Sooo... my first Atlantis story. It's been lurking around on my pc for a while now. I hope you have some fun reading it ^^ I'm always open for critique, feel free to point out any mistakes, be it typos or grammar or just general idiocy. (I suck at putting a genre to my stories, if someone has a better idea than what it's currently labeled, please tell me.)

This is set after the 5th season, maybe between it and the Legacy books.

Burning prideful Wraith

„Funny how we've been on her for years, yet Atlantis still holds so much we don't know about," John said, looking around the ancient laboratory they had just discovered. The city was still on Earth, idly drifting in the waters before San Francisco, and now that procuring resources didn't require using tons of energy on the Stargate anymore they were finally trying to fix all of her. And that meant they were exploring even the very outer edges of he city that they had originally taken off the to-be-fixed-list in order to bring the more vital pieces online that assured their survival in Pegasus.

And as it was one of the flood damaged corridors deep down had this little yet heavily secured lab hidden at its end. It wasn't mentioned in the city's data base and yet it had obviously been important, seeing as it had been build like a little stronghold or the maximum-security wing of a prison. Looking at the table in the middle of the room John was pretty sure it might have been some sort of prison very well. The question was whether the restriction devices connected to it were made to keep men or only something men-shaped down on the gleaming, stainless surface. Rodney seemed to have found an answer to that question.

"It seems like they were experimenting on Wraith," he said, his eyes moving fast as he quickly read through what he had gotten from the computer. The thing wasn't connected to the general network of the city, as was nothing in the lab. Arrogant they may have been, but at least the Ancients had learned to take the Wraith seriously.

"And what exactly did they do?" Sheppard vaguely wondered if the answer might make him pity the poor bastard they had caught and strapped to that table. Dealing with Todd made him think too much about such things. Especially now that the IOA was considering shipping the Wraith off to do some "tests" on him and John was wondering if those "tests" would involve tying the alien down on operation tables similar to the one he was facing now. He hated to admit to himself that he cared and that he would not like it, would probably even try to stop it with all means possible. Because Todd might deserve many things, such as an occasional punch to his smug face, but not that.

"It seems like they wanted to get into their heads," McKay explained, sounding quite curious, which John knew meant the scientist was intrigued by the project and already tried fixing it up in his quick working mind. "Wraith are telepathic, they are always somehow connected to each other. It's like even though they are individuals there is also some kind of... swarm intelligence, in lack of better wording." He tapped a screen. "It says they are even connected to their hives and I mean not only the crew but the actual ship. And that is what the Ancients wanted to make use of. They basically tried to build some sort of Wraith-radar, using a Wraith. The best outcome they were hoping for was not only to be able to pinpoint the hives but to get into that collective intelligence and spy on then, gathering their attack plans and strategies."

"I guess it did not work," John stated dryly.

"Actually, it did." McKay sounded as confused as Sheppard felt upon that news.

"But surely the war would have gone much better for the ancients and they would have mentioned their best weapon somewhere if that was true?"

"Well, it says the machine worked just fine, something else must have gone wrong."

"Maybe the Wraith they had broke out." John looked at the walls around them. It should be impossible but he wouldn't put it past the Wraith to manage an escape after all.

"Or it staved to death," Ronon added in his two cents, sounding like he would rather like watching a Wraith do so.

"Or that," John said with a contemplating shrug, trying to mask that this once again reminded him of the problem of how to deal with their Wraith capture. They had landed on Earth a good month and a half ago and still no one knew the exact amount of time a Wraith could go without feeding. Todd wasn't inclined to tell them it seemed, neither when he had last fed nor how long until he needed to do so again. Maybe they would never find out when Todd would start to get hungry because the IOA dissected him before that or-. He stopped the thought.

"We have a Wraith here to find out," he slowly said and McKay looked up from his screen.

"You mean we test it on Todd?" the scientist asked, sounding both intrigued and not sure if that was a good idea.

"Yeah. Maybe he'll even cooperate." A plan started to form in his head.

"What makes you think he'd do so?" Ronon looked sceptic, justly so.

"We could tell him that if he works on this with us then it'll keep him on Atlantis and out of the IOA's hands."

