Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lorenzo

“F-Fuck! Keep going! H-Harder, Enzo!” screamed a girl’s voice, high on pleasure, the cause of which was the long, thick cock spearing her pussy repeatedly from behind.

“God, you’re so tight,” grunted the owner of said cock, young and fit at the age of 18, the same age as his partner. This was me, Lorenzo, or Enzo, as Holly (the smoking hot girl I was currently fucking) and many others liked to call me.

Doing as commanded, my grip tightened on Holly’s hips, leaving red marks that would surely bruise, as I pulled her back in time with my hard thrusts. Each time my hips crashed into her perfect ass, it would wobble just the right amount with her body shooting forward from the force. If not for my hold on her, she’d have been thrown out of my reach and further up the bed. Instead, she got bounced off my cock just enough for me to be able to drive back into her sopping pussy with incredible, nerve stimulating effect.

“O-Oh my God!” screamed Holly, even louder than before. Her body beginning to quiver all over.

I might’ve slowed back down, wondering if she could actually take the brutal pounding, if not for the fact this wasn’t the first time we’d fucked. And this wasn’t even close to the roughest we’d gone at it. Holly was a little minx in bed, a glutton for any and all punishment, not that I was complaining or anything. I’d happily shag the brains out of her any second of the day, as proven recently in school when we skipped lunch to fuck in an empty classroom.

Holly suddenly threw her head back, blonde hair whipping around, and unleashed a strangled cry to the heavens. She came around my cock, squeezing me on all sides. I groaned but didn’t slow down, not one bit as I continued to pound her, prolonging her eleventh … maybe fourteenth orgasm of the night? I’d lost count honestly, of both that and how long we’d actually been fucking. It was dark out now; that I could see by looking out my bedroom window, and I could’ve sworn it was still light out when Holly came over. Oh well. It was time well spent.

Holly’s walls fluttered again as she suffered a mini climax, more of an aftershock of pleasure from my relentlessness. Her arms grew weak, making her upper body collapse, leaving her face pressed into the bed. Face down, ass up — one of my personal favourites, and Holly looked just as good, even better, than any pornstar I’d watched getting fucked in that position. Like this, I could go as hard as I wanted.

“You feel so good!” I told her, giving her ass a loud smack, turning the white flesh even redder than it already was at that point. Holly let out a deep, throaty moan — too tired to do much else.

An eager grin flashed across my face as I felt my own release approaching. About time, too. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my stamina, as did every girl I’d had sex with, but I liked to feel the bliss of cumming as well, preferably before my partner was too tired to continue. That had only happened once, but it wasn’t a fun experience.

I began to drive my hips forward even faster, and harder — jack-hammering into Holly’s pillowy ass. Snaking my hands down to her chest, I cupped her tits. They were on the smaller side but incredibly perky, and they gave me a solid grip to pull her up by, her back meeting my chest. More accurately, her back met the bottom of my chest. Compared to my over six foot tall, muscled frame, Holly was tiny at under five foot. She was lithe, too, but strong in her own right, earned from her time as a cheerleader. That’s actually how we knew each other, what with me being on the football team.

Anyway, I loved her petite body. Paired with her flexibility, and her unending horniness, it made for an amazing, ball-draining experience whenever I got to fuck her. Manhandling her around as my cock stretched her insides just couldn’t be matched. I’d be surprised if any other guy could make her feel as good as I did anymore, which might explain why she kept coming around to my house so often to do ‘homework’.

“I’m gonna fucking cum. I’m gonna fill your slutty little pussy!” I whispered hotly into her ear, bending my head down as my heavy balls slapped against her clit.

Holly stretched her head back against me, back arching, arms struggling up to loosely wrap around my head. “Please … fill me … cum inside…”

“What was that? I didn’t hear you,” I growled, speeding up.

“Cum inside my slutty little pussy, you bastard!”

With a roar, I shoved my cock as deep as it would go. It should’ve been impossible with how small Holly was, but she somehow managed to fit it all in, and I unloaded spurt after spurt of hot seed straight into her womb. My sheathed cock created a seal at her entrance, preventing it from gushing out.

There was more than enough to get Holly pregnant five times over, but I’d learned from my dad’s mistakes. Let’s just say, I’m 18 and my dad’s only 36; do the maths. So, yeah, she was safely on birth control, otherwise I’d be wrapped up tight.

Holly writhed in my arms, reaching her own end yet again as I filled her up. We both fell forward onto the bed, and I barely managed to catch myself before I crushed her. It was minutes before the pleasurable tingles dispelled, and my dick softened enough to slip out of Holly’s well-used hole.

“Wow…” That was the best I could come up. Nothing else could describe how great that felt. I rolled to the side, pulling Holly on top of my chest. It took quite a few minutes longer before she recovered enough to speak.

“I’m going to feel that for a week,” she said, making me chuckle as she then playfully glared up at me. “How am I supposed to do practice tomorrow? You jackass.”

“With difficulty, I suppose,” I said, which earned me a tired smack. I had football practice tomorrow as well; she was just being dramatic. At least, that’s what I thought before she stood to go to my en-suite, and her legs wobbled like Bambi the entire way.

“Damn it, Enzo,” she grumbled, leaning against the bathroom door, my cum leaking down her inner thighs.

“It’s not my fault. I didn’t hear you asking me to stop,” I told her, grinning widely. “Actually, what was it you said? Harder, Enzo! Harder!”

“Fuck you!”

“If you really want to.” I got up, stalking towards her, dick already at half-mast and swinging threateningly. “I’m always down for steamy shower sex.”

“Turn those lust-drunk eyes elsewhere, idiot,” she said with exasperation, pushing against my chest. “I haven’t got time for another hour long round.”

As if to punctuate that point, her phone beeped from the bedside table, showing a new message from her mother asking where she was. And it wasn’t the first either. We’d been fucking for far longer than we’d thought, so the shower we shared was purely for cleaning up, but with a fair bit of groping. We then dressed before I helped her walk down the stairs to the front door.

“How are you always so fine after all that?” she asked, frustrated by her pronounced limp, but more so by my easy walk.

“I’m just good like that. It’s takes a lot to tire me out.” I told her, to her visible annoyance. She couldn’t refute me because she knew from first-hand experience that it was the truth. “You know, if you’re struggling to keep up with me, we can always invite Sarah for that threesome she’s always going on about.”

“Yeah, I bet you’d love that, wouldn’t you?” snorted Holly, before pausing for a moment and blushing red. “I’ll think about it…”

Noise from the living room TV reached our ears as we got to the bottom steps. The house was designed open plan; there wasn’t a door into the living room, so anyone inside, meaning my dad, could see into the entrance hall.

“Are you sure your dad couldn’t hear us?” Holly asked before we stepped into view, and not for the first time. In fact, she asked every time she came over.

“I’m sure,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “I’ve told you, Dad’s pretty big on the whole privacy thing. He got my bedroom soundproofed when I was, like, eleven.”

Holly sighed in relief. “Wish my parents were that chill. They think I’m over at Amy’s house right now. They’d flip if they knew I was with you.”

“Your dad loves me,” I said, causing Holly to let out a short laugh.

“He’d love to strangle you if he knew what we’d been doing for last four hours,” she said.

We stepped off the stairs, immediately coming in to view of my dad, who sat watching the TV with a beer in hand. Something to know about Jamie Eldridge — he was the best dad ever. He basically let me do anything, learn my own lessons, so to speak. He never asked too many questions, but was always there to step in and help if I needed it. I don’t remember the last time we actually had a real argument about something. My friends loved him too.

“You kids have fun?” my dad asked.

The question had Holly blushing, but I managed to answer easy enough. “Tons of fun,” I said, tone dripping with false sarcasm. “Gotta love spending hours doing homework.”

“Gah! I always said they give you kids too much of that nonsense. You should be spending your nights having fun, going out and stuff. Not stuck inside doing whatever it is they teach you nowadays.”

I smiled and Holly giggled. My dad was always saying stuff like that, sometimes straight to my teacher’s faces, to their displeasure.

Holly’s phone beeped again, for the third time since they’d gotten out the shower.

“I really need to get going,” she said, giving a wave to my dad. “Goodnight, Mr. Eldridge.”

“Have a good one, Holly,” he said back, raising his beer.

I helped her to her car, which she assured me she was alright to drive.

“It’s not like I can leave it here anyway,” she told me, and I couldn’t argue with that. With one last hot, tongue filled kiss, I watched her drive off down the street, and then went back inside.

“She seems like a nice girl,” my dad said as I locked the door. “Been coming round a lot, hasn’t she?”

“We share a lot of classes,” I responded, leaning against the wall. “Our teachers love to bury us in homework, and it’s easier to get it all done with someone there to bounce things off of.”

“Aye, makes sense.” My dad took a swig of his beer, then gave me a flat look. “What sorta homework was it tonight? Gym?”

The house went silent, except for the noise of whatever was on TV. I stared into my dad’s knowing eyes, neither of us blinking. Then we both grinned and the tense moment shattered, both of us laughing together.

“Your bedroom might be soundproofed,” he began to explain, “but the thud of your headboard against the wall is quite fuckin’ telling.”

“Sorry, Dad.” I was caught, clear as day. There was no point denying it, and what reason did I have to? My dad wasn’t just awesome, as I’d already explained — he was my best friend. He’s more likely to high five me than scold me. His next words being case and point of that.

“Nah, yeh don’t need to apologise,” he said, chuckling lowly. “I understand. I was young once, yeh know. Had my own share of fun, before you came along an’ ruined it, that is. But even after that, too! Hahaha!”

I shook my head fondly, but then remembered something and winced. “Hey, Dad… Could you do me a favour and not let Holly know you heard us? She’d be mortified.”

He mimed pulling a zip across his mouth, the universal sign for lips being sealed. Future crisis averted. I was just about to go back up to my bedroom when he called out to me.

“Come, sit,” he said. “Watch something with me.”

I wanted to, but the thing was, I really did have homework that I needed to do. But then my dad broke into a horrible fit of coughing. He brought an oxygen mask to his mouth — that he really ought to be wearing — and the oxygen machine beside him beeped as he took deep breaths.

Without another second of hesitation, I sat with him on the sofa.

My life up til now had probably sounded perfect; a tall, strong body, paired with being popular at school, and a very active sex life. But there was a pretty big axe hanging over it, ready to fall at any time. This axe was my dad’s fragile health. He had lung cancer, and it was bad.

He’d been diagnosed when I was turning 15. What an awful birthday present that news had been. The hospital and private clinics ran all the tests they could, and we’d sought out the best treatments around, money not being an issue for us. Still, his condition worsened. The doctor’s exact words had been, ‘on borrowed time’. Basically, my dad was alive because he was too stubborn to die, but we both knew it was more than that, though, neither of us could bare to address what ‘that’ was.

When it came between completing Mr. Williams’s maths homework, or spending time with my dad, then it’s wasn’t really even a choice.

“What’re you watching?” I asked, settling in with a beer of my own in hand.

“Nothing worth talking about,” he grumbled, using the remote to change over to one of the many streaming services we were subscribed to. “I’ll tell yeh what I’ve been craving all day. A good space battle, that’s what. Somethin’ with big explosions.”

I nodded. “Star Trek?”

He shook his head. That left only one other real option then, for us anyway.

“So, Stargate it is?”

“Stargate it is.”

Whilst I could be described as the typical, high-school jock, I was also secretly quite a nerd. If loving sci-fi even classified people as a nerd nowadays, which I didn’t think it did anymore. Modern CGI made spaceships and space battles look incredible, to the point anyone went to watch them. Both my dad and I loved most everything spaceship, and intergalactic empire related. He raised me watching it all — Star Trek, Star Wars, and so on. Some of the nights I remembered most fondly were when we’d spend hours together playing Halo. They’d also be the nights I missed the most when he… wasn’t here anymore…

My dad scrolled the menu trying to find the episode he wanted to watch, and I looked around the living room, trying to think of anything but the depressing inevitability of my dad no longer being around. Our house didn’t have much in the way of decoration, likely due to the lack of woman’s touch. It had only ever been my dad and I, as shown in the few photos hung on the wall. Not a single one had my mother in it.

Oh, she’s not dead. But she might as well be.

In my eighteen years of life, I’d never met my mother. I couldn’t even remember her name, and didn’t care to either. From what dad told me, she was a stuck up rich girl he’d met in the private school he’d gone to. My dad was actually quite smart, when he wanted to be, and she’d used him to get good grades by having him do her assignments and what not. When I asked why he’d gone along with it, my dad only had one thing to say.

“The sex was fucking good.”

Everything was fine until he went and got her pregnant. Her parents — the grandparents I’d also never met — wouldn’t let her get an abortion, treating it as a punishment in the hopes that it’d make their daughter become more serious and mature. But no, they didn’t mean by taking care me, just to lug me around for nine months before popping me out and handing me off to my dad, who by the way, was just eighteen at the time, too. I think I’ve mentioned that already, haven’t I?

A deal was struck, in that my dad’s side of the family would take complete responsibility for me, and receive a ludicrous amount of money each month as ‘child support’, which in reality was a bribe to keep everything quiet. This used to bother me, a lot. I couldn’t understand why my mother never wanted to have anything to do with me. Maybe it made some sort of sense when she was still young, but what about when she’d gotten older?

I stopped caring altogether when I realised that I didn’t need her; my dad was more than enough.

Speaking of which, he’d just found the episode he wanted to watch, and what a good choice. The theme song of Stargate Atlantis exploded from the speakers, and ‘Be All My Sins Remember’d’ began playing. Was I ever glad I picked this over doing boring maths work.

This episode was one of my favourites, not just from Stargate, but across all sci-fi I’d watched. It was the one where the Atlantis Expedition teamed up with the Travelers and the Wraith to destroy the Asuran Replicators. But as I’d read online, I knew a lot of people had issues with this episode.

My dad and I often liked to pick things out as we watched shows, saying what the better decision would’ve been, or how people were using technology wrong. Easier to do in hindsight and knowing all the facts, admittedly, but still a lot of fun. Sometimes we agreed, and sometimes we didn’t, but the debates we’d had were the funnest part of it all.

On the topic of this episode, we both pretty much had the same thoughts. Everyone online was always so annoyed that the Expedition didn’t make plans to steal any ZPMs or Replicator battleships, but in my opinion, how could they have? The entire operation was about destroying every replicator nanite, and it was super time critical. This was hard enough, but dividing their focus to different tasks would’ve surely resulted in mission failure.

