It had been three days since Maria had regained control over her own body. These seventy-two hours had consisted of constant observation and psych-evaluations to make sure that Witch was truly gone.

It was by then she asked that the princesses tried out their cure on her in an attempt to remove all reminders of the horrendous thing she had become.

But now, as she stood there with Equestria’s Princess of Magic getting ready to use the spell, she was having second thoughts.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked, glancing nervously at the lavender pony, who was reading from a large book. Celestia was standing behind a protective glass shield for her own safety. Her sister, Luna, was at night court, so she was unable to observe the experimental process.

Twilight was so focused on the book that Maria had to call her name out twice to get her attention. “What? Oh yes, it’s perfectly safe.” She placed the book down and faced Maria. “Okay. Let’s get this over with. If the process gets too painful, then tell me and I’ll stop.”

“Okay. And promise me something, as well.” Maria stretched out and felt some of her bones pop. “Don’t stop, no matter what.”

The Alicorn reluctantly agreed and began charging up her horn. The room started to fill up with a radiant light, and as it reached its peak, Twilight released it, sending a beam of energy at Maria. As the beam struck her, Maria’s body began to burn like it did when she had wrangled control from Witch, but despite this, she didn't scream. She had endured worse at the hands of the wraith.

By then, the spell was taking effect. Her fingers, which had become claws, started to revert back to their old state, and her teeth began to blunt out until she had an almost perfect se, except for her canines, which had taken significantly longer to revert. Her skin, which had become deathly pale, had regained its natural tanned color, and her muscles had gotten slightly larger, removing her fragile appearance and making her look more like a mature woman than a frail teen.

If she wasn't in so much pain, she would have shouted out that it was working, but that was when it all went wrong.

Twilight's face contorted in pain. “Something's wrong. The spell—”

She didn't get to finish, as a massive burst of magical energy erupted from her horn and struck Maria square in the chest, sending her flying into the far wall. She cried out in pain as she hit the floor.

Her vision started to blacken, and just before she passed out, she saw Twilight collapse and Celestia rush over.

“Get down!”

A staff blast soared over her head and struck the wall behind where she was crouched. Maria’s helmet’s HUD registered the shooter’s position as a few meters to her left. Another volley of staff blasts impacted her cover.

She leaned over her cover and let off three bursts from her PAW90, killing an Alliance soldier and making his friends take cover. She activated her helmet’s radio. “What’s taking so long, Griff? I thought you said ten minutes?”

"Do you want to go boom?" the team engineer replied, his voice rose showing his annoyance and frustration. "If you want me to make sure they don't disarm the thing after we leave, then pipe down and buy me some time."

Maria was about to say something when a staff blast hit her square in the chest. As her Armor's shield flared, absorbing the damage, she crouched down behind cover to let her shield recharge. "Just get it done!"

"Have trouble there, Major?" the voice of Colonel Wisp questioned over the radio, making her roll her eyes. "No Sir!" Her shield fully recharged, and she got up and fired again, killing two more men and wounding a third. As the second dropped to the floor, Maria's HUD warned her about a man who had snuck behind her and was about to slam his staff down onto her head. She spun around, grabbed it and wrenched it out of the man's hands. He didn't even have a chance to be surprised as she shot him in the gut, making him double over and thrash about on the ground. She emptied the last rounds in her clip into the man's head.

She did so without remorse, as she knew he would have done the same thing to her, had he been given the chance.

How did this mission go to hell so quickly? The job was meant to be simple. Set up a Naquadah bomb and destroy the Ancient ruins so that they didn't fall into the Lucian Alliance's hands. Their fleet was meant to still be a week away, but they had arrived early, and in more numbers than they were told to expect.

"Sounds like you could use some help over there." A missile exploded inside the enemy lines, making them scatter. Another armored man dropped from the ruined building behind her and crouched behind cover next to her. "Looks like I got here just in time."

"Weren't you supposed to be watching the east, Simmons?"

The maroon-armored Sargent chuckled as he slung his SMAW and unhooked his PAW90. "I blocked the way, so the bastard can only get through here."

Maria's radio crackled on. "Santiago, Simmons, get back here. We're pulling out." Maria and Simmons looked at each other and checked their ammo. "How much ammo you got?" she asked.

