Chapter 6: Torments
Everything shifted again. The balcony disappeared, replaced by a dimly lit Ancient style laboratory. The place was swarming with Replicators, busily working on some unknown project. Technical specs covered the computer screens, accompanied by writing in Ancient that scrolled by at lightning speed. John walked to the center of the room, where an intricate set of holographic blueprints hovered over a worktable.
“What is all this?” he asked Elizabeth. She walked forward and stood beside him.
“This is what they’re working on. What they have been working on for the past several months now.” She reached out to the hologram and began manipulating it, showing the different projects being worked on, all machines of such complexity that John couldn’t even begin to guess what they were for, but he figured it probably couldn’t be anything good.
“So what exactly...?” he began.
“They’re weapons, of course. At least, most of them are. New weapons, for a new battle.” She turned to him, dropping her hand from the projection. “This particular faction of Replicators officially broke off from the others about a year ago. Apparently there was some sort of disagreement between Kedan and Oberoth that couldn’t be resolved. He left Asuras and started his own group on another planet, leaving some supporters behind to be his spies. All the while, he began developing this technology that would eventually allow him to take control over the entire Replicator population.”
“Ah, and let me guess... next the entire galaxy,” said John.
“Exactly,” she sighed. “I’m sure Rodney noticed on the way here that there were no energy readings being picked up by his scans.”
“Yeah, he did. Spent the entire walk messing with his computer trying to find out why. Heard him talking to himself - he probably adjusted the thing about a dozen times.”
“He could have adjusted the settings until it broke, and he still wouldn’t have found anything. That’s the main focus of the research here - completely undetectable power sources, invisible to scanners of any kind.”
“That’s some advantage. They could cause all kinds of trouble with tech like that.” She nodded. He leaned against the table, eyeing the glowing blue hologram in front of him. Then he turned to her. “There’s one thing I don’t get. How did you get here?”
“I was kidnapped a month after you got away. Oberoth was interested in how I was able to hold them all frozen for that long. He had been keeping me alive for study.” There was a tremor in her voice as she said the last word. John laid his hand over one of hers, which were clenched tightly around the edge of the table, and gave a gentle squeeze. She gave him a grateful look and continued. “One of Kedan’s spies eventually found me in my cell. It turned out she was curious about ascension. She had heard about it from some of the others, and decided it might be worth while to ask me about it, since I’m still partly human.
“After talking to me, she abducted me and managed to smuggle me off of the planet. She brought me here, hoping to convince Kedan that ascension was the way to ultimate power over Oberoth, and that I could help him achieve it.”
“He didn’t buy it,” guessed John.
“No. He didn’t. Kedan has no interest in ascension. And, therefore, he had no interest in me, other than as a source of information. Apparently he thought that I was some sort of...” she spat out the word disgustedly, “pet of Oberoth’s, and by torturing me he could show his defiance against him.”
She turned her face away, unable to continue. John’s hands tightened, and he felt the familiar stir of anger that threats to Elizabeth had always caused in him. At that moment, he wished that Kedan was human so he could kill him very slowly and very painfully. The earlier vision of destroying the Replicators once again played in his mind. ‘That would work too’, he thought threateningly.
Elizabeth looked up at him, astonishment, and a little bit of fear, covering her face. “That anger... I couldn’t help but pick up on it... it completely filled your mind just now... ”
‘Oh.’ He had actually forgotten about her current connection to his mind. John glanced at his hands and saw they were still gripping the table. He quickly released them, and turned his attention to the display in front of him, staring at the glowing diagrams for several moments before responding. “I... I get... easily upset when someone threatens or hurts the people that I care about. But, then again, you know that already.”
“Yeah. I do,” she said, her eyes soft. Seeing that he didn’t really want to talk about it, she tactfully continued her story. “Kedan altered the nanites in my system, made them easier for him to control; that’s what he did when he forced me to do this to you. With the controls in place, he eventually decided that I could be of some use, and put me to work with the others in the lab.”
John straightened up and turned to her, a question popping into his mind. “Did you ever try and escape?” he asked. The haunted look entered her eyes again, and she stepped away from the table, head bowed, examining the way her fingers laced her hands together. As she walked, their surroundings changed. The laboratory faded away, and they were back on Atlantis, strolling down a sunshine filled, window lined corridor that possessed a fantastic view of the city stretching out below them. Once again they were alone.
“I did try to escape,” she said slowly, lifting her head. “Many times.” She took a breath. “On the first two attempts, I didn’t even make it out of the complex. The third and fourth times, I actually got within sight of the stargate before Kedan ended the vision.”
“I was stupid, I guess,” she continued. “I should have realized what was going on, but... it was absolutely seamless, there wasn’t any break or pause in time that showed when reality ended and the vision began... and I wanted so badly...” She trailed off.
“Every time... it was fake every time?” he said, sad disbelief in his voice.
“Every time but the last,” she said quietly. Her right hand drifted to her left forearm, reminding him of the way he had seen soldiers behave when remembering old, long healed wounds. He glanced at her. Her face was closed off, blocking any further discussion about that particular incident. “But the fake escapes weren’t the worst experiences they created,” she added. “There were worse things.” She looked at him briefly, sorrow hidden behind her eyes. “Much worse things.”
They walked in silence for some time. John didn’t press her to say anything else about her captivity, and she didn’t offer any more information about it. In a way, he was glad. Hearing about what she had been through... he wasn’t sure which he wanted most - to either hurt someone very badly or just hold her in his arms until every bad memory was erased from her mind. He quickly shook off the jolt of surprise caused by the last half of that thought.
“How much longer do you have?” he asked a few minutes later. “He’s bound to get suspicious of it taking this long.”
