Stole Soul Picnic 5/?
Previous
Chapter 4
The Show Must Go On
“My queen,” Todd said with an exaggerated bow when he met Teyla at the infirmary door the next morning. He was teasing, she could tell, but she also knew he was pleased to see her in this get-up again. And given how well things had gone the last time she had played his queen (relatively speaking), she supposed she understood why.
“No murders this time, Commander,” she shot back.
He bowed again, more seriously but still with a hint of a smile, and began walking her to the transporter. “It would be foolhardy to attempt a-Night of the Long Knives, do the humans of Earth call it? We could not hope to take control of so many hives at once, even were that my design.”
“And you are not likely to be welcomed back among the Wraith, even were we inclined to allow you to leave Atlantis for more than this meeting. We can hide the effects of your gene therapy that long, but given what happened to Michael....”
He nodded. “Yes. I doubt my own alliance would accept the revised treatment, and the others never will. But that is not our concern, not until we can be sure that the demon threat has been stopped.”
“Yes. Let us keep our attention there.”
“By the way, we have not discussed suitable raiment for the Winchesters.”
“What is usual for Wraith worshippers?”
“Most wear their own clothes and bear their own weapons. But such specimens as these might warrant a... different manner of display.”
Teyla pondered that suggestion as she pressed the transporter button for the point closest to the brothers’ quarters. “They are unique in Pegasus,” she mused. “And their tattoos would raise necessary questions, not to mention the scar on Dean’s shoulder.” She was still speaking when the doors opened to reveal Sam and Dean standing outside.
She wasn’t sure how much they’d heard when they looked at each other, but apparently it was enough for them to figure out at least part of what she had in mind, because Sam blushed and Dean groaned, “Oh, for-”
“Shirtless!” Teyla exclaimed, wishing the current state of her skin would allow her to blush. “That’s all I meant. Please wear trousers!”
Sam blinked. “What, like our BDU pants?”
“Or jeans. Jeans are not likely to be identifiable as Atlantis issue.”
“Of course,” Todd broke in mildly, “I could attempt to find you raiment from the stores of the hive....”
The brothers looked at each other again and said, “Jeans.”
Fifteen minutes later, the four of them headed down to the Gateroom together, with Sam toting the salt-water gun and Dean tucking his hand device into his back pocket and insisting that he be allowed to keep his black undershirt on until they got settled on the planet. Fifteen minutes after that, they were in hyperspace, with Dishon snarling in Goa’uld at the first scientist who questioned where Teyla had been for so long and Salim providing backup by aiming the salt-water gun as if it were a P-90. If the risk of a potential mutiny were not so high, Teyla would have laughed at the bluff. But it worked, and the team settled into the queen’s quarters to wait through the two-hour hyperspace flight to the Wraith homeworld.
Because the only way to get from the hive to the surface of the planet was by Dart, the team couldn’t arrive exactly at the clearing where Todd had told the other queens to meet them. But he was as good a guide as he had promised to be, and while Teyla was aware that there were iratus bugs nearby and Sam held the salt-water gun ready just in case, he never had to spray anything. The Wraith warriors set up the meeting site quickly and even set a thick salt circle at the perimeter when Todd asked them to. Then, at his command, the warriors left, and Teyla sank down into the armless wooden chair that had been designated for her.
As Sam slid the salt-water gun under Teyla’s chair from the left side, Dean sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “So now what?” he asked her. “They didn’t bring down enough chairs. We supposed to stand, sit, kneel?”
Teyla considered the question. “On Earth, queens often have guard dogs seated beside their thrones, do they not?”
The brothers blinked and looked at each other, this time seeming to have an entire silent conversation. Then Sam cleared his throat. “You, um... want us to kneel like this?” Turning to face the center of the circle as she was, he knelt with both knees touching the ground and his rear resting on his heels. Then he leaned forward so that his shoulder was about at the height of a comfortable chair arm and looked over at her, then up at Todd.
“Head bowed,” Todd recommended, “and with your arms behind you as if they are bound. In fact, I ought to tie your wrists loosely, and I should probably blindfold you as well.”
Dean looked skeptical, but Teyla nodded. “The other queens will not understand the nature of the Tok’ra at first, and even when it is explained, they may view you only as an unfamiliar threat. Your submission must be visible from the start.”
Dean rolled his eyes.
Sam huffed. “Dean, c’mon. It’s not like we’ll be in chains. We’re just... guard dogs. Or guard Tok’ra. Or... whatever.”
“Yeah, says the Shaggy DA.” Dean walked away for a moment, stopped, and suddenly said, “Oh, no. No-no-hell, no, we are not telling Lisa!”
Sam nearly choked trying not to laugh.
Dean seemed to argue with Dishon for a moment longer before stripping off his T-shirt and stomping back over to the right side of Teyla’s chair with a look of extreme annoyance. He knelt, then used the shirt to cover the salt-water gun and glared over at Todd. “You’re not usin’ my shirt for blindfolds.”
Todd grinned and held up a handful of dark fabric that he’d probably had hidden up his sleeve.
