Sheppard rested his elbows on the table. Baal was finally in control of the bony horror of an alien body. He suppressed a shudder at the thought of those eyes looking back at him from a mirror. The Goa'uld seemed perfectly happy with his new appearance, though.

"Lilith has attempted telepathic communication with my new host, but she sensed my presence before we got past the ritual greeting. She was not pleased to find Ereskigal unavailable." Baal was smiling again. "She knows you humans now. She took plenty of information from McKay's mind before destroying it." The grin got smugger and smugger until Sheppard had to clench his fists to keep from lashing out.

"Anything else?" he ground out when the Goa'uld's silence stretched unbearably.

"I know what you want to know. I know whose name you want me to speak."

John kept his face impassive and slouched back in his chair defiantly while Baal in the tall wraith body rose to its feet and slowly circled the table to sit on it in front of the airman.

"She was there, you know, when he was turned. Ereskigal heard him moan and beg. He wanted it, too. He accepted that he had to become one of them to stay alive." The alien within the alien tormented. John tasted blood from where he was biting the inside of his cheek.

"Is he still alive? Is he with her?" he heard himself ask, his own voice strange in his ears. He was sure his jaw would never unclench again.

Baal's smile was cruel, in the Wraith's face. "Yes."

Relief and horror fought in John's mind.

"What's her battle plan? Is she going to attack Earth?"

"Ereskigal doesn't know. Lilith is acting as Supreme Queen and did not reveal her plans to her subordinates. But I believe she will attack Earth. The rebellion among the queens has pushed her hand. She will have to adjust her plans accordingly. And in order to reestablish her dominance, she will have to take drastic measures. She is in this galaxy as we speak. If your superiors would allow my fleet to enter your solar system..."

John shook his head. "Not an option. We have our allies and they will be in orbit soon. We're fully prepared for a space fight." Sheppard aimed for confidence in his tone of voice.

"What do you want?" Baal asked silkily. "Do you want to go rescue your friend? You know they won't let you go on a mission to search for him, they won't give you weapons or troops or equipment..." He scowled. "The Tau'ri are sentimental fools, but not in this way. You will never see him again." His eyes lit up as he went on. "I, on the other hand..."

Sheppard narrowed his eyes. He knew that a rescue mission for McKay was not in the cards and didn't need this creature telling him, reminding him, taunting him. "You what?" he spat. "You'd help me? You'd back me in an attack on Lilith just to see me happy?"

Baal smirked and rose to his full height, which was now an impressive seven feet, towering over the still-seated human. "I will not be mocked. I want these creatures gone and I will not pretend it would not greatly enhance my status as a System Lord to be the one that ensured their demise. Yes, human, I seek my own glory, but I believe we have a common enemy now. Even if we want different things, the means to obtain them are the same."

Exhaling forcefully, Sheppard crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm listening."

***

He could sense her anger still, though now only a shimmer under the surface. Lucifer had warned him to decline her company, but when he felt her summons he found he was unable to resist. He could not remember why or how he became important to her, or how she came to take such an important place in his own soul. He was not her bonded mate, since she had none, and he could not remember ever being her companion. And yet he couldn't remember any other lady or queen before or after her.

His skin felt raw as he approached her. She sat on the floor of her new chambers, knees drawn up to her chest.

"My Queen," he spoke softly while sinking to his knees.

Her green eyes opened and looked into his purple ones.

"Rodney." Her hand rose toward him, beckoning him closer. Her mind wrapped around his with a warm, welcoming touch. He put his palms on the floor and moved over to her side like an animal. "You are home now," she said. "We are close to the planet where you were born."

"I do not remember my birth. My Queen," he said. "My mind is confused. Am I..." He didn't know what to ask or how to ask it, so he just let his mind open to her.

She leaned forward and pressed her mouth to his. Her hand covered his chest in a way that felt familiar and yet new. "Open your lips to mine," she whispered against his mouth, and he obeyed, dazed by her closeness and touch.

