Chapter 13

As Sheppard helped Todd lift the heavy metal cover to reveal the vertical tunnel that led down to the underground labyrinth, his senses went into free fall. The stale, musty atmosphere that wafted up to fill his nostrils, the changing colours and texture of the walls as they disappeared down into the dimly lit shadows were potent reminders of his short stay in the bowels of this hellhole. Memories and images of excruciating pain at the hands of the enigmatic Wraith who now stood with him, of Kolya's demands to Elizabeth, of her refusal to forfeit Ladon Radim's life for his own all came flooding back.

A tight, uncontrollable ball of tension formed in his stomach that he found difficult to ignore. It should not be happening though. He had years of practise keeping a strong rein in his emotions under his belt and he was immediately pleased his team from Atlantis were not here to witness this anomaly. Teyla and Carter would have a psychoanalytical field day at his expense. Even though he had vaguely anticipated something like this happening, it was far stronger than he had ever imagined so he hesitated momentarily, just long enough for Todd to notice.

"I felt the same when I returned here Sheppard, the tastes and odours of this place evoke some very strong memories." As he crouched down to inspect the ladder they had once climbed up together, the sharpness of his voice displayed his own negative feelings. "And I warn you now those memories will become more vivid the further we go underground but, as this happens, they will also become more palatable and easier to deal with." Straightening up again, his strong double-layered voice took on a note of command rather than support. "I came here when this place was uninhabited, when there were no challenges to my presence other than those inflicted by my own mind. But that is not the case now and you must not allow your emotions to dull your reflexes."

Despite understanding Sheppard's feelings, Todd still found it difficult to move beyond his inherent belief that humans allowed emotions to determine their actions and responses far too easily.

Answering this challenge with unfamiliar defensiveness, Sheppard stiffened with indignation that Todd could think he would be unprofessional enough to allow emotions to cloud his judgement and effectiveness. "Don't worry, I know exactly how to stay focused."

"Very well." Todd's face conveyed scepticism rather than confidence.

After a final deep breath of the cool, fresh, early morning air, Sheppard minded his tongue as they began the silent descent down the heavy metal rungs on the wall. Todd was so eager to point out what he saw as his human companion's frailties and fears in dealing with his emotions, yet had this innate ability to totally overlook the fact that he was vulnerable to similar feelings. This idea that wraith were not subject to feeling rang very false with Sheppard who saw it merely as a ruse to help them maintain their dominance over human populations.

Dust puffed up around their feet as they jumped the short distance from the final rung to the concrete floor. This back entrance to the labyrinth was a small triangular vestibule, lit only by a small dirty light on the wall opposite the ladder. A heavy metal door similar to ones that Sheppard had seen in other Genii bunker complexes took up most of the third wall. Glancing in Todd's direction, Sheppard recognised a now familiar intensity transform the Wraith's face and realised he was subliminally searching the facility for the location of its human inhabitants.

The process was completed quickly and Todd cast a fleeting look in Sheppard's direction through half-closed eyes. "Two groups, one down towards the cell area, the other further in, possibly in the room where I fed upon you." Sheppard raised his eyebrows, slightly taken aback by the dispassionate way Todd referred to their shared feeding experience but then the wraith had never wasted too much energy trying to spare human feelings.

Moving on, Sheppard applied his experience to analyse the information. "Okay, my guess is the two down near the cells might be sleeping. I know that's how I'd be working things if I only had a handful of men." A short, deep grunt indicated Todd's agreement with this logic. "We should take care of them first."

Deciding they had spent long enough in the tiny room, Todd moved across to open the door into the main facility, slowly in order to control the amount of noise. As he stepped through the door the atmosphere became colder, even staler, carrying stronger odours of human habitation and his boots mutely echoed on the cold, hard concrete floor.

Sheppard paused after taking half a dozen steps. Interestingly, he was not experiencing the heightened perception of his memories that Todd had warned about. Perhaps because he had spent far less time down here and had managed to retain a sense of hope even when his life had been draining away, perhaps because he lacked the more effective sensory functions that Todd's sensory pits appeared to support, probably a combination of these factors. But once they started moving further into the facility, travelling through the dimly lit, shadowy corridors Sheppard realised that Todd's other prediction was pretty accurate. The initial pull on his emotions became easier to control as he turned his resolve to finishing the job at hand rather than lingering on the past.

