Because of the nature of blogs, the (mis)Adventures of the SSD shared here are posted in reverse order. The first story is the oldest post, as it was (naturally) the first one written.

Thanks for dropping in and be sure to leave us a note!

~the SSD Crew

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Decisions

- - -

Several days had passed and all the different stories had been told. Now, Quenderra was in her temporary living space at the SSD headquarters packing up her belongings to take back with her through the TDP.

"What are you doing?" The blonde didn't have to look up to know that it was Fraggle.

"Oh, good," she said, taping up her second and final box, "I won't have to leave a note. I always found that to be a rather improper way to say goodbye."

"But why?" Kassandra wanted to know.

Quenderra turned to face them. "Because there's a part of me that is no better than the ghosts of nothing."

"We all have a dark side..." Kass pointed out.

"You're right," Quen said with a sad smile, "but mine can take over. That no longer makes me a part of the team--it makes me a liability."

"You were under the influence of an evil entity," Fraggle reminded her. "You did the right thing in the end--what more could you have done?"

"I could have fought back, instead I helped them. If it wasn't for you two allowing Moropa and the others to use you, this reality would be swarming with GoN." They fell silent. "You shouldn't miss me," Quenderra swung her back pack onto her shoulders.

"But we will," Kass told her. The blonde looked at her companions each in turn, her gray eyes as frank as they had ever seen them.

"Don't." The TDP activated and Quenderra and her belongings disappeared into it.

Kass turned to her colleague, "Fraggle..?"

Fraggle looked at the empty spot where Quenderra had been just a moment ago. Her mind was a torrent of emotions at her departure. She was angry that she had let it beat her. She was furious that she did not let them help her. She was hurt that Quen felt she could not trust them. She was sad that she had gone.

She heard Kass asking her what to do. "I...I don’t know," she shrugged her shoulders in confusion as how to proceed.

"We can't let her go off feeling like that! I don't exactly understand what happened out there, but you obviously do. Tell me and lets see if we can sort this out!" pleaded Kassandra. The real story had never been talked about, the real happenings. No one knew the truth behind the breakout of the GoN, Fraggle had protected Quenderra that much at least, and only they knew what really happened. Stories of the great battle had flew around Atlantis for days, the bravery of all involved, the impressive genius of Rodney McKay, and the incredible equipment of the SSD. But no one, not even Kassandra, knew of Quenderra's fight for her own soul.

Fraggle turned to look at Kassandra. "Okay. I will tell you the truth, but I ask you to keep an open mind. Do not let any of this effect your friendship with Quen." Kassandra was unsure what was to come, but listened intently as Fraggle told the real tale. She spoke of the betrayal she felt when she connected with Quen in the vortex. She talked about the fact that Quenderra had actually submitted to the Queen GoN voluntarily. She told of the separate timeline, the fact that she had died in that timeline and that Quenderra had twisted time to bring her back. She told of Quenderra's fight with her own dark side, the craving for the power that had invaded her body, the awakening of the thirst for dominance and control. When Fraggle had stopped speaking, a heavy silence invaded the HQ.

Kassandra got up and paced the floor. "You mean that Quenderra thinks she is evil, and that given the chance, she would do it again?!"

"Yep. All that power is quite the dangling carrot on the other side of the good/bad fence."

"But everyone has a dark side!" Kassandra shouted, "Any one of us could have gone the same way!"

"Yeah, like I did....once." Fraggle started and immediately wished she hadn't.

"What you mean?" Kassandra demanded.

"Oh, it was a long time before I came to the SSD. Believe me, you don’t want to know!"

Kassandra looked at her funny, then changed the subject. "What the hell are we going to do to help her?"

"Well for one thing, we need to get back into the TDP and go bloody look for her!" Fraggle said as she jumped up and activated the TDP. If one good thing had come of the encouter with the ghosts, it was that the SSD had gained more control over the use of the phenomenon. "Wherever you are Quen, we are coming!!" she said as the phenomenon opened above them both.

SSSSSSHHHHREIKKKK! Time itself slowed minutely as the fabric of space was torn open within the SSD HQ. His hand reached through to grab Kassandra just as she was whisked away in the TDP. His growl shook the room as he entered from the time tear. As he walked around the HQ, he came across the window that looked out from the shore towards Atlantis. The mind of the host, buried beneath the mind control, lurched with excitement at the sight of the magnificent city.

"Yesss! SSD too busssy to come to their aid! We will conquer them all! What?" the King asked his host. "No, no need to call your brethren just yet. We will go to the floating city, and I will use one of theirs to release me from you. Then together, we will have our revenge!"

- - -

There it was again--the feeling that something was about to go awry. From habit already formed, Quenderra glanced up for the TDP. "Stop it, Quen," she murmured to herself. "It could be anything." She thought back to her friends at the HQ. How mere chance had united them across space and time. But she had made up her mind and she was stubborn and proud. She had hurt people and she could not forgive herself. "Even if by some miracle they can forget that I'm a traitor, I will never forget being unable to tell them it wasn't true... I can't trust myself--I can't expect anyone else to." Rising to her feet, she left her dorm room to go to the store. Moments later, the TDP activated, depositing two very familiar figures...

Kass glanced around Quenderra's dorm room, finding it empty except for the boxes that had just traveled through the TDP with her. She looked at Fraggle and spoke with uncertainty, "She must have gone out. Do we attempt to follow her in this strange town, or do we sit here and wait?"

As the two SSD agents momentarily debated whether to risk getting lost in this strange place in order to seek out their friend, the door opened. "Hey, Quen?" a strange girl stuck her head into the room. "Oh, hi! You must be some of Quen's friends. She talks about you all the time."

"Yeah," Kass answered. "That'd be us."

"Hey, do you know where Quen is at? I mean, obviously, she must be somewhere around here, because you're here, but...?"

"Oh, she doesn't know we're here," Fraggle told the stranger.

"Right," the girl seemed mildly surprised as she glanced about the room. "Oh--her purse is gone. She probably walked to Wal-Mart It's a 30 minute walk one-way. Might wanna make yourselves comfortable, she won't mind." The girl then left, calling to someone down the hall, "I think she went to Wal-Mart!!" The two colleagues glanced at each other.

Kass looked at Fraggle and shook her head, "I don’t know about you, BUT I vote that we sit and wait here for her." She walked over to the sink and studied it for a moment. "You know this place looks just like it did on that tape she sent into the David Hewlett YouTube contest." She crossed the small space between the sink and Quen’s bunk bed and peeked under it just to be SURE there were no such thing as wraith in this world.

- - -

"What do you mean they're not responding! We are getting out asses kicked out there!" McKay shouted above the racket.

"We've been trying for an hour, now. We're just gonna have to get on with this until the SSD do get in contact," Sheppard glanced up at a large bit of debris flying through the air.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Fraggle and Kassandra waited on Quenderra's return. Flashes of light in Fraggle's eyes, made her close them, thinking she was tired. Then images of Atlantis under attack invaded her mind. The voice in her head was shouting at her, 'Go back! Go back!' She grabbed Kassandra's arm to steady herself, her eyes wide open in fear.

"What! What did you see!?" Kassandra shouted, now used to Fraggle's jaunts into the mind realm.

"Its Atlantis, something’s attacking it!"

"What’s attacking it?"

"I don’t know! Whatever it is, its not allowing me to see it."

"Come ON, Quenderra!"

Almost as if on cue, the dormitory door swung open and Quenderra entered. She carried a couple Wal-Mart sacks and her gray purse, the strap of which crossed from her shoulder to opposite thigh. As was typical, she wore a tank top with a pair of jeans and tennis shoes.

"You," she stated in a neutral, expressionless tone, though, the look on her face clearly questioned why they stood in her bedroom. "I was going to cook. Hungry?" She studied them silently, the familiar sense of something wrong nagging at the back of her mind.

"Right, Quenderra, enough of this self pity for now,"Fraggle said. "We can get back to it when we have finished our mission. Atlantis is under attack and we are needed there, pronto!" Fraggle did not want to be harsh, but the images she saw told her time was against them, and she needed Quenderra to help. She hoped that Quenderra did not take it as an insult, she only needed to kick start the fire in Quenderra to fight. She looked at the blonde, waiting for a reply. Her hard gaze quavered slightly, she did not want to hurt her friend, but she could think of nothing else to do to get Quenderra thinking straight again. She waited for the explosion of angry words from Quenderra's mouth, ready to fight if she had to, to bring her back to the light. "Well? What's it gonna be?"

Kass spoke up with a quavering voice, "We NEED you, Quenderra--Atlantis NEEDS you! They are under attack... please come back with us? I don't blame you!" she implored her friend hoping that Quen would agree to the trip.

"I left for my own reasons, which you may or may not know or understand," Quenderra spoke evenly. "But since I can't even be here for an hour and a half without a horrible, sickening feeling taking hold of me and refusing to let go, I suppose one last jaunt for the good of the Pegasus can't do any harm. Besides... I hate studying." Putting the bags on the dresser, she gave them a smile. "Well," she said, sounding more heartened than she felt, "shall we go?"

Kass smiled at Quenderra's words and looked over at Fraggle as she conjured up a TDP, "Yes, we shall."

- - -

The TDP spat them out into the middle of chaos. They were in one of the lower floor research rooms of Atlantis and it sounded as though the ceiling was coming down. Fraggle looked at the others. This was bad. As they made their way out of the room into the corridor, one of the researchers ran past with a gash wound on his head.

