Never Flown One of These Before/J'hyla

[mashimero]

Artist: calcitrix
Title: Never Flown One of These Before
Medium: Digital/hand-drawn
Pairing(s): Gen/open to interpretation

Author: kodiak_bear
Title: J'hyla
Wordcount: ~29,000
Rating: T
Pairing(s): None, though I was going to try, it just didn’t work!
Summary: A mission shortly after returning to the Pegasus galaxy takes a turn for the worst. Sheppard and his team are rescued by a mysterious alien race, and the world may claim the lives of everyone.
Notes: Much thanks to linzi for her fast beta. Thanks to my wonderful artist for the inspiration and her input for this story. I’d like to also mention that for every story I write, I often have a soundtrack to keep me going during certain scenes. I won’t post the entire soundtrack but there was one song in particular that I used to match the magic and emotions I hoped to create with this world. It’s called Dream of Water and Land. If you wish to listen to this song, you can go to http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/158706. Lastly, some inspiration/concept/idea was taken from the visually gorgeous James Cameron’s Avatar.

J'hyla

The world was a slanted sea of nauseating green. John didn’t even try to bite back a ragged groan. His eyes couldn’t seem to decide whether to stay open or shut and judging from the piercing slice of light, it was a good bet that the sun was shining, only worsening the headache that pounded within his skull.

He tried to slide his memories back in time. Why was he lying here? Where was he and, even more importantly, where was his team? There was a disjointed reel of images playing out in his mind. The jumper bay, Teyla laughing, deep black of space.

Move. He needed to move. Lying here wasn’t going to provide answers. Problem was, John was learning that, at least today, deciding on a course of action and accomplishing said action, were entirely different breeds of monsters. Was there a part on him that didn’t hurt when he tried to get his limbs and feet to respond? A few more moments of trying to get upright declared that no, there really wasn’t a part of him that didn’t ache and protest, and if he tried to interpret his knees, they were staging a mutiny. Good thing knees weren’t in control.

Blearily, John looked down. Oh, blood. That explained the pain. And trapped. The control console of the jumper had swallowed up his body and John realized he was staring upward at the mangled ceiling of the crashed ship instead of the forward windshield.

He knew he was in serious trouble, but he just couldn’t get his head clear enough to try and figure out how to get out of that trouble. His thoughts were wandering. He’d remember Rodney, that there was something important about that train of thought, then, next thing he knew, he was staring at nothing and adrift. Memory leaped to memory; lucidity became nebulous.

What had happened? Rodney!

Call them; belatedly it occurred to John. Why hadn’t he thought about it before? He had a radio, somewhere…where was his radio?

Dizziness hit him with little warning. Queasiness surged and John was positive he was going to throw up. He let his head fall back, breathed shallowly, praying for it to just back off.

His sight blurred, doubled; John thought he saw something moving in his peripheral vision. He didn’t know whether he should be relieved or worried; it didn’t matter because the only thing John could feel was the encroaching grayness. It blotted out the green sea and the ship’s wrecked ceiling and the blood and the pain. And when the figure got near enough, it also left John’s hearing screwy. The words they were calling to him were echoing and hollow, so distorted he couldn’t even grasp their meaning. Dazed, John let his head loll against the floor of the jumper, blinking back the darkness.

Blinking? Yeah. It worked just about as good as one would think, which wasn’t at all. John was never even aware of the moment that he’d lost the fight to stay conscious.

~*~

Rodney was at a loss. It might not be the first time, but it was surely a rare enough occurrence that he’d never grown comfortable being in such a position. There were things he could fix and then there were things like this, he thought disgustedly. And John, he was in about the same condition as the jumper, and that really wasn’t funny. It’s just, Rodney’s sense of humor had always been dark, and the more dire the situation, the worse it became.

While Teyla and Ronon were focused on John, Rodney had turned his attentions – or rather split them – to the fact that they were stranded. The planet had a space gate, and without a ship, they were screwed. They couldn’t exactly walk into orbit now could they? There just wasn’t anything he could do. The crash had damn near killed John and it’d definitely destroyed the jumper. It’d never fly again, short of turning back time.

Knowing he was finished here, Rodney gathered up his tools and headed back to their base camp. It wasn’t terribly far but it was rough country. The area reminded him of a mountainous jungle, as if Peru had been ripped up and set in the Amazon. There were terraced levels of prairie and stone; a cornucopia of tumbled rock and creeping flora. It was beautiful and intimidating and left him breathing hard and sweating by the time he climbed the last natural rock step, buried amidst sparse grass. He ducked thankfully into the cave house.

His eyes, once adjusted to the dimmer light, slid to the still form on the bed. He knew they’d been lucky to find this place before they’d needed it -- his throat tightened as he thought, before John almost died. It was part of an entire city built into a massive sloping mountain, hidden so cleverly, they’d found it only because of their ability to detect ancient technology. Their sensors had revealed low-level power sources. They’d landed and left the jumper at a nearby clearing and hiked in to find the source. They’d found the city, abandoned but still intact. You know the stories of empty villages where breakfast still stood on tables and beds looked as if someone had gotten up just moments ago and left them unmade? It was like that, mostly. Everywhere they’d looked, they found remnants of a people that just seemed to have inexplicably disappeared. There were some signs of time taking its toll, but amazingly it was well preserved. Rodney imagined the fact that it was underground had a lot to do with how well it’d weathered the years.

Teyla left the cooking nook, which was simply a table and an area carved into the wall for a fire; the archway was high enough though that she didn’t need to duck as she moved from one area to the next. “Did you have any success?”

“If you count discovering new and irritating bugs a success, then give me a Nobel,” Rodney grouched. He looked around the room. “Where’s Ronon?”

“Out,” Teyla said. The tightness that came over her face said more to Rodney than the curtness of the one word. At Rodney’s confused expression, she relented. “It is nothing. He is merely frustrated and worried.” She slid by Rodney, rubbing his arm absently as she did so, and sat by John’s side. An aged ceramic bowl, chipped and well worn, rested on the stone table. It was full of water; a cotton cloth was draped over the edge, just waiting for her return.

Rodney slid his bag of tools off his shoulder, rolling his neck as he did so. Outside, thunder boomed, rolling across the sky and signaling the arrival of another afternoon storm. He dumped his bag in a corner and edged past Teyla to peer at John. He allowed himself a quick touch; warm, but better than earlier. “His fever is down,” Rodney said, relieved.

“It comes and goes.” She took John’s pulse and seemed satisfied.

Rodney sighed. There really wasn’t anything else they could do other than wait for a rescue team. He looked around, trying to decide what he wanted to do. The house was small. There were bigger in the city, but they’d barely started to explore when the crash had happened and Ronon had insisted on a place with direct access to outside. It was small and cramped though and only seemed to make the walls close in more on Rodney, especially when the sky turned that particular color of threatening grey. He grabbed a blanket and tossed it on the ground next to John’s bed and settled on the floor, leaning his back against the carved granite wall. He’d rest, maybe take a nap. In truth, there wasn’t much else he could do.

Another ear-splitting crack resonated all around them; it was the dam bursting in the heavens. Rain poured from the sky. Within moments, water drip-dropped steadily from the stone awnings above the windowless coves.

Rodney could tell Teyla was worrying about Ronon, just as he was, though Rodney couldn’t bring himself to say it aloud. Ronon had been on his own before, in worst circumstances. He’d be fine, Rodney told himself… and maybe someday he’d even believe it. After all, Rodney had said the same about John and look how well that’d worked out.

Rodney and Teyla sat quietly listening to the storm and to John’s soft, even breathing. Time stuttered. Rodney drifted, became lost in his dreams. He was swimming in a massive ocean, no land in sight, and just when he was convinced he was going to die, the water disappeared and he was in space around the planet. Gravity quickly pulled him out of reach of the ‘gate and, arms flailing, he began to fall rapidly towards the ground below.

“Rodney,” Teyla whispered, nudging him, “you are dreaming.”

He shrieked, certain he was going to hit the ground and die a horrible, gory death. Of course, he didn’t. But then he shrieked again, as he looked beyond Teyla and saw a…a…what the hell was it?

Teyla realized he had seen something and turned quickly, her body tensing.

“What the hell!” Rodney demanded. “Seriously!”

It was staring at them. Before anyone could figure out what to do, Ronon pushed himself around the alien. He grinned. “I found help.”

Rodney gaped. Teyla took an involuntary step back, falling into her chair. John, of course, remained out like a light, still drowning deep in his fever and injuries. Rodney had seen aliens; he’d worked side-by-side with Asgard. But this alien ...it was hard to put his finger on it. There was this underlying sense of different. It was like an optical illusion where you saw one image even while sensing intuitively that there was something else hidden underneath. That was as close to describing it as Rodney could get. Physically, it was taller than Ronon but very thin, wiry. And its hair – were those feathers? Rodney was completely fascinated even while being a little freaked, because...because feathers! Definitely feathers and they were a riotous mixture of green, purple and yellow.

“Ronon, what --” Teyla began but trailed off in surprise as the being moved toward John.

“This is the injured one,” it spoke; the voice was surprisingly high, crystalline – could a voice be crystalline?

“He said he could help Sheppard,” Ronon explained.

Rodney couldn’t decide whether to cover John with his body or let the alien have access. John had a concussion and that was worrying enough, but he also had deep lacerations just below his knees and even with their medical supplies from the jumper, infection had set in. Earth antibiotics weren’t much help against alien bacteria. It also hadn’t helped that it had taken them half a day to track down the crashed ship and then another two hours to get John free.

“What damaged John Sheppard?” the alien asked, his voice catching oddly.

It had made the decision for Rodney, going around him so smoothly that Rodney and Teyla could only stare at each other, bewildered. Even as it waited for their answer, it lifted John’s eyelids and made a worried note, then with an odd humming, moved its webbed hands over John’s limbs. It lifted the blanket back and made another worried squawk at seeing the bloody bandages on both legs.

Rodney tried to find his voice. “He crashed, uh, from the sky.”

The alien’s face turned toward Rodney. “Sky? You are flyers?”

Even though it tried to sound like it was asking a question, Rodney got the odd sense it was stating a fact it already knew. The thought left him unsettled. Was it telepathic?

“Sometimes,” Rodney hedged. He glanced at Ronon who simply shrugged. “Uh, you…fly?”

The alien snorted, amused, but didn’t answer.

It turned its attention back to John. Teyla hovered; she rested a possessive hand along John’s forehead. “Can you help him?”

As the alien bristled, Rodney was amazed to see that the feathers ran down the alien’s neck and disappeared under the robe, following a path along its spine. It pointed at John’s knees, upset. “You have barely helped your own. His wounds fester, but I will help him.”

It seemed to take note of just where they were, taking its attention off John for the first time since arriving. “The old city,” it murmured. “You should not be here.”

“We needed shelter,” Ronon said.

The alien’s eyes were a bright yellow. Its stare made Rodney shiver. “Places on our world can be deceiving,” it said. Without warning, it reached down and scooped John into its arms.

Rodney bleated in surprise. “What are you doing to him?”

John stirred. His eyes fluttered and a pained groan escaped his lips. Rodney fought back the worried lump that lodged in his throat. John’s forehead was shiny with sweat again, indicating his fever had returned with a vengeance; strands of hair plastered wetly against his skin along his hairline.

“Saving him,” it answered.


~*~

Evan Lorne considered himself an easy going guy. He didn’t get pissed off at the drop of a hat, and he didn’t jump ahead in line to start worrying about the latest and greatest scare.

What he did do, though, was listen to his gut. And his gut was doing backflips to get his attention. That left him edgy, pacing Atlantis, trying to pin down the source of his unease. He checked in on Zelenka. Doctor Z said everything was fine. Lorne touched base with the ‘gate tech, same story. He talked to Keller and what’s her name, the chick in botany that McKay had briefly dated, Katie something – anyway, everywhere he went he got the same response. Everything’s fine, why, what’s wrong, and at that he could just shrug and explain he was just checking.

He figured it’d take less than four hours and the rumor mill would have it that something major was going down. Lorne would soon have everyone coming to him, people trying to find out if some new attack against the wraith was underway.

He felt a little guilty about that. But damn if he didn’t feel as if something bad was brewing, and this waiting for the hammer to fall was leaving him irritable.

It took three days of pacing before the shoe fell. Woolsey called him to his office and that was when Lorne found out his gut had been right all along. Sheppard’s team was MIA. They’d been sent on a routine reconnaissance and had failed to make their forty-eight hour report in. They’d made their initial, their twelve and twenty-four, so whatever had happened, it’d happened no more than two days ago. It was now SOP to wait an additional twenty-four hours after a failed check in, especially if everything had been routine up till that point. It was a misguided attempt to reduce unnecessary rescue missions.

Money was tight. Woolsey had bowed to pressure from above when the recent rounds of budget cuts had come in. The IOA had audited mission reports and had provided statistics showing that eight out of every ten failed report-in had been from faulty equipment, poor atmospheric conditions, or unexpected native influences, and that out of that figure, only twenty percent of the time was any help required. Furthermore, only about five percent had been considered a life or death situation.

To the IOA, five percent didn’t warrant excessive precaution. Lorne figured if it were their loved one at risk, or their ass, it would. Rules were rarely written by those directly impacted, and if they were, Lorne guessed they’d be a damn sight different.

Lately, everyone had the feeling they were more ‘on their own’ out here than ever before so setting up and maintaining good relations with other worlds was only going to help everyone involved. Woolsey had stepped up efforts with the coalition and other allies to meet that goal. Earth was just having one crisis too many, one after another, and money only went so far for black ops. It was hard to demand more funding when most of the people paying your bills didn’t even know you existed.

“It’s a space gate?” Lorne clarified.

“It is,” Woolsey answered evenly. He looked up at Lorne, his face grave. “I know I don’t need to remind you, but we need them back, soon, Major. Teyla will be addressing the coalition in four days; she is instrumental in getting them to agree with the latest arms and trade guidelines.”

“Understood, Sir.”

Lorne gathered a rescue team in under an hour; it took another hour to get clearance for a go. The gate was in orbit so there was no sending a MALP to take in conditions. To see if something like a black hole was causing the lack of a dial-in. Yes, he’d read too many SGC reports for his own good. Most days, he didn’t stop to ponder all the bad stuff that could go down, but times like this, when he was heading out into the unknown and knowing that there was a team already MIA, he couldn’t help but take that road in his mind.

A while back, he’d started to recite a short prayer every time he got ready to travel through the event horizon, and he said it again now. And then he said one more for good measure.


~*~


The alien had taken John and ran. That had left them scrambling to follow behind. Would it be unmanly to admit to being terrified? It was dark, night had set, and in the time they’d been here, they’d never ventured from the cave city after sunset. Ronon hadn’t been against it, but Rodney had insisted that nocturnal nasties lurked around every corner and taking unnecessary risks was…well….unnecessary.

So being introduced to the mountainous jungle at night for the first time at a rapid jog didn’t seem like a smart thing to do. In fact, Rodney couldn’t think of many ideas he’d had that were this bad. Well, other than the personal shield. And everything to do with Doranda.

Never mind. The point being, they’d run through the darkening evening and soon the fear and uncertainty had changed to wonder. How couldn’t it? They’d seen plants exhibiting phosphorescence. They’d seen plenty of underwater creatures with the same attributes, on many different worlds, including Earth. But the forests here were alive with it. Night insects floated and flickered, and their colors shifted from every hue on the rainbow that one could imagine, and Rodney could imagine a lot. There were leaves that had looked perfectly normal and green under daylight conditions that now glowed brightly. The mineral content of the plants –

“This is amazing,” Teyla whispered, awe-struck.

“The trees,” Rodney pointed, “the trunks…”

They were teeming, crawling pinpoints of starlight, creating intricate paths that made Rodney think of airports at night viewed high from the sky.

Rodney wanted to be frantic. He actually wanted to be in a heightened sense of agitation, because he knew in the back of his mind that was absolutely the right response to everything that had happened. But instead, all he felt was this incredible sense of awe and a building awareness of being extremely small.

Ronon paused in his stride just long enough to call back to them. “We’re losing him, get up here.”

“Him?” Rodney couldn’t help but echo. “We know it’s a him?”

“Her, him, get up here.”

He knew he should listen to Ronon. The trouble was, though, that Rodney was too busy gawking at Ronon’s arms. Then his eyes snapped down to his own and he bit back a howl. The things glowing in the night, they’d gotten on them. All of them, he realized, staring at Teyla.

“Holy shit! Get them off!” His voice cracked. He danced about, swiping at his arms and face. The awe he’d felt had abruptly taken a back seat to heart-stopping fear. They’d be eaten alive, their flesh devoured by some type of glowing piranha bugs!

The alien had doubled back to them, still bearing Sheppard and without any sign of tiring. “They will not harm you.”

“They’re already harming me,” Rodney cried, “I’m having a heart attack!”

Teyla studied her arms, fascinated and uncertain, but with none of Rodney’s panic. She lifted one toward the sky and watched as the tiny lights slid down her skin and happily spiraled around her bicep. “What are they?”

“Lidgets,” the alien answered. He repositioned John on his shoulder, taking time to caress John’s forehead when he groaned. Whatever he did quieted John. “They exist to help every living thing on our world.”

Ronon came close enough to grab Rodney’s arms. He held them tight until Rodney stopped struggling. Rodney was sure he was missing skin already. His chest was tight; spots danced in front of his eyes. “Oh, God,” he breathed faintly.

“Sheppard needs help, McKay.” Ronon peered at him, waiting until he saw Rodney steady somewhat. When he decided Rodney was better, Ronon let go of his arms.

Rodney was still breathing hard. But he was also still alive. His friends were still alive. And John…oh, crap, those things were crawling all over John. They were on his arms, face, even in his hair. Rodney suddenly wanted to be back in Atlantis with a ferocity that made his throat ache.

Was it fair to say, he calmed down after that? Probably not because he didn’t. By the time they’d arrived at…how the hell could you describe it? He couldn’t, not at first. The cave city had been immense, impressive, intricate and amazing, and Rodney had been frothing at the bit to dig into the technology hidden amongst its depths.

