**Sorry for the wait again. I hope you enjoy this chapter**
Chapter 54: The Things We Find
Over the last few years in Atlantis not everything went smoothly. Sure reconstruction went well and migration of all those who chose to come with them evened out.
But there were also some hazardous life forms were ejected from the city. For example the weird energy sucking mass lifeform that was trapped by the original Atlantean's that reminded Hyacinth of a formless dementor. Now that was an interesting day when Severus had found it he had immediately sent his Patronus just like he did on this very morning not long after she had opened her eyes.
Silver light gathered in the air in front of her, forming into a doe before it spoke in Severus's voice.
"We've uncovered a sealed chamber in the eastern lower sector. It was marked for refurbishment. However we have discovered a life pod inside. It appears to be a human female. We're preparing to open it."
And with that the Patronus dissolved.
Hyacinth didn't wait around for the next report she quickly dressed and made a mad dash for the transporter.
The eastern sector of the city was still in relatively good shape that's why refurbishment in this sector had been put on hold.
The lights having just been reactivated in this sector hadn't fully stabilized yet, leaving the corridor dimmer than the main sections. The air carried a faint chill that hadn't quite been worked out after years of neglect.
Severus stood at the end of the hall. He had his coat off, and his sleeves rolled neatly to his forearms as he worked with the crystal conduits. Sirius leaned against the wall nearby, arms crossed, watching the door for anyone that could wander in a disrupt their work. While Remus stood a little farther back so as not to get in Severus's way.
Hyacinth slowed as she reached them.
"What did you find?"
Severus glanced at her, then back at the door. "If what the records indicate is true than this is probably a lab that was assigned to Janus's before our ancestors returned to Earth."
That was all she needed to hear to assess the severity of the situation.
Hyacinth stepped closer to read the logs because if she remembered anything from the Black family records along with the Atlantean database it was that Janus was insane. Kind in some respects, but certifiably he was insane just like his decedents. He held no regard for the rules and went off the deep end when it came to something he was passionate about. Like time travel for example.
"The door wouldn't open at first," Sirius said. "Not for him anyway."
Severus's mouth twitched faintly. "Not without the proper clearance or a blood link."
Sirius chuckled "leave it to a Black to lock things down with a blood lock."
Severus just looked at his with his classic deadpan face and said "That's the only reason I called you here you Imbecile. Otherwise do you think I would willingly want to be in the same room with you for more than ten minutes."
Hyacinth sighed because why couldn't these two just get along. She looked at her Uncle Remus for support but saw him shrug as if to say, what do you expect me to do about this. Another sigh left her as she accepted her fate.
Stepping between them she held up her hands and said, "Alright enough fighting and get back to work so that we can figure out who is stuck in the ancient freezer."
Finally the bickering stopped and the room filled with the sound of Severus working. This allowed her a chance to look around the lab.
From a glance she could tell the room hadn't been touched in centuries.
Consoles lined the walls, they were dim but active, with a low hum running through them. Luckily it didn't look like anything had broken down or decayed due to the damaged shield emitters. This part of the city was lucky, it had all been left exactly as it was. Because it wasn't in a part of the city that was sacrificed when the power levels started dropping.
In the center of the room there was a pod.
It looked older than the systems they'd recently been restoring. It was bulkier than the statis pods in the medical bay. With frost clinging to the outer casing.
Inside, someone lay perfectly still.
And exactly like Severus had mentioned she appeared to be a human female.
She looked a lot older than Hyacinth expected. But if she was honest with herself she had no idea what she had expected.
Severus moved to the interface, already working through the controls. "It's still active."
Sirius pushed off the wall. "This whole wing shouldn't still be running. We cut power to it just like all the other unused parts of the city until after Severus's security checks to avoid another disaster like the energy sucky thingy."
"It must be on a closed loop power back up that managed to hide itself in the base code," Remus said quietly.
Hyacinth stepped closer to the pod, studying the woman inside.
"Can you open it?" Hyacinth asked.
Severus didn't look up. "That's not advisable at this moment. Her life signs are quite weak and I will have to stabilize the pod before I even attempt it."
"How long will that take?"
He looked down at the monitor then he adjusted something, eyes narrowing slightly. "Long enough to avoid killing her."
"Then take your time but try and hurry as much as you can while maintaining safety protocols."
He nodded once and got back to work.
Leaving Severus to his work with little distractions seemed to be the correct choice because it didn't take him quite as long as Hyacinth had expected it to.
The frost along the surface began to melt.
"Step back," Severus said.
The seal broke with a quiet hiss.
The glass lifted just enough.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then they heard a sharp breath.
The woman's chest rose, then fell in a steady rhythm.
Her eyes opened slowly.
She looked around the room with hazy half focused eyes.
Her gaze lingered a second too long on Hyacinth.
"Where..." Her voice was rough. "Where am I?"
Hyacinth stepped forward. "Atlantis."
The woman frowned immediately. "No. That's not..."
She stopped mid sentence before she looked around again this time with clearer eyes not fogged down in disorientation.
"You're not a part of the Atlantis expedition," she said.
Sirius huffed a quiet laugh. "You're not wrong."
Remus shot him a look.
Hyacinth held her gaze. "We're not who you're expecting?"
They moved her to the med ward.
Madam Pomfrey took over the moment they walked in, directing people with practiced ease. Nicolas Flamel stood nearby, watching more than speaking, hands folded behind his back.
Madam Pomfrey's magic settled over the woman, in her healer specific way that was steady and calming.