"WHOA!" Fraggle exclaimid, pulling him to a stop. "What's going on here!" she asked the poor technician as he tried to get away from them.

"They are everywhere! They come out of the walls at you and if you are not quick enough...you explode. We gotta get out of here!" he shouted as he scampered down the corridor.

"They come out of the walls?" Fraggle thought the man had a concussion and was not talking sense.

"You didn't see what was attacking when you saw it in the mind realm?" Quenderra asked Fraggle.

"No. It was being hidden from me. All I could see was explosions, and fire."

"You mean you can't feel it?" Quenderra asked more urgently.

"What should I...oh, come on! No way!" Fraggle was wide eyed as she managed to get a feel for the attackers.

"What?" Kassandra asked warily.

"Its the GoN! Those evil wee buggers are tearing holes in Atlantis looking for us!!"

Quenderra nodded her agreement. "The city is full of them. Someone let them through... another being whose heart is black as night. The darkness," she said. "Darkness... cut in half, it's only half as dark. Light comes from the Sun, but from whence comes the darkness? Where a lamp burns out, the shadows remain--all consuming. Unstoppable... The Darkness... Darkness..." The blonde's speech had suddenly turned to murmured nonsense. Her eyes stared straight ahead and she pressed a hand against her left temple.

"Quenderra?" Kass interrupted before she could continue her rambling. "Quen?!"

"Huh?" Quenderra's attention suddenly snapped to her friend. "Oh--it's the GoN. The city's full of them. Somebody let them through, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't us."

"Are you alright?" Kass asked quietly.

"Yeah, I just have a headache all of a sudden," came the reply. "We need to get to Atlantis--they need our help!"

"Um... Quen?" Fraggle and Kassandra exchanged looks.

Fraggle wondered if Quenderra was actually up to this, she seemed so lost within herself. It appeared that being so close to the GoN was bringing her doubts to the surface again, playing with her mind and emotions. What would happen when she came face to face with one? Fraggle decided to let her be and keep a close watch on her.

- - -

They had to hurry. Atlantis was being torn to shreds, and it was because of them. Whoever the leader was, he had it in for the SSD. They made their way to the gate room to find anyone in command. McKay was attempting to open the stargate to evacuate. He was having trouble, as every time he got the connection, a GoN would tear through the event horizon, having used its energy to come through, then the gate would close down. People were screaming in terror at the dark shapes flying around the room, and McKay himself was no less frightened.

"Oh, nice of you all to show up!" he spat at them in anger. "A little help please!" He handed Kassandra a conduit to hold as he tried to make a different connection.

"It wont work McKay. They will keep coming through. Best you stop, its only bringing more to our realm." McKay's shoulders slumped in defeat, something that he did not take very well. Fraggle noticed Quenderra staring at the stargate. She watched as her friend descended the stairs from the control room and walked up to it, raising a hand as though to touch it. Her actions were surreal and slow against the chaos around her. The stargate began to dial itself.

"Incoming wormhole!" McKay shouted. "Quenderra get out of there!" Quenderra was not able to hear them, a voice in her head told her to stay in front of the ring. 'Stay where you are, stay. We will be together again...and reign in terror supreme!'

"Quenderra, don't you dare! QUENDERRA, MOVE!" Fraggle could sense the indecision in Quen, she closed her eyes and saw the reason. Within the ring stood what appeared to be the shadow of a GoN, a very familiar one. "I thought she was dead!" Fraggle whispered in horror. She pushed past McKay, running towards Quenderra as the Stargate locked in on the final chevron. "Quenderra, NOOOO!"

- - -

As the final chevron locked into place, Quenderra suddenly spooked, pulling back from the metallic ring. Tripping, she fell against Fraggle and they both fell to the gate room floor, thereby avoiding the kawoosh of the incoming wormhole.

"Where am I? What's going on?" Quenderra cried, shaking uncontrollably. "What is it? Why does it want me?" The gate shut down shortly after it activated. Fraggle glanced up at McKay in the control room.

"I didn't detect anything coming through," he told her.

"The darkness," the blonde said suddenly, "cut in two, it's only half as dark. Where a lamp burns out, the shadows remains... but from whence comes the darkness?"

"What does that mean?" Fraggle demanded.

Quenderra pressed both palms against her temples. "I don't know!" she looked up at Fraggle, confusion clouding her gaze. "Who are you?"

- - -

"McKay, where is Beckett?" Fraggle shouted up as she helped Quenderra to her feet.

"He is helping Sheppard put the injured into the puddle jumpers, why?"

"We need to get Quenderra on one and out of here, now."

"Wait a minute! We went through all that trouble to bring her along, and now you want to send her away?!" Kassandra shouted.

"Yeah, and that leaves what, three of us to fight these things!" McKay added.

"Bloody well look at her! She does not know who we are! She doesn't even know who she is! Whatever opened the wormhole did not come through because it used the energy to pull something in. Quenderra is gone!" Fraggle struggled to get Quenderra to follow her. "Help me get her to the jumper bay!" Fraggle shouted at Kassandra.

Kass ran down the stairs to the gate room, joining Fraggle in leading Quenderra towards the jumper bay. "How did the GoNs get into Atlantis?" she asked Fraggle softly.

Quenderra followed where she was pulled willingly enough, though she seemed entirely lost. "Oh--I remember something!" she exclaimed, the pleasantness of her tone standing in stark contrast to the chaos all around.

"What?" Fraggle and Kass demanded at the same time.

"When I was little, I had a cat," she answered distractedly. "His name was 'Polkadot'. He was such a nice cat..."

"What'd they do?" McKay asked sarcastically. "Switch her with the prime specimen from the local funny farm?"

Quenderra continued to ramble aimlessly."Such a nice cat... he was black..."

"Ah, I think I can answer the question of 'how' the ghosts got here," McKay continued as he followed behind them, clearly disturbed by Quenderra’s rambling. "The Athosians on the main land had put through a distress signal. When one of the teams took a jumper to investigate, the team was killed and the threat took over the jumper and came back here."

"So, what was the threat?" Kassandra asked.

"Well, that would be our friendly wraith that we left behind on the desolate planet. Oh, and the fact that he had the King of the GoN inside him, made it all the better," McKay said, sarcastic to the last.

"You said 'had' been inside him. Where are the both now?" Fraggle questioned.

"As soon as the jumper landed, reports were coming in of a wraith that made a deck hand explode, then a shadow came out of his chest. I'm guessing that the GoN converted the deck hand to escape the wraith's body. So yes, we now have a wraith as well as the GoN running around our prized city."

"The GoN," Quenderra echoed. "The darkness, from whence--"

"Yeah, yeah, from whence does it come?" McKay snapped. "Will you stop rambling, now? You're, uh, getting on my nerves." The blonde halted suddenly and pulled her arm from Fraggle's hold.

"Let go of me," she said, then gazed at the physicist. "Why do you speak to me that way?" Again she pressed a hand to her temple. "You're too proud for your own good, McKay! And what is going on? I thought I was in my dorm room!"

Kass looked at Quen with a worried look on her face. "Um, Quen, you WERE in your dorm room. Then we came and got you and brought you here with us through the TDP."

"You were in my dorm room?" Quenderra exclaimed, horrified. "It's a mess! So--so full shadows... something bad is about to happen, I can feel it."

"Wait a wee bloody minute!" Fraggle said as realization hit her. "Are you saying that you don’t remember anything? Not even, lets say the last half of the last mission??"

"What are you getting at?" McKay asked intrigued."I'm getting at the fact that she does not remember anything from about the time the Queen was inside her! Quenderra think, what is the last thing you remember?" Fraggle felt she knew the answer. She felt that it was not their Quenderra that came through the TDP with them to safety. She was thinking that, perhaps, It was the Queen that had been in control of Quenderra. And that it was she who came back, with Quenderra suppressed inside herself. If she was right, who died in the other timeline... and what did it mean for this Quenderra?

"I... I remember feeling horrible," Quenderra squeezed her eyes shut and drew in a sharp breath. "I was... I was a traitor! It's all my fault. I went home but not before... oh, god, no--You invaded my privacy! Focus... I need focus--there was two... two what? Me. No, that's impossible--but I sent her through the TDP with..." the blonde suddenly grabbed the Scot by the shoulders, "Fraggle! You're alive!!"

"What?" McKay demanded, not quite following Quenderra random mutterings.

"My head--it hurt... there was light and then nothing. Shadows and darkness... Atlantis is under attack! They need us!" She looked at her companions. "What is going on?"

"That sneaky...!" Fraggle exclaimed. "She knew you were going to sacrifice yourself for me and the others, and she switched to you from the other you so she would not be killed! Now my head hurts, but it makes perfect sense. The other you was willing to stay behind and be sacrificed, when she threw you in the TDP, the Queen jumped bodies and came along for the ride! It must have been another GoN I saw evaporated!"

"N n n n no! Wait! That means, if I get the jist of what you're gabbing about, there are now a King AND Queen GoN leading the flying shadows here? Hhmm? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but does that not mean we are in deep trouble?" McKay said exasperated.

"Yeah, there is an understatement." Fraggle muttered.

"What?" Quenderra looked even more confusion. "When she threw me in? No--I threw her into the TDP. You had died, so I went back to try to save you. In fact, I didn't even touch the other me--I didn't know what that'd do--Kass pulled her through with her," she grimaced, putting a hand to her temple again. "I thought I was dead. The queen was there... my head was killing me. There was this bright flash and then shadows... darkness everywhere," she looked up at her companions. "Then I was here."