Dean huffed. “Just... get it over with.”
Todd nodded and started with Sam, binding his eyes fairly tightly but putting only a loose knot in the bond around Sam’s wrists. “There. That should be easy enough to get out of, wouldn’t you say?”
Sam felt for the end of the strip of cloth near his hand and nodded. “Yeah, I think that’s good. How’s it look, Teyla?”
“It looks convincing,” Teyla reported. “From a distance, it will look like you are tied securely.”
“Dunno how we’re supposed to be guard dogs if we’re tied up like this,” Dean grumbled, but Dishon took over and held still while Todd applied the blindfold and wrist bond, moving only to make sure he could still reach the hand device with his left hand.
“Well, aren’t most guard dogs kept on a short leash anyway?” Sam replied as Todd worked. “At least in a setup like this, they’re more for intimidation than anything. And if Teyla’s supposed to show no weakness... well, having guys like us on a short leash is pretty much the opposite of weak. Besides, after what happened with Chaya, Woolsey’s probably going to be a lot happier with us tied up and not making more enemies.”
“That would be inadvisable,” Dishon agreed. “And the bonds truly are only for show.”
“Whatever,” Dean grumbled after Dishon gave back control. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Teyla put her right hand on his shoulder, pushed gently until he was leaning forward at the correct angle, and then rubbed a little, being careful not to brush the handprint scar that covered the muscle. But doing so made her realize that she’d overlooked something. “Oh, I’ve just thought-feeding marks.”
Dean shook his head. “Now that, I can tell you. We don’t scar as Tok’ra. Probably be hard to dope us up with enough enzyme to make us compliant, too, but the others don’t need to know that.”
She sighed in relief and squeezed his shoulder briefly. “Thank you.”
But then there was no more time for talk. Todd scanned the skies and reported, “Another hive approaches.”
“I’m gonna kel’no’reem,” said Sam. “Not deep, but enough that the queens shouldn’t know I’ve got a Wraith Radio scanner.”
Todd frowned. “A what?”
Teyla ignored him. “That’s a good idea. Humans from Earth do not have the Gift.”
“Thought we were supposed to be big, bad Tok’ra,” Dean snarked.
Sam probably rolled his eyes. “Dude, shut up. Teyla, just squeeze my shoulder if you need me.”
Teyla nodded, though he couldn’t see it. “Understood.”
Sam took a deep breath and let it out again, and his muscles relaxed slightly as he slid into a meditative state. Dean settled but did not relax, so Teyla decided to keep her hand on his shoulder for the moment. She drew and released a deep breath of her own. And then the whine of Darts began to herald the arrival of the other queens.
“You’re okay, Teyla,” Dean whispered. “We’ve got your back.”
She smiled slightly and squeezed his shoulder again. Then she took another deep breath and stood as the first queen, one of the taller red-haired variety, entered the clearing with her second.
“What are they doing here?” this queen snarled, looking at the Winchesters.
“They are the reason for this meeting,” Teyla returned. “I thought it advisable for them to be present, as they have information that all need to hear.”
Two more queens joined them, one with white hair and one with black. Together the three queens circled Sam and Dean, examining them from all sides and sniffing-but not touching, thank the Ancestors.
“They are not human,” the white-haired queen remarked. “What are they?”
“Tok’ra,” Teyla replied. “We captured them in Earth’s galaxy.”
All three queens looked up at her. “You have been to Earth?” the black-haired queen asked sharply.
“We have, and there is great danger there that may have followed us. That is why we returned and why I requested this meeting.”
“You lie! You wish the feeding ground all to yourself!”
Teyla glanced toward Todd, who stepped in front of her. “The feeding ground may be rich, o queens, but there is a predator there that preys on all forms of life, including Wraith. Not even the Ascended are safe from this threat. We will explain everything once all have arrived.”
The black-haired queen hissed, but the white-haired queen turned to Dean. “You, Tok’ra. Is this so?”
Dishon took over, probably to prevent whatever snarl Dean had been preparing. “It is true. The demons will spare no one. This scar on my shoulder was made when a greater being even than they rescued me from them.”
“And the mark on your chest? Is that the mark of the Tok’ra?”
“No. It is for protection against demons.”
“Come sit,” Teyla interrupted. “My commander will explain as he has promised once the others have arrived.”
The black-haired queen hissed again, but the other queens nodded to each other and sat down, and finally the black-haired queen joined them. Each queen’s commander stood behind her. Soon more queens arrived, and all circled Sam and Dean before taking their own seats. But Teyla got the sense that they were all too suspicious of each other to try anything.
Once everyone was settled, Teyla began the speech she had prepared with Todd’s help. “We have all been anxious to find Earth for some years now. But that desire was a mistake, and not only because Earth has greater defenses than most planets in this galaxy. There is, as I have told some of you, a type of predator on Earth that seeks to devour all life, including Wraith. Though my hive escaped, the demons may try to follow us. That is why I have requested this meeting, to share with you the nature of the threat and the means of defending against it.”