"Three clips, a single missile, and some C12," he answered with a smile.

"Put that Missile here and set that C12 over there."

"Well, that backfired," Simmons said as they stared at the debris blocking their way to the rest of the team. They had intended to delay the Alliance soldiers just long enough to get away, but the blast had made the surrounding ruins unstable, and the path that they had intended to take had been blocked.

"What's taking you so long?" Wisp asked over the radio. "Williams and Chang are already here."

"Sorry sir, but our path’s blocked," Simmons replied into his helmet. "We gotta go around."

"Okay, but get here fast. I thi—" There was an explosion in the background, followed by gunfire. "Shit! They're coming from behind us!"

Simmons and Maria broke into a sprint, following their HUD maps. "Hold on sir! We're on our way."

They reached a building with its door blocked by stone blocks. Even with the armor's enhanced strength, it would take too long to move the obstruction, and the sound of fierce battle echoed from the other side of the building.

Simmons pointed up. "We can use that window." On the second floor was a window which they could reach. "Follow me." He bent down and sprang up a few feet, grabbing the window’s edge and pulling himself up. Maria followed suit, and as she pulled herself over, noticed that the gun and staff fire had ceased.

She found Simmons crouched on the window, overlooking the courtyard beyond where the rest of the team was meant to be waiting. "Get down," he hissed as he waved her down. She crouched next to him and peeked over the window ledge.

The entire SG team was down. Chang was lying face down with a hole melted in his armor, and when she checked his vital signs, she knew he was dead. Griff and Wisp were keeled down with their hands over their heads, and Williams, the team’s medic, was leaned against the wall with a nasty looking hole in her leg armor.

At the other end of the courtyard was their only way off the planet, the Stargate.

Maria went to get up, but Simmons pulled her down. "Wait! We can't just charge in there!" He checked to see if anyone had seen them. "Let’s wait for a chance to present itself."

Maria bit her lip and nodded. He was right, but it didn't mean she liked it. There were over nine hostiles down there.

She saw two Alliance soldiers pull Griff up to his feet, half-leading and half-dragging him up to a man who she guessed was the leader. He nodded to his men to drop the engineer. Maria used her armor’s enhanced hearing to listen to what he was saying.

"I know what this device is, and unless you disarm it, we will kill you."

"Fuck you!" Griff spat.

In response, the leader hit him hard with his staff, and Maria had to struggle to stop herself from simply jumping in there.

"Speak to me like that again and I will kill you." He pointed his staff's projectile end and activated it with a crackle of electricity.

Griff shook his head and stared up defiantly. "Then, kill me. You’re going to do it anyway."

There was an eerie silence in which nothing happened, until she heard the leader laugh. "It's true." He aimed his staff at Griff's face. "I was."

She bit her tongue to stop herself from screaming as the bastard shot Griff point blank in the faceplate, killing the engineer instantly.

"No!" Wisp yelled as he tried to get up to his feet, but was hit in the back.

The Leader kicked Griff's limp body aside and ordered his men to bring Wisp before him. "The same will happen to you if you don't do as I say."

Maria looked at Simmons. "We’ve gotta do something," she whispered.

Simmons pulled out two grenades and handed one to Maria. "On three, give ‘em hell."

Maria nodded and pulled the explosive’s pin, throwing it out the window and to the feet of three soldiers. They didn't have a chance to dive away as it blew them to bits. Simmons' grenade had the same effect, and as the men below were in disarray, they both jumped out the window and landed on their feet, taking down man after surprised man.

In the leader’s moment of surprise, Wisp wrenched his weapon from him and knocked him to his knees, activating the staff. "This one’s for Griff and Chang, you bastard!" The man was sent flying, killed by the blow.

While he was focused on that, an Alliance trooper who Maria and Simmons had missed raised his staff and fired into Wisp’s back, knocking him forward. Williams pulled her side arm out and shot the trooper in the head.

Once they mopped up the rest of the enemies, they rushed over to wisp, who was getting up slowly with a smoking hole in his armor.

"You okay, Dave?"

The Colonel ripped his helmet off and threw it away, his face a picture of agony.

Maria checked his wound. It was deep, but she was sure that, if they got him back to the SGC, he'd be alright. "Come on. Let’s get out of here."