Let’s say they managed to get onboard an Aurora-battleship after the nanites were sucked to the planet. First, they’d have need to deplete the shields without destroying the ship, take a puddle jumper, and then take control of the ship. I know the reason the Replicators didn’t use a shit-ton of drone weaponry was because it would’ve decimated the heroes, but I bet their ships would’ve surely had security measures and encryption upon encryption. McKay was busy on the planet, but even if he wasn’t, no one would have the time needed to break through it all and take control of the ship. And this was for just one ship, need I remind.

Now, the ZPMs. McKay’s initial plans were to overload all the ZPMs to destroy the planet and the nanites. He didn’t know how many he’d need, or how many they’d have, so he’d need to overload them all just to be safe. If even one nanite somehow survived, the entire mission was pointless. I know Todd stole some ZPMs, but I believe that could’ve doomed the mission, if not for McKay and Carter needing to change the plan anyway. Again, there just wasn’t enough time to then go ‘hey, now we’re not overloading the ZPMs, why don’t we go get some’.

I’m sorry for getting so heated. I’d just had one too many arguments about this topic with idiots over on Reddit.

Trying not to think about that any longer, I put all my attention on the TV. It was as McKay was getting insulted by Colonel Ellis that my dad turned to me, uninterested in the show until the big space battle got going.

“So, that girl,” he began. “Is it … serious … between you two?”

I took a sip of beer before answering. “Maybe? It could be, I think. But I really don’t know, Dad.”

“She seems like a nice girl.”

I snorted out a short laugh. “You already said that before.”

“I’m being serious,” he insisted, turning back to the TV, but not really paying attention to it. “You look happy with her is all I’m saying.”

“Might that have had something to do with what we’d just finished doing?”

Who wouldn’t have been happy after having sex with a stunning girl for hours? Show them to me, and I’ll point out someone who isn’t interested in the female sex. But even though Holly and I enjoyed fucking, it was a lot different than wanting to enter into a full-on relationship. She hadn’t said anything about it anyway, and I wasn’t going to bring it up.

My dad shook his head with a grin. “Yeh know what I mean. I don’t remember you looking so happy with the last girl — the brunette, Kelly.”

“You’re thinking of Megan,” I corrected.

“Oh, right. Who was Kelly again?” he asked in confusion.

“Kelly was the tall one with huge tits. She was after Hannah, who was the one after Megan.”

My dad looked more confused now than he had before my explanation, taking a massive gulp of beer. “How am I supposed to keep up?” he grumbled. “Yeh’ve been with that many…”

And wasn’t that the proud truth. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I was somewhat of a lady magnet, and not just for the girls in school. One of my crowning accomplishments was shagging one of my teammate’s mum after we won a football match. After that night, he never could understand why I was always smirking whenever he talked to me.

“What I mean is don’t take this thing with this girl for granted, yeh hear me?” my dad told me.

I nodded, but there was also a not-so-hidden undertone to my dad’s words. A desperate desire for me to find someone. It was coming dangerously close to the topic neither of us could bare to talk about — what was going to happen after he was gone.

My dad was scared. He wasn’t pressuring me to get married or something like that. My dad never pressured me, but he didn’t have long left, and he didn’t want to leave me all alone when he died. To go through it on my own. And I wanted to give him that reassurance, I really did, but Holly, and all the girls I’d been with … it was just some fun. Maybe, in the future things would change, but dad wouldn’t be around to see that.

It wasn’t just this either. He was trying not to be pushy about it, but there’d been more questions as of late about what I wanted to do in life, whether I had any plans, and stuff like that. I hated that I didn’t have an answer for him. And he’d see right through any lies I might try to tell him.

We watched the TV in silence, letting the topic drop. But it was still on my mind. Maybe, I could go into the Air Force? I know Stargate wasn’t real, but if the military was anything like it was on the shows, then I could see myself liking it, pushing to reach a high rank. It was an idea, at least.

Finally, the time arrived for the combined forces to attack the replicators. They jumped to hyperspace, coming back out a moment later (probably longer in-universe) and launching everything they had. Railguns and missiles, as well as F-302s and Darts battered the replicator ships whilst McKay put his plan into action on the planet’s surface. I loved everything about this event.

“I love it, too. Went to see it in person once. Spectacular, let me tell you,” said a voice to my left. But my dad was to my right.

I leapt to my feet, joined a moment later by my dad, except the fast movement proved more difficult for him. He burst into horrible hacking, forced to reach for his oxygen mask. On reflex, I stepped in front of him, ready to defend us both from … an unimpressive, middle-aged man. He had very short, black hair, and his face … there was something familiar about it, but I couldn’t quite place where I’d seen it before.

“W-Who the fuck are you?!” my dad shouted once he’d recovered, face twisted into anger. “What are you doing in our house?!”

Better yet, how the hell did he get in? I swear, I locked the door after walking Holly out, and neither did I hear it open either. Same for the back door, which we always kept locked. What did this guy do? Crawl through an open window?

The stranger, unbothered by my dad’s fury, answered as calmly as if he was supposed to be there. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m watching the television. Oh! Look! This is the good part!”

I couldn’t help glancing at the TV out of the corner of my eye. McKay had just caused the replicator nanites to sink into the planet, and the stranger started clapping as it exploded, taking with it all the replicator ships in orbit. It was awesome, but I shook my head, focusing back on the matter at hand. The stranger stood up, brushing off his clothes, before turning to us properly for the first time.

“We won’t ask again,” I threatened, taking the lead, confident in my ability to overpower the man if needed. “Who the fuck are you?”

“You humans… It’s always the same with you lot, isn’t it?” sighed the intruder, looking genuinely disappointing. “So impatient, and lacking even the most basic of manners.”

“Manners?” I said in disbelief. “You’ve broken into our house!”

“Yeah? Do tell me, why does that stop you from greeting me with a nice ‘hello’, or a ‘how do you do?’. Manners maketh the man, or so I’ve heard.”

“I’m about to greet you with my fist if you don’t get the hell out of here, now!” I shouted.

The intruder paused, then sighed exaggeratedly. “Typical,” he said, more to himself than anyone else. But then he looked past me to my dad. “You should know who I am. Go on, work that little brain of yours and think.”

I growled at the insult aimed towards my dad, taking a step forward, yet the strange man just ignored me, waiting for my dad to speak. I don’t know why he expected my dad to know him, but then again, he was familiar to me for some reason. Maybe, my dad did know him; an old friend that I’d met once or twice when I was really young, but wouldn’t dad have immediately recognised him then?

Suddenly, my dad gasped loudly. “You … Your…” he stammered.

I saw the stranger smirk before I turned around to my dad, seeing his eyes wide, jaw dropped in surprise. I asked, “Do you know this guy, Dad?”

“He … He’s Q,” my dad said.

I recognised the name, though my knowledge of Star Trek was far more limited than my dad’s, preferring Stargate and Star Wars. But now that it was pointed out to me, I could just about dig up a memory of the god-like being from the show, and found that this intruder was the spitting image of them. What the hell was an actor doing in our house? Wait a minute, the same guy was in Stargate as well. That N.I.D. guy! That’s where the familiarity I was feeling came from!

“It’s about time,” spoke the man, then he turned back to me. “I’m not the actor, by the way. I just took this form as one you’d hopefully recognise. Helps with the whole ‘believing’ thing.”

“Believing thing? Form? What are you on about?” Did this guy get lost on the way to the loony bin?

The man sighed again, for a third time now. I tensed, feeling for some reason like I was a batter in baseball who’d just had their third strike. With a wave of his hand, we were all suddenly taken somewhere different. Looking down, I screamed, loud and clear, which should’ve been impossible with where we were; in space, floating above the Earth. My dad started coughing behind me, but his oxygen machine was somewhere far below them, inside their house.

I stared, mesmerised by the sight of Earth that only astronauts got to see in person. I didn’t even think about how I was still breathing where there should be no air. But then, with another wave of the stranger’s hand, we were back in the house, like it was nothing but a dream. But I knew it was real.

“Do you get it now?” he asked.

Yes, I did. This guy wasn’t the actor that played Q. He was the real fucking deal. As impossible as that was, we were stood in the presence of someone who could be considered God.

“Great,” Q continued, smiling. “It’s always fun doing that, seeing the different reactions you mortals have. At least you guys didn’t faint.”

I nodded numbly, imagining that my dad was doing the same behind me, whilst his oxygen machine beeped, signifying its use.

From the jumbled mess that was my mind, I managed to form a single question. “W-What are you d-doing here?”

“Straight to business then? Good. The sooner we’re done here, the sooner I can get out of this boring universe. See, I’m looking for an individual with specific talents to assist me in a little project I’m starting. I’ve been looking about, and then I stumbled upon you. You’re perfect for what I have in mind.”

“M-Me?” I stuttered in shock.

“Yes, you. Do try to keep up.” Q walked over to the TV and tapped it once. The screen changed to show a random episode of Star Trek. “The quick explanation is, I’m looking for someone with the right knowledge of the universe, with the ambition to change things and ability to thrive once I drop them off there. Now, perhaps your knowledge could use a top up, but I think you’ll do just fine. Of course, you’ll get a bit of help, curiosity of moi. I’ll make some slight, only beneficial changes, of course. Normal humans are so boring to watch, after all. So, how’s it sound? Fun, right?”

Fuck yeah, it did! Except, all I could do was open and close my mouth stupidly, nodding slowly. This was every sci-fi nerd’s dream, and though Star Trek wouldn’t have been my first choice, it was still pretty fucking good! Think of all the things I could do, the people I could meet! The ladies I could seduce into bed! I’d be crazy not to say yes, but then I remembered my dad, who stood completely silent behind me. I’d be leaving him behind…

“Just me?” I asked tentatively. “Can’t you bring my dad as well?”

“I could,” said Q, raising my hopes before ruthlessly knocking them back down. “But I won’t. In my experience, things are more entertaining when the parents aren’t around to get in the way.”

Well, that was it then, wasn’t it? How could I leave my dad here alone?

“Lorenzo.” I turned to my dad’s voice. He never called me by my full name, unless we were talking about something really serious. I guess this would count, and I could see by his face that this was the most serious I’d ever seen him.

“Dad?”

“You have to say yes,” he told me. No room for argument, yet I still tried.

“But you’ll be left here all alone. I can’t do that to you…”

“Better me than you, Son.” That struck me silent, and he went on. “Look, we both know I don’t have long left—”

“Don’t say that—”

“It’s the truth, Kid. No point dancing around it,” he said, interrupting my interruption. “This cancer’s kicking my ass … it hurts to breathe, but I’ve fought through it for you. I’m scared, Son — not of dying, but for you, and what you’ll do after I lose this battle. But this … this offer is both our dreams. Please, don’t throw it away because of me. I’m beggin’ you. I can’t think of anythin’ better than knowing you’re out there, exploring the impossible, when I finally close my eyes and rest.”

Tears cascaded down my face. I surged forward, wrapping my dad in the strongest hug ever. He returned it just as hard, his body forgetting the weakness caused by his cancer, just for that moment.

“I love you, Dad…”

“I love you too, Kid,” he said, patting my back. “I love you too… Now, go live out both our dreams, and have a few space battles for me, will yeh?”

“I will. I promise,” I told him, pulling back and wiping my eyes, smiling all the while.

I turned to face Q, finding him standing there patiently. What was time to a multi-dimensional deity anyway? He offered me his hand, no need to speak. With one last look at my dad, who smiled wide and nodded with wet eyes of his own, I grasped it. Everything went white, and it felt like I was being squashed and stretched at the same time.

In that moment, I thought about everything that I was leaving behind, not just my dad, but also my friends and the world as I knew it. My mind wandered to Holly, who I’d planned to meet the following day after school. What would everyone’s reaction be to my disappearance? What would my dad tell people? Or would Q fabricate something? Who knows. It wasn’t my problem anymore.

Everything around me suddenly became a myriad of colours, all spinning around me. It made me dizzy in an instant, and closing my eyes didn’t help. Less than ten seconds later, everything began to fade to black — I was passing out, but I was too excited to care. The next time I opened my eyes, I’d be starting my new adventure.

{- Z -}

Q

Q appeared in a flash aboard the Enterprise, in one of the empty crew accommodations. Whilst he was smiling at first, this quickly turned into a frown as he spun around, finding himself alone in the room.

That wasn’t right, the kid should’ve been there, too. But Lorenzo was nowhere in sight. Giving his head scratch, Q proceeded to dig his hands into his pockets, out-turning them, as if hoping to find the kid inside.

They were empty.

“Well, damn it,” Q said aloud, looking as annoyed as he sounded. “I knew I shouldn’t have watched that bloody show. Must’ve dropped the kid in another universe on the way here.”

With a groan, and then a shrug, Q disappeared again, off to select another guy or girl to fulfil his project. It was too much a pain and waste of time to search the multiverse for wherever he accidentally dropped Lorenzo.

The kid would be fine with the benefits Q had given him. He was almost sure of that. Of course, they’d adjust depending on where Lorenzo ended up… But it would be ffffiiiinnnneeee…

{- Z -}

Lorenzo

When I blinked awake, it was to a momentary state of confusion before I remembered what happened. My heart sped up and excitement overwhelmed me as I stood, but I found myself in pitch black darkness, and seemingly alone. There wasn’t a single sound, except for my own breathing.

“Q?” I called out, receiving no answer. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

I wonder where I’ve been dropped off? Could it be my own spaceship? Waiting for me to start it?

Lights suddenly came to life, so bright that they blinded me and forced me to shield my eyes. I could hear things turning on around me as I tried to adjust, and when I finally managed to, what I found was most definitely not what I expected.

Right in front of me, large and circular, was an honest to God Stargate. Not the normal one either, but the Pegasus variant of the ancient device — big, blue, and more electronic-looking. I stumbled backwards in shock, eyes roaming around the place I found myself in. The architecture was unmistakable, as was the room itself. I’d only seen it hundreds of times before.

“I’m in Atlantis,” I gasped.

I was in the lost city of the Ancients.

Chapter Text

Lorenzo

“Q! I KNOW YOU’RE THERE! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!”

My shouts echoed off the cold, metal walls of Atlantis’s central tower. Or as I should rather say, formerly cold, since the city’s life support was coming online, bringing with it much needed warmth. Good thing there was already plenty of oxygen readily available, what with no one having been here to use it.

I waited, listening for anything, but the same as my previous shouts, this one also yielded no response. That didn’t make me stop, though. Q had to be here somewhere, watching me — watching his so-called ‘project’. Well, I’d make sure it was a boring watch until he showed himself and explained why I was on Atlantis!

I thought Q was supposed to be taking me to Star Trek, to a spaceship or something, hopefully even the Enterprise itself. Then why was I here? What the hell was going on? So many questions bounced painfully around my head.