Ronon grumbled in a way that told everybody he couldn't be bothered with the Wraith' fate, Rodney looked thoughtful. "It won't work for long, sooner or later they'll come get him anyway," the Canadian said.

"Yeah but maybe in that short time we can buy him something changes. It's worth the shot, I guess, because what does he have to lose?"

"I'm only in to see if that thing fries his brain," stated the ex hunter and pointed at the machine.

"Fine with me," Sheppard shrugged. "Rodney?"

"I'll first have to check this thing to see if there is any water damage or if I find something else that's not as it should be. But I'll probably be done when you come back from telling the IOA they can't have their lab rat for another while."

"You can take your time Rodney, we all know you're brilliant enough to fix it real quick but there's no need to hurry." We're trying to buy time, after all, not save it, Sheppard though as he watched a sufficiently flattered Rodney go back to working on the interfaces, muttering approval of Sheppard's comment without catching the sarcasm or the friendly eye-rolling that followed.

It took long until the IOA stopped bitching. Really long. But Sheppard didn't mind them wasting time trying to override his argument of how being able to hack into the Wraith-mind-network would befit them greatly in future dealings with that race. While they were talking maybe some emergency in Pegasus could occur that demanded for the city's immediate return and John was burning to bring her back there, where she and her crew belonged by now. And if they could keep their Wraith alley that would be quite the bonus.

He walked through the corridors, looking at all the teams of scientists that were already itching to take apart what they were only allowed to look at now, waiting to be allowed to strip the city bare of all it had to offer while their associated governments fought about who could keep what findings. It disgusted him. But for now the only problem he could somewhat attempt to solve was Todd and the IOA's quest for shipping him off. For the rest they would probably have to rely on Woolsey, which left a bitter taste in his mouth even though he had come to somewhat respect the man by now, and maybe O'Neill and a few others.

So he strode into the holding cell, mood somewhat sour from his contemplating. Todd seemed to catch on to that, cocking his head to the side and raising a hairless brow ridge. "Why come here to see me, John Sheppard, if it puts you in such a bad mood?" he drawled.

"For once it's not you I'm pissed off at." John languidly bounced his feet, rolling his weight from his heels to the balls of them and back again, while he tried to seem careless as he thought about how to get Todd to consent to the mind read thingy. "Actually I even have a proposition that might do you some good."

"And what proposition might that be?" Todd didn't seem to appreciate him taking his time.

"You see, we found this funny little machine that is supposed to read a Wraith' mind." John raised an eyebrow at how Todd perked up at, congratulating himself to getting the green bastard's attention. "If you were willing to let us test it on you we can keep you here on Atlantis for a while longer, which might give us the time to think up a proper plot to keep the IOA from carting you off and cutting you into pieces until they are happy with their findings and have a brand new collection of creepy preserving jaws." He wasn't completely sure Todd knew what preserving jaws were but judging from the way he clenched his teeth the alien could guess.

Finally Todd unclenched the pointy things and exhaled one controlled breath. "So you want to create an artificial hive-sense?"

"Yeah, I think that's what you can call this." Todd's name for the thing was probably the correct term but John liked naming things so he wouldn't call it that until he decided he couldn't come up with something more catchy.

Todd just nodded once. "Very well," he said.

The scientists in the corridors stared blatantly, gaping at that life form they had never seen before and wouldn't see again if John had any say in it. As much for Todd's protection (oh that thought sounded so very weird the moment John thought it) as for their own. No one should see more of the Wraith than necessary.

Todd for his part held his head high, stalking the place like he owned it and the marines there to keep him under control where nothing but a guard of honour. Occasionally he would grin at those people for whom fear didn't follow immediately after surprise and wonder, scaring the shit out of them after all because a grinning Wraith looked more predatory and dangerous than a hissing and threatening one. But John knew he wasn't just having fun. The Wraith was testing them, trying to get a bit of a glimpse on what Earth-humans were made of. The colonel wondered if they could later read Todd's assessment from his mind, then sighed and herded them along a little faster.

They reached the room where Rodney was surveying all systems. The IOA had taken almost a week to decide on this, he had had plenty of time to get everything ready and so there was no last minute tinkering. Todd looked around as curious as he would ever allow them to see him, following into the lab without problem, but balked when they came to a stop in front of the table.

