Lineage: Episode 7 – The Spirit Walk

The trouble started almost immediately when SGA1 flew through the gate on PX3-569. Landing only took a moment and loading up supplies was even quicker. Tara had fashioned a pack that could be wrapped around one shoulder, almost like a hiker’s pack. It had a safety catch that she could easily snap and it would fall to the ground. Rodney was impressed with the design and several people were working on a design that some of the others could use as well.  They found out quickly that if John left for a mission and she wasn’t allowed to go it made her agitated and she would go a little nuts. The connection between the Protector and the Prime was very strong, but each mission that Tara was allowed to go on helped to ease her agitation. Rodney was having some of the people in the soft sciences working with Weir and going over the things they had brought back from Ariana Prime that had information on Sentinels, Guides, and Protectors.

John looked around and held his P90 close. There was something that was unsettling him, but he wasn’t sure what it was. When Tara moved up close, body on full alert John turned to her and just raised a single brow.

“You feel it too?” Tara asked as she stayed close to John. Her danger sense was on high alert, even her eyes changed to the black crystalline of her dragon half. “I’ll go first.”

John wanted to argue, but when Tara let her talons form and she narrowed her eyes to challenge him, he backed off. They were still working out the protector aspects of their new dynamic, but he was beginning to trust her instincts. Rodney, Teyla and Ronan were all quiet as they followed behind John.

Walking carefully towards the village they had picked up on long range sensors, Tara stopped and crouched. Noise from the overgrowth to the right of the team had her listening with her head cocked and her senses on high alert.

“Not Wraith, but something is in there,” Tara hissed to John next to her. He nodded and the two of them signaled for the rest of the team to wait while they approached whatever it was that was on the other side. A shot rang out and Tara jumped up and ran with even more speed than she previously had. Her wings sprouted behind her, another reason for the new pack design. It didn’t impede the large almost batlike appendages that were now so much a part of her. They might have been psionic, but they were very real to her.

Growling she pounced on the thing and slashed with her talons.

“Who are you?”

“He’s Genii.” John yelled when he ran out of the overgrowth.

“That’s right. And now we have you.” The Genii soldier smiled as others came out of the treeline, but they weren’t fast enough to stop Tara from killing the man she had pinned.

“I don’t think so.” Tara smiled, her elongated teeth showing through her cruel smile. That was when a roar like the Genii had never heard rang out from above their heads. Looking up wide eyed and frightened they saw a creature flying towards them spewing blue flames.

The Genii screamed and started to run, but the black dragon chased them, the flames licking their bodies. It wasn’t like real flames that could cause severe burn damage, these were psionic flames that would leave a cold burn. No one knew why Tara’s dragon could affect the real world, but he could. He was almost as real as any other animal. This was the second time that he had showed himself and Rodney and Tara thought that maybe he manifest himself in times of great need.

John almost yelled after Tara when she started running, keeping up with her dragon. She pulled her blades out of the scabbard that was also fashioned for her.

“John, she’s going to kill them,” Teyla yelled at John as they all started to run after Tara.

“Well, they did shoot at me,” John yelled back.

“Yes, but we already have problems with the Genii, we don’t need more.”

“You don’t have to remind me Teyla.”

The four of them, including Rodney, tried to catch up and when they did what they saw almost made them collide with each other as John stopped suddenly.

“Get the hell off me.” The Genii screamed as Tara pressed her knees into his chest, her swords crossed at his neck.

“No! You have tried to kill us. I saw what you tried to do. Atlantis doesn’t want you.” Tara leaned in and whispered in his ear, “She would kill you if she could. She hates you and what you did to her.”

“It’s not alive.”

“Oh, but she very much is and you will never hurt her again.” Tara raised her weapons and was about to bring them down when John shouted at her.

“Tara! Stop!”

“Why? Why let them live?” Tara sneered at the man under her as the rest of his group cowered together trying to stay out of the way of the dragon.

“Because if we stoop to their level we are no better than them.”

