[Stargate Atlantis - TV][ Keeper of Keys, Watcher of Ways][Wraith Keeper][PG-13][Prompt # 073]
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Fic title: Keeper of Keys, Watcher of Ways
Main characters/pairing: Wraith Keeper
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Pretty much for all of “Rising (Parts one and two)” (1x01, 1x02). Dialogue from show taken from Gateworld transcripts.
Warnings: Temporary insanity; slight description of gore; canon character deaths; unbetaed, so all mistakes are my own.
Prompt ID: #073
Summary: There weren’t many ways to keep herself occupied during her wait.
She was told it was a high honor to be a Keeper of her brethren. What she wasn’t told by the Queen Mother was that it was deadly boring to have to wait over nine thousand five hundred years for something to happen. Somehow, that part had been left out in her mother’s speech about how she would be carrying on the great legacy of her fore-mothers and -sisters in doing her duty to her Hive. Her mother had gone on about her having just the right temperament for such a job, and the Keeper hadn’t thought much of it at the time. Of course, taking on the mantel of Keeper meant losing all her previous status among her sisters and aunts, as well as what might, in the vulgar language of the Hated Ones, be known as her animus nomen or soul name. It was hard enough adapting to just being called Keeper, but since she was young as well- the youngest of her brood, in fact- she had to figure out how best to subtly persuade her Hive into going into hibernation.
Once she had managed to get her Hive to sleep and had finished sealing all but a few of her favored warriors and lieutenants in hibernation chambers, she had to figure out what to do with her time. She started out by idly going through the database of her Hive, reading one entry every day. It took her ten years to do so, and when she was done, she had learned everything she had - or hadn’t- ever wanted to know about the mechanical and biological aspects of her Hive. The Keeper knew every inch of her Hive, from the tiniest control panel to the inner workings of the hyperdrive. She could recite specifications and regulations down to the letter, so much so that occasionally she would quiz her engineers on the breadth of their knowledge.
She decided to go mad for the next few decades, killing all her lieutenants and drones that were awake in one swift rampage of insanity. Once it was over, and the bodies were cooling on the floor of the Hive, the Keeper painted herself with the blood of the fallen and roamed the halls of her domain, occasionally tearing a hole in one of the walls. It would heal itself eventually, the gap slowly closing itself up over a period of days. She grew tired of madness quickly, so she decided to slowly return to sanity, clearing the bodies out of the sleeping Hive and then reviving a few of the drones and one of her lieutenants. They didn’t comment on the destruction she had wreaked upon the Hive, knowing better than to question the actions of their Keeper and former Queen.
When she had finally returned to normal, the Keeper set out a plan for the unknown amount of time that was left until she could reawaken her brethren. She would alternate between sleeping for fifty years and then sending out the occasional raiding party to known feeding grounds when she woke, repeating the cycle as needed. The plan worked surprisingly well for the longest time; while she slept, the feeding grounds would replenish themselves, and then she would send out a few Darts to collect what was needed. Over the millennia, she felt no less than seven of her sisters die, most likely due to in-fighting and lack of feeding grounds. She was the only Keeper in the entire galaxy; there should’ve been at least two more, but there were none who wished to live a life as she did, so if she should die before her time, a telepathic message would be sent out to those slumbering on her Hive and the three others that were in hibernation mode. They and their Queens would awake, and then seek out the closest feeding grounds.
The pattern was broken during one of the cycles that she was awake; she was only made aware of the newcomers when she had broken the mind of the prey she had been brought to feed upon and learned of the new blood among her Hive’s food. Once the Athosian had been drained of all the vital information and life force, she told her lieutenant to bring another of the captured.
‘Make sure it is one of the strange ones. The one who claimed he was the leader.’ She told her lieutenant, and then hid herself to gauge the reaction of this stranger. When he came in, she watched him look around the Feeding Hall and its laden table. The Keeper dropped down behind him from her perch on one of the ledges, her dress flaring slightly as she landed. The human spun around, his eyes widening.
‘You must feel hunger by now.’ She stated, a slight snarl in her voice. The human frowned slightly, and then stood resolute. The Keeper could feel his hunger; what was curious was that he was attempting to ignore it with an iron will.
‘What do you call yourself?’ she asked, keeping her voice neutral.
‘Colonel Marshall Sumner, United States Marine Corps.’ The man replied, his face stern and not revealing anything.
‘So little fear. Is it valor... or ignorance?’ the Keeper mused as she watched Sumner. The man barely twitched, keeping his gaze directed at a point over the Keeper’s shoulder.
‘We travelled through the Stargate as peaceful explorers.’