As she tried to help him up, he shrugged her off. "Maria, I'm done for." The man showed his front to her, and Maria knew that what he said was true.

He had three deep, bloody blast wounds in both his chest and abdomen. They were fatal.

The colonel dragged himself to the TMNB that was parked in the center of the court yard. The mobile Naquadah explosive was nothing more than a mini explosive built into the chassis of an MALP probe.

Simmons walked over to them after checking on Williams. "What's taking so long? Those Alli..." he trailed off as he saw Wisp's wounds. "Holy shit, Sir!" He got to his knees and looked his commanding officer from top to bottom. "You good?" he asked with a hint of hope in his voice.

The Older man started coughing violently for a minute. When he stopped, he had blood trickling from his mouth. "Sorry Simon, but it looks like I'm going out first." He looked over at the body of Chang. "Pass me Chang's M60." The young Sergeant nodded and walked away, leaving Maria and the colonel alone.

Maria gritted her teeth. "This is that bastard Parkman's fault. He said the Alliance was days away." She clenched her fist. "I'm going to kill him!"

Wisp smiled despite the pain, but began coughing again.

Simmons brought Chang's M60 and handed it over to the dying man, who rested it on his legs.

"Thanks Simon. Take care... Take care of yourself."

The young Sergeant held his hand out, and the colonel shook it weakly. "It's been an honor, Sir."

Wisp pulled his tags off and placed them into Maria's hands. "Take Chang and Griff's, too. Not much of us is going to be left in a few minutes." He weakly aimed the M60 at the only entrance to the courtyard as the shouts came closer. "Get going, you two. Get yourselves and Williams through that gate."

They nodded and got up to leave. "And, Major..." Maria stopped. "Punch Parkmans when you see him."

"Tell ‘em who's their daddy," Williams said as Simmons helped her towards the Stargate.

With that, they left the Colonel to his fate.

They dove through the gate just as the explosive went off, landing on the hard, metal-grilled walkway as the Stargate closed behind them.

Waiting at the bottom of the catwalk was General Peter and, the bastard himself, Parkmans.

"What happened out there, Major?" General Peter asked as a medical team took Williams and helped the medic to the infirmary. "Where's the rest of your team?"

Maria showed the general the tags she now carried. "Dead, sir. All dead" She turned to Parkmans and took off her helmet. "And, as for what happened..." She struck the man hard, making him fall on his rear. "This bastard led them to their deaths." She went to kick the man, but Simmons held her back.

"Lucian Alliance arrived early and caught us off guard. Killed Chang and Griff," Simmons said while still holding Maria back. "Colonel Wisp stayed to detonate the bomb."

Another medical team arrived to take the now unconscious man away as General Peter lead them to the base's briefing room for debrief.

A day later, Maria was at home.

The team's survivors had been told to take a month of leave to recover from the ordeal. This also allotted time for replacement members to be picked. The new Centurion armor prototypes had been sent back to Area Fifty-One after their somewhat successful field test.

At the moment, she was alone. Her daughter, Caroline, was away with her friends in town, so Maria had the place to herself.

She woke up to a gurgling sound from somewhere beyond her window. "What the hell?”

Someone burst through the glass, making her roll off the sofa she had been on and grab her hand gun, pointing it at the offender. It was tall, sickly looking man. A man, who upon closer inspection, had blood all over his mouth.

"Mister, what are you doing?" she asked, trying to get a better look at him.

The man got up and charged at her, and Maria shot him point blank in the face. He slumped to the floor, staining the carpet with blood.

Maria looked out the window and saw more people like the man shuffling around outside. There were bodies out there on the street, most she recognized as her neighbors. Some of the things out there were actually eating them.

There was a crash from the hallway, and two more sick looking people came in. Looking at them she noticed something she had not with the man she had shot. Their eyes were black, without a speck of white in either of them.

She shot both, but another came through the window and latched onto her neck with its teeth. Maria screamed as she tried to shake it off. When it did, it took a large chunk of flesh from her neck with it. She slid down the wall, leaving a trail of blood behind.

As she blacked out, she saw more of the things come in, but she no longer cared, as the cold blackness had drained her of all her strength, both mental and physical. That same blackness soon consumed her.

Author's Note

Sorry this one took so long, I promise that the next one will be up quicker.