"Must I be confined to this?" he asked, sounding quite unhappy.

"Yes," said Ronon, who was in the corner, arms crossed in front of his chest as he glared at one of his least favourite species. John however looked questioningly at McKay. He wasn't in the mood to have a fight and force the Wraith when they could do it much easier.

"Uh," the scientist said, obviously not prepared for a question like that. "Well, I don't know if this machine will make you trash around or something..."

"I will not trash." It was a statement.

"You don't know that."

Todd just looked at him and McKay involuntarily ducked his head a little.

"Fine, but if you do after all we'll shoot you." Admittedly, what John raised to underline that statement was only a stunner, but still. The Wraith made an acknowledging sound then went to sit on the table. He did not lie down but placed his hands on his thighs. John wondered if even though he still looked like he owned the place he was panicking underneath. He so couldn't wait to get a better look into what made their stoic somewhat-ally tick.

He watched as McKay came over to disconnect a weird not-quite-helmet from the table, muttering about stupid Wraith being extra difficult until he realised that even when he was doing so under his breath everyone present could still hear him, most of all Todd. The Wraith bared teeth at him and hissed. "I very much doubt that you would like it if I were the one attempting to strap you down like this."

"And I doubt you wouldn't be annoyed if I refused."

Todd huffed half a laugh, then reluctantly bowed his head so McKay could put the mind read helmet on him. While John tried to suppress a chuckle at how ridiculous it looked, so as not to further agitate their more or less willing subject, he again noticed that Todd seemed oddly curious. The Wraith was cocking his head from side to side, testing how the construction sat on his head.

"So, who wants to be first?" McKay asked, hand patting the back of the chair that was build facing the table. It looked a little like a very watered down version of the cities main control chair. Go figure, the Ancients wouldn't wear stupid helmets but use their normal neural interface tecknology.

"I'm the chair guy!" Sheppard raised his hand. Of all the people in the room he indeed had the most experience with ancient chairs. No one protested and so he took his place. "Well, let's go!" And he leaned back.

For a moment there was nothing. Then he was burning alive.

There was no other way to describe that agony. All his senses and thinking vanished in that sudden pain and he trashed, trying to get away from it, all his reflexes screaming at him to end this. There were beacons flashing through this pain that clouded everything, cool little points of something bright that would sooth his torment even though he had no idea why and why he was unable to reach for them. He could not do anything in here, all he cold do was wither in this heat and the sharp bites of the flames eating away at his insides. He could not listen to any words spoken around him, some echoing like they were coming from this hell, some distant like they came from outside. Pictures blurred around him but the invisible flames that hurt him so much distorted them and he couldn't really be brought to care. All that his thoughts, conscious as unconscious, screamed at him was to get out of here or catch those beacons at the edge of this purgatory because they would sooth this all.

McKay frantically hacked away at his laptop, eyes moving fast as he read the data it spit at him. "This can't be, the machine is working perfectly fine!"

"It obviously isn't!" Ronon had abandoned his corner, holding the twitching and screaming Sheppard by the shoulders, trying to wake him out of the chair-trance. He'd just pull him off the chair but McKay had yelled at him not to do that, a sudden, involuntary disconnection would do more harm than good. So he kept trying to wake the man from the trance because he was not sure he could bear seeing him like this much longer before pulling him off the chair after all. Another thought came to him and he turned, aiming his pistol at the still calm Wraith. "What the hell are you doing to him?!"

"Nothing," Todd said, almost too quietly to be heard above Sheppard's screams.

"The hell you aren't!" Ronon hissed.

"Ronon stop, it's not him, the machine doesn't allow for him to do something! Neither is it reading any attempts at defiance from him!" McKay's voice was high pitched.

"That's because it's broken, now shut the thing down before it kills Sheppard!"

"But it's not broken, it works fine, I don't know what's wrong!"

"Doesn't matter, shut it down!"

"I can't!" McKay yelled. He looked pale and panicked and Ronon knew he was doing his best as he typed commands so quickly his fingers almost blurred to the eye.

"Are the Lanteans too arrogant to build fail safes?" Todd asked, though he didn't sound as amused as they would have expected him to. He was starring at Sheppard with an unreadable expression.