There was little time for small talk. Sheppard was happy to let Todd focus exclusively on the humans he could sense ahead and while they were much clearer in his mind, their thoughts and identities were still shadowy. Suddenly the wraith stopped. Signalling Sheppard to fall back into the shadows against the wall, they both powered their weapons just as an older man, recognisable as a Genii soldier by the rifle he carried, rounded a corner ahead. The look of sheer surprise that transformed his lined face turned to alarm just before he was hit with stunner blasts and crumpled to the floor. Todd walked up and hit him with an additional blast.

"Just a precaution Sheppard, to make sure we have enough time to complete this job before he wakes. He is still alive."

Needing to check for himself, Sheppard moved forward and bent down to check the man's neck pulse before they both took an arm and dragged him into the shadows.

o-o-o-o-

Sheppard's prediction that two of the men might be sleeping proved correct allowing them to be dealt with swiftly and locked in the separate rooms they occupied. Todd had then asked Sheppard if he wanted to revisit the cell area where they had began their strange journey, an offer that was politely refused. With only one human target left, the one they knew must be Kolya, they knew their moment of truth was rapidly approaching and neither felt inclined to delay it further.

So as they arrived outside the room where Kolya now waited, the room where he had overseen the feeding, Sheppard's mind was briefly filled with images of the Atlantis mission's first commander, Elizabeth Weir. The woman he had told not to negotiation with Kolya to exchange his life for Ladon Radim. He wondered how things might have turned out if she had ignored his plea and simply acquiesced and handed Ladon over. Would the galaxy be a better place if Kolya had become leader of the Genii?

One thing was certain, he would be back in Atlantis rather than involved in this unusual quest for retribution with a wraith, although it was likely Todd would still be here, a miserable prisoner under Kolya's control. As he looked at the well-defined profile of the tall alien standing next to him, he wondered how Elizabeth would view this continuing interaction and smiled. The diplomat in her would probably applaud anything that furthered their connections and networks with the races of this galaxy. Even the wraith.

o-o-o-o-

Despite their attempts at stealth, Kolya knew they had arrived, not through any heightened powers of perception but because of the shadows that preceded that arrival. Now that he was finally left with no choice but to face them, a tremor of apprehension passed through his mind driven by his life-long fear of being fed on by a Wraith, a fate that he had to realistically rate as a possibility now. But as he took some slow, deep breaths, the apprehension was slowly replaced by defiance as he refused to let fear dominate. After all was this not exactly what he had anticipated when he had tried to come here on his own? He had wanted this confrontation to end something that would continue to dog his life if left unchallenged and it was up to him to make sure he cames out of it with the result he wanted.

He waited a few minutes before speaking. "I have been expecting you." Seated in what he thought of as Sheppard's chair, he swung around towards the door to meet the two newcomers but still they seemed reluctant to show themselves. "Come in. It's quite safe. I'm unarmed."

But his adversaries' hesitation had nothing to do with any reluctance to face their foe. They had been watching each other closely, each suddenly filled with a degree of trepidation about how much they could really trust the other. Todd knew that Sheppard would probably try to stop him from feeding. Sheppard knew that Todd would probably try to neutralise him, temporarily he hopes, before neutralising Kolya on a more permanent basis.

Finally Todd took the initiative, deciding to place his trust in his human ally. "I will go first, I am better able to survive his bullets if he is lying." Sheppard saw not reason to argue with this strategy.

The Genii's defiance hit Todd before he entered the room, defiance complemented by a degree of confidence and determination to face his fate in the same way he had led his life. Head-on with courage and confidence.

"You know it took me quite some time to recognise you after I went through that stargate. You don't seem to have suffered too many adverse effects from your experience down here." Kolya's steely voice still carried the disgust he had felt towards the wraith.

Todd merely growled in response, a sign that their lack of respect was mutual and he wanted nothing more than to just feed on this human who had caused him so much misery. But as he walked further into the room he drew on the experience gained here, in this very place, to calm his inner balance and keep his hatred under control. Truth was he could also sense the fear, the apprehension that lurked just below the facade of Kolya's bravado. The tables had turned and he felt certain that whatever happened, he had the upper hand. A grim smile spread slowly across his face as he answered the human's challenge with a low rumbling laugh. When he finally spoke his voice carried a tone of casual conversation.

