ancient technology so well. They might as well be Protectors, could have been under different circumstances. Sheppard's love of flying very nearly Bonded him to anything he flew anyway. Xander imagined, if he had Bonded, it would have been to an eagle or a hawk. Jack was a fierce lion, Protecting his pride. Sam, though lacking an Ancient gene, was most definitely, his lioness.
There, a new world, one that could nurture Atlantis' children. Xander gently set Atlantis down on a new ocean. Once again, a Protector had Protected Atlantis.
Xander also understood, it was because of Protectors, that the Ancients had first sought Ascension. They wanted to see for themselves what the Protectors saw. Xander saw a few things in the database before he disconnected from Atlantis. Some of it, he would share with the President. Some of it was for his people only.
After much discussion, the returning Ancients all decided to go to the Sanctuary and seek Ascension and their people. They would leave Atlantis for their children. The expedition could return. Jack and Xander returned to Earth to meet with the President. Xander had a lot to tell him.
"Mr. President, what we call Magic, is something the Ancients knew very well. It's the energy of a world. And energy can be controlled. Like electricity. Humans on Earth learned that from the Ancients. At some point, many forgot. Some didn't. We wouldn't have Protectors without the ability to control that energy. The words change, the reality doesn't."
"But there's something else you need to know. Atlantis wasn't alone when it left Earth a million years ago. It was one of seven city ships. Each went to a different galaxy." Xander laid a folder on the President's desk. "These are the gate addresses to those galaxies. Who knows what has become of them after a million years. Are they like the Ori? Or the Ascended? Is it even worth finding out? Questions for another day."
Afterward, Xander went home, he needed to tell someone else something.
Xander gathered his people together and told them the story of the Protectors and then he turned to Faith and said. "You enjoy Ancient technology as well. You experience it on a deeper level, just as we do. There's a reason for that. You're essentially our cousin. You're soul Bonded as well. You're also descended from the Ancients. But you lack the gene, some did. Very few. But you are unique, because the soul you are soul Bonded to, is unique. The last of it's kind. The stories say, it dies and is reborn. The truth is, the Slayer dies and another is activated, when the soul moves to another. The reason why there can only be one Slayer, is that there is only one soul for you to be soul Bonded to. Faith, you're soul Bonded to a phoenix."