But this city, and if they were descendants of the cave dwellers then he’d be damned if he could tell from the architecture, this city floated amidst the treetops. Floated! He was hard pressed to tell where a tree limb ended and a home began. The best description he could conceive was that this city was literally woven into the trees. Rodney’s brain struggled to put words to what he was seeing. Bridges of vines seemed to shift along with the forest, with each breath and thought of its inhabitants. Rodney saw an alien walk by and even as the being moved along a path, the trees and bridges shifted to open up a way to wherever it was the alien was going.

Rodney gaped. He looked at Teyla and Ronon and then to the alien holding John. It was smiling, a grim line of pride stretching its thin lips. “Welcome to J’hyla,” it said formally. “You are the first strangers to ever look upon it.”

They were speechless. Probably that was the right thing to be at that time.

“Come, your friend will soon be made well and whole. This way.”

Rodney couldn’t see a way up but before he could waste more than a passing thought, vines unfurled and reformed and a platform of living things waited for them to step on. When they did, it started to rise. In a movement that was like being handed off from one pair of hands to another, it continued upward. It wasn’t until Ronon put a reassuring hand over Rodney’s that he realized he was clenching his fingers tightly against Ronon’s shoulder.

Rodney was afraid of heights and he was afraid of weird aliens. Add in the symbiotic relationship with organic material and Rodney was just about done in; they reminded him too much of wraith ships and technology and being cocooned. Come to think of it, Rodney was pretty sure he was freaked out by at least eighty percent of the things on this planet.

What he went through for his team. He still hadn’t forgotten the arrow in his butt, either.

The platform ‘docked’ against a tree and a curtain of life parted to reveal an entrance. He was following on automatic now; it was just round after round of shocking scenery. Could you overdose on amazement? Stepping into a tree, for god’s sake, and walking up spiral stairs inside the aforementioned tree.

They ended in a place that Rodney was sure was very high off the ground. The branches of the trees had grown together and he had a hunch that on the outside it just seemed like trees grown into one massive growth of limbs and leaves; but the inside, it was a sylvan hideaway. He found himself speechless time and time again and not even caring anymore.

Airy, Rodney thought, distracted; it was very airy and open. More of the luminescence lit the room. There were Lidgets crawling everywhere, over them and every single surface in the room, and all of this was joined by a multitude of floating insects that seemed to be as fruitful as dust motes in the desert.

He watched silently as John was placed in a bed in the center of the room.

There were other beds too, with tree trunk legs and sturdy branch frames. White sheets and blankets covered whatever served as a mattress and it looked so inviting, Rodney had to fight to keep standing. It had been a long, long night, and all the anxiety was exhausting.

He realized that the beds were central to the room and all along the edges rose a step, creating a platform that seemed ideal for viewing anything outside the tree house. Large fronds flopped from the ceiling down, trailing off at eye level for the aliens, which was a little higher than was comfortable for Rodney. The floor of woven branches curved smoothly upwards to make a half-wall.

It was something taken straight out of a fairy tale.

“Here the healers care for our ill and injured,” the alien said. “I am Wesli and I am the master healer.”

“And you couldn’t have said that earlier, that you’re a doctor,” Rodney sniped sourly. At Teyla’s dirty look, Rodney defended himself by waspishly saying, “Unnecessary worry.” His nerves were totally shot; he needed coffee. A pot of it.

“Can you make him well?” Teyla asked.

“Of course,” Wesli replied, focusing its attention on John. “He is not so gravely hurt that restoring him is out of reach. It will take time for him to fully heal, though. He’ll need a great deal of rest.”

She nodded and Rodney couldn’t help but be reminded of a kid chided to keep a stiff upper lip after receiving some random hurt. She tipped her head towards Ronon, sending him unspoken thanks for finding John this help. Rodney turned and studied the area with a second look. He wasn’t sure if he trusted himself to say more. He was ridiculously relieved that Ronon had found these aliens because he knew John needed help. But he was also fighting against a natural level of intimidation that came from being a small speck of humanity in a very big pool of non-human life.

Ronon sidled up to him and ducked his head. “They don’t bite.”

“That you know of,” Rodney retorted under his breath.

Wesli had finished cleaning John’s knees, humming again like he had back in the cave, and then moved on to examining John’s head wound. As it slid sure hands along John’s scalp, Rodney couldn’t help but stare at the claws at the end of the fingertips. They were hooked and he was pretty sure they’d be sharp. Was it a he? Ronon had declared it a ‘him’ but Ronon kept things simple even when they often weren’t. The name seemed masculine but how did one bring something like that up without being completely crass? Not that Rodney didn’t do crass…

Rodney was getting tired of regarding the alien as ‘it’. To hell with it, Wesli just became a guy as far as Rodney was concerned.

“The blow to his head was serious, but his mind is unaffected.” Wesli pulled his hands away, a passing pleased smile on his lips as his gaze lingered on John. “He will heal now and when he wakes, he will be much improved.”

“Thanks,” Ronon said, thickly, “he’s important to us.” He thumped the alien solidly on his back before dipping down near John and almost inhaling the healthier appearance of his friend. Ronon’s jaw tensed, bone visibly rippling under his skin as the big man fought to control his strong emotions.

Teyla moved closer to John and stared at him, pensive, noting John’s improved condition. After a moment, the edges of her mouth curved up and she brushed her hand gently across John’s forehead. “We are in your debt,” she said softly.

Wesli accepted these words with a simple inclination of his feathered head. They ruffled upwards like a pleased peacock. He stood. “We normally only sleep the ill here. We have rooms where you may stay if you wish?”

“We’ll stay here,” Ronon said.

“I understand. Food will be brought. Tomorrow, when your friend is better, there is much to discuss.”

“Wait,” Rodney said, “before you leave. The cave city, what happened to the people living there? Where’d they go?”

Wesli’s feathers flattened and Teyla was shooting Rodney a warning look, but Rodney could only think back to the technology they’d found there. Technology reminiscent of the Ancients. There’d been one room that John had initialized the lights similar to how he had on Atlantis, before he’d taken to the air for a solo survey and crashed. If there was the chance of ZPMs or any other technology that they could use on Atlantis, then they’d need to make exploring the underground city a higher priority. And maybe there’d even be a spare jumper down there. It had happened before.

“The old city?” Wesli’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you ask?”

“Because we suspect there’s technology down there that might be able to help us.”

“The old city has slept for a long, long time and it should continue to do so.”

Ronon’s interest was piqued. “Why’s that?”

The alien took a hard look at all of them and then at John. He seemed torn. Whatever it was though, that he’d been considering, he must’ve decided against because Wesli shook his head and said, “That is not for now. Rest.”

Then he was gone.


~*~

Wesli left the four walkers. Yes, he would still refer to them as walkers because they could only fly with the help of machines. He was exhausted. Healing Sheppard had drained him and he’d already been depleted from healing Neesi. The big one, Ronon, hadn’t thought to ask Wesli how it came to be that Wesli had found him. Ronon was an expert walker. He’d left very little trail; he was aware of his surroundings with a dedicated purpose. But Wesli had been searching for him and Wesli was also good at finding things.

He hadn’t been able to tell Ronon that their friend’s crash wasn’t Sheppard’s fault; to come clean about his peoples’ culpability. Neesi had been caught by surprise, as much as the walker had. Walkers in flying ships! There had been stories, there were always stories, but very few believed them. That there was a grain of truth in them, Wesli believed that, but things like flying ships…he’d believed that to be exaggeration.

Could he have avoided the ship? Wesli doubted it. Neesi was one of the best and she hadn’t been able to. She’d descended from cloud cover almost on top of the ship and though John Sheppard had reacted quickly, he’d still clipped her. She’d told Wesli there had been no time for her to react.

Despite successfully treating John, Wesli was troubled. The walkers’ arrival here in J’hyla was an event they were unprepared for. If it hadn’t been for Neesi’s involvement in the accident, these four would probably never have known about J’hyla and its people.

They’d had to help though, seeing how it was their doing that caused the walker harm. Wesli had been so relieved to find that there had been only one in the ship when it has crashed and that it had been an injury he could heal.

They’d never before shared the secret of their people. It had been a simple thing to keep, being isolated as they were. But the walkers’ arrival threatened it. And Wesli couldn’t help but feel fear for the sanctity of that secret. He tried to ignore the quiet inner voice whispering that maybe letting it be known wasn’t a bad thing; that the walkers seemed like good, caring people. They had been alone for so long. Wesli was surprised at the longing that had awakened, to know more of the walkers and the others beyond their world.

Wesli was home, already. So lost in thought, he had followed the route without consciously paying attention. His door opened, revealing the soft lights of lamps and his wife sitting quietly in the chair by the far edge of the room; she loved to sit and look out upon the city. Their daughter was nestled in Neesi’s lap. Wesli smiled; his feathers preened along with his emotions. If he’d lost Neesi today…

“Wes,” she called warmly, “all is well?”

Wesli nodded. “The walker will recover. All is well.”

He smelled supper simmering. He smiled again at the thought of the one walker, frightened yet constantly curious; what he would say if he saw the harnessed Toopups, lazing happily in their carved stone home, creating enough warmth to heat food. If they were stroked just right, they generated a great deal of heat for a time long enough to cook most meals. Only a few dishes required extra Toopups to be stroked and added to keep the heat going longer. Fire was too dangerous amongst the trees.

Neesi carried Lia to her bed then came back to her husband, hugging him from behind. She encompassed Wesli, surrounding him with her emotions. “I am relieved. I saw the walker’s face before we hit each other. He looked so upset. I do not think they are violent people. I was afraid I was responsible for his end.”

“The fault would not have rested with either of you.”

“It was just him, was it not?”

Wesli shrugged free of Neesi’s hug; he turned and rubbed noses, kissing her lightly. “It was just him.”

The thought that tonight might have ended so tragically different staggered him. Though most of his distress came from imagining Neesi taken from him, he was compassionate enough to know he wouldn’t have been the only mourner this evening. Sheppard’s friends cared very deeply for him. His loss would’ve been devastating.

“You should be sleeping,” he said, his voice thick and gruff. He shouldn’t dwell on what might have been. It hadn’t happened that way. “Healing only does so much. Your body needs to rest.”

“As do you,” she whispered. She took his hands, lifting them to her shoulders. He lifted them further upwards, running them through her lath. It was a murky sea of brilliant blues and vibrant oranges. Wesli so loved her colors.

“I can eat later,” he murmured against her cheek.


~*~

You know that twilight fog between waking and sleeping? John was firmly entrenched in that moment, and if it weren’t for the niggling feeling in his gut that there was a reason why he should give up the pleasant languor of sleep, he’d have drifted back down into the cottony nothingness of his dreams.

Why was his consciousness calling to him?

Had he been sleeping long? Was it morning?

The more John’s mind shrugged away the cobwebs of sleep, the more he realized he wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. His memories were confusing and that sixth sense that seemed to keep him alive more often than he probably deserved, was telling him something just wasn’t right. He wasn’t on Atlantis.

Cautiously, John cracked his eyelids, peering hazily out at his surroundings. Wow. It was dark. He really hadn’t thought it was night; showed how disoriented he was. He opened his eyes a bit more and turned his head, looking around. What the hell, or where the hell, was he?

Things were glowing, everywhere. He looked down at his arms and violently jerked back. A small sound escaped and John wasn’t sure if he shouted or just grunted in surprise, but whatever it was that he did, it brought his team to his side.

Teyla reached him first; she always seemed to do that. She knelt by his bed, bringing herself eye level to John. “Are you well?”

“I wasn’t?” he asked.

“No,” Ronon said.

“Far from it,” Rodney added.

John scrunched his eyes, trying to see his team better. Things were still slightly out of focus and he was surprised by how exhausted he continued to feel. “I was in the jumper…” he remembered.

“You crashed. Now that you seem to be more coherent, enlighten us on how you actually managed to smash up another jumper.” Rodney’s fear soothed, his emotions cycled naturally to anger. Rodney was tired of all the stupid life-endangering behavior that John seemed prone to committing. Rodney wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

Teyla reached for Rodney’s hand and squeezed gently.

“I’m sorry,” Rodney breathed out, frustrated. “I’m just…it’s been a rough night.”

John could only parrot, “I crashed?”

Ronon frowned at him. “How many fingers?” He held up his hand, keeping three fingers extended.

“Three.” Their faces relaxed for all of a few seconds before John hazarded to add, “I think.”

“John, do you remember what happened?”

He fixed his gaze on Teyla. Focus, John, he told himself.

If only that didn’t seem so hard. He reached a hand up and scratched his forehead. He was really tired and it was making his thoughts foggy and slow.

“Great,” Rodney grumped, “we’re stranded, the jumper’s totaled, and he can’t even remember his name.”

Ronon pulled back from John’s personal space and cocked his head at him. “You do remember who you are, right?”

“John Sheppard,” he answered. Ha, take that McKay. He knew his name.

“Colonel or Major,” Rodney demanded.

“Major what?” John saw the three exchange worried glances. He sighed. “Kidding. Colonel.”

“It is still late here,” Teyla said, standing. “We should all get some more rest. In the morning we can explain everything when you are feeling better.”

John looked perplexed. “I feel fine.” He was just so tired it felt as if waves of candied molasses were threatening to pull him down, back into the slumbering quiet he’d reluctantly surfaced from.

“You’re not,” Ronon stated flatly. “You haven’t even asked where you are or how you got here. Go back to sleep. We’re keeping watch.”

He wanted to argue, but he couldn’t. He remembered when he’d first started waking up, the fact that he didn’t know where he was, how he’d got there, had bothered him, but then his mind had skipped tracks and he’d forgotten about it when he saw his team. Ronon was right. He felt okay, a little sore, especially on his legs and head, but he was abnormally sleepy and his mind just wasn’t firing on all thrusters.

Before John had made up his mind to cooperate, his eyelids slid shut, too heavy for him to keep open any longer.

When he woke for a second time, he didn’t remember the first. It was then that Rodney started calling for Wesli – who was Wesli?

John was able to sit with a little help from Ronon and Teyla. Ronon held on to him while Teyla pushed the bed against the half-wall, giving John something to lean his back against. He was too weak to stand and sit solo. He did have enough energy to demand some answers.

It was morning now, which was a relief. The glowing things had disappeared into the daylight. While Teyla explained that he had crashed the jumper, Ronon brought him up to speed on how he’d found the alien who had helped him. John took a glance at his legs and saw the stained bandages just below his knees. He felt the area on his head that was scabbing over. The proof that he had crashed was there, John just couldn’t remember it.

“And you don’t know what caused it?” he asked Rodney.

Rodney looked at him, exasperated. “If I knew, don’t you think I would’ve mentioned it by now?”

“Only if it occurred to you.” John massaged his forehead. A headache was creeping into his skull. “You tend to get distracted.”

“And yet, who crashed?”

John rolled his eyes.

He also felt the rumbling of his stomach reminding him it’d been a long time since he’d last eaten. “Do we have any food?” He looked for their gear, aware that he was stripped down to his boxers and t-shirt. Rodney, Teyla and Ronon were fully dressed minus their vests, guns and whatever gear they’d scavenged from the Jumper.

Ronon folded his arms across his chest, trying his best to not look sheepish and failing miserably. “We left it behind.”

John stared at Ronon then Teyla.

She raised her eyebrow. “We had larger concerns at the time.”

Rodney was next on John’s list. “McKay--”

“No you don’t,” Rodney declared, “this isn’t my fault.”

John had to work at keeping his temper. They’d really left all their gear behind? All their supplies, weapons-- well, Ronon had his blaster, but still, what the hell? Had they forgotten everything from the Common Sense Guide to Offworld Survival? Heck, Rodney had helped design the guidelines.

While John was trying to figure out what next to say, Rodney slid off his bed, stretching. He fished in his trouser pockets and pulled out an energy bar and tossed it to John. “Always be prepared,” he chorused.

John rolled his eyes. “You were never a boy scout.”

Some of Rodney’s smugness disappeared. “No, but that’s not what’s important.” He made dancing air quotes with his fingers, “Food here.”

“You only do that because of your blood sugar.” Ronon refused to be one-upped by the scientist.

Rodney stared at him. “And your point is?”

“I believe Torren is more mature on his playdates than some of the individuals in this room.”

John shared some subtext with Ronon and Rodney and what it amounted to was that they’d get back at each other later. When Teyla wasn’t around.

John settled back and ate the power bar, smiling around his food when Ronon mugged Rodney for another after he threw Teyla a powerbar. They grew quiet as they ate; it was a companionable silence that warmed John from the inside out. Rodney decided to be the first to try the food Wesli had brought last night. He had always been up for sampling new food, just so long as there wasn’t any citrus. John asked Rodney if it was safe and he went into a long explanation about it being meat from a native animal along with something similar to cheese and some grain-based bread. It was supposed to be safe for everyone, even the younger members of the aliens’ race, who apparently tended to have trouble digesting some of the more exotic fruits from the trees.

It reminded John that he couldn’t really remember much about this planet. But, if this morning was typical, all he could think was that it came as close to paradise as he’d ever been. A gentle breeze blew through the fronds hanging over the roof, refreshing everyone in the room. The air itself smelled warm and crisp; a perfect summer day.

J’hyla.

That’s what Teyla had said this place was called. John tried to think back to the cave city but he drew a blank. Some memory loss was normal after a head injury as was having trouble with retaining new memories. John knew from earlier experiences, these things would improve, but he also knew he might not ever get back those memories from before the crash. He considered himself lucky that the only pain he was really feeling was a mild headache.

He was still trying to gather all these thoughts together when an area off to his left ‘unfurled’, at least that was the best way to describe it. Four beings stepped into the room. John straightened in his bed as much as his weakened state allowed.

Teyla leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear, “The smallest of the four is the being that healed you. His name is Wesli.”

Right away, John felt an unwelcome undercurrent. Going off the fact that the alien had healed him, John had assumed there’d be a level of friendliness. But the expression on their faces was one of wary suspicion. John had experienced a mental double take at the feathered scalps. And tall…crap, these aliens were tall. They looked light though, easy to break or bend. John felt more naked from the lack of a weapon than his missing pants.

The tallest of the four stepped forward. “Why have you come here?”

Now that was a loaded question, John thought.

Ronon got to his feet and pointed at Wesli. “He brought us here. Is that a problem?” John could read Ronon’s body language and knew he hadn’t been the only one to pick up on the undertone.

