Chapter Text
When John is hanging helplessly over the side of a cliff, the last person he expects to see coming to his rescue is a wraith. Especially this particular wraith, considering how their last encounter had gone. Regardless, he can’t help feeling grateful, when he watches Kolya being sucked dry, and feels a strong hand closing around his right wrist – his only wrist.
The wraith pulls him up easily. Exhausted mentally as well as physically, John lets himself be dragged towards the line of trees. There he rests on his back, unmoving, pondering the fact that he has escaped another close call with death. He only lifts his head when he feels the wraith removing the bandages from his left arm, and recoils a little.
“Let me see, Sheppard.”
A small hope flares in him then. Wraith do have extraordinary healing abilities after all.
“Can you…?”
“I doubt it. But at the very least I can heal the tissue.”
John lets his head fall back again. He doesn’t care about the pain. He doesn’t care about anything at all at the moment. He brings his other arm over his face, trying to block out everything, but not having the energy to oppose his sometimes-ally. He does not even react when he feels the tingling of the feeding organ on his skin, and the pain slowly fades away until there’s nothing left. Nothing indeed. John just wants to disappear really.
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The wraith who decided to accept the name ‘Todd’ sat back on his heels, intently watching his human brother. Despite their differences, he hated to see him suffer. He had done all he could for him now, but, regrettably, his healing abilities did not extend to growing new limbs. He let out a small hiss of frustration and turned to sit next to Sheppard, surreptitiously letting his boots brush against Sheppard’s legs. As a telepathic species, comfort was usually offered in the form of a mind touch. Unable to offer this, after a few seconds Todd decided that a physical touch would have to do, and gently placed his hand on top of John’s thigh.
John knew he should pull away. He was not one to accept comfort from anyone, much less from a wraith. He just could not find it in himself to move. Maybe if he stayed still enough, for long enough, he would be swallowed up by oblivion and would not have to face the world again....
He lost track of how long they stayed like this. It could have been minutes or hours, when suddenly he was jerked out of that place of not-feeling by the sudden loss of touch on his leg, and the air sifting around him.
“Stay still, do not make a sound” the wraith ordered and was gone.
John did not bother removing his arm from his face. Maybe someone would get in a lucky shot and finish him. Maybe he should disregard the wraith’s instructions and move, just to improve the odds of that happening. Still, he feared that Todd would get the better of whoever or whatever was coming their way, and then he would have to deal with a very annoyed wraith to boot. John didn’t want to deal with anyone, so he simply stayed put.
From his vantage point up on the tree over the colonel, Todd could see six Genii soldiers approaching. Two of them moved towards Kolya’s dried husk. The others approached Sheppard. He fired two shots of his stunner to the Genii by the cliff, and dropped to the ground amidst the four soldiers below him. He snapped the neck of the first before they had any chance to process what was happening, and sent the second one flying over Sheppard, with a well-placed punch to the chest. The hand to hand combat against the two that were left standing would not be complicated. Todd ducked punches and ignored bullets until he knocked one of them unconscious, then turned to the last one, sucking him dry in seconds. But he had missed something. His wounds already healing, he made to rise only to find himself staring down the three-barrel shotgun that the Genii army favoured. He knew that he would not survive a triple shot to the head.
He had expected the sound of the gunshot. He had not expected to survive it. As the Genii soldier fell to the ground, the shotgun toppling useless from his hands, he saw Sheppard’s immobile figure, a couple of meters back from where the Genii had stood, his 9mm still raised and smoking in his hand.
John had felt the Genii soldier stumbling over him, and had instinctively kicked up at him, simultaneously reaching for his handgun before planting a bullet in the man’s head. When he turned around, he did not hesitate to send the second Genii to his death. He wondered when exactly he had turned into an executioner to protect a wraith. He crushed the thought before slowly lowering his gun...
Todd gave a curt nod before standing up. He then walked over to any soldiers still alive and relished in the sensation of their life force running through his system.
“You shouldn’t have killed them” John told him when he was done, but there was no fire in his voice.
To Todd, it was evident that the human still had some moral qualms about killing enemies, if it could be avoided. However, he had done nothing to stop him, even though he had plenty of chance. The wraith hissed. He knew this state of mind, when one lingers between who he used to be and who he might become, swinging back and forth before choosing a direction and taking a step towards it. He decided to push a little.
“You are correct. They did not deserve a quick death.”
“Maybe I did.” It was not something John would have said aloud – ever. He faintly noted his own surprise at his words, but still could not bring himself to care. He felt bizarrely disconnected from himself, as if nothing he said or did really mattered any more. Keeping up appearances had suddenly dropped out of his priority list. Not a lot of appearances a one-handed soldier can keep, anyway.
“If they had killed you, John,” the wraith’s voice was gentler than he had ever heard it “I would hunt down and feed on every last one of their kind.”
John shot him a shocked look. He was annoyed and flattered in equal parts, because it was obvious that the wraith was telling the truth. He shook his head. The Genii may not be his favourite people in the galaxy, but they did not deserve genocide.
Todd saw the change in the colonel’s demeanor, some of the patented resolve coming back to his eyes and nodded.
“We should go find your team.”
“Kolya said he killed them.”
“And he has never lied before?”
John thought that this was an excellent point, so he followed the wraith into the forest.
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