Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘Stargate Atlantis’ or any related concepts or characters; you know the drill by now. Also, the basic details of the plot were inspired by ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, although I have naturally put my own spin on things; hope it meets with your approval

Feedback: Always appreciated, trust me

The Phantom of Atlantis

As the Stargate began to light up in the traditional manner that indicated an incoming wormhole, Sora glanced curiously over at Laden; with Kolya having already taken two soldiers with him to keep an eye on his prisoners, she and Laden had been forced to limit the gateroom’s protection to just the two of them if the remaining generators were to be properly guarded.

“How many can we expect?” she asked, looking back at Laden.

“A full company; sixty or more,” Laden replied, shaking his head slightly as he looked around the room at the city that was now only just visible outside the windows through the rain. “I don’t know how we were expected to take a facility this size with any less…”

“It was supposed to be a raid to retrieve what was rightfully ours,” Sora pointed out, trying not to dwell too much on that fact; she might object to Kolya’s decision to chance their focus from simply retrieving the Wraith data device to trying to take the entire city, but now that they were in this position, she just had to deal with it.

As the Stargate finished dialling and the familiar ‘exploding water’ effect appeared before her, Sora briefly nodded at Laden as she walked down to join the newly-arriving soldiers.

“Secure the area,” she said to the first small group of soldiers- five of them had already come through the Stargate, and doubtless more would be arriving soon- as they took in their surroundings. “Then I want you to spread-”

She froze mid-sentence as, just the next two soldiers began to walk through the Stargate, a thin blue shield of some kind suddenly appeared in front of the wormhole, causing the two men who had just been stepping through the wormhole to collapse to the ground. Sora only needed a brief glance to confirm that the shield had apparently sliced them almost exactly in half as they stepped through the Stargate, with each soldier missing a leg, an arm, and a sizable portion of their torsos, a perfectly even line demonstrating where the shield had separated what parts of them had already come through the Stargate from the parts that had yet to make it through the event horizon.

“By the Ancestors…” she said in horror, staring at the shield before them as brief glows accompanied the sound of what she knew without being told were people hitting the shield at the other end, her eyes constantly shifting between the severed bodies of the two Genii before her and the impacts on the shield that now covered the Stargate.

“As I informed your commander,” a voice suddenly said from above her, “you should pray to the Wraith for salvation now; you and your people have forsaken all right to my protection by your actions here today.”

Spinning around in the direction of the voice, Sora’s eyes widened in shock as she saw the figure standing on the balcony connected to the control room; even if the dim light that remained after the generator had been shut down, the gleaming silver mask and long black cloak were unmistakeable.

The Phantom…

NO! Sora berated herself, as she glared coldly at the man before them. He is NOT the Phantom; the Phantom would never do this to natives of this galaxy simply for trying to claim their right!

“STOP HIM!” she yelled at the other soldiers, aiming her gun at the… impostor…and firing, only for the figure to turn around and vanish into another corridor connected to the control room. For a moment all Sora could think about was following him, but then she remembered the Genii still coming through the Stargate; right now she had a duty to save those men before they were lost as well.

“This is Sora!” she yelled desperately into her radio as she hurried up towards the control room, one of the new arrivals close behind her. “Stop sending the reinforcements; the Stargate shield has been raised!”

Whether her message didn’t get through or it was simply too late at the other end to do anything about it, Sora didn’t know; all that she knew for certain was that, even as she ran, more and more Genii were entering the Stargate on their homeworld, believing that they would soon be present in the city of the Ancestors, only to be destroyed by the shield before they could even set one foot in the city…

“Commander!” she yelled into her radio as she reached the control, instantly seeing Laden’s unconscious body on the ground; she briefly wondered why the Phantom had only knocked him out rather than killing him outright, but decided that this wasn’t the time to be concerned about that. “The blasphemer has raised the gate shield!”

“Shut it down!” Kolya’s voice roared over the radio, as Sora desperately studied the control panel; she vaguely recalled Laden showing her the controls, but she’d been so caught up in the current situation that she hadn’t really been paying attention to what he was showing her…

“I-I don’t know how!” she said desperately, as she desperately tried to recall which button to press to raise the shield. “Laden is unconscious!”

Even as more and more Genii impacted against the shield, with no way of contacting the remaining forces on the other side to warn them about what had taken place, all that Sora could do was watch and prey that they would stop before the Stargate shut down…

As he ran through the city, his cloak flying behind him as he examined his gun’s power cell- enough power left for a few kill-shots or just a few more stun blasts; he definitely wouldn’t be blowing any holes in anything with this power level, and he didn’t have the time to get a new cell before the storm hit Atlantis-, he refused to allow himself to think about what he had just done. He had killed over fifty Genii soldiers, he knew that- he’d overheard the latter part of Sora and Kolya’s conversation where she mentioned how many men had made it through the Stargate-, but he also knew that he’d had no choice; if they’d all made it through the Stargate, they would have hunted him down and picked him off like an animal.