John made himself stand and wished heartedly that he didn’t feel so shaky still. He didn’t know how long he’d manage to stay on his feet, but he was there now. “Colonel John Sheppard,” he introduced, ignoring how stupid he looked in his underwear. “These are my teammates Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan and Doctor McKay.” He gestured at each in turn, ignoring the tremble in his hand. “We don’t mean you or your people any harm.”

The alien was old, John suddenly realized, compared to the other three. John noticed how vibrantly colored the others were and the fact that they all had three distinct colors to the elder’s faded monochrome gray. All of their skin had a similar appearance, though. If John had been introduced to them individually, he wouldn’t have been able to guess at age or gender. Amazing and unsettling at the same time.

As Rodney would say, wasn’t life infallibly contradictory.

“I am Rast, master of J’hyla. Of those with me, you have met Wesli.” He didn’t introduce the others. “Our healer helped you. He brought you to our sacred city. There was a degree of trust inferred in these actions and you have breached this trust by hiding your own secrets.”

His voice was thin like aged paper, ready to crumble to dust at just the slightest touch. John cleared his throat, knowing he had to tread carefully. “Secrets?”

“My people tell me that more of your kind have arrived.” Rast’s eyes turned turbulent. “Why have you come here?”

Rodney’s head snapped up. “More of us?”

“Another ship such as the one that crashed was sighted at dawn, landing near the other. Again,” Rast demanded, “what is your purpose?”

The aging leader’s attitude rankled all of them. He was coming across as borderline hostile. Ronon bristled, tensing. His hand edged closer to his holster. This was one of those moments where John needed to think fast and act faster.

“That ship is looking for us, not you. When I…uh…crashed,” John fumbled because it was hard to talk about events he didn’t actually remember, “that caused us to lose contact with our people. If we don’t stay in touch, they send out a rescue party.” He was striving to come across as calm, easy-going, everything’s okay here, we’re all fine. John had a general sense that it seemed to be working. “We only came here to look around. It’s something we do to a lot of planets. We’re not keeping any secrets, trust me.”

“Would you trust the future of your people on the word of a stranger?” Rast asked. “Would you risk their lives?”

While some of the hostility had abated, John could tell it’d take more than their reassurances to fix this. The four aliens stood together; them against us, John thought. It didn’t give him a lot of confidence that he’d be able to smooth this over. But a jumper! John realized that the emptiness of his memories had left him unable to fully appreciate how great that news was, but he was pretty sure he could come close. If he’d crashed then they’d been stranded. And now they weren’t. That was really good news. Now if he could just make the aliens calm down.

The one named Wesli was watching him intently. “Would you?” he prompted when John failed to answer Rast’s question.

He hadn’t answered because it seemed to John a double-edged sword. He frowned. “Weren’t you the guy that healed me?” he directed at Wesli.

“Yes, he did.” Teyla said. She moved closer to John, sensing he was the target for most of the animosity. He’d been the one hurt so he was the one to blame for them being brought to J’hyla. “Colonel Sheppard has given you his word,” she stated gravely. “As prior leader of Athos, daughter of Tagan, I swear to you, it is good. These people come from the city of the Ancestors, Atlantis, and they have fought many years for the safety of all the people in this galaxy.”

Wesli’s feathers lifted and trembled; his face colored. “You are Lantean?”

“We’re descendants of those you call Ancestors,” John admitted, “but we’re not them.”

The two unidentified aliens stared at them, stony-faced and silent.

Rast dipped his head, acknowledging the formality of Teyla’s promise. “Daughter of Athos, you speak well of this man, but we cannot risk our future so cavalierly, Lantean or not.” Rast had a walking stick, knotted and curved, and he now thrust it against the living wood floor, two hard knocks. “We must have Tala.”

“What’s that?” Ronon’s hand still hovered over his weapon. “I won’t let you hurt any of them.”

“It is safe,” Wesli assured them. “There is some discomfort but it does no permanent harm. We wouldn’t do that to another being.”

“You still haven’t said what ‘it’ is,” John pointed out.

“It is a ceremony --”

“You can stop right there,” Rodney interrupted, “we don’t do alien ceremonies anymore.”

“Rodney!” Teyla looked like a shocked mother, wholly embarrassed by their child.

Rodney, on the other hand, seemed completely unapologetic. “What?” he snapped. “Tell me you weren’t thinking the same thing!”

“That does not mean I always say what I am thinking,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Sheppard?”

Ronon wanted John to show him which way to go. Cooperate or not. John hoped he’d make the right call, but it was hard to think with the headache reasserting itself and the tiredness that had stalked him earlier had renewed its grip with fresh fervor. “If we do this, then you’ll take what you find, without asking for anything else from us? No firstborns or right arms?”

The four aliens looked at John, confused.

“Never mind the last part. Will you believe what you find?”

“Why would we not?”

The leader seemed truly puzzled by John’s question, bordering on offended. Funny, John thought, that the alien wouldn’t see the conflicting viewpoints. That John would have a hard time trusting their word, when Rast had said they couldn’t trust John’s.

“I guess then you’d better explain this Tala and what we have to do.”

~*~

This wasn’t good, Lorne thought; finding the mangled jumper and no signs of Sheppard or his team left him deeply concerned. The ship rested in a shallow valley and if it weren’t for the emergency beacon the scientists had installed for just these kinds of situations, they probably would never have found it. Leafy vegetation was already trying to take it over.

Lorne stood outside of the ship, surveying the area. Zelenka was inside along with Parish and Beckett. Lorne probably didn’t need Parish along on this one, but the man loved his botany. Even now, Lorne could hear him exclaiming over finding two specific types of plants growing in the same biome and something about them not being capable of cohabitation. The other two members of his team had fanned out, doing some reconnaissance. They were marines new to the expedition, an LT named Jessica Gage and a Sergeant Dan Borneo.

When they’d left Earth to return to the Pegasus galaxy, not everyone wanted to make the return trip. Lorne had understood but he didn’t enjoy breaking in new team members. If he were stuck doing it though, the two of them were all right.

He was still learning their strengths and weaknesses. Would it be too much to ask for an easy rescue mission? What was he saying…of course it was. At the least, he hoped they’d find a marker soon, a dropped piece of gear, anything, that could give them a lead.

“Major,” Carson called.

The cloned man had never resumed leadership as CMO. He’d left that job to Jennifer Keller. Lorne was surprised that the once-timid doctor now seemed to prefer off-world missions and helping out other worlds and people.

Lorne ducked into the rear of the Jumper. “Yeah Doc. What did you find?”

Carson’s face was creased with worry. “Blood, Major. Someone was injured and judging from the location, it’s likely it’s Colonel Sheppard’s.”

Lorne forced his way through the warped cockpit, placing a hand on Parish’s shoulder to steady himself and let the man know he was there. His scientist was staring at the blood, a troubled expression on his face.

Beckett knelt by what was left of the pilot’s chair, pointing his flashlight under the smashed console. With a gloved finger, he wiped underneath and brought it up to show Lorne. “There’s quite a bit under there from what I can see.”

“Fatal?”

Carson shook his head.

Lorne exhaled, relieved. “Well that’s something.”

“I didn’t say it wasn’t serious, son.” Carson pushed himself up. “With that amount of blood, assuming it was Sheppard, he’s in danger.”

“Understood, Doc.”

So, not only was Sheppard and his team missing, now Lorne had to worry about finding them soon or risk being too late to save the colonel. That was assuming no one else was injured. It was enough to depress any man. He turned, staring at the disaster around him, imagining what could’ve caused all of this, when Zelenka started laughing.

“Brilliant,” he beamed, “the man is brilliant, if not annoying beyond belief!”

Lorne lifted an eyebrow. “Z?”

Zelenka lifted a PADD and twisted it around to show him. “He left bread crumb trail!”

~*~

Rodney found himself in yet another unusual position. He was adamantly arguing to be the guinea pig, victim, whatever you wanted to call it. He could out-stubborn John in a heartbeat and this time he had Teyla and Ronon’s support on his side. Which was why he found himself smiling, feeling very smug, but only for a moment; he dropped his arms when he realized what he’d done. “Wait a minute, did I just insist on being the one to go through an alien mind-scrambling ceremony?”

“You did, Rodney.” Teyla beamed at him, giving him the Torren treatment. “And we are very proud of you.”

Ronon slapped him on the shoulder. “You did good, McKay.”

John glared and Rodney fought back the urge to stick his tongue out at him. Wait a second. He was still supposed to be panicking!

“It is safer for you, Doctor McKay.” Wesli was mixing a drink while the other three aliens stood stiff and unwelcoming off to Wesli’s side. Wesli seemed to feel he’d stirred enough and he dropped the small stirring stick on the tray. “You are uninjured. Though Ronon and Teyla could also do this safely.”

Wesli had gone for the ingredients as soon as John had agreed to cooperate, and while he was gone, they’d started arguing over who would ‘take it for the team’ this time. Rast explained that the ceremony revealed truth. After some pointed questions, they’d figured out it was essentially a truth drug. That automatically eliminated Ronon. He had way too much history with the wraith, too much inherent violence. Rodney appreciated that violence because it was almost always directed towards saving his ass, or John’s, or Atlantis’, but when faced with a paranoid alien race…yeah. Not so much. Teyla was a good choice but for the fact that she had wraith DNA and had been inside wraith minds, including having been genetically altered into a wraith queen. What might be misconstrued from those memories? Rodney shuddered at the thought.

John had tried to insist on being the one. It’d been Wesli who had suggested that might not be a wise choice. He’d been able to heal John, but the process was difficult on John’s body. That had reminded Rodney about his curiosity over the healing, though probably not as insatiably as say Carson would be. He was interested as to how it compared to the healing ability the Ancients had. Could these aliens be related to the Ancients? Their non-human appearance eliminated them from being one-hundred percent Ancient, but maybe an experiment gone awry like the Asurans?

But he had digressed quite a lot. Now, here he was, having successfully argued and fussed John down. Wesli was approaching with the drink and Rodney suddenly realized he just might babble about things he didn’t want to reveal to anyone in this room.

He looked back at his team. “Don’t listen.”

“You want us to cover our ears?” John asked, bemused.

“Absolutely,” Rodney said.

John rolled his eyes but Rodney didn’t fail to notice how half-hearted it was. John was still suffering from a headache, fatigue, and god only knew what else, even though you couldn’t drag it out of him. He had agreed to lie down again at least.

Of course, the fact that John had backed down and let Rodney go forward with this was more telling than anything. Normally John would have taken that ‘sit down and shut up or I’ll shoot you’ routine that always worked so well.

When John, Ronon and Teyla saw Rodney still watching them expectantly, they covered their ears, making exasperated noises as they did so. Rodney kind of wished he’d brought his camera for blackmail photos. They looked pretty funny.

“Doctor Mckay?” Wesli prompted.

Rodney swung around and almost spilled the cup by knocking into it. Wesli was holding it out for Rodney. “Oh, sorry.” He took it gingerly, as if it might be a bomb; for all he knew, it just might amount to an explosive end. Rodney didn’t doubt they’d find themselves in some serious trouble if he said the wrong thing.

“You swear this won’t hurt, no lingering side effects?”

“On my life,” Wesli replied solemnly.

“This is such a bad idea.” Steeling his nerves, Rodney grabbed the rounded mug from Wesli, squeezed his eyes shut, and gulped it down. He waited, counted to ten, and when he didn’t feel another head grow or a limb fall off, he opened one eye – he could still see and there was only one of everyone. He opened his other eye, squinted at his team. They still hadn’t grown extra heads or given birth to identical twins.

John narrowed his eyes at Rodney and pushed himself up with his elbows to see better; Rodney ignored that they’d all stopped covering their ears. “Anything?” John asked.

“No…yes…” Rodney shifted his attention to his tingling lips. “Maybe?”

Wesli’s lips curled. If Rodney had to guess, he’d think the alien was amused.

Then the dizziness struck and he toppled. He was sure he was going to hit the floor hard enough to hurt when suddenly he was being lifted. When he looked to see who had him, his hands fumbling against the person’s chest, Rodney realized it was Ronon. “Oh. Thanks. I think.”

Rodney had to swallow back his earlier breakfast; it was doing a slow crawl up his throat. His legs turned to jelly and he twisted his head to stare at Ronon again, this time smiling. “You’re really good at this, you know that?”

Ronon grunted something Rodney couldn’t decipher, but he also patted Rodney on the head after depositing him on one of the beds.

“Is this normal?” Teyla asked.

Rast motioned his companions forward and as a group they surrounded Rodney. He ignored Teyla’s question. Rodney peered up at them. “Hi guys, is it time yet?”

“Time for --” Rast echoed.

He was shooting off suspicious looks that frankly upset Rodney. They were supposed to be friendly. Nice, friendly aliens that wouldn’t hurt, lock them up, or eat them. “Time to get along,” he pouted.

“I would say that Doctor McKay is ready.” Wesli scooped up the abandoned mug. Rodney realized with some surprise that he must’ve dropped it. Then the alien returned to the table where he’d prepared the mixture. He poured water into the mug, swirled it around, dumped it onto the floor, then refilled it with water and repeated it all twice. The third time he filled it and brought it back to Rodney, ordering him to drink.

Rodney stared at the mug. “Why?” he asked, belligerent. He’d had enough of their drinks today.

“It’ll help your body process the talat faster.” Wesli gave him a pained look. “It means you will feel better, sooner.”

“Enough, Wesli. Doctor McKay, we each will ask one question, this is the breadth of the Tala ceremony. Each question shall be answered in turn. Truthful intentions will be accepted while deceit will be rewarded appropriately.”

Rodney wasn’t sure what that meant but he didn’t plan on lying. He was still compos mentalis enough to remember that wasn’t the goal.

The three assumed positions that resembled points on a triad, clasping their hands together in front of them. Two of them bowed their heads while Rast kept his upright. A hush stole over the room.

“I, Rast, master of J’hyla, pose to you this question: are your people violent in nature?”

“What the hell,” John protested, “that’s a bullshit question! How do you expect him to answer for an entire race?”

Wesli rushed to John’s side, alarm registering across his face. “John, you must not interrupt. This is not the time to voice concerns.”

But John wasn’t listening; he was throwing back the light blanket and thrusting his legs to the floor, standing up. He was still wearing just his boxers and t-shirt, his knees still bore bandages, and his face went a startling shade of white. Ronon found himself torn between guarding Rodney or catching John. He noticed Teyla slide up behind John, ready to spot him if he should need it.

The three aliens hadn’t moved or acknowledged John in any way.

Rodney didn’t want them to hurt John. Even with things feeling really weird, he could tell that this moment was something dangerous. Swallowing, Rodney tried to quickly formulate an answer that was truthful without making humanity seem like monsters.

“We belong to a very large population, filled with as many different kinds of people as there are trees on your world; some are violent, miserly, and mean and don’t deserve to live…”

Rodney could tell he was losing. Everyone looked shocked, unhappy.

He tried not to worry about what anyone else was thinking. In his present state, he could only handle himself. He cleared his throat, restarting where he left off, “…but most are peaceful. They would sacrifice themselves to save others, they would risk everything to do what they felt was right. We have laws and rules and we as a race demand that everyone follow and abide by them. Those that don’t are punished.”

Rodney waved at John, seeing the man take a shaky breath. “See, nothing to worry about it.”

Rast stepped away and bowed his head. Now the one to the left of Rast raised his head. He stared into Rodney’s eyes and said, “I, Une, master-apprentice of J’hyla, pose to you this question: what is sought here by you and your people?”

“Information,” Rodney answered, pleased for such an easy question. He didn’t even have to think this one through. “We visit other planets for knowledge. We seek information about the people that live, or had lived there, their technology, and we also search for help in defeating the wraith.”

Teyla nodded to herself. She kept a hand against John’s back, offering him support if he should need it. She also gave Rodney a pleased smile.

This was a piece of cake, Rodney thought. Two down and one more to go. They’d be reunited with the search party in a few hours, back to Atlantis, and Rodney could stop feeling so light-headed.

Une repeated Rast’s movements and now the third alien stepped closer, bringing his head up. “I, Chae, spiritmaster of J’hyla, pose to you this question: what are your regrets?”

The room erupted. Ronon barked something about that being stupid. Teyla protested it as unnecessary and irrelevant. John argued that Rodney’s regrets were personal and had nothing to do with their intentions. Again, Wesli looked ready to have a heart attack. His face colored and he rushed to intervene. He shushed Rodney’s teammates, pleading with them to stop interfering.

“Regrets?” Rodney echoed.

How did someone go about cataloging all the decisions they wished they hadn’t made, or the ones they had and shouldn’t have. The times they turned left when they should’ve gone right. His mind buzzed. “I…” His eyes flashed to John.

Finished with scolding Rodney’s teammates, Wesli had returned to Rodney. He leaned his head nearer, lowering his voice as he said, “Doctor McKay, you must answer truthfully and swiftly. Indecision is interpreted as taking time to derive a falsehood.”

Rodney could feel sweat beginning to drip down his back. He couldn’t even get his brain to organize a believable fib. Rodney needed something vague. He couldn’t start cataloging every mistake he’d ever made. If he did, he’d have to start from the time he’d said his first words to sometime in the last month. They’d be here for days!

“Doctor McKay?” Chae prompted. “If you do not reply, it will go badly for all of you.”

Shit, shit, shit! Rodney stared helplessly at his team. Big regrets, what was a big regret? John caught his eye and Rodney lingered on the memory of when they’d first met. Rodney knew he wasn’t the same person, not anymore, and he hadn’t been for many years now. What he’d found with John, Teyla, and Ronon... Not so much with Ford because he’d been there and gone so fast, and that was another regret.

“Doctor Mckay?” Chae was looking very unhappy.

“Rodney,” John started, and Rodney could tell from John’s voice that he was getting desperate for Rodney to say something, anything.

The only thing he could think of was that he’d waited so long to let people get close. To realize how important other people could be and what they could mean to him if he let them in and stopped shoving away the entire world. But how could he admit that without looking pathetic.

Chae’s expression had now transcended to agitation. “Final warning, Doctor.”

“Rodney, you must answer,” Teyla said.

