fateandfortune | Just two vampires, traveling the galaxy... [For Todd the Wraith]

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Just two vampires, traveling the galaxy... [For Todd the Wraith]

[continued from here]

It was a pleasant surprise to glance over and see Todd asleep on the bed, relaxed and peaceful. He can't have gotten much quality rest the night before propped up in the chair as he had been, certainly not when he'd been woken by her nightmare. She hoped that didn't happen again tonight, he had important things to take care of tomorrow; she didn't know all of the details, but with a civil war going on between his people, he needed his wits about him.

To that end, Rogue forced herself to stay awake for hours into the night, eating the dinner he'd brought for her and looking through one of the books from the collection he'd shown her before their sparring session. She didn't recognize anything on the pages, but it gave her a topic for conversation with the voices in her head, providing ample entertainment to pass the time. Eventually she fell asleep herself, the book held carefully to her chest as she curled up in the armchair, her boots set on the floor beside it. It was a fairly deep sleep, and she didn't dream for one of the first times in many weeks, something she was eternally grateful for when she awoke.

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"Surprisingly Woolsey has been quite cooperative regarding negotiations. He's getting on in his years so perhaps he's softening a little." he chuckled. He looked to her, hardly believing she was here himself. He expected to turn and find her gone again, or never having been there at all.

Todd lifted a hand and brushed her sleeved arm with the backs of his fingers, quiet a moment, then asked at last, "What happened that day, Rogue?"

She watched his fingerd brush at her arm, safe with the cloth barrier between them, and her heart ached when he asked that question.

"It was so stupid," she muttered quietly with a slight shake of her head. "I couldn't sleep, I was excited to see you and worried about what would happen with Victoria, so I went out on the balcony to read for a while. There was a strong wind and I dropped my book onto a ledge below. When I climbed over to get it, I fell." She took a deep breath and let it out in a heavy sigh. "I guess it was my survival instincts or something, but there was another portal and suddenly I was right back where I'd started. It hadn't even been an hour since I'd left. My team thought I'd hit my head when I talked about being in another dimension."

Todd listened to her story. He'd expected one of her friends to step through a portal and offer to take her back. That they needed her desperately and thus could not refuse. Instead, a near death experience and she'd returned home in the blink of an eye. He supposed he ought to feel glad the portal had opened up when it did, otherwise that day they truly would have been mourning the loss of her and she'd not be here.

He only stopped touching her when the oven beeped that it was heated. He got up, put their food inside and set a timer before returning to sit beside her again.

"We searched and performed every scan we could." he said. "Eventually a recorded energy signature was picked up at the time of your disappearance, which led us to conclude you'd somehow returned to your world. I've never been to a human funeral before but I suppose the ceremony Atlantis held in your honor was as close to one as any."

Edited 2016-04-06 06:01 (UTC)

At least they'd known, then. That she had gone somewhere and not just ended up in the water to never be found again. In her mind, the not knowing would have been more difficult, but she was looking at it from a skewed perspective.

"That was awfully nice of them," she commented, trying to keep her tone from sounding too bitter or upset. It really was sweet that they'd taken time to remember her like that. "Lord knows how many times over the last three years I've wished I had died that day."

But then she wouldn't be there with him, and she wouldn't have been there to take Kitty's power and see the plan through. If she had died, so very many things would have been different.

"One day I hope you'll tell me all that happened in your time back I your dimension." He said, getting up again, this time to get some biscuits. He wrapped a bunch in foil and put them in the oven along with their stew to heat up. "For now...I think it's your turn to ask some questions" he said, thinking back to when they first met and they agreed to go back and forth evenly with their questions for one another.

"I'll answer one for you, the seven are mine and Victoria's" he grinned a little proudly.

It was an endearing blast from the past to be taking turns with questions again. How many days had they spent doing that back in the beginning? With their rainy reunion, it truly was a day for nostalgia.

"Look at that grin," she said with a smile of her own. "You deserve it, though. They really are amazing, Todd. I can't wait to see how they are when they're older. I just wish I could live long enough to really see who they'll become." Her lifetime would be so short compared to a wraith's. It was a little depressing, but she'd tried not to think it about it too much during her time on the hive. She needed to enjoy what she had and not think about the inevitable. "Have many of the other queens had offspring since the end of the war, do you know?

It'd been a very long time since he'd been granted the chance for offspring, and six at once and then number seven soon after had been quite an ego boost.

Wraith matured quickly, it was likely Rogue would still see a lot of their lives in her time. And...her life could always be prolonged...

Todd nodded at that, "Most hives have started by now, several have far more than us already but this is Victoria's first brood. It's likely in another couple years we will have another, larger one" But that was up to the queen, he had no say in when and how many she produced. Tomorrow she could call on him and they'd suddenly triple their offspring, or she'd wait another decade before even thinking about having any more.