"No, you can't just pull someone from this trance by force, they have to stop it themselves!"

The Wraith gave no answer. He just closed his eyes, gripped the edges of the table hard enough to leave indentions in the steel and inhaled once before clenching his jaw so firmly that they could see the muscles strain. His knuckles turned white, the table groaned.

"Now he's doing something!" McKay exclaimed, looking up from his readings and glaring at Todd until he realised John had stopped screaming and fell limp.

"I suggest you wake Sheppard now, this machine was build to drill into the minds of the not cooperating and it is very good at that!" Todd ground out from between his teeth. "My defences will not hold much longer."

"Come on Sheppard!" Ronon slightly slapped the man's cheek trice and Sheppard lurched forward, breathing in fast, shallow drafts of air. The chair disconnected and there was another creak of metal as the Wraith relaxed and let go of the table. Ronon didn't care much about that, the marines would shoot the damn thing if it moved wrong. The men lining the wall were shocked but alert. He focused on making sure sure his friend was okay.

Still gaping for breath, for cool air, John slowly sat up. "What," he rasped, fixing his gaze on the once again unperturbed Wraith, "was that?!"

Todd regarded him in a way that said he was not impressed. "As I told you before, John Sheppard: For Wraith, hunger burns like fire."

John adamantly shook his head, sweat soaked hair swinging. "No way, you're tricking us in hopes of getting fed, there's no way you could so calmly sit there when feeling like that!"

"Yes I can. Like every Wraith can and would. Because that is what makes us Wraith." Todd looked down, turning his feeding hand over to regard the mouth in its palm. "If we caved to hunger and lived only by the instinct to feed we would be nothing more than animals, only barely better than rabid dogs. But we are not animals and will never be. It is that refusal that left us victorious over the Lanteans. They did not think their laboratory pets had the pride and control to pull through, yet we had and seeing what we could do if we just did not give it up is what drove the lesson home permanently.

"And that is why you can starve us into delirium or until we lose consciousness but you will never see a Wraith writhe on the floor in hunger pain, or heedlessly attack whatever moves next around them." He straightened his back and lifted his chin, looking at them with all the defiance of his thousands of years old life. "We endure silently until we are silenced. No matter where or how, a Wraith dies as a Wraith and never as anything less."

It was probably the most Todd had ever spoken to them in one go and they stared at him in silence as the words sunk in. Rodney looked like he didn't know what to say or think. John refused to admit that Todd had been right when he claimed that Kolya tortured them both way back in that cell, refused to let some sympathy for the Wraith creep into his system. Ronon finally shrugged and broke the silence with a "Fine with me, don't care about the how as long as you die."

Todd actually huffed a bitter laugh at that. "Your IOA will see to that soon enough, runner, for I am sure they will not be happy to see you have no different results than the Lanteans back then."

"Yeah," McKay crossed his arms as he stared at the machine's screens, "the reason this project was scrapped is not a malfunction of the machine but probably because they too couldn't bear being in your head with the hunger and- Wait! You sound like you know more than we do!" he then yelled, pointing an accusing finger at the alien.

Todd stared at McKay's pointed finger until the man hastily pulled his hand back to his body, probably thinking Todd might do something as ridiculous as jump at him and bite the offending digit off. "I was born during the war, I grew up with this story."

"This story?"

"Yes, the happenings around this machine make a good story to tell young Wraith born into battle."

"And that story is?" John asked, finding himself somewhat curious. He never thought about if Wraith had stories to tell their young, if they would sit and tell tales like humans would sit and tell tales. He only knew how drones were made and those certainly didn't get bedtime stories.

Todd just silently regarded them for a moment and they had a feeling he was deciding whether they were worthy him telling them stories. But it didn't feel like he was judging them for being humans. Did Wraith have to proof themselves worthy of the elders' wisdom? Was this something of the likes? Whatever it was, Todd seemed to deem them worthy enough because he shifted position a little and started to speak.