There wasn’t going to be any last-minute reprieve. He had to suck it up and just do this. Rodney stammered, “I…regret…” crap, he could not believe he was doing this, “I regret not…not loving enough. Not allowing anyone to get close, to know who I really am and to get to know who they are.” Rodney scowled. “There, happy?”

Chae nodded and stepped back, lowering his head.

Rodney felt everyone hanging on the edge of a pin. Had he done it? Had he answered good enough to get them through this?

Suddenly, all three of the aliens’ heads jerked up. Their feathers rose like a flock of angry peacocks before slowly settling. Rodney got a sinking feeling. He hadn’t done it, he’d doomed them all. He squirmed, fighting against the urge to run.

Then, one by one, the three intoned, “Accepted.”

Wesli congratulated them with a loud, celebratory clap; his webbed fingers made a flatter sound than Rodney was used to. That was the cue for Rodney and his team to realize they’d made it. He’d passed the test. His team crowded around, congratulating him and Rodney punched John in the shoulder, laughing at him and his boxers. He hugged Teyla and loved how soft she was. Ronon stepped away from his hug, putting his hands up to ward off Rodney. John shoved Ronon and the big guy rolled his eyes but stepped forward into Rodney’s hug.

Rodney grinned, feeling on top of the world. He, Rodney M. McKay, had pulled off a diplomatic feat. Take that, everyone!


~*~

Lia bounced, shouting at them to watch as she jumped from one pad to the next, along a row of balu, grown and cultivated just for this playground. It was the one closest to the city center, still high in the trees but lower than other playgrounds they could’ve walked to. It wasn’t even Lia’s favorite. Wesli had wanted to stay close to the touring walkers…Lanteans, he corrected himself, and had insisted they go here rather than the one she liked the most.

They’d dispatched three of their people to contact the other Lanteans and bring them to J’hyla.

“Good day,” greeted Maz, as he sat by Wesli. “The Lanteans have made it to the historical center now.”

Wesli nodded, appreciating the update. “Thank you, Maz. All is well, then?”

“Yes. The injured one is slow to recover, though; he has needed to rest frequently. Curious that the healing left him still in such poor condition. Chae said he wishes to examine him to see if there is a particular reason he can find for the slower rate of regeneration.” Maz eyed Wesli, “Did you notice anything unusual when you helped Colonel Sheppard?”

Wesli shook his head. “Just that his body wasn’t responding as well as ours do.” He sighed. “I doubt they’ll agree to another examination, after putting them through the Tala. I am not sure we’re in much favor with them right now...”

Lia yelled for him, waving from atop the climbing tree. Neesi squeezed his leg. “Wes, she wishes to play with her father.” Her feathers ruffled. “Surely you and Maz can talk about the Lanteans later.”

Maz ignored the scolding but did stand. “They may not agree,” he said, “but it would behoove them to cooperate. If they get injured again, it will only be toward their benefit, not ours.” He leaned in and pecked Neesi tenderly on the cheek. “Be patient, little sister, I am leaving now, work calls.”

After Maz left, Wesli threw his heart into playing with his daughter, delighting along with her as she successfully walked across the vine without falling once, and laughing when she toppled from the balu into the shallow water below. As the sun set, Neesi left to make dinner and Lia left him to play with recently arrived friends. Enjoying his moment of peace, Wesli leaned back against the bench, allowing the setting sunlight to soak into his feathers and skin. It was wonderful to relax after such a tension-filled morning.

He smiled to himself as he thought about who he’d insisted lead the party to retrieve the others. Tooz was the resident loremaster, along with his other duties, and he loved to tell the old stories. Wesli had decided that it was time to begin sharing some of themselves with the Lanteans. Not everything, though. Not yet. Rast had agreed without too much of a fight.

And anyway, it was the least they could do for what they’d put Doctor McKay through, all because they were a distrustful people.

Later, when his world would fall around him, he would always remember this one moment and wish desperately for the innocence of it to come again.

~*~

Lorne wanted to paint them; that was his first thought. They were oddly beautiful. Tall, dignified, and the plume of feathers trailing from their forehead to neck and going further below what their clothing allowed them to see, intrigued Lorne. He could see that Beckett was pretty interested also, judging from the doc’s surreptitious glances.

When the aliens had first converged on them in the cave city, Lorne had greeted them with weapons out. After all, something had happened to Sheppard’s team. But then one stepped forward, hands up, and said, “Please, the ones that you seek are well. Our people even now care for them. We’ve been sent to reunite you. I was told to give you this message: Rodney McKay says, ‘bring coffee, lots of coffee’.”

Zelenka snorted. “That is Rodney.”

“Aye, sounds like the man,” Carson agreed.

The alien that spoke was colored midnight blue, with orange and green highlights. He waited expectantly for Lorne to say something. What to say? Lorne cautiously lowered his weapon and gestured for Gage and Borneo to follow suit. Parish seemed to breathe easier.

“We need to send word to our people. Let them know we’re fine and where we’re going.” The alien frowned and Lorne asked, “Is that a problem?”

“The location of our city has been guarded for many years. It is not to be given away.”

That gave Lorne something to consider. The aliens claimed to have Sheppard and his team. But if they were leading Lorne and his team into a trap, he’d be condemning them all if he didn’t find some way to transmit their location to Atlantis. There was something in the atmosphere that interfered with the transducers. It’d been the signal from the jumper that had given them a start in finding their missing people, not the small chips embedded in every expedition member’s arms.

The alien must have sensed his unease because it moved closer towards Lorne and lowered his head. “I am Tooz, leader of the city guard. If you wish, I will remain behind with any member you choose, even allow myself to be taken to your world as promise towards your safety.”

His unexpected offer surprised Lorne. He was sorely tempted to take Tooz up on his offer. Trouble was, he was the only one on his team with the ability to fly the jumper, so sending Tooz back to Atlantis as a hostage wouldn’t work. And that was even if Lorne felt that accepting it was the right thing to do. He didn’t. Tooz had given him a goodwill offering and the right way to reciprocate was to turn it down, at least if you wanted to foster good relations. There was something about Tooz and the other aliens that was putting Lorne at ease. He was pretty sure they weren’t going to lead them into a trap and sometimes you just had to trust your gut.

Lorne shook his head. “That’s not necessary. We’ll let our people know that we’ll be out of contact for a while and that we’ve found our missing people.”

Lorne waved at Gage and Borneo and together they walked towards the back of the cave. He ordered them to head back to the crash site where they’d left the other jumper cloaked. Gage was in charge and she was to send word to Atlantis and then they were both to rejoin them here. After they left, Lorne decided to pick Tooz’s brain about this underground city. He hadn’t been here long but if it had drawn Sheppard and his team, there must be something about it.

It was a fruitful way to pass the time, at any rate.

Tooz liked to talk and while he didn’t answer every question, he did offer up quite a bit of information. The cave city was the original home for Tooz’s ancestors. They’d built down and inward for safety. The fact that they’d had technology was obvious in the smooth stone walls; mere hands couldn’t have achieved that perfect, even surface.

Tooz soon waved off his two companions, telling them that they could return to the city and Tooz would follow with the others shortly. After his companions left, Tooz walked back to the far inside wall. He knelt down and fumbled with something nestled within the stone nook. When he stood up, a glow began to emit heat in the room. It also helped in ridding the room of some of the dampness that seemed to pervade every cave Lorne had ever been in.

Tooz seemed delighted. “Not only do they still return here to rest, they’re also still active! Amazing.” He chuckled to himself for another moment before turning to them. “Sit,” he said, “and while we wait, I will tell you of the exodus to the trees.”

Zelenka and Parish sat on the bed. Parish paled visibly at the blood on the blanket, now dried and brown, and scooted as far from it as he could without falling off. Carson settled himself in a chair by the table. Lorne slouched against the wall by the hearth. Tooz took up a chair near Carson and it seemed to Lorne that he was enjoying being the center of attention.

After they were all suitably settled, Tooz leaned towards them, eager. He began, “When the wraith first came to our world, my people had no idea what they were. We thought they were ghosts! But they took our people, our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. Children were orphaned and the old were left to raise the young.”

Lorne found himself interested right from the beginning. It wasn’t that he hadn’t heard the story before, or at least you could say he’d heard similar stories many times, on plenty of other worlds. So the tale he was hearing now wasn’t unique, but Tooz’s voice was captivating, his face, engaging. This was a storyteller, Lorne realized, one of those rare people that could tell any story and make it sound like the grandest adventure.

Tooz continued, making sure they were all listening well to his words. “At first, they thought it was a tragedy, one that they had managed to survive. They mistook the first attack as the last. They began to rebuild. The children grew up and had their own children. And then the ghosts returned.

“It was a cycle that repeated over and over again until finally the people began to realize they had to try and fool the wraith. They burrowed underground; they tried to hide. And then they waited. But it wasn’t the wraith that came next, it was an Ancestor. We knew of their kind, as well as anyone did, because they could travel anywhere their heart desired and they had visited our people before. They had given us a ring that allowed us to form alliances with other people. This particular Ancestor came to us and urged us to fight. He talked about the Great War they fought to protect everyone from the scourge of the wraith.

“Soon this Ancestor, Hylus, began to love a woman of our people. Her name was Ka’ri. It was said that Hylus’ people forbade their love but he could not help himself. He stole through the ring and stayed with Ka’ri, he twined with her and made a babe with her. Hylus grew to love the people as his own. The day came when he refused to skulk about. He declared his love and claimed Ka’ri as his wife to his people.

“All of this in a time when the Ancestors fought a bitter war. They demanded Hylus leave Ka’ri, leave our world, and return and help with the fight. He refused. In their anger, they stripped away his ability to return home, taking the ring from our world, just as they stripped away from him the many machines he had built amidst the depths of the old city that you sit in even now. When they left, they left behind a devastated man. If not for the love of Ka’ri and the coming child, people say he would have gone mad.”

“An Ancient was here?” Carson asked, looking as uneasy as Lorne felt. It was never good to run into a rogue Ancient, but on the other hand, it also opened up the possibilities for finding technology that might help them on Atlantis or even offer up some spare ZPMs…though the latter didn’t seem likely, considering the situation. Lorne had heard about another Ancient that had been similarly ostracized. She’d been attracted to John, pulled to him by his strong expression of the ATA gene. The encounter hadn’t ended well.

Tooz scratched his nose. “Ancient?” He had been thrown out of his tale and didn’t look very happy about it.

“I think he means ‘Ancestor’,” Parish piped up. “We refer to them as Ancients.”

“I see. Yes, there was an Ancient here.” He gestured for them to be quiet. “There is more of this story to tell.”

Tooz allowed himself time to find his place before he began again. “The war went badly as most know. The wraith resumed their attacks on many worlds. They needed to replenish themselves, feeding, and now we understand that it was people that sustain the monsters.

“It was then that the wraith came again to our world. This time they found the old city. Their weapons cut through rock and exposed years and years of work, exposing my people. There are areas of the old city that remain collapsed and unsafe to walk in. Worse yet, they took every man and woman old enough to marry and have children, including Ka’ri and her almost-born child. Hylus, too, was captured and taken.” Tooz stared at the three of them, each in turn, his eyes dark orbs of intensity. “No one knows how he escaped, but escape he did. Days later, he returned. He appeared inside his rooms and began to work furiously. Many went to him, asked how he came to return, had he left Ka’ri to die?

“He refused to answer. His only words became a mantra he repeated day in and day out. He said, ‘this world will not suffer the wraith ever again’ and it was so.”

“He did it?” Lorne said, wondering. If it were true, that Hylus had protected this world somehow, that was even bigger news than they’d expected in coming here. Maybe they’d find something that could protect other worlds, keep them safe from being attacked. “Your people were never culled again?”

“Yes,” Tooz whispered, and then for dramatic effect, he lowered his voice even more and added “and no.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Zelenka asked, confused. He looked at Lorne and Carson, at Tooz and Parish, as if saying ‘one of you, explain this to me’.

Lorne wanted to find out more, but Tooz stood and Lorne’s marines returned; the spell of the story was utterly broken. Lorne would always remember that time, though, because as Tooz had talked, it had almost been as if he had woven sadness and regret into the air around them. The old city, Lorne realized, was a haunted place, and as a shiver stole down his spine, he wondered why he hadn’t felt it before.

~*~

J’hyla had a central nexus, ideal for city meetings, and it was here that John found himself. It was late afternoon on the same day that he’d woken up confused and exhausted. Considering all that had happened since he’d woken up, John thought that it was a miracle he was still even on his feet. Figuratively. Because they were all sitting at the moment, something John was very grateful for. It kept him for showing just how weak-kneed he still was. At least I’m not in my boxers anymore, he thought wryly.

The aliens, or the Hylans, as John and his team were starting to call them, had given him a cream-colored set of tunic and pants. They were probably one of the most comfortable things he’d ever worn.

He was also learning that there was a lot of history here, both rich and tragic. They had all been amazed at the displays that told of the old alliances between the Athosians, Genii, Hoffans, Satedans and a few others that John didn’t recognize. Afterwards, it’d made Teyla melancholic and Ronon quiet. The writings and images had preserved a time when their people had still been flourishing and strong. The Hylans had gone by another name then. Chae had confirmed that they were descendants of the original cave dwellers but that they’d lived on the surface long before they’d moved underground.

John found himself drowsing in his seat. Rodney was peppering Une with questions about how the city lifts worked. They had also asked if it were possible to examine John more closely. John had agreed, but asked to do it later. There was only so much he was up for in a day. They were waiting on Lorne and his team to arrive and then John supposed it’d be time to start talking about, hopefully, drawing up a trade agreement, possibly an alliance. If anything, an agreement that would let them return to the old city. He still didn’t remember ninety percent of what had happened on Hyla, but he did have a flash of memory of them walking into a cold, underground room, dark and damp. As he’d crept his way forward, he’d felt the gentle whisper touch his mind and it had reminded him of Atlantis when they’d first arrived. A slumbering, dormant Atlantis. The last fragment of that memory that he could still remember was of lights powering up all around them, revealing stone walls, consoles and laboratory paraphernalia.

“Peaceful here,” Ronon murmured.

John nodded. “It’s almost like Eden.” He stretched his legs, relishing in the pain-free movement. The last of the scabs had shed earlier, leaving fresh, pink skin underneath.

“An alliance with these people would be most appreciated,” Teyla agreed.

She scanned the adult Hylans languishing around them. Many seemed relaxed but a few still seemed to view them as an unknown, reserving judgment till they had been around the ‘walkers,’ as they had initially called John and his team, for a longer time.

They’d seen children in the city, and it was the weirdest thing. The Hylan kids had hair, just like most people they’d seen in the Pegasus galaxy. There was red and blue and even purple, but it was honest-to-god hair and not feathers. The kids were also carefully protected, cherished even. But that wasn’t a big surprise. One thing you learned fast was that in the Pegasus galaxy, children were seen as the only hope many races had of survival. On their shoulders, many worlds saw their race continuing on for at least another generation. They provided incentive to keep fighting the wraith. They provided hope, for everyone.

John couldn’t help but understand. He’d looked into Torren’s eyes and seen Teyla’s father, grandfather, and all the other Athosians that had lived and died, so that one day this child would exist.

A sudden, ear-splitting shriek shattered the idyllic moment. John’s heart sped up. He covered his ears as the sound continued to wail, cycling from low to high pitch. All around them, the Hylans bounded to their feet, alarm registering across every alien face.

Wesli stood, transfixed, a look of horror as he denied, “No…it can’t be!”

Ronon was on his feet. “What’s wrong?” he demanded.

Wide, yellow eyes turned to them and Wesli stuttered, “The wraith have returned. The wraith!”

“The wraith?” Rodney paled.

Ever since their return to the Pegasus galaxy, the wraith had been subdued and oddly quiet. Todd would pass along information when a particular hive grew too aggressive, but the truth was, Todd was still a wraith, and he wasn’t keen on selling out his entire race. Not yet. Maybe not ever. He just wanted to see the status quo continue. The fact that Todd still had to feed on humans wasn’t lost to John. It bothered him every night he went to sleep, knowing that he’d willingly allowed a murderer to live and continued to collaborate with one.

Rast marched up to John, thrusting his walking stick in John’s face. “You did this! Why did you bring this here?”

Just then, Tooz raced in. the half-wall surrounding the nexus opened to admit him, almost like a graceful movement of nature viewed through time-lapse photography. Lorne and his team, along with Carson trailed behind. They were all breathless. “They come to the old city, Une! Rast, we are fine! They know not of J’hyla! Quiet the alarms before we are discovered!”

Une kept his eye on their leader, waiting, and when Rast slowly nodded, he turned away from them and chirped and squawked a series of incomprehensive sounds.

The wailing stopped.

“Lorne,” John greeted, relieved. “Nice you could join us.”

“You know me, Sir.” Lorne squared his shoulders. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“Good to see you standing, Colonel,” Carson said with a grim smile. “We weren’t sure we’d find you in one piece, son.”

“What am I,” Rodney sulked, “chopped liver?”

Carson turned a patient smile on to his other friend. “Yes, Rodney, it’s good to see you standing as well.”

Mollified, Rodney nodded. “Of course it is.”

Teyla greeted Lorne with a warm smile along with Carson and the others in turn. Ronon stepped up to Carson, slapping him solidly on the back while clasping his arm close to his own. John knew Ronon would always have a soft spot for Carson. He’d saved the runner’s life more than once.

There were introductions. Tooz handled Lorne and his team, after which Wesli thanked Tooz. It was only then that John realized the other Hylans had vanished from the nexus, leaving just those from Atlantis and the hierarchy of J’hyla. Uh-oh, John thought. Something told him they were about to get the third degree.

“We must discuss these new events.” Rast swept to a seat near the waterfall. He waited. After a moment, and when everyone remained rooted to their spots, he gestured impatiently, “I may be the eldest but apparently I’m not the stupidest! It is too hot and too late in the day for standing, sit!”

Wesli laughed, half-hearted as it was. The other Hylans smiled wanly then they too moved to seats near the city’s leader and settled down.

The waterfall was an architectural feat John had admired along with his team when they’d first been brought to the nexus. Water poured from a tall, thick tree trunk that rose up from the center of the room; the tree itself continued up beyond where John’s eyes could see. The water splashed into a shallow pond below and all of this was encircled by a row of seats. There were small, colorful birds playing in the water, bathing and flitting about.