Tara looked up at John, who sucked in a breath at the pure blackness of her eyes.

“Sweetheart, you need to calm down. We will deal with these people, but you have to let him go.”

Tara growled low in her throat as her dragon roared making the other Genii cower even more. Frustrated, but knowing that John was probably right, she sheathed her swords and stepped away from the group.

“What are you doing here?”

“We came to trade.” One brave woman stepped forward, hands open and in front of her showing John that she had no weapon in her had. “We did not know you were going to be here. You are a surprise to us as much as we are to you.”

“What in the hell did you shoot at us for then?” Rodney glared as he stepped even with his Sentinel. “You are the ones that started this whole thing. We’ve done nothing but try to protect ourselves.”

“And, there are those of us that did not agree with what the military has done. Cowen is gone, we have new leaders now and I think this maybe the perfect opportunity for us to reopen relations with your people.”

The woman took a few steps towards John and Tara stepped in front of him. She had made the wings disappear, but her hands stayed as talons.

“Trust is earned.” Tara narrowed her eyes at the Genii woman.

“Yes it is. I will speak with our leaders and we can work out a neutral place that we can meet to try to work out our differences.”

Tara narrowed her eyes and waited for John to make a decision.

“As long as you don’t try to shoot at us. How do I know you’ll come to the table with no weapons?”

The woman put her hands down and let them fall to her sides.

“We could be honest with each other. Neither of us trusts, and it would be better to let each side come to the table as they are and we surrender our weapons to someone that could be trusted by both parties.” The woman looked towards Tara and smiled. “Like your protector here. She is fearless, and yet I am sure she would not want any harm to come to anyone of you. Here, take this. When you are ready, signal us and we will open talks with you.”

Tara took the device and examined it first. She took something out of her backpack. It was a device Rodney had given her that checked other devices for any type of traps, or technology that could be cause for deceit.

“It appears clean.” Tara handed the device to John while she stared at the woman. The staring contest went on for far longer than anyone around them was comfortable with. It was Tara who first spoke. “You are Sentinel.”

“I don’t know what that word means.”

“You are like Ronon. I can feel your senses.”

The woman sighed as she nodded her head.

“Yes. There is much you don’t understand about our people, Colonel Sheppard. Why we are so distrustful and why we became forceful and militant. Not all of us are like that.”

Tara walked around the woman, the other Genii started forward with weapons drawn, but the woman told them to put their weapons down. Tara leaned in, but didn’t invade the woman’s personal space, it was just forward enough that she was able to sniff. Everyone was waiting with bated breath as Tara finished doing what she was doing.

“You are not bonded. You’re people don’t bond?”

The woman looked at Tara with eyes so sad and painful that Tara wanted to reach out and touch.

“It’s a long and complicated history.”

“What is your name?”

“I am Commander Rayly. I came here looking for supplies for our people. Yes, Colonel Sheppard, I am the one that has taken command of the Genii. I am sincere in my want to heal relations between our people and for an exchange in ideas on how to combat the Wraith. I promise, I only have my peoples survival at heart.”

John pressed his lips together while he watched the woman and didn’t feel any deceit from her. He let his full senses out and scanned the Commander, who let him even though he was invading her personal space. If it had been anyone other than a Genii, John would have asked permission, but they were betrayed one too many times in the past. After a full five minutes, John nodded.

“I believe you. But, it does not mean that I trust you yet.”

“I do not blame you, Colonel. We shall both do what we need to on this planet, then go our separate ways. If you want to try opening relations with the Genii once more, I will be happy to help facilitate peace between us.”

John nodded, then mentally pulled Tara back, who let her hands turn back to normal. The team waited till the Genii were a far enough distance that they couldn’t be overheard before he spoke.

“I don’t trust them.”       

“I do not blame you, Sheppard. But, maybe we hear them out,” Teyla said as she too watched them walk out of their sight.

“Maybe after we do this Spirit Walk. I don’t want to be worried about them and what they could be planning while we make preparations for it. Come on, let’s wait here for about thirty minutes then we will go to the village.”