For one, was I just simply on Atlantis, or was I in Stargate? As in, the Stargate universe. That would’ve been a pretty big mistake for a god-being to make. Or did Q lie to me? But what reason would he have to do so? I certainly couldn’t think of any.

Honestly, I couldn’t see a downside if this really was the case. I much preferred Stargate, after all. I knew a hell of a lot more about it than Star Trek. And what a place to start — Atlantis! There were so many resources in the Pegasus galaxy that I knew how to get. Whether it would be easy though was another matter.

On the other hand, if I was in the Star Trek universe, then I’d still been given a massive, if somewhat limited, advantage. Q did say he’d be giving me some — what exactly did he say — beneficial changes? The entire city of Atlantis was a pretty big fucking benefit. Imagine what the technology in this place could do to the Star Trek universe? To name one, hyperspace engines far exceeding anything currently made in Star Trek.

But alongside the positives of that scenario came the negatives. One of the problems — how was I going to power the city? Not only that, but if this Stargate was the only one in existence, then it was useless until more could be made, if I could even get my hands on more Naquadah.

I stared up at Atlantis’s Stargate, in disbelief that I’d just called such a technological marvel useless. That had to be amount to blasphemy. My eyes then focused past the device onto the coloured windows behind it, widening to the size of dinner plates. I turned and sprinted up the main steps, more lights turning on beneath my feet as I climbed, and then ran out onto the balcony.

“Oh, fuck…” I gasped, not looking out at what was surely the beautiful sight of the city, but rather up towards the sky. A sky that I currently could not see.

How had I forgotten this? I blamed Q for distracting me, for confusing me. How else could I have forgotten that Atlantis might’ve been under a fucking ocean. The endless expanse of water was held back only by the city’s great shield. My earlier concerns felt trivial in comparison to this. It wouldn’t matter what universe I was in if the shield gave out and I drowned!

Running back inside, heart trying to beat itself out of my chest, I found myself in the control room, with all the computer consoles covered by sheets. Think, Enzo, think! I very much doubted that Q left me with one, let alone three, fully functional ZPMs, so I was on the clock. Who knows how long I had until the shield gave out. Unless… Unless Janus’s fail-safe was in place, which would cause the city to rise to the surface once the power failed. But I wasn’t about to sit here and assume it was when my life was on the line.

“There has to be a way to check!” I told myself, standing before one of the consoles, ripping off its covering. It came alive with a simple touch, a screen appearing with pages of Ancient writing. Shockingly, I could read it as if it was English. Q must’ve done more than put me in Atlantis. This had to be one of his ‘benefits’. He gave me the knowledge of how to read Ancient, as well as the ATA gene, if I had to hazard a guess. What else would’ve caused the console to respond to me so readily?

My brain froze for a moment. What else had the god-being done to me?

That was a concern for later. Right now, I needed to check something, recalling everything I could about the episode in which the expedition team found out about their alternate selves, and how they died coming to Atlantis. As if responding to my thoughts, which it very well might’ve been, the computer displayed new information, a map with things highlighted in clusters across the city. Stasis chambers, I realised, or something told me. I don’t know how, but I just knew. With another thought the map changed, now displaying just one chamber; the only one that was currently active.

I cheered, “YES!”

Asking the computer for instructions on how to reach the stasis chamber, I set off to the lab it was located in, journeying through Atlantis for the first time. It was surreal, walking through somewhere that had been mere fantasy to me less than an hour ago.

Going down stairs and across corridors, it didn’t take me long to arrive at the lab, swiping the door control panel to reveal what was inside. The most prominent thing being the stasis chamber itself, lit up and slowly reviving the old, withered woman held within it. Dr. Elizabeth Weir — looking exactly the same as she did in the show.

I couldn’t help it; I punched the air in triumph, despite having done nothing myself. But that didn’t matter. What did matter was the presence of this alternate Weir, and what that meant. The only way she could’ve been here was if she went back in time, like she did in the show. There, she’d have met Janus, who would’ve helped her save her expedition and the city when the final ZPM fails.

With my arrival though, not mattering which universe I was in, the expedition may never come to the city. But that didn’t matter because in one timeline, they already had. The result was in front of me, frozen for the moment but thawing.

It was difficult to understand, but time travel, at least in the Stargate universe, seemed to work in a specific way. Whoever went back in time was left unaffected by the changes they make. The future as they know it may change, maybe even resulting in them never being born, but the time-traveller would still exist in the new timeline as a sort of ‘time remnant’ of their original timeline.

That’s what this Elizabeth Weir was, a remnant of her own timeline.

Basically, because she was here, I wasn’t going to drown!

Finally able to stop and take a breath, I sat on the floor in front of the stasis chamber, idly watching it coax the old Weir back to the land of the living. She was in for a shock, that was sure. Expecting to be greeted by her expedition, young, healthy, and alive but instead, here I was, at the whim of a god’s ‘project’.

It occurred to me just how truly weird it must be for Weir, because from her point of view, it must’ve been barely hours since she last spoke with Janus 10’000 years ago, and barely a few days, I suppose, since her alternate expedition arrived in the city. But not just that; each time she wakes, despite it feeling likes mere hours, her body would’ve drastically aged. That had to be an unpleasant feeling.

Stasis tech was really scary. I couldn’t imagine it, being suspended in time, unaware of how the universe changed around me as my body decayed. I recall there were virtual reality systems built into the Aurora-Class-Battleships, or one of them, but even then, the whole premise made me shudder.

Directing my mind to less disturbing topics as I waited, the only appropriate thing to start thinking about was what I was going to do next. If I was in Star Trek, the only thing I really could do was take a puddle jumper and see what planet I was on, then go from there. But If I was in Stargate, which I’ll assume I was until proven otherwise (please let it be true), I had much more options.

My first concern should be getting Atlantis powered, and without any nifty Naquadah generators available, there was only one way to do that. Find a ZPM. It just so happened, I knew exactly where and how to get one. This was one of the reasons I was waiting for Weir to thaw out, to get the list of Stargate addresses she held. One of which would take me to the planet where the Brotherhood had been, and where a fully charged ZPM was hidden.

It always annoyed the fuck out of me how the expedition let that ZPM get taken from them. I understand they didn’t have much choice at that moment, but on such an important mission, why did they send just one team to the planet? And without any puddle jumpers as support, too. That was literal height of stupidity.

Now, I didn’t have anyone to provide me such support, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let that ZPM go. It was mine; it just didn’t know it yet.

After that, well, there were a lot of plans forming inside my head. Almost too many to keep track of, but my mind was doing a remarkable job of doing so. There were so many resources just sat out there in the Pegasus galaxy, waiting for me to put them to good use. But there was also the Milky Way, which held its own treasures, especially Earth. Getting there had to be a priority, too.

I couldn’t afford to forget the dangers, though. An early encounter with the Wraith was bound to end in disaster. I simply wasn’t ready to fight them. The same went for the Goa’uld. The last thing I wanted was for one of those snakes to find my body appealing and burrow itself into my head. But one day, maybe a couple of years from now — I’m not sure of an appropriate timeline — I’d take a fight to them both the likes of which they’d never seen.

A series of rapid beeps and other noises attracted my attention, coming from the stasis chamber. It was finished, and the ice, or ice-like substance surrounding Weir was receding. I managed to catch her before she fell, cradling her limp form and carefully laying her down.

She looked dead, but I checked and she was breathing. I knew that would been the case, but it was nice to know for sure. A few minutes later, her eyes sluggishly opened, a milky-white colour due to her body’s age.

“Hello,” I said, trying to show my most friendly smile. She looked back at me with clear confusion, her wrinkled face scrunching up even more. Then she tried to look around and even sit up, but I was quick to push her back down. “Hey, hey. Take it easy,” I told her. “You’ve been asleep for a very long time.”

About 3’333 years if I was doing the maths right.

Weir stared at me, opening her mouth to try speak, but no words came out. I waited patiently, letting the effects of the stasis wear off.

“W-Who are … you?” she finally managed to ask.

“I’m Enzo, or if you want my full name, it’s Lorenzo Eldridge. You don’t need to tell me yours. I already know who you are, Dr. Elizabeth Weir.”

Despite my warm outward appearance, Weir was clearly unnerved by my apparent knowledge of her. She’d likely already gone over all her expedition members in her head, confirming that I wasn’t one of them. There was also the fact I was obviously much too young to have been taken to Atlantis from Earth.

“H-How do—”

“That doesn’t matter right now,” I interrupted, assuming she was asking how I knew who she was. “You need to rest for a bit, gather your strength.”

The woman looked seconds away from dying, and without the medicine and professional care she received in the show, I doubted she would last long. I’d take her to the infirmary, if I had any idea where it was, but even then, I had no clue how to work any of the machines, or if they’d be able to help.

But Weir wasn’t going to listen to me, ignoring my words to try and look around again. The first thing she noticed was the window, which I admittedly hadn’t noticed when I entered the lab. Through it, it was clear to see that the city was still on the ocean floor.

“It didn’t work…” she said with despair.

I said, “If you mean the fail-safe Janus put in — yes, I know about you and Janus. That’s actually why I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to check that the fail-safe was actually put in place. I’m assuming it was.”

“The city … it was supposed … to rise … once—”

“Once the final ZPM’s power was completely depleted, or near it.” Relief washed over me again, hearing confirmation that the fail-safe existed. “I’m confident it still will,” I told her. “The power has yet to reach such a critical point to trigger the fail-safe mechanism.”

“Where is … Colonel Sumner … and Major Shepard?” she next asked me.

I winced. Here we were, broaching the difficult subject. I’d always hated being the bearer of bad news. “They’re not here… I’m afraid we’re the only two people on Atlantis.”

“But … But the Expedition…” She was becoming distressed. “Where is everyone? Where … am I?”

That would be a confusing question if I didn’t know she meant her younger self. “On Earth, I imagine. Everyone, including the younger you, is probably doing whatever they were doing before they were invited to the Expedition. Heck, I don’t even know if the Stargate Program has started yet. I’m a bit lost on what year it is,” I added sheepishly. The original movie was set in 1996, so the only way to know for sure where I was in the timeline was to reach Earth. I could guess by finding other things out, but this would be the best way.

I knew that I was massively confusing Weir, throwing about my knowledge without care or concern. I didn’t see a problem with it. She’d be dead soon; she’d given herself a death sentence the moment she entered that stasis chamber for the first time. A valiant, noble one for sure, but a death sentence all the same.

Said confusion finally proved too much for Weir. “How do you … know me? How do you know … about Earth, and the … Stargate Program?”

I paused to consider what to say. I could tell her the entire truth, of how this universe was nothing more than a TV show in my old world, and about Q’s offer. But what would that do? Except, create more questions that I honestly couldn’t be bothered answering. Perhaps, I could tell her a partial truth, just enough to satisfy her.

“It might be hard to believe,” I started, “but I’m from a different reality. A parallel universe. I know a lot about the Stargate and Earth. You see, in my universe — before I got sent here — the year was 2025.”

Leaving it ambiguous on purpose, I let Weir fill out the rest with her own assumptions. It’s true that I know a lot about the Stargate and Earth, I just didn’t say how. Let her think it’s because everything went public or something, or I was involved for a different reason.

“Sent?” she eventually said. “Who … sent you?”

“A powerful being,” I answered.

“An … Ascended?”

Could Q be considered an ascended being? Might it offend him to be labelled as such when he was so much more?

“Something like that,” I told her, glancing around, checking to see if Q was about to smite me. “But I’d wager he’s quite a bit stronger than the Others.”

That might also explain why the Ascended hadn’t done anything or paid me a visit upon my arrival, if I was in Stargate universe that is. Surely, one of them would’ve done so, despite their stupid non-interference rule. My sudden appearance could change everything. Had Q scared them all into submission? Forced them to let his project run without interference? I could see the guy doing that.

Purpose suddenly flashed across Weir’s face. She shakily raised her left hand, uncurling her stiff fist with difficulty to show me a familiar piece of paper. I took it and unfolded it, finding the Stargate addresses she’d been given by Janus. One of these was the planet with the Brotherhood’s ZPM. Correction — my ZPM.

“These gate addresses—”

“I already know,” I interrupted yet again. It was rude, I know, but it helped sell my ‘from the future’ thing. Weir took it in stride.

“You must find … a ZPM,” she gasped, speaking becoming harder for her. “Dial Earth … Tell … Tell them … about Atlantis… Bring them … here…”

She waited for me to say something; to say I’d do it. She looked at me with such hope, but I remained silent. That request wasn’t as easy as she made it sound. Neither was it something I necessarily wanted to do. It made me feel ashamed, forcing me to avert my eyes from the woman who had sacrificed her life to bring humanity to Atlantis, but if I had a choice, they’d never get to this city.

I had my reasons.

Q brought me here, and me alone. He expected me to play out his project, to use my knowledge to change things. My dad… He’d said goodbye, letting me go thinking I’d be on a great adventure, living out our shared dreams. How was I supposed to do either of this by surrendering this city, and by extension myself, to the governments of Earth? They’d lock me up, interrogating me endlessly, only bringing me out every so often like some fucking tool to be used at their whims.

No, thank you!

But more than this, it would save millions of lives in the Pegasus galaxy. The Expedition had done a lot of good, which I would try my best to replicate, but they’d also done a lot more bad. Waking all the Wraith at once, unleashing the Asuran Replicators, and let’s not forget Michael and the Hoffan drug. Their repeated stupidity and negligence killed so many people.

I wasn’t keen on giving the Expedition — even with my potential help and guidance — the chance to fuck up the Pegasus galaxy all over again. If I really was in the Stargate universe anyway.

Not knowing for sure which universe I’m in was far past beginning to piss me off. The very next thing I’d do is dial the Stargate and put an end to this stupid mystery. If it connects, the odds are I’m in the Stargate universe, unless Q put Stargates all over Star Trek, which I found unlikely.

“Please…” Weir spoke again, breaking the silence my hesitation had caused. “You can help … so many people…”

“And I will,” I said with stern confidence. “But it won’t be with the Expedition here, in control of Atlantis.”

“What? Why…?”

I sighed heavily. “If you knew all I did — what would happen in the future if they came here — then you’d understand why.”

“But you can help them … not make the same mistakes,” she stated hotly, conviction in her voice, the same as I’d seen in the show so many times before. That  might’ve worked then, but it didn’t change my mind here.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t risk it,” I said sadly. “I won’t be surrendering this city to anyone. Not to the Wraith, and not to Earth.”