A queen who looked a little like Todd’s former Primary narrowed her eyes. “Why would you do so? You cannot trust us, any more than we trust you. Why would you seek to save your enemies from a threat that could eliminate them and leave you to rule the galaxy?”
“Because that threat also threatens me. Like Replicators, they will seek to destroy us all, humans and Wraith. But worse than Replicators, they wish to devour and enslave-their plan is worse than death.”
“How so?”
Teyla gestured toward Todd. “My commander will explain.”
Todd stepped forward, bowed, and began to lecture as if he’d studied demons all his life. Teyla tuned him out; she knew the information already and wasn’t particularly interested in how it was framed for a Wraith’s perspective. Instead, she kept an eye on the other queens. Most were warily curious and asked perceptive questions, but the black-haired queen who’d arrived early still looked ready to murder them for withholding the coordinates to Earth.
Finally, that queen could contain herself no longer. “Enough, enough, ENOUGH!” she roared. “They lie, they lie! They want Earth for themselves!”
“It is not safe!” Teyla shouted.
“I do not believe you. I cannot believe you! TELL US WHERE EARTH IS!” She leapt out of her chair and lunged toward Teyla.
Sam didn’t move, but before Teyla could even put her hand on his shoulder, the black-haired queen froze in mid-stride. Quiet gasps and palpable shock rippled around the circle.
“My queen,” Dishon said softly to Teyla, “close your mind.”
“You want to know the truth?” Sam asked the queen in his telekinetic grasp. “I’ll show you the damn truth.”
Teyla raised her mental guard swiftly and focused all her energy on keeping it strong, yet she could still sense the barrage of memories Sam unleashed through the mind-link. She couldn’t actually see anything, but given the screams that reached her mind as through a locked door and a distant corridor, she assumed he must be showing the other queens Hell. They gasped and struggled, but Sam would not relent. After a moment, Dean leaned over and put his head in Teyla’s lap, grounding her. She rubbed his back gratefully.
“ENOUGH!” shrieked the red-haired queen who’d been the first to arrive. “Make him stop! MAKE HIM STOP!”
With an effort, Teyla put her left hand on Sam’s shoulder and squeezed.
The mental bombardment stopped, but Sam didn’t release the queen that had tried to attack Teyla. “That was a preview,” he snarled. “That was barely a taste. I’ve got 140 years or more of memories locked up in here, and even that would only be scratching the surface. Those demons, they want to do that to you for eternity. You’ve all been alive a long time-thousands of years, some of you tens of thousands. You’re all capable of dying, but you don’t want to. And I get that, I do. But in Hell, you cannot die. You live through that horror day after day until you forget what it’s like to live anything else. You’ll forget the sky. You’ll forget the stars. You’ll forget the freedom of roaming the galaxy, of feeding your appetites, of indulging your curiosity. No one will bow to you. No one will pray to you. No one will beg you for mercy. And there’s no end. No relief. No way out. You’ll be nothing-and you will not die.”
“You escaped,” breathed a different red-haired queen with a line of tattoos down one side of her neck.
“Our circumstances were different. My brother was rescued, and I fell into Hell physically. I couldn’t have made it out if I hadn’t been Tok’ra, and as it was, I barely survived.”
Dean sat up. “It’s true. He was in real rough shape when he got back.”
Teyla squeezed Sam’s shoulder again. “Sam. Let her go.”
The black-haired queen shook suddenly, as if Sam had jostled her as a parting shot, and then stumbled forward as he released her. She caught herself before she could fall but still struggled to keep up her façade of invulnerability as she straightened. So Teyla decided to play it safe and tapped the side of her thumb against Dean’s left shoulder blade, then moved her hand back to his shoulder to cover his slight shift as he pushed his left hand into his back pocket and into the hand device.
When the black-haired queen regained her equilibrium, though, she didn’t try to charge Teyla again. Instead, she paced across to stand in front of Sam, doing her best to restrain any noise that might give away her position. Sam didn’t move, and the black-haired queen smirked briefly before snarling, “I shall teach you to show respect, Tok’ra filth!”
But as her right hand came up, so did Dean’s left. The motion caught her eye, and she hissed and hesitated long enough for the bolt from the hand device to catch her squarely in the chest and send her flying backward. Teyla didn’t even have to help Dean aim.
“My queen!” bellowed the black-haired queen’s commander as he raced around her chair to aid her.
The queen, however, gasped and wheezed a few times before using the commander as leverage to surge back to her feet. “You treacherous, witless worm!” she screamed at Dean.
“I barely hurt you,” Dean shot back. “You’re lucky I didn’t blow your head off. But you come after my brother again, and I will kill you.”
Teyla moved her hand to caress the back of Dean’s neck. “Dean. Enough. We are here to talk, not to fight.”
The muscle in Dean’s jaw twitched, but he put his left arm back where it had been and shifted closer to her chair.
But though he couldn’t see it, the Wraith who had heard Dishon speak earlier were staring at him in confusion. “You speak like the humans of Atlantis,” noted the black-haired queen’s commander.
Dean snorted. “Do I look like I’m from Atlantis?”