“I have a little time left. It’s really only been about ten minutes, although it seems longer in here. Kedan won’t interfere for another five.” They stopped walking, pausing in front of a large window overlooking the south pier. “We need to figure out how you and your team are going to get out of here, John. We may not have another opportunity like this to actually plan something. I’ll do whatever I can to help, but I don’t know how...”
“You’re coming with us,” he interrupted quickly.
She nodded, surprised. “Of course.”
“Good, because for a minute there it sounded like you were planning on staying behind.”
“Not if I can possibly help it,” she said seriously. Their eyes met for a moment in the soundless communication that had always been so easy between them.
“And not if I can help it either,” he said, simultaneously making a silent vow to himself that he would do everything in his power to make that a true statement. He looked into the clear, penetrating green of her eyes. Absolutely everything.
“Alright,” he sighed a second later, “what can you tell me about the layout of this place?”
oOo
Rodney shut his eyes. “Stop it, stop it, stop it,” he whispered, trying to block out the sound of the alarms blaring in his ear. They had started ten minutes ago when the ship had taken its first hit and they had lost all power to the hyperdrive. Since then it had been one disaster after another - one of the hangar bays had caught fire, effectively sealing off that entire part of the ship, they were operating on minimal sub-light engines, every scrap of food left seemed to be citrus flavored, and now level two was venting atmosphere out into space. And to make the situation even more critical - Rodney’s family was on board.
“Mer. Mer. Rodney!” He opened his eyes to see his sister Jeanie standing in front of him, holding a frightened and tearstained Maddie in her arms. “Mer, you have to snap out of it. We need you to focus.” A shower of sparks flew from one of the computer consoles as another burst of fire shook the ship. Maddie gave a small cry and buried her face in her mother’s shoulder. “Shh, it’s okay, sweetie,” Jeanie soothed. “Uncle Mer is going to fix everything.” She turned back to him. “Look, you’re the one who knows this technology, not me. Just tell me what to do.”
Rodney looked at his sister. She was counting on him to save her daughter’s life. He took a deep breath and shook his head. “Right, okay... um... first we need to...” He went into full technical mode, giving instructions so fast even he could hardly keep up with what he was saying. But nevertheless, she followed them exactly, Maddie clinging to her leg the entire time.
The ship continued to be bombarded by enemy fire. Over the comm they could hear the shouting from the bridge as the captain and his remaining crew tried their best to push back the onslaught of fighters swarming around the ship, as well as take out the guns on the enemy vessel. But their weapons were severely diminished, the shield was nonexistent, and Rodney knew, even with both Sam and Sheppard out there flying, they weren’t going to be able to keep this up for much longer.
Something flashed on his computer monitor. There was a small amount of power registering. “Yes! Yes! It’s working! Haha!” he shouted in triumph.
His mental victory dance was interrupted by a shout over the comm. “Colonel Sheppard, do you hear me?” barked the captain. “Colonel Sheppard, respond!” There was no answer. “Colonel Carter, I can’t reach Colonel Sheppard, is everything alright?”
“No,” Sam yelled through her radio, “I saw him take a hit. He’s... Ahhh!”
“Colonel Carter! Colonel Carter!” She didn’t respond. “Dammit! Jacobs increase firepower on that ship...”
Rodney didn’t hear the rest. There was a buzzing sound in his ears, and a sick, horrible feeling in his stomach. Sam... Sheppard... They were both... gone. Just like that. He couldn’t believe it...
“Mer, we’re losing power again!” Jeanie’s voice broke through the haze that had settled around his mind. He pushed his grief away to be dealt with later. He had people to save.
He looked at his console and swore. “We’re losing hull integrity too. This ship’s falling apart.” Another blast rocked the ship. There was a crash behind him as something on the ceiling snapped off and fell.
A child’s voice let out a piercing shriek. “Mommy!” Rodney spun around, terror filling his heart.
“No!” he cried, throwing himself to the floor. Jeanie was lying there, covered in a dusting of rubble from the ceiling, her head bleeding, a heavy metal coolant pipe not two feet away from her. She wasn’t breathing. “No, no, no, no, no...” he sobbed, unable to stop the tears pouring down his face. “Please,” he whispered, burying his face in his hands. “Please...” More sparks flared and everything shook. There was so much noise... “Make it stop...” he begged. “Please...” A high-pitched whistling sound began that canceled out all the noise around him, and it grew steadily brighter until everything whited out and disappeared.
Rodney gasped in pain as the Replicator withdrew his hand from his forehead. He crumpled to the ground, breathing heavily and sweating, and glared at the blank face of the machine standing in front of him. No trace of emotion whatsoever. He looked away, still feeling sick with the toll that experience had taken out on him. He closed his eyes for a second, and could still see her lying there. It had been so real.
He looked over at Ronon, still trapped in whatever torture they had created for him. Rodney didn’t know many specifics, but he knew that there were some dark things in the former Runner’s past, and he hated to imagine what he was being put through right now. He turned his gaze to the right to see about Sheppard. He was still being interrogated as well. Wait... was that Elizabeth who was doing it? It was her alright. Her hand was immersed in Sheppard’s forehead, an intense look of concentration on her face. Well, he supposed, as far as he knew she was still only part Replicator, so it made sense she would have to work harder at it. Assuming it was really her. In spite of what the Replicator leader had said, he still didn’t quite fully believe it. And what she was doing right now definitely didn’t do anything to eliminate that doubt. The Elizabeth Weir he knew would never forcibly take over someone’s mind like that.
Sheppard suddenly fell backwards as he was released from the mind connection. He grunted in discomfort, his chest heaving as he drew in deep lungfuls of air. Elizabeth took an