There were even more questions in his eyes as the kiss ended.

"You taught me how to do that," she said. "But you have forgotten everything." Her voice was sad. "Sleep, beloved. Find rest." She pushed gently on his shoulders to bring his head to her lap. He went willingly.

"Am I to be your companion now?" he asked as he settled his head on her thigh. Her hand came to rest on the top of his head, her long, slim and taloned fingers carding through his hair.

"No," she said simply. "We will be bonded mates. I have no need for companions. I want you." Her voice was soft as her caresses, and Rodney closed his eyes. "You will be as you were after that. You will remember." He could not only hear her sadness, but feel it radiating from her entire being.

He rose from her embrace then, to look into her eyes. He leaned in and placed his lips upon hers again, the way she had done it earlier, but unsure of what exactly he was supposed to do.

Her hand caressed his shoulder and then down his arm, to his hand. She snaked her fingers between his, entwining them. She pushed their palms together, making him hiss in pleasure.

***

The blare of the sirens was still loud in his ears when John exited the worm-hole. He barely managed to take a deep breath before Baal activated the ring device and he was dematerialized again. When he exhaled he was on board the Goa'uld mother ship.

"Cool," Sheppard muttered under his breath, even as he raised his weapon.

"That is unnecessary." Baal laughed. "Your primitive weapon could not defend you against my Jaffa. Not to mention that aboard this ship you are greatly outnumbered. Should I decide for any reason that you are... not welcome, there would be nothing you could do." The cavernous voice was laced with a dark humor and gave John chills. He knew the alien was right. He knew he was walking into a situation that would more likely than not end with his death. He just couldn't bring himself to care.

So he smiled back, an easy smile that made him look ten years younger, and he pointed the P90 at the floor.

He shrugged. "Old habits die hard."

Baal nodded and called for a Jaffa. John was shown to quarters and told to refresh before joining Baal for a meal. He almost rolled his eyes at the extravagant treatment. He'd read about the Goa'uld arrogance, but this show of hospitality was almost comical.

Nevertheless, he changed out of his uniform, used the alien bathroom and carelessly left his dog tags in there. He had no more use for them after all. Even if he should survive this attempt and manage to rescue McKay, there was no way he could ever go back to Earth after this, much less to the USAF.

Baal's dining quarters were opulent, to say the least. The entire wall opposite the entrance was open, protected by a force-field against the vacuum of space. John could see the stars of the Milky Way, and it gave him the impression they were stationary.

Baal had changed Ereskigal's torn outfit and now wore an aquamarine tunic over black loose pants. The material looked soft. His hair was braided and held back with a myriad of hairpins and golden strings. Long slim arms were left bare and there was a silvery armband closing over his right bicep and several bracelets that glittered in shades of blue adorned both his wrists.

He slouched on a pile of cushions, legs crossed at the ankles, knees bent.

"I see you made yourself pretty," Sheppard commented by way of greeting, and got a smirk for his effort.

"I am glad my appearance pleases you, John." Baal smiled. "It has been quite some time since I inhabited a female body." Baal said as he motioned the human closer. Sheppard suppressed a shudder and joined the alien on the cushions. "Eat, rest...Five other System Lords have agreed to join our cause and fight Lilith, though she has also been in contact with the System Lords and has established peace agreements with most of them. Yu, Osiris, Shiva, Shu and Anubis are with us. One of Anubis's spies found out where Lilith is. As you can see, I have kept my end of our agreement. We are now even-you will have your chance to save your...friend."

John almost choked on the cherry-like fruit as the full force of Baal's grin hit him. It was nauseating, but stealing himself, he smiled back and popped another not-cherry in his mouth.

The sudden brightness gave him an excuse to divert his gaze from those deep red eyes. They were still disturbing, yet with Baal's consciousness behind them, they seemed to lose some of their x-ray quality.

"What was that?"

***

"Oh, God!" Sam whispered as she looked at the computer screen with huge eyes. She couldn't believe it. "Sir!" She called more loudly. "General O'Neill! We must begin evacuation, now!"

