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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Todd cocked his head, looking to her and remembering last night.

They'd been so close. Concentration was indeed what she needed most, that was a fact. Perhaps they'd have better luck on the hive. But he'd try to practice with her as often as possible here.

But...

"Picked for what?" he asked after a moment.

Rogue laughed, having forgotten he hadn't heard yet. "For your youngest crew member," she answered. "I think Sheppard might have noticed everyone paying extra attention to him, so of course he gets a name now."

Names were a thing she couldn't understand with the Wraith. Yes, they used telepathy for most communication among themselves it seemed, but she was human and it was nice to have names to put with the Wraith she knew, even if they didn't understand the human need for it either.

Edited 2015-12-05 04:17 (UTC)

"Ah." He said, opened his mouth to make a joke about not kissing him when he realized that might be in real poor taste and so said nothing of it.

"He's named several wraith to my knowledge." Including himself. "Don't take it too harshly, I'm quite sure he didn't mean for that to happen."

Todd withdrew from the railing, smelling the storm getting closer before turning to go back inside. Not a moment too soon, the rain started to come down lightly, tic-tac-I got against the glass.

There was no way Sheppard could have known, and she hated that she'd ended up making such a big deal out of it at dinner. She'd have to apologize to him later, make sure he understood the situation and that she really hadn't meant to bring him down. She liked the name Cody, despite everything, and it did fit its new bearer.

She stepped back inside with Todd but stayed at the glass, watching the rain. After a moment, she tugged off her right glove, and set her still bandaged hand against the glass. "I love storms like this," she told Todd softly. "I used to sit with Remy, with all the windows open, and just listen to the rain for hours. Those were the best days."

Todd stepped up beside her at the glass. A little poetic that they'd met in the rain just under three weeks ago. Or perhaps not as they weren't going their separate ways in it.

He looked to her when she spoke of the man Remy. Must be difficult indeed to have lost someone and yet they were still inside your head, giving you advice.

"Were you able to touch him at all?" he asked. If he recalled correctly, she'd said his ability had been energy manipulation. Perhaps, like himself, though for different reasons, Remy could handle brief encounters.

Rogue chuckled quietly and shook her head. "Not a bit," she answered, amusement and affection in the words. "That didn't stop him though, the incorrigible idiot. He was always trying to steal a kiss, even though it would knock him out for an hour or two. He said I was worth it."

Her swamp rat had been something else, all right. A veritable ladies man, she'd never understood why he'd pursued her so persistently. But she knew now. She had his memories of the first time he saw her, of being so pleased at making her laugh, of the exhilaration of fighting at her side. The immense sadness at knowing he was dying and wouldn't be able to protect her anymore.

So much for that theory.

Todd started to walk again, pausing to wait for her to follow and they continued their self-guided tour. They arrived at the Gate Room, the night crew at the controls above looked at the odd pair, but while the marines at the hallway let them go, they still kept an eye on them.

"What happened to Remy?" he asked as they moseyed around. Wraith might not be fluffy bunnies, but he liked hearing the lives of others. Except maybe McKay. Human years were so brief after all, being able to fit so much into such a little time frame-by his counts-was quite a feat.

Hands gloved and stuffed into her pockets again, she followed Todd through their tour, marveling at the architecture and the work being done around them. It was all fascinating to her, since she didn't understand the first thing of what they might be doing at those control panels.

"He died," she said quietly, with a quick glance at her companion. "About a year ago. We were ambushed and he was hurt. There was nothing anyone could do for him." Her shoulders hunched slightly, and the words tasted like ash on her tongue. "Except for me. He asked me to absorb him, all the way, so he could stay with me. He insists it was the best kiss he'd ever had."

They left the gate room and headed down another hallway.

Well, at least the man died the way he wanted instead of being slapped on a cold slab and experimented on by the enemy.

Todd quieted his questions for a little while, pausing again at a window to look out at the storm, glancing down the hall they came from and finding a couple marines poking their heads down to see what they were up to.

"Even if Woolsey had not declined you a permanent invite, you'd still never stay here, would you?" he stated more than asked. "The military presence is unsettling for you."

Rogue wrapped her arms around herself, careful of her ribs but still desiring the comfort the position offered. She followed his gaze and spotted the marines watching them.

"You're not wrong," she confirmed sadly, "but it's more than just that. These people haven't seen what I can do. They've heard about it, but actually seeing it... Most people are terrified of me afterward, and I honestly don't blame them."

