Sabine Bauer - Mirror, mirror

Fists clenched, chin raised, she returned his stare. "Even if what you're saying is true, we did not become any of those. Have you seen us mistreat or harm people? Or shun learning? You would be dead right now if we didn't honor science!"

"But you have not developed either! You are frozen the way you were hundreds of years ago. When did you last discover anything new-other than what he showed you?" Ikaros nodded at Radek. "Well?"

Selena sucked in a sharp breath, fished for words. Eventually she retorted, "We were content. We had what we needed and left well enough alone."

"Meaning you were regressing. Because that is what happens when you're standing still while time moves on around you. Your complacency made you obsolete." The words hung there for all concerned to get riled, then Ikaros carried on, now without the sting in his tone. "Your people, our people, were meant to develop, Selena. Beyond anything you can possibly imagine. Wiser, more powerful, without fear of death. But it will never happen, will never have happened, unless we're allowed to go back and set things right."

"Develop in what way?" She was trying to scoff, but there was a groundswell of doubt and curiosity in her voice that hadn't been there before.

"I could tell you and you wouldn't comprehend it, so I'll show you."

Show her?

Oh no, wait a min-

Rodney felt an odd tug inside of him, something separating, gradually and carefully, a loosening of his being. With it, pain came flooding back like a torrent, and he realized for the first time the full extent to which Ikaros had sustained him. The radiance began above his chest, slowly stretching into bands of brightness. A long time ago he'd seen the security footage from the infirmary back at the SGC. The same type of lightshow had accompanied Dr. Jackson's ascension, and it was worth noting that there hadn't even been left a body behind. Granted, he'd somehow recovered his mortal coil a year or so later, but the man's powers of resurrection would put a cat to shame, and Rodney McKay was confident that his own skills on that score weren't even remotely in the same league.

Hey! What about me? he screamed somewhere in his mind.

Don't worry. Ikaros's answer felt faraway and growing fainter by the second. You won't die. Much…

What that supposed to

And then there was black.

Mingled in with the first shock there were two things that vied for John's attention; that tentacled glory of light rising from Rodney's still body, so similar to the luminescence that had heralded Charybdis's activation, and the frenetic wails and chimes of the life support monitors.

"My God," whispered Elizabeth. "He's ascending!"

"No!" Teyla sat bolt upright on her cot. "It's Ikaros. Whatever is happening, it's Ikaros."

"I can tell you what's happening! The son of a bitch is leaving McKay behind!" If there had been a time in his life when John had felt more helplessly angry, he couldn't recall it. How did you beat common decency into a life form that looked like a Day-Glo squid? "He's leaving Rodney to die…"

"No, he isn't," she countered. "He couldn't. Everything he said was true. And I can still feel Rodney. Rodney isn't dead."

As if to confirm her words, the monitor alarms subsided. A leaden silence dropped over the jumble of upturned or ruined equipment the quake had left in the tent. It was broken only by hushed breathing. Nobody seemed able or willing to speak as that sinuous glow abandoned its hover above Rodney's chest and smoothly, almost nonchalantly, approached Selena. Her eyes went wide and she instinctively backed up a step or two, into the chest of the technician behind her. It galvanized the man into action. Pure terror etched into his face he attempted to shoo off the… thing as you would a fly.

Don't be afraid. I won't harm her or anybody else.

John heard the words in his mind as clearly as if they'd been spoken, and he obviously wasn't the only one. Selena's knight in shining armor dropped his arms and reverted to open-mouthed stupor. Selena herself braced her shoulders, took a deep breath and walked straight into… whatever it was.

This time he heard laughter.

It's still me, Colonel Sheppard. I'm still Ikaros. And no offense, but I find thing just a little insulting.

The golden luminescence wrapped itself around Selena, sheathing her in light. Radek let out a stifled shout, but someone — Ronon? — stopped him in his tracks. A heartbeat later it became apparent that there was no need to protect Selena. She stood motionless, on her face a look of rapt wonder that rightfully belonged to a child who'd just encountered Santa Claus and all his reindeer in the flesh.

He had no concept of how long it lasted, but eventually the glow released Selena, swam free and began to elongate as if reaching for the ground. It grew denser, more substantial, assumed appendages that looked conspicuously like arms and legs, dimming at the same time. Then, in the blink of an eye, it winked out and in its place stood Ikaros, still in the BDU he'd worn when John had last seen him, a lifetime ago. The kid possessed the audacity to wink at him.

As if waking from a trance, Selena took a deep breath, cheeks flushed, eyes shining. "He was right," she whispered. "I couldn't possibly have imagined it…" She must have intended to say something else, but was brought up short by Ikaros in his more human manifestation. Her gaze wandered from him to John and back, and at last she gasped, "He is your… son?"

"More like my great-great-grandfather."

"Uncle, actually." Ikaros grinned, then turned surprisingly serious. "Much as I'd love to discuss the family tree, I'm afraid we don't have the time for it. And it doesn't really matter, does it?"

"No, it doesn't." She smiled at him, then turned to Zelenka. "Radek, my apologies for being so… intransigent."

"You always were, you know… a little." Zelenka's voice sounded rough, compressed by a wealth of emotions he was trying to choke back. "I'll miss you."

She gently touched a hand to his cheek. "Me too. And you'll have a lot more time to do it in than I. I don't envy you."

"Why don't you come with-"

"You know I can't. It would upset everything you're trying to restore." She glanced over at John. "You must leave now. Quickly."

The technician who had tried to defend her was the first to realize what she was talking about, and his face went rigid with fear and outrage. "Selena! What are you doing? You said-"

"I know what I said. I was wrong. And I will not rob our people of their future "

The man clenched his fists. "You are robbing us of our future! We are your people! Those children-children! — in the camp up there are our people!"

"I know!" Her face was wet with tears, and John felt as if someone had punched him in the gut. Maybe these people, these children, weren't supposed to exist, but they were here, right now, weren't they? As far as collateral damage went, it was carnage, pure and simple. Selena shook her head. "You and I, the children, we're unimportant. This is so much bigger than any of us. Believe me, I've seen it. I've-"

The ground bucked, bucked again, and started to roll, sluggish like a large animal waking. Tent poles swayed drunkenly, and the EEC monitor crashed from its stand, scaring the doctor off his stool and knocking over other equipment.

"Go!" yelled Ikaros. "We have to go! Now!"

He was right. They had a minimal window while the folks behind Selena were still disoriented, but once they got over their fright it could get ugly. Exchanging a look with Ronon, who clearly had the same idea, John lurched over to the cot, ripped away blankets and IV lines, and slung Rodney's limp body over his shoulders in a fireman's lift. As he rose, the exertion left stars blossoming on his retinas and his head felt as if it were about to explode, thundering in time with the shocks of the earthquake. Chronic Charybdisitis?