And maybe an animal is all that I am now…

He shook that thought off; self-analysis could wait until after he’d convinced Kolya to leave Atlantis.

Right now he had a long-overdue meeting with the Genii commander to get to….

The city might have lost its leader as a result of his inability to save her, but if he could help it, the people who’d killed her would never dwell in the city themselves.

“Commander,” Sora’s voice said over the radio that he had left active in case of overhearing anything useful. “Laden thinks he can have the gate fixed.”

Admittedly, that news wasn’t great- he’d been hoping to use the disabled Stargate as a bargaining tool; either leave Atlantis with nothing, or he’d leave the gate disabled and they’d all end up trashed by the storm- but at least that saved him having to go back and reactivate it himself.

“Did Athor’s son make it through the gate?” Kolya suddenly asked, breaking his train of thought.

“Excuse me?” Sora replied.

“His name is Idos; did he make it?” Kolya responded, a slight hint of… was that desperation in his voice?

Well well well… the listener mused, as he reached towards the radio he’d taken from the first two Genii he’d taken out, what seemed like almost a lifetime ago. Looks like things just got a bit more interesting…

“No, sir,” Sora replied.

With that news, the listener activated his own radio; maybe now that Kolya had evidently lost someone important to him, he would be able to make the man see that there was nothing to be gained by trying to hold Atlantis.

“Sorry about Idos, Kolya,” he said, making sure to sound almost casual as he spoke; he had to give the impression of being totally in control if he was going to convince Kolya to leave Atlantis on his terms. “What was he to you; nephew, godson, protégé?”

After a moment’s silence- Kolya evidently couldn’t believe he had the nerve to talk directly to him like this-, he continued speaking, maintaining his casual, almost flippant tone. “Whatever his connection to you was, I am sorry it happened, but really, if you hadn’t provoked me by attacking my city-”

“This city belongs to the Genii, blasphemer; how DARE you use the Phantom’s name to deprive us of our right!” Kolya yelled over the radio; clearly he had yet to learn anything from his recent experiences. “You are nothing but a coward who hides behind a legend-”

“I have already told you who I am, commander; is it my fault that you don’t believe me?” he countered, unable to stop a slight chuckle entering his voice as Kolya’s yells were cut off mid-sentence. He knew that provoking the man might not be his smartest decision, but right now he wanted to make Kolya think about more about his chances of surviving a continued fight against the Phantom, and the best way he could think of accomplishing that was by making it clear that he had little regard for the Genii commander’s abilities; if he treated the commander like he wasn’t a threat, maybe the man would see sense and realise that he wasn’t. “Not that it really matters, anyway; the last time I checked, the score is still sixty to three in my favour.”

A part of him couldn’t help but feel guilty at the ease with which he’d just reduced Elizabeth’s death to nothing but a number- just one of the three members of the Atlantis expedition who’d fallen to the Genii commander’s plans-, but he shook it off and returned his attention to the matter at hand; he’d grieve once those who’d killed her were dead.

“Just remember, Kolya; I was prepared to talk about this,” he said, his voice once again cold as he continued down the stairs towards the grounding station. “You’re the one who drove me to activate the shield; I was willing to try and negotiate with you before you tried to kill me.”

For a moment there was silence as the Genii commander fumed on the other end of the line, before he finally spoke again.

“There are two things wrong with your current strategy, blasphemer!” he spat into the radio (At least, he thought it sounded like Kolya had spat into the radio; the weather he could hear over the radio made it hard for him to be sure).

“Constructive criticism is always appreciated, Commander,” he replied nonchalantly. “What is your problem with my strategy?”

“One,” Kolya replied bitterly. “The assumption that I would believe you would rather destroy the city than let it fall to us… is childish.”

“If it would keep the Ancestors’ legacy out of the hands of those who would abuse it, there is nothing I would not do, Commander,” he countered. “Anything else?”

“Two,” the Genii commander continued, as though he hadn’t heard or didn’t care about his immediate reply, “if and when I determine Atlantis unsalvageable, Doctor Weir, Doctor McKay and Colonel Sumner become obsolete.”

He froze.

No…

There was no way that he’d just heard that…

Elizabeth couldn’t be alive…

If she was…

He swallowed, trying to hold back the horrified scream that threatened to come from his lips at the other.

If she was alive, he’d just given her undeniable evidence that he was nothing more than the monster he’d always feared he’d become from his time in this galaxy…

“Elizabeth’s alive?” he said, forgetting his old promise never to refer to her by her first name; right now he was took shaken at the news of her continued survival to bother himself with details like that.

“Doctor McKay was able to make a strong case for keeping her alive,” Kolya replied, now with a somewhat satisfied tone in his voice; his adversary could almost curse himself at the way in which he’d unwittingly given the Genii commander even the slightest hint that Elizabeth meant more to him than just another member of the expedition.