She turned away from the prying eyes of the marines, frowning. "I've seen what humans do when they're scared of something, what they're capable of. If I were to stay here, I'd always be waiting for them to decide I was a monster that needed dealing with."

Even Colonel Sheppard, someone who had quickly become a good friend, was an uncertainty when it came down to it. She just didn't know how he would deal with it were she to accidentally touch someone, let alone drain them completely.

Todd looked to her then back out at the storm.

"I think you're forgetting who and what they've been dealing with the past several years." he chuckled a bit. "You're not the stuff of their nightmares, you don't kill people to feed off them, and you're still very much human in appearance. Which gives you a leg up so it goes. Would it unsettle them if you accidentally touched Beckett or even Woolsey? Yes. But no more than it would if I did it. Only difference is, you're human in appearance. They're far more likely to forgive you for what you look like. Me? They'd shoot on sight." He looked down the hall at the marines then back to her. "I'll prove it to you." then waved down two men to come over. Their suspicion levels rose but they walked over. "Question to pose to you two." Todd said.

One shrugged, then other nodded, "Sure"

"Which of us do you trust more and why?"

The first one snorted. "Well, that's easy." he said and nodded to Rogue. "New girl." and the second agreed.

"I'm hurt, but intrigued, why is that?" Todd said, grinning, clearly not hurt in the slightest.

"She's human looking and don't eat people." the second answered.

"And last I checked, she didn't steal the Daedalus and nearly slaughter dozens of innocent people for a betrayal we didn't commit." the first added.

"But I no longer feed on people, and she's unpredictable" Todd said. "Her touch could kill even myself. Does that not unsettle you?"

"Its very unsettling, but she doesn't have a history with screwing around with us like you and she's not going attack us on purpose for some hidden agenda, right?" the first said, looking to Rogue.

This little demonstration was doing nothing to allay Rogue's fears, and was actually likely having the opposite effect from what Todd desired. Instead of feeling reassured by the marines' assertions, their words were bringing up all the instances on her Earth when she'd been hunted and persecuted, when people had hated her despite her outward appearance of being a sweet southern girl. It hadn't mattered one bit to those soldiers who had tracked them across the planet that they looked human, that they were still people despite the tiny differences in their genetic codes. All they had seen were potentially dangerous freaks who didn't deserve to be walking free among normal people.

"No, I'm not," she confirmed, the words tight and layered with an anger and sadness that confused the two men. "But accidents do happen, especially around me. Maybe tapping McKay and knocking him out for a few hours wouldn't bother you, but what if it was a child? What if something happened and I touched Teyla's son, and he ended up in a coma? How would you feel about me then?"

The first man hesitated, as she knew he would. Because children were different. Children were precious, meant to be protected, and people who harmed children, even unintentionally, were never fully trusted again. The second man looked at his companion, started to open his mouth, but Rogue cut him off with a raised hand.

"Thank you, marines, that'll be all," she told them firmly, before looking at Todd with anger in her eyes. "We're done here," she informed him before turning and heading down the hall.

Todd however, was not "done", and he followed, leaving the confused marines behind.

"See? Encounters like that are holding you back" he said, having longer legs than her and having no problem with catching up. "You fear yourself and view yourself as a weapon set to go off at any moment, and little more. You have to get over that if you're going to make any progress with harnessing your ability or you will continue to be an accident waiting to happen."

Those in the gate room shifted out of their stupor of boring night shift to watch the pair. if things got really heated, it was likely that they'd start taking bets.

If they wanted a show, they were certainly going to get it. Rogue's blood was boiling and she wanted nothing more than to punch something, someone, but some part of her realized that would be a very bad thing and so she settled for the next best thing.

"You think you know everything, don't you?" she threw at him, turning to face him head-on with her biting words. "That you can just reason away the sheer terror I feel from just being in this city. That you can talk me into letting go of my instincts in order to get control of my powers. But I can't."

Every muscle in her was tensed and her side was screaming in pain, but it was the emotional agony that she was feeling most. "I'm never going to be able to trust humans again, no matter what dimension I'm in or how much time passes." Her words were losing some of the anger in favor of aching anguish. "Even if I get control of my powers, I'm never going to feel safe with them again. Because it didn't matter in my world if we had control, or if we looked normal - we were different, and they hunted us like animals for it. They killed us for it. How can I possibly trust that that won't happen again?"