Sam’s head dropped forward as Salim took over. “We come from a planet called Vorash,” Salim lied, and the Wraith’s confusion increased further. “Our people and our world were destroyed by our enemies, but this most gracious queen offered us her protection. We are eternally grateful to her.”
“What is the meaning of this?” the first red-haired queen demanded. “Why do you speak with two voices?”
“We are two souls who share this body, symbiotes. I am Salim”-he broke off and returned control-“and I’m Sam,” Sam finished. “The fact that we can share makes this relationship a lot different from demon possession. When a human is possessed by a demon, the demon soul prevents the human from having any control at all.”
“You speak as though you yourself have been possessed.”
Sam nodded. “I have. Twice. The first time was before we got these tattoos. The second time... well, Lucifer is the Devil, the father of all demons. He was too strong to be stopped by the sigil.”
“But that’s why Sam was in Hell,” Dean added. “He locked Lucifer in a cage that should hold him for the foreseeable future, so all we’re left with are the normal garden-variety stunt demons that can be stopped with salt and devil’s traps.”
“And you did all this from Vorash?” asked the second red-haired queen.
“Uh, no, Vorash was destroyed. We were operating out of another planet called Revanna.”
“I thought demons were from Earth.”
“Lucifer wanted to rule the entire universe,” Sam stated flatly. “Some of the demons still do. That’s the problem.”
Another white-haired queen who hadn’t spoken much stood. “Well. This has all been most enlightening. I believe we ought all to return to our own ships and consider what use to make of the information we have received.”
The other queens murmured their agreement and left rather quickly.
But this white-haired queen stayed behind until the others were out of earshot. Then she walked up to Teyla and the Winchesters. “You do not fool me, humans,” she said. “You are from Earth-your speech betrays you. Yet the rest of what you say is true?”
Sam cleared his throat and fidgeted. “Yeah. It’s true.”
She studied him, then moved to Dean and studied him for a moment before taking off his blindfold. Forcing him to look her in the eye, she ordered, “Show me your brother’s possession.”
Dean snarled and obeyed. Teyla slammed shut her mental doors again, but not before getting a glimpse of Sam in a rose garden, wearing a white suit and standing with a posture that was totally unlike the Sam she knew. This time it was Sam who put his head in her lap, but shame and sorrow rolled off of him in waves as she ran her hand over his hair.
The memory Dean replayed for the white queen took several minutes, and whatever it was rattled her badly. “What’s the matter?” Dean jeered as she staggered backward. “Not in the habit of believing six impossible things before breakfast?”
She backhanded him, though Teyla suspected it was more reflex than anything, and stalked away with her second in tow. Shortly thereafter they heard the Darts leaving. Teyla heaved a sigh of relief and put one arm around each brother’s shoulders.
Dean finally relaxed against her. “I can’t believe that worked.”
Sam slipped out of his wrist bond and pulled his blindfold off. “Dean? What did you-”
“The one from 2014.”
“The one where I killed you?!”
Dean looked over at him. “The one that won’t happen.”
“Dean....”
“Sam.”
And that was the end of it. Sam ran a hand over his mouth and nodded. Dean nodded back once and pulled on his shirt.
“We should not linger,” Todd stated. “It will not be long before night falls.”
Sam nodded and grabbed the salt-water gun, and Dean stood and helped Teyla to her feet just as the warrior Wraith returned and began carrying away the chairs. But the brothers restrained themselves from doing more until the team was back on the ship and alone in the queen’s quarters. Then and only then did first Sam, then Dean, pull her into a hug.
“You doin’ okay?” Dean asked as he released her, rubbing her shoulder.
Teyla nodded. “Yes. I’m glad you were with me. I think it went much better than I had dared to hope.”
“At least in some respects,” said Todd with a wary glance at Sam.
“Oh, man, don’t even,” Sam groaned. “You didn’t have to watch. You’d already seen some of that.”
Dean turned. “Hey, Todd, you got any food fit for humans on this hunk o’ junk?”
Todd’s lip curled, but he replied, “I shall see,” and left.
Teyla sighed. “Pay him no mind, Sam. I admit that the little I was unable to keep out of my own mind was disturbing, but I’m glad you did what you did. Both of you.”
Both brothers sighed and nodded, and Dean rubbed her shoulder again.
Then Sam frowned and straightened his shoulders. “Hey, y’know... if Wraith don’t believe in Heaven or Hell or anything... what’s gonna happen when those queens go back to their hives and start trying to figure out what to do with what we told them? I mean, are their subordinates gonna think they’re crazy?”
Dean blinked. “You thinkin’... mutiny? Conspiracies?”
“Palace intrigue, yeah, that kind of thing. Could be so busy killing each other they won’t have time to guard against the Lucian Alliance.”
“Or could be so busy killing each other that it won’t matter.”
“I doubt the Wraith will succeed in wiping each other out before the demons can reach this galaxy,” Teyla replied. “But if even a few human lives were saved by what we did today, I’d say that makes it worth the risk and the heartache.”
“I knew I liked you for a reason,” said Dean and hugged her again.