"Quen?" Kass inquired when the blonde grimaced, biting back a cry of pain.

"The darkness--to defeat it, we must... argh...who am I..?"

Kass looked at their friend worriedly, then looked to Fraggle as she spoke, "Fraggle, we really need Quen for this mission, but I just don’t know what will snap her out of this."

- - -

Meanwhile....Ohio, Earth

The TDP opened and Quenderra stepped through. The hair all along her arms and spine instantly stood on end. "It shouldn't night, already," she murmured to herself as she gazed out the window. The boxes she'd packed and brought back with her were stacked neatly at the end of her bunk bed and two Wal-Mart sacks sat on the dresser. She lowered her back pack to the floor and approached the shopping bags. They contained the exact same items she had planned to buy. Her purse was on her desk and the light that she knew she'd turned off before departing was on. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror to find that she was wearing her favorite tank top and jeans... the same outfit she had worn on the last mission."Something's going on," she deduced. Calling up the TDP, she returned to HQ...

- - -

If you could see the tear in time and space, it would look like someone had ripped it to shreds and glued it back again with big globs of glue. It might only be a small tear, but the paradox remained. There were two Quenderra's, from approximately 10 minutes apart in time from each other. While one was standing in the gate room at Atlantis, wondering why her world and mind were being torn apart, the other was wondering how all the things she had intended to do, had already been done. Should they meet, the consequences would be terrible. But they were destined to meet. As Quenderra turned to go to the Jumper bay with her friends, her other self was already making her way back to the HQ, which would eventually lead her to Atlantis.

Meanwhile, in the Jumper bay, Beckett was getting anxious. "Elizabeth, it's jist making me nervous. I mean, how do we know this is gonnae work? Those shadows are everywhere, they're no' gonnae make it easy to escape! Those poor sods are all injured and they are being shoved around in the back o' that Jumper like bags of tatties!" (No misspellings, all to emulate the Scottish twang!)

"'Bags of tatties' aside, Carson, since the shadows took control of the gate, we have no other option for escape. They might not like being pushed around and in pain, but if it saves them from here, then it’s worth it," Weir pointed out.

"That’s the last of them in," Sheppard said as he approached them. Weir waved to the pilot to go. They all held their breath as the jumper rose into the air. As it approached the roof opening, Carson thought he saw a shadow, but it must have been his eyes. The jumper rose through the opening and left Atlantis.

"Well, time to load up the next one," John mumbled as he walked over to the line of injured and scared Atlantians.

- - -

As Quenderra entered the headquarters, the goose bumps on her appendages doubled in number, if that were possible. The feeling that something was very amiss had become so strong that she nearly felt sick to her stomach. "Kass?" she called, looking about the darkened HQ, "Fraggle?" She walked over the radio console and opened a line to Atlantis. "Atlantis, this Quenderra, please come in." There was no response. "Atlantis, this is SSD Agent 282706, come in, please."

As she looked out the window, she spotted a jumper leaving the city, flying erratically. When it was several minutes from its starting point, it suddenly vanished with a burst of light and debris. "Oh, god!" she murmured, momentarily shocked. Immediately, she called up the TDP and stepped through. Seconds later, she found herself standing in the gate room amidst utter chaos. She spotted Beckett and Weir a short distance away. "Elizabeth! Carson!" she called. "What's going on here? Where's Kass and Fraggle? Have you seen them?"

They stared at her in shock, and the Scot's response made her blood run cold. "Bloody hell!"

- - -

Carson looked from Quenderra to Weir. Something was amiss. "Eh, we jist passed you, in the corridor, didn't we?" he asked in confusion.

"No, I've just arrived," Quenderra told them, then continued. "The jumper, what happened?"

"What do you mean?" Weir asked.

"It left Atlantis then exploded. Didn't you know? You had to have at least heard it?"

Weir began running back to the Jumper bay, calling on the comm to anyone who might still be monitoring the stations and the leaving jumpers. "This is Weir, hold all jumper launches! I repeat, hold all jumper launches!" Her comm exploded to life in her ear.

"This is Sheppard, we have lost the first jumper!"

"Oh my God! Whit the hell are we gonnae dae!" As they turned into the Jumper bay, Fraggle was already coming out. "Its gone, it just....Quen?!?" Fraggle stumbled to a halt. At first she did not understand seeing her friend standing there, when she had just left her with Kassandra. Then, with a sickening stomach lurch, she understood. She grabbed Quenderra and wrenched her down a different corridor, while Quenderra protested at being handled in such a manner.

"Okay, Quen, you are a smart person and I need you to listen and I need you to understand me. But first just wait with me. DO NOT leave me." Quen started to talk, but noticed that Fraggle had already closed her eyes and had gone from this reality.

Fraggle was aware of Quenderra watching her, impatiently waiting for an explanation, but she could not wait. She searched for the feeling she had felt earlier, the tugging and gnawing at her sub consciousness, the warning beating at her brain. She felt her way through the fabric of the mind realm, feeling a ragged edge somewhere far away. She let her mind drift farther away to the place where the whole thing began. There, on the desolate planet, was the tear. It was glimmering silver, like tears from a weeping eye. It looked very much like a TDP, but was larger and more violent.

Have to go back further… The TDP had almost closed and the King was watching. This was where his work began. His very being was that of space and time, and he could manipulate it all he wished when given the opportunity of a tear. And there it was, standing in front of him, the way to get that opportunity. Quenderra.

He had watched the other go through the TDP, and knew he could open the tear by just throwing this Quenderra into the TDP also. He knew that this would allow for him to gather his minions and descend on the humans that had spoiled his plans. As the TDP began to close, he used his host to push Quenderra through. He watched as the TDP stopped billowing and straightened to a pipe like structure. It turned black to red then to silver. As he regarded the glimmering tear, he called his people, the last of who had joined him and his Queen in the battle, to pour through the TDP.

He sensed her, knew she was here but in the other realm with no way of escape. But he would provide that escape for her, for when the human reached the other side of the TDP, all of the heavens would be open to the King and Queen of the GoN…

Fraggle exhaled a long deep breath and opened her eyes. “Quen, listen to me. The King of GoN, threw the other you through the TDP after you had already gone through. It is vital that you and your other self do not meet. I am not fully up to date with the repercussions or the full science behind paradoxes, but I know that two of the same thing cannot occupy the same time and space. We have a whole load of crap on our hands as it is, with the King and his minions tearing Atlantis apart. We don’t need an accidental meeting with your other self to tear this universe apart.

"So, I'm asking you, stay away from the Jumper bay until I can get your other self back to Ohio and out of the way, okay?”

Quenderra just stared at Fraggle for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. But let me know when she is gone, so I can get down to business.”

- - -

As the King flew back to Atlantis after destroying the jumper, he was joined by the other GoN that had came out of the TDP after Quenderra had left. With an army of GoN, he flew into the jumper bay, searching for the SSD…

- - -

"Oh, and Fraggle," Quenderra added suddenly as her colleague turned to go. "Don't let her touch anything."

"What?"

"Anything connected to a power source--particularly the stargate or any of the consoles in the city. She probably shouldn't touch any of the control circuits in the jumper, either."

"Why?" Fraggle asked slowly, beginning to feel an even greater sense of alarm.

"I don't know," the blonde answered. "Just a feeling. Better safe than sorry. I'm gonna head back to the control room and see what I can do to help--if anything."

Meanwhile, in the Jumper Bay

The blonde who Fraggle had left behind with Kassandra regarded her solemnly. "I know you," she concluded. "And I have a horrible headache. Do you know why?"

"No," Kass answered, looking at Quenderra with concern. "No, I don't. Sorry."

"You know," Quenderra continued seriously after a brief pause, "If you removed one of the rockers from a rocking chair, it wouldn't make a very sturdy seat. No matter how good you are at balancing."

"Now, what is she babbling about?" McKay demanded. He was a short distance away, having appointed himself qualified to keep an eye on crazy SSD agents.

"I don't know," Kass answered. "Quen? Are you alright?" Quenderra had taken to having a vacant look in her eyes, again, and this time it was worse than before. She looked at her friend.

"If you have a lamplight outside your window, it's best to have two curtains, 'cause one will let the light through," she spoke listlessly, but mostly as though she was talking to herself.. "But you must first open the one before you can open the other.... If the darkness is cut in two, it's only half as dark. The light comes from the sun, but from whence comes the darkness? Where a lamp dies, the shadows remain... Oh, god," she suddenly took a hold of Kassandra's wrist, tears filling her eyes. "Don't let the lamp die!! What does it want--I don't understand..." Quenderra began to cry and Kass wrapped her in a hug.

"It's alright, Quen. We'll figure this out," she soothed. A moment later, Fraggle returned.

- - -

"Fraggle?" Kass repeated when she didn't receive an answer to her previous inquiry. She straightened as Quenderra had returned to being complacent.

"There's two Quenderra’s."

"What?" she began to wonder if Fraggle was suffering from the same thing as the blonde.

"I just saw the other Quenderra," Fraggle further explained. "She just got here."

"Well, where is she now?" Kass was mildly alarmed. If there were two of the same person...

"She went back to the control room," Fraggle replied. "They're dressed the same--I'm trouble figuring out which one's which. I think this is the one that went back and saved my life."

"Of course I did," Quenderra spoke up. "I couldn't just let you die..." She had a hand pressed to her temple again.