All the steam had gone out of her by the end she just felt... empty. Lost and broken. She looked over at the faces watching them in stunned fascination and wanted little more than to run and hide from them. But she'd started this thing and she was going to see it through.

Todd ignored their audience, listening to her, sensing how much she wanted to strike out but held back. And then the deflated look.

"I'm not asking you to let go of your instincts, only your fear." he stated "And you did, however briefly, last night. You did that, in this place you consider as threatening as the dimension you came from."

He glanced to their audience then continued. "Your history is not their history, and you've earned the trust of Sheppard and his friends. How many humans can you say you've gained that from in your world?" He started to walk away, paused and looked to her again. "I've said it before, so I will again. Wraith and humans are not so different. Humans are capable of just as much loyalty as cruelty as we are. I suspect the same of mutants. The Genii were very human, doesn't mean I resent all humans for what they did to me. Hate and destroy the individuals, not the species."

Todd started for his rooms again, looking over his shoulder to her and saying, "Remember, you have no enemies here except those you make yourself, Marie D'Ancanto."

How many humans... She had fought alongside humans as well, helped to protect the ones who agreed that mutants were people deserving of the right to exist and not be hunted and feared. She mourned as those humans were killed in battle, as they were taken to the camps alongside her mutant brethren, as they were slaughtered because unlike mutants they weren't useful enough to keep alive.

Rogue clenched her hands at her sides, letting him go, waiting and debating with herself, and then finally hurried after him, leaving behind a shocked group of night shifters. "I know that humans are capable of loyalty," she informed him, her tone strong and intense but lacking the anger from earlier. "And compassion, and trust. I worked with humans in the war, good people who had my back. They gave their lives to protect us, to give us another day of freedom."

Tears stung at her eyes and she finally realized herself that there was something else at the root of her unease in Atlantis, in addition to the innate fear and mistrust. "I've lost too many people." Everyone she'd ever known now. "I can't lose anyone else."

He was surprised by her following after him, figuring she was done with him, but made no move to shoo her away or tell her off, stopping all together to hear her out. And then realization dawned on him as he did.

She wasn't avoiding trust here on Atlantis, she was avoiding connections.

If she settled in here, and the unthinkable happened, she'd have to suffer not only the consequences, but also have to live with that person inside her head for the rest of her life. Sheppard. Ronon. McKay. Teyla...Torren. Another dead or comatose person in her mind.

He regretted his foolishness in rushing the gene therapy resulting in the death of his whole crew. But he had the fortune in that while they'd been inside his head, they didn't remain there in the same way that those she touched did.

"I understand. And, I apologize" he nodded to her.

Everything in her relaxed at his words. She hadn't expected an apology. All she'd wanted was for him to understand, to stop pushing so much for something she couldn't give. The war had taken everything from her, and she couldn't do it anymore. It was part of why living alone on a deserted planet had been at least slightly appealing - no one to betray her, and no one to lose and mourn while they stayed forever inside her.

"Thank you," she said very softly, not knowing what else to say. Anything else would feel... wrong. "Goodnight, Commander," she added before turning to go to her room, exhaustion permeating every aching inch of her. It had been a very long day.

He nodded with a chuff and they went their separate ways for the night.

The following morning, Todd was up early, focus back on his crew. Cody had pulled through with no difference in side effects which would mean the rest of the inoculations ought to go off without a hitch.

The shift change happened yet again, and Todd sat with his newly changed crew in the cafeteria for their first breakfast, French toast. By now, this was becoming a regular thing so those on Atlantis were a little more at ease, the marines guarding them didn't lighten up just yet.

Rogue slept in a bit the next day, the medication to help her sleep leaving her feeling groggy when she woke. Combined with the emotionally draining outbursts of the night before, it was quite like a hangover, and the best cure for a hangover was a strong cup of coffee.

After a quick wash up, she braided her hair and left her room, heading for the cafeteria. Word of the previous night's show in the gate room must have spread like wildfire, because she was certain that everyone she passed looked at her a bit more strangely than before. She wasn't just the new girl now, she was the stranger who had declared quite fiercely that she would never be able to trust any of them, and that she was terrified of everyone on Atlantis. She was regretting those words now, but there was no way to take them back, so she would just have to face it.

When she had her very full and steaming cup of coffee, she just sort of stood off to the side in the cafeteria, looking out over the tables, completely unsure of where to go.

Todd was pointing out the proper way to hold a fork to Cody when he saw Rogue. After a moment, he got up from the table and came over to her.