Next
Chapter 4
The Show Must Go On
“My queen,” Todd said with an exaggerated bow when he met Teyla at the infirmary door the next morning. He was teasing, she could tell, but she also knew he was pleased to see her in this get-up again. And given how well things had gone the last time she had played his queen (relatively speaking), she supposed she understood why.
“No murders this time, Commander,” she shot back.
He bowed again, more seriously but still with a hint of a smile, and began walking her to the transporter. “It would be foolhardy to attempt a-Night of the Long Knives, do the humans of Earth call it? We could not hope to take control of so many hives at once, even were that my design.”
“And you are not likely to be welcomed back among the Wraith, even were we inclined to allow you to leave Atlantis for more than this meeting. We can hide the effects of your gene therapy that long, but given what happened to Michael....”
He nodded. “Yes. I doubt my own alliance would accept the revised treatment, and the others never will. But that is not our concern, not until we can be sure that the demon threat has been stopped.”
“Yes. Let us keep our attention there.”
“By the way, we have not discussed suitable raiment for the Winchesters.”
“What is usual for Wraith worshippers?”
“Most wear their own clothes and bear their own weapons. But such specimens as these might warrant a... different manner of display.”
Teyla pondered that suggestion as she pressed the transporter button for the point closest to the brothers’ quarters. “They are unique in Pegasus,” she mused. “And their tattoos would raise necessary questions, not to mention the scar on Dean’s shoulder.” She was still speaking when the doors opened to reveal Sam and Dean standing outside.
She wasn’t sure how much they’d heard when they looked at each other, but apparently it was enough for them to figure out at least part of what she had in mind, because Sam blushed and Dean groaned, “Oh, for-”
“Shirtless!” Teyla exclaimed, wishing the current state of her skin would allow her to blush. “That’s all I meant. Please wear trousers!”
Sam blinked. “What, like our BDU pants?”
“Or jeans. Jeans are not likely to be identifiable as Atlantis issue.”
“Of course,” Todd broke in mildly, “I could attempt to find you raiment from the stores of the hive....”
The brothers looked at each other again and said, “Jeans.”
Fifteen minutes later, the four of them headed down to the Gateroom together, with Sam toting the salt-water gun and Dean tucking his hand device into his back pocket and insisting that he be allowed to keep his black undershirt on until they got settled on the planet. Fifteen minutes after that, they were in hyperspace, with Dishon snarling in Goa’uld at the first scientist who questioned where Teyla had been for so long and Salim providing backup by aiming the salt-water gun as if it were a P-90. If the risk of a potential mutiny were not so high, Teyla would have laughed at the bluff. But it worked, and the team settled into the queen’s quarters to wait through the two-hour hyperspace flight to the Wraith homeworld.
Because the only way to get from the hive to the surface of the planet was by Dart, the team couldn’t arrive exactly at the clearing where Todd had told the other queens to meet them. But he was as good a guide as he had promised to be, and while Teyla was aware that there were iratus bugs nearby and Sam held the salt-water gun ready just in case, he never had to spray anything. The Wraith warriors set up the meeting site quickly and even set a thick salt circle at the perimeter when Todd asked them to. Then, at his command, the warriors left, and Teyla sank down into the armless wooden chair that had been designated for her.
As Sam slid the salt-water gun under Teyla’s chair from the left side, Dean sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “So now what?” he asked her. “They didn’t bring down enough chairs. We supposed to stand, sit, kneel?”
Teyla considered the question. “On Earth, queens often have guard dogs seated beside their thrones, do they not?”
The brothers blinked and looked at each other, this time seeming to have an entire silent conversation. Then Sam cleared his throat. “You, um... want us to kneel like this?” Turning to face the center of the circle as she was, he knelt with both knees touching the ground and his rear resting on his heels. Then he leaned forward so that his shoulder was about at the height of a comfortable chair arm and looked over at her, then up at Todd.
“Head bowed,” Todd recommended, “and with your arms behind you as if they are bound. In fact, I ought to tie your wrists loosely, and I should probably blindfold you as well.”
Dean looked skeptical, but Teyla nodded. “The other queens will not understand the nature of the Tok’ra at first, and even when it is explained, they may view you only as an unfamiliar threat. Your submission must be visible from the start.”
Dean rolled his eyes.
Sam huffed. “Dean, c’mon. It’s not like we’ll be in chains. We’re just... guard dogs. Or guard Tok’ra. Or... whatever.”
“Yeah, says the Shaggy DA.” Dean walked away for a moment, stopped, and suddenly said, “Oh, no. No-no-hell, no, we are not telling Lisa!”
Sam nearly choked trying not to laugh.
Dean seemed to argue with Dishon for a moment longer before stripping off his T-shirt and stomping back over to the right side of Teyla’s chair with a look of extreme annoyance. He knelt, then used the shirt to cover the salt-water gun and glared over at Todd. “You’re not usin’ my shirt for blindfolds.”
Todd grinned and held up a handful of dark fabric that he’d probably had hidden up his sleeve.
