Meme, Igigi x Lord John Sheppard (Patreon)

Jennifer A. asked, "How about the one where AUTony from Lions and Tigers and Snippets meets Lord John?" Since these are two different SGA universes (Not in Kansas Anymore versus Lord John Sheppard), the only answer would be a quantum mirror. 

"New Waters"

“These quantum mirror things… they never get old,” Tony said as he considered John and Teyla. John didn’t even look like a colonel. He looked a little like a Dr. Who villain. It was the elaborately carved silver sword in combination with the all black look.  His universe’s John had been shamed out of that look by Teyla and Rodney who had convinced him to wear gray with an occasional charcoal or slate or even, when John felt wild, taupe. 

“Wait, you’re from another universe?” Rodney stuck his head up from behind a console.

“Rodney!” Tony’s relief at seeing his favorite astrophysicist was cut short when John stepped to the side, his hand on his sword. “Whoa. We’re on the same side, even if you clearly don’t recognize me. I wonder if that means in my universe, I’m still stuck in NCIS.” Tony winced. He’d loved the job, but when Vivian had turned into a shrew, he’d put too much effort into annoying her with his playboy act. Well, he was a big boy, no doubt he would have crawled out of the hole he dug for himself by now.

Teyla rested her hand on John’s arm. “Do I take it you know us in your universe?”

“We’re teammates. Well, we were before we all got far too busy for first contact work, but…” Tony shrugged and gave this group a brilliant smile. “Hopefully my Rodney is figuring out what went wrong that I got sent on this little jaunt.”

“Jaunt? Did you call it a jaunt? Are you brain damaged?” Rodney threw his hands up into the air. “You can’t just drop into other people’s realities. Wait. Are you trying to steal from us? Just because we’re doing awesome doesn’t mean you can waltz in here and demand we give you the fruits of our success!”

“Rodney,” Teyla said softly, her voice a warning.

“Yeah, Rodney,” Tony added. When Teyla gave him a cold look, Tony cleared his throat and carefully didn’t smile.

“He definitely knows us,” John said with a small smile. “But I’m wondering why you’re in our universe.”

Tony looked around at engineering. Someone had added a lot of goa’uld technology to the consoles, and Jo stirred uneasily. Worse, Tony didn’t hear Aleigheta. Not even a whisper. It was like the AU was missing altogether. “It was more of a mistake than anything. The IOC ordered Rodney to study other dimensions to compile a report on potential threats or options we haven’t considered. However, we’re doing fine.” Tony stopped, not willing to give them more, not when he couldn’t get a handle on the situation. John was smiling, but he also moved differently. It made Tony suspicious.

.

.

.

.

“So, you had a goa’uld in you?” Tony waited to see if John would deny it.

He looked over, his lazy demeanor hiding his strong emotions. Maybe other people were fooled by that, but Tony had known John for too long. “I did. He’s gone.”

“That’s…” Tony stopped. He had no idea what to say. Jo had bit the tail of more than one onac who carried the memories of Yu, so he had a different point of view than most humans, but he didn’t want to out himself as an onac host. That limited what he could say.

“Freaky?” John guessed. “Horrifying? Disgusting?” He considered Tony, his gaze flat.

“No,” Tony said. “Yu was never the monster Ra or Apophis were. I’m not disgusted.”

John sat forward. “You talk like you know him.”

Tony shrugged. “He’s been an ally several times. Was he your enemy?”

“Not until after he took me as a host.” John grimaced. “Not that we were friends before that.”

Tony tried to keep his voice neutral. “Did he help add Earth to the Asgard treaty?”

“Yeah, he did. When we were captured, I tried to convince Rodney that Yu would give us back.” He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t believe it, but I wanted him to feel better. And then Yu blackmailed me into agreeing to host.”

Tony pursed his lips. Unless this Yu had discovered the literal fountain of youth, he would have been too old to control a new host. At least he wouldn’t have been able to control him for long. However, Tony had no idea how to bring that up. He wondered if the others knew. In his own universe, the team would have John’s back no matter what and Lorne was the definition of morally flexible. He wouldn’t bat an eye if John hosted, although having him host a goa’uld would cause at least a few blinks.

John turned to face Tony. “You have something to say?”