"I have had my share of problems reasserting my position among wraith. It has not always been easy but things are finally starting to head in the direction I want."

Kolya glanced past the Wraith just as Sheppard moved through the door. "That is where you Atlanteans have come in useful I believe Colonel? Helping him redeem himself."

Sheppard merely raised his eyebrows seeing this for what it was, a a blatant attempt to bait him and sow some seeds of disharmony. He was more than happy to allow Todd to continue the conversation.

"Ah, yes, Colonel Sheppard." Todd threw a quick glance behind him. "He has proved to be quite useful to me. But you know I really should be thanking you. You gave me the unique opportunity to learn far more about humans than any other of my race has ever had before." He turned his attention towards the Genii's video equipment. Walking slowly towards this quaint piece of technology, he stopped at the lens and tilted his head to examine the various settings. "Or did you think I spent all my time here feeling sorry for myself?"

The initial pleasantries of the double-layered voice were replaced by a distinct note of animosity while the look on Kolya's face showed that was exactly what he had thought. He was not given chance to answer though as Todd continued speaking.

"Did you allow your sense of superiority to blind you to how much I watched, learning about how humans can behave towards each other, learning how to adapt my own behaviour to my advantage when dealing with humans?" Again Kolya was denied a chance to respond to the question. "The alliance I made with Sheppard to escape from here showed me that humans can be valuable as something more than a just source of energy and I discovered that some of them possess a sense of honour that had previously been hidden from me." Turning to face Kolya again, the smile had disappeared, replace by a look of disdain. "But my experience with you and your predecessors showed me something entirely different. You taught me that cruelty and disregard for human life, attributes humans readily label as unacceptable in members of my race, are considered acceptable among themselves."

Kolya looked surprised and the room was silent until he realised he had finally been given an opportunity to respond. "I must admit to being impressed. I never saw you as anything other than a pathetic, broken creature, grateful for the morsels I threw you but knowing that all you really had to look forward to was a slow, painful death."

Sheppard finally moved fully into the room, watching Todd closely, silently witnessing this example of the verbal abuse the wraith had received during his imprisonment. It also seemed that Todd was giving as good as he got so he remained in the background watching. But as he watched, he realised there was something here that Todd could sense but was not immediately evident to him as a human. He was trying to work out exactly what when he realised Kolya was now addressing him.

"And you Colonel, I thought you would turn up here sometime although I think I would have preferred to see you with your regular team members."

"Flexibility Kolya, something I know you understand." Sheppard knew he had to keep a rein on the emotional impulses that were surging through his brain, triggered by the memories this room held. Not used to operating in such a highly-charged emotional state, he decided the best way to deal with this turmoil was to go on the offensive. "So you thought I'd turn up? And you came here anyway." Sheppard tilted his head questioningly. "That's either very confident or very stupid."

Kolya chuckled. "Neither. You are a man who has taken chances in life, Sheppard." Kolya looked at both his assailants. "You both know that sometimes things do not quite go to plan and you come to a point where only a very limited number of options present themselves."

"Oh yeah. Ladon's bounty must have come as a nasty little surprise to you?" Sheppard made no attempt to control the sarcasm. For his part Todd sensed a sudden change in Kolya when Ladon's name was mentioned, a deepening of the fear that was being kept so firmly out of sight. It gave him cause for thought. Could it be that this human's fear of being captured by this other Genii was actually stronger than the fear of being fed on?

"Indeed,' Kolya replied. "But I suspect he had already been told you planned to start looking for me. No need to answer that Colonel, the look on your face tells me I am right. You know it was really quite typical of Ladon, let someone else do most of the groundwork for him then move in to grab the glory." Even when faced with such determined opponents, he was unable to resist a dig at Ladon.

"Oh I don't know about grabbing the glory." Sheppard raised his eyebrows as he considered and then rejected this assertion. "He hasn't got you yet. Besides I'd have thought being found by us is a better option than being taken by a bounty hunter who really doesn't care if he delivers you alive as long as he gets paid."