Weir stared at me a while longer, before turning to stare out of the window, at the city. I couldn’t blame her; I wouldn’t have been able to look at me either, but it had to be this way. Call it arrogance, but I could do so much better than the people from Earth. This didn’t mean I wouldn’t help them at some point, when I got to the Milky Way galaxy, but it wouldn’t be by giving them access to Atlantis.

“I wasted my life for nothing…” I heard Weir say quietly, with defeat. Almost the exact moment she did, her health visibly deteriorated. The distress I’d caused her with my statements had quickened her end.

“It wasn’t wasted,” I told her, but she was unlikely to believe me. Still, I went on, more for my own conscience than anything else. “Because you saved Atlantis, I’m going to be able to help countless people in both the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxies. I promise, I’ll fight both the Wraith and the Goa’uld, and work to free both galaxies from their cruel tyranny. Your sacrifice will save more people than you could possibly know, Dr. Weir, and I’ll be eternally grateful to you for that.”

Weir turned back to me, tears in her milky eyes. “Then promise me … you’ll consider … letting us come … to Atlantis… please…”

The gall of this woman to ask me for that, when I’d just told her I wouldn’t. I was seeing first hand why she was picked to lead the Expedition. Unwilling to accept defeat, stubborn to the very end. It made me smile.

“I promise I’ll think about it,” I told her.

Did this change any of my reasoning? No, it didn’t, but I guess there was no harm in thinking about it some more. In granting this dying hero her last request. Who knows? Maybe I could get the galaxy into a position where I could allow some people, maybe even the young Elizabeth Weir, to come to Atlantis.

The future was uncertain, even more so with my being here.

Weir managed a weak smile. “Thank you…”

Her eyes closed and her breathing slowed to a gentle stop. Despite knowing that I couldn’t have done anything to change this outcome, it was sad watching her die. My mind drifted, wondering if this is how it would’ve been watching my dad go. I’d never know for certain, I guess. But I couldn’t decide if that was a blessing or a curse.

Wiping tears away, I stood with Weir’s list of Stargate addresses in hand. There were things I needed to do if I was going to be able to keep my promises. Starting with a walk back up to the Stargate.

It was time to find out for sure what fucking universe Q dropped me into.

Chapter Text

Lorenzo

KAWOOSH!

The Stargate’s unstable vortex reached out and consumed the body of old Elizabeth Weir. It left nothing behind, yet I continued to stare at the spot she’d been with sad eyes, looking down from the dialling device.

This was the least I could do for her, sending her off in what seemed like the most appropriate way. It didn’t take away from the fact she deserved better, to have a proper funeral surrounded by those she called friends. Instead, she got me -  a random guy whose presence would, or had already derailed the timeline and almost everything she sacrificed her life for.

I felt ashamed to be the cause of that, but I didn’t regret it.

Weir was someone who rightfully deserved my respect, and she had it for what she would’ve done in the canon timeline. She would’ve taken control of what many would’ve considered a doomed mission, and done her best in the most difficult of circumstances. But personally, no matter the respect she earned, I didn’t think she was a great leader.

She had her good times, sure, but to me, they didn’t balance out the number of horrible decisions she made. Some that resulted in thousands upon thousands of people dying, like how she handled the Michael situation. He should’ve been shot the moment he found out the truth, yet Weir let that stupid experiment continue to disastrous results.

It might be arrogant for me to think this, but I wouldn’t make the same mistakes. I’d try my best not to, anyway. In the end, only the future could tell.

Pressing the middle dialling button again, the Stargate disengaged and the mesmerising, hypnotic surface of the wormhole disappeared. I glanced down at the boxes I’d stacked to position Weir’s body into the path of the vortex, knowing I’d need to clear what remained of them away, but I couldn’t be bothered right then. What I did instead was walk out onto the balcony.

The sight was unbelievable, but it was somewhat dampened by the somber atmosphere that had descended over the city since I truly became the last person here. I was alone, if the trapped, energy-sucking entity in a lab somewhere didn’t count, as well as whatever else was locked away in the bowels of Atlantis. The idea remained the same; I was by myself, and it was more than a bit eerie.

The silence bothered me the most. I hadn’t thought about it before, but I was rarely without company; I was a social person, but the city was severely lacking in the social aspect.

At least I’d confirmed for the most part what universe I was in. Weir’s sendoff had been the third time I’d successfully dialled the Stargate, and all to different locations. Unless Q had given the planets in Star Trek their own Stargates, and made sure that the addresses matched up, I could confidently assume I was in the Stargate universe. But why?

I’d thought long and hard, but I still couldn’t figure out why Q dropped me here instead of Star Trek. Honestly, I couldn’t begin to try and imagine the inner-workings of the god-being’s mind, but surely there had to be a reason. Had he seen that I knew this universe better, and decided to send me here instead thinking it would make his project better? Or was this some kind of mistake? Did beings like Q even make mistakes?

It was a mystery, and I had a feeling it would remain that way since Q hadn’t been answering any of my shouts. Either he wasn’t here, or couldn’t be bothered to. I was leaning towards the latter.

I don’t know why I was so strung up on it. I wasn’t really even annoyed. This was the best thing that could’ve happened. I knew the Stargate universe much better, massively preferring it over Star Trek. I knew most of the enemies I would have, their strengths and weaknesses, but I also knew of the allies I could make.

The Asgard immediately came to mind. They’d quite readily helped Earth whenever they could, and I’d like to think they’d do the same for me, and vice versa. Although I didn’t know the specific sciences as of yet, I knew the basics of how to help rid them of their replicator problem, and then once I had learned enough, I’d try help fix their genetics issue, too. Those grey little miracle workers weren’t going to die so easily on my watch.

I stared out across the city, most of which was dark and unpowered, and let my mind wander further. It inevitably wandered to my dad. This hadn’t been the first time, but with the panic about drowning and all that, this was first opportunity I’d had to properly take a breather.

What was he doing right now? Was he sitting in his chair, watching Star Trek on the TV whilst imagining what I was doing in said universe. I let out a short laugh, wishing I could tell him that he’d got the wrong show.

What I wouldn’t give to be able to speak to him…

That’s when I remembered something I’d ignored til then, digging into my pocket and taking out my smartphone. Q had taken me as I was, clothes and everything on my person, meaning I still had it. He likely didn’t think such an inferior piece of tech would matter, which honestly, it wouldn’t. I could build a much better phone with the tech in Atlantis, but that wasn’t the point.

I went to my contacts. Here was a list of people I’d left behind, my friends that I’d never see again, but it was my dad’s contact that I stopped on, clicking call before I even realised I’d done it.

It didn’t work, of course, but I found myself speaking anyway.

“Hey, Dad,” A small smile curled on my lips. “I hope you’re alright… hanging in there, and all that… Me? I’m good — no, I’m great. I’m really great, Dad.” I paused, sighing deeply. “I … I know you won’t ever hear this, Dad, but I wanted to tell you it worked. It wasn’t some crazy dream. I’m really in another universe! Just not the one we’d thought it’d be, but don’t worry, this is better. I’m in Stargate. More accurately, I’m in Atlantis right now, looking out over the city… And let me tell you, it’s incredible, Dad… Seeing it in person is just … it’s indescribable… But all I can think about is how I wish you were here to see it with me…”

I fell silent, not sure what else to say. This was stupid, pointless. I knew that, but that didn’t stop it from making me feel better. Being able to close my eyes and imagine I was actually talking to my dad. Hearing his deep, gruff voice on the other side of the line.

“There’s so much to do, Dad. I’m excited, but at the same time, I’m so scared... But I won’t let that get in the way. I can imagine what you’d be telling me right now, ‘then stop wastin’ your time talkin’ to me and get at it’. You’d be right, of course, like you always are. And that’s exactly what I’m going to go do! I just wanted to say … I love you, Dad.”

It took me another few minutes to end the call and put my phone away, but I felt much better than I did before. My energy was renewed, as was my excitement for everything coming in my new future.

My multitude of plans surged to the forefront of my mind, a lot of them no more than ideas or theories at that point, as well as reminders of thing’s I’d need to do. These were mostly things I’d need to do in place of the Expedition; the good they would’ve done but would now never get the chance to.

An example being the need to visit that planet of children killing themselves once they reached 25 years of age. Jeez, I couldn’t imagine my life ending in just 7 years. I needed to stop that bullshit sacrifice from continuing.

There were also other things, like potentially saving the Runners being hunted by the Wraith throughout the Pegasus galaxy, though I didn’t know whether Ronon would be one of them at this point. We never heard about it in the show, but the Expedition should’ve saved the other runners. They’d figured out how to track them, so it should’ve been easy.

But first, I needed to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to be able to help. That applied to everything I planned to do.

They often joked about it on the show, but McKay really had been a miracle worker, often pulling solutions out of his ass to save the day. I know the show was written like that on purpose, but it didn’t make the ideas any less incredible, and they mostly came from his character. Or he was the one to make them a reality. The writers did try to make it seem less repetitive by having McKay make mistakes, most often because of his ego, like the time he destroyed most of a solar system. But the fact remained.

If I was to succeed, I needed to become even smarter than McKay, as well as Sam Carter and anyone else who could be considered a genius in this universe. And there were quite a lot of those. Yeah, looking at those little grey miracle workers again.

That’s why I found myself standing at one of the computer consoles in the command room, the same one I’d used before. It was curiosity that took me there at that moment, a theory bouncing around my head that I wanted to figure out.

Q had definitely made some changes to me. He’d given me the ATA gene for one, the console coming alive again as I touched it, as well as the ability to understand the Ancient’s language, which covered the screen in front of me. But what else had he done?

“Bring up hyperdrive theory and calculations,” I told the console.

I don’t know whether it was my words or my thoughts that did it, but the requested information appeared. Or I assumed that’s what was being displayed on the screen. I tried reading it but made absolutely no headway. It was like showing a 10-year-old rocket science, in which I was the 10-year-old. I could see that it was written in a language I knew, but I couldn’t hope to understand what any of it meant.

“OK, something simpler…” I thought aloud, scratching my chin. “Show me basic information about… atoms.”

Science had never been my strong suit in school, and the stuff now being displayed to me was far beyond anything Mrs. Green tried to teach. But strangely, the more I read, the more I began to actually understand. Stuff just started to make sense, and before I knew it, I’d been reading for an hour.

That all but confirmed my theory then — Q had done more to me than I currently knew. My mind clearly worked better than before. I was a lot smarter, for one.

It made sense. Q would find it pretty boring if I was blundering about with no idea how to do anything. But the real question — had he turned me into a full-fledged Ancient? A true Lantean? Maybe something more? The episode that McKay got super powers popped to mind. It’d be pretty amazing if I could do anything like that.

Fingers twitching in anticipation, I decided to give it a go. I raised my hand towards one of the other consoles that had a sheet still covering it. I didn’t know how to do it, or if I could, but I tried to use telekinesis to lift the sheet up, like McKay had lifted Carson. After a few minutes of failure, in which I was glad no one was there to see me looking so stupid, I gave up.

“No telekinesis then,” I said sadly.

For now, at least, I added silently.

Looks like I’d have to discover what Q had done to me as I went, because there were more immediate tasks that I needed to complete. The main of which was to get a ZPM to power Atlantis. I took out the list of Stargate addresses Weir had given me. There were five in total, but the show only ever showed the team visiting one of the planets, presumably because it was the only one which contained anything of value. I was talking about the Brotherhood planet, of course.

The planet’s name escaped me, but I knew it had a full — or very nearly full — ZPM hidden on it. The puzzle to find it was easy as well, and because of my unique knowledge, I knew some shortcuts. One problem… I didn’t know which address on the list was said planet. All I could do was guess and hope that none of the gates on the other side were space-gates. They shouldn’t be, not if the addresses were supposed to lead to outposts.

How annoying would it have been for the Lantean’s to need a puddle jumper every time they travelled to each location?

Speaking of puddle jumpers, the solution was obviously to take one, but beyond a short journey up to gawk at the real-life spaceships, I hadn’t a clue of how to fly one. This didn’t seem like the right time to learn, either. No, I’d need to go on foot for now, but that didn’t mean I was going to go empty handed. There were preparations to be had.

For one, a quick search of the dialling database got me the gate address for Atlantis, which I memorised. I couldn’t think of anything more embarrassing than not being able to get back to the city because I didn’t know the address. For now, I’d have to hope that no one waltzed in whilst I was gone, but the odds of that were thankfully very low. Not altogether impossible, but highly unlikely.

Just to be safe, I went down to the area in front of the Stargate, shoving away the boxes still stacked there. I visualised what I wanted and the city responded; a console raised out of the floor. It was Atlantis’s command control terminal. The show only used it once, I think, when the Lantean’s returned to Atlantis for that brief time. I guess being able to use it proved that I was indeed a Lantean now.

I placed my hand on the scanner and locked out control of the city’s systems so that only my biometrics could work anything. That should be enough to secure the city whilst I was gone. The only ones capable of disarming that fast enough were the Asuran replicators, and the living Lanteans currently trapped aboard the Tria warship, but they were in the intergalactic void.

I wouldn’t be attempting to contact either of them anytime soon. Opening the can of worms that were the replicators was never a good idea, at least until I was prepared, and I didn’t want to deal with the arrogance of the Lanteans aboard the Tria. They’d just do as they did in the show and try to take Atlantis for themselves. Like hell I was going to let that happen.

With this precaution done, it was time to go on a sort of shopping spree, except without the need to pay anything. The best type of shopping spree if you ask me.

First item, one of those Lantean hand scanners, or life signs detector. Whatever their official name was. At the moment, I knew of only one place where to get one, and that meant a quick trip back up to the puddle jumper bay. A few minutes later, with my new and first piece of advanced tech, I moved onto the next item on my mental list.

I wanted to find that amazing, and extremely under-utilised personal shield McKay messed about with in the third episode of the show. It had to be somewhere close to the central tower, what with how soon he found it, and after a search that was longer than I would’ve liked, I finally stumbled upon the correct lab. The device was tiny, smaller than my hand, but it glowed green when I put it on, and the personal shield came to life around me.

“Ha ha!” I slapped myself across the face, but the shield flared and I felt nothing. I don’t know why the Expedition never looked into creating more of these; likely because it would’ve made them too strong. Where would the sense of danger be if everyone had shields?

I tried to find another, a spare, but unfortunately there was only the one. The rest must’ve been used during the war. I did know of one more, though, but I didn’t have time to track down Lucius to see if he had it yet.

Moving onto the last thing I needed — a weapon.