Everyone agreed on the wait, then when it came time made their way to their original destination.

The village was small, but they had abundant crops of food and herbs that the crew of Atlantis had never seen or heard of. The leader of the village had been willing to open talks of trade. The Genii kept their word and stayed away from the Atlanteans.

John was willing to trade rudimentary medical knowledge, how to make certain medicines and some of the food stuffs from their other trading partners that they had an abundance of. The group was also allowed to hunt in the area with a village guide letting them know what animals were good for meat and which to stay away from. All in all the visit went well despite the confrontation. Getting back to Atlantis, John felt a little better, but he was anxious and could tell that Rodney was as well.

After John gave his mission report to Weir he also thought about giving a field commision to Tara. She was proving herself in the field and it would make John feel better if she had a military rank. He was worried about her finding her place on Atlantis, but Rodney had reassured him many times that she was settling into his Science group very well. It didn’t ease his apprehension, though. Tara was still very feral. Just because Atlantis had healed her body and her physical mind, it didn’t mean that she was healed mentally. Through their bond, John could sometimes feel her feral side lurking just under the surface and wondered if it would ever go away, or if her years on her own had done irreversible damage.

“I could hear you thinking all the way in my lab. It was distracting,” Rodney groused as he walked into their room. “I came to find out what is making you so agitated because I really would like to get some work done and can’t. So, spill Sheppard.” Rodney straddled John’s lap and held John’s face in his hands.

“I don’t think Tara’s feral side is all due to her being a Protector. I think being on her own for so long out here has caused irreparable damage to her psyche. I don’t know what to do about it.”

“John, you can’t fix her. None of us can.”

“I know. I’m going to suggest she talk to Dr. Heightmeyer. I know she is not ever going to be the same sweet kid that I used to know, but we can’t have other incidents like today.”

“John, it’s only been a few weeks. We need to give her time.”

“I know. I just hope that when Spencer gets here that neither of them is disappointed in the other.”

“They are very strong people, John. I have no doubt that they’ll work through it. Now, I say that the only way you are going to get rid of this anxiety you’re feeling is to fuck me. Then maybe I can get back to work without your voice in my head nagging at me.” Rodney wiggled his hips a little as he leaned against John.

“Oh really. You think that is what needs to happen?”

“Most definitely.”

__________

By the time everyone was ready and preparations were complete for the Spirit Walk they had three jumpers that were going to the designated planet of Derri, as it was nicknamed. The locals didn’t actually have a name for their planet, they just called it their Living Shelter. When John and Rodney first took a trip to the coordinates Tara had given them, they weren’t sure what they were going to find, but a lush near jungle wasn’t what they expected. Rodney understood that this was what they meant by their living shelter. Many of the plants were taller than a man and villages were built under them giving them natural protections. Even with the active Wraith, the Derrians had so far been spared from any cullings.

The large circular structure, which John assumed was a meeting hall of sorts was the place they were going to hold the Spirit Walk. None of them knew whether SGC was going to understand the information Tara had sent along with her message. There was a feeling of anticipation as everyone got themselves ready.

“I must tell you all that this is something new for me as well. I have not led such a large group onto the Spirit plane, but if we all work together we can minimize any problems that may occur. Now, is everyone ready?”

Group consensus was that they were all ready.

“Okay, take hands everyone, and Sentinels I need you to open up to the Guides around you, and I need all of the Guides to open yourselves up to the Spirit Plane.”

John took a deep breath and felt the strength of his bond with his Guide and the bond he had with Tara. Closing his eyes he let himself go and got lost in the warm feelings he was getting from all sides. Getting lost in the emotions and feelings of those around him, John felt himself floating almost like the feeling after a particularly good orgasm. A snort to his right had him looking at Tara, who was laughing and blushing at John.

“What?”

“Your emotions turned very, very naughty.” Tara giggled.

“Mind your own business, Little Bird.”