Dean huffed. “Just... get it over with.”
Todd nodded and started with Sam, binding his eyes fairly tightly but putting only a loose knot in the bond around Sam’s wrists. “There. That should be easy enough to get out of, wouldn’t you say?”
Sam felt for the end of the strip of cloth near his hand and nodded. “Yeah, I think that’s good. How’s it look, Teyla?”
“It looks convincing,” Teyla reported. “From a distance, it will look like you are tied securely.”
“Dunno how we’re supposed to be guard dogs if we’re tied up like this,” Dean grumbled, but Dishon took over and held still while Todd applied the blindfold and wrist bond, moving only to make sure he could still reach the hand device with his left hand.
“Well, aren’t most guard dogs kept on a short leash anyway?” Sam replied as Todd worked. “At least in a setup like this, they’re more for intimidation than anything. And if Teyla’s supposed to show no weakness... well, having guys like us on a short leash is pretty much the opposite of weak. Besides, after what happened with Chaya, Woolsey’s probably going to be a lot happier with us tied up and not making more enemies.”
“That would be inadvisable,” Dishon agreed. “And the bonds truly are only for show.”
“Whatever,” Dean grumbled after Dishon gave back control. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Teyla put her right hand on his shoulder, pushed gently until he was leaning forward at the correct angle, and then rubbed a little, being careful not to brush the handprint scar that covered the muscle. But doing so made her realize that she’d overlooked something. “Oh, I’ve just thought-feeding marks.”
Dean shook his head. “Now that, I can tell you. We don’t scar as Tok’ra. Probably be hard to dope us up with enough enzyme to make us compliant, too, but the others don’t need to know that.”
She sighed in relief and squeezed his shoulder briefly. “Thank you.”
But then there was no more time for talk. Todd scanned the skies and reported, “Another hive approaches.”
“I’m gonna kel’no’reem,” said Sam. “Not deep, but enough that the queens shouldn’t know I’ve got a Wraith Radio scanner.”
Todd frowned. “A what?”
Teyla ignored him. “That’s a good idea. Humans from Earth do not have the Gift.”
“Thought we were supposed to be big, bad Tok’ra,” Dean snarked.
Sam probably rolled his eyes. “Dude, shut up. Teyla, just squeeze my shoulder if you need me.”
Teyla nodded, though he couldn’t see it. “Understood.”
Sam took a deep breath and let it out again, and his muscles relaxed slightly as he slid into a meditative state. Dean settled but did not relax, so Teyla decided to keep her hand on his shoulder for the moment. She drew and released a deep breath of her own. And then the whine of Darts began to herald the arrival of the other queens.
“You’re okay, Teyla,” Dean whispered. “We’ve got your back.”
She smiled slightly and squeezed his shoulder again. Then she took another deep breath and stood as the first queen, one of the taller red-haired variety, entered the clearing with her second.
“What are they doing here?” this queen snarled, looking at the Winchesters.
“They are the reason for this meeting,” Teyla returned. “I thought it advisable for them to be present, as they have information that all need to hear.”
Two more queens joined them, one with white hair and one with black. Together the three queens circled Sam and Dean, examining them from all sides and sniffing-but not touching, thank the Ancestors.
“They are not human,” the white-haired queen remarked. “What are they?”
“Tok’ra,” Teyla replied. “We captured them in Earth’s galaxy.”
All three queens looked up at her. “You have been to Earth?” the black-haired queen asked sharply.
“We have, and there is great danger there that may have followed us. That is why we returned and why I requested this meeting.”
“You lie! You wish the feeding ground all to yourself!”
Teyla glanced toward Todd, who stepped in front of her. “The feeding ground may be rich, o queens, but there is a predator there that preys on all forms of life, including Wraith. Not even the Ascended are safe from this threat. We will explain everything once all have arrived.”
The black-haired queen hissed, but the white-haired queen turned to Dean. “You, Tok’ra. Is this so?”
Dishon took over, probably to prevent whatever snarl Dean had been preparing. “It is true. The demons will spare no one. This scar on my shoulder was made when a greater being even than they rescued me from them.”
“And the mark on your chest? Is that the mark of the Tok’ra?”
“No. It is for protection against demons.”
“Come sit,” Teyla interrupted. “My commander will explain as he has promised once the others have arrived.”
The black-haired queen hissed again, but the other queens nodded to each other and sat down, and finally the black-haired queen joined them. Each queen’s commander stood behind her. Soon more queens arrived, and all circled Sam and Dean before taking their own seats. But Teyla got the sense that they were all too suspicious of each other to try anything.
Once everyone was settled, Teyla began the speech she had prepared with Todd’s help. “We have all been anxious to find Earth for some years now. But that desire was a mistake, and not only because Earth has greater defenses than most planets in this galaxy. There is, as I have told some of you, a type of predator on Earth that seeks to devour all life, including Wraith. Though my hive escaped, the demons may try to follow us. That is why I have requested this meeting, to share with you the nature of the threat and the means of defending against it.”