What had just moments before been enthrallingly beautiful, now seemed hauntingly poignant. The wraith! What would it take to erase their destruction? How long before they stopped threatening everything that was peaceful and good in this galaxy? John was heartily sick of having to worry about how to save worlds like Hyla. It made him question his sanity in returning. They’d all been back safely on Earth, with Atlantis. They could’ve had peace. They could’ve left the Pegasus galaxy to founder on its own. The costs of those five years were incalculable, how many lives had been lost? All for a galaxy that wasn’t even theirs.

Yet, damned if John hadn’t shown up at the hearings to argue in favor of returning to the Pegasus galaxy. He’d been mildly surprised to see Rodney there. They had agreed, though, that Atlantis belonged to this galaxy, not theirs.

But maybe the time back on Earth had made him remember just how much Pegasus demanded from those that sought to protect it.

John realized his team and Lorne’s were waiting on him. He moved to a limb-formed bench closer to the waterfall and sat. The others followed suit. Time to get down to it. He only hoped Rast and the others didn’t believe they had brought the wraith here.

Although…

John frowned; he wasn’t one to believe in coincidences. What had brought them here, now? Could it be their fault?

“Are you all right, John?”

He looked up and saw Teyla staring at him, worried.

“Fine,” he answered.

Teyla nodded, even though she didn’t look entirely convinced. She leaned back in her seat and broke eye contact.

“Explain why you sounded the alarm, Tooz, and then preceded to demand we disable it? Who sighted the wraith? When and how many?” Rast took charge and John appreciated the fact that though he may be old as far as Hylans go, there was no doubt in the strength of his mind.

Tooz took that as cue to stand. “We were leaving the old city; we had made it almost half of the distance when we heard their ships overhead! They were exactly as we’ve seen in the old books. Major Lorne called them wraith Darts. There were two of them and they strafed three times over the old city. As soon as we reached J’hyla, I sent word. I also told the nenda not to sound the alarm, possibly drawing the wraith’s attention towards J’hyla!”

If John had to guess, he’d just learned a Hylan swear word.

“The old city?” Une mused. “But they never came this way?”

Tooz shook his head.

“Colonel, is it possible that there was something in the old city like there was on Athos? Some device that once activated, was picked up by any wraith in the area?” Lorne asked.

John made a face. “Major, I don’t remember enough of my time on this world to even make a guess.”

“I did note two distinct energy sources when we were in the old city,” Zelenka said.

“I understand this is important, Colonel, but as soon as this meeting is over, I need to get a look at you.” Carson’s lips were a thin line of determination. The little comment about not remembering much had probably not gone over well, John realized.

It was Ronon’s turn next to speak up. “There was that one room. When Sheppard walked in, everything reacted.”

“Then it was you that brought them?” Une said, pointing at John with his webbed fingers.

John flushed – was it possible? Une had cut him with that one line, returning him back to the time when John had inadvertently woken the wraith. He’d gone with the purpose to save lives and John never wanted to add up how many more lives he’d cost with that one, well-intentioned act. You know what they say about the road to hell…yeah, it was like that.

“We’ll make it right,” he promised. “We’ll be the bait and when they come for us, we’ll use the other jumper and go through the ‘gate. They’ll believe it was just us setting off the signal and leave.”

Rast leaned forward, his claws curling tightly around the knob of his walking stick. “And what if they don’t?”

“They will,” John said.

Rodney gave John a meaningful sideways look as he said, “You know this wasn’t intentional.”

The Hylans conferred amongst themselves then, murmuring quietly. All John could hear was the chiming lilt of their joined voices. Their accent was too new and awkward for him to pick out words over sounds. After a few minutes, they broke off their discussion and Rast stood. “It is agreed. Une will aid you in this endeavor.”

Rast touched each of his people lightly on the hand before leaving. John and Lorne and all the others stood, ready to do whatever was necessary.

“Before we proceed, could I examine you, John?” Chae asked. He seemed almost apologetic. “It won’t take long and I fear the opportunity may not arise again. I wish to see why our healing was not as effective on your people as it is with ours.” Chae dipped his head, not pleading, but in a manner of ‘please do this for me’.

“While you do that, we can make preparations to return to the old city,” Une said. “We’ll need to locate whatever is sending the signal so we can disable it, preventing any interest the wraith might have in returning.”

Rodney pointed across his chest to John. “I’m with him.”

When Ronon gave him ‘that look’ Rodney demanded, “What? Have I ever failed to return home with him? As opposed to a certain individual that I wound up cocooned with. Not that you weren’t great company, you were, but…” Rodney bounced on his feet and said, “cocooned!”

Ronon scowled. “You’re never gonna let me forget that, are you?”

Rodney did one of those fake-considering moments, you know the one where the person says ‘hang on, give me a minute’ when they already know the answer and just want to make everyone else aware of their sarcasm. Then he shook his head and said, “No, never. We were almost eaten.”

“They would’ve eaten me first,” Ronon pointed out.

“And that would’ve been worse! Then I would’ve seen first-hand the kind of agony and torture they were going to inflict on me next!”

Carson interrupted, knowing as well as John did that Rodney could carry on for a while, “Aye, Colonel, I’ll need to take a look at you as well.” He cast an appraising look at the Hylan. “It’ll be interesting to compare notes. Are you the one who helped Colonel Sheppard?”

“No, Doctor Beckett. That would be Wesli. He is our master healer, but as spiritmaster, I train all of our healers.”

“I see,” Carson said, though by the slightly puzzled expression John figured he really didn’t.

John waved off Ronon and Lorne and his team to go with Une and then found himself face-to-face with Rodney, Teyla, Carson and the two Hylans, Chae and Wesli. Crap, he thought. Was it just his imagination or did his headache decide to return just because he was about to be the mouse in the cage for the next hour?

~*~

Lying down while everyone geared up for a fight wasn’t where John expected himself to be, and it sure as hell wasn’t where he wanted to be, if Rodney judged correctly, which is why Carson kept gently scolding John, “Be still, Colonel.”

“I’m trying, Doc,” protested John.

They had John’s pants hiked to his thighs while Carson and Chae probed his healing shins, healed, really. All that was left were pink scars. Carson explained how they’d normally have treated his injuries with sutures along with antibiotics to combat the infection that had set in. Chae demonstrated how Wesli had healed John. He’d physically cleansed the wounds but then he’d used, as best as Rodney could figure out, acoustics that encouraged the skin to mend and destroyed the harmful bacteria.

When it came time to probe John’s head wound, things got a bit dicey. This was when Chae admitted that because of their healing methods, healing injuries near the brain was a much harder proposition. Not being familiar with their physiology, Wesli had gone with the old adage of ‘better safe than sorry’ and did as little as he as could get away with, while at the same time, easing John’s pain.

Well, that explained why John had been so confused and disoriented at first.

“Was there swelling?” Carson asked Wesli.

“Some,” Wesli said. He swept his hands through John’s hair and over his forehead, concentrating. “Here,” he said, pausing over the area opposite of the scabbed cut.

“That makes sense,” Carson murmured, examining John’s pupil reactions. He straightened, tucking his pen light back in his pocket. “Well, he definitely seems to be on the road to recovery. Temperature normal, no signs of infection, and neurologically he seems sound.” Carson stared at John, folding his arms across his chest. “How do you feel, Colonel? Any lingering symptoms?”

“Other than not remembering anything,” Rodney said, trying to be helpful.

“Aye, other than some memory loss, which isn’t unusual, Rodney.”

John pushed himself free of Chae’s hands, giving a careful look at the spiritmaster’s claws as he did so. He pulled his pants back over his boxers and tied them at the waist. “You’re not going to try to keep me out of the old city,” John said to Carson and he managed to make it both a question and a statement at the same time.

“Not unless I had to scrape you off the floor,” Carson assured John. “You don’t feel like that’s a possibility, do you?”

“No,” John said, tugging his tunic back into line, “just a mild headache.”

Rodney found himself oddly relieved. Even though he gave Carson hell nine-ways to Sunday about his skills, his degree, and his competency, it was nonetheless, reassuring to hear him give John an almost-clean bill of health.

“Did you discover what you needed, Chae?” Teyla asked.

Chae shook his feathered-head. “No, Teyla Emmagan, I did not.”

The water pitcher from that morning was still in the healing room where they’d returned for John’s exam and Chae poured himself a cup, drinking deeply. Refreshed, he finished explaining, “There seems to be a difference in our base structures. I believe it is causing your bodies to be less receptive to our singing. It will take time, if it is even possible, to overcome those differences.”

Rodney wondered that anyone would’ve been surprised. It was obvious that physically, their races were different. What he was surprised about was that the Hylans healed using sound energy. Fascinating! Rodney caught Carson frowning; his friend was having a hard time reconciling the process. Singing wasn’t supposed to equal healing. But Rodney, as a physicist, knew how powerful sound could be. It could break things, why not fix them?

“Before you go, there is more that we wish you to see,” Wesli said. He gestured for them to follow.

Rodney fell in behind the Hylans and John, squeezing in front of Carson and Teyla and Zelenka. As they entered another series of lifts, Rodney realized that night was approaching. They’d spent just one whole day in J’hyla and it had felt at least like two.

The moonlight would be bright, he knew. Hyla had only one sun but three moons. Lunar differences weren’t astonishing to them anymore; God, Rodney thought, just how long had it been since he’d found himself amazed by an alien skyscape? What had once been fantastical had almost become mundane.

Although the Lidgets were still unsettling. They were starting to sparkle and glimmer all around them. When Zelenka noticed, and practically jumped out of his skin, Rodney had enjoyed acting blasé about the symbiotic bugs.

He wasn’t blasé, though, not by a long shot, but he was damned if he’d show how nervous they still made him in front of Radek.

As they made their way progressively downward, through a series of living lifts, Rodney saw John and Teyla staring at every tree and limb, every branch and leaf. Carson and Radek were still pre-occupied with their own skin and hair, shifting nervously away from the Lidgets on others while staring uncertainly at the ones they couldn’t escape on themselves.

Rodney found himself awed all over again by yet another discovery. There was a sound niggling at Rodney’s subconscious and it finally dawned on him what it must be. J’hyla literally seemed to be alive with music. It was barely perceptible at first, but in the lull of all the regular, random noises of a city, if you listened close enough, you could hear the soft, quiet tones of bells or the hollow whistling of reed pipes. The tinkling of the waterfall in the nexus even seemed to escape into the ambience of the entire city, joining the muted background chorus. It was as if the more Rodney listened, the more the sounds clarified their presence.

“I do not think I have ever seen anything like this before,” Teyla wondered. “Is it always this way?”

“Night,” Wesli said proudly, “is when the city truly wakes. But that is not only what we wish you to see.”

They had arrived in front of a solid wall of leaves and woven limbs. Rodney and John exchanged glances, both of them thinking about what could be on the other side. Carson was examining Radek’s arm, but he seemed far less worried over the little light creatures than he had been before. He’d accepted Chae’s assurances that the Lidgets were harmless and that they actually helped the organisms of Hyla. When Carson had asked what kind of help, though, Chae had evaded the question and changed the subject.

Wesli indicated the closed room. “This,” he said, “is J’hyla’s true future. We wished for you to see this, so that you may understand the enormity of what we seek to protect.” He caressed the door, singing a few, quiet notes.

As the door unfurled, and the room and its contents revealed themselves, Wesli spread his hands out wide and said, “I give to you the children of J’hyla, Colonel Sheppard.”

It was a spacious room, easily large enough for hundreds of children. The room was full now, with kids both young and old. Rodney found himself between John and Teyla and together they looked upon what must be the definition of unspoiled innocence. His breath caught as he thought of Madison back on Earth. Rodney could practically see her running and playing with these children.

They were even more untouched than Torren, who found himself growing up with a mother constantly torn in two by a war that had started long before he’d ever been conceived. These children were studying and playing in groups around low tables, or practicing a form of gymnastics in shallow pools of water to their right. There was another group of older kids sitting quietly off to the left, their eyes closed. The Lidgets had converged on them in quantities double and triple to the others.

There was an overwhelming sense of peace and happiness; this, was what childhood was supposed to be in a perfect world, Rodney realized; this was a childhood where you didn’t fear the boogeyman or worry about being left an orphan by the wild whim of a galactic despot.

They’d seen some of these kids before, of course, in the nexus and in touring the city earlier that day. But comparing the two sights was like saying you’d seen the Eifel Tower in a postcard versus actually being there. Here there was something intrinsic at work, connecting the children to the city. Rodney again got the feeling that they weren’t just in a place, but a living, breathing thing.

He hadn’t been able to fully pin it down before but seeing this, Rodney finally figured out that if they took the Hylans away from here, they wouldn’t be the same people as they were now.

Teyla squeezed Rodney’s hand and he glanced down, seeing her repeating the same gesture with John. Carson and Zelenka had had less time in than city than Rodney and his team, and it showed in the almost shell-shocked delight as they watched the kids. Wesli and Chae looked upon the room with such naked love and devotion that Rodney almost felt voyeuristic in witnessing it.

“Now you see,” Wesli spoke at last, his words choked with emotion, “why we cannot let the wraith know of J’hyla.”

John looked grim, determined. “They won’t,” he vowed.

~*~

Rodney tapped John. “Remember anything yet?”

“Nothing,” John hissed over his shoulder. “Keep it quiet.”

They were at the entrance to the old city, about to step into the caves. After Wesli had shown them the children, they’d reunited with Lorne and his team and Ronon, along with Une and the two Hylans that would be going with them. There was an easier feeling between the two races now. The Hylans didn’t seem as distrustful anymore. It was more like fellow foreign officers getting ready to do an OP together.

John prayed to himself that this would work. And after they’d lured the wraith away, he hoped they’d be allowed back to study the old city and the ancient technology they’d found there. With a bit more caution.

They’d split into two groups. Lorne, Zelenka, his two marines, and Tooz, were going in through a southern entrance, while John, his team, Une and another Hylan named Bali were going in the northern entrance. This was apparently the one John’s team had used when they’d first found the old city. Carson and Parish had elected to stay in J’hyla and learn more about the people and their relationship with the Lidgets.

The goal was to work their way from opposite ends to the lab, scanning for any wraith. There was the possibility that the darts had dropped a scout party to go into the city. It’d suck to go forward with the plan to pull the wraith after them and find out that a few were left behind to undo everything.

John was still battling fatigue and that headache was now a couple of notches above mild, but otherwise he felt like he was ready to get down and dirty. He was feeling the need to exact some repayment on the wraith for all the wrongs they’d done.

He’d ordered radio silence so he fought down the impulse to contact Lorne and make sure everything was progressing on Lorne’s side of the old city. Instead, he looked sideways at Teyla. “Anything?”

She shook her head.

Well, that was something at least, though not completely reassuring. Her wraith-dar thing hadn’t been working too great since she’d spent time as a queen and then been converted back to her normal, human self. All they’d been able to figure out was that the reversion process may have altered the amount of wraith DNA in her body, weakening her ability to sense them. She still had wraith DNA, but no one had thought to get exact numbers for what percentage she’d had prior to the procedure versus what she had after the reversion process. Carson had looked into it and suggested it might just take time. Rodney had pointed out that messing with someone’s genetic material had never gone well. John kind of agreed with Rodney on that one.

“The lab is three levels below,” Une said. He pointed to the right where a path sloped down into a dim cavern. It would grow progressively darker as they left behind the light provided by the planet’s three moons.

It reminded John of a long traffic tunnel, except this one was going down instead of through a mountain. It was plenty big enough for them to walk three abreast so at least Rodney wouldn’t get claustrophobic.

They’d only gone one level when John’s radio squawked, “Colonel, it’s a trap, get out! Get out!” Lorne’s voice was stressed but still had the steel edge of military control that had been pounded into them through years of training.

Teyla paled and when Rodney realized what was happening to her, he snapped, “We’re dead! I knew I should’ve stayed with Carson.”

Breathing hard and with her eyes closed, Teyla said, “John, there are many wraith behind us.” Her body was trembling.

“Son of a bitch, they’re going to pin us in.” John spun around, pushing Rodney and Teyla behind him. “Go, go! We’ll need to re-group with Lorne’s team, it’s too late to get out, they’ll pick us off too easily.”

“But going inward will only delay the inevitable,” Une argued. He was hanging back, along with Bali. “If we fight now, it’s only one group. If we go downward, the two groups will have all of us trapped.”

John knew Une was right. Trouble was though, that they were screwed no matter what. It came down to what you preferred -- losing now or losing later -- because they were in a no-win situation. He did have one idea, it was risky, but they had nothing to lose and everything to gain if it worked. “Lorne, we’ll hold them here, double time it up to us, leave the lab room alone, we’ll deal with it later.” Assuming they survived. “Together, we should have enough firepower to blast through their line.”

“Can you hold them, Sir? It’ll take us a few minutes.”

“We don’t have a choice, Major, Sheppard out.” John gestured for Ronon and Teyla to hug the wall. He crouched in the middle of the hallway. Rodney slipped behind Ronon and aimed his weapon, steadying it alongside Ronon’s arm.

Ronon looked at the gun inches from his body, glared, and reached around; he grabbed Rodney’s hand, physically re-directing it well away from his body and toward the darkness of the entrance.

Just as well that they’d decided to move while it was still night; it’d be hard for the wraith to pinpoint their location. The Lidgets didn’t seem to like the old city which was in their favor. Anything that kept it dark would help. Rodney had wondered why the Lidgets avoided the place but John had had no explanation to offer and the Hylans wouldn’t talk about it.

Further thoughts on the subject were shot away. A blue blast flew at him from up ahead. John swore and returned fire. The game was on. He threw himself flat on the floor. No cover, no way to duck out of the stunner fire. He’d just have to hug the stone and pray.

“This is stupid, Sheppard!” Rodney cried; he was in full panic mode. “We’re going to be stunned in seconds!”

“Shut up, McKay,” Ronon snarled, “and shoot!”