It didn't take long before she was done and the woman was stabilized enough for her to be questioned. But instead of being questioned it was more like she was doing the questioning.
The woman was sitting up now, still pale but alert. Her eyes tracked Hyacinth the moment she entered.
"You said Atlantis," she said.
Hyacinth nodded.
"That's not possible," the woman continued. "We didn't..."
She stopped again, reassessing.
"Who are you?"
"We live here," Hyacinth said.
That wasn't the answer she wanted.
"You found it? But how?"
"No."
That unsettled her more than anything else so far.
That's when the door to the med bay opened.
Luna stepped in, as if she'd been expected.
She glanced at the woman, head tilting slightly.
"It'll be another ninety years before your people come stumbling into our city," she said.
The room went quiet.
The woman blinked. "I'm sorry... what?"
Luna didn't repeat herself.
And Hyacinth didn't feel the need to sugar coat things for her because she was starting to figure out that this wasn't one of the Atlanteans.
"I won't..." She swallowed. "I won't live that long."
The silence held for a moment before Remus stepped forward.
"From your reaction I can only assume that you aren't an Atlantean," he said gently.
She looked at him for a long moment. "That is correct. My name is Elizabeth Weir, I come from a planet called Earth. Would you be willing to help me contact them."
He hesitated, just briefly then said. "Excuse me for being blunt, but the way you were talking earlier it seemed you were expecting something different."
Her attention sharpened. "That's complicated to explain."
Luna chimed in at that moment, "No it's not. It's simple you are a time traveler from the future and the past."
Elizabeth looked at Luna in shock at first but then sighed and nodded her head as she said, "Yes, I guess I am. I came from Earth to Atlantis in July of the year 2004. The city was on the brink of power failure and was flooding. Myself and a few men managed to make it onto a spaceship that was retrofitted into a time machine. The machine worked but dumped me 10,000 years into the past right before the Ancients left the city. It was Janus--the man who invented the time machine--who devised a plan to keep the city safe long enough for my team to survive. I guess looking at you he made other plans after he made his way back to Earth."
Remus took over the conversation from there and said, "Well that complicates things."
Elizabeth looked up at him with a panicked almost frenzied look and asked, "Why?"
"Now that we know you are from the future we can't allow you to go back to Earth or contact them in any way," Remus said.
"Why not?"
"Because you would already be there on Earth and that would cause issues."
That hit her harder than Elizabeth had expected.
"You're saying I can't meet them or even talk to them."
"That is exactly what I'm saying. The timeline simply wouldn't hold if you did."
She didn't look away but held his gaze firmly. "Explain."
Remus exhaled slowly. "We've worked with time before," he said. "In very controlled ways. Small loops. Hours at most. Even then, there are rules."
He waited for her to digest what he said before he continued "Two versions of the same person, existing at the same point in time... it creates strain on spacetime itself. In sever cases the timeline corrects it."
"How?"
"We don't know exactly," he admitted. "But it's not something anyone walks away from."
Sirius shifted beside him. "Translation... it's a terrible idea."
She looked down at her hands.
Then back up at Hyacinth.
"So this isn't my Atlantis," she said.
"No." Hyacinth answered her.
A long breath left her.
"Are they..." she started, then stopped. "My team. Are they..."
"They won't meet the same fate twice you traveling to the past has changed the course of events," Luna said. "This one change made it to where our ancestors left us a way home which in turn changed the fate of your people as well."
It was the closest thing to an answer she could give their time traveling friend.
Elizabeth nodded once in acceptance of her new fate.
She then looked up and asked, "What will happen to me then? Since I can't meet with those from Earth."
Remus stepped up after scanning her one more time. "You have a few options. One you can stay and live out the rest of your natural life with us here. Or two we have an elixir that can help extend your life span. Though according to my scans it won't be as effective on you as it is on us, it will however be able to grant you another 150 years or so. This option also means that you will never be able to interact with your home world once they come through the Astria Porta in around 90 years."
Elizabeth once again looked around the room at these people. These people who had taken Atlantis from her before she was even able to gain control of her or learn of her secrets.
Was she tempted to see how they reversed the damage that time had wrought on her body? If she was honest with herself then the answer was yes.
But this city wasn't hers to claim anymore and these people weren't her people. She couldn't imagine living along side them for another 150 years as she grew old again while also not being able to contact her home or her loved ones. Not to mention the risks involved in potentially running into herself when this timelines current her returns to the city.
With a resigned resolve she looked up at this group of people who were the descendants of the Ancients who she had admired and said, "I don't think I have enough resolve to regain my youth and keep my distance from my home. So.. I guess that means I will live with what little time I have left."
Hyacinth, Luna, Sirius, Remus and Nicolas all nodded and let out a sigh of hidden relief. Because, at least this way they have one less thing they have to worry about.
The last thing they need while trying to rebuild their society is to have a lone muggle mucking about their city. Who knows when she would decide to try and contact Earth to report to her future commander and apprise them of the situation.
Hyacinth looked at this women with a new found respect because even though her thoughts just now seemed harsh. She did feel regret for letting this woman effectively kill herself when she could stop it all for the security of her own people.
Hyacinth nodded after her short pause and said. "Alright I won't stop you. I will even thank you for making this choice. Because your sacrifice is allowing me to keep my people safe from your people and maintaining our timelines integral stability."
Elizabeth nodded but everyone in the room felt her despair, and no one missed the tear that trailed down her face as the last of her strength left her. With one final breath Elizabeth Weir drew her final breath on Atlantis and was gone.