A queen who looked a little like Todd’s former Primary narrowed her eyes. “Why would you do so? You cannot trust us, any more than we trust you. Why would you seek to save your enemies from a threat that could eliminate them and leave you to rule the galaxy?”
“Because that threat also threatens me. Like Replicators, they will seek to destroy us all, humans and Wraith. But worse than Replicators, they wish to devour and enslave-their plan is worse than death.”
“How so?”
Teyla gestured toward Todd. “My commander will explain.”
Todd stepped forward, bowed, and began to lecture as if he’d studied demons all his life. Teyla tuned him out; she knew the information already and wasn’t particularly interested in how it was framed for a Wraith’s perspective. Instead, she kept an eye on the other queens. Most were warily curious and asked perceptive questions, but the black-haired queen who’d arrived early still looked ready to murder them for withholding the coordinates to Earth.
Finally, that queen could contain herself no longer. “Enough, enough, ENOUGH!” she roared. “They lie, they lie! They want Earth for themselves!”
“It is not safe!” Teyla shouted.
“I do not believe you. I cannot believe you! TELL US WHERE EARTH IS!” She leapt out of her chair and lunged toward Teyla.
Sam didn’t move, but before Teyla could even put her hand on his shoulder, the black-haired queen froze in mid-stride. Quiet gasps and palpable shock rippled around the circle.
“My queen,” Dishon said softly to Teyla, “close your mind.”
“You want to know the truth?” Sam asked the queen in his telekinetic grasp. “I’ll show you the damn truth.”
Teyla raised her mental guard swiftly and focused all her energy on keeping it strong, yet she could still sense the barrage of memories Sam unleashed through the mind-link. She couldn’t actually see anything, but given the screams that reached her mind as through a locked door and a distant corridor, she assumed he must be showing the other queens Hell. They gasped and struggled, but Sam would not relent. After a moment, Dean leaned over and put his head in Teyla’s lap, grounding her. She rubbed his back gratefully.
“ENOUGH!” shrieked the red-haired queen who’d been the first to arrive. “Make him stop! MAKE HIM STOP!”
With an effort, Teyla put her left hand on Sam’s shoulder and squeezed.
The mental bombardment stopped, but Sam didn’t release the queen that had tried to attack Teyla. “That was a preview,” he snarled. “That was barely a taste. I’ve got 140 years or more of memories locked up in here, and even that would only be scratching the surface. Those demons, they want to do that to you for eternity. You’ve all been alive a long time-thousands of years, some of you tens of thousands. You’re all capable of dying, but you don’t want to. And I get that, I do. But in Hell, you cannot die. You live through that horror day after day until you forget what it’s like to live anything else. You’ll forget the sky. You’ll forget the stars. You’ll forget the freedom of roaming the galaxy, of feeding your appetites, of indulging your curiosity. No one will bow to you. No one will pray to you. No one will beg you for mercy. And there’s no end. No relief. No way out. You’ll be nothing-and you will not die.”
“You escaped,” breathed a different red-haired queen with a line of tattoos down one side of her neck.
“Our circumstances were different. My brother was rescued, and I fell into Hell physically. I couldn’t have made it out if I hadn’t been Tok’ra, and as it was, I barely survived.”
Dean sat up. “It’s true. He was in real rough shape when he got back.”
Teyla squeezed Sam’s shoulder again. “Sam. Let her go.”
The black-haired queen shook suddenly, as if Sam had jostled her as a parting shot, and then stumbled forward as he released her. She caught herself before she could fall but still struggled to keep up her façade of invulnerability as she straightened. So Teyla decided to play it safe and tapped the side of her thumb against Dean’s left shoulder blade, then moved her hand back to his shoulder to cover his slight shift as he pushed his left hand into his back pocket and into the hand device.
When the black-haired queen regained her equilibrium, though, she didn’t try to charge Teyla again. Instead, she paced across to stand in front of Sam, doing her best to restrain any noise that might give away her position. Sam didn’t move, and the black-haired queen smirked briefly before snarling, “I shall teach you to show respect, Tok’ra filth!”
But as her right hand came up, so did Dean’s left. The motion caught her eye, and she hissed and hesitated long enough for the bolt from the hand device to catch her squarely in the chest and send her flying backward. Teyla didn’t even have to help Dean aim.
“My queen!” bellowed the black-haired queen’s commander as he raced around her chair to aid her.
The queen, however, gasped and wheezed a few times before using the commander as leverage to surge back to her feet. “You treacherous, witless worm!” she screamed at Dean.
“I barely hurt you,” Dean shot back. “You’re lucky I didn’t blow your head off. But you come after my brother again, and I will kill you.”
Teyla moved her hand to caress the back of Dean’s neck. “Dean. Enough. We are here to talk, not to fight.”
The muscle in Dean’s jaw twitched, but he put his left arm back where it had been and shifted closer to her chair.
But though he couldn’t see it, the Wraith who had heard Dishon speak earlier were staring at him in confusion. “You speak like the humans of Atlantis,” noted the black-haired queen’s commander.
Dean snorted. “Do I look like I’m from Atlantis?”