"Does it matter much one way or the other?" Some of the confidence drained out of Kolya's voice. "I have lost the prize I spent most of my life working towards. You may not have such high aspirations yourself, Sheppard but I know you understand how deeply betrayal cuts."

"Really? I'd have thought you Genii were used to the double-cross, seems to me like that's pretty much your standard practice when it comes to dealing with others in the galaxy."

"You carry a grudge well Colonel." Kolya smiled wryly.

Sheppard shook his head emphatically. "Grudges Kolya. Grudges. I've had enough experience with you to hold multiple grudges where you and the Genii as a whole are concerned. You tried to take Atlantis, you killed my men and you used me as a pawn to get at Ladon."

"I told you my actions towards you were never personal, you were simply a means to an end. The raid on Atlantis was ordered by Cowen, I was merely following orders. Something you do every day Colonel. The decision not to exchange your life for Ladon Radim was made by your friends on Atlantis, it was not my choice." Sheppard wanted to challenge Kolya's denial of responsibility for his actions but realised it would be useless. "Unfortunately for me you proved to be just a little too resourceful in a way I seriously underestimated. Tell me, how did you convince him to join you in that rescue?" Kolya turns his head towards the wraith.

Sheppard smiled ironically. "Oh, there's a saying where I come from, 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'. We had a common purpose and for both of us failure just wasn't an option."

Todd had melted away into the shadows to observe this pair who had played such a big part in his practical education about human behaviour. As he listened to their banter, he saw two beings with a long history of confrontation, who had tried to kill each other on various occasions yet through all that had developed a grudging respect for the other' military abilities and tenacity. He suddenly got an inkling of why Sheppard was so uncomfortable with the idea of Kolya being fed upon. It was more than just his natural dislike of watching another human fall victim to a wraith. Despite the fact that they had been enemies since they met, in Kolya he saws a reflection of himself and wanted to hand out a punishment that he would consider acceptable if their positions were reversed.

Finally though, Todd felt his frustration with such human niceties begin to rise. "Enough of this chatter. It achieves nothing. The question is what are we going to do with you?"

The steely, deep voice emerging from the shadows along with its owner caused both humans to turn in his direction, the look on their faces showed they had become so caught-up in their own conversation that they had forgotten the third member of the little party. While it was a question addressed to Kolya, Sheppard responded first, returning his gaze to Kolya but motioning with his head towards Todd. "He wants to feed on you."

Kolya laughed dryly although it carried a tone of concern rather than humour. "Why am I not surprised by that?" Despite his position of weakness, he just could not resist baiting this wraith who had been under his control for so long. "I would have thought you have broken every rule in the book on dealing with a human. I knew you were weak but this behaviour, collaborating with Sheppard still surprises me. I suppose you see feeding on me as a way of redeeming your credibility with other wraith."

Todd moved out of the shadows, his face reflecting his annoyance that despite being on the edge of annihilation, this human still refused to show him the respect he deserved as a member of the dominant race in the galaxy. Definitely time to get this business finished. As he moved towards Kolya, his sensory pits were overwhelmed by the conflicting odours being produced by Kolya's body, confidence and bravado over laid with fear and desperation. It presented Todd with an opportunity to assert his superiority, one that simply could not ignore.

"You saw yourself as so superior to me and yet you feared me anyway." He brought his face down close to the Genii who still sat in that solitary wooden chair. "Just as you are afraid of me now because you fear the retribution I can exact from you and you know Sheppard will not step in to stop me."

Straightening his back, Todd now assumed a position frighteningly familiar to both the Genii and the Atlantean. Despite this immediate threat Kolya showed no outward sign of fear, but Todd was aware of the heightened heart rate and the silent panic spreading through his opponent's body.

The Genii knew his only hope of escaping this fate lay with Sheppard. "So Colonel, you effectively hold the same power I welded during our last encounter. Except while my motive was a desire to serve my people, yours will be nothing more than pure revenge. Will watching me become nothing more than a dried husk give you the satisfaction you're obviously seeking."