"Quen?" Kass asked as she grimaced suddenly. Her expression relaxed, but her eyes remained closed. Memories were playing across her mind.

**Flashback...** "Fraggle!" She pressed her fingers gently against Fraggle's carotid artery. "Nothing!"

*

'A person can't go back on their own time line!' A searing pain cut into every sense in her mind and body as the TDP billowed around her. She was grabbing Kass's shoulder. "Into the TDP--all three of you!" She shoved Fraggle through, sinking to the ground as the Queen of the GoN hovered over her....

*

A brilliant flash of light. Darkness--and voices..."We should destroy her!"

"After what Moropa did to me, I cannot retake corporal form without her assistance!"

"She'll never help you again."

"She gave part of herself to me--given time, she WILL break!"

*

"Together, we are unstoppable, my love."

"But separated, we can be defeated."

"If they discover the source of our being..."

"They won't."

**End flashback**

"I know how to--ah! No!" Quenderra began, but stopped suddenly as pain once more scattered her thoughts.

"Quenderra?"

"The shadows--from whence do they come?" tears had sprung to her eyes. "Only the one who speaks the riddles truly understands them..."

Fraggle regarded the tearful Quenderra with a look of complete confusion. What the hell was going on here? Two Quenderras, one just like the old one, the other a few beans short of a tin. When it looked like she was going to say something useful, Quen would fold into herself and become like a lost child. Something was so wrong here, and Fraggle's tired mind was not able to make the connection just yet.

Kassandra was getting more and more upset with the way Quen was acting, it was not easy seeing their friend become so lost and scared. But the chaos continued to fly around them. Atlantis was being pulled to pieces and time was running out.

"We have to take this Quen back to Ohio, so that the other Quen can help us. She is more like the Quen we knew, and she's willing to fight. We can ask Quen’s friend in the dorm to look after her for a while," Fraggle said, "just till we try and sort all of this out." Kassandra nodded, relieved to be getting this Quen out of danger at least.

"Eh, and just how long do you think you will be as I have this extremely ominous feeling that we will all be dead by the time you get back!" McKay demanded, dodging a falling piece of debris.

"Kassandra, you take her, Quen and I...the other Quen and I... will help out here," Fraggle told her. "Be quick, Kass, we need you and the KoT." Fraggle went back to the control room to get Quen, McKay trailing behind her.

"Hey, slow down!" he grumbled.

They arrived at their destination and Fraggle surveyed the room, already knowing what her eyes were telling her. "God, trust me to trust the wrong one!" she sneered. Quenderra was gone, and who knows where she was or what she was up to. One thing was for sure, she was not helping, as she could hear the GoN whispering malevolently in the corridors...

- - -

Kassandra and her charge stepped from the TDP into Quenderra's dorm room. "Alright, I'm gonna find one of your friends," Kass said, walking towards the door.

"My laptop has wireless capabilities," Quenderra said suddenly, idly pushing one of the buttons on the device. "With the right knowledge, you can make changes to another computer or network. The more information you have, the more you can do."

"That's... nice, Quen."

"Have you felt like a wireless link?"

Kassandra turned to meet the blonde's gaze. "No," she answered. "No, I haven't."

Quenderra pressed the button again."I have."

---

In the meantime...

Quenderra winced slightly as she made her way through the corridor. Whispers were echoing in her mind. 'Listen!' they said. 'Do as you're told... This! This is who you are! ....You can have this power--you! Forget the others.' Then a more familiar voice, clearer than the rest, invaded her thoughts.

'Quenderra!'

"What did you do?" the blonde whispered back.

'I have isolated that which makes you strong, Quenderra! All those weaknesses, doubts, and useless emotions are confined to your old form. Now, you are superior--perfect! Together, we can be invincible!'

"You betrayed me once, already--what makes you think I'll help you again?"

'We need each other, Quenderra. You crave the power I can give you. I need you to release me again--just as you did before.'

"NO!"

'Don't resist!'

"What makes you think that I can't obtain that power by myself?!" Quenderra demanded. A low laugh reverberated through her thoughts.

'Don't be foolish... I know you as you know me. I shouldn't have betrayed you--we are meant to be one and the same. Be my vessel again, Quenderra. Surrender yourself to me... all of yourself.'

The SSD agent halted her forward motion. "What do I need to do, Nadala?" she asked...

- - -

"What's going on?" A puzzled McKay asked. "Where is this other Quenderra?"

"She was here, now she is gone. And I don’t know how far gone she is yet, but I'm betting she is too bloody far gone!" Fraggle said angrily as she pulled out the FTF. She banged a message into it and pressed enter, sending an SOS to Kassandra, hoping she would hurry.

Fraggle tried to still her mind amid the maelstrom that shook around them. She had to find Quenderra soon, stop her from getting near the GoN leader. How could she have been so blind? Quen had been off-hand, rude, and demanding--not qualities normally found in the bright blonde. What was all that about not letting the other Quen touch the power and computers?

“What, what the hell are you doing?” McKay shouted as he saw Fraggle standing with her eyes closed. She lifted her hand to her lips and urged McKay to be quiet.

“I don’t believe this! Here we are in the middle of a battle and you want to take a NAP! We are SO gonna die!” It did not matter how much she concentrated, she could not enter the mind realm. Something was stopping her natural ability, and this shook her to her core. Only something with immense power would have the ability to do this, and she was betting she knew what it was.

“Come on Rodney, its up to us now,” she said, making a run for the door.

“What?! You mean the others aren't coming? What the hell am I meant to do? I’m a scientist, not a ghost chasing, gun blazing TDP agent!” he whined.

“RODNEY! Oh, you can be a right, whiny little bugger sometimes! Its up to US now!” she repeated urgently. McKay’s shoulders drooped as he begrudgingly followed after her. Fraggle hoped that perhaps Kassandra had managed to get some sense from the other Quenderra, save some time in the long run.“We're gonna have to speak to the other Quenderra, she seems to be the only one who truly knows what to do about the situation.”

“WHAT! The little fruity nut bar that left for Ohio? I don’t see what she can do for us!”

“Exactly! We don’t see what she can do for us. We have to LISTEN to what she can TELL us!” 'Only the one who speaks the riddles, truly understands them…'

- - -

"What is it? Why do we need this Quenderra?" Kassandra asked the moment she returned through the TDP with Quenderra in tow. The blonde was looking around like a lost child. McKay regarded her dubiously.

"I'm pretty sure the Quenderra who stayed here has gone dark-side on us," Fraggle explained, then motioned to their friend. "She seems to be the only one who knows what's going on. We need to hear her out. Did she say anything?"

"Um... yeah," Kass said. "Why do we need to listen to her? She doesn't make any sense."

"I think she's speaking in riddles. In any case, this might be our only chance," the Scot told her. "Well?"

"What? Oh--she said that she felt like a wireless link, that with the proper knowledge you could change another computer... or something." The two SSD agents and the scientist thought about it for a moment.

"Okay," Fraggle said. "Maybe we should try to decipher something else."

"Where a lamp dies, the shadows remain," Quenderra murmured from where she stood gazing out a window. "The lamp died, didn't it?"

"Light and shadows..." Fraggle felt as though she were on the brink of understanding. "Quenderra, we need you to tell us everything, can you do that?"

Quenderra turned to face her."No--I keep adding and adding, but I still come up short," Quenderra replied, aggravated tears filling her eyes, "I'm a few eggs short of a dozen..."

"Quenderra," Fraggle said, taking the blonde by the wrists, confident that she understood what was just said. "You're not crazy."

"Yes, I am."

"You're confused, I understand that, I do--but I need you to calm down and focus, okay?"

"We weren't meant to live there. Staying there takes away from who we are."

"She's talking about the TDP, right?" McKay asked.

"Yeah, she is," the two SSD agents almost spoke in unison.

Fraggle continued, "Quenderra, you need to tell us what you know about the GoN."

Quenderra took a deep, shuddering breath."If you have a lamplight outside your window," she began, "it's best to have two curtains, 'cause one will let the light in, but you must open the one before you can open the other. Cut in two, the darkness is only half as dark." She stopped to gaze at her friends.

"Light and dark..." Kass murmured allowed. "Good and evil!"

"The darkness represents the GoN!" McKay declared.

Quenderra looked at him."Yes."

“Okay,” Fraggle said, shaking her head. “Let’s take this one at a time. When a lamp dies, the shadow remains. Other Quen’s lamp went out when she decided to join the GoN, yes?”

“But how do you know that she is back with the GoN?” Kassandra asked.“Because this Quen just asked that the lamp had died, therefore, she has gone to them once more.” Fraggle replied. “A wireless link, that with the proper knowledge you can change another computer, are you talking about the other Quen? You can bring her back...Oh! Wait! The other Quen said not to let this Quen touch anything to do with power or computers! I thought it was a warning in case she did something wrong, but she was trying to protect herself!”

“How so?” Kass asked.

“I think...I have no idea,” Fraggle shook her head again.

“Oh yeah, this is REALLY helping us!” McKay murmured to himself.

"If you have a lamplight outside your window, it's best to have two curtains, because one will let the light in,” Fraggle thought aloud.

“Wait, the two curtains are two GoN, working together to protect themselves!” Kassandra smiled.

“You must open the one before you can open the other. Get through to Quen to release the hold the GoN have on her?” McKay added, beginning to realize there might be something to this after all.