"What's up, Carter?" Jack was aiming for nonchalant, but for the first time in history he failed. Some of the fear at seeing her that pale showed in his voice.

"Sir..." Sam swallowed. "Our sun just exploded, sir."

"What?"

"We detected an explosion...it was probably visible on the surface," Sam said, turning back to her computer screen as soon as she was certain she had the General's attention, fingers flying over the keyboard.

"Now correct me if I'm wrong," Jack said, forcefully subduing the rising terror. It took eight minutes for light from the sun to reach the Earth. Everyone knew that. Which meant Earth had eight minutes left before it was gone. Probably seven, now. "...But weren't we supposed to have, like, five billion years before a supernova was scheduled? And wasn't our sun too small to do that?"

"Yes, sir." Sam nodded numbly. "This isn't a natural phenomenon, sir. I had the computer analyze the data from our deep space sensors before they went off-line due to the shock wave... it was some sort of explosive device."

"Somebody bombed our sun? Wraith? Why haven't we intercepted them? Where are they?" O'Neill was frantic and now-for the first time in his life-truly afraid. His mind reeled and refused to accept Carter's words. They had Asgard ships and Tok'Ra war vessels in orbit. They were ready to take on the Wraith...

He was pulled from his thoughts by the frail-looking form of an Asgard appearing out of thin air.

"Greetings, O'Neill. I am Hermiod. A Wraith Hive ship was detected entering the solar system. Commander Thor took the Daniel Jackson in pursuit. The Hive Ship collided with your Sun. We believe it had explosives on board, given the consequences. The Daniel Jackson was obliterated by the explosion. Commander Thor is no more. I am sorry." Heavy lids came down over the big black eyes of the alien in an expression of grief.

Jack looked over at Sam. She looked like a ghost and the despair in her eyes cut him bone-deep. The Control room was quite as a grave.

"Now what?" he asked quietly.

"We need to evacuate, sir. Hermiod, if you and the remaining Asgard ship would be able to assist...?" The alien inclined his head and disappeared. "In a typical supernova explosion," she began to explain, "the star's matter expands outward at a speed of about (5)106 meters per second, which is only 1/166 the speed of light." She continued addressing Jack. "So, the first matter from the Sun would take about twenty-two hours to reach the Earth."

So, a little more time than eight minutes, then, before the end of everything. Jack supposed that was something.

"During this time," Sam went on, "according to both general relativity and Newton's theory of instantaneous gravity, there will be no appreciable change in the Sun's gravitational pull on the Earth..." She paused for a breath. "We have twenty-two hours to get as many of the population of the planet away. After that, there will be no life on Earth."

***

Lucifer refolded his wings over his shoulders. He could feel Lilith was troubled. She had left her newly-bonded mate sleeping and ventured into the unexplored forest they had landed near. The planet they had chosen was lush, green and wet. Plants grew big enough to camouflage their growing hive and the air was pleasantly warm. The climate was perfect to sustain human life and the valley beyond the forest was perfect for a small colony.

They had reached an agreement with the Goa'uld. Still, Lucifer didn't feel quite right about it. There were some that had not been present at the negotiation. He did not fear war, but he craved its absence.

He needed answers from her. Why was she taking the half-breed as a bonded mate? It was not yet time to think of such things. He let her smell guide him through the thick growth, deeper into the wet warm air of the forest. Lilith was sitting on a high branch of a blue-barked tree. Her magenta hair was loose around her head, her eyes closed, her limbs relaxed.

She extended a hand toward him without opening her eyes.

"Join me."

Without a word Lucifer extended his wings and flew up to land on the thick branch next to her, settling on his haunches, strong talons digging into the wood to keep him balanced. She caressed his face gently, tracing his jaw line with a finger before cupping his cheek.

"You are reckless, my Queen" he said. "It is not time to create bonds now. We have not established our hold on any of these worlds. One is more vulnerable within a bond." His voice was harsh even as he accepted her soothing touch.