As Kolya spoke, Sheppard was also seeing the similarities between their relative positions except, and he finally had to admit it, he had very little power over Todd's behaviour. He knew full well that Kolya was trying to put enough doubt in his mind that he would turn against his ally and try to stymie Todd's proposed course of action. He still carries the Wraith stunner and would be able to use it on Todd before he could feed. But he hesitated, thinking back over what he knew about both their experiences, about Kolya's inability to accept responsibility for his actions and he realised part of him would like to see this renegade suffer what he had suffered.

But before he was forced to make a decision that held the power to haunt him for the rest of his life, a new voice cut through his deliberations.

"Much as I hate to break up this little gathering, I've got another solution that's far more likely to happen."

Three pairs of eyes immediately turn to focus on the source of the interruption. Ladon Radim stood in the door, behind him were three men each with a rifle aimed squarely at one of the room's three occupants. A hushed silence fell over the gathering.

Sheppard recovered his voice first. "Ladon! What the hell are you doin' here?"

The question was accompanied by an annoyed little glance Todd's direction for not sensing this new arrival but the wraith just shrugged his shoulders lightly. Like Sheppard, he had been far too involved in the action in this room to keep a weather eye out for new arrivals. Of course he was annoyed that he had let his guard down, it was never good for a wraith to be taken unawares especially by armed humans. But had happened and he was now faced with the challenge of working out how to survive this new situation.

Looking around with a satisfied smile on his face, Ladon's voice carried the confidence of the player who controlled the game. "Oh, I was fairly certain this is where Kolya would run to if I made life too difficult for him everywhere else in the galaxy." He looked from Sheppard to Kolya. "You know you've both always underestimated my abilities. It annoyed me once, until I eventually came to realise that it actually provides cover to carry out plans without others ever suspecting exactly how much I'm manipulating the situation."

"Oh I've never underestimated you Ladon!" A smile wrinkled Sheppard's eyes leaving the rest of his face untouched as he shook his head. "I might not like you but I've never doubted your animal cunning. You're Genii, I learnt long ago not to trust any of you, even when we've got an alliance."

The Genii leader finally moved further into the room. "Ah, yes our alliance. Weren't we going to share information? I seem to remember being quite generous with you, telling you when our outposts were culled." Ladon turned an inquiring look on Todd. "Your handiwork I assume." The wraith merely nodded. Seeing no reason to get involved in what is clearly a personal gripe against Sheppard, he moved discreetly back into the shadows.

"But then I find out that as soon as you get a lead about Kolya's possible location, you head off on your own and end up in all sorts of trouble." Another smile crossed Ladon's face. "Now that I think about it a little more though, perhaps things have worked out for the best." He turned his attention to his rival. "Although it certainly hasn't worked out all that well for you has it."

Kolya shook his head and uttered a low chuckle. "I am disappointed that your first words to me are designed to gloat over your victory Ladon. I thought you had more class than that."

"Oh I do. But you have been such an irritant for so long, I really could not let this moment pass without making the effort."

"What you planning to do with him?" Sheppard asked the question that was on all their minds.

Todd turned quickly towards Kolya sensing a significant change in attitude that reinforced his belief that the rebel fears imprisonment by his own people far more than death. Ladon also kept his full attention on his erstwhile rival, taking his time to frame his response to Sheppard.

"Oh, a trial I think, one that will probably weigh up the evidence objectively and return a guilty verdict. Does that meet with your approval?"

Sheppard merely nodded then looked at Todd who had remained silent throughout this exchange. "Well, looks like we don't have much choice but to agree. Guess it's time for us to go."

The Genii leader laughed, more confident than ever that he had this whole situation firmly under his control. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves here Colonel Sheppard. In the spirit of our alliance, I'm willing to let you walk out of here but there's no way I'm going to spare a wraith, especially not one like this who is obviously amazingly adept at changing his loyalties to suit the moment."

Not for the first time Sheppard was struck by the inherent similarities between Todd and Ladon, supreme confidence and adaptability abounded, but decided it was probably wise to keep this observation to himself. Looking over he saw a slight smile fleetingly touch the Wraith's face before Todd glanced in his direction, clearly warning him to keep out of this.