‘You must eat, yet you resist your hunger. Why?’ The Keeper pressed. Sumner refused to answer her directly, making her angry. Fine. He wanted to be stubborn? Well, she could get him to answer her whether he wanted to or not.
What do you call your world? She asked him, using her mental powers of domination. She could feel him attempting to resist, but the answer slipped out of him before he could bite it back.
‘Earth.’
‘It is not among our stars.’ The Keeper said, more of a statement than a question.
‘No.’ Sumner said, still attempting to resist her questioning.
‘Tell me of Earth. How many more are there of your kind?’ Sumner was struggling now to resist her domination; the Keeper continued on, subtly strengthening her hold on his mind. ‘Thousands? Millions? More.’ She gave a pleased laugh. ‘Our feeding ground has not been so rich in ten thousand years.’ This was fantastic news. The Queen Mother and her sisters would be well pleased with her; perhaps she could even become Queen of this Hive once more, instead of just the Keeper. She might even gain back her true name. How glorious that would be!
‘Your will is strong,’ she told Sumner, and then pointed at the Athosian she had fed upon beforehand. ‘This one begged for his life.’
‘Is that the kind of treatment I can expect for myself and my people?’ Sumner asked.
The Keeper shrugged. ‘As I have said, all living things must eat.’ Sumner looked furious.
‘Then we're done talking.’ Sumner said stoutly.
‘I think not. Kneel.’ The Keeper told him. Sumner resisted, so she redoubled her command, mentally urging him to follow her directions. ‘Kneel. I have not tasted such strength in so long.’ She said, baring her teeth.
‘Go to hell.’ Sumner growled, but the Keeper shook her head, a slight laugh in her voice.
‘Earth first.’ The Keeper replied. She bent down and slammed her open palm onto his chest over his heart, her nails piercing his skin. He screamed as she began to feed, and she relished the flow of strength passing from him to her.
‘How many years must I take from you before you tell us what I wish to know?’ She asked as he began to wither before her eyes. ‘Or shall I take them all?’ Sumner screamed once more, his body nearly crumpling under her onslaught.
‘Where is this new feeding ground?’
‘I won't,’ Sumner gasped, his strength flagging. Suddenly from behind the Keeper there came a sharp report, and then there was a bright pain in her body. The Keeper reflexively drained more strength from her prey, healing herself almost instantly. There was a short pause and then a tremendous pain in her feeding hand. The shot had come from above, killing her prey prematurely. The Keeper spun around, looking up to see who had shot her. She snarled her rage at the sight of an interloper, and then finally one of her drones caught up with current events and shot the impudent human with a stunner.
‘Bring him.’ She growled, and the drone obediently brought the human down to the Feeding Hall. The drone placed the intruder on the table and then held him down, as per the Keeper’s orders. ‘Leave. See if there are more running around. Kill any you find.’ The Keeper told her lieutenant, who nodded and then left, taking a few drones with him. It didn’t take long for the human to wake up, and when he did, the Keeper moved near him, watching him carefully.
‘How’s the hand feeling?’ the human asked. The Keeper merely held up her injured hand and showed him how rapidly it healed.
‘Much better.’
‘I'm sorry to hear that.’ The human said, but the Keeper ignored him. Her attention had been grabbed by the sight of the object peeking out of his pocket. She withdrew it, her lips curling in a snarl as she recognized it to be of similar make to that of the Hated Ones’ technology.
‘How did this come to you?’ she inquired of him, her voice tight with anger.
‘I don’t remember,’ The human had the impudence to say. The Keeper snarled her displeasure. She was just about to get ready to feed on him and break him when her guard was shot in the head. The Keeper was distracted, giving her captive enough time to grab his communications device and speak into it. She barely registered what he was saying, so great was her anger. And then the other human shot at her. He shot at her! Her! The Keeper turned to attack, but then her attention was caught by the sudden movement of her captive. She turned back, and he stabbed her through the chest with the bayonet affixed to the slain guard’s weapon. She gasped, her body freezing in place.
‘That has to kill you.’ The human said as he pulled out the bayonet. The Keeper crumpled to the ground, the pain radiating through every inch of her body. She lay there, stunned, as the two humans spoke a few words to one another.
‘You don't know what you have done. We are merely the caretakers for those that sleep. When I die, the others will awake.’ The Keeper gasped, garnering the attention of her former prey. ‘All of them.’ Before she died, she sent out the telepathic signal that would awaken those she was charged with caring for.
And so, the last Keeper of the Wraith died, nameless and alone. The last sounds she heard were the stirrings of her charges, waking from their millennia-long slumber and moving forwards for the glory of the Wraith.