"You fear too much," she retorted. "We are strong and we are here. The System Lords have agreed to our presence here...for now. The ones who have not we will fight. But the human life here is astoundingly abundant. We shall feed." She leaned forward as she spoke. "You are troubled by my bonding with Rodney."

Lucifer nodded. "His people...Earth is still a great threat. And they have powerful allies. You know all this."

"I do know," Lilith affirmed. "I have sent destruction to Earth. As we speak, his world is no more. They and their allies will be less of a threat now. I know how they think. They will despair at seeing their home die. They will be less efficient in a fight, if they even survive. I have sent one of our ships to destroy their sun. Their entire solar system will die. Thus I fulfilled my part in the agreement with the System Lords. I eliminated our greatest common enemy. They will need time to recover from this, if they manage to do that at all." she smiled and shifted closer.

"I see," Lucifer said. "And Rodney?" he asked, knowing his disapproval would be evident. "Is he to be your weakness?"

Lilith laughed. "I told him that I will do whatever he wished me to do after he helped us. I intend to keep my word. He wanted to live. As a human. I know his mind-he would not wish to be one of us. When I had him transformed, it was the only way to help him heal his injuries and to keep his loyalties without inflicting any new injuries. Now it is no longer necessary."

"You intend to restore him to his previous condition?" Lucifer asked, astonished. "You have lost your mind!" His face contorted with disgust. "You will have a human as bonded mate? No Wraith will ever accept that. You will be outcast!"

Lilith shrugged, as if this was of no consequence. "It is necessary. Only in this way can I keep my word to him. The bond will prevent betrayal."

"Your word..." Lucifer sneered at her. "It will be your destruction!"

She merely shrugged again. "Perhaps. We are old, my Light Bearer. I have given my children's children new feeding grounds. Nothing else matters."

Lucifer blinked at her, then his eyes widened in dawning comprehension and horror. "You knew you would not see the end of this war."

Lilith smiled sadly, and she caressed his cheek again. "I never intended to."

***

Sheppard was running. Head down, Zat gun clenched tightly in his hand, he advanced at a steady pace toward the dome where Lilith now lived. It amazed him how fast the Wraith had settled this planet, but that wasn't going to matter. The Jaffa, led by Baal himself, were as efficient as any strike force he'd ever seen.

Baal had taken on the mission of finding and eliminating Lilith while the five Mother ships and thousands of gliders carried out an airborne attack.

The planet surface was in chaos. Wraith darts and death gliders filled the sky with light from their weapons. The noise was all-encompassing. If he wasn't smack in the middle of it he would have thought it very cool. This would make one hell of a video game, John mused to himself while straining to keep up with Baal.

The Goa'uld looked perfectly comfortable in his new body by now, and he was making good use of the long legs, covering the ground in tremendous strides.

"Are you sure she's in there?" John asked breathlessly as they stopped. He crouched down next to a wall that looked and felt disturbingly organic.

Baal smirked at him before using his Zat to dispatch the guard at the entrance. The Jaffa providing back-up were busy shooting blue streams of death towards the Wraith surrounding them. John noticed there were fewer than they had started out with.

"Come on, John." Baal encouraged as he moved his hand over a protrusion on the wall that looked like a flower. The wall opened and they went in quickly.

"What about your men?" John asked as the wall slid back into place behind them.

Baal sniffed in clear derision, the gesture both absurd and grotesque on his new face. "You are pathetic. They provide distraction. It is their purpose. Let's hope it takes them long enough to die so that we have the time to complete our mission."

Inside the dome everything was quiet. The walls gave a soft orange light. John took a moment to look around.

"They know we are in here," Baal told him quietly. He smiled. "They're confused-they don't know what I am. But they are coming."

Sheppard followed Baal's lead as he hurried down one of the corridors that branched out from the front room. He couldn't think straight long enough to formulate a plan of his own. The more he thought about it the more hopeless it felt. What was he thinking when he decided to go along with this? There was no way in hell he could get Rodney out of here alive-or dead for that matter, because he was becoming increasingly certain he wasn't going to be able to leave, either. Oh, God, Rodney. I'm so sorry.