"Exactly how do you intend to stop me from leaving, Genii?" Todd walked out from from the shadows behind Kolya, his voice harsh but surprisingly persuasive. "My hive is orbiting this world right above this facility. I can have darts ready to cull you and your men the minute you leave this facility and step out into open ground. And there is nothing you can do to stop that. Even if you decide to kill me now I will still have time to order such an attack." He walked over to stand menacingly close to Ladon, ignoring the three rifles now all turned against him alone. "In fact I might even be doing so now, as we speak. So while you could have the pleasure of killing me, your triumph will be very short-lived. Is this a risk you're prepared to take?"

Sheppard was aware that he had just witnessed exactly how much Todd had learnt about humans and how to manipulate them and for once he was pleased to see the Wraith's liberal interpretation of the truth. He had to admit he would feel badly if Todd did not make it out of this little venture alive, so he just kept his silence and let the two of them work out this impasse.

While uncertainty was obvious on the Genii's face, it was only fleeting. He had always prided himself as a man who puts pragmatism before principle and this seemed to be another occasion when this approach would be the best solution all round. He was certainly not prepared to lose Kolya now that he finally had him cornered.

"You make a persuasive argument wraith." He smiled up at the stern green face. "If I guarantee your safety, I trust you will do the same for us?"

Todd bowed his head slightly in a display of mock respect that Sheppard had witnessed before, usually when it had been directed at him. "Of course. I have nothing to gain from betraying you." He looked over towards Kolya. "So you are saved. Much as you fear being fed on by me, you have far greater demons to face coming to terms with the fact that you will never taste the power you were prepared to risk your life to achieve. Given how this situation has evolved, I think knowing about your torment will give me far more satisfaction than the momentary pleasure I would gain from taking your life."

With that he strode out confidently, ignoring the three Genii soldiers and leaving the humans to their own devices. Knowing that Sheppard would follow, he did not bother looking back. He had got all he wanted from this situation, even though it had not turned out exactly how he originally planned. But sometimes a Wraith needed to accept what victories he could, especially when dealing with humans, learn from the experience and move on with that knowledge stored for the next time.

-o-o-o-o-

Sheppard had to admit he was pleased to see daylight as he climbed up the final metal rungs of the facility's entrance hatch and onto the surface. He had passed more of Ladon's soldiers on the way back to this exit and, looking out through the door of the room that housed this hatch, he saw more standing around, complying uneasily with the guarantee of safe passage that Ladon had radioed through. Moving outside, Sheppard took a long, deep breath of fresh air and looked up to allow his face to absorb some heat from the sun.

Todd was standing on his own, keeping a wary eye on the Genii, and Sheppard moved over to join him.

"You took a risk, bluffing Ladon into believing the hive's still here."

Todd just smiled. "Who said I was bluffing Sheppard? Risk is a key component of success and sometimes we have to push good fortune to ensure success."

"So the hive is here?" Sheppard asked but Todd just shrugged. "I didn't think you wraith believed in luck and good fortune." He watched as Todd's smile broadened but Sheppard cut him off before he could utter a response. "Yes, I know, you've told me before, there's much I don't know about wraith."

"Well at least you now seem to be making an attempt to learn."

Ignoring this barb, Sheppard bit his bottom lip thoughtfully. "You know if Ladon hadn't turned up, I probably would've let you feed on Kolya."

"I know. Yet I possibly may not have gone through with it in the end anyway." Todd looked wistfully into the distance a little surprised that he had admitted this fact.

Sheppard was also surprised. "Why? I thought that's what drove you to find him in the first place."

Todd turned to study the Atlantean's face, a face he had come to read far better in the last few days than he had ever imagine possible. Now that he had started down the path of telling the truth he might as well continue.

"At one point, down there, I looked into his eyes and knew, that frightened as he was of the process, he actually wanted me to feed on him."

"Really? He seemed pretty calm to me."

"I would suggest Sheppard that you were too busy trying to come to terms with your own fears to understand how he was really feeling."

Again Sheppard ignored such a blatant attack on his abilities. "So that's what stopped you? The fact that he wanted it to happen."