“Nope.” Tony grinned. John pressed his lips together, an expression Tony hated. John was a friend, and Tony hated hurting a friend. “Except that I think Yu gave you a real advantage here. We had help from an igigi with five thousand years of experience, but without him, I’m fairly sure the expedition would have been royally screwed. It seems like Yu did a better job of planning than we did, and he would be amused to know he will forever be remembered as the one who saved Atlantis from the Wraith.”

John immediately narrowed his eyes. “What makes you say that?” 

Tony had forgotten just how insightful and suspicious John was. So now he stood at a crossroad. If he lied or refused to give John an answer, John would never trust him. Tony shouldn’t care about that. He shouldn’t. This wasn’t his universe or his John, but the idea of any version of John Sheppard distrusting him bothered Tony enough that he should probably get therapy for it.

“I remember Yu,” Tony said with a shrug. John’s expression turned from suspicious to confused. “Goa’uld are evil because Ra spread the memories of a psychopathic host. Yu only heard those stories second or third hand. He was greedy and arrogant, but he didn’t have the same desire to subjugate that others did.”

“And you know this for sure?” John asked. However, his tone lacked any surprise or challenge, which meant Tony was only telling him what he already know.

“Some onac didn’t get those stories at all. They’re still arrogant… seriously, dangerously arrogant… but they can be good people.”

“You have one,” John said confidently.

Tony chuckled. “You always have caught on faster than you wanted anyone to know. Well, unless it involves someone’s romantic interest, then you’re clueless.”

“I have my personal life sorted just fine,” John said, and a few of his prickles were back. Tony smiled. Good. That meant John and Rodney had still managed to find their way to each other, even without imminent death and Samas to do a little pushing behind the scenes. “So is it just you that has one of these symbiotes?”

“Nope. Me, Gibbs, Radek, Kyli, Teldy, Miko, Elizabeth, Ronon, Hew, Abby, a hundred Satedan warriors, a few dozen Earth people, several dozen humans from other planets… just a few.”

John blinked at him.

“The symbiotes have gone back to the society they had before Ra corrupted it. They join a host, have an adventure, and then go home. For the warriors, that means the little brothers ride along for one mission. For the scholars’ path, they stay in a scientists until a big breakthrough or until the symbiote can’t stand being inside a human body anymore and wants to return to the water.”

“Yu remembered the water… the feeling of stories all around him.” His voice took on an almost nostalgic tone. Jo sent up a flash of smug triumph. She would have offspring who would sing of her, even after her very long life ended. But Yu had been reduced to sharing his memory with an unjoined human who would only live another sixty or seventy years. Tony loved his girl, but she was arrogant.

“Singing,” Tony said. “It’s actually closer to images, but we call it singing. Imagine that below Atlantis were tens of thousands of symbiotes singing about the moment Miko figured out liquid crystal programming or the time Ronon fought off a dozen Wraith on a hive to rescue our version of you. Those songs will be remembered forever. And Yu’s children are there, singing about the war of the queens and the power of a true warrior to fight his own battles. I know Yu isn’t evil because I’ve heard dozens of mini-Yu’s bragging about how their stories have survived Ra, the great corrupter and killer of queens.”

“You haven’t heard anything. At best you could host a symbiote who heard the songs.” John sat back and studied Tony, his suspicions slowly growing more obvious as the seconds passed. “Except Yu knew about some symbiotes who took on the personality of their first host. Ra used to destroy those sorts of underlings.”

“I’m no underling,” Tony snapped. He was fairly sure that was Jo’s influence. “But not only am I Jo’s first host, but she was born with my memories because I hosted the onac chosen as he father.” Tony wasn’t convinced father was the right word, but he didn’t have another way to explain onac biology.

“You know a queen, a hosting queen.” John’s voice was almost reverent.

In for a dime, in for a dollar. “I host a hosting queen,” Tony revealed. “And her parent is the reigning leader of the Turi who live in the water.”

“They work together?” John asked in alarm.

“I’ll tell you the truth if you tell me some,” Tony offered. He was insanely curious about the choices Yu had made in the universe, and he was still worried about John.

“Only if we both hide the truth from the U.S. military,” John said.

Tony held out his hand to shake. “Deal.”

John moved slowly, but he eventually took Tony’s hand and solemnly shook it. Tony didn’t know how long his Rodney was going to take to get him home, so maybe it was time for Tony to make a few allies in this reality. Jo agreed.