“Let me talk to her,” he countered, fighting to keep his resolve under control as he spoke into the radio. For a moment there was nothing but silence, and then, just as he was beginning to think that Kolya had lied to him again…

“Hello?” said the voice he’d been listening to for the past four months- and God, he wished that sounded less stalker-ish than it actually was-, evidently shaken by the current weather conditions but nevertheless clearly alive.

Or was she…?

He couldn’t take the chance that Kolya was using a recording to trick him; he had to ask her something that only the two of them would know and that Kolya couldn’t have predicted he’d ask.

“I told you it would work for you, didn’t I?” he asked her; it wasn’t perfect, but it was the best thing he could think of under the circumstances that could lead him to the truth.

“You did,” Elizabeth replied, sounding like she was smiling slightly at the memory. “Thank you for that; it’s kept me safe so far-”

“What are you talking about?” Kolya said sharply, cutting Elizabeth off as he held the radio up to his mouth once again.

“Just… a note I left her after her arrival; I told her that the city would work to keep her safe,” he replied, hoping that Kolya bought the lie; he wasn’t sure if Elizabeth actually had the Ancient shield device on her, but if she did and Kolya took it she’d be deprived of the only thing that left him feeling even remotely comfortable at the idea of not keeping a constant eye on her.

“It would appear that you were wrong about that,” Kolya replied, once again sounding smug; most likely he perceived the ‘failure’ of that promise as further proof that the expedition didn’t belong in Atlantis. “Right now, we have less than one hour until the storm hits full force; if the power is not returned to grounding station three within the next ten minutes, Doctor Weir dies.”

He hadn’t thought it was possible for his blood to become any colder than it had been when he first heard the news that Elizabeth was dead, but when he heard that news he nearly screamed.

He couldn’t lose her again… not after suddenly regaining her when he thought he’d lost her for good…

If it happened again…

He shuddered at the thought of what he might become in that situation.

“Her death will buy you another five minutes,” Kolya continued, drawing his attention back to the matter at hand. “After which, should the power still be out, Doctor McKay dies, followed by Colonel Sumner five minutes later; we will then leave with what we can, and the city will be destroyed.”

He didn’t even bother to reply; there just wasn’t enough time for him to say anything. Turning around, he hurried down the nearest flight of stairs, his mind already calculating the faster route back to the naquadah generator that powered the grounding station while simultaneously trying to ignore the part that reminded him about the likelihood of falling victim to ‘Murphy’s Law’ in situations like this. The entire journey from the stairs to the generator was mostly uneventful- he had to duck into a side room to avoid being discovered by a Genii patrol at one point, but it was nothing significantly challenging-, until he found himself once again inside the room containing the naquadah generator responsible for providing power for grounding station three.

Finally, he thought, as he pulled out the power core for the naquadah generator; given that Kolya hadn’t called him to tell him he’d failed- and he would call; that man couldn’t resist any opportunity to assert his superiority over his foe-, Elizabeth must still be alive.

All he had to do, he reminded himself as he slipped his gun back into its holster, was reconnect the second power cable like so, put the power core back into the-

“Stop!” somebody yelled from behind him; as he heard footsteps enter the room from the corridor he’d just come by, he could have cursed himself for not looking to see if the guards he’d passed earlier had doubled back on themselves. Whether it was another attempt on Kolya’s part to torture him, or simply Sora’s order in an attempt to avenge the Genii he’d already killed, he didn’t know and didn’t care; all that mattered was that, if he didn’t deal with them soon, his time would run out and…

No.

He wouldn’t even think it; he couldn’t cope with that again.

“Look,” he said, trying not to sound impatient as he remained motionless, “your commander wanted me to turn this thing back on, and I would appreciate being given the opportunity to do so-”

“Silence, blasphemer,” one of the soldiers spat at him, before a brief sound of motion occurred that was most likely the man raising his radio to his face. “Sora, we have him.”

“Keep him alive,” Sora’s voice said over the radio (Which at least answered the question of who had sent these men). “I'm on my way.”

Great… the Genii’s new prisoner groaned, as the radio connection was terminated.

Right now, he had two choices; wait for Sora to get here and allow Elizabeth to die (Again!), or take these two out and then move on.

The only question, he mused to himself as he stood there, desperately going over his options in his mind, is if I even want to see her alive…

Would she even want to talk to him once she learned what he was capable of?

The men he had sliced apart with the shield…

The soldier whose arm he had shot off simply to question him…

How could someone like Elizabeth Weir ever want to… to be with someone who could do that?

Even as his heart ached at the thought, the storm outside drawing ever closer to destroying the place that had been his home for the last two decades of his life, that ever-traitorous part of his mind wouldn’t stop asking him which he’d prefer; a world where he could never be with her because she was gone, or a world where she saw him for the animal he felt he had become?