Une and Bali pressed their bodies up against the cave wall. They had no weapons and John couldn’t take the time to give them their spares and explain how to operate them. They’d gone along as advisors, not fighters. And anyway, John would need the extra ammo when his P90 ran dry. Assuming I’m not dead, he thought, disgusted, after ducking another stunner bolt.

“Stop resisting, humans, you cannot win!”

The familiar cracked and decayed voice sent new levels of pissiness down John’s spine. He answered by focus firing in the direction of the voice. He was rewarded with a snarl and a cry of pain. “Gotcha,” he murmured, keeping his position fluid.

Une shouted to be heard above the din, “Was this in your plan to lure the wraith from our world?”

Teyla was nearest the Hylan and she gritted her teeth through another fierce round of firing before replying, “I do not think this is what Colonel Sheppard had in mind.”

“If we win this, what then?” Bali asked. “Will they return for these scouts?”

“What do you think?” Rodney snapped. “But they won’t be coming back with just a couple of darts, I’m guessing.”

The two Hylans looked stricken; the dim light made their expressions all the more despairing. John wished he could give them better news, but he just couldn’t. Rodney was right. Odds are, by dropping off the scouts to lay a trap, they knew they’d found something and they’d return with a cruiser. The only hope they had was to survive this, defeat the scouts, and lay their own trap for when the cruiser returned. If they could catch it by surprise, hit it hard enough with the jumper’s weapons, they might be able to end this fiasco without the wraith spreading the news about Hyla. He found himself being thankful for the wraith’s territorial nature.

The stunner bolts surged anew and Bali, leaning slightly forward to look, got caught in the shoulder and collapsed. John chided himself, pay attention, John, or he would be the next one to fall. Five minutes passed, five minutes of back and forth, and he couldn’t believe that no one else had been hit. John was drenched in sweat, shaking from adrenaline. He tapped his radio and demanded, “Lorne, where the hell are you? We can’t hold them much longer!”

John knew it was getting close to seconds.

“Here, Colonel,” Lorne panted, running up behind him. He was already shooting over John’s head. Ronon and the other marines fanned out in a V formation, pressing forward. They’d made it. Holy Mother Mary of God, they’d made it.

Wraith screams greeted the renewed fire but the wraith gave a little hell back as a stunner bolt caught Sergeant Borneo in the leg, dropping him like a rock. They kept pressing forward. Une had Bali over his shoulder, and Rodney grabbed Borneo, dragging him as best as he could. They pressed forward, steady strides, weapons out.

Une was trilling in dismay.

John kicked himself mentally. They weren’t going to make it.

He couldn’t believe it would happen like this; he swore to himself, he wouldn’t let it, not this world, not now. John was sick and tired of seeing worlds destroyed, people erased in the blink of an eye. They hadn’t returned just to be a catalyst for more destruction.

He saw a bolt catch Rodney in the chest; John felt his own chest ache.

“Ronon!” he shouted, “McKay!”

He saw the Satedan take another shot then drop back and scoop Rodney onto his shoulder. They were almost to the entrance. They’d passed a good number of dead wraith as they inched their way forward. At least six or seven, so there could only be a few left up ahead, John thought, but they were already down three men and John heard the dry click of his P90 signal the last of his ammo.

“Keep going!” John dug his pistol free of his thigh holster. Ronon tossed him Rodney’s -- John hadn’t even realized Ronon had picked it up from where it’d fallen. He edged forward, both barrels blazing. “Come on, let’s go!”

John led them through with nothing more than sheer determination and two near-spent 9 mm guns. Lorne and Gage quickly moved around him. There were four wraith standing and two of them took down Ronon and Lorne with quick stun shots. Radek, having spent most of the fight rightly keeping his head down, now shouted something unintelligible and scooped up Ronon’s blaster, shooting before he’d even brought the barrel up all the way. Red bolts peppered the air in a flurry of fire in the general direction of the wraith.

A stunner bolt caught John on the leg and he found himself collapsing, as if his legs had been cut out from under him. Teyla shot the wraith that had nailed him and it jerked back; she kept shooting, walking forward. The wraith danced with each impact, until finally having enough, it fell to the ground but as it did so, it squeezed off one more round, the bolt hitting John right below his ribcage.

There had once been a time, not long after they had been on Atlantis, when the wraith had infiltrated the city. That had been right before the siege, right before Ford had been irretrievably changed. John and Ford along with Teyla and some other marines, had gone down into the depths, looking for the wraith. John and his team had been ambushed. He’d taken two bolts in quick succession and it had had an odd effect. Instead of instantly rendering him unconscious like one had done before, it’d left him in a semi-conscious paralyzed state, much like coming up out of anesthesia.

John found himself again in that same condition. He could fight to open his eyes, even see that there were things around him, people, but he couldn’t move to help himself. Teyla, in a moment of déjà vu, leaned over him, hand on his chest; her eyes scanned him quickly before she smiled grimly and said, “It’ll be all right John, help is on the way.” She squeezed his hand.

He couldn’t relax, though. There were more wraith behind them; they’d be here any moment now. They’d been after Lorne, moving in behind him and his team to trap them just as they’d tried with John and his group. Lorne had temporarily shaken them by double-timing it in the other direction and with the help of Tooz directing them where to go. But those other wraith would be out soon, Hylan guide or not. They had to get out of here!

Shadows overhead blocked out the moonlight and at first John thought the wraith cruiser had arrived and it’d attack the survivors. Teyla stood back, moving away from John, and he saw the weirdest thing. A big bird had landed near him and now it cocked its head at John. It dropped its massive feathered head and nudged his face. His heart was bounding; he wanted to scream at Teyla.

When the bird nipped at his shoulder with its beak, he was expecting Teyla to start shooting and if she didn’t, he was convinced it was all over for him. Instead, she stroked the bird, wonder in her eyes. “It will be fine, rest John.”

And like before, all those years ago, John couldn’t say no.

~*~

Wesli and Neesi knew everything had changed. Nothing would be as it once was. When Une’s cry had reached them across the sky, they knew what they must do. There was no time to reach the group otherwise and Une’s tale told of great bravery in the face of certain doom. As far as Wesli knew, none of their people had ever revealed themselves in their changed form to strangers. Of course, they hadn’t seen any strangers in their parents’ lifetime!

Together, they changed now and took to the air. When they arrived outside the old city, Une explained that they had to leave immediately. There were more wraith about to arrive any moment. Then he and Tooz changed forms, ignoring the Lanteans’ shock. There’d be time to explain later. They would carry the wounded back to J’hyla, including their own Bali, who seemed to be in a bad way. Wesli wasn’t sure what had happened to those that were unconscious, but he knew he had to get Bali back to the city and help soon.

They took to the air and in moments were over the old city, flying off to the north and J’hyla.

On the flight home, Une described the trap they had walked into. He told them about the desperate flight to the entrance. Wesli was amazed at the tale, awed by the Lanteans’ tenacity.

But he also felt sick because he realized there were still wraith on his world and now they knew for certain about his people’s existence. The wraith would bring others and they would never stop searching for them.

When they arrived at J’hyla, they were greeted by Rast, Chae and the Lantean healer, Carson Beckett. They had flown straight to the healing room where they quickly put the hurt on beds. Carson checked each in turn, assuring Chae that a wraith stun was only temporary. It interrupted nerve impulses, rendering the victim unconscious for a time.

When they got to Bali, though, everyone knew something was desperately wrong. Chae tended to Bali, humming, but his singing quickly turned frantic. Chae called to Wesli and together they sang, their voices rising and falling as they tried everything they knew to keep their friend breathing and alive. Bali’s body was failing. His heartbeat had slowed and become irregular and each breath was a ragged gasp to hold on from one moment to the next.

“Bali is dying,” Wesli cried, stepping back; he stared at his hands, turning them over, disbelieving what was happening even while he knew it were true. “I…we…we can’t stop it.” They had tried everything. This supposedly harmless stun had disrupted every cell in Bali’s body and they couldn’t keep him stable enough for his body to recover.

Neesi gasped. “No, Wes! That cannot be!”

“It is true,” Chae said. The spiritmaster straightened; he looked utterly defeated.

Carson touched Wesli on his shoulder. “Please, I may be able to help.”

Wesli would try anything. He moved aside. “We would be grateful.” He also found himself holding his breath, afraid to hope.

Carson spent moments that felt like hours but when he straightened, he shook his head. Wesli felt the breath he’d been holding escape, leaving him empty. Carson put his equipment away and said apologetically, “I just don’t know enough about your physiology. Short of getting him to our infirmary, I cannot do a thing for him here. His system is in complete failure. I don’t know why the stunner is affecting him like this.”

The Lidgets had kept their distance since they’d returned from the old city; perhaps they smelled the stink of it on them. But now they permeated the room. They floated in, falling solemnly from the ceiling, from all the open places in the room.

Wesli had only seen it twice before in his life but he found himself again struck speechless. He and Chae stepped away from Bali, allowing the Lidgets to wholly engulf their friend, despite what they knew it meant. Bali shuddered and the massive blanket of life and light shuddered along with him.

“What are they doing?” Teyla asked, eyes wide.

“They are taking him away,” Wesli answered, sounding so far away even to his own ears. His feathers drooped; his heart ached with each and every beat. A tear trailed down his cheek. Bali had been his friend and he’d also been Lia’s bonded. When she had reached age, they were to be twined. Wesli swallowed back some of the pain so that he could say more, but he couldn’t. It was too hard.

Neesi took his face in her hands; she touched her face to his, offering her love, her strength, then she pulled away and turned to Teyla. The other Lanteans looked on in shock. Neesi smiled but it was bittersweet. “His time is over.”

The Lidgets shattered into a million pieces of light and Bali was gone.

~*~

The Hylans had left them to recover, explaining that they had mourning ceremonies to arrange and plans to be made. Rodney wanted to sympathize, he really did, but the Hylan that had died had been a stranger. The only feeling he could muster after the effects of the stunner wore off, was pure relief at seeing John, Ronon, and the rest of his team there with him. Even if John and Ronon were still unconscious.

They had lived.

Teyla explained what had happened. Big fight, escape, everyone dropping like flies, and when Rodney pressed her on how they’d made it back, she told him that the Hylans were capable of far more than any of them had realized.

“They can change, Rodney.”

Radek snorted in his cup. When Rodney glowered at him, Radek found a speck on the table to examine in detail. Rodney turned back to Teyla. “Care to tell me what King Kong over there is so amused about?”

That earned him a filthy glare from Radek. Well worth it.

Teyla seemed to be searching for words. She clasped her hands in front of her and plunged into explaining. “They’re birds, Rodney,” she said. “They change into birds and they flew us all back to the city.”

Rodney laughed. And he kept on laughing. Until he realized they were all staring at him and then he stopped laughing. “You…you’re not kidding,” he realized.

“I saw it myself, when they brought you back,” Carson said over his shoulder. He was checking on Ronon who had begun to stir.

Rodney gaped. “Birds?” he finally stuttered. “Big… birds?”

When they all nodded, Rodney breathed, “Holy shit.”

Later, after Ronon and Lorne woke up, Rodney got to enjoy seeing them get the whole story. Ronon looked suitably impressed while Lorne didn’t quite know what to do with that one. Since he couldn’t figure it out, he stood up on shaky legs and checked on his team. He gave some extra time to reassuring Parish that it’d be all right. Even though Parish had stayed in the city with Carson and hadn’t experienced the nail biting, sweat-dripping fight to stay alive, he’d witnessed the aftermath. He’d watched the Hylan die and apparently it’d left all of those awake for it, shaken. Like he said, Rodney wanted to feel something, but as he got up to pace by John’s bed, all he could feel was relief.

He knew what the Hylans were feeling, God as his witness, he did, because Atlantis had lost so many people. Rodney had seen people die, over and over again, and it was quite possible he was even becoming jaded towards death.

But faced with losing Teyla or Ronon, he quaked inside, and losing John…losing John had long ago become something he refused to even contemplate. It was almost inconceivable to him that one man had somehow single-handedly gotten under Rodney’s skin and wrapped himself so completely around Rodney’s heart and soul that sometimes he failed to remember what life was like before he knew Sheppard; it left him bewildered.

“Hey,” John croaked.

Rodney blinked, drawn out of his reverie. “Hey.”

“We made it?”

“Yeah.”

John nodded, relieved.

Rodney sat by John’s side and dropped his head into his hands. The enormity of it all was hitting him and he just wanted to absorb John’s nearness. He felt a soft touch on his shoulder and looked up into Ronon’s turbulent brown eyes. Teyla was by his side. They smiled half-heartedly at one another, in a way only they had, after surviving a near miss.

For a time, Carson let them alone. But then he insisted on giving John a going-over as he had done with everyone else. After Carson was satisfied that John was recovering, Teyla got to explain the big mystery of just how it was that they managed to survive.

John was stunned, but didn’t show it quite as openly as Rodney, although he did say, “Wow, I thought it was a hallucination.”

When John heard about Bali’s death, his face turned angry and he pushed away from them. They gave him the space they knew he needed, to reconcile losing someone that John had viewed as under his protection.

Rodney knew John felt events were quickly spiraling out of his control. He wished he could come up with some miraculous fix to the situation, but the cat was out of the bag, the wraith knew there were bodies here to feed on and once that information was out…you could never undo it.

The city seemed as draped in the hopelessness of it as much as everyone within. Damn it all, Rodney swore, just…damn it.

~*~

Lorne wished he could take back the entire day. Wished he could take back every choice that had led to the wrong outcome, and he pretty much put the whole mission in the bag as ‘the wrong outcome’. The Hylans had come for them soon after they’d all recovered. He was sure Sheppard still had tingling, because damn if Lorne didn’t. They’d gone to the nexus. There a meeting was underway to decide once again what should be done.

Lorne had came to this world to find the colonel and his team. He was in a beautiful alien city, had been rescued by beings that could transform into birds, and still Lorne would take it all back if they could just leave this world as they’d found it. No wraith, no one dead. No one had to lose their faith that the next day would begin and end much like the one before had, that there’d always be another tomorrow.

Parish, Lorne’s teammate and friend, he’d been largely ignored this mission and now seemed lost. Lorne had tried to pull him aside and talk about what was wrong, but there hadn’t been enough time. The scientist had been quiet through most of the events. His initial enjoyment had quickly been overrun by worry and concern as things went from bad to worse. And now he walked listlessly by Lorne’s side.

He should’ve left Parish behind on Atlantis. He wasn’t suited for these kinds of missions.

Lorne sighed and thought about the saying where hindsight was always 20/20 and pressed on toward the nexus. He could only do so much right now. He’d have to deal with Parish once this crisis was resolved. At least he’d done what he’d been ordered. He’d found Sheppard and his team and they’d return to Atlantis soon; alive and well, he hoped. Lorne just wished it didn’t have to feel like such a hollow victory.

~*~

Wesli couldn’t believe he was saying this, but he was. “We must abandon J’hyla. I propose we accept the help offered by the Lanteans.”

Many things had taken place in the last hour. John Sheppard had expressed his sympathies for Bali’s passing. Evan Lorne had said the same. The Lanteans had then explained that they were certain their previous plan would fail because the scouts had most likely signaled their hive ship with a report after the fight at the old city. Soon, the planet would be crawling with wraith. The Lanteans offered to stay and help them fight but the losses would be huge and they could only do so much. When Rast had asked the odds of winning, John Sheppard had only been able to shake his head.

He’d swallowed thickly and said, “Please believe me, we’ve been in this position too many times. Your people will be killed, culled, your city destroyed by ships far above your planet. You won’t be able to do anything to stop it. We can help, I promise. We can evacuate you and your people to another world, one that is safe.”

“This one was safe,” Une said, his voice flat.

“I know,” John said, “and I’m truly sorry. But I can’t change the past. All I can do is try to save your future.” Wesli had thought the man’s eyes looked tortured in a way he’d never noticed before. John had set his shoulders and though he seemed resigned to whatever answer, he tried one more time, “Please, don’t stay here just for the wraith to destroy you.”

“And they will,” Rodney said, standing. “He’s right. Everything he’s said is true.”

John had turned a thankful face towards his friend. In turn, Teyla and Ronon stood and told about their worlds. About the end of Athos and Sateda and when they were finished, Wesli was sure there were not many dry eyes left in the room. He had felt their pain. Seen in his mind the Athosians exodus to Atlantis, and Sateda burning around her people.

“J’hyla will perish,” Wesli continued, “and if it were just me, I would perish with it! She has been our mother, our father.” He fumbled for Neesi’s hand, desperate for the support of his bondmate. She found his and grabbed on tight. He pictured Lia jumping along the balu, climbing to the treetops and shouting for the sheer fun of it. Wesli’s entire being hurt, leave J’hyla…how could he? “For our children,” he argued. “For them we must do the unthinkable. We must leave J’hyla.”

Rast nodded, accepting Wesli’s argument.

He had been the last to speak. Earlier, Chae had argued in favor for staying, but Chae had no children, no bondmate. Une had voted to stay but he felt J’hyla would be invincible. They all looked to Rast now. His word would decide. If he agreed to leave, then it would be so, because as leader his word carried twice the weight of all others.

Like gloomy sparks of firelight, the Lidgets caressed them, sharing their pain. Dawn was still a few hours away. It had been the longest day Wesli had ever lived. He felt the tickle in his mind from the probing Lidgets and he relaxed, opening himself up to their love. What would be would be. If Rast voted to stay then Wesli would stand in his city and die in his city. If the vote was to leave, then he knew a part of him would still die here.

A hush spread as Rast stood, his walking stick supporting him far more today than it had yesterday.

“My people,” he said, “we find ourselves at a desperate time; one that our forefathers endured many years before. They left the old city, M’thyla, never to return, because what had once been a place of safety and shelter had become forever poisoned with despair and loss. They could never live within its walls again. Thus, J’hyla was founded, upon the pain over what was and the hope for what would be.”

Rodney McKay made a strangled sound that was quickly silenced by Teyla’s quick hand.

“Our people were changed in that breaking and we became what you Lanteans see now before you, half man, half bird, able to change when we must to take to the air and avoid the wraith. For many, many years we have done just that, keeping to the skies, living amongst the trees, until a time came where we felt so safe that we thought ‘never could it happen again’ and we rebuilt, settled, and created our beautiful city to live within. Now we must choose. If we stay, we will pay a higher price than our ancestors. If we go, perhaps we will pay an equally high price in losing a part of ourselves that can never be regained.