“If the darkness is cut in two, its only half as dark. They need to be separate to be conquered.”

“Separate from who, each other or from the other Quen?”

“Again, I have no idea!” Fraggle murmured.“From whence did the darkness come? We need to know where the GoN came from. But we know that they came from the dark matter…oh this is giving me a bloody sore head!” Fraggle snapped. They all looked at Quen, who stood staring at them all with wide eyes. "Are we even close, Quen?" Fraggle asked exasperated.

A smile touched Quenderra's lips. "Sometimes, one can be close and far away at once," she said. "To have a pair, you cannot have one without the other; but if you do not have an ingredient for a recipe, often times, you can use a substitute." Quenderra diverted her gaze to the floor and continued. "You cannot get rid of the head of a penny without destroying the whole coin. It's the only way."

"Wait a minute!" Rodney exclaimed. "She's added stuff!"

"Also, I'm not so good with computers."

"We were wrong about the wireless link?" Kassandra asked.

"Yes."

"And the other stuff?"

"Close."

“What the hell is she talking about now?” McKay asked, “This whole head of penny-whole of coin thing, is she suggesting that in order to fix this, we have to get rid of the two Quens? Because I'm sorry, but I am not going to be part of that!”

“Not both, she mentioned a substitute. But what and where?” Fraggle was rubbing her head, a migraine had set in. She understood that the best of Quen was in the small person before her, and the worst of Quen was in the entity running amok in the city. Fraggle regarded the others. She was responsible for them, and knew she was letting them down.

The Scot cocked her head to the side, listening to the hissing coming down the corridor towards them. Even though her ability to see anything in the mind realm was diminished, she knew this could only be a very bad omen. She looked towards the roof where the hissing had settled and noticed the dark shadows that had gathered there, a feeling of terrible dread descended on them.

- - -

The shadows began to take a form that was both familiar and yet alien to them. Above them, Quenderra's worse half appeared, the shadows of wings holding her in the air, her face contorted into a melded form of both human and GoN. She looked down on them all with a sneer on her face. The small Quen quavered and cried out at the sight of the other, swaying on her feet at the sight of her dark half.

Shadow Quenderra’s voice reverberated throughout the room, resonating in their skulls. 'THE TIME FOR PUZZLESSS ISSS OVER! THE TIME FOR REVENGE ISSS AT HAND!' It was than that they noticed that other shadows were holding Sheppard, Beckett and Weir in their gnarled claws, threatening to drop them to the floor below.

Fraggle looked at the others, who looked back at her with questioning, anguished eyes. And for the second time since this situation had began, she felt panic and failure come crushing down on her head. She knew she had let everyone down, that she was the reason this was happening. She was the weakest link, the failure, and the reason their doom had been cast. In desperation she grabbed the small Quenderra and forced her to her knees.

“If you can do anything, ANYTHING! For God’s sake do it NOW!” she shouted in a mixture of anger and fear. She let go of Quenderra and rushed towards the shadows. She freed her mind to the Scottish Dragon within her, and threw herself towards the Shadow Quenderra. She would not let this happen without giving every ounce of her being to the fight, and if that meant that she was to perish for the others, so be it. In her mind, it was all she deserved. After all, had Quenderra not gone back to save her life, Fraggle would be dead anyway.

- - -

Quenderra drew in a deep breath and time seemed to almost draw to an standstill. Her other half, her dark half, was Nadala's now. The Queen of the GoN was incapable of retaking corporal form on her own, so she had seduced her dark half. She had had to separate the two natures to be able to succeed, so she had used the Quenderra who'd been willing to attempt turning back time to make the needed changes--like a wireless link and with all the needed passwords because she had her own Quenderra to work with.

Nadala's work had not been flawless, however...Nadala's tampering had linked the two of them together. But while the good Quen could live without her darker self, evil Quen could not live without her. The prolonged exposure to the TDP had made her body into a conductor.... all she needed to was touch a console with enough electrical power connected to it and she and her evil half would be dead and the queen with them. With Nadala gone, the others could easily defeat the king of the GoN.

"Kassandra," Quen whispered to her friend, wincing through the pain that spread through her mind. "The king's brother is his better half--he cannot withstand him. ...Fraggle knows!" Running towards the door, she removed the cover to expose the control crystals underneath.

"What are you doing?" McKay's shout was lost to her. The blonde remembered learning about these circuits. She reached for the top crystal, withdrawing her hand as it sparked. Clenching her jaw, she grabbed for the crystal once more, ignoring the shock she received in the process. Next, she pulled out the center one and put in place of the top, then she replaced it with the top crystal before removing the bottom.

Up till now, Fraggle had distracted their aggressor. "No!" the human/ghost hybrid suddenly shouted, turning to face the diminished Quenderra. The blonde looked up at the creature silently, tears filling her gray-blue eyes.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. And with that, she used the last crystal to bridge the others...

Fraggle watched as the shadow Quenderra who she had been aiming for was overcome with a storm of electricity. The shadow screamed and clawed at its body as the white blue lightning coursed through her. Fraggle shielded her eyes and backed away from the sight, unsure what was happening. Shadow Quenderra began to shake and twist, her body seeming to come apart. The other shadows were now backing away to the floor, dropping Weir, Beckett and Sheppard when they got near the ground.

All watched as the Queen and dark Quenderra split in a shimmer of blue sparks. The Queen’s high-pitched screams became a howling distress call to her king as her body shrank into itself to form a small black dot. The shadows became restless, each wanting to get to the black dot, and the power held within that tiny space.

Fraggle watched in bewilderment as the shadow Quenderra was pulled across the room. Until she saw the small Quenderra bridging the crystals on the control panel and understood what was happening. 'PARADOX!' Fraggle’s mind screamed at her. No matter what, the two must not meet. Each would cancel the other out, killing Quen and most probably everyone else.

She ran to Kassandra and grabbed the KoT from her, pulled the FTF from her combats and connected them together. She pressed the keys on both keypads, forcing them to work together to create what she wanted. Her mind was free again, and she could sense the mind realm calling her, the voice in her head telling her she was doing the right thing, that he would take care of it. She could also sense the terrible darkness that had heard the distress call, as it made its way to where they stood.

Pressing enter on both keyboards at once, a huge vortex blasted from the KoT, knocking all in the vicinity to the floor. The vortex spilled towards the shadow Quenderra and plucked her out of the air then vanished, taking shadow Quenderra with it.

Fraggle ran towards the small, falling form of Quenderra, helping her gently to the ground. “You’re ok Quen, I got you.” She could see the scorches on her friend’s hands and winced at the sight.

Quenderra looked at her with a small hint of the person she used to be. “It won’t matter. I had to give myself, to kill the two, there is nothing you can do for me.”

“I beg to differ. I might be crap at riddles, but I know how to keep fighting! I fixed it so you did not need to die, but I will explain later. You just rest.” Beckett took over looking after Quen as Fraggle joined the group. The shadows were still warily looking at the dot, ignoring the group and allowing them all time to hide in a niche out of view.

“So what now?” Weir asked, “What options do we have?”

“Quen said something about the King's brother,” Kassandra said. “She said he could not withstand him and that you would know what she was talking about.”

“Moropa.” Fraggle smiled.

“Wait, he’s the one who helped us before, right?” Sheppard asked.

“Yes, yes, yes, we all know that, but what good does it do, he is not here and we are about to die!” McKay said.

“He is not here, but he will come.” Fraggle said.

“Oh, 'the build it and they will come' scenario! We are SO dead, I tell you, DEAD!”

Kassandra noticed the shadow GoN fighting with each other, trying to get hold of the floating black dot that was the remains of their queen. One managed to stretch its claw closer than the rest and almost touched it when a darker than black shadow forced them apart and grabbed the dot for itself. The King of GoN crushed the small dot in his claw, converting its power into his own body, growing in size and rage.

“Eh, Fraggle? If Moropa is going to come, he better come now, coz I don’t think we are gonna be here much longer!” With the King came the deadly assassin, who had quietly sneaked upon them. He silently stood, raising his arm to strike in the darkness of the shadows. His feeding time would be most satisfying. Here were all the humans that he had planned to kill, all in front of him at once. His hand flashed out of the darkness, and connected its feeding mouth onto the surprised body of Rodney McKay, who let out a cry of surprise and dismay.

"Rodney!" Kassandra cried out, being the first to turn around. John launched himself at the assassin and knocked him to the floor, free and away from McKay.

"Are you alright?" Kass and Fraggle asked simultaneously as they rushed to the scientist's side.

"Oh, god!" McKay moaned in answer. "I'm a dead man!" Carson turned from tending to Quenderra--there was almost nothing he could do for her without the proper supplies--to take a look at Rodney.

"Here," he said, "Let me have a look at it." He examined the marks on his friend's shoulder. "I think you'll be fine, Rodney," the doctor diagnosed. "At most, he only took a few years from you."

"Oh, that's encouraging!" Rodney exclaimed. "Now, I get to die a few years sooner!"

Meanwhile, Sheppard and the wraith were struggling on the ground and the king of the GoN was closing in...

- - -

The wraith jammed Sheppard’s head into the ground, knocking him senseless. He lay with his eyes half closed, trying to gather his wits when the wraith struck his head again, knocking him unconscious. Kassandra flew for the wraith, a choking groan of rage tearing from her throat. He caught her in the chest, sending her flying across the room to land in a crumpled heap beneath the shadows.