It was good that the other hives had started adding to the population. The war had been costly to their numbers from what she'd seen, and now that all of the wraith had taken the gene therapy, there was no reason for them to keep the population so low. It would be best to wait for any booms until they had worked out all the issues with farming and harvesting, but other than that, there were few good reasons not to grow in number.

"I know they're not human children, and that they have different needs and that your society is so different from what I've known, but when I saw them..." Her voice trailed off and she had to collect herself for a moment. "They remind me a bit of the children I taught before. They're younger than most that we saw, but that association is still there for me. And it's both wonderful and... painful."

Todd looked to her and cocked his head, "You may interact with them as much or as little as you like" he said "However, we should work on your ability and relearning how to switch it off" he said. If she happened to touch one of the young ones, it would be devastating. She'd likely kill them or at least send them into a coma like her first encounter.

He set her stew and water in front of her, putting the biscuits in a small basket and setting them in front of them before joining her.

Rogue stared at the bowl of steaming food in front of her, but her mind was a million miles away, remembering how she had lost control of her ability. She worried her lower lip with her teeth and fidgeting in her seat, then finally closed her eyes and shook her head slightly.

"I won't be going near them until I have complete control," she assured him in a voice so quiet it was almost a whisper. "They're too important to risk. I can't be the cause of more... of more children dying."

Todd was glad she'd come to that decision on her own.

For a little while there, he thought she might not want to get her ability under control again. That whatever horrible things they'd done to her made her think she deserved not to feel the touch of another, or live without fear of hurting another.

This decision meant she had a solid goal to reach and thus would be more determined in their training than if she hadn't had one.

He tucked into his dinner, and, to get her mind off dead children, he told her about what happened after they figured out what had happened to her.

They began the gene therapy right away on Victoria. It was jarring and the effects came and went for nearly a month before finally leveling out. The drones were far more difficult, their serum took several more months to perfect. And then once they and the queen were ready for a normal diet, they had to reproduce the serum on massive scales. While the wraith population had dropped in numbers, there were still plenty more of them than there were humans in Pegasus.

They finished distributing the base drug to the males as many already had been inoculated, and then worked through the females. By the time they were all complete, enough of the serum to give out to the drones had been produced.

"The final drones were inoculated after the final hive surrendered. Not bad for not even a decade of work" he said, taking another biscuit.

It wasn't an easy topic to shift away from, but Rogue did her best to follow the new line of conversation, listening attentively while Todd told her about the progress with the gene therapy over the years. She listened and nodded, occasionally asking a brief question, all while very slowly working her way through her meal.

Eating was still something of a chore for her after her captivity. It took real effort to remind herself to take a bite, chew, swallow. All of it felt unnatural even after the days she'd been on Atlantis; three years of mostly being kept alive by intravenous nutrients had changed her in a number of ways. But she needed the calories if she was going to regain a healthy weight, and if she worked at it long enough she knew it would get back to feeling 'normal' eventually.

"I really am in awe of how much you've accomplished in so short a time," she told him with a small smile. "It's hard to believe, with the way things were when I left. It seems like just another part of a dream I had once."

There was still a third of her bowl of stew left to go, but each bite was starting to become harder than the last. "That's what I thought you were, after a while," she admitted suddenly, her train of thought shifting in her weary state. "Everything here - I thought it was all something I dreamed up to help me survive."

"Rest assured that this is no dream." He said, touching her shoulder, even Irving it a slight squeeze to let her know he was solid and real, and getting up to set his empty bowl and glass in the dishwasher. They found the strange device used far less water than they did when they washed an equal amount of used plates and cutlery, so they'd had it installed.

When he saw she was trying to muscle through the last of her stew, he offered to take it. She need not force herself. In fact, in her fairly wasted state, it was best not to.

They even had a dishwasher. So much of the hive was the same, the wraith mostly looked the same, and yet there were those little changes that kept striking her.

She gave Todd a grateful smile and let him take her things. It really was best not to force herself; making herself sick wouldn't do any good for anyone. She watched him move about the kitchen, remembering all those days they'd worked together in the space, longing to have that again... And then there was a hint of something. A possibility. A chance.

Taking a deep, shaking breath, she opened her mouth to say something but stopped. Instead, she lifted her right hand and held it out to him, skin bared and deadly. But if he trusted her enough to touch her, nothing would happen. There would be no pull of energy between them.

She'd soon learn that there were many little changes like the dishwasher around. Though their method for cleaning clothes would still make Whirlpool jealous.

Todd turned to look at her when she went quiet and then she held out her hand to him. He cocked his head a moment, unsure what she wanted, then realized wanted to try touching him.

Any other would hesitate or shy away entirely, instead, he immediately stepped closer and took her hand in his.

She trusted him, and he trusted her too. That knowledge and the feeling of his hand touching hers, they threatened to break down all the walls she'd built up around her emotions. But still she held on, her grip on his hand tightening as still nothing happened with her power. It was just his skin touching hers.

