Quenched by mist. It cut off all light. It cut off breath, shutting down those parts of the brain that made her lungs work, holding synapses inactive though Death's body screamed to take a breath.
“Yield,” Teyla said, and she held. She held until the end, until Death died in the prison of her orthodoxy, until her eyes dimmed and she fell to the floor.
Teyla staggered, leaning forward over the seat and lowering herself shaking beside it. Her hands shook against the soft floor covering, and she sat amid the bodies. In a moment she would get up and see if Waterlight lived. In a moment.
There was a rattle of P90 fire somewhere far away, the sounds of footsteps, of minds, human and Wraith alike. A Wraith boarding party was there, nine strong, and with them three Marines and Captain Cadman. It was Guide's man Swiftripen who led them, the one who had so wanted to impress Steelflower. Teyla felt them check at the door, heard one blade go to one knee beside Bronze.
"This one lives," he said aloud.
Laura Cadman looked in, P90 at the ready, and Teyla moved.
Swiftripen came behind her, and then he saw Waterlight and Death. "What has happened here?"
Teyla did not pull herself to her feet. She was not certain she could yet, but her voice was strong. "Queen Waterlight met Queen Death," she said. "And Waterlight prevailed. Though I do not know if she has survived her victory."
Cadman's eyes widened, and Teyla shook her head a fraction. No. It must be as she had said.
Swiftripen hurried in, flinging himself to the floor beside Waterlight and turning her over gently. "She lives!" he said, his hand to her neck. "The young queen lives!"
"The other is dead," Teyla said. "Death is dead."
Cadman helped her to her feet, one arm about her waist. She smelled of cordite and improbably of oranges. "Are you okay?"
"I shall be," Teyla said. "I am only stunned."
"Okay," Cadman said. "Hang on." Her eyes went to Death where she lay on the floor. "What happened?"
"It is over," Teyla said. Her hip twinged as she put her weight on it, and so she leaned on Laura. "It is over."
“Queen Waterlight did it!” one of Guide's blades said wonderingly. “So young and so brave.”
“And so beautiful.” Swiftripen's thought followed.
They lifted Waterlight up and tenderly laid her on a couch, while another bent over Bronze. Yes, Teyla thought. This is how the legend begins. The brave young queen in her white dress met Death face to face, and hope killed death and the world began again. That is what happened once above the City of the Ancestors, long ago and far away.
She closed her eyes and leaned on Laura Cadman's shoulder.
Chapter Twenty-six
The End of the Beginning
Radek crouched on the jumper floor, staring at the injured Wraith. He wasn't dead, but that was about all Radek could say for him. Wraith were supposed to be able to regenerate almost anything, but this wasn't looking particularly good. If he were a human — Radek had had the usual first aid training, but nothing he could remember seemed likely to help, and opening the kit carried in every jumper didn't reveal anything that looked particularly useful. Ember opened his eyes then, the pupils contracted to narrow slits; he grimaced, hands scrabbling for a moment along the padding, but then relaxed.
"We are on the jumper," Radek said. "We will be able to call for help soon."
"Not soon enough…." The words were barely a whisper.
"Tell me what to do."
"Must feed…." Ember's eyes closed again, his feeding hand lax on the padding. Was he unable to attack, Radek wondered, or was he choosing not to?
"I heard that," Eva said. "Radek, you might want to step away."
Radek ignored her, his own heart racing. He'd taken the retrovirus, he could, in theory, survive a feeding, and if Ember hadn't saved his life back in the shuttle bay, he'd certainly saved him from serious injury. "It's all right," he said, and heard his own voice thin and strained. He opened the neck of his jacket, and the shirt beneath it, aware that his hands were trembling. "I took Dr. Keller's retrovirus. He — I can let him —"
"We don't know for sure that that works," Eva said. She turned backward in her chair to stare at him. "Radek, it's too much of a risk."
"Yes, well." Radek spread his hands. "I can't just let him die." And what is the world coming to, that I am thinking this about a Wraith? What is it coming to, that a Wraith saved my life? I'm not Sheppard, these things don't happen to me… He took a deep breath. "Ember."
The green-gold eyes flickered open. "I heard. We also… worked on such a thing."
"Do it before I change my mind," Radek said.
Impossibly, something like a smile crossed Ember's face. His feeding hand moved as though of its own volition, faster than Radek had expected, fastening onto the bared skin of his chest. Pain lanced through him, worse than he would have believed possible, a hundred heart attacks, a thousand knives. It had all gone wrong, he thought, hazily, Keller was wrong, and I'm going to die. Except… his hands were unchanged, unwithered, remained ordinary and unmarked even as the pain pulled him down into the dark.
Eva swore under her breath, scrambling out of the pilot's chair, grabbing for the heavy wrench someone had left tucked into the jumper's wall straps. She had no idea what she was going to do, how she was going to stop the Wraith, but she had to try. She stopped abruptly, seeing his hand flex and release, Radek sprawling back against the base of the jumper seats, apparently unconscious but not visibly changed. Ember rolled over, his back healed beneath the drying blood and ripped leather, moved away from her, out of reach of both of them.
"I think — he is all right?"
Eva lifted the wrench, fumbled for a carotid pulse with her other hand. Yes, there it was, strong and regular, and she relaxed just a little. "I think so. Don't try it again, though."
"No." Ember shook his head. "This…. I am in his debt."
"Yeah, you are," Eva said. "You better believe it." She hauled herself back into the pilot's chair, checking the navigation screen. All the ships were green, friendlies, and she let the cloak slide away. "Hammond, this is Dr. Robinson. I'm on a puddlejumper —"
"We see you, Doctor." The voice on the radio was reassuringly steady. "Can you bring the jumper back to the city?"
"I can't. I've lost an engine pod."
"Don't worry, Dr. Robinson." That was Colonel Carter, calm as ever. "We'll tractor you aboard."
"Thank you," Eva said, and braced herself for the jolt of the beam attaching.
Five pilots lost, six injured. Four other crewmen injured. As usual the 302s had taken the brunt of the casualties. Sam nodded, listening to Franklin give the report. The Hammond's systems were stable, though the port thrusters had taken external physical damage and the shields were extremely low. But it could have been worse. Much worse. They hadn't lost a life aboard the Hammond. They'd lost five pilots.
And Rodney.
"Franklin, you have the bridge," Sam said, getting up. Everything was on course for the moment.
As soon as Atlantis landed they would follow suit, resting beneath Atlantis's shield to repair, but for now they'd maintain orbit while their allies cleaned up. The damaged Wraith ships were surrendering to Alabaster, who was granting their parole or something with oaths of allegiance to her and to Waterlight, the young queen who seemed to have finally killed Queen Death. What exactly had happened aboard the hive was a mystery to Sam, though she knew she'd have Cadman's report when she got back. Cadman had sounded like there were things she thought it best not to say on an open channel, and she respected Cadman's judgment there. Cadman was coming along nicely. Sam was very proud of how she'd handled the last few weeks, and it was time to tell her so.