McKay straightened his jaw, pulled back his shoulders and wondered what the hell he was doing as he and Fraggle both ran at the wraith. He watched as the wraith grabbed Fraggle and threw her towards the shadows, where she thudded to the ground and lay silently. McKay stopped short of reaching the wraith, his eyes bulging as he realized he was next. He noticed Sheppard moving and wished he would hurry up and help him. Weir and Beckett were helping Quenderra out of harm's way, while watching the wraith as he stood to his full and terrible height in front of McKay.

“Eh, hi. I, um, just wanted to give you this,” he said as he thrust a piece of fallen piping towards the wraith’s chest. It punctured the skin and dug deep into the flesh, seeing this, McKay felt a little braver and pushed it in further. The wraith screamed in fury and pain and grabbed the pipe, pushing it away from himself and towards McKay. McKay’s feet began to slide on the floor from the pushing and he realized the wraith was actually pulling the pipe from its body. Too late did he see the pipe tear free from the wraith as it held it in position to strike. The pipe smacked McKay on the side of the head with a sickening crunch, sending him sprawling to the floor out cold.

Sheppard had roused and seeing the wraith standing over McKay as he fell, he took his chance to attack. Freeing the knife from his thigh belt, he thrust the blade upwards and into the wraith’s stomach. The wraith grabbed Sheppard’s wrists and pushed them away from itself, taking the knife from its body in the same action. John stared hard at the beast that held him, willing himself to be stronger. But that was what the wraith was wanting, Sheppard’s strength. He could almost taste the growing strength of life force in Sheppard’s body, and he smiled as he drew his hand back and violently thrust in towards Sheppard’s chest. John howled in pain as the wraith fed upon him, trying to free himself but not succeeding as his strength waned.

Beckett jumped over the small railing separating himself, Weir, and Quenderra from the others. He jumped upon the wraith's back, trying to pull its head backwards. “Get off ‘im, ya bloody beast, ye!” he hollered, surprising himself that he was actually doing this. The wraith twisted his free hand up to grab at Beckett, allowing a weakening Sheppard to once again try escape. It was then that the wraith suddenly stopped moving, standing still like a grotesque statue, the arm holding Sheppard slowly lowered and John slid off to the floor. Beckett continued to hold onto the wraith tightly, as if he could not let go, finally releasing as the wraith began to fall.

“What, what the hell happened?” Beckett asked as he went over to help Sheppard.

“I was gonna ask you the same thing.” Sheppard said weakly.

“Why don’t you ask Rodney?” Weir called to them. They turned to see McKay, one side of his head glistening with blood, holding the FTF in an outstretched hand.

“That…is for hurting …my…brilliant brain,” he gasped as he fell unconscious once more. While Beckett tried to help McKay, Sheppard slowly made his way to Weir. He had not lost so much to the wraith, but it had definitely weakened him.

“What about the SSD?” he asked her.

“They are in more trouble than we are,” she replied, looking beyond Sheppard to what was going on behind him. The darkness had spread and the GoN were flying in circles around the King. He stood on the ground as his wings flapped behind him. He was taller and bigger than before. The viscous sneer on his face glowering at the crumpled still bodies of Kassandra and Fraggle. The two lay there unaware of the danger they were in. The king opened his mouth large and distorted and spewed out a stream of electrical charges that hit the unconscious SSD agents. The shadows danced and screamed in unison as their King tortured those who had killed his Queen. The others watched, not knowing how to help their friends.

"Carson!" Elizabeth called as Quenderra roused slightly with a sharp gasp and coughing.

"Easy, lass," he soothed, "we've gotcha." The blonde looked up at them without recognition, but this might have been due to the fact that her head was throbbing and her vision not quite clear. She turned to see what was happening to her friends. She weakly moved to sit, but Weir and Beckett.

"I gotta... I..." she murmured.

"You won't be any good to them like this," Weir told her gently but firmly.

"The source," Quenderra whispered, closing her eyes against the brightness all around her. "To save 'em till Moropa comes... ye gotta da-mage ...the source...."

"And how do we do that, then?" Carson asked.

"F...TF," her voice was so soft that they had to lean in close to hear what she said. Carson retrieved the small computer from McKay's hand and returned. Quen reached towards the keypad, but the strip of cloth wrapped around her burned and blistered hand rendered it useless. She pulled at the cloth with her other hand.

"What are you doing?" the doctor demanded.

"Can't type... take it off," the SSD agent responded.

"I'm not so sure that's such a good idea..."

"Off..."

"Carson," Weir interjected. Reluctantly, the man removed the makeshift bandage from Quenderra's hand. Slowly and painstakingly, she typed out a long line of text, her eyelids half-closed, then she let her hand fall to the floor. "What'd she write?"

"I'm not sure," Carson answered, "it doesn't make a bit of sense." Quenderra reached a hand to Weir's shoulder, then uttered two more words:"Alt... Enter." Her eyelids fell shut and she she was unconscious again.

"Elizabeth?" the Scot asked uncertainly. They took in the scene before them: there was no way Kassandra and Fraggle could withstand the energy arcing into their bodies for much longer.

"Do it," Weir commanded. Carson pressed the two keys. The swarming ghosts let out a collective shriek as their king let out an enraged roar, the bolts of energy issuing from his mouth coming to an abrupt stop. He turned his full attention towards them, his eyes glaring. But as he stalked towards them, another form appeared.

"Hello, brother..."

- - -

“Hynoda, this must end now,” Moropa spat at his brother.

“What are you going to do about it! I have the power, I have the army, and I hold the key to our species' evolution. ...you do not know?” Hynoda laughed at his brothers puzzled look. “HA! The great and powerful Moropa does not know what I have orchestrated!” Hynoda turned away from his brother, the density of his shadow momentarily blinding Moropa.

Hynoda opened his wings and flew upwards to an overhanging above. He landed heavily on the structure, and looked out over everyone and thing below. Carson was warily watching him, as he whispered his concerns for the two fallen SSD agents who remained amongst the shadows.

“We’ve got tae get tae them, I’m pretty sure they’re gonna be in a bad way.”

“I’ll try and get to them.” Sheppard replied.

“No way son, you are in no shape tae go anywhere yersel!” Carson said.

“Ok, you go get them!” Sheppard smiled.

“Well, yeh know. If yeh feel up tae it, I suppose you will be alright.” Carson said, as he looked anywhere except at Sheppard.

“Okay Doc, relax. You’ve got enough here to be dealing with.” Sheppard said as he slowly edged his way towards the SSD agents. He hid in the midst of the shadows surrounding the two women, careful not to touch any of the beings emanating the dark cover. Hynoda barked a command, and the GoN dispersed, leaving the area below clear. Which also left John Sheppard exposed to see, his attempt at rescue stalled.

“Oh crap!” Carson cursed, seeing John’s predicament. As he helped a now conscious McKay to his feet, he heard a call from Hynoda that was so loud it seemed to shake the wraith corpse. But that was not what he had seen. Just as he got McKay behind the railing next to Weir and Quenderra, the wraith opened its eyes and stood up. It walked to the clearing and smiled at John Sheppard. Moropa attempted to help him, but a call from Hynoda brought hundreds of dark GoN on top of him, keeping him rooted to the spot unable to help.

“You see brother, I have always lived under your shadow. It is now time you lived under mine. I never cared much for Nadala, my love for her was purely a means to an end. She was too…impulsive. Which is why I chose her, as it made her reckless. Her lust for power made her make the mistake that led to her predictable demise. I planned her death from the very start, she never knew that I had placed it inside her.” He trailed off as if talking to himself. The wraith seemed different to John. It appeared to be larger, darker, and stronger. It regarded him with a new set of eyes, eyes as black as hell that dripped evil as ever he had seen.

Hynoda jumped from above and landed next to John and the still SSD agents. “I remember when I first saw her traveling through the phenomenon she calls the TDP. Her curiosity seemed the ideal opportunity to get out of the dark matter and into the place I wanted to be. The place were power units were walking and breathing and available everywhere. These humans, our addictive enjoyment.” He kicked Fraggle in the side as he walked past her, his face a picture of hatred. “She saw me in the TDP, wondered what I was and just had to find out. She saw me as her little research project, and I allowed her to think that.”

Kassandra had come round and was lying quietly still, listening to everything, trying to figure out what she could do.

“She helped me through to the TDP, thinking that I had been trapped there, allowing me some freedom. She witnessed me consume the power of three humans in my thirst for power upon leaving the TDP. She never was the same after that. A little darker in nature, I think. She eventually forced me back through into the dark matter, disgusted with what had happened, and the fact she had a part in it.”

Kassandra remembered an earlier conversation with Fraggle, and understood what she had meant then.

“I took what I needed from her as she forced me through the walls of the vortex. A little piece of her being that allowed me to plan for this fantastic day, through the dark years I had to endure in the dark matter." Kassandra's eyes flew opened as she realized what Hynoda meant. He had made the Queen from the tiny fragment of Fraggle's being he stole from her. It was why the Queen had initially formed the bond with Quen, a likeness in her being craving for a likeness within another.

"Having used the compacted energy of poor Nadala, I have been able to combine two entities. You see before you, our new form. A form that requires no conversion of power to leave nor enter, and allows us to feed with abandon. A form that can travel both in real space and dark matter, that can heal itself and is in numerous supply throughout this universe. And a form which is readily agreeable to feeding on humans as we are!” The wraith grinned as it looked at its King, proud to be the first to evolve to this form, eager to try its new strength out for size. But it was not just a GoN within a wraith body. This was a hybrid of both, a terrible new species that would be impossible to destroy. It did not feed for survival, it fed for fun.“To show the complete success of this new form of ours, he will demonstrate how perfect this form is!” The wraith looked at Sheppard, Fraggle and Kassandra, wondering who to kill first.

