A/N: Hello and welcome back! I'm sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up. I was out of town for a bit for a work conference and then got a little caught up in holiday preparations. But it's a long one, so hopefully that will make up for the delay.
Thank you again to everyone who reads and reviews; I appreciate it so much. And thank you and hello to my new followers! Hope you enjoy!
Eva awoke with a shiver. Wherever she was, it was freezing. In an instinctual attempt to conserve her heat, she tried to pull her legs to her chest and wrap her arms around herself, but discovered she was bound. Leather straps had been cinched tightly around her ankles, her wrists, even her neck.
No. Not again. This couldn't be happening again.
Her eyes flashed open and her heart hammered in her chest as reality set in. Trying to slow her breathing, she took stock of what she already knew. Start with the obvious: she was being held captive aboard a Wraith ship. And she had gotten there because…because the Wraith had come to the planet the team was exploring to…to cull it?
She closed her eyes tightly and tried to push through the throbbing ache in her head to remember. "I've got the girl!" one of the Wraith had shouted.
She opened her eyes again. They hadn't come to the planet only to cull it. They had come for her. They were looking for her. And if they were looking for her then that meant she likely wasn't aboard any run-of-the-mill Wraith Cruiser. No, this had to be the same Wraith Cruiser that had captured her nearly three months earlier…or was it twenty years later?
Timeline aside, what mattered was now. And right now, she was bound, helpless, and alone. She fought to keep the panic at bay, but it soon engulfed her. She started to rock and trash against her restraints, stopping only at the sound of a familiar voice that, the instant she heard it, chilled her to the bone.
"What is it now?"
"The prisoners have made a request, Commander."
Prisoners? If there were prisoners, then she wasn't alone. Still bound, still helpless, but at least not alone.
"A request?" Though she couldn't quite see it, she could hear the look of derision on the Commander's face. "Nonsense. They are in no position to make demands."
"One of the females requires medication. They claim she will die without it."
There was a pause in the conversation as the Commander evidently debated the choices. "She will die?" it confirmed, voice low.
"They seem to think so, Commander."
"I will be the one who determines how and when they die," it snarled. With a wave of its long cloak, the Commander and its underling hurried through the doors and out of the laboratory.
The Wraith now gone, Eva dared to get a better look at the laboratory and, sitting up as far as her leather restraints would permit, she took in the familiar surroundings. Once again, she found herself strapped tightly to the examination table, the same one where she had lain facedown, defenseless, and sobbing as the Wraith Commander tore open the skin on her back and implanted its tracker into her. The same set of surgical tools glinted menacingly in the low light – small instruments of torture rather than of healing – just shy of arm's length. Odd bits of Wraith and Ancient paraphernalia littered the room, on the counters, on the walls, but concentrated most densely on the table in the far corner. And just like last time, in that dark corner stood the tall, brown-haired man whom she now knew to be called Janus.
Her movement must have attracted his attention, for he turned around from whatever device he was tinkering with, his ice-blue eyes piercing through the dim and fog. He set the device down. "Ah," he breathed as he approached the examination table. The red pendant hanging from his neck glimmered like freshly spilled blood as it swung to and fro, keeping time with his slow gait. "You're awake."
"Kinda wish I wasn't," she growled.
If only this were another one of her nightmares.
He smiled wryly at her until, finally, he replied, "Vita somnio est."
Her eyes widened. She knew that phrase. Why did she know that phrase? She never got anything above mediocre grades in her Ancient classes.
"Boat!" She pointed a tiny, pudgy finger over the railing of the balcony toward the floating vessel in the distance.
"Sugar, that's a jumper," her mother corrected, tightening her grip around Eva's middle as she planted her firmly and safely back into her lap. "Can you say 'jumper?'"
"No... boat!" she insisted.
Her father chuckled quietly at her stubbornness.
"All right, fine. It's a boat," her mother conceded as she bent her head close to her daughter's, her long red hair cascading down and tickling Eva's shoulders. She took Eva's arms into her hands and began moving them in circles. "Duc, duc, remas duc," she sang, "paxide in flumina…"
Eva eagerly sang along, pronouncing the foreign words as best as she could. "Felictra, felictra, felictra, felictra, vita somnio est…"
"Good girl," her mother laughed, kissing her on the cheek.