"Once during the great war the Lanteans decided to build a machine to give them the ability to intrude upon our collective mind, to spy on the souls and minds of the Hives in orbit over their precious city. They hoped to be able to see our moves before we made them, hoped that they could turn our greatest strength into our biggest weakness. So they caught one of our brethren alive. Heavily wounded and weary from war as he was they brought him to Atlantis and while his wounds healed they strapped him to the machine. And then those who considered themselves able to do anything and everything discovered that there was one thing they could not do: bear the hunger of a Wraith. Many Lanteans tried and all of them failed, the Wraith on the other hand kept calm and above all pain, observing his enemies and telling all weakness he could find to his brethren through the very link of minds the Lanteans sought to infiltrate.

"And so the Lanteans kept him and kept experimenting until he was shortly before death and they were almost brought to their knees by our forces. It was then that they decided that to gain what they were wanting they would have to feed him, so they stole a human from a nearby planted and threw him into the Wraith' cell. Yet when they came back the next morning the human was still alive and it was the same for the next day and the next and then one day the human was still there but the Wraith was dead. And they killed the human themselves so no one would ever hear how they had not been able to break what has once been their lowly lab animal. But the Wraith' kin still knew, in the hives above the city they eased his passing with all the peace their minds could offer one who was burning alive and finally watched as Atlantis sunk to the ocean ground as the Lanteans fled, a worthy tomb for their brother." He looked around the room, nodding to himself in a way that told John he agreed: The town of the defeated enemy was a worthy tomb indeed.

The colonel considered the Wraith in their hands. "Would you feed now, if we had someone to offer you?"

Todd gave him a shark's grin. "If I do not answer, would you try to find out by sending someone into my cell?"

"So you would!" John scoffed. He wasn't prepared for the tired gaze Todd cast on him. It looked utterly wrong on the Wraith, almost worse than what he'd looked like when they first met.

"I am far, far away from my home galaxy, too far for any other's mind to reach me. All you would see is a black void where other Wraith should be. I can't betray them when I am alone. No, all that is left for me is to live on until maybe one day I can go back."

Like he had done back then in the Genii prison, John suddenly realised. Just live on until better days will come. Yet it did not look good for Todd. Especially not with this test result. After another while of stretched silence Sheppard stood and upon discovering that his body still ached yet was functioning just fine, he motioned for Todd to stand as well. "Come on, I'll bring you back. There's nothing to be gained here if your little story is true." He didn't doubt it. Not after feeling that pain. It was worse than being fed upon.

"There could be something gained if you reprogrammed the machine to be a medium rather than a drill," Todd hesitantly suggested as they walked back towards his holding cell, a lot less cocky than before and ignoring all the people around them. They were just flashes of life at the edges of John's mind and with a jolt he realized what those strange beacons he'd seen in Todd's mind had been. The people in the lab. Their lives were the water to extinguish the flames. And he remembered how he had wanted them, how it hurt that he could not have them.

He felt sick for several reasons at once. One for craving them, even if it had only been through Todd's mind and two because he could now see what they were doing to the Wraith, leading him through the city like this. In his cell he was quite isolated, but here, right now, they were practically dangling all the food he could ever want right before his starving nose, yet he would never have it and knew that. John suddenly felt a lot closer to Kolya and that was another reason to make him want to puke. And then he wanted to puke because he felt so helpless, it disgusted him. Because he could do nothing, what the Wraith needed were still people.

He sped up, leading the little group faster. "You mean: make it passive so you have control about what we see and can keep the... burning away from us?" he finally said to answer Todd' half-statement/half-question.

"Yes." And the "s" in the word was drawn out to convey Todd's satisfaction about Sheppard's understanding.

"Don't know if the IOA will think of this as useful, they want some leverage on you guys, not limited intel."

"Surely they would not deem a better understanding between our species completely useless?"

"What could you tell me mentally that you could not tell me in words?" John asked. They had reached the cell and he stopped to let Todd walk past him and in there. The Wraith looked over his shoulder.

"That which you would classify as my name, for example." With that he marched on to sit on the sparse bed and ignore Sheppard in favour of doing what the colonel would loosely call meditating.

"So when they always just stared at us when we asked for their name they actually answered but we just weren't able to hear it?" Rodney asked before biting into his sandwich. John only poked at his food. He knew it was stupid but right now he didn't feel like eating.

"That or they just couldn't be bothered to explain to us that there would be no use in telling us." He finally took a bite of his lunch.

