Upon returning to Atlantis, AG 1 asked Elizabeth to call Dr. Beckett to her office so they could brief them both on their mission since some of what they had to say involved some questions he had. Once he arrived, Xander filled them in.
"On Dagan we found a shrine to Lex and Cor. Turns out, Lex and Cor are me and Cordy or our counterparts. They survived the Ancients last attempt against the Wraith and they convinced the people of this galaxy to unit and fight back against the Wraith. In that shrine was a question inscribed on the wall in a language found on Earth. I'm sorry Dr. Weir, Dr. Beckett, none of you have the clearance to know anything about the language or the ones who speak it. General O'Neill doesn't have the clearance. General Hammond does, because it falls under Homeworld Security's perview. Just know, speakers of that language lived in mine and Cordy's hometown. As for the question itself, please don't ask or order me to tell you what the question or its answer are. They're deeply personal and involve Cordelia."
"Me? What about me?"
Xander leaned over and whispered in her ear and immediately got dope slapped.
Lips twitching, Dr. Weir asked how he knew something General O'Neill didn't know.
"A few years ago the NID began a very dangerous and very stupid program in our hometown that involved speakers of that language and others like them. Their program involved some personnel who violated Posse Comitatus by being involved. When Giles told me he'd personally seen military personnel grabbing them off the streets, I reported it to General Hammond, who was at the time, still head of Stargate Command, he in turn reported it to the President, who ordered an investigation. The program was shut down, people were arrested and I was ordered to brief the President, the Joint Chiefs and the heads of the FBI and CIA about what I knew about the gangs in our town and ones like those speakers. The President Classified everything at the highest levels and began a new Top Secret Command to oversee things in regards to them."
"You're being very circumspect, Captain. Is that because we don't have the clearance? If you use more specific terms, you believe we'll figure it out?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yes, ma'am."
"It's got to be aliens." McKay said. "Why else would it be Classified? But why can't we know, we already know about aliens?"
"Because they're not aliens, not in the way you mean the word. And that's all I can say."
"I guess this explains the protein Perna's people found in Merell. I knew it resembled your own." Dr. Beckett said. "That's because it started out as yours. Perna said Merell was the last of his line, a direct descendant of Lex and Cor."
"Descendant?" Cordelia asked, startled.
"Yes. The message other me left, includes the information, that two years before the war ending, they had twins, a boy and a girl, the boy was named Johnathan Giles and the girl, Kendra Faith. Kendra didn't survive the birth. Her body is preserved on the Hoffan Homeworld. Other me requested that we retrieve it and bury her next to the remains of her godfather, Jesse McNally."
"I take it you know who these children are named for?" Elizabeth asked, seeing Cordelia flinch.
She nodded. "Johnathan for Jack O'Neill, Giles for Rupert Giles, our mentor from Sunnydale, he died nearly three years ago, Kendra, murdered at sixteen trying to protect us during a gang attack on our Take Back The Night Initiative, Faith Lehane, my best friend and Jesse McNally, Xander's best friend, also murdered at sixteen by the gangs."
"This also means, your counterparts have Ascended." Teyla, who hadn't spoken until now, said.
"Wow, okay. Trying to wrap my head around that one. Yeah, Sheppard's Ascended lady friend, said the others Ascended them as a gift, because they had done something the others thought was impossible and impressed them. I guess uniting a galaxy and nearly succeeding in destroying the Wraith entirely, would be impressive. But it isn't like they did it for a reward or something. It would be like our Take Back The Night Initiative. Something had to be done and we were in a position to try to help, so we did." Xander said.
"It also means we can not tell anyone." Teyla said. "Not now and maybe not ever. Lex and Cor are all but worshipped by some of the people of this galaxy, even more then the Ancestors. If they find out you are Lex and Cor, you will never have a normal life. I can not even tell my own people, because there are some among them who revere you. There are others who would want to use you, to further their own agendas and others who would see as you imposters, pretending to be our heros. It is a good thing that Kolya is dead, he would have been one of those to claim you are imposters."
"Kolya? The Genii who led the attempted take over of Atlantis? The one that tried to kidnap me?" Elizabeth asked, startled.
"Yes, other me left a gift in the shrine for us. Kolya tried to take it from us. He attacked and I killed him with with a pressure blow to the chest, stopping his heart." Xander told them.
"A gift? What gift?" Elizabeth asked.
Rodney opened his bag and pulled out a ZPM.
Elizabeth blinked and said. "That's some gift. Now that we have a way we can contact Earth, we can go home."
"Before we do that, Dr. Weir, I would like to formally request permission to retrieve the preserved body of our counterparts daughter from the Hoffan Homeworld. If it's still there after the Wraith, I mean."
"Yes, please." Cordelia said softly. Please not being a word she used often.
"Permission granted."
"Permission to accompany them, ma'am." Major Sheppard also formally requested.
"I too, wish to go." Teyla said.
"You're not leaving me out." McKay said.
"I'd like to go too, Elizabeth." Dr. Beckett said.
"Permission granted. Go and take your daughter home."
They did. AG 1 accompanied by Cordelia and Dr. Carson Beckett, using a puddle jumper and scanning the Hoffan Homeworld found the carefully persevered remains of Kendra Faith Chase Harris and took her home to Earth and buried her beside the memorial of her godfather, Jesse McNally.