"Emma, does she even know what she's saying?" Eva looked to her father who, despite his skepticism, couldn't hide the smile burgeoning across his face.
"Of course she does," her mother replied, smoothing the bits of Eva's hair that the sea breeze had swept into her face out of her eyes.
"Come here, pup," her father said with a soft grunt as he shifted her from her mother's lap to his own. "You tell me what she's saying."
Her mother straightened her back and began singing again, as tone-deaf as ever, nodding when it was Eva's turn to join in the round.
"Felictra, felictra, felictra, felictra…"
"Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily…"
"Vita somnio est."
"Life is but a dream."
Eva sat up with such force, the strap around her neck crushed her windpipe. "What have you done with my team?" she rasped. "With...with my mom and dad?"
"Your father and mother?" Janus replied with surprise. "I knew the wild man was your father, but your mother is here, too?" His eyebrows peaked with curiosity. "Which one is she?"
Eva clenched her jaw and looked away.
The man drew closer and inspected her face at close range. "The one with red hair," he eventually stated. "Yes, I can see it now. In the nose and the mouth, the shape of the face... "
"Let them go," she snarled. "It's me the Wraith want. They have nothing to do with this. Do whatever you want with me, but let them go."
He pulled away. "I," he sighed, "unfortunately am not in charge of that sort of decision."
"No, that would be your master, wouldn't it?" Eva snapped.
He turned his back to her and returned to his research corner. "Yes. That burden falls upon him," he simply answered.
Eva lay flat against the table and stared at the ceiling. The other prisoners had to be the rest of the team. They must have failed to hold their position down on the planet. And the woman who needed the medication, the woman who could be dying…that was likely Emma. The thought of her mother suffering from an asthma attack in a cold, dank prison cell made her ribs ache and her eyes sting.
"How humiliating," she whispered.
"Hm," Janus merely hummed in reply.
"How humiliating it must be for you," she pressed on, her voice gaining strength. "One of the great Ancestors, one of the gate builders, now the dancing monkey for the very race your people vowed to destroy."
The soft beeps and clicks from across the room ceased. She could tell he had stopped moving.
"I mean," she continued, "practically your entire reason for being was to defeat the foe you had awakened. Defeat the Wraith and bring peace and safety back to the worlds under Lantean protection. And now look at you..."
Janus turned around again, slowly walking in her direction.
"If only the Council could see what you've become."
"The Lantean Council is long defunct," he countered.
"If they were ashamed of you back then, imagine what they would say about you now..." she turned her head to meet his gaze, "Janus."
His eyes widened and he drew his head back. "How do you know my name? No one has uttered that name in eons."
"At least you're not so far gone that you can't remember it," Eva retorted. "Sure, your people, your duty, your integrity...that's easy enough to forget. But it's pretty damn hard to forget your own name."
Suddenly he was right at her side, eyes bulging. "You have no idea –"
"I can imagine," she interrupted. "Hundreds of years in a stasis pod, endless feedings... constantly bringing you to the edge of death only to flood you once more with the life they stole. I've heard of it. I've heard what it can do to a person." She took a quiet breath. "I just thought one of the Ancestors would have been more resilient…"
He stared at her and she stared back.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I wish there was something we could do for you."
He narrowed his eyes and studied her for a moment. "You are Lantean," he stated.
Eva shrugged. "Technically, no."
"Your genetics would indicate otherwise."
"Yeah, well...that's a long story," she muttered. "I'm not Lantean, but I do live in the city of the Ancestors. We all do – all of the people captured along with me."
"Then it survived," he murmured.
Eva nodded. "Yes, the city survived. All thanks to your failsafe mechanism."
"My research..."
"It's all there, Janus." She hoped the repetition of his name might help to restore his humanity.
"I always assumed...that it had been lost that – that the city either lay at the bottom of the ocean or lay in ruins."
Eva shook her head. "The Wraith don't tell you much, do they?"
His eyes snapped to hers. "My master tells me what he deems necessary."
"Must be fun," she said, egging him on. "For a guy like you, so hungry for knowledge, to only be fed crumbs of the actual truth, to have the whole truth always concealed from you. Shit, you don't even have windows in here," she laughed.
Janus looked to the floor.
"We'd take you back, you know," she said softly.
He returned his gaze to her.