There had to be some weapons lying around. I did seem to recall a stupid, dildo shaped stun-gun that only appeared once, in that virtual reality aboard the Aurora. Hopefully, I’d be able to find something a bit better than that. But after a while of mindless searching, I still hadn’t found anything. I’d learned more of the city’s layout at least, but even I was beginning to get sick of seeing Atlantis’s corridors.

What I ended up doing was consulting the database to find an armoury, which then that I thought about it, I could’ve also done before looking for the shield. A frustrating lesson learnt.

Twenty minutes later, I stood scratching my head inside said armoury. Again, I found myself questioning why the Expedition didn’t make use of the weapons I stood looking at. Familiarity with their own equipment, I suppose. The P90 was a fantastic gun, to be fair. But I’d happily take these energy weapons.

If I had a choice, I’d take a pair of those particle magnums that Ronon and the Travelers used, as all Stargate fans would. But these Lantean designed hand cannons would suffice until then. They were actually the same ones used by the Asuran replicators, silver and boxy in shape, which made sense. The Asuran’s would’ve copied them, as they did all things Lantean.

Messing about with one, I discovered they had no physical safety, but they’d only shoot if I really wanted them to. Like, I could pull the trigger, but if I didn’t want it to shoot, it wouldn’t. Smart, I guess, but needlessly convoluted when a simple safety would’ve worked fine. They also had two modes — stun and kill. Both shots came out as a fast, compact beam of green light, with the kill mode making a decent sized hole in the wall of the armoury.

Oops. I’d get around to fixing that… at some point… when I wasn’t busy picturing what the same attack would do against a person or a Wraith.

Leaving the armoury not long after that, I headed back up to the control room with a new belt around my waist, and two Lantean hand cannons strapped to it. The inspiration being one of my favourite characters from Star Wars, the legendary Captain Rex, whose trademark weapons were dual blaster pistols. The dude was by far one of the most badass clones in existence. If I could mimic even a fraction of how awesome he was, then I’d be happy. All I needed was the armour to finish my ensemble. I wonder whether the Vanir Asgard would give me one of their armoured exoskeletons if I asked nicely?

As I stepped back into the control room, I finally felt ready for my first adventure through the Stargate. There was no mirror to check myself out in, but I was pretty sure I looked cool; tall and intimidating and all that stuff. Not on Ronon’s or Teal’c’s level yet, but I’d get there.

My stomach chose that second to rumble, and a brand new problem reared its ugly head; one that had managed to slip my mind. I didn’t have any food, or clean drinking water. I’m sure Atlantis had some complex water filtration system, but that’d need power to work. As for food, well, I hope there’s a world out there that’ll like me enough to give me some. Perhaps the planet with the Brotherhood on it would be so kind? If not, I might have to dig up the gate address for Teyla and her people. I’m pretty sure I could come up with something to trade them in return for a portion of their food. It didn’t have to be much, just enough to feed me, a single person.

Looks like my trip through the Stargate needed to happen more urgently than I already thought. But as I was about to begin dialling, alarms suddenly blared, and the entire city began to shake. It felt like an earthquake, scaring the shit out of me before my mind helpfully supplied what was going on. I managed to stumble my way to the balcony in time to see the city breach the surface of the ocean, water falling off the shield like it would an umbrella. The city had reached critical power and Janus’s fail-safe mechanism kicked in.

I very nearly blinded myself looking up, getting reminded of just how bright the sun — or a sun, in this case — could shine. Rather than burning my eyeballs, I looked out across Atlantis, gasping at its gleaming silver buildings. If I thought the place was beautiful before, beneath the water, then this was something else.

In that moment, I felt like a king admiring his kingdom. To paraphrase a certain Disney film, all that the light touched was mine.

But it was also a reminder of what I had to live up to. For all intents and purposes, I was the last remaining Lantean. This city was proof of what my newfound species had once been capable of, and of the standards I’d need to hold myself to in everything I did going forward. Q had given me the tools I needed to do that, but it was up to me at the end of the day to follow through.

With renewed determination to complete the first of my many objectives, I returned to the dialling device. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but Janus was a genius. He made sure that the city maintained enough power to dial the Stargate even after the fail-safe kicked in. I didn’t know for how many times, though, so best not be wasteful.

I pressed the buttons, causing the musical chime-like sounds of the Stargate to ring out as each chevron locked in. Last came the central button, and then the Stargate burst life with another spine tingling KAWOOSH, spewing forth the unstable vortex before settling into the constantly shifting water-like surface I knew and loved.

I paused right in front of the gate, completing a quick double check to ensure I had everything I might need. Atlantis’s Stargate address? Check. Hand-scanner? Check. Personal Shield? Check. And last but not least, laser guns? Check.

Alright, that was everything. Or at least everything I could think of.

What are the odds the first address I chose off Weir’s list was going to be the correct one? 20% if going by the maths, having only five addresses to choose from in the first place. But I was strangely confident. That might’ve been because this was my first time ever stepping through a real-life Stargate, and my sense of logic was overwhelmed by my sense of adventure. But I was also ever the optimist.

Well, there was only one way to find out. Taking a deep breath, and with a huge smile on my face, I walked into the portal.

Chapter Text

[- Lorenzo -]

Whilst I’d like to be able to say I emerged elegantly from my first ever trip through a stargate, striding out of the portal tall and proud, the truth was I immediately stumbled and almost ate shit. It was a jarring experience, to say the least. The only thing I had to compare it to was how Q transplanted me into this universe, but where that was more like falling asleep and waking up, going through the stargate was instantaneous.

The dematerialisation is painless, thank God — in fact, it feels like nothing at all. One moment I was in Atlantis with all its sights, smells, and sounds, then the next I was some place entirely different. Imagine the chaos that’d play on a person’s senses; it was sensory whiplash. The TV show never really spoke about it, either, likely because the people using the gate would’ve gotten used to it. I guess by the same logic, the more I use the stargate, the easier it should get, which is reassuring.

After a quick check that nothing had been left behind during the trip — yeah, I know that’s impossible, but I needed to do it for sanity’s sake — I then took my first look around. The immediate good news — I hadn’t dialled a space gate; obviously, otherwise I’d already be dead. But by the fact I was indeed still breathing and found myself surrounded by lush greenery, I could confirm my first trip via the stargate was an official success.

I initially didn’t think there was anything in the immediate area other than trees, but when the stargate disengaged, a decrepit stone house was revealed on the other side. It looked old, like, I mean old old; no one must’ve lived in it for hundreds of years. A theory came to mind of why this was and I winced thinking of the last family that did reside there; how they’d probably been the first to get culled when Wraith arrived through the gate. Makes sense why no one would want to fix the house up again.

With the Wraith a constant but unpredictable threat, I couldn’t see anyone with a modicum of common sense wanting to set up right next to their planet’s stargate. They’d have no warning or chance to flee and hide when the Wraith arrived. Now that I thought about it, it’d explain why most stargates in the show were just left in the open with nothing around them, often in a field or clearing like the gate on this planet.

One place sprung to mind that didn’t follow this pattern, Sateda, and that didn’t go too well for them. Ronon’s planet would’ve been destroyed either way due to their development and population size — a veritable feast the Wraith couldn’t resist — but placing their gate inside their capital city was just asking for disaster. Darts could, and did, so easily emerge and cause havoc before anyone could react. Sateda was also a prime example that even if people did fight back, at most it would be a short-lived victory. Next time, the Wraith would come in their Cruisers and Hive ships.

There was no winning, but I planned to change that. I’m going to kick those slimy, life-sucking vampires asses and show them what a true Lantean can do. One that actually uses their brains and common sense. And none of that cloning bullshit was going to be able to save them this time.

Except for the deserted house, the only other signs of life near the stargate was a path leading into the woods. Wherever it went, foot traffic between there and the gate seemed decently common, enough to keep the path defined, which had to mean there were people around here somewhere.

Was this actually the planet with the ZPM hidden on it? Had I picked the right one on my first go? I can’t lie, that’d be awesome. But in truth, I had no idea. I remembered a lot from the show, but I’d be hard pressed to remember every single piece of scenery ever shown. What I could recall, though, was a castle the Brotherhood of Fifteen made their home. If this was the right place, hopefully it wouldn’t be far away.

I set off down the path, beginning my search and keeping one hand near one of my guns. This was a foreign planet, who knows what beasts could be prowling around. Five minutes later and I was praising my decision not to take a stuffy Puddle Jumper. The sun filtered through the canopy, raining beams of light into the otherwise dark forest. It created a real fairy tale-like atmosphere.

The air here was great, too. It was so clean and refreshing that every breath felt as if I’d taken a drink of ice-cold water. A nice change compared to Atlantis where it was impossible to avoid inhaling the saltiness of the ocean. There was no point mentioning Earth; pollution was everywhere there and some people could go their entire lives without experiencing truly fresh air. It’s sad, really.

When I heard the chirping of birds, I stopped dead in my tracks and just listened. I’d never done that before, as far as I could remember, but after being alone in the eerie silence of Atlantis, the tangible reminder there was indeed other life out there was beyond comforting. You never know what you have before it’s gone, and I’d never realised before just how much I’d become accustomed to being around people, hardly ever by myself. It was less a time thing; I hadn’t been in this universe that long, but more of the fact I couldn’t walk down the stairs to see my dad or pick up the phone and call my friends.

As if they knew they had a beholden audience, or how much I needed it, the birds seemed to follow and serenade me as I continued walking. Ten minutes passed, then another ten, and another twenty, yet I’d come upon nothing. Was there a turn I’d missed? I began to doubt whether there was anything to find out here. I was starting to think I might have to come back with a Puddle Jumper when the trees parted up ahead, and I saw it. In the distance, peaking out above the trees, a massive castle with crumbling stone walls and ruined towers.

The home of the Brotherhood.

My luck was astounding. I smiled so wide it threatened to split my face as my feet carried me quicker towards the structure.

It was only a matter of time until the ZPM was in my hands, right where it belonged.

———

“I never thought I’d live to see this day.” A young women hurried around with a pile of old books in her arms, murmuring to herself excitedly. “A living Lantean, returned as the Brotherhood foretold.”

“I told you to call me Enzo, Allina,” I said, making her blush as she realised I’d heard her. I smiled and rolled my eyes, not for the first time, and I’d barely been at the castle — correction, the monastery — for an hour.

And what a hectic hour it’s been.

My arrival hadn’t exactly gone as smoothly as I would’ve liked. I admit, walking through the front doors with visible weapons strapped to my sides wasn’t the smartest idea, and quite predictably, people panicked. Fortunately, I was able to calm everyone down before anything bad happened, doing my best to explain that I hadn’t come to hurt anyone and was here to see the Brotherhood.

A woman cautiously stepped forward from the group. I recognised her in an instant as the woman who helped Shepard’s team, Allina. She looked exactly like the actor who played her, but there was one important difference; she was clearly younger, in her mid-twenties. I also spotted the other girl from the show, Sanir, and she appeared to be my age.

This was my first clue as to where in the timeline I’d been dropped. It was hard to tell how many years younger the girls were, especially since I didn’t know exact details such as how old they were now and how old they’d been in the show; however, even without knowing this, I could guess that I was maybe around five years before the Expedition would’ve journeyed to Atlantis, possibly less.

This was perfect.

Earth would’ve already started the Stargate Program, making an enemy of the Goa’uld, but they were still nowhere near strong enough to get in my way. I never planned on stopping the Stargate Program from happening; they were bound to be useful as either allies or distractions, but there were things — items and technology — that I needed to get to before they did. It’s why one of my main priorities was to get to the Milky Way. And now I knew I had time to complete my plans.

Anyway, after my initial arrival everything went much better. Convincing Allina and her New Brotherhood, as she was calling it, that I was a Lantean was worryingly easy. I guess in a galaxy where the Wraith have stomped out most advanced civilisations, leaving the rest in hiding, that flashing around my technology as I did — my guns and the life signs detector — was enough to convince them.

It did make me wonder what Shepard’s team did, though. Did they really just turn up saying they were looking for the ZPM? Or did they do the same as I did and impress everyone with their gear?

After learning what I was and that I was here to reclaim the ZPM, or Potentia as they called it (I wasn’t going to), Allina practically threw herself to her knees (figuratively, thank Christ), worshipping the ground I walked on. According to her, a prophecy the original Brotherhood made finally came true; the ancestors had returned. I didn’t tell her it was ancestor, as in, singular and not plural. They didn’t need to know I was the only one at the moment.

I’ll be honest, it’s more than a bit awkward having a group of people staring at you like you’re some kind of saviour or god. I blame the original Brotherhood. They worshipped the Lanteans (for whatever reason), and Allina’s New Brotherhood had decided to assume the same belief.

The good thing was, there weren’t many members; a little over ten people, a mix of men and women. That small amount I could put up with. I recognised no one except Allina and Sanir, but from what I understood, they’d all come together to rebuild the Brotherhood and carry out their sacred task. Allina proved the most devoted, thus she’d been made the leader, which made even more sense as she was the one spearheading the search for the ZPM, taking us to the problem that half-near gave Allina an anxiety attack.

See, I knew that the ZPM had been lost long ago when the original Brotherhood were all culled. Big deal, so what. It didn’t matter because I knew how to find the ZPM. However, to Allina, I was the Lantean foretold to return and they’d lost the sacred treasure entrusted to them, or in her case, they’d been unable to find it again.

Allina and her group searched for years, scouring any scrolls and books they could find that belonged to the original Brotherhood in order to try piece together where they hid the ZPM. But as in the show, they’d had little success. In Allina’s eyes, they’d failed, which I suppose was true.

I’m not quite sure what everyone expected my reaction to be. They cowered as if I was going to smite them; rain down destruction the likes of which even the Wraith couldn’t dream of doing. I don’t think anyone expected me to burst out laughing. Taking Allina’s hands in my own, I reassured her it was alright, loud enough for everyone to hear. Her face went so red, though, she managed to find her voice to ask why I wasn’t mad at them.

I explained that the way I saw it, the Brotherhood had completed their task of keeping the ZPM safe from Lantean enemies. They even ensured the completion of their mission even after death. True, the ZPM hadn’t been found again, but that was an easy thing to fix since I knew how to find it.

Upon hearing the last part, it took Allina a few minutes to recover from her shock, but when she did, she grew determined. She started rounding up everything they’d learned so far, placing notes, scrolls, and books on the large wooden table in the middle of the room. It was the same room as they used in the show, and at the far end of it, there was the tapestry I knew to be hiding its own little secret, but I’d get to that soon.

