sga_flashfic | (no subject)

Title: Her Power
Author: Anca

poetryfiend
Challenge: Secret Superpower
Characters: Teyla, mention of team.
Summary: How could she tell her team that since she connected with the Wraith, every kill feels like mercy?
Word Count: 443
Genre: Character Study
Rating: PG-13 to be safe. No real warnings though.
Spoilers/Timeline: Mention of events in the Gift
Disclaimer: Don't own anything. If anyone wants to sell David Hewlett however, do get in touch.

She has saved them again.

Fifteen minutes ago they ran into a Wraith hunting party. Six of them, all looking for an easy meal. Ronon killed two; the Colonel got one, and the rest died by her hand.

She stands amidst the bodies as her team comes to join her. Ronon and Colonel Sheppard jog, their guns still ready, the heat of battle burning every step into the earth. Seeing her success, the Colonel whistles softly; Ronon nods with grim satisfaction. Rodney blinks and turns away, but his eyes are drawn back, again and again, to the bodies by her feet.

And she is cold. She has destroyed the Wraith, duty done.

As they make their way back towards the gate, Rodney walks with her and asks, “So what’s your secret?”

She isn’t sure what he means.

“Your secret. You know, how do you get all the Wraith? I can’t even stun one at ten paces. Whereas you . . . Teyla? What’s wrong?”

She smiles, tells him she’s tired. Rodney frowns. Minutes later he joins Sheppard, who’s still animated from the fight. It’s as though he and Ronon draw strength from their fallen enemies, it’s justice, in a way.

How could she tell her team that since she connected with the Wraith, every kill feels like mercy?

She is a Wraith, walking down one of their corridors, seeing through their eyes. She has not fed in some time. Her body is aflame; bones are dissolving into molten rock. Every part of her feels like dying.

She approaches a cocoon. Life is inside, she can hear it pulsing, throbbing. Taking it will make her young and strong again, leaving it will mean letting this continue; feeling her soul being wrenched away, piece by piece, till she is nothing but shreds of decaying matter.

She cannot hear cries or see pain, she reaches out a hand and chooses to live.

It was not her. She could not influence its actions in any way during the connection. But now she knows Wraith hunger, knows their pain. And if she lived with that every day, she is not sure she could be any different than the Wraith.

When she fights, she tries to feel her old anger, the same hot fury than fuels Sheppard and Ronon. To answer Rodney’s question, Rage was her secret, a warrior’s true power, and it fed her through years of struggle and loss.

Now her power is mercy, and she does what she must.

She is Teyla Emmagan, Avenger of her people.

She is Teyla Emmagen, Saviour of the Wraith.