"Janus, we'd take you back home if we could," she whispered.
She could almost see his pulse racing under the collar of his cloak. "You, too, are far from home," he said.
"Yes..." she nodded, "yes, I am."
He rested his palms upon the examination table and looked down at her for a long time until, after a period of silence, he reached to the restraint around her neck and unbuckled it. He then moved to her wrists, releasing first the right one, then the left. Eva sprung up straight and began undoing the restraints at her ankles. She hopped off the table and grabbed two of the scalpels, weaving them quickly into her long braids for later use.
"Go," Janus whispered, taking a few steps backward.
"What?" Eva exclaimed. "That wasn't the deal. The deal was, you release me and I take you back home. I can't just leave you here. If the Commander finds out that you let me go, he could kill you."
"Sentimental already, are we?" he asked with a rueful smirk.
"Not a bit," Eva sneered. "But if you get killed, then I don't think I stand any chance of making it back home to my real family."
He raised an eyebrow. "Then our deal would be one that solely benefits you?"
"Come with me," she insisted. "Help me find my way out of here, help me release the team I came with, and we'll take you back home...to Lantea."
"Lantea," he repeated, his voice hardly audible.
"Please," she begged. "Wouldn't it be worth it just to hear the ocean one more time?"
Something tugged at the corner of his mouth, softening his beady eyes.
"Wake up, Janus," she whispered. "Vita non somnio est."
He turned away from her and for a moment, she thought she had failed.
"Janus! Please."
He strode over to his work space, grabbed a few items and shoved them into his pockets, before returning to her side. "Your Lantean needs work," he said with a sly smile.
Traveling through the corridors of the Cruiser in Janus' company was a strange sensation. Had she been alone, she would have tread lightly, hung in the shadows or hovered close to the walls to avoid detection; but such shady behavior on the Ancient's part would have arisen suspicion and so, instead, they strode confidently through the halls, Eva in front and Janus behind, her wrists trapped between his clammy hands as she played the part of prisoner.
She surely would have gotten lost – all the passages looked the same – but Janus clearly knew the ship like the back of his hand. Perhaps that put her at a disadvantage, she thought. Maybe he was trying to get her turned around, disoriented, before betraying her and subjecting her to some form of torture worse than what he and the Commander had originally planned.
They rounded a corner and, with a hitch in her breath, found themselves face-to-face with a pair of drones on patrol. The Wraith halted in their tracks and drew their weapons. Before Eva could react, she felt one of Janus' hands clamp tighter around her wrist while the other brought a Wraith stunner to her temple.
"Come, girl," Janus snarled in her ear, shoving the barrel of the stunner harder against the side of her head. "The Commander is expecting you."
The drones, being the supremely intelligent and free-thinking creatures they were, lowered their weapons and allowed them to pass.
"Stop squirming, otherwise I will shoot you here and now and let these two drag your body the rest of the way there." Janus gave her a rough shove forward and she tripped a bit on her own feet.
Fully satisfied with this bit of theatrics, the drones nodded their understanding to Janus and continued on their patrol. As soon as they were out of sight, Janus loosened his hold on Eva and dropped his stunner to the side.
"Apologies," he said quietly. "Had to make it look convincing. You understand, I'm sure."
Eva could do nothing but swallow in reply. "We're still headed to the cell, aren't we?" she asked, hoping that she didn't sound too desperate.
Before Janus could offer a response, her question was answered by the appearance of a flying knife, tumbling end over end through the air, missing the tip of her nose by mere inches. It landed in the wall opposite from where it had come and stuck straight out, still wobbling from the force of the throw.
"Little to the left, buddy," Sheppard's voice said.
"You wanna give it a try?" Ronon growled back.
Janus had kept his end of the bargain. Her heart soared as she ran ahead and toward the prison cell, relieved to see that everyone was still alive and well inside it.
"Eva!" Emma exclaimed, getting to her feet from where she and Teyla were sitting next to each other. "Oh, thank God you're alive." She reached through the cell barrier and laid a cool hand on Eva's cheek.
"Think you can help get us outta here, kid?" Sheppard asked.
Eva nodded eagerly and as soon as she did, they all began talking at once. She caught things like "control pad," "automatic doors," "knife," but couldn't make sense of their rambling. Almost immediately, though, they fell silent. Eva looked over her shoulder to see that Janus had appeared behind her.