“Oh, believe me I have no desire to know anything about yours and McKay’s sex life. Especially when I am not getting any. Do you know what it’s like to be celibate for nine years?”

John turned and looked at her in horror, then shuddered.

That was the moment they all heard it. A laugh that almost floated on the non-existent air around them. When John finally paid attention he noticed that he was sitting on the ground in the Spirit Plane. He was also aware that only a few of the group had made it with them.

“Little Brother, do not worry. Not everyone was allowed to enter, only those that are most important to our mission.”

The woman that, well John only had one word and that was glided, across the plane towards them. John turned his eyes to look up at her and was struck by how beautiful and ethereal she appeared. Emotions he had long buried rose to the surface as he was entranced by her. Next to her was a man who was just as imposing, and just as beautiful.

John tried to speak at first but he was struck dumb and it took him a few tries before he was able to find his voice again.

“Wh-who are you?” John winced at his own words as he watched the couple come into the center of the circle made by the others that had come with him.

“I am Llandra, and this is my bonded, Charles. We are the first Sentinel and Guide.”

“You’re Ancients.”

“Yes, that is what you know us as. When we first manifest, our leaders did not understand, they also did not heed our warnings for what they were doing. My brothers and sisters are the cause for your current strife. We would be remiss if we did not help you.” Llandra moved forward towards John and flowed to her knees, her ethereal garments spread out before her, and her long silvery white hair framed her face so beautifully that John was compelled to reach out and touch. “Little Brother, you are strong with the genes of your ancestors. Look in my eyes and find what it is you seek.”

John sucked in a breath when inside his mind star charts with information about the Pegasus system that no computer on Atlantis contained. But, deep within those stars were coordinates.

“ZPM’s,” John whispered in awe as Llandra smiled.

“Yes. Find them and you will awaken Atlantis in ways you never knew she could exist.” Charles had spoken for the first time and John felt like he had come home in the presence of those that were the first of them.

“I’ll do everything in my power to restore her. She’s saved us more than once and I, we owe her.”

Llandra pulled back and John felt the loss of her so deep inside that it felt like a piece of himself had been taken with her.

Tara had been quiet next to John and he wondered at that. Ever since she regained normal speech she was just as chatty as he remembered her, then he looked across to where she was looking and his heart just about stopped. There across from him, but still so very far away, was Spencer.

“Spence,” John whispered which broke the spell on Tara as she flew across the way and tackled him to the ground. The emotions could be felt by everyone there as Sentinel and Guide reunited, even if it was just a short time. John almost couldn’t watch, his guilt and shame over leaving his brother was so profound that he felt the pain deep down inside of him.

“Major,” a voice across the way was sharp and John had to look up to see General O’Neill with his Guide Daniel Jackson and three others he didn’t know.

“Actually, it’s Colonel now. Field promotion.”

Jack regarded him a moment as the two men stood to greet each other properly.

“I’ll make it official when I get back. It is good to see you all safe.”

“I don’t know as we are all that safe, sir.”

“Colonel Caldwell gave us his report once he got back. We are doing repairs on the Daedalus and soon we’ll be able to bring y’all more supplies and men and women.”

“I appreciate it General, but I’m sure that that isn’t why we are all here.” John turned to see Spencer and Tara standing, wrapped around each other. John looked away because to look at them actually hurt. Their pain, love, guilt, fear, all of the emotions they were feeling was almost a tangible thing. John turned fully away from O’Neill and started back towards Rodney when he was spun around and was engulfed in a hug so tight John thought he just might break.

“Spencer,” John sighed as he wrapped his arms around his brother and held him close. He held back the sob that wanted to escape. “I am so sorry. I was wrong to leave you, Spencer. I was so wrong.”

Spencer pulled away and wrapped his arms around his waist.

“I was angry for a longtime. I wanted to hate you so much, but I couldn’t afford that emotion. I forgave you years ago. Holding onto the anger…” Spencer looked down and didn’t want to look in John’s face.

“Spence?”