“This is the last of it,” panted Allina, dropping one last heavy tome onto the table. I’d tried to say she didn’t need to gather everything, but I think this was her way of showing how hard they’d been working. “This is everything we’ve managed to find that mentions the Potentia,” she said. “I’m sorry it’s not a lot, but—”

“It’s fine,” I cut her off, flashing a smile in another attempt to show I wasn’t mad. I don’t think she believed me yet. “Thank you, Allina. I really appreciate how far you’re all willing to help me recover the ZPM.”

“Of course, I wou— I mean, we would,” she said quickly, as if the idea to do otherwise was blasphemous. “Again, I can only apologise that we haven’t been able to find it so that we could’ve returned it to you the moment you arrived.”

“Can you please stop saying sorry?” Seriously, it was getting frustrating. “It isn’t your fault that the ZPM is lost, or that the original Brotherhood were culled by the Wraith. If anything, I should be apologising for my people’s inability to destroy the Wraith. If we had, then the Brotherhood never would’ve been destroyed.”

I regretted adding that last part the moment it left my mouth. Predictably — annoyingly — Allina burst into a stream of reassurances that the Wraith’s dominance of this galaxy was no of fault of mine. Duh, I wasn’t alive back then, let alone in the same universe. I managed to listen for a few seconds before my attention wandered. It landed on Sanir.

The would-be Genii spy, collaborator, or whatever had been avoiding me for the most part, slinking about in the background unless Allina called for her help. I don’t think we’d said a word to each other after the initial introductions, but I’d noticed her suspicious looks despite her poor attempts to be discrete. If I had to guess, I’d say someone didn’t believe I was a Lantean quite like the others did. To be honest, I couldn’t blame her.

If you really thought about it, would you believe some stranger who randomly turned up one day saying they were your god? I fucking wouldn’t, unless they copied Q and pulled some real god-like bullshittery to prove it. Just flashing around fancy technology — as I had done — definitely wouldn’t convince me.

Yeah, I’d need to keep an eye on Sanir so I wouldn’t get caught out when — not if — she does something stupid. It’s too bad, because daaammmnnn, if she wasn’t fit as fuck. I’d have loved to spend some time getting up close and personal with her, minus all the clothing. Sadly, unless there was a drastic change in her view of me, I didn’t see that happening.

Allina, though… I bet she’d strip naked right there and then if I asked her to; not that I was going to do that. My sights may be set upon the beautiful brunette, but I wasn’t going to make a move until I coaxed her out of her devoted worship. In my opinion, that shit was neither fun nor kinky. I had a plan I hoped would work. I’m steadily going to try get her to view me as just another person, get her to be more comfortable with me as we spend time together finding the ZPM.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to make the mistake McKay did. I’m still a Lantean at the end of the day and the ZPM is coming back to Atlantis with me, but if I could just get Allina to view me less as a thing to worship, then I’d feel more comfortable getting her to climb into bed with me.

I could honestly kiss the Stargate show-runners for hiring so many gorgeous women to act in the show. Thanks to them, I’d have the chance to fuck so many beautiful women across the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxies.

What? At the end of the day, I’m still a horny teenager.

Dragging myself out of my lechery, I found that Allina had finally finished talking and was averting her eyes, looking bashful after defending me so insistently. Yeah, I’d have my work cut out with her, but it was worth it.

Choosing to say nothing, I went to the table with the research on it. I didn’t read any of it, only made a show of doing so, using the chance to throw a compliment towards Allina.

“I must say, you’ve done a fantastic job with what you had to go on.”

“T-That’s very kind of you to say, Enzo,” she replied, unable to catch the cute, happy stutter in her voice.

I actually did end up getting distracted on a little piece about the Brotherhood’s past members — just my curiosity getting the better of me — before I moved onto the only items of real importance on the entire table. I gently unfolded two bundles of cloth to uncover almost identical stones plates; the sixth and seventh number stones.

“These are the key,” I said. Time to flex that show knowledge of mine and further impress everyone. “There are 9 such stones, and when placed in the correct configuration, they will reveal the ZPM.”

“Yes!” Allina said loudly, practically cheering. “I had the same theory! Unfortunately, these are the only two stones we’ve been able to find. Neither have we been able to find where they must be placed. We’ve searched the entire monastery many times but still found nothing.”

Makes sense, I thought to myself. I was lucky they already had the two stones. I recall Allina said they’d only found the third stone a week before Shepard’s team showed up, so that means they wouldn’t have found another for years if I hadn’t arrived.

“You wouldn’t have,” I told Allina in response to her not finding where to place the stones. Acting smart and wise was much easier when you already knew all the answers. “The ZPM is not hidden within the monastery. That would have been too obvious, putting it in danger should my people’s enemies come looking. They would’ve surely began their search here. No, instead, it was hidden within a secret chamber that only members of the Brotherhood knew how to find. Well, them and my people who helped them plan the protections,” I added. Pure lies, but they bought it easily enough.

Allina hung onto my every word, vibrating with excitement. “Does that mean you know where this chamber is?”

“Do you have a map here anywhere?” A minute later, a map of the area was laid on the table. Allina stood at my side and Sanir hovered nearby, over my shoulder. Everyone else watched on from further away. Picking up a rather inefficient, medieval equivalent of a pencil, I sent a silent thank you to one Dr. Rodney McKay as I began to draw. Due to him, I was able to plot the dig grid whilst having only 2 of the number stones.

“I see,” said Allina. “The other stones are buried in these locations.” She looked up from the map to me. “But where is the chamber?”

I smiled. “Only 8 of the stones were buried in this grid. You already have 2 of them, leaving just another 6 to be found. The spot without a stone is where we’ll find the chamber.”

“But then you’ll still be missing the final stone,” Sanir pointed out, a hint of snark in her tone that she couldn’t keep out. She looked away when Allina sent her pointed look.

Instead of simply answering, I asked if anyone had a knife I could borrow, which one of the other members were able to provide. Sanir became noticeably tense. Did she really think I was going to stab her? Wow, she really mustn’t like me.

“Allina.” I gestured for her to join me. We ended up stood in front of the large tapestry. “This has been here since the construction of the monastery, correct?”

“Yes, it has,” she answered, reaching up to point out the different things detailed on it. “It’s the layout of the Sudarian villages before they were destroyed by the Wraith. The monastery’s walls have protected it all this time.”

I hummed in appreciation, then twirled the knife so that I was holding it reverse grip and stabbed it into the middle of the tapestry. Everyone gasped, no one more than Allina.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, displaying the first emotion towards me that wasn’t positive.

“I am retrieving…” I worked the knife, prying open the secret compartment in the tapestry. Once the cover came off, I pulled out a familiar looking stone tile and turned around to show everyone. “The remaining number stone.”

Silence.

Ha! If everyone could see their faces right now.

Everyone stared at me with their jaws dropped and eyes wide. Every few seconds, their gaze would flit to the stone in my hand, as if they couldn’t believe it was real.

Allina was the first to show signs of recovery. The outrage she’d exclaimed gone. Now, her face didn’t know whether to show awed surprise or the unbridled anticipation she had for finding the ZPM.

I smirked, tossing the stone up and catching it. “So, should we begin digging?”

Chapter Text

[- Lorenzo -]

Over the next two weeks, I received a stark reminder of a fact that hadn’t yet crossed my mind — not truly, anyway. One that going forward, I’d be forced to deal with on an almost daily basis, being as frustrating and regrettably unavoidable as it was.

Things took time.

I guess there were still aspects of my new reality that I’d hadn’t come to terms with, which was fair. This one just happened to be one of the most daunting. No longer was I just watching a TV show, where frequent time skips — sometimes days or months long, even years if needed — were used to advance plot. I had to live every second. I’d need to put in the effort to make things happen; the stuff that usually went on in the background we hardly ever got to see. And often, it was hard, exhausting work.

Canon knowledge would help a lot in some places, but not at all in others. Take finding the Brotherhood’s number stones as an example. I’d been able to plot the approximate locations, but I still needed to physically find them, and that meant spending a lot of long hours digging under a very hot sun.

At least I had help from Allina’s New Brotherhood with this particular task. It was my future goals that worried me. I was but one person. A Lantean, yes, but a brand new one with much to learn, and sometimes, the limiting factor came down to numbers. By my lonesome, I could only do things so fast. And if I was too slow, I’d lose important opportunities to make use of my knowledge.

The solution wasn’t as easy as it seemed either. ‘Can’t do it by yourself? Then just find people to help, duh.’ God, I wish it were that simple, but there were many factors at play. One of the easiest to explain — most people just wouldn’t be smart enough. I was going to foremost be working with extremely advanced tech — stuff even I didn’t understand yet — and a dumb labour force would be more detrimental than helpful.

Of course, there were the rare instances of groups who were slightly more capable than the average Pegasus galaxy citizen. But approaching these came with its own set of issues I just wasn’t prepared to deal with yet. Let’s say… the Genii. As useful as they could be, they were much more likely to try take me and what was mine to further their own agendas. Unfortunately, as I currently was, I’d be hard pressed to stop them.

Yeah… no. Screw being the slave to an arrogant military with delusions of grandeur. Fucking fools thought they could defeat the Wraith with just some puny nukes. Seriously, give the evil space vampires slightly more credit than that.

Anyway, where was I before I went on this rant? Right, the last two weeks.

To make a long and terribly boring story short — we managed to find the other 6 number stones, as I knew we would. It took a lot of digging, but the New Brotherhood were a great and much appreciated help. Splitting into groups allowed us to tackle multiple dig sites at once; even then, it still took us a bit over two weeks to finally uncover the last stone.

We’d found the last this very evening, but with the sun setting, I pushed down my eagerness to claim the ZPM in favour of returning to the monastery. No point making things needlessly harder by fumbling about in the dark. Instead, the plan was to head out in the morning: me, Allina, and Sanir.

Honestly, I wouldn’t really need the girl’s help. I could find the ZPM on my own, recalling the chamber entrance being near the surface; it should be quite easy to find, but I never bothered stating this. It was a given that Allina wanted to come; she’d spent a lot of her life working towards recovering the ZPM. How could I deprive her of this moment? And almost anywhere Allina went, Sanir tended to follow, like a bitchy, judgemental shadow.

The relationship between Sanir and I hadn’t improved a bit over the weeks, if that wasn’t already obvious. We hardly spoke, despite being in the same dig group. And she always tried excusing herself when I was around, as if I smelt dreadful or something. Bitch, I’m cleaner than any guy on this fucking planet. At least she hadn’t seemed to try anything nefarious, yet.

I’d done my best to keep a watchful eye on her, but there were too many times I just couldn’t. Sanir lived in the nearby village, after all, going back there every night whilst I stayed in monastery. It gave her plenty of opportunity to organise something behind my back, but so far, I hadn’t been ambushed or anything of the like. It might still come, mind you, but just maybe she did believe I was a Lantean the same as the others did, and she simply disliked me. I wouldn’t know why, I’m a nice guy, but I could live with it.

I just wished she didn’t have to keep acting so damn suspicious! To celebrate everything, the progress we’d made and our impending success, the New Brotherhood put together a party at the monastery. It was nice, drinks were brought from the village, but Sanir left almost immediately, citing something she needed to ‘take care of.’

Whatever. I refused to let her ruin a good time.

Overall, the party was a small thing, nothing like the nightclubs back on Earth full of screaming idiots. There wasn’t even any music, just some surprisingly strong drinks and a lot of talking. It was actually quite pleasant — more intimate. I’d not gotten to speak with many of the New Brotherhood’s members before then, and despite being a bit uncouth compared to what I was used to, they were all good people. Over the space of the night, I thanked each and every one of them for their help. It was only a bit awkward when they reacted as if that was the highest praise they could receive.

I’d come to almost forget that these people worshipped the Lanteans, mainly because I’d been so focused on Allina and getting her to move past said belief to see me as a normal guy, and finding success. After the first week, the lovely brunette at last began to come to around, assisted by seeing me getting my hands dirty each day, digging for the number stones right alongside her. The rest came down to all the talks we’d had about anything and everything.

Not long after we began conversing like friends should, I started to step up my flirting game, sneaking little stuff in here and there; how her hair looked pretty, or that I loved the way her eyes lit up when she talked about something she was interested in — stuff like that. It helped really that Allina had a lot about her worth complimenting — smart, passionate, beautiful — the list went on. I came to really enjoy reducing her to a blushing mess, and just being around her as a whole.

The only thing that stopped us from going further was the focus on the mission. At all times, the ZPM was at the centre of my mind, but it was practically mine now, wasn’t it? I guess my focus could be allowed to slip, just a little. Especially with Allina and I being left in the monastery after the party ended, just the two of us, sitting together in front of a fireplace where we often finished our nights.

The celebrations might not be over quite yet…

“I can’t believe we’re so close!” said Allina giddily.

“I’ve must’ve heard you say that at least 100 times tonight,” I said. Most of which had been to me.

“It’s just… I’ve been dreaming of this day since my father told me stories of the Brotherhood as a child!”

Allina burst into a fit of giggles. She must’ve been drunker than I thought because though she’d mentioned her parents before, it had only been in passing and never in such a happy tone. From what I gathered, it was a very touchy subject. Well, less touchy and more sad. I wasn’t going to ask, but one of the other New Brotherhood members were kind enough to give me the very basics.

When Allina was young, both her parents were taken in the same Wraith culling. Newly orphaned, she was taken in by a woman who had since died to illness when Allina was about my age. Yeah, with a life of tragedy like that, I could see why she wasn’t fond of talking about it. I didn’t want to much either; it reminded me of my dad, and just missing him was hard enough already.

Allina took another big drink. “I can’t believe it…”

I rolled my eyes, reaching over to pluck the drink out of her hands. “And I think that’s enough for you. For both of us, actually. Big day tomorrow.”

Allina didn’t resist. Her smile remained as she snuggled further into her chair, covered by a blanket and enjoying the fire. I watched her from what had become my chair over the weeks.

“Have you ever wondered what the Potentia is?” I asked her, using the terminology she was familiar with. “What you’ve actually been searching for all this time?” No one had asked me, actually. Allina took a moment, her mind moving slower than usual thanks to alcohol, but eventually she nodded. “Why have you never asked?”

“I… I thought of doing it,” she admitted. “I almost did a few times, but…”

“Ah. I think I understand. You weren’t sure if you really wanted to know. What if the Potentia was something terrible? A devastating weapon. A last resort my people never got to use against the Wraith. One that probably came at great collateral loss.”

I expected to see confirmation in Allina’s eyes; perhaps a bit of fear, afraid that I was about to tell her she was right. Instead, I saw something much more intriguing. Something that looked so out of place on her kind face. A desperate hunger for what I said to be true.

“No… That’s not it,” I said, figuring it out. “You’re afraid it isn’t a weapon.”