"You make a new friend, there, Eva?" Sheppard asked.
"This is Janus," Eva explained.
"Janus?" Teyla echoed.
"As in the Janus?" Emma asked. "Janus the Ancient?" She eyed him up and down, looking almost disappointed at her unexpected meeting with supposed greatness.
"He's gonna help us get out of here," Eva said.
"Oh, he is now, is he?" McKay derided. "Just like that, he's gonna spring us out of here? From the goodness of his Ancient heart? What's in it for him, huh?"
"I told him we would take him home with us," Eva revealed.
"You told him what?" Sheppard hissed. "Eva, he's not some kitten you found in an alley! We can't just take him home with us! He's been in the hands of the enemy for-for who knows how long. How are we supposed to trust him?"
"I do not expect you to trust me," Janus said. "I merely ask that you take me away from this living hell." With that, he strolled over to the control panel, entered a code, and the cell door fell away.
The prisoners inside exited immediately, Sheppard taking point and heading fearlessly down a corridor. "All right gang, same plan we discussed. We gotta find our way to the fighter bay, see if we can hijack a dart, and get the hell out of here."
"The fighter bay is this way," Janus said calmly, nodding in the opposite direction.
Sheppard doubled back and stood eye-to-eye with Janus. "You can't possibly expect me to take what you say at face value."
Janus ignored Sheppard's accusation and carried on. "But your plan has its flaws. Nearly all of our darts have been deployed," he explained. "Very few have returned from the culling."
"All I need is one," Sheppard said.
"I suppose, yes. But you will likely be discovered before you successfully find one. If there were only one or two of you, perhaps you could accomplish such a task. But there are seven of us."
"Really?" Sheppard retorted. "Because I only count six."
"John, if he wanted us to be found, we would already have been found by now," Teyla reasoned. "Whether we take him back home or not is a decision we can make later. He obviously wishes to leave this place as much as we do, and at this point, that is all that truly matters."
Sheppard stared at Janus for a moment, as though trying to read the Ancient's mind. "Take us to the fighter bay."
"You will require your weapons first, will you not?" Janus asked.
Sheppard and Ronon exchanged a glance and Eva could almost hear their thoughts. Aside from the particle magnum, the rest of the weapons and supplies could easily be replaced. But if they were to meet resistance, they would fare better if they were armed.
Sheppard looked back at Janus. "Lead the way," he agreed, if a bit reluctantly.
"One last thing."
Janus reached into the pocket of his cloak but within the space of a breath, Ronon lunged at him, the sharp tip of his dagger pressing into the paper-thin skin that stretched over the man's jugular vein.
"Don't move," he warned.
Janus released a quiet laugh. "It is not a weapon, I assure you."
Ronon looked to Sheppard for an order and, after a moment's hesitation, the colonel nodded. He sheathed his dagger and took a step back, still watching Janus like a hawk.
Janus extracted the device and handed it to McKay.
"What is this?" McKay asked.
"Why don't you activate it and see?"
"No, no, no. I'm not falling for your 'pull my finger' bit," McKay scoffed. "Why don't you tell me what it does before I inadvertently blow us to smithereens all because you told me to push a button?"
The Ancient's lip curled as he took the device back into his own hand. "Personal cloaking device," he explained with a press of the button.
With a gasp that Eva hadn't realized she had been the one to release, Janus disappeared. Not a second later, though, he came back into view. He gave the device back to McKay who suddenly looked equal parts stunned and excited.
"Slide the dial to increase its breadth of field," Janus said, before taking off down a long hallway. He stopped after just a few paces. "Eva, it's best if you continue to accompany me," he added.
Eva looked back at the rest of the team, awaiting some kind of permission. It was eventually Sheppard who, in the form of an almost imperceptible nod, gave it to her. With a quick click of the cloaking device, the rest of the team dissolved into the thin air while she trotted to catch up with their new and unlikely ally.
A/N: Thank you again for reading. Hope you enjoyed. And I hope you like my made-up Ancient, haha. It's so fun to create - just take some Latin words and bastardize 'em until they sound the way you want them to!
Quick reference note: I took one of Eva's quotes ("It's me the Wraith want") in this chapter from something Ronon says in "Sateda." Like father like daughter.