"I believe in Sheppard's theory." Ronon dug into his food with as much enthusiasm as Rodney.

Teyla stepped up to them before they could say much more, carrying Torren on her hip. "So how did your experiment go?" she asked, giving a cookie to the child that commanded all the attention the greedy anthropologists and similar people left, who came in day in and day out to ask Teyla questions about life in Pegasus.

"Not so good. Sheppard got quite the painful ride." McKay only hesitated a moment before returning to eating again, frowning though while he chewed.

"Painful?" she asked, looking at John in worry.

"I'm fine. Was just caught a bit off guard 'cause Todd wasn't kidding when saying Wraith hunger feels like fire." Shrugging, John started eating again as well, if only to dispel her worries.

"He shared that with you?" Teyla looked surprised.

"Didn't have much of a choice, I think. He kept calling the machine a 'drill'. Why, you think he wouldn't put us through that for his amusement?"

"When aboard the Hive as his queen I was part of the hive-sense and no Wraith ever let their hunger burn through it. Though even if Todd hadn't explained the current... food-shortage to me, I could see they weren't that well fed at all. I asked him if they could sense the others' state of hunger at all or if the reason why they did not discover that I wasn't hungry is that they cannot. He told me they think I am strong for never showing hunger, because losing control over that fire is deemed weakness and no Wraith would ever dare admit to it. They keep it to themselves, for their ability to endure it is what makes them Wraith." She inclined her head, showing that despite all her negative emotions towards the Wraith she could still respect their idea of self.

"Todd said basically the same to us. Come to think of it, anything else interesting 'bout that hive-sense?" He had given up on finding a better name. "'Cause he also said it would allow us to know his name or something."

"I do know how they recognize each other but I do not know any actual names as we would define them. Either he managed to keep that secret somehow, I am quite sure he interfered much I could have otherwise seen. Or maybe they really have no names as per our definition. I would not know."

John leaned back in his seat. "Well, guess I'm gonna see for myself once McKay reprogrammed that thing."

"You think the IOA will allow us to continue?" McKay asked.

"They don't need to know Todd has some control over what we see, just tell them it works though the machine doesn't work as efficiently as it could, you need some time to recalibrate it for better intel, blah blah. Just include lot's of complicated words to throw them off." He made a vague movement with his hand.

"Why are we putting so much energy in keeping the Wraith from them?" Ronon demanded to know, annoyed.

"Because we might need him again and I feel like I owe the bastard."

"No valid reasons to me. No one needs live Wraith. Dead ones are the good ones."

"I agree with you when it comes to every Wraith but that one. Just think about how many more ZPM's he could be hiding or something."

Ronon still didn't seem happy but at last he growled: "Fine but he'll stay prisoner, not friend."

"No one's gonna let him out of his shackles," John calmed him, slightly exasperated.

It took McKay a while to reprogramme the machine. When he finally managed, John waited until evening, when the corridors where more empty, to escort the Wraith to the lab. He told himself it was so not so many people would see Todd and fuel the rumour mill about the alien that had cooked up after the last time they marched him through the city.

Todd looked like he always did and behaved normally, though looking closely his shaggy mane of white hair seemed to have lost what shine it ever had and the veins beneath his skin seemed more prominent, his cheekbones, too. Teyla said she had been able to see that the Wraith' crew hasn't been that well fed. Was it things like this that showed it? Or was it a lack of shower and sunshine that left the Wraith looking even more... frazzled than usual? But if he were to ask Todd, the Wraith would probably just snarl at him, so he didn't.

They reached the lab in silence and Todd sat on the edge of the table again while John grimaced and sat down in the chair. He really hoped this would work better than last time. And it seemed he was lucky because when McKay powered things up he didn't feel any different. Most importantly, he didn't feel any burning pain. But wasn't there supposed to be something now?

"You're not supposed to shut him out completely, you know!?" KcKay told Todd, either to distracted by the machine to care, or feeling secure enough behind it's bulk to snap at the Wraith.

"Just taking it slow, in case your reprogramming did not work as was planned," Todd answered as sweetly as a Wraith could. It seemed he knew other ways of putting McKay in his place than simply letting his predator characteristics scare the man. McKay for his part spluttered, obviously not prepared for this kind of mocking from Todd.