Allina turned and stared into the fireplace. Her eyes flickered between the dancing flames, but God knows what she was actually seeing in that moment.

“Yes…” she said, barely above a whisper. I was about to ask why but stopped myself. If she wanted to tell me, she would. We sat in silence for a while, listening to the soft crackle of the fire before she spoke again. “Do you know why I became so devoted to forming the New Brotherhood?”

“You’ve never told me, but I’ve wondered,” I said.

“My father… He used to always be bringing home old scrolls and tomes from the monastery. It drove my mother mad…” Allina let out a small, sad laugh. “As he deciphered them, he’d read to me what he found, telling me these theories my child self couldn’t hope to understand. But I remembered them. They were all about finding the Brotherhood’s lost treasure.”

She pulled her blanket tighter. “He truly believed in the Brotherhood’s sacred mission. Even more than I do. It was his dream to one day find the Potentia, believing that when he did, the Lanteans would finally return to save everyone from the Wraith. And he was right, in a way. Here you are, Enzo. I just wish he could’ve had the chance to meet you…”

“I would’ve liked that,” I told her. “Both your parents must’ve been pretty great if they raised a person like you.”

Even illuminated only by firelight, I saw the blush that swept across Allina’s face. She coughed and continued, her voice turning intense. “When they were taken, I… I was so angry. Angry at the Wraith — at the world — even at my parents for leaving me all alone. For a while, I was even angry at myself for not getting taken with them… T-That way I wouldn’t have been so lost. Left with nothing but my grief… and my hatred. But I was still alive, and I wanted revenge.”

“Easier said than done,” I voiced, knowing the true extent of the Wraith’s power.

Allina sighed. “Everyone knows fighting the Wraith is impossible. The Lanteans tried and failed. What hope would anyone else have? But I needed to do something. Then I remembered all the stories my father used to tell me, and his dream of finding the Potentia. I thought, if I could find it and keep it safe until the Lanteans returned, wouldn’t that be the best way for me to get revenge? By helping the Wraith’s greatest enemy. But I searched and searched, finding nothing except the first two number stones. I didn’t mind, though. As long as I didn’t give up, it felt like I was keeping my father’s dream, and thus his memory alive.”

The room hung heavy with Allina’s admission. I could only imagine how hard it must’ve been for her, not just during all this, but to even say it after-the-fact.

“I know your parents would’ve been proud of you, Allina.”

“T-Thank you, Enzo. That… That m-means a lot…”

“It’s true.” Then this time, it was my turn to let out my own heavy sigh. “I’m sorry, Allina. I wish I could tell you the Potentia was the weapon you’re desiring, but it isn’t. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less important,” I added, seeing the severe disappointment on her face. “The Potentia — I sometimes call it a ZPM — is a power source I desperately need.”

“A power source?”

I nodded. “It’s vital for my plans. And I promise you, Allina — it won’t be tomorrow, and it might not be the next day, or the one after that, but one of those plans will eventually lead to the end of the Wraith.” I watched her disappointment vanish, replaced by hope. “I’m going to use the ZPM to bring my ancestor’s great city of Atlantis back to life. Then everything starts.”

I’d do everything in my power to keep that promise. I knew it wasn’t just Allina who dreamed of the Wraith being destroyed, either. People all over the Pegasus galaxy, children and adults alike who shared similar histories to Allina, wanted them gone. I’d make it a reality. Not just them, either, but the Goa’uld and Replicators, too. As well as the Ori, if I needed to.

I’d conquer entire galaxies to put a stop to such evils.

Ha… I could see why Q said he’d chosen me for my ambition.

Allina took a few minutes to internalise my declaration. She suddenly asked, “Will it be dangerous to retrieve the Potentia?”

“No,” I assured her, slightly confused. “There are traps, but I know what to do to avoid them.”

“But if something went wrong…” her voice trailed off.

“What do you mean?”

Allina’s eyes found mine again. I saw a seriousness she matched with her voice. “You cannot die. I— We— Every person in the galaxy can’t afford for you to die, Enzo. You’re everyone’s hope of finally seeing the Wraith defeated! Of no more culling! No more living in constant fear!”

“Allina—”

“Let me retrieve the Potentia,” she insisted hotly. “Tell me what to do. I’ll— I’ll bring it back for you, and then if something go wrong, it’s only me that’s in danger. Please, Enzo…”

“As if I would ever let that happen. What kind of man would I be if I let you put yourself in danger for my sake?” I could understand the logic. It was probably the smarter thing to do, but she couldn’t seriously think I’d go through with it.

“B-But… You are t-too important… Please…”

I got up from my chair and crossed the distance between us, kneeling as I took her hands in mine. “You are no less important than me, Allina. I’ll hear no more of this. Do you understand?” When she said nothing, neither nodding nor showing any other indication of agreement, I sighed and released one of her hands. I dug around my pocket, soon finding what I was looking for and placed that on her palm. “Have a look at this.”

Allina brought the item up to her face for a closer look. She clearly had no idea what it was, but I’d have been surprised if she did.

“That, is a personal shield,” I told her, gesturing for her to place the green device on her chest, as one would if they were going to use it. “When it’s turned on, it creates a barrier of energy around the person wearing it — like a near impenetrable wall. It’ll protect them from almost anything. I don’t need to, but I’ll wear this if you really want me to, Allina. All I’d have to do is think about it turning on, and I’d be protected from any of the traps.”

I waited as Allina debated whether that was enough. But in the end, it wouldn’t really matter. I appreciated that she cared, even if it was fuelled less by her concern for me as a person, and more by her hatred of the Wraith and that I needed to live to fulfil my promise of destroying them. But nothing was going to delay or stop me from getting my hands on the ZPM tomorrow.

A flash of bright green light almost blinded me. The hand of mine still holding Allina’s was forcibly pushed away, and when I saw by what, my jaw dropped in shock. Somehow, Allina activated the personal shield. She seemed as surprised as I did whilst the energy barrier washed over her, but I figured that was more from seeing how the technology functioned, rather than the fact she’d managed to activate it in the first place.

I knew in an instant there was only one explanation. Allina must have the ATA Gene.

Absently, I registered the shield must be the retconned version that let anyone with the gene use it, but I was far more focused on the fact Allina had the ATA Gene. One of her ancestors must’ve been a Lantean, like with people on Earth. It made sense, too; the Lanteans trusted the people of this planet with a ZPM of all things. I’m sure some of them also got real close with one another, enough to have children together.

I racked my brain but couldn’t for the life of me remember whether this was canon. It can’t have been. Wasn’t it a big thing on the show that they had a very limited number of people with the gene? If they found people in Pegasus with it, they’d surely have tried recruiting them.

Then again, it was a TV show. This was likely some background lore that never made it into the show. Someone probably wrote into a book or comic that no one read.

“Enzo…” Allina’s cautious voice took me out of my thoughts. She’d run into the same problem as McKay, trying to reach for the shield to take it off but being stopped by the energy barrier.

“It’s alright,” I was quick to tell her. “Don’t worry, everything’s fine. Do you remember what you thought to turn it? Yeah? It’s just as easy to turn off. Go on, just think about it turning off. And remember, you’re safe here with me, Allina. Nothing’s going to hurt you.”

McKay had a bitch of a time getting the first shield off, but that was because he was deeply afraid of getting hurt. Allina should have a much easier time of it if she felt safe.

She slowly nodded and took a deep breath. Closing her eyes to concentrate, a few seconds later the energy shield around her flickered out. The personal shield emitter lost its glow and I took it off her chest, placing it back in my pocket.

“That was incredible…” Allina said. “Like magic…”

“Not magic,” I corrected. Though, I could definitely see why she’d say so. I imagine I’d be making this same explanation countless time over the coming years. “Just like the Stargates, the shield is technology that my people created long ago. It’s science. There’s no such thing as magic. You should see Atlantis, it’s full of this sort of stuff. Tons of it far more impressive than a little shield.”

“The great city must be an incredible place,” she said.

I smiled, seeing Atlantis inside my head. “It is the most magnificent sight I have ever laid eyes upon. During the day, its towers gleam brightly, and some rooms, like of the main tower, are bathed in fantastic colours from the stained windows. Then at night… The entire city comes to life, lighting up like you’re looking at a million stars.”

I got lost in my imagination, missing how sad Allina became. It wasn’t until I heard the wavering in her voice that I realised. “I-I suppose you will be leaving tomorrow, after we’ve recovered the Potentia? You will be returning to Atlantis…” She managed a weak, wobbling smile. “I’ve enjoyed our time together, Enzo. Gotten used to having you here… I’ll miss—”

“Come with me.”

“W-What?”

“Come back to Atlantis with me, Allina.”

I was being completely serious. Maybe it was a bit too fast to be inviting someone back to the city, especially to stay. It was the same as asking someone to move in on the first date, completely insane. But at the end of the day, it’s my decision to make and I wanted her to come.

Allina stammered, “Enzo, I-I can’t g-go with—”

“Why not?” I challenged. “What’s going to be keeping you here after we collect the ZPM? The New Brotherhood’s sacred mission will be completed, so it won’t be needed anymore. Are you just going to stay here, in this decrepit monastery? No? Then come with me.”

Allina really wanted to say yes; she was so close, I could see that plain as day. But her excitement fought a battle against her doubts, which right now were throwing out every reason — big or small — on why she had to say no. “I-I am not deserving, Enzo. I-It’s the ancestor’s great c-city—”

“That isn’t for you to decide!” I actually growled a little at that. “I say that you are deserving, Allina, or worthy, or whatever else you want to call it. Isn’t that enough?”

“E-Enzo…”

“Fine. If you need another reason.” I took the personal shield back out, holding it up in front of her. “Here it is, Allina.”

“The shield?” she said. “I-I don’t understand.”

“There’s something you should know about Lantean technology. My people knew that a lot of their stuff was too dangerous to be used by other species, so they built in protections — safeguards. One of these protections acts as a key, and without it, the tech doesn’t work for any other species.”

“But … But I could use it,” said Allina. “I’m not a Lantean.”

“That’s true, but one of your ancestors was.” She was confused, but I was about to explain. “There are these things called genes. Think of them as traits, passed down from parent to child and so on, and so on. It’s why a child may share the same allergy as their parents, they inherited the gene for it. Everything living thing has them, but the Lanteans discovered they shared a very unique one, every single person had it.”

I paused to see if Allina was following. She nodded slowly. “S-So… I have this gene, too?”

“Yes, you do, Allina,” I confirmed. “A Lantean must’ve had a child with one of your ancestors, and the gene has been passed down over the years, all the way to you. Do you see now? It’s almost like you were destined to come with me, Allina.”

Destined? Perhaps not, but her resistance was crumbling and I needed to really push it, keep the momentum going. The honest truth is, as bad as it sounds, if she wasn’t smart, hot, or enjoyable to be around, I wouldn’t have asked her to come with me even though she has the ATA Gene. I know, beggars can’t be choosers, and I needed the help for the long run, especially of individuals with the gene. I just didn’t care. This was my adventure, and I’d choose who I wanted on it.

It just so happened, I wanted Allina.

Seeing that she was right on the edge of accepting, I went in for the final blow, so to speak. Rising up, cupping her face as I leaned forward. I stopped mere inches in front of her face, our eyes gazing into each other. “Please, Allina…”

I leaned in and kissed her. It was neither deep nor lustful, rather slow and gentle. I poured my desire for her to join me into the kiss, lips moving against hers as if we were talking — I was pleading for her to say yes. It didn’t take long at all for Allina to reply, returning the kiss and even bringing her arms up to snake around my neck.

“Yes…” she gasped when we finally broke apart, gulping greedy lungfuls of air. “I’ll come with you, Enzo.”

I smiled, and instead of saying anything, engaged her in another kiss. This one was deeper and more passionate — a celebration. I moved the hand cupping her face to the back of her head, entangling with her hair and pressing us harder together. She pulled me closer by my neck until I was on top of her. Our lips would be bruised afterwards, that was for sure.

For a while, the only sounds inside the monastery was the crackling of the fireplace, and the smacking of our increasingly heated make out session. Things rapidly developed from there. The sexual tension building between us over the last two weeks reaching its crescendo. It’d been inevitable, really.

We were all over each other, hands exploring to their hearts content. Allina seemed fond of my broad back, pressing her fingers against my hardened muscles. I favoured digging my hands into her backside, enjoying how she moaned whenever I squeezed her toned cheeks.

At some point, we ended up on the floor. A large blanket provided a soft platform for our sweaty activity. Speaking of sweaty, with the fire blazing, casting us in its warm glow, it inevitably got very hot. Our solution was as practical as it was arousing, eagerly helping each other divest of clothes until we were both naked.

“You’re stunning,” I told her, looking down at her as she laid on her back. Allina shyly tried covering her breasts, but I wasn’t having that. I grabbed both her wrists and pinned them above her head. She inhaled sharply as I towered over her, drinking in the sight of her body.

Gods… She really was a beautiful woman. I’d said it before, but praise be the show runners for casting such drop-dead gorgeous women.

Adjusting my grip, now holding both her arms with a just single hand, I dragged the other across her skin towards her chest, leaving a path of goosebumps in my wake. Allina shivered, followed by a throaty moan as I took a handful of perky tit. They weren’t massive, but were perfect for her frame, more than sufficient.

“You’re fucking amazing, Allina,” I breathed, kneading firmly, dragging out more moans before swapping and doing the same to her other boob. She pushed her chest further into my grasp, pleading for more. Her nipples were almost as hard as my cock, but much cuter, a pale pink and protruding. I pinched lightly and Allina gasped.

“Enzo…”

Allina began to squirm, particularly her hips. Our position, with me between her legs, meant my cock rested over her crotch, but she was trying direct it lower towards her soaked pussy. The scent alone told me she was more than aroused enough for me to slip right inside. But first, I just had to taste those delicious tits.

“O-Oh my— Enzo! That’s … That feels so good!” Allina cried out as I dived and took a nipple into my mouth. The tongue she’d gotten so acquainted with during our kissing now swirled around her teat. Her pleasured noises grew louder, especially when I started groping her other tit at the same time, doubling the stimulation.

“M-My … Fuck! I’m going to— You’re m-making me cum!”

I grinned around the breast inside my mouth, sucking even harder. I always loved making my partners explode in orgasm, seeing the way they lost control and melted into quivering messes. It’s probably why I was so popular amongst the girls at school. I knew they talked about me, and wasn’t that a massive boost to my confidence and pride.

“Don’t hold back, Allina,” I told her, releasing her tit for a moment.