“As your master leader, I wish I knew which decision would be the one that many years from now would be looked upon with forgiveness and understanding. For all that we can do, that is not one of the skills we possess and so, my friends, my family, my people,” Rast’s aged voice ripped in two and he could barely spit out the rest, “we leave J’hyla on the ‘morrow.”

The nexus erupted.

The Lanteans were grim but satisfied. Wesli couldn’t blame them, but at that moment, he wished to be away from them.

Tooz stepped up and took his hand. “It is the only thing we can do,” he consoled Wesli, “take heart that you argued well. It is the right outcome.”

Wesli swallowed, trying to find his voice. “I need to… could you tell the Lanteans the rest of the story? The things Rast didn’t explain? I have things to attend to.”

“Everything?” Tooz said, startled. “Wesli, are you certain? Did Rast wish them to know about the children?”

“We decided, regardless of the outcome, it was time to confess our people’s greatest pain. We leave our world soon. If ever there is a time to tell the truth and break our own quiet, it’s now. If it is a fresh start we make, then let it be a clean start, unburdened by past hurts.”

He turned and stared at the amazing number of Lidgets covering John Sheppard. At first, he’d thought they’d only converged on the man because of his injuries, but now he knew there was something else at work. The stories about the Lidgets came back to him. Could they be true?

“And tell them about the crash,” he added, staring at John, thoughtful. “I think they deserve to know that, as well.”

~*~

J’hyla was chaotic. Things were moving at a rapid pace. It wasn’t a whole lot of fun watching a city’s inhabitants prepare to abandon it. He’d sent Lorne and Ronon to contact Atlantis and bring them up to speed. John knew the clock was running. The Hive ship was almost assuredly en route and they’d need evacuation assistance if they were going to stand a chance at pulling this off. Luckily, Woolsey had agreed. John didn’t want to think about what he would’ve done if the man had said no.

Radek, Carson, Parish, and Teyla, along with Gage and Borneo were off helping the Hylans pack any necessary items they couldn’t leave behind, while John and Rodney tried to hammer out some of the finer details in moving an entire city’s population to another world. With five jumpers employed, it’d still take a week. They could only hope the Hive ship was far enough out that they had the time. Secretly, John knew they weren’t likely to get that lucky but he’d take every moment they got.

Rodney had Atlantis dialing up the gate using a program he’d created before that would keep the ‘gate busy. They could tie it up for a full 38 minutes at a time, the maximum time a wormhole could be sustained by the Stargates. The program began to dial shortly before the limit expired so that they continually kept it engaged. The tricky part came when they started ferrying people through the ‘gates. Then they’d have to allow for human dialing which wasn’t as controllable as machines. There was a chance the wraith could dial in and that’d throw a pretty big wrench in their plans.

“Colonel Sheppard,” Tooz called. The young Hylan strode across the bridge, never pausing as the living floor formed underneath his feet as he went. “I must speak with you.”

John nodded at Rodney’s latest figures. He’d managed to shave two days off that week by using some alterations to the jumper’s drive configuration. By being able to load five more people into one jumper, they would manage to get the evacuation done sooner. John pushed the PADD back to Rodney and waved Tooz over.

They weren’t in the nexus anymore, nor the healing room. They’d been escorted to a room near the lower parts of the city. It was so low that John could look out the escapement and see the forest floor below. With the sun having risen firmly in the sky, he could see just how far away from the old city that they were.

“Wesli wished for me to tell you some things that we have not explained yet, things he felt you should know.” Tooz turned and looked around the room. “Where are the others?”

“Helping with the evacuation. We’ll pass along any information,” John assured him.

Rodney muttered over his calculations, ignoring them both.

“That is acceptable,” Tooz said. He sat in a chair beside Rodney. “Do you remember how you came to be here, in J’hyla?”

John frowned. “You mean the first time?”

Tooz nodded. “Yes, the first time. You were injured in a crash.” He smiled to himself. “I’m afraid Wesli didn’t think too highly of the care your friends had given you, by the way.”

Rodney snorted and John shot him a glare that said ‘knock it off’.

“Do you recall anything from your crash?”

John shook his head. Tooz gave John a long look, as if to say ‘think’. At first, John couldn’t imagine what he was getting at, but then the pieces started to fall into place and his jaw dropped. “It was one of you,” John realized. “I hit one of your people when they were transformed!”

“I’m afraid so,” Tooz confirmed. “It was while you were flying between the two mountain tops above the old city. You tried to avoid her, hitting the northern summit and damaging your ship causing you to lose control.”

“Son of a bitch,” John drawled. The edges of his mouth snuck upwards as he turned to Rodney.

Rodney, knowing exactly where his mind was going, headed him off at the pass. “How could you miss it?” Rodney said. “Seriously, big bird!”

“I wasn’t looking for a human-sized bird!”

“Well, maybe you should’ve been.” Rodney finished punching in numbers and handed John the PADD. He smirked, feeling pretty pleased with himself.

John fumed and snatched the tablet from Rodney; he mumbled under his breath, “Maybe someone needs to equip the jumpers with sensor systems capable of detecting nearby large foreign objects that come swooping down at you.”

“Maybe someone needs to keep their eyes open instead of expecting their wunder-gene to do it all.”

“Uh, may I?”

John realized Tooz was still standing there. Crap. “Sorry,” he said lamely. “The person I hit, is she okay?”

“Oh, yes, actually you’ve met her. Wesli’s wife Neesi.” Tooz tsked. “She was very upset after Wesli healed her. You almost managed to miss her, but the edge of your ship clipped her wing. She insisted he find and help whoever was in it. Of course, he found the ship empty at that point; your friends had already pulled you from it. He kept looking though.”

“Well, that’s good.” John supposed he didn’t blame them keeping that quiet. The fact that the Hylans could fly had obviously been a pretty big secret and they had shared it in the end rather than let John and the others die. Une could’ve taken off with Bali and let the wraith have them.

When Tooz didn’t leave, John prompted, “Was there something else?”

“Yes, I --”

It was then that the alarm sounded, again. It ran up and down John’s spine, screaming in every nerve cluster, ‘danger!danger!’ and he had to wonder if he could get Atlantis to reproduce that sound. John was sure he’d never heard a more effective warning sound in his life. Then again, it almost loosened his bowels, so maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea.

He thumbed his radio. “Major, report!”

Rodney was watching him, waiting for the news.

Lorne came across the radio, breathless. “The Hive, Sir.” His words formed ice in John’s gut. “It’s here.”

“Oh, no,” Rodney whispered.

“Oh, yes,” John snarled.

~*~

Lorne was sure today would be the day he was going to die. He was so sure of it that he pulled Teyla aside and asked her to do him a favor. See, he knew Teyla would make it. No matter what, she’d get back to Atlantis. She had Torren waiting for her and he knew that Sheppard would make sure she was safe on the jumper, even if the colonel sacrificed himself to make it happen.

The favor was simply to make sure one of Lorne’s paintings was saved to the expedition archives. He’d painted it his first year and it was currently hanging on his wall in his quarters. It was a picture of Elizabeth, Carson, Rodney and John, on the balcony not long after the siege. Teyla hadn’t been there because she’d been with her people as they mourned the Athosians lost in the fighting. They had all been amazed to still be alive.

It also said so much that out of that group, only Rodney and John had lived to see Atlantis return to Pegasus years later. Elizabeth had really died when she had suffered the head injury, though the Asurans finished the job later. Carson had died doing what he did best, saving people, even though a clone had lived on in captivity for two years before they discovered and rescued him.

And yet, despite how depressing that was, it was Lorne’s favorite. It was because the painting personified to him the fighting spirit that seemed to exist in each and every one of Atlantis’ people. Their faces had been etched from the losses of the siege, but the perseverance, the ‘you didn’t kill us’ had shone through when Lorne had found them on the balcony. He’d never openly shared the painting with anyone, but if he didn’t come back from this mission, he wanted it placed in the archives. He wanted that reminder of who they were, what they had done and would do, immortalized, even if it hadn’t always been the right choice, or the best choice. They had gone down fighting to save lives. He hoped they’d be remembered for that.

“Major, how many are ready for transport?”

Lorne sighed, back to the inevitable. “Sir, they’re refusing.” He pulled his hand away from the radio and tried to look pissed, hoping that maybe he could intimidate a few, but he knew he wasn’t pulling it off. Could he blame the Hylans?

His radio hissed then John said, “Could you repeat that, Major. It sounded like you said they’re refusing.”

“Yes, Sir. That is what I said.”

Lorne could imagine the expletives being said on the other side of the city.

“Major Lorne, we’re gathering in the nexus. Will you be accompanying us?” Une waited by the lift as another group left, heading upwards through the trees, instead of down where the jumper was cloaked and waiting.

“I don’t suppose I could convince you that saving some is better than none?”

When Une gave him a stony look, Lorne shrugged. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”

Lorne knew he had to gather Parish, his marines, and get back with Sheppard and his team and Carson. Lorne was pretty sure Radek had been hanging around Parish. He knew the colonel wouldn’t let his people stay just to be killed. Trouble was, Lorne wasn’t sure they’d be able to make it out of this before Sheppard realized he couldn’t convince the Hylans to leave.

He shook his head. “I have to find my people. I’ll be okay.”

Une stepped on the lift with the last of his people heading to the nexus. “I understand.” He smiled briefly and said, “Be well, Major Lorne.” And then he was gone.

Of course, right after Une left, the city began to shake down to its roots; it was taking heavy laser fire as the wraith focused in on their targets. The siege had begun and the city trembled under Lorne’s feet. He realized he’d spoken too soon.

~*~

John didn’t have time for this.

He had shoved Rodney at Ronon and ordered him and Teyla to get to the ship. Rodney had tried to shrug out of Ronon’s hold and stick with John. Ronon had a hold of him though, and there wasn’t anything that’d break it short of Ronon dying. Rodney had fumed and when John hadn’t relented, he’d begged.

John knew he’d left Rodney behind too many times only to find himself facing certain death, alone. McKay was getting some serious hang-ups because of that fact. For some reason, he’d become convinced that if he stayed with John, they’d always be okay. The hardest thing John had ever done was run away from Rodney just then.

He knew Ronon would get Rodney and Teyla back to the jumper. That’s all he wanted. Get his people to safety. He’d ordered Lorne to gather his team and get to the ship, as well. After that was done, he made his way to the nexus, pushing and shoving through a city full of hysterical Hylans, taller than he was and pretty damn strong.

All around him, the city began to burn. Smoke clung to him, worming its way down deep into John’s lungs. He tried to focus on what was in front of him, but he still found himself distracted when he heard a cry. He stopped and helped people trapped under collapsed branches. He closed the eyes of those he couldn’t help.

It made him so damn angry. They’d refused to evacuate now that all hope of saving everyone was gone. He’d never understand that mentality. To him, some surviving was better than none.

When John finally stumbled into the nexus, coughing and covered in ash, he was floored by the number of Hylans that had managed to gather there. It might not be the entire city’s population but it had to be damn close. He kept pushing and shoving his way forward until he was standing next to Rast. Wesli was there along with Neesi and she held what must have been their daughter. All around he saw couples, many with children clutched tightly to them.

“You can’t stay,” John pleaded, his voice ragged and hoarse. “The whole city is going down. We can save some of you!”

Rast’s composure was crumbling in front of John’s eyes. The old man tried to speak but couldn’t and finally shook his head. Tears wet his face, creating dirt trails as they mixed with the ash on his skin.

Wesli spoke for him. “John, sometimes it is enough to die together, than apart. What else can we do?” He seemed to have accepted the inevitable, as they all saw it.

“Fly!” John gestured at the sky. “They might get some of you, but others can get away, hide, they won’t be able to track you all down, not at first!”

“We cannot,” Chae said, resolute.

John turned to the spiritmaster. His entire demeanor was defeated; his eyes dull even as they watered from the smoke. John couldn’t believe this was the same person that had been so vigorous and full of life before. “Of course you can, Teyla saw you --”

Wesli choked. “John,” he said, “what Chae is trying to say is that only the adults can fly. We can fly and hide and rebuild when the wraith tire of the game and leave.” His eyes lingered wetly on Lia. “But our children cannot. The transformation time is not safe for them yet.”

“I don’t…” John narrowed his eyes, swinging his head around and looking at the children, really looking. They did look different; they had more of a human appearance than the adult Hylans. Hair instead of feathers, shorter, even accounting for the fact that they were kids. “Are you saying --”

“Yes, I am,” Wesli said miserably. “Tooz was supposed to tell you.”

John stepped back. His mouth felt dry. “The alarm sounded, he never got to finish.”

Rast tugged on Wesli’s shoulder, gently pulling him back. “This is my story to tell, Wesli. Thank you.”

Wesli nodded and moved closer to Neesi. They shook along with J’hyla.

“We have told you far more than we have ever told any outsider. For so many years we’ve been isolated and the few people that had the technology to come to our world left as soon as they realized there wasn’t anything here for them to exploit.”

Wesli made a surprised sound and stared at Rast. “Ships? There have been others?”

“Not in your lifetime,” Rast said, smiling gently at Wesli. “It has been many years since one came through the ring above our world.”

The Hylan coughed as a thick band of smoke wafted through the room. John prayed someone, somewhere, was trying to put out the fires, even while he wondered at the hopelessness of it all. Rast regained his voice. “You know that our people were changed. That we were given the gift to transform. This is the story of how that came to be.

“After Hylus returned, he locked himself away in his lab. He worked night and day and the survivors grew concerned that he would work himself to death. That maybe he even wanted that. Then one night, he disappeared.

“People searched for him, but they were too few. No one knew where he’d gone or why, but they were busy trying to rebuild. The mystery of Hylus had to be left to rest. And for a while, it did… until many, many nights later, the Lidgets first appeared at sunset.”

“The Lidgets?” John said. His mind was buzzing, trying to figure out where this was going.

“Sheppard! What is taking so long! The city is burning, you’ve got to get out of there!” Rodney’s panicked voice crackled across John’s radio.

Distracted, John said, “I’ll be there in a minute. Just stay put.”

Rast seemed to recognize that the city was in desperate straits. He faltered but Chae gripped the leader’s shoulder, offering him the support he needed to continue. “Finish the story, old friend. At the least, our people will live on in their memories.”

“Yes, you’re right.” Rast steeled himself; he reached up and clasped Chae’s hand with his own. Then he focused on John again. “These lights that we came to call Lidgets began to land on our skin, to spend hours sitting on our shoulders and nestled in our hair. We grew to accept their presence without fear. It was then that we began to dream. It was then that we learned how to transform, how to fly. When the wraith next came again, our people had no fear. They changed and took to the sky and cackled as the wraith scoured through our homes. We delighted in how smart we were. It was only after the wraith left that we realized the scope of the tragedy that had been wrought upon us.

“We changed back to our natural form and called to our children. They didn’t come. We changed back to bird form and searched for them. We realized that in our time of flying and celebrating, we had lost touch with our familial ties. You see, when we become our bird-self, we soon lose awareness of much beyond our mate and a sense of ourselves. We don’t think beyond the moment. Responsibilities fade with each day that we stay changed.

“Our children had taken to the skies along with their mothers and fathers and soon lost themselves in the natural pattern of birds. Their minds and bodies were too young to retain their memories of their natural form and they forgot how to become human again. They flew away from the rest of the people and never returned. Our children were lost to us forever.

“It is believed that Hylus, in his grief and desperation, shattered himself into a million lights of energy in hopes of protecting what was left of our people. After our children were lost to us, the people chased away the Lidgets, refusing their touch and love. They shouted to the stars what he had done. But gradually, as time passed, the people let them return. They missed the love and affection and new children were becoming adults. The people learned. Only children on the cusp of adulthood can be allowed to transform.

“And Hylus has spent every night thereafter with our people, caring for our hurts, caressing our spirits, and appeasing the wrong he had done in trying to save us.

“That,” Rast coughed, “is our legacy.”

Wesli’s yellow eyes were saddened. He didn’t even flinch when another round of laser fire from above came perilously close to hitting the nexus. “We won’t abandon our children again, Colonel. If they transform, they will be lost to us.”

John tried to figure out what to say. All he could think about was what a royal fuck-up this mission had turned out to be. He was standing in a city, surrounded by a guilt-ridden race of beings that had been altered by yet another Ancient that had meant well but wound up doing more harm than good -- and John wasn’t blind enough to not see that the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree -- how many screw-ups had his own people made lately? In the past five years? Too many. And he was smack dab in the middle of another one.

It wasn’t intentional, it never was. John and his team had had no idea there were other people here. But like before, they’d blundered in and now someone else was paying the price. He swallowed back the bile in his throat.

He looked up at the sky. It was turning red from the glow of all the fires below.

The wraith were practicing their mass-firing plan, aiming for anything in range on the planet below and shooting until there was nothing left.

If he hadn’t been looking up, he would’ve missed it.

The sky suddenly erupted into flames. John stared dumbly at the spectacle. Was that what he thought it was? Almost afraid to ask, he was slow in calling Lorne, which was why his radio was free for the sweetest sound John thought he’d ever heard.

“Colonel Sheppard,” Steven Caldwell announced, “This is the Daedalus. We seem to have inadvertently blown up your pest problem. A certain someone asked if we could stop by and offer a hand. Considering the situation, I think it’s safe to say that was a good idea.”

John grinned goofily at the streaking balls of fire skipping across the atmosphere. He pressed his radio button and said, “Colonel, your timing is impeccable. Send our regards to that certain someone.” He coughed again, lifting his sleeve to try and get some relief from the smoke. He knew the certain someone was Woolsey, and he also knew most of what had been said would not be entered into any official report. The IOA would consider sending the Daedalus out this way as a waste of resources. Hell, John wasn’t even sure who had pulled what strings to get it back in Pegasus so soon after they’d sent a request for some additional support. Maybe O’Neill had managed to work some magic. Either way, fate once again had stepped in and saved his ass, and this time, a whole lot of others. “Sir, we could use some help in putting out the fires down here.”

“Affirmative, Colonel, we’ll see what we can do. Caldwell, out.”