New determination hardened his features. He was going to die on an alien planet and that was something he had made peace with long ago. He wasn't going to be able to save Rodney, and he would never make his peace with that, but it couldn't be helped.

Aiming his Zat at Baal's back, John pondered. If anyone could take Lilith out, it was the monster leading him. On the other hand, there was no guarantee that Lilith was actually here. It was only Baal's word. He might not have a second chance to do this.

Making his mind up, John took the shot. Baal jumped out of the way just in time and the paralyzing shot got his left side, but didn't bring him down.

"Fool!" Baal snarled, enraged. "You have no hope without me!" He bared his vestigial teeth. Sheppard ducked behind a corner to avoid being hit.

His second try was more successful. Jumping out again before Baal could regain full mobility, he fired twice. One of the shots took the alien out. He walked over to him and kicked his Zat away.

"You're wrong," John said simply. "I have no hope at all." He fired again. A third shot made the body disappear.

John continued down the narrow corridor, two Zat guns at the ready. He ran into three Wraith drones soon after that, but he'd expected as much. He managed to take down two of them before the third stunned him. He was unceremoniously dragged to a large, round room.

A pained grunt escaped between his sealed lips as he was dropped on the hard floor. He tried to blink some moisture into his eyes, but the lids would not work. He cursed inwardly as the first tear slid down his temple and into his ear, making him shudder. At least the stinging in his eyes stopped.

He felt himself being lifted and then placed on a softer surface that gave under his weight. Familiar green eyes locked with his and an equally familiar sneer turned his stomach.

"Lantean," Lilith said silkily. "You have invaded my new home in vain. Your world is no more. Where is Ereskigal? Why can I feel her no longer?" His silence spurred her anger on. "You will die knowing you have failed." Her hand pushed down on his solar plexus hard enough to crush a rib or two. His eyes rolled back in pain.

"Lilitu," someone said.

John focused again.

"...Ohyy?" John's clenched teeth and heavy tongue did not allow him to speak his friend's name.

"He is...familiar to me. I can't remember why. I know him." Rodney came closer to the web hammock Sheppard was laying on. Rodney's mind felt wrapped in cotton.

"Leave me! He must die." Lilith's rage peaked as her bonded mate disobeyed and came still closer. She did not want for him to see this. His memories had been carefully edited, and the fragile balance she had worked so hard to create would be destroyed by any inconsistency. "You will know everything soon. You must leave now!"

"Lilith, my Queen, I'm sorry, but I can't let him die." Rodney shook his head. "I can't-I can't explain it..."

John saw a pale hand wrap around the Wraith Queen's wrist, pulling her hand off his chest. He took advantage of the stun slowly wearing off and with great effort turned his head. He could feel sweat cooling on his back, his muscles were stiff and sore and his joints were starting to tingle with the promise of pins and needles. Every shallow breath hurt.

It was Rodney standing next to Lilith, holding her hand away from him. He looked paler than John had ever seen him, his brown hair coming down to his shoulders made him look older. And his eyes were purple. There was something very Wraith-like about him, yet nothing close to what John had expected.

"R'dny...Buddy. Guh ta shee ya."

Rodney came even closer, his eyes narrowing then suddenly widening.

John's vision blurred. He was sure now that his ribs weren't just cracked but broken and pierced a lung, since he could taste blood in his mouth. Part of him wondered distantly why Lilith hadn't just fed on him. Blood loss and shallow breathing will make me pass out, he thought. He smiled as he imagined what Rodney would have said to that, if John had been able to gasp out the words.

Darkness came and with it the pain ceased.

Rodney watched the man's hazel eyes glaze over and lose their shine as life left his body. A terrible sadness took hold of him. His mind felt empty and he couldn't make sense of any of the things going on around him.

The dome shook around them. Lilith let out a startled cry, looking up as if she could see through the canopy of their shelter.