"No, when you first mentioned the name of the other Genii, I sensed that Kolya feared the fate that one held in his hands far more than being fed on by me. That was confirmed when this Ladon appeared." A pensive look overtook his face and he sighed deeply before continuing. "Kolya wanted to lead his people but will end up losing everything, including his freedom. So now he will feel the same despair and desperation that I felt to be separated from everything that was important to me. Trust me Sheppard, that is far worse than death. Allowing him to be taken and dealt with by his own people is a much harsher punishment than the one I had planned. It is an outcome I am quite happy to live with."

More questions started to form in Sheppard's mind only to become fragmented and lost in the atmosphere as they were both swept up by the culling beam of the same solitary dart that had delivered them there.

Epilogue

Not surprisingly, things had not changed that much on Atlantis while Sheppard had been away. The sun was still setting over the ocean, casting brilliant shards of orange and red light through the clouds on the horizon. Team members were still playing basketball and was standing at his favourite spot on the balcony outside the mess hall, drinking a carton of his favourite fruit juice and taking in some of the basic pleasures of life that he had missed in the dark, shadowy environment of Todd's hive.

"I see you passed your medical with flying colours, no lasting effects from the crack on the head Teyla told me you got from the Genii." Carter's voice preceded her arrival by his side at the railing.

"Yeah, no, it'd take more than a Genii rifle barrel to do lasting damage to this head," Sheppard stated confidently as he smiled across at her. "Actually, you know they really looked after us quite well on the hive." He looked up to the sky remembering the kindness the healer Merriell had shown them. "They gave us some herbal stuff that was really useful, we need to see if we can get hold of some."

"Mmmm, perhaps." The hesitation in Carter's voice showed she did not share his enthusiasm. "Teyla mentioned it and it's possible, well, addictive qualities. I think it's one we'll leave alone if you don't mind."

Sheppard just shrugged his shoulders and grunted in reply. "You're the boss."

They stood looking out together for about five minutes before Sheppard finally started to feel a slight uneasiness. He glanced round at Carter but she was just looking out to sea with a slight smile on her face, a smile he had last seen in this very spot just before she tried to get him to talk about the whole thing with Todd and Kolya. He shut his eyes and sighed. Well, he knew this would have to happen so it was probably better to have it done with sooner rather than later and it was up to him to make it as painless as possible.

"Ladon turned up and took Kolya. Seemed the whole thing with the bounty was just a ploy to get Kolya to run back to that damned prison facility. Todd and I were already there when Ladon arrived."

A pretty basic rundown of the past day or so of events but it should be enough to satisfy one of Carter's questions. He turned round and leaning back against the railing, he threw his empty fruit juice container into a bin near the door. This was where things were going to be more difficult because he was sure Carter would want to know how he had dealt with the issues that had got this whole chain of events underway. It was probably better to volunteer information than wait to be interrogated.

"We talked. Todd and I talked about what happened between us, how we felt about things. I don't think I'll be having anymore sleepless nights over this particular little adventure," he stated confidently, thinking back to his earlier conversation with Carter all those days ago when they had talked about how things are different in this galaxy. "You know you were right with all that stuff about things being difference here, values, ethics and behaviours that sort of stuff. Todd said something similar although he was trying to justify wraith feeding on humans because that's just the way things are. We ended up disagreeing on that. But he also talked about our arrogance in believing the attitudes we've brought from Earth are superior to the ones here. I think now I understand what you both mean. I think I always knew things are different but I was never prepared to make the changes to my attitudes that reflected that I knew it." Sheppard looked questioningly across at Carter. "Does that make sense?"

She just nodded her head, reluctant to speak and derail Sheppard's train of thought.

"You know, Todd wanted to feed on Kolya and by the time we finally tracked him down to that bunker, I was ready to let that happen."

Carter finally looked surprised. "Whoa, I tried to say you needed to look at things a little more broadly, I didn't really mean going quite that far."

Sheppard chuckled. The debates with Todd over the last few days, the frankness with which they had both expressed what their imprisonment and escape has meant to their lives may have changed how he viewed this wraith. But the bottom line was still the same. While they and reached a point where they could begin to understand each other's perspective on life, their differences were too great to allow them to ever trust each other fully.

Sensing Sheppard had probably said all he was going to for now, Carter asked what she saw as a crucial question. "So now this is all done and dusted, do you think we've seen the last of him?"