“Not right now. I’m going to be on the Daedelus when it leaves for Atlantis again. Now that Tara has been found, there is no way I’m not coming.”

“Spencer…”

“Don’t. Don’t even try the ‘do you know how dangerous it is’ thing with me, John. I’ve been hunting serial killers for the last five years. I’ve been in a lot of dangerous situations and nothing you can tell me will stop me.”

“He’s saved my life a couple of times now.” A man that at one time might have turned John’s eye stood next to Spencer and had a hand on Spencer’s shoulder. “I can tell you, Colonel Sheppard, from experience that Spencer Reid does his best work under pressure.”

“Using my own words, huh Hotch?”

John saw the man smile and it softened his face, which John noticed had scales just like Tara.

“Dad is here at the SGC. SI has been working with them on some of their projects. Alec is here as well. Is there anything you want me to tell them?”

John was a little overwhelmed with his brother being there, Alec was at the SGC? John thought he was relatively safe doing test piloting. And, the fact that their Dad was doing projects for the SGC had John wondering if he knew that John was not on Earth.

“Does Dad know I’m not on Earth?”

Spencer shuffled his feet, John knew that well. Spencer knew something but was uncomfortable telling John the truth.

“He saw the video,” the man with Spencer said as he looked right at John. John let out a rather impressive series of expletives before he calmed down. Looking at the man he waved towards the scales on his face and neck.

“So, you are like Tara then?”

Tara turned at the sound of her name and came over to the little group.

“Aaron?”

Aaron turned to smile at the young woman who flung herself in his arms.

“So, you too?” Tara waved at his face and exposed arms.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Do you know what is going on?”

“I only know a little of what Dr. Jackson has uncovered. I think Llandra might be able to tell us more.”

Everyone turned to see the patient look on the Ancient couple’s faces.

“Yes, Little sisters and brothers. You are all here for a reason. Let us sit and we shall explain.”

Everyone sat down around in a rough circle with Llandra and Charles in the middle.

“I know the angel Castiel spoke of the Lineage. There is so much that us Ancients have to answer for and we have been complicit in letting things advance as far as they have. We are responsible for the Wraith, and to an extent, the Ori. The others have tried to stop those of us that want to help our descendants, but I cannot abide by that. These are our mistakes and we must not stand by anymore and let ruin come to our children.

“All of you are here because you were chosen. John Sheppard, Jack O’Neill, you have a greater destiny than you already know. Jack,” Llandra turned to the General and smiled softly at him. “You have given more than anyone dare ask you to give, but, I am asking you for more. You are the Penultimate Sentinel for your world. You and your Guide have already shared your gifts with each other. Before we are through, you will be blessed once more.

“John,” Llandra turned to him and reached out, gently touching his cheek. “Atlantis, our greatest creation, loves you and has claimed you, and those you brought with her, as her own. You and your Guide shall find how to heal her and in doing so, a gift shall be given to you. Take heart, John, saving Atlantis and the Pegasus system is within your grasp. I will impart knowledge to those who are working to bridge your two worlds that will help. And you and your Guide have also shared your gifts with each other and you are also more than you were.

“Aaron and Tara. You are the first of my Dragons and the protectors of your Sentinels. Do not see this as a burden, but an honor. You both are also more than you were and in time you will understand more about what it is you can do. Aaron, find the others.” Llandra touched Aaron’s forehead. His breathing stopped for a moment then she withdrew and Aaron felt a moment of sadness. That small connection was like nothing he had ever felt before.

“Your worlds must work together, all my Dragons must awaken, and with them your Penultimates. Only then will you be able to save everyone. There will be some unexpected allies. Ones who have hidden themselves, ones you believe to be myth and legend, but they are very real. Charles and I will do as much as we can to help. Our time is short, I wish there was more I could tell you, but you must discover how to work together yourselves. Goodbye for now, and when you need us, we shall always be here.”