Intending to push her over the edge, my hand at last lowered to her pussy, immediately getting coated in her juices. I delved into her lips, stroking and rubbing, but my thumb found the real target. I attacked the small nub of her clit, otherwise known — at least to me — as a girl’s little pleasure button. Why? Well let’s just see.

“YEEESSS!” Allina shrieked, body arching off the ground.

Yeah, that’s why. I doubled my efforts — devouring her breasts and slipping a finger into her pussy. “Cum for me, Allina!”

“ENZO!”

Allina came undone, her entire body convulsing under my machinations. I fingered her throughout her orgasm, hand drowning in her essence. Only when her shaking began to calm did I finally release her arms. They fell over her flushed face as moans and other incoherent noises continued falling from her mouth.

“I-I’ve never felt anyth… so … a-amazing…” she panted.

“Well, I hope you’re not finished yet,” I said, taking hold of my so far ignored, and painfully throbbing cock, directing it to her entrance. “We’ve only just started, darling.”

A thought then occurred to me just before pushing in, making me pause. Was… Was Allina a virgin? I looked down at her, seeing her lust-drunk eyes staring back. It didn’t seem like it, but maybe that was just excitement. I imagined sex wasn’t so normalised in these medieval or renaissance period populations than it was back on Earth.

Rather than asking and risk ruining the moment, I placed the head of my cock against her hole and slowly pushed in, making sure to watch for any signs of pain. She was incredibly tight. Her tunnel kept contracting, whether to try push me out or pull me in, I didn’t know. Either way, it felt incredible. And I can safely say it would’ve been much harder if not for Allina’s orgasm providing plenty of slickness.

“D-Does it hurt?” I asked, stifling a grunt.

“N-No… Keep… Keep g-going!”

Despite her words, I heard the pained hisses Allina tried to hide as my cock stretched her. Was she afraid I’d be annoyed or something? Sex was no fun if only one participant was enjoying it. So, I made sure to pause every inch or so, giving Allina plenty of time to get used to my large size. At the same time, I used the opportunity to take deep breaths, focusing on not exploding instantly from just how fucking good she felt.

Eventually, our hips met with a light slap. My entire cock was buried inside her sweltering cunt, and it was incredible. Allina panted heavily, biting her bottom lip as she adjusted. My hands came to press against the ground either side of her chest, arms locked straight to keep me up, but my mouth dipped to her ear.

“You’re way too fucking tight!” I told her.

She replied as I began kissing her neck. “I’m gonna… already… I’m cumming again!”

True to her word, I felt Allina’s cunt squeeze around my cock, as if begging for my cum. It took every bit of restraint I had not to give it to her right then. Gods, I was so pent up if I was already this close to cumming.

Allina’s second climax made her even wetter, making the next part much easier. Pulling halfway out, I pushed back in, sliding right back to the hilt without any difficulty. Allina threw her head back against the blanket, mouth opening in a not so silent scream. Good thing there was no one else around to hear us. I grunted into her neck and repeated the motion, steadily withdrawing further each time until finally, it was only my tip left inside her.

Still thinking in the back of my mind that this could be her first time, I didn’t set quite the brutal rhythm I would’ve usually. Rather, I favoured slower but longer strokes, making sure I reached the deepest parts of her with each thrust to very pleasurable effect.

“Enzo… Enzo… Fuck! Ahh! Enzo!” Allina’s moans were music to my ears, making my cock swell even larger.

“Damn… Fucking hell!” I grunted. Despite my careful intentions, my hips sped up on their own, sending wet slapping echoing through the monastery. “I’m sorry! I can’t stop, Allina!”

“D-Don’t… Keep going! Hrmm!”

My balls tensed, sending a pulse up the length of my dick. I knew I was close, but I was determined to make Allina reach her end one more time. Turns out I didn’t have to wait long. With my increased tempo, her tunnel was soon clamping around me again in the telltale signs of an impending orgasm.

I let my arms collapse. My chest pressed against Allina’s own, squashing her tits as I felt her hard nubs rubbing across my skin. She tried to moan but I silenced her by reclaiming her mouth, pushing my tongue against hers. Meanwhile, my hips never stopped, and with a pair of muffled cries, we both came together. Warm seed, built up over two weeks, flooded Allina’s womb as she experienced her most electrifying climax yet.

Minutes later, my half-softened length withdrew from her pussy after pumping her full of a river’s worth of cum. Without me there as a seal, the white stuff began to ooze out onto the blanket beneath us. Not that we cared.

“I-I can hardly … breathe…” Allina weakly said, chest rising and falling rapidly. Her body would randomly shake every few seconds — aftershocks of pleasure.

“I know what you mean,” I said, still able to speak but my body tingling, the sensation originating from my dick. I rolled off and pulled her onto my chest. For a while we just laid there, basking in the aftermath. Fuck, had I missed having sex.

Allina turned her face up to me. “I-Is this w-what I’m to expect when I g-go with you?”

I smirked. “Why? Did you not enjoy it?”

“I d-didn’t say that…”

My chest rumbled as I laughed. “There’s more to expect than I can begin to explain.” Not just talking about sex. We stared into the fire together, cuddling naked and drenched in sweat. “We’re going to change everything, Allina. Us and whoever else we can find to help us. And it all begins tomorrow.”

{- Z -}

[- Sanir -]

Sanir knew she shouldn’t have left the celebration so early. She could already hear Allina’s lecture about her absence, the droning voice. That’s if the woman had even noticed she was gone, in-between clinging to and batting her eyes at that pretender.

Lorenzo Eldridge. Just thinking of his name made her scowl. She’d had to be around him for 2 weeks now, biting her tongue as everyone else, especially Allina, soaked up all his bullshit. Did none of them ever take a moment and think? Were they actually all so stupid?

Everyone in the damn galaxy knew the ancestors were gone. It was only the select and delusional few who believed otherwise. That they’d one day return and finally destroy the Wraith. Sanir wasn’t one such person. Even though she’d joined Allina’s New Brotherhood, she didn’t believe for a moment that the Lanteans would ever return. No, they were dead. Killed by Wraith when they lost the great war.

No prophesied saviours were coming. The galaxy was at the mercy of the Wraith, of which they had none. All anyone could do was try look out for themselves; a lesson Sanir learnt early in life. It’s why she joined Allina in the first place. Who gave a shit about some long extinct order and their sacred mission? She certainly didn’t. But that lost treasure, on the other hand, she found immensely interesting. Whatever it was, a genuine Lantean item of such importance was bound to be worth a lot.

With it, she could buy her way into a better life. One where she didn’t have to constantly fear the Wraith. People thought such living was impossible, but they were wrong; they just didn’t know where to look. These places — these people, were hidden not just from the Wraith but everyone. It was the only way to ensure safety. And luckily, years ago, Sanir stumbled her way into communications with one such people.

She quickly discovered they didn’t much care for people outside of what they could offer. At first, Sanir had nothing to give, and it almost ended their discussion right then and there. But then she promised that she could bring them the Potentia. That got their interest, even if they clearly doubted her ability to fulfil said promise. Still, it got the conversation going, and they offered her exactly what she desperately wanted; a promise of safety should she deliver them the Potentia.

After that day, she threw herself into the original Brotherhood’s research, almost to the same degree as Allina. It’s how Sanir found herself becoming Allina’s personal assistant. Together, they got further than anyone in hundreds of years, finding two of the number stones and discerning their function. But then all progress stopped.

No matter how hard they tried, the countless sleepless nights reading and re-reading old scrolls and tomes, they just couldn’t find any more of the stones. Neither did they uncover any new information about the Potentia’s hiding place, where the stones would be used. Sanir came to believe they may never find it. Her dream of having a safe life slipped away. But then Lorenzo turned up.

Flashing around his undoubtedly stolen technology. Proclaiming to be an ancestor returned for the Potentia. Sanir knew he was just another scumbag here to try do the same as her; find the Potentia and sell it to the highest bidder. ‘Yeah, good luck with that,’ she’d thought at the time, assuming she’d just have to wait until Lorenzo gave up and left; the same as many had done before him. But how wrong she’d been.

Lorenzo knew things he shouldn’t. Impossible things like the locations of the buried number stones, literally pointing out where to dig on a map. But the worst, uncovering the stone that’d been under their noses the entire time, right there in the monastery. It made them all — it made Sanir, feel like an idiot, and she hated it.

In the space of two weeks, they’d gotten to the point where recovering the Potentia was actually in sight. As soon as the sun rose, Sanir, Allina, and Lorenzo would be venturing out to get it. Just like that. But after years of dedicating her life to this goal, in the moments she should’ve been elated, all Sanir felt was terror.

Terror that she was going to miss her greatest — perhaps only — chance of getting her dream life.

For the last two weeks, she’d been trying to get in touch with her contact using the radio they’d left her. Hours spent speaking into the device, explaining what was going on, pleading for a meeting, yet getting nothing in return. She began to question whether she was using the damn thing right. But even if she wasn’t, she kept trying.

The only other thing she could think to do was go back to the place she’d had that very first, and only, meeting; when she’d been given the damn radio. Maybe there was a chance her contact would spot her, or she him. It’s why every night since Lorenzo appeared, she spent hours sat in the village tavern, nursing a drink she never ends up touching.

Meanwhile, as she waited and prayed, she was forced to listen to people speak about Lorenzo and what was going on up at the monastery. Of course the news made it back here.

Sanir growled lowly, glancing around at everyone. How badly she wanted to shout that they were fools for believing Lorenzo. There were no more Lanteans. But she bit her tongue, as she’d done each day. Though, it was much harder that night.

Hopelessness was setting in, and it was putting Sanir on edge. The tavern would close soon. She’d lose her last opportunity to meet with her contact and get told what to do. Tomorrow, the Potentia would be taken away, never to be seen again. It’s not like Sanir could hope of taking it away from Lorenzo by herself. She needed help!

A burly laugh attracted her attention to a group of guys at the bar. This wasn’t the first time she’d seen them, but that didn’t mean she knew them well. Only that they were fishermen. One tried to sweet talk her the second night she was here before she made it abundantly clear that she wanted nothing to do with any of them. Thankfully, they got the message, which was more than she could say about some guys.

Her curiosity faded, and she returned to staring down at her drink. If only she’d have looked across the table, then she wouldn’t have nearly received a heart attack.

“You requested a meeting.”

Sanir nearly jumped out her chair. Across from her sat a man she didn’t recognise, despite the fact he wore clothes from the village. She hadn’t heard him approach either. It was almost like he just appeared from thin air.

“I-I’m sorry?” she said.

“You requested a meeting,” he repeated, expression remaining devoid of emotion. This time, Sanir understood. Finally, this was her contact! Not the same person as before, but she didn’t care. They were actually here. They came! Her heart began to race and she opened her mouth to speak, but found herself being cut off. “Calm yourself,” she was instructed. “Do not attract attention.”

Sanir gulped. When he said nothing else, she assumed it was alright to speak, doing so with a quieter voice than her normal. “I-I’ve been trying to contact someone for weeks.”

“We are extremely busy,” he stated. Nothing more.

“I-I know, it’s just… We’ve a-almost run out of time…”

“You are referring to the Brotherhood’s lost treasure.” Sanir gasped, but again got cut off before she could reply. “Yes, we already know all about that. We have been monitoring the operation since we received your first message.”

‘But you’d not seen the need to tell me that?’ Sanir internally fumed. She pushed down her frustration, afraid it could ruin everything. “Then you know about Lorenzo as well?”

“We do,” the man confirmed. “We know your New Brotherhood was nowhere close to finding the treasure until he turned up, and within two weeks, it is now at your fingertips.”

Sanir looked down ashamed. She’d been thinking the same, but when stated so plainly to her, it truly made her years of hard work seem pointless. “H-He just knows things,” she said. “He claims to be an a-ancestor…”

“Do you believe him?” he asked.

Sanir wanted to say no, but would that be her logic or emotion speaking. Besides her feelings, she had no proof whether Lorenzo truly was or wasn’t an ancestor. “I-I don’t know. I don’t t-think so… But he says he came f-from the great city of Atlantis. That’s where he’ll go after getting the Potentia— the treasure.”

Silence fell over the table as Sanir waited for the man to speak. If they’d been watching, then surely they knew everything she might tell them. But minutes stretched on, as did the silence.

“They’re retrieving the treasure tomorrow,” she finally said, unable to take it any longer. “I managed to convince Allina to let me go with them, but I couldn’t possibly get away with the treasure on my own. But if you and your men followed us—”

“Rest assured, we have a plan.” Sanir should’ve been used to getting cut off by then, but it was no less jarring than the first time. “First, we will wait until this Lorenzo has recovered the treasure. Then we shall take it from him, with overwhelming force if necessary. Though, certain things have changed.”

“C-Changed?” choked Sanir.

“It is no longer just the treasure that we seek. We want Lorenzo as well. And you’re going to help us.”

“B-But…” This isn’t how things were supposed to go! This was supposed to be about the Potentia. When did it evolve to kidnapping?! Sanir didn’t sign up for something like this. But did she have a choice?

A voice in the back of her head reminded her that she didn’t know Lorenzo. She didn’t even like him, so what was stopping her? Besides morals, that is. Stealing was one thing, but this? Her mind went to Allina. What if she got caught in the crossfire? Sanir had always intended to betray Allina, but that didn’t mean she’d not come to care about her, or see her as a friend.

But Sanir was so close. Everything she’d worked towards was at her fingertips. She could feel it. The question was, could she live with herself after-the-fact.

“A-As long as you promise me n-no one will get h-hurt,” she eventually told the man, making her choice, and feeling dreadful inside for it.

The man nodded. “Of course.” He then took something from his pocket and slid it across the table. It was a device smaller than a radio, and it only had a single button on the side. “You will keep this hidden on your person. When Lorenzo has the treasure and is heading to the Stargate, you will press this button.” His blank face changed for the first time, turning threateningly serious. “You will do nothing different nor out of the ordinary, do you understand? It is imperative that you do not raise suspicion. And once we have what we want, we will fulfil our side of the bargain. Do not fail us.”

Sanir nodded, not trusting her voice to speak. She pocketed the device. Then there was a sudden bang that had her head snapping towards the bar. It was just the same guys, one of them slamming their empty mug on the counter. When Sanir turned back to the man, he was gone. The only evidence he’d ever been there was the device she’d been given.

Now alone, her mind ran rampant with what she’d just agreed to do. She felt sick. Her breaths came in and out fast and shallow. In the end, she had to gulp down her so-far untouched drink in an effort to calm her nerves. But even then, her thoughts refused to shift to a different topic.

Walking home through the darkness, Sanir couldn’t seem to decide whether she wanted tomorrow to come faster, or not at all.