He said nothing to her, regarding her a long moment. He then lifted a hand and touched her covered shoulder, "Come sit with us" he invited.

Sheppard had just spotted her, he and his team sitting at their usual table and he waved her over. She now had to decide. The wraith, or the humans...

It was an easy decision.

Rogue gave a small smile and an acknowledging wave to Sheppard, but didn't go to join him and the others. Instead, her expression turned grateful as she looked at Todd and nodded, saying a quiet, "Thank you," before following him to the table full of wraith. She enjoyed the company of Sheppard's team, there was no doubt of that, but she also felt some awkwardness toward them knowing that they would have heard about her outburst. But beyond that, she wanted to start the process of getting to know these wraith, of having them be used to her being around, and now was as good an opportunity as any.

They all seemed a little uncertain about their first meal of real food in what had probably been quite a while. She took a seat at the table and cradled the coffee cup in her gloved hands, having decided to forego the sweet breakfast. Normally she loved French toast, and the smell of it now was certainly delicious, but the thought of actually eating it just didn't sit well with her stomach.

Their table was quiet, but not in awkwardness, most of their conversations were internally with one another. But Todd eventually spoke aloud.

"After you finish eating you're to be transferred back to the hive." he said.

"Already?" Cody asked "I thought that now that we're not feeding upon humans we can wander Atlantis to our content."

"No. It will probably be some time before our kin are allowed to roam the city freely." Todd answered.

"Why? Aren't we just like them now?" Cody asked

Todd looked to Rogue then to his youngest underling. "No. We are still Wraith."

"That's hardly fair, we've changed so much for them, why can't they do the same for us?"

"Because humans will fear us until the generations that endured our cullings die out, and even then it will take time. Trust isn't gained as easily as we hope it is. We've made good progress in the last two years alone. Have some patience." Todd said and a couple others chuffed in agreement.

Cody nodded after a moment of thought and went back to eating his French toast.

It nearly broke Rogue's heart to hear the conversation as it progressed. It reminded her so much of what had happened between humans and mutants in her dimension, of how hard mutants had tried only to have baseline humans still turn their backs on them. Fear was such a powerful thing and incredibly difficult to overcome.

She sipped at her coffee, struggling to find something to say that might mean something or even just lighten the mood.

"Well, this human isn't afraid of you," she finally declared, falling into her teacher's voice, calm, reassuring, and expecting to be listened to. "As such, I'll expect to see each of you in my kitchen before long to learn the basics of cooking. Besides, I'm going to need help lifting heavy things until my injury heals, and you all look more than strong enough for the job."

She wasn't sure how they would react to that, since these wraith weren't used to her, but there was no hissing in reaction to her words. In fact, she thought she saw a bit of amusement around the table, which was a very good sign. She liked the look of this bunch, Cody especially, and she was very much looking forward to returning to the ship once their business with Atlantis was finished.

Todd smiled a little as she prompted his crew to be an orderly bunch.

They looked at her curiously but they'd already spoken with those that had had their inoculations before this trip and said she was quite good at both cooking and teaching. Which meant she was already in their good books.

The marines were pacing about, anxious to get the party moving to the pier, so Todd hurried his crewmates along to finish eating-they'd been up and here long before Rogue so they were mostly done anyway. They left their trays, some clean, some not too keen on the extra sweet meal and only had half eaten their toast, to be led by the marines. Todd remained to enjoy his own breakfast and tea-coffee was too bitter for him-with Rogue.

The kitchen crew came around to pick up trays and wipe down tables. "What, too good for Wraith?" said one disgruntled worker, indicating the partially eaten toast.

"They just started eating normal food." Todd said patiently. "And its quite the rich meal after a day of throwing up nothing"

"Coulda taken less." he pointed out. "Wasteful and all."

"If you're worried about supplies you can start with Doctor McKay, who drinks and eats several times what we do, and he's been here longer." Todd said, sipping his tea.

The worker set the dirty plates in a square bucket. "Smartass." he mumbled before walking away.

Todd chuckled after he'd gone. "A sure sign you've won an argument is when they insult you."

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

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Is Cody the real name of the guy she kiss-coma'ed?

Comic canon is Cody, stupid movie rename is David. I go w/ Cody. XD

ah

I have strong feelings about the movies... >.>

i loved first class, the others, meh

X1-2 were my favorites, but DoFP stole the cake. Side movies were awful.

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argh arguing is so haaard lol

arguments are tough, but make for great material :D

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