A flash of light and the spirit plane was gone. Tara woke first and looked around at everyone. She felt the loss of her Guide once more, but hope also bloomed that he really would find a way to her. Tara stood and left the ritual space, she needed some time to herself. Seeing Spencer, holding him again had her anticipating the day that they would once more be together.

_____________________

John was pacing his bedroom, too many things were inside his head. Mainly locations of ZPM’s. He didn’t really know how to get the knowledge out of his head and to where it would do the most good.

“John,” Rodney was already in bed, the day having been taxing on the both of them. John looked over at his Guide and smiled.

“Yeah, I know. Let me shower and I’ll be right there.”

While in the shower John took some time to try to sort through all of the events that have happened over the course of the last few months. Major events were coming at them so fast that he barely got a handle on one and they were hit with something new, and it didn’t look like it was going to slow down at all. They had the Genii meeting set-up and there was no way that John wasn’t taking a contingent of men and women with him. He knew his abilities could wipe the minds of everyone that came to the table, but he wasn’t going to tip his hand to them unless it was absolutely necessary. Then the hunt for ZPM’s, more trade negotiations, and keeping Atlantis herself going. There was a lot to take in and John worried that he wasn’t up for it all.

Now, his little brother was going to be coming here, and while John didn’t blame him, he didn’t want Spencer in this war zone. But, he knew nothing was going to keep him from his Sentinel. It wasn’t like he could let Tara go back to Earth, even just thinking about it hurt both mentally and physically. The connection between them was strong, not like his connection to Rodney, there was no sexual component to it, but it was as vital to him as his Guide was. John sighed as he finished his shower, quickly dried off and headed back to bed where he could wrap around his Guide and try to make sense of everything that was going on.

“I know just exactly how to get you out of your head.”

John quirked his mouth into a smile as he slipped under the cool, comforting sheets.

“Oh, really.”

“Yes. Now, lie back and let Dr. McKay take care of you.”

John let his legs fall open as Rodney moved in between them. Kisses, long and slow were traded between them making John sink more and more into his Guide’s mind. He loved Rodney’s chaos, but at the very center there was order, and a sense of calm that John always reached out for when they were intimate.

Rodney started to slick John’s now aching cock, but John stopped him, he wanted something different.

“Fuck me, Mer.” John was breathless as he wrapped his hands around Rodney’s waist.

Rodney had to take a moment to swallow before John lifted his legs up and shoved a pillow under his ass exposing himself to his Guide.

“Jesus christ, John. Do you know what you do to me?”

John laughed as he reached for Rodney to pull him down for another kiss.

“The same thing you do to me, Mer. Drive me crazy. Please, I need you inside me.”

Rodney didn’t take long and when John felt that slide of Rodney’s cock inside of him it was like the world exploded behind his eyes. The knowledge that Llandra had given him rose to the surface and before John could try to slow it all down, Rodney was rutting like a man possessed as John gripped the sheets under wrapping his legs around Rodney’s waist, panting hard as he attempted to meet his Guide thrust for thrust. Stars flew by in his vision, sharing with Rodney the information the First Sentinel had given to him.

Gifts they each had were shared as well.

“John…can’t hold on.” Rodney cried out as he crested, John felt the intensity crash down through the bond as Rodney released inside of him, and John couldn’t hold on even if he tried. The orgasm was ripped from him as Rodney slammed home one more time. Lips crashed against each other as the two men tried to calm down from the quick, frantic coupling.

“Fuck, what was that?” Rodney buried his head against John’s chest, his breathing hard and erratic.

“I don’t know. Shit…” John wrapped his arms around his Guide and held him close.

“Yeah.”

John snorted out a laugh, making Rodney speechless was difficult on the best days and nearly impossible on the bad days.

“ZPM’s John. We’ll find them.”

“Yes, we will. Now, sleep.”

“Mmm, clean up first. Then sleep.”

Rodney rolled over and stumbled to the bathroom to clean-up, then John did the same. After they were back in bed, John spooned behind Rodney and let his mind rest. The coming months John knew were going to be a whirlwind of activity and he wanted to be prepared.