They were taking off, joining the other hives fleeing the planet, when Lilith was alerted to the presence of more intruders. She grabbed Rodney's hand and guided him toward where the hive was still connected to the dome, the other Wraith waiting for their Queen.

***

EPILOGUE

"Whatcha readin'?" the red-haired girl asked. She sat on the cold stone step next to her friend and leaned over to read the cover.

"Just a historical novel," the other student replied as she put the book in her book bag and stood, brushing dust off her uniform pants.

"Huh...'Eve without Eden'. Nice title. So, what's this one about?" the red-head stood as well, playfully elbowing her friend.

"Mmm, well, it's about the last days of Earth One, the dawn of the first inter-galactic war against the Wraith, stuff like that."

"Cool. So, who's the main character?"

"Well, it starts with when they first found Eve-you know, Lilith-in the Pegasus Galaxy. It revolves quite a bit around McKay, but your favorite First Era military commander of the Atlantean expedition does make an appearance. Wanna borrow it when I'm finished with it?"

"Yeah, that would be cool, thanks. So, are you ready for the concert tonight?"

"Very. I just have one more chapter left of the book. I wonder how the author portrayed Eve-Lilith's death."

"It'll be one of the known theories, I'll bet," he friend said. "The bones they found on Giglia were never positively identified as hers, but nobody denied it, either. Well, it's what they said on the documentary we saw in class, anyway. Along with the female Wraith skeleton, they apparently found bones of an unknown species... half Wraith, half human. They suspect it's the remains of McKay."

"Yeah." The other one nodded. "I know. They're trying to extract DNA to make a positive ID. Do you think professor Lara will let us go to Giglia for the summer excavations?"

"Sure. All we have to do is ace her exam and we're on the team. Don't worry, we still have a couple of months before finals. Let's enjoy the concert tonight."

***

Excerpt from the Archeology Faculty's Weekly News Sheet, University of New Europe, First Issue Of The Fall Semester:

Report On The Summer Excavation On Giglia, Site Number 45XP-307.

An archeology team led by Professor John Lara, PhD, conducted a survey this summer on planet Giglia. The research was centered on the area where, a year earlier, a Terra-forming team had accidentally stumbled across an ancient Wraith settlement. The most prominent find was a skeleton belonging to the Queen Lilith. The scientific community had reason to believe that Giglia was the planet where the first Wraith/Goa'uld confrontation took place.

On further examination another skeleton was unearthed. This one belonging to a creature that so far defies classification as either human or Wraith.

After a summer's work, Professor Lara's team determined that this skeleton indeed belongs to one Dr. Rodney M. McKay, considered MIA until now. The survey proved to be exceptionally fruitful, as yet another skeleton was found, identified as a male human. At first the researchers considered him to have been one of the Wraith Queen's victims.

DNA tests have been conducted on this skeleton as part of the summer practice for the students on the team. The results of these tests will change history as we now know it. The remains belong to one John Sheppard, USAF Major. The former military commander of the Atlantean expedition had been counted among the victims of the solar explosion that destroyed Earth 1. There is no official record of him leaving the planet before the explosion and this unique find brings up new questions.

His remains will be transported to Lantea, along with those of Dr McKay. They will be creamated and scattered over the Lantean Ocean.

The end

Chapter End Notes:
Yes, I know, I killed everyone, I couldn't help it. Someone suggested turning this into Mc/Shep sometime ago and I just wanted to write an end note here and say that if any of you want to write an alternate ending to this, you are welcome, just specify that it is inspired by Eve without Eden, because I want to read it!

On a different note, for those who wondered why prof. Lara is refered to as 'she' and then called John (wierd heh?) it is because I made a mistake and then when I saw it I decided not to corect it figuring that in the year 5678(or what ever the distant future in the end of the story is) a woman can be called John. This is afterall an AU to a sci-fi story... Also I thought it kinda cool that the name John would be very popular maybe because of Shep being a big hero and stuff...