"I've always felt safe with you," she said in a hushed voice, her eyes on their joined hands.

He returned the squeeze to the hand, lifting his other to stroke her hair, which seemed brittle under his fingers thanks to her years imprisoned.

"And I you." He replied. He knew that she'd never intentionally hurt him, and even if her ability had rejected the touch, stressed from her torture days and mistrust, he'd still hold on as long as he could bear.

"Come, you need rest." He said, steering her out of the kitchen and back to his chambers, letting her lean or touch him all she liked.

However, though she might trust him, her ability might still be dangerous to all others, so the training with the queen would still be needed. But he hoped she knew she was wanted and safe here, a big difference compared to the last time she'd worked on shutting off her ability.

It wasn't just that she felt safe from Todd, but that she felt that it was safe for her to be around him. Somehow, the immense fear that she had of hurting others didn't extend to the wraith, because her instinct was that he would be alright. The situation was unlikely to extend to others, though, and she was still terrified of being around the children, especially on her own. There was just too much that could go wrong.

Rogue kept hold of his hand as they walked through the halls, her other hand reaching up to hold onto his arm as well. There was a good deal of effort involved in putting one foot in front of the other, and she was quiet along the way until they reached his chambers.

"I missed you so much," she told him when they were behind closed doors again, and her grip on his hand tightened even more, like she intended to never let go.

The tight grip on his arm didn't bother him and he let her all the way back to his chambers.

He lifted his free hand and stroked her hair again. "I did too." he said.

Nearly six years. Three for her. Neither span of time was much of anything to a Wraith. But for a human, even one like Rogue, three years was an eternity. And for most of it she'd endured one horror after another, wishing she were dead and all the while believing everything that happened here had been a dream.

Todd moved to the bed, guiding her to lay down without breaking their contact and settling beside her.

"Get some rest. I promise to be here when you wake."

The last time she'd felt truly safe and relaxed while sleeping had been in that very bed. All the years that had been had been full of incredibly difficult, trying, and horrifying situations, and when she'd thought back to the place where she most felt at home, it had been in that 'dream world' of his, in his chambers specifically. They were her haven from the world that had turned against her, and to be back there now, with him beside her... it was unbelievable.

But it was real, and he was promising not to leave her, and so she did as he instructed, laying her head down and closing her eyes, staying as close to him as she could get. She was so exhausted that not even two minutes passed before she was deeply asleep.

She wouldn't sleep for long, a few hours at best. The scientists had been on constant rotation and so she had never been allowed a full night's rest. But when she did wake, it would be sudden but not violently, with disorientation but not fear. Her powers would stay safely off because in all those years of torture, never had she had someone touch her in such a kind, even loving way. That sort of touch meant safety now, for her and for him.

Only when he was sure she was asleep did he follow. But sure enough a couple hours later she was awake beside him. If the queen woke in the middle of the night, she was silent in getting up and leaving him be, so it was a little strange to have her wake him like this again.

But he was patient and merely told, or rather reminded her, "Go back to sleep. You're here and you're safe."

Rogue was just grateful that her powers hadn't been triggered - she didn't have the best dreams these days. But she did relax again as she realized he was right.

"It's strange to be in a real bed again," she murmured, shifting a bit to get more comfortable but not moving away from him. "They wouldn't let me have things like blankets; they were always afraid I'd try to kill myself with them."

Todd knew that too well. The Genii wouldn't allow him so much as a bench let alone a blanket, just in case. Atlantis at least had been kinder in that regard, allowing him not only something to sit on, but also were professional and said little if anything to him compared to the Genii who taunted him through the bars whenever they were bored or drunk or both.

He moved to lay on his side, pulling Rogue to spoon against him, allowing him to wrap an arm around her waist and rest his chin above her head.

"Given enough time the feeling of sleeping on the cold floor will fade." he said. It would never go away entirely but as a result, it made one feel lucky for what they had.

The feeling of him wrapped around her just pulled all the tension right out of her body. She was okay here. Nothing bad was going to happen. She was home.

The thought was bittersweet and she felt tears prick at her eyes. "I didn't even get the floor," she told him in a shaky voice. "It was curved, they had to suspend a cot from the side of the wall."

She took a deep, trembling breath and held onto his arm around her. "I was in my old home, Todd. The school where I lived, where I taught. They gutted it and turned into it a lab, and I was there for three years."

For the time being, Todd merely held her and listened. He could only imagine being forced to sleep and endure horrors and torture all within a familiar and once-home. The closest he could relate was being on Atlantis where numerous Wraith had likely been tortured and experimented upon by the Lanteans before finally being allowed death. But even that was a pale comparison.

"You're home." he repeated "Focus on that and let the cruel memories fade so they cause no further pain to you." he advised, remembering how he coped after escaping the Genii. He recalled everything that had been done to him, as she would likely remember those three years for the rest of her days. But time and fellow crew helped him push them to the back of his mind.

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