Sheppard laughed, probably the fullest most, enjoyable laugh he had had lately. "Who? Todd? No way. He's a wraith on the way up, I won't even begin to guess at the plans he's got in that devious mind of his. The only thing I'm sure of is that he'll use every trick in the book to get our help if needed, and he won't hesitate to stretch the truth to get what he wants. He's probably one of the only wraith out there with the capacity to even begin to want to understand human perspectives on things. While that makes him useful to us, it also makes him very dangerous."

"What do you mean?" A slight frown wrinkled Carter's forehead.

"Well, he could've just let me use the stargate to get back here after we left Ladon and Kolya, that'd have been the simple thing to do. But no, he chose to beam me back on the hive and deliver me here personally. I don't think that was just him being polite, wanting to make sure I got home safely after a long day out playing." Sheppard turned and looked back out over the final light of the day. "He's sending us a very clear message. He knows exactly where Atlantis is and I have no doubt he'll be back when it suits his agenda."

Carter smiled. "So we still don't trust him?"

"Got that right! Bottom line is he's still a wraith and when push comes to shove, I don't trust him as far as I can throw him."

x-X-00-X-x

Todd stood in the small room off the main control centre looking through the latest batch of intelligence reports. His agents were still active but they were simply filing their regular reports that made mundane reading at best. As he watched the characters flow across the screen he sensed his second in command enter the room.

=What is it?=

=Commander, we have been summoned by the primary.=

=Why?=

=They gave no reason.=

Todd growled quietly. Of course not. This commander could summons his alliance subordinates whenever he saw fit, without giving a reason. It was a level of power he used to enjoy exercising. Now he just found it annoying.

Leading the way back into the control centre, Todd walked over to the large screen that dominated the room and pulled up the schematic that showed the location of the primary's hive. As he looked at all the alliance hives spread across the galaxy, Todd realised their path to the meeting point would take them back past Atlantis. Looking at that small but significant world, he thought how much he had learned through this latest encounter with Sheppard. Of course the Atlantean had been right after all about allowing Kolya to be dealt with by his own people. He would never achieve the success he had dreamed of and he was destined to forever live in the shadow of his competitor, constantly reminded his failure to fulfil the ambition that caused him to become a rebel in the first place. He shook his head thoughtfully. To a wraith with plans of his own, the prospect of such failure was unthinkable. The thought that his foe would have to live with such failure was really far more satisfying than knowing he was dead.

So while he had to give some ground, on balance he had still come out of this ahead. He had laid to rest the ghosts of his mistreatment at the hands of the Genii so can close this part of his life forever and escape the fear that some enterprising adversary might gain access to the secret. His tenuous alliance with Sheppard and his Atlanteans was still intact, perhaps even stronger than before, something that would not have been the case if he had actually managed to feed on Kolya.

He growled. A long, satisfied growl that rumbled around the room. All this meant he could finally turn his attention to things that were really important such as taking the last few steps towards finally regaining the position of power and prestige he had held before this whole unfortunate series of incidents began. He looked back at the schematic and did some basic calculations. The primary's hive would be the last to arrive at the rendezvous point, a careless oversight that emphasised his belief that this commander's grip on the alliance and his queen was starting to falter.

=Take us into hyperspace. We must be the first to arrive at this meeting.= He smiled as he ran a clawed finger around the small dot that denoted this other hive. =We have much to do before the primary arrives.=

x-X-00-X-x

AN: There were a number of ways this story could have ended and I'm sure some readers will be disappointed that Todd didn't get to feed on Kolya! I have to admit that was my intention when I started planning the story but as I wrote Kolya's part, I started to realise that he wasn't an intrinsically evil character, just one who made the best of what he'd got in order to achieve his aim. In fact I actually started to like him! And I think it's quite believable that Todd would be pragmatic enough to accept that seeing Kolya locked away was a far worse punishment than death at his hands.

Overall, I wanted to write a story about three very different but remarkably similar individuals, each linked against their will, and each refusing to believe that they possess the weaknesses they identify in the other. Sheppard and Todd both had lessons to learn, including accepting that some things, such as wraith feeding habits, will never be settled between them.

Thanks to all the people who've taken time to review this story as it's been posted here, parts of it have been quite difficult to write and your support was always much appreciated.