risen

Rodney watched on a view screen, wishing he could be on Atlantis as she soared upward, well aware he had his own part to play from the bridge of the Orion.

He imagined the rushing storm-strong roar of the anti-grav drives coming on-line, the noise rushing through the great city-ship's corridors and spires, the power from the ZPMs they'd finally fabricated rushing through John's veins as he piloted her upward, into the sky, into orbit, into space where the Orion waited beside the battered but still proud Daedalus, where the Nje'hira, Teyla's stolen Wraith cruiser, hovered in rank with the last of the Tok'ra gathered aboard the motherships Semiramis, Nefertiti, and Hatshepsut, and Earth's last two intergalactic destroyers, the Simon Bolivar and the Tereshkova, flanked by the Asgard's Daniel Jackson.

Lightning strobed over the perfect sphere of the shield as Atlantis crested through the clouds and took her rightful place before their small fleet.

Rodney engaged the chevrons that would initiate the largest free-space wormhole ever created. It opened before them like a moon-sized mirror.

*I knew you could do it, Rodney,* John's lazy voice said over the fleet-wide comm. *Everybody ready?*

Rodney lifted his chin, even though John couldn't see him. "Of course you did."

John's chuckle echoed through nine bridges.

*Let's do this.*

*I have the privilege,* Teyla radioed and the Nje'hira slipped into the wormhole.

The rest of the fleet followed until only the Orion and Atlantis remained.

*I guess this is goodbye,* John said.

*We'll be right behind you.*

*You'd better be.*

Atlantis' stardrive activated and she moved with grace and power into the wormhole that would take her back to the Milky Way for the first time in over ten thousand years.

They had defeated the Wraith.

It was time to take back the Milky Way from the Ori.

The Orion wasted no time following.