The Hylans were looking around, trying to understand just what had happened. Their city was still burning and as far as they were concerned, their life was still ending.

“Colonel Sheppard, what is the meaning – the wraith?”

John clasped Wesli’s arm in a strong grip. He was so damn relieved that he couldn’t stop grinning like an idiot. “Won’t be bothering you anymore. You know those miracles you heard us talk about? We just got one.”


~*~

With the Daedulus’ help, it didn’t take too long to get the city stable.

Teyla had left during the first couple of days. She’d been scheduled to talk at a coalition meeting and Woolsey insisted she go. She’d returned as soon as it was over, telling John that she felt it had gone well.

It was a week since the Hive ship’s attack and Rodney knew it’d take far longer than that for the Hylans to recover. That first night, after the Hive ship had become a fiery meteorite storm, the expedition members had surveyed the damage.

Caldwell had also dispatched marines to find and remove the remaining scouts still lurking around the old city.

It was after all that that Rodney had found himself at a loss. He hadn’t failed to notice how easily Parish became more important in the aftermath. His specialty was botany and he was able to demonstrate to the Hylans the best methods of trimming back the dead foliage and how best to encourage the new growth in the coming months.
The only significant help that Rodney had been able to give was to fulfill the Hylans wish to get their ‘gate back; with some help from Radek and the Daedalus, he’d returned the space gate down to the planet, in a valley not far from J’hyla. Using the dialing device from the wrecked jumper, they’d rigged a temporary DHD. The Hylans would be able to travel to other worlds again, but they’d also be open to others coming to their world.

It’d taken the better part of a day, and for that day, Rodney had felt great being able to actually do something other than feel helpless in the wake of all the destruction.

Now he was back to wandering through the city, unable to do much more than be amazed at how the Lidgets were swarming everywhere. John had given them a brief report on the Ancient Hylus, how he’d changed the people somehow, and the Hylans belief that the Lidgets were, in fact, the Ancient. It explained why they’d seemed to really like John. They -- or it – probably mistook John for a fellow Ancient.

The whole thing was scarily plausible. If the Ancient had ascended while he was cocooned on the wraith ship and returned as an energy being, he could have decided to divide himself up into billions of bits of energy to accomplish what he had wanted to do. But would the Ancient still know who he was? Would the billions of bits of energy still remember what it was like to be one being?

Rodney didn’t think so. He theorized that the splitting of himself had been Hylus’ version of suicide. He probably felt he was giving himself up to save the people of this world, but really Rodney thought that Hylus couldn’t face going on without the woman he loved and constantly remembering the losses he’d suffered, not only Ka’ri and her baby, but all of Hylus’ people when they’d shunned him.

“Are you well, Rodney?”

With a start, Rodney realized he had walked himself back to where it had all began --the healing rooms.

“Of course I’m not all right,” he bitched. “I’ve almost died twice, in the same day.”

Wesli cocked his head at Rodney, clearly not sure what to think of that response. Rodney frowned. He realized that his particular brand of irascible sarcasm wasn’t going to be deciphered here quite like it was on Atlantis. “Never mind,” he said. It wasn’t as fun when the other person didn’t get it.

Wesli dipped his head. “As you wish.”

Rodney realized that while he was in the same room, it’d changed. It was burned in places and he could see a patchwork of repairs that had been made. But there were also triple the beds now and every one of them was filled with an injured Hylan. It looked like there were plenty of burn victims. He saw Carson across the room, working at a bed. “Why aren’t they healed?”

“There’s too many. We’ve sung to the critically hurt first but with so many, we could only heal them to a certain degree, just enough to keep them alive until we can rest and sing some more.”

“Oh. Then you’re supposed to be resting,” Rodney said, feeling mildly selfish. He glanced back at where he’d walked through the door. “I can go. I don’t even know why I’m here.”

Maybe Wesli sensed how lost Rodney felt, a feeling Rodney hadn’t even recognized until now, because the Hylan seized his arm and said impulsively, “Come Rodney McKay, let me show you what of J’hyla that still exists beneath these burned trees and smoldering branches.”

He led Rodney out, away from the injured and their warbling cries.

“Maybe I should let Sheppard know,” Rodney said, looking back towards Carson.

Wesli smiled broader. “I will return you to your friends soon.”

And he did.

But in that hour, he showed Rodney marvels that spoke more than any words could to the survival of the magical city. He showed Rodney the Lidgets frolicking in the nexus waterfall, the kids skipping across the water, laughing as they found new holes in the burned playgrounds to chase each other through. He took Rodney to his home and opened the thin slate lid, revealing the toopups. “If you caress them like this,” Wesli showed him, stroking their bellies. “Then they grow hot and heat the area around them.”

Rodney stared at it, amazed. An animal emitting thermal energy! Rodney reached for it, grabbing along the lines of hard shell where Wesli showed him one could safely handle the animals. He flipped it over and back. It looked almost like a turtle but instead of a shell it had a thin circumference of a hard exoskeleton with an inner area of tissue that radiated the heat and glowed orange. Rodney’s brow furrowed as he concentrated on working out how the animal pulled it off. He’d have to consult with Carson! He looked up at Wesli. “Does it hurt them?”

“No, the opposite actually,” Wesli said, taking the toopup from Rodney. He returned it to its stone home. “They emit a sound almost like purring if you stroke them long enough. We use them to heat our food.”

Rodney was exhausted but giddy. He stared around, in awe all over again. Wesli led him back through detours of destroyed pathways and lifts until they were at the room he was sharing with his team.

Everywhere he looked he saw signs that while J’hyla might have taken a beating, it wasn’t broken. For the first time in a while, Rodney found himself deeply touched by recent events. He was ridiculously thankful that the natives had survived, along with their home. The technology in the old city was secondary, though he hoped they could set up a trade agreement that would allow them access. Rodney could promise they’d set up a signal jammer before they explored any further.

They’d already had Lorne take his team in after the other wraith were cleared out. Radek had found the Ancient tech that was broadcasting and shut it down. At some point, Hylus had set up a transmitter, and when Rodney translated it, he had been disgusted all over again.

Not at Hylus, though. It was the wraith. At every turn he took, Rodney found himself digging his hands into lost and dying technology from societies that should have gone on to become advanced in their own right. They’d had all the tools necessary, the brains to make it possible, and yet the wraith kept coming around and culling these worlds into the caveman days.

“What did it say,” John had asked him.

Rodney had dropped his PADD, scowling. He hated this part of his job. “The signal was a warning relay. It was set to play on an endless loop. ‘I am Hylus of Atlantia. The wraith have come, my world is destroyed. I leave soon to help those that I can. Do not come for me.”

“Do you think they ever did?” Teyla asked. She stared at her teammates, her face a mask of mixed emotions. “Do you think the Ancestors ever cared enough for an individual to come seeking him?”

Ronon just shook his head and walked away.

“No,” John said. “I don’t think they ever did.”

He got up and followed Ronon, staring out at the night sky.

The Lidgets had danced around and over them and John could just barely make out a chant whispering in his mind. It sounded like ‘my people,’ but John could be wrong. He had told Rodney it might just be wishful thinking on his part, to believe that Hylus had found peace. Rodney kind of wished it to be true. The whole tale was tragedy in pure form and while Rodney was a cynic at heart, he could still find himself rooting for the occasional happy ending.


~*~

The room was beginning to brighten with the rising sun.

Ronon and Teyla snored, deeply asleep. But John was sitting on his bed, staring out at the forest and mountains in the distance. He turned when he saw Rodney walk in.

“We lucked out,” John said, offering up an explanation for why he was awake.

Rodney nodded. John was in one of those near-miss moods, in which he realized that they’d just barely survived and it wasn’t through any other reason other than luck. And luck, as they knew, could go both ways. It was the dwelling on what could’ve been that got John after all the dust had settled.

“You remember how it all began?” Rodney asked, dropping down to sit beside him. If Rodney squinted, he could just make out the crashed jumper in the distance.

John laughed softly. “Actually, Rodney, I don’t.”

“Right,” Rodney groaned. He found himself awkwardly moving his hand to pat John on the shoulder. His friend, still alive, still breathing. Like J’hyla and the people that lived within it, there were some things about Rodney’s life that he was pretty sure he needed if he were to keep being Rodney McKay, and John Sheppard was one of those things. “We lucked out in more ways than one,” he said. Rodney dropped his arm, feeling silly but happy.

John glanced over at him and gave him a half-smile. “Thanks.”

Rodney fought against the urge to break eye contact because these mushy moments, well, Rodney and John were neither one very capable of getting through them.

“I mean it,” John added.

I know, Rodney said to himself, smiling and looking out at the sunrise.

Epilogue

The world was a slanted sea of nauseating green, but this time John shouted in delight, “Holy shit–“

Wesli cackled, taking John in a steep dive before pulling up. John was sure he was going to puke. Just when he thought they couldn’t go any higher, Wesli straightened. John had a moment to breathe and that was all, before Wesli took him into a sickening roll.

The wind blew against John’s face, cold and refreshing.

This was flying! This was living life to its fullest!

For the first time since he’d woken in J’hyla, John envied the Hylans. He wanted to fly like this, to feel nothing between the air and himself. This was better than any carnival ride he’d ever been on and better than most planes he’d ever flown. The saddle that Wesli had his wife adjust for John was large enough because they were crafted with the idea of carrying multiple children on one adult’s back.

John realized with a flash of regret that Wesli was turning back to J’hyla when the gentle turn changed to a glide and he saw the big cluster of leafy treetops that signaled the city’s presence below. He wanted to beg for more time, but he knew Wesli probably had other duties.

John and the others would be returning to Atlantis today, ten days after the night when the Hive had arrived. The Daedalus had left earlier that morning, having offered all the support they could give and needing to return to Atlantis. A couple weeks could be fudged in a report, much more than that, not easily.

This flight had been an offer from Wesli, as thanks for all that they’d done, even though John didn’t think thanks were necessary considering how everything had begun. The Hylans were being polite and the entire chain of events had seemed almost cathartic for the adults. There was a subdued feeling that they’d gained more than they lost and the future, while uncertain, was brighter than before.

The Hylans had felt for a long time that something terrible was coming their way. Because of the grief surrounding the loss of M’thyla and their change, the adults had passed on to each generation the burden of what their safety had cost them as a people. Even though these Hylan adults had little to do with what had transpired years and years ago, they had fully inherited the guilt of a surviving generation.

Wesli landed with a smooth flourish and ruffling of feathers. His golden eyes turned toward John and he gestured with an inquisitive shake of his head at the others. Neesi and Tooz landed behind Wesli. Even though John had been the only one to take them up on their offer of a farewell flight, now the other Hylans joined them and waited, each gazing passively at the group of people who had gathered and watched John as he was taken on the ride of his life.

Clearly now the Hylans were looking on them and saying ‘see, it wasn’t so bad, would you like a turn now?’

Radek held his hands up and backed away. “Oh no, I prefer to keep layers of metal between me and the upper atmospheres.” The tiny Czech shook his head. “No, thank you!”

John laughed. His queasiness was already disappearing and he was raring at the opportunity to go again, even if there’d be less acrobatics this time. He only wished that they’d been able to take a flight when it was night on Hyla. John was sure it would’ve been nothing short of stunning.

Lorne shrugged and stepped forward. “Why not,” he said, “I’ve already been scared to death a couple times since I’ve been here.”

“I’m in,” Ronon said.

Teyla looked at Lorne and Ronon and smiled. “So long as they do not drop us.”

“I’m afraid I have to agree with Radek on this one,” Carson apologized. “I think you all might be a bit more crazy than I previously thought.”


Lorne’s two marines turned it down also. Borneo said, “We’re made for the land, Sir, Marines like the ground.” Gage grinned, adding, “Not like you Air Force guys with your wild blue yonder.”

“Fair enough,” Lorne said graciously.

Just when they were getting ready to take off, Rodney came running in shouting, “Wait! I’m going!”

Teyla had been sorted to ride with Lorne on Neesi while Tooz had stepped up and nudged Ronon with his beak. Wesli nipped at Rodney to tell him to get on with John.

Rodney hesitated, “They can carry two?” he squeaked.

“Get on, Rodney,” John called. He held his hand out for McKay.

Rodney scrambled up, muttering all the while about how dangerous this was, but he made it. Before they’d even taken off, John was prying Rodney’s fingers from his mid-section, trying to loosen his grip. “Can’t…breathe…”

“Better than me falling and dying!”

Then Wesli was off running, big bursts of speed combined with massive leaps; the Hylans took off, Rodney yelling the entire way.

THE END

Comments

[calcitrix]

Yay! I love what you did with it! Long and plotty and engaging and teamy...wonderful. You created a lovely world and people, too. And I love the idea of the Lidgets and Hylus.

[kodiak_bear]

Thank you so much, it's wonderful to hear you liked the outcome. I had wanted to write a story similar to this for a few months so when I saw your art, I jumped at the chance. :)

[kriadydragon]

What an adventure! Such an interesting, awesome world with interesting creatures. I adore stories with alien worlds that are really, really alien :D The imagery was gorgeous and the plot intense. For a moment I was terrified that J'hyla and all the inhabitants were going to be destroyed, and what it would do to John. I loved the Daedalus swooping in, because Woolsey was "Budget be darned!" for once (I could totally see him doing that). I liked that being able to turn into birds to escape was both a blessing and a curse, very nice twist, there.

And I adored that they gave everyone a ride, starting with John, because that's totally his dream come true :D

Wonderful story.

[kodiak_bear]

Thank you so much! First time finishing a story in over a year so I hoped to write something that would entertain. And of course, can never avoid whumping Shep LOL. :)

[saphirablue]

Wow!

Art: What a wonderful piece of art! I could stare at the picture the whole day and wouldn't tire of it! And thank you for including Lorne! :)

Story: A wonderful story with a great imagination. A people which lives in trees, has feathers and is able to transform into birds - great! There are many little things that I love in this story: Rodney's "Um, did I just insist to be the one who goes through an alien mind scrambling ceremony?" and Lorne's gut feeling that something is wrong and so on! :)

Thank you for this wonderful picture and story! :)

[kodiak_bear]

Thank you for the wonderful comments! :) I really loved the beautiful imagery from Avatar and it kind of got me riled up wanting to write an SGA story with aliens along those lines becuase it was just. so. Beautiful! Then when the art was posted and I saw calcitrix's piece I was 'omg, yes'!

[calcitrix]

Thank you so much! I love the interaction of Lorne with the team and wanted to see what someone would do with it--with fantastic results!

[(Anonymous)]

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this! The artwork is so beautiful, and you wrote a story which equaled its beauty. I loved the world you created and as always, found myself being drawn in to this world. I love the intereactions between the team; their concern and love for each other, their banter...sigh. You never write anyone out of character, or have them acting in a way that's not how I think they would, and that's such a wonderful gift. I, of course, loved the hurt/comfort aspect of the story, but it was such an exciting adventure as well. I had such a warm feeling when I'd finished this and that's a sign of a successful story in my eyes. Well done and thanks so much for writing again! :) Linzi xxx

[kodiak_bear]

*hugs* You really keep me going linzi! I *heart* you.

[calcitrix]

Thank you!

[d_odyssey]

Gorgeous artwork. Love the colors and the team flying, especially Rodney hanging on for dear life. The story really takes off from this picture.

Magnificent story! Love the world you built, with such detail of the surroundings, the inhabitants and the general feeling of peace to angst and sorrow and then relief. Great set up with the crash, the h/c and the mystery of what happened. Very compelling story as you revealed more of the secrets of J'hyla and made us care about Wesli, Tooz, Rast and all the Hylan. Very scary when the Wraith invaded and sad when they were prepared to die rather than leave their children. Adore the background and history you gave to the Hylan.

Love the team here. The team love, concern and loyalty were evident throughout. Enjoyed Rodney bravely volunteering for the ritual and passing the test. Nice look into his psyche as he revealed he regretted not loving more. Yet at the end, we see how much team love exists, particularly between John and Rodney. So happy to see that bond, even if they don't say it out loud. Perfect ending as they soared on the Hylan with Rodney riding with John and squeezing him as he screamed going airborne.

Fabulous story and art.

[kodiak_bear]

Thank you! While I love h/c (and especially Shep LOL), I adore team and hoped to create a story where they were very 'teamy' instead of just one or two characters. Thanks so much for your feedback. :)

[calcitrix]

Thank you so much!

[sholio]

Art: Oh, what a gorgeous and cool scenario! And so much detail -- it's lovely and fascinating to look at. Poor team -- the things they get themselves into. :D

Fic: This was fun! And it's so nice to have a new fic from you again! :) For some reason, drugged Rodney hugging Teyla and thinking that she's really soft is the bit that really sticks out to me -- so adorable! But I just adore the team-love throughout, and the alienness of the aliens, as well as the beautiful alien city in the trees; I can picture it so well.

[kodiak_bear]

Thanks! *grin* I know it's been a while since I've written an SGA fic, or any fic for that matter LOL. It's always fun to drug at least one person per fic hehe.

[calcitrix]

Thanks! I really enjoyed doing this!

[(Anonymous)]

Both the art and the story are beautifully done. I absolutely loved the world created and the rich characters that populated it.

[kodiak_bear]

Thank you so much, wonderful to know it's enjoyed. :)

[calcitrix]

Thank you!

[danceswithgary]

I love the story of the world and people created to match the colorful fantasy of the art!:-D

[kodiak_bear]

Thank you! :)

[alipeeps]

Lovely fic. Amazing and detailed worldbuilding - I can see the Avatar influence in there but I love the slant you have put on it. A fantastic look at the harsh realities of the team's life and work and the unintended implications it can have... and how that weighs on them.

[kodiak_bear]

thanks so much Ali!

I was late watching Avatar but omg I loved that world and I kept thinking we needed so much more of *that* in SGA. but then again, they didn't have the budget for it I guess. :P

[(Anonymous)]

What an amazing world you have created. I want to go back and visit it again without all the tension of the Wraith coming. Great job with the story and the history of the people.

The characters were perfectly handled. I could see and hear them in my head. I loved the details you added about life after Earth.

[chaps1870]

Great civilization building. You brought the characters to life. I'm amazed that you could take the picture and bring it to life as well.

[parisindy]

TOTALLY fab story :)