- - -

The wraith leered down at its prey, an evil smile spreading across his hybrid features. Meanwhile, Quenderra's lips began to move as she murmured unconsciously. Dr. Beckett bent down to hear the soft sound being emitted.

"Fraggle... Fraggle...." she repeated over and over.

"Och, she's in a bad way, lass--you know that, don't ya?" he murmured helplessly. For helpless he was, indeed...

- - -

Fraggle roused ever so slightly and immediately realized that she was in the mind realm.

"Fraggle," a familiar voice spoke up from behind her.

"Quen!" she exclaimed, turning to see the blonde. "I didn't think you could enter the mind realm!"

"Usually I can't," Quenderra answered. "I'm not entirely clear on the details right now, but I'm at least half-dead. It's rather painful, actually..."

"Why are you here?" Fraggle asked, cutting to the point.

"Ah, yes," the blonde got back on topic. "Despite the fact that the mind realm doesn't actually work on an actual time frame, in real time we don't actually have any to spare. If that ghost/wraith hybrid feeds even once, it will become invulnerable--nothing will be able to stop it."

"That can't be good," the Scot commented to encourage her friend to continue more quickly.

"You can say that again. We need to destroy the source of the GoN's being. Once it is obliterated, everything connected to it--the GoN and wraith hybrid--will die. Without Nadala, Hynoda has only one weakness: he's combined her power with his, but he cannot be two places at once."

"You damaged the source--how?"

"I was able to remotely alter the TDP to shed some light on it. It could only be done once and only for a split second."

"What?"

Quenderra put a hand on Fraggle's shoulder and their minds were temporarily combined. The blonde took Fraggle to a part of her memory of a place deep within the TDP--a dark, impenetrable blackness. {This.} At its center was a dense black gem. {That's} It was not a question.

"Yes," Quenderra withdrew her hand. "Fraggle, you and I are the only people who can find that gem and the only way to destroy it is to expose it to the full light of the Lantean sun."

"In case you haven't noticed, neither of us are in any condition to be traveling anywhere, let alone in the TDP," Fraggle pointed out.

"Right now, we're connected via the mind realm," Quenderra countered. "Take my strength..."

"Quen, I can't do that!"

"Leave me enough so Beckett can resuscitate me--Fraggle, if you don't do this, we're all dead, anyway. The entire universe and probably every reality, also."

"Fine," Fraggle reluctantly agreed.

"You'll have less than a minute--you know that," Quenderra told her. "If the wraith feeds for even a second, we're screwed. And one last thing," she added as she placed her reluctant friend's hand on her own shoulder. "The focus necessary to manipulate the TDP to get you where you want to go in the proper time frame is gonna hurt like hell. Good luck..."

- - -

As the grotesque hybrid stepped towards Sheppard and the two SSD agents, Carson rose quickly to his feet. "You leave 'em alone!" he shouted...

- - -

Fraggle set her mind to leave for the gem. She could see the Wraith in her mind, and hurried her thoughts. Carson was regretting shouting at the wraith, as it decided it would be him that it would kill first, slowly making its way towards him. Fraggle pulled strength from Quen and Kass and formed an inner mind TDP to where the jet-black gem lay. She could tell by the look of it that it was going to be a very rough ride.

The TDP's usual smooth spinning walls were laced with arcs of electrical charge and it seemed to be billowing almost out of control. This was the result of the added power to form such a transport, and the very fact the other end of the TDP was squarely within the dark matter--somewhere it should not be.

Fraggle warily stepped into the TDP and found herself thrust into agony as the walls seemed to attack her. It continually attempted to eject her out of itself, trying to stop the traveling to the dark matter realm. Hurtling headlong through the unstable vortex she found herself encased in the electrical charges, as if they were trying to get her to stop this madness. She steeled her mind and kept going. Just as she felt she could no longer hold on, the TDP spat her out into the dark vacuous realm of the GoN.

Nothing. Nothing but blackness. No wonder Hynoda hated it here, she thought. She turned around and around, searching for it but could not see it. The voice in her head told her to concentrate. She closed her eyes shut for a few moments, then opened them again. And there it was. Almost invisible against the blackness, the jet-black gem pivoted freely in front of her. She tried to grab it, but it danced from her grasp. It dodged her every time she reached for it, the dot quickly spinning away on a tangent.

"Despite the fact that the mind realm doesn't actually work on an actual time frame, in real time we don't actually have any to spare,” Quenderra’s words came back to her. Okay. She could not catch it and drag it to the light of the sun, so now what? Moropa! She pulled in her thoughts and concentrated on Moropa. She knew this was what had to be done and that Moropa agreed. She could feel it in her mind.

The wraith had almost reached Carson, who was running like a madman to get away from him. Hynoda was watching with glee and so did not notice Moropa. None of the shadows noticed anything untoward, but Sheppard and Weir noticed. They watched as Moropa’s light began to fade and he became translucent as his body left the material world. Weir and Sheppard exchanged glances, hoping that what ever was happening it was going to help their situation.

Fraggle could sense his presence as he appeared beside her. He put a massive claw on her shoulder in reassurance.

“I am so sorry, Moropa!” Fraggle said in guilt and sadness.

“No Squirrel Dragon, this has to be the way. Nothing else will stop my brother. I knew this time would have to come, I just wished there had been another way,” he replied with resignation.

“You should return now--you do not want to be here when this happens!”

Fraggle looked at Moropa, with a small tear in her eye. “Thank you,” she told him with great sadness. Moropa conjured up another TDP, unable to make it any more stable than the first.

“Goodbye Squirrel Dragon.” As soon as the TDP had left his end, Moropa turned to the black gem, knowing what he must do. The small black gem, the source of all the GoN power was like a tiny black hole. Moropa’s source like all of the GoM, was the light of suns. He bowed his head in preparation, then used his claws to tear a hole in his chest. It was not painful, more like release.

All of the immense power locked inside of him burst from the wound and collided with the gem. It jolted to gem into recalling all of its power to protect itself, and since its power was split in the GoN, the GoN came tearing back through to the dark realm to be sacrificed for the gem.

Hynoda was furious as he watched all of the GoN disappear one by one, including the one he had fused within the wraith. He howled and screamed as he was pulled and dragged into the small dark hole that would take him to the dark realm once more. He tried to grab onto anything he could, to no avail. He disappeared leaving silence in the Atlantis control room.

Carson began laughing as the wraith corpse fell to the floor, realizing the lucky escape he just had. Sheppard finally reached the two SSD agents, finding Kass already sitting up, but Fraggle still unconscious. Both were wounded from the electrical charges that Hynoda had inflicted upon them, so he shouted on Carson to help.

As Fraggle hurtled through the TDP, she became aware of a dark shape tearing past her. She could see the shocked look on Hynoda’s face as he tore past. She smiled through the painful ride, sure that it was over. That was until something grabbed at her foot from through the TDP walls.

Hynoda attempted to pull himself back through, desperate to get away from what he knew would be his death. Fraggle screamed as the electrical charges increased, snapping through her being, sapping what energy she had left. The vortex was trying to rid itself of the GoN. The reason it was such a bad ride to begin with was that this TDP was designed to stop GoN from getting through when its other end was in their realm.

The charges snapped and cracked around Hynoda making him release Fraggle, sending him spinning out of the vortex into the dark realm. All energy expelled, Fraggle continued her journey in peace, though she was not aware of it, having ceased conscious thought some time ago.

The gem recalled all of its power as Moropa’s dwindling light continued to hit it. The gem swelled and increased to an enormous size and when Hynoda was swallowed into its darkness, it cracked and exploded into light. A young sun was born out of the dead one that had been there before, its light striking Moropa and engulfing him in its power. A new star shone in view of the Pegasus galaxy.

- - -

Carson had his staff take McKay, Quen and Kassandra to the medical wing, as he took care of Fraggle. He did not know what was wrong with her. Her wounds were severe but not life threatening, her pulse was thready but constant. He could attribute her change in baseline observations to the attack by the King, and the wounds he had inflicted. But he was puzzled by her condition. Helped by Sheppard, they took her to the medical wing.

The medical wing was chaos, people were having to stand in the various rooms as staff helped them all. The GoN had indeed caused chaos in Atlantis. Carson asked one of his team to take Fraggle to the side bay, and left to help the others treat the injured. He and his team helped them, giving first aid and reassurance. When the stream of injured waned, Carson went back to look at Fraggle.

In the quiet side bay, she lay with her eyes vacantly staring at nothing. It almost seemed as if she was no longer there. That her mind had gone and her body was just keeping itself running, waiting for her return. He had ran a EEG, and found very little activity, as if the brain was running only enough to keep her body alive.

"Oh jeez, ye cannae do this to us, lass. Not after everything that’s happened!" he whispered as he looked over the results again. He gazed at her, and it occurred to him that she looked so very peaceful at that moment. All burns and wounds seemed insignificant in relation to the peace on Fraggle's features.

"She okay?" Sheppard asked with concern as he walked into the room.

"No. I jist cannae believe she went though all this, only to not come back."

"What do you mean, not come back?" McKay demanded from the doorway on which he was leaning.