"Be nice to the science guy, Todd, he's just trying to make this work," John quipped. For your own good was left unsaid, but he was pretty sure Todd could pick it up. He was not prepared to feel a wave of annoyance swap over him. Followed by smugness when he jumped a little in surprise. "Yeah don't warn me, very funny!" he grouched.

The smugness turned into amusement. A friendly kind of amusement to John's surprise. Kind of like what he felt when bantering with his friends, though not as bold as that. Todd was reluctant and it took him a moment to realised that he could actually feel that, too. He looked at the Wraith in dumb wonderment, feeling Todd's amusement renew at that. There was also curiosity mixed in with it all.

"No wonder you guys are so rigid most of the time, you don't really need body language, do you?" he asked, feeling a little more secure now that he was getting used to it.

We are indeed not as outwardly expressive as your people like to be.

John jumped again and this time actually heard Todd's chuckle echo through his head. "Now that is kind of creepy. Do you ever speak aloud on hive ships when there are no humans aboard?"

There are always humans aboard hive ships. AndJohn felt that Todd was not trying to aggravate him, he was trying to keep him on his toes and alert, trying to make him think before speaking.

Without this connection he would have probably snapped at the Wraith or used a lot more sarcasm. Now he just calmly clarified: "I mean humans that are not food or worshippers."

Sometimes, yes. Mostly when aggravated we will return to the ways of speaking aloud and conveying our emotional status with our body's language.

"In other words, you like to throw bitch-fits?" he chuckled. Todd hissed and narrowed his eyes.

I fail to see where our ways of anger differ from yours and why you think you can ridicule them.

Annoyance hit John, as well as doubt about this whole experiment at all. He could feel Todd withdraw some. He leaped after the other's consciousness without thinking about it.

Todd sat up a little straighter, portraying first surprise then acceptance of the subconscious apology John had launched. John for his part was surprised as well, first at his urge to apologize, then at the fact that it had reached Todd. While McKay asked "Sheppard, what just happened?" as he stared at his screens, John huffed and uttered a perplexed So this works both ways? He blinked when he didn't hear himself speak yet still someone gave an answer to his silent statement.

It seems so, Todd spoke up in his head. It flabbergasted John that the Wraith didn't seem to have any objections to the fact that not only could Sheppard read Todd's thoughts but could also transmit his own into the Wraith' head. He must have transmitted that feeling as well because Todd cocked his head to the side, contemplating before answering. I do not mind because it is a natural state for me to have the consciousness of another so close to mine. If I do not want to hear you I will shut you out, but for now I am content to indulge you.

John once again ignored the questions of McKay and Ronon floating around him, his eyes fixed on Todd's reptilian ones and all his attention on the aliens mind. It's the loneliness, isn't it? he suddenly asked, trying to grasp that feeling that Todd kept out of his reach. Todd shrunk back at John's epiphany, beginning to pull up walls. You're so used to having the minds of other Wraith around you, it drives you crazy to be completely alone in your head. That's why you agreed to this. You want this emptiness gone, you don't care about buying time because- he stopped.

Because there's not enough left, anyway, Todd mercilessly ended his thought for him.

John stared at him. How long? he demanded to know. How long?!

A couple of days, perhaps. Not an entire week. The Wraith shrugged his still squared shoulders once, not giving a single clue of his resignation to everyone else in the room.

"Shit!" John cursed aloud. "Damn you-" And would have said some more had Todd not laughed.

Throwing a bitch-fit, John Sheppard? And he drew out the name in that way of his.

"This it not funny!"

You seemed to think it was.

He just stared at the Wraith for a moment, then leaned forward in the chair, disconnecting them. "This is pointless, bring him back to his cell!"

"But-" Rodney started, confused.

"Bring him back, I just need some time to-..." Think about what to do with the Wraith now. Feeding him, shooting him to shorten the suffering, putting him in a stasis pod and so many more plans went around his head in a chaos, the only clear thing the question why he even cared.

Then Ronon walked past him, guiding the Wraith with his pistol drawn and as he watched them go it occurred to Sheppard that he had never asked for Todd's real name after all.