Chapter 12

John readied his Zat to shoot the Wraith, but he was still too far away to have a good aim and was afraid he’d hit Ziva instead. He saw how Ziva squatted down and pulling the legs from underneath the Wraith by one well-placed kick of her own. She jumped back and so did the Wraith, back on its feet, not dazed at all.

Her punches were not causing much of an impact against the much taller and stronger creature. It was almost like fighting Damon Werth again. She was focused on trying to get a solid move in that didn’t land and made her lose her footing for a bit, when the wraith’s arm came back around, it struck her in the face. Ziva went straight down before the monster grabbed her by the neck, effectively blocking the way between them and Sheppard.

“Ziva!” Tony yelled and Sheppard grabbed him by the arm to stop him from running towards the Wraith and kill himself by doing so.

“Let her go,” John’s voice was surprisingly pleasant while aiming his Zat at the Wraith, but it was currently using Ziva as a human shield. He looked at the Wraith, he wasn’t much taller than Todd, and it had similar markings as the Wraith on one of the ships they had gotten rid of. Damn darts, he thought.

“You are no match for me, human.”

John saw Rodney walking around them in a circle big enough for the Wraith not to notice. Don’t do anything stupid, McKay, or I’ll kill you myself, he thought. “Maybe not, especially since you had a big dinner,” he shrugged. “But right now, your current dinner isn’t getting any air, I doubt you like dead prey.”

“What are you doing?” Tony hissed at him. “You’re pissing it off!”

“Shut up,” John told Tony. “I know what I’m doing.”

“If that’s what it takes to stop you from killing me, why would I care?” The Wraith tilted his head. “This Earth of yours is a brand new feeding ground, me and my brethren have been feeding for months, we never had so much to eat before.”

“I’m in position,” Rodney’s hushed voice came through the radio. “You do know that if he still holds her when I shoot once, she’ll get hit too, right?”

John nodded for an answer, knowing Rodney would see it from where he was. “We don’t have to kill you. In fact, we had no intention to,” John said. “We’d be more than willing to take you back to Pegasus with us and reunite you and your brothers with the rest of your group.”

“It’s holding Ziva and you’re trying to negotiate?!”

John wished that Tony would shut up, his hissing wasn’t helping much.

“I do not believe you,” the Wraith said. “We are trespassing on YOUR Earth, why would you let us live?”

“Because we’re not savages,” John said and lowered his Zat, hoping Tony would do the same, it wasn’t like they had a clear shot anyway. “We just don’t want you to feed off our people.”

The Wraith was quiet for a while, and Sheppard could see that Ziva was struggling to breathe, trying to kick her way out of the Wraith’s hold. Knowing that McKay soon had to shoot, he regretted the next thing he was going to ask. “Ziva, do you trust me?”

She managed to get a glance to him from the corner of her eye. Her hands tightened around the monster’s cold wrists and squeezed her eyes shut. “Do it,” she got out, but just barely as the oxygen she desperately needed wasn’t filling her lungs to make her words carry stronger.

“Alright Rodney,” he said in his radio. “Once, and then I’ll pull her out, then get rid of it.”

“Got it.”

It was as if Tony was watching a Dancing competition. John moved towards the Wraith and Ziva as McKay shot that energy weapon of theirs, knocking both the Wraith and Ziva out. Sheppard then pulled her away from the Wraith and with two shots more, the Wraith was gone. Tony couldn’t move though, Sheppard was holding Ziva in his arms, trying to wake her up. Damnit, Tony thought, because he wasn’t just holding Ziva as in holding, but he was holding her like he really cared.

“Ziva,” John caressed her hair as he had taken her onto his lap.

Rodney frowned as he walked up to John. “Um, Sheppard? I hate to say this but we need to move. I got another two lifesigns heading this way and two more near the other group,” he said quietly. “Erm, is she okay?”

“I don’t know,” he snapped, more angry with himself for letting Rodney shoot Ziva, but it had to be done. He got up and took her in his arms. “We all deal with our first Zat guns differently.”

“She’s still breathing though, isn’t she?” Tony asked worried.

“Yeah.” Rodney said, “She was basically toasted for a bit until the Wraith let her go, it’s just a mild shock she needs to get out of.”

It was another two minutes when she moaned, rolling her head onto John’s shoulder. “I feel like I was hit by a bus,” she grumbled before slowly lifting her head to look around. “What happened?”

“You got hit by a Zat gun,” John grinned. “Welcome back, you had me worried for a while there.”

She made a face as she struggled to get up and stand on her own. “I never want to go through that again…You really deal with those things regularly?” she asked holding her head. This was going to be one motherfucking headache.

“Ah yes,” Rodney nodded. “Although we don’t have Zat’s back home, they’re too over-powered and we’re the cool guys.”

“I can’t believe you shot her,” Tony glared at Rodney.

“Technically, I shot the Wraith. I can’t help it that it was holding onto Sheppard’s squeeze.”

“Relax Tony, I am fine,” she said, rubbing her neck. “We need to get to the others…”

Rodney began going off a mile a minute. “Nope, no can do. I hope you’re strong enough to fight because we got two more coming in hot about 2 minutes off our 10 o’clock!”

With ease, John shot both Wraith in a matter of seconds, finding them writhing on the ground, he then shot them again and again, until there wasn’t anything left. “These guns make things way too easy.”

“Yea well you know the SGC won’t let us have any. We can keep the Wraith weapons but they would never allow these to go back with us. We should start a petition,” McKay said as he started back towards where the last known location was of their friends.

“I don’t like these guns despite the fact they’re awesome,” John said, following Rodney. “I like a challenge.”

“No, you like to get yourself killed, that’s a whole different story,” McKay rolled his eyes.

Tony snorted. “Hey Ziva, looks like your boyfriend likes suicide missions as much as you do!”

She turned and glared at him. As grateful as she was for his rescue in Somalia, that was still an extremely tender subject for her. Details of that assignment, what she endured, she continued to refuse to disclose even to the psychiatrist. “It is what it is,” she echoed her old words. “We do what we need to do to get the job done.”

John shot a fleeting glance at Ziva, wondering what was going on in her head and what she was talking about. But, she was entitled to her secrets, just like he had kept this from her (well, he had been legally bound to keeping the Stargate program a secret), and whatever she had gone through or was still going through, it must have been hard on her.

“Colonel Sheppard, we just killed 3 more Wraith,” Teyla’s voice came over the radio. “I am not certain if there are more.”

“Good job, Teyla, we’re on our way to you,” he replied.

 

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