"Whit are you doing up!" Carson bellowed. "Get back to bed, now!" He hearded the two men from the room, helping McKay back to his. He passed Quenderra's bed, trying not to look at her. He really did not want to tell her anything just yet. Once settled, he left McKay with John talking about everything that had happened. Carson went back to Fraggle's room, intent on doing another EEG. He stood in the doorway a moment, took a deep breath, then made his way forward when Quenderra's hand gently stopped him.

"What is wrong Carson?" she asked, knowing it was not going to be good news.

"What's this, then?" Carson exclaimed in a mixture of surprise and dismay. "You should be in bed even more than Rodney--in fact, I'm not so sure you should even be conscious!"

"What's wrong, Carson?" Quenderra repeated. The doctor softened at her resolute expression. She wasn't merely being stubborn (and at any time, she was easily twice as stubborn as Rodney). She was concerned. There were still some things she couldn't recall, but she was Quenderra again.

"I don't rightly know," he answered. "It's like the lights are all on, but nobody's home." The blonde redirected her gaze to Fraggle's still form and Carson stepped aside, allowing her to move past him to her bed side. She sat on the edge of the bed.

"Fraggle," her voice had a tone to it that seemed unnatural to his ears. Glancing at the blonde, he knew what it was: Quenderra was crying, silent sobs shaking her body--it was something he had never seen her do when she was wholly herself. The Scot remembered wondering once if the young woman was unfeeling, but he'd since learned that she was deeply emotional and sympathetic, she just didn't usually express it the way most people did. Quenderra reached out a hand to cup her friend's cheek, exhibiting the tender affection reserved for all the people closest to her, regardless of race or gender, each of whom she regarded as family.

Carson suddenly felt that he was intruding and he retreated to the doorway to wait."Fraggle," he heard Quenderra say again, "Fraggle, come back to us!"

- - -

Darkness--blackness was everywhere. She did not know where she was, but there was light beginning to shine somewhere far away from her.

'What's this?' she thought, finally opening her eyes. She was in the mind realm again, but where she found herself was different than before. She could see the colours and changing twists of time, but her location was changed. 'Am I back in Atlantis?' she wondered, seeing Carson's spectral image moving beside her. Then he left and returned with Quenderra.

"Fraggle come back to us!" she sobbed.

"What are yeh talking about? I'm here, right here!" she called out, but Quenderra did not hear her. What the hell was going on?! She could see them and hear them, but she was stuck in the mind realm! Her consciousness was lodged there, unable to return to her body despite her best efforts. Crap, crap CRAP! She cursed--how the hell had this happened? She realized Quen was crying beside her, and she tried to contact her friend for help, but nothing got through.

'Oh great! I'm gonna be stuck here forever, starin' at that bloody ceiling!' Her mind was working over time, trying to think of what to do. She began to really panic when it occurred to her that to be here forever would be a very lonely existence indeed. She was really beginning to lose it when a burst of bright light broke into the mind realm, blinding her with its strength.

Fraggle squinted against the brightness, raising an arm (and finding it ironic that she couldn't actually move her arm) to shade her eyes. The light took a form and its brightness dimmed, but only because it was contained.

"Moropa?" Fraggle murmured.

"Yesss, I am here," Moropa answered in his grand, even tone. "But you should not be."

"Yeah, I kinda noticed that," the human replied. "Biggest clue being that Quen can't hear me... and that she's crying."

"Her friendsss are her family," the being told her.

"Why can't I contact her?"

"Traversssing the mind realm isss not her strength. Sensssing what is unssseen, both good and evil, isss."

"Then why doesn't she sense me?" Fraggle wanted to know.

"I'm not ccertain... her mind isss not clear," Moropa replied. "I will help you return to the conssciousss realm."

"How..?"

- - -

Quenderra wiped the tears from her face. "You should feel privileged, Fraggle Dragon," she laughed sadly, "you're one of three people who've seen me cry since I was a child." The blonde straightened suddenly, noticing something more than the vacancy that had previously filled her friend's eyes."Fraggle?" she asked slowly. "Fraggle, can you see me?"

Carson ran over from the doorway, something in Quenderra’s voice let him know that there had been a change. He shone a light in Fraggle’s eyes, confident that her pupils reacted the way they should, and noticing that she was trying to see. “You gave us such a fright yeh bloody eejit!” he said as he patted her on the arm.

Fraggle groaned, feeling the pain from her wounds for the first time. Carson injected something into her arm and within minutes the pain subsided, leaving a soft fuzzy feeling in her already fogged mind. She was confused, having trouble focusing her thoughts, with little knowledge of her surroundings. She remembered being in the mind realm and Moropa doing something to return her to her body. But it was all so faded now and she was exhausted. A movement caught her tired bleary eyes, and she saw Quenderra leaving quickly and quietly. She tried to shout for her, tried to sit up, but Carson held her down and her body was too tired to object.

“No, yeh don’t, love. You jist lie there, now,” the doctor told her as he set up some intravenous fluids for her. Fraggle fell into a deep and sound asleep, not waking again for hours. When she did, she was surprised and embarrassed to have a small crowd of people around her. Sheppard was talking to Kassandra, Quenderra was laughing at McKay’s bandaged head. Carson was busy writing on her chart at the end of the bed, listening to everything with a smile. It was Quenderra who noticed that Fraggle had awoken. She smiled a beaming smile that told Fraggle that her old friend was back to normal again.

“Hey, how you feeling?” Sheppard asked when he saw her awake.

“I’m a little sore but, you know, needs must and all that!” she replied shifting her position awkwardly.

“Yes, well, I just hope that 'needs' don’t 'must' again for quite some time.” McKay said, tenderly touching his sore head. “I mean, how am I meant to keep this brain in top condition if it is always being battered by some alien thug, hmmm? I do not know how much valuable knowledge disappeared with that cracked skull!”

“Yeah, yeah Rodney. We all appreciate the fact that you took down the wraith!” Kassandra said with warmth.

“Yes, well I hope you do. I mean, come on!” he said pointing to his head, “Cracked skull!”

“Well it wasn’t exactly cracked, Rodney, but you were bloody lucky” Carson interjected.

“And what about me? I lost about 5 years!” Sheppard said, hoping to wind McKay up a little.

“So did I!” the scientist retorted. “But I am confident that Carson will discover a way to reverse the aging. After all, he has me to help him in his research.”

“Okay, folks, time to give the girl some breathing space,” Carson said with a smile while showing them the door. Fraggle appreciated Carson for allowing her time to come round on her own, but she wanted to talk to Quenderra.

“Quen!” she shouted before the small blonde exited the room.

“What? Is everything okay? You alright?” Quen asked, hurrying back to the bed.

“I’m fine.” Fraggle said, watching Carson as he tidied away some things and left the room, seemingly having something else to do all of a sudden.“I…I was actually here before. When you thought I wasn’t. I was in the mind realm,” she said, knowing that what she was saying sounded stupid.“I, I know you were here, I know you were crying, and I do feel privileged. Privileged for being counted as one of your friends.”

Quenderra looked aghast for a moment, realizing that Fraggle had heard everything that she had said to her while in the mind realm. She looked at her friend for a moment, and realized that they had been through too much together to be shy.

“I appreciate the fact that you wanted me to come back. It made me realize that I could make a difference here. Truth is, I always feel like a spare chip on a circuit board. By-passed and unwanted. I want you to know that I value your friendship and I am there for you, no matter what,” Fraggle finished.

Quenderra took a deep breath. She placed her hand on Fraggle’s. "You felt like the spare chip?" she spoke, laughing sympathetically. "Me, too. Always, I've been the friend who's always there no matter what, no matter who the friend. Few people return the favor--you're one of them. People always expect that I will be Miss Sunshine, but sometimes I feel like the storm cloud. With friends like you I can be myself--entirely--and you don't think any less of me... even when I think less of myself..."

"You're a better person than you think you are," Fraggle told her. "We've all got demons to face."

"Yeah--sometimes literally," Quen smiled. "Anyhow, I'm gonna let you get some rest. Carson doesn't think I should be up and about. Besides, I'm gonna need you and Kass to help me move my stuff back to HQ." The blonde rose to her feet and moved slowly across the room.

"Sure thing," Fraggle grinned. "Good night, Quenderra."

Quen glanced back over her shoulder."Sleep tight, Fraggle."

- - -

Wounds healed and pains subsided. Carson eventually allowed them all out of the medical wing and so the time for the SSD to return to the mainland had come.

“Well, I can truly say that it is never a pleasure seeing you, as it usually means that we are in trouble.” McKay said. “Perhaps sometime we can make it a pleasure, and meet up without all the doom.”

“Yeah, like that’s ever going to happen! With you lot out there on your adventures, there is always going to be doom lurking somewhere!” Fraggle responded.

“Thank you for that!” Sheppard smirked.

“Let’s just hope that we are not needed for a while. Rodney, keep away from swinging poles, and John, watch out for wraith, they seem to like the taste of you!” Kassandra laughed as she stepped into the waiting TDP.

“Wait! Yeh forgot this!” Carson shouted as he ran up the corridor.

“My FTF! Fraggle said as she reached for it. She hugged the wee doctor and thanked him again for all of his help. “Right!” Fraggle said looking to Quenderra, “Lets go!” They both stepped into the TDP, leaving Atlantis once more, headed for home.

- - -

End.

-
Attempted editing for optimal readability by Quenderra.

Posted by Mackenzies Momma at 12:11 PM

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