Sam’s head dropped forward as Salim took over. “We come from a planet called Vorash,” Salim lied, and the Wraith’s confusion increased further. “Our people and our world were destroyed by our enemies, but this most gracious queen offered us her protection. We are eternally grateful to her.”
“What is the meaning of this?” the first red-haired queen demanded. “Why do you speak with two voices?”
“We are two souls who share this body, symbiotes. I am Salim”-he broke off and returned control-“and I’m Sam,” Sam finished. “The fact that we can share makes this relationship a lot different from demon possession. When a human is possessed by a demon, the demon soul prevents the human from having any control at all.”
“You speak as though you yourself have been possessed.”
Sam nodded. “I have. Twice. The first time was before we got these tattoos. The second time... well, Lucifer is the Devil, the father of all demons. He was too strong to be stopped by the sigil.”
“But that’s why Sam was in Hell,” Dean added. “He locked Lucifer in a cage that should hold him for the foreseeable future, so all we’re left with are the normal garden-variety stunt demons that can be stopped with salt and devil’s traps.”
“And you did all this from Vorash?” asked the second red-haired queen.
“Uh, no, Vorash was destroyed. We were operating out of another planet called Revanna.”
“I thought demons were from Earth.”
“Lucifer wanted to rule the entire universe,” Sam stated flatly. “Some of the demons still do. That’s the problem.”
Another white-haired queen who hadn’t spoken much stood. “Well. This has all been most enlightening. I believe we ought all to return to our own ships and consider what use to make of the information we have received.”
The other queens murmured their agreement and left rather quickly.
But this white-haired queen stayed behind until the others were out of earshot. Then she walked up to Teyla and the Winchesters. “You do not fool me, humans,” she said. “You are from Earth-your speech betrays you. Yet the rest of what you say is true?”
Sam cleared his throat and fidgeted. “Yeah. It’s true.”
She studied him, then moved to Dean and studied him for a moment before taking off his blindfold. Forcing him to look her in the eye, she ordered, “Show me your brother’s possession.”
Dean snarled and obeyed. Teyla slammed shut her mental doors again, but not before getting a glimpse of Sam in a rose garden, wearing a white suit and standing with a posture that was totally unlike the Sam she knew. This time it was Sam who put his head in her lap, but shame and sorrow rolled off of him in waves as she ran her hand over his hair.
The memory Dean replayed for the white queen took several minutes, and whatever it was rattled her badly. “What’s the matter?” Dean jeered as she staggered backward. “Not in the habit of believing six impossible things before breakfast?”
She backhanded him, though Teyla suspected it was more reflex than anything, and stalked away with her second in tow. Shortly thereafter they heard the Darts leaving. Teyla heaved a sigh of relief and put one arm around each brother’s shoulders.
Dean finally relaxed against her. “I can’t believe that worked.”
Sam slipped out of his wrist bond and pulled his blindfold off. “Dean? What did you-”
“The one from 2014.”
“The one where I killed you?!”
Dean looked over at him. “The one that won’t happen.”
“Dean....”
“Sam.”
And that was the end of it. Sam ran a hand over his mouth and nodded. Dean nodded back once and pulled on his shirt.
“We should not linger,” Todd stated. “It will not be long before night falls.”
Sam nodded and grabbed the salt-water gun, and Dean stood and helped Teyla to her feet just as the warrior Wraith returned and began carrying away the chairs. But the brothers restrained themselves from doing more until the team was back on the ship and alone in the queen’s quarters. Then and only then did first Sam, then Dean, pull her into a hug.
“You doin’ okay?” Dean asked as he released her, rubbing her shoulder.
Teyla nodded. “Yes. I’m glad you were with me. I think it went much better than I had dared to hope.”
“At least in some respects,” said Todd with a wary glance at Sam.
“Oh, man, don’t even,” Sam groaned. “You didn’t have to watch. You’d already seen some of that.”
Dean turned. “Hey, Todd, you got any food fit for humans on this hunk o’ junk?”
Todd’s lip curled, but he replied, “I shall see,” and left.
Teyla sighed. “Pay him no mind, Sam. I admit that the little I was unable to keep out of my own mind was disturbing, but I’m glad you did what you did. Both of you.”
Both brothers sighed and nodded, and Dean rubbed her shoulder again.
Then Sam frowned and straightened his shoulders. “Hey, y’know... if Wraith don’t believe in Heaven or Hell or anything... what’s gonna happen when those queens go back to their hives and start trying to figure out what to do with what we told them? I mean, are their subordinates gonna think they’re crazy?”
Dean blinked. “You thinkin’... mutiny? Conspiracies?”
“Palace intrigue, yeah, that kind of thing. Could be so busy killing each other they won’t have time to guard against the Lucian Alliance.”
“Or could be so busy killing each other that it won’t matter.”
“I doubt the Wraith will succeed in wiping each other out before the demons can reach this galaxy,” Teyla replied. “But if even a few human lives were saved by what we did today, I’d say that makes it worth the risk and the heartache.”
“I knew I liked you for a reason,” said Dean and hugged her again.
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