Fic title: Keeper of Keys, Watcher of Ways
Main characters/pairing: Wraith Keeper
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Pretty much for all of “Rising (Parts one and two)” (1x01, 1x02). Dialogue from show taken from Gateworld transcripts.
Warnings: Temporary insanity; slight description of gore; canon character deaths; unbetaed, so all mistakes are my own.
Prompt ID: #073
Summary: There weren’t many ways to keep herself occupied during her wait.
She was told it was a high honor to be a Keeper of her brethren. What she wasn’t told by the Queen Mother was that it was deadly boring to have to wait over nine thousand five hundred years for something to happen. Somehow, that part had been left out in her mother’s speech about how she would be carrying on the great legacy of her fore-mothers and -sisters in doing her duty to her Hive. Her mother had gone on about her having just the right temperament for such a job, and the Keeper hadn’t thought much of it at the time. Of course, taking on the mantel of Keeper meant losing all her previous status among her sisters and aunts, as well as what might, in the vulgar language of the Hated Ones, be known as her animus nomen or soul name. It was hard enough adapting to just being called Keeper, but since she was young as well- the youngest of her brood, in fact- she had to figure out how best to subtly persuade her Hive into going into hibernation.
Once she had managed to get her Hive to sleep and had finished sealing all but a few of her favored warriors and lieutenants in hibernation chambers, she had to figure out what to do with her time. She started out by idly going through the database of her Hive, reading one entry every day. It took her ten years to do so, and when she was done, she had learned everything she had - or hadn’t- ever wanted to know about the mechanical and biological aspects of her Hive. The Keeper knew every inch of her Hive, from the tiniest control panel to the inner workings of the hyperdrive. She could recite specifications and regulations down to the letter, so much so that occasionally she would quiz her engineers on the breadth of their knowledge.
She decided to go mad for the next few decades, killing all her lieutenants and drones that were awake in one swift rampage of insanity. Once it was over, and the bodies were cooling on the floor of the Hive, the Keeper painted herself with the blood of the fallen and roamed the halls of her domain, occasionally tearing a hole in one of the walls. It would heal itself eventually, the gap slowly closing itself up over a period of days. She grew tired of madness quickly, so she decided to slowly return to sanity, clearing the bodies out of the sleeping Hive and then reviving a few of the drones and one of her lieutenants. They didn’t comment on the destruction she had wreaked upon the Hive, knowing better than to question the actions of their Keeper and former Queen.
When she had finally returned to normal, the Keeper set out a plan for the unknown amount of time that was left until she could reawaken her brethren. She would alternate between sleeping for fifty years and then sending out the occasional raiding party to known feeding grounds when she woke, repeating the cycle as needed. The plan worked surprisingly well for the longest time; while she slept, the feeding grounds would replenish themselves, and then she would send out a few Darts to collect what was needed. Over the millennia, she felt no less than seven of her sisters die, most likely due to in-fighting and lack of feeding grounds. She was the only Keeper in the entire galaxy; there should’ve been at least two more, but there were none who wished to live a life as she did, so if she should die before her time, a telepathic message would be sent out to those slumbering on her Hive and the three others that were in hibernation mode. They and their Queens would awake, and then seek out the closest feeding grounds.
The pattern was broken during one of the cycles that she was awake; she was only made aware of the newcomers when she had broken the mind of the prey she had been brought to feed upon and learned of the new blood among her Hive’s food. Once the Athosian had been drained of all the vital information and life force, she told her lieutenant to bring another of the captured.
‘Make sure it is one of the strange ones. The one who claimed he was the leader.’ She told her lieutenant, and then hid herself to gauge the reaction of this stranger. When he came in, she watched him look around the Feeding Hall and its laden table. The Keeper dropped down behind him from her perch on one of the ledges, her dress flaring slightly as she landed. The human spun around, his eyes widening.
‘You must feel hunger by now.’ She stated, a slight snarl in her voice. The human frowned slightly, and then stood resolute. The Keeper could feel his hunger; what was curious was that he was attempting to ignore it with an iron will.
‘What do you call yourself?’ she asked, keeping her voice neutral.
‘Colonel Marshall Sumner, United States Marine Corps.’ The man replied, his face stern and not revealing anything.
‘So little fear. Is it valor... or ignorance?’ the Keeper mused as she watched Sumner. The man barely twitched, keeping his gaze directed at a point over the Keeper’s shoulder.
‘We travelled through the Stargate as peaceful explorers.’
‘You must eat, yet you resist your hunger. Why?’ The Keeper pressed. Sumner refused to answer her directly, making her angry. Fine. He wanted to be stubborn? Well, she could get him to answer her whether he wanted to or not.
What do you call your world? She asked him, using her mental powers of domination. She could feel him attempting to resist, but the answer slipped out of him before he could bite it back.
‘Earth.’
‘It is not among our stars.’ The Keeper said, more of a statement than a question.
‘No.’ Sumner said, still attempting to resist her questioning.
‘Tell me of Earth. How many more are there of your kind?’ Sumner was struggling now to resist her domination; the Keeper continued on, subtly strengthening her hold on his mind. ‘Thousands? Millions? More.’ She gave a pleased laugh. ‘Our feeding ground has not been so rich in ten thousand years.’ This was fantastic news. The Queen Mother and her sisters would be well pleased with her; perhaps she could even become Queen of this Hive once more, instead of just the Keeper. She might even gain back her true name. How glorious that would be!
‘Your will is strong,’ she told Sumner, and then pointed at the Athosian she had fed upon beforehand. ‘This one begged for his life.’
‘Is that the kind of treatment I can expect for myself and my people?’ Sumner asked.
The Keeper shrugged. ‘As I have said, all living things must eat.’ Sumner looked furious.
‘Then we're done talking.’ Sumner said stoutly.
‘I think not. Kneel.’ The Keeper told him. Sumner resisted, so she redoubled her command, mentally urging him to follow her directions. ‘Kneel. I have not tasted such strength in so long.’ She said, baring her teeth.
‘Go to hell.’ Sumner growled, but the Keeper shook her head, a slight laugh in her voice.
‘Earth first.’ The Keeper replied. She bent down and slammed her open palm onto his chest over his heart, her nails piercing his skin. He screamed as she began to feed, and she relished the flow of strength passing from him to her.
‘How many years must I take from you before you tell us what I wish to know?’ She asked as he began to wither before her eyes. ‘Or shall I take them all?’ Sumner screamed once more, his body nearly crumpling under her onslaught.
‘Where is this new feeding ground?’
‘I won't,’ Sumner gasped, his strength flagging. Suddenly from behind the Keeper there came a sharp report, and then there was a bright pain in her body. The Keeper reflexively drained more strength from her prey, healing herself almost instantly. There was a short pause and then a tremendous pain in her feeding hand. The shot had come from above, killing her prey prematurely. The Keeper spun around, looking up to see who had shot her. She snarled her rage at the sight of an interloper, and then finally one of her drones caught up with current events and shot the impudent human with a stunner.
‘Bring him.’ She growled, and the drone obediently brought the human down to the Feeding Hall. The drone placed the intruder on the table and then held him down, as per the Keeper’s orders. ‘Leave. See if there are more running around. Kill any you find.’ The Keeper told her lieutenant, who nodded and then left, taking a few drones with him. It didn’t take long for the human to wake up, and when he did, the Keeper moved near him, watching him carefully.
‘How’s the hand feeling?’ the human asked. The Keeper merely held up her injured hand and showed him how rapidly it healed.
‘Much better.’
‘I'm sorry to hear that.’ The human said, but the Keeper ignored him. Her attention had been grabbed by the sight of the object peeking out of his pocket. She withdrew it, her lips curling in a snarl as she recognized it to be of similar make to that of the Hated Ones’ technology.
‘How did this come to you?’ she inquired of him, her voice tight with anger.
‘I don’t remember,’ The human had the impudence to say. The Keeper snarled her displeasure. She was just about to get ready to feed on him and break him when her guard was shot in the head. The Keeper was distracted, giving her captive enough time to grab his communications device and speak into it. She barely registered what he was saying, so great was her anger. And then the other human shot at her. He shot at her! Her! The Keeper turned to attack, but then her attention was caught by the sudden movement of her captive. She turned back, and he stabbed her through the chest with the bayonet affixed to the slain guard’s weapon. She gasped, her body freezing in place.
‘That has to kill you.’ The human said as he pulled out the bayonet. The Keeper crumpled to the ground, the pain radiating through every inch of her body. She lay there, stunned, as the two humans spoke a few words to one another.
‘You don't know what you have done. We are merely the caretakers for those that sleep. When I die, the others will awake.’ The Keeper gasped, garnering the attention of her former prey. ‘All of them.’ Before she died, she sent out the telepathic signal that would awaken those she was charged with caring for.
And so, the last Keeper of the Wraith died, nameless and alone. The last sounds she heard were the stirrings of her charges, waking from their millennia-long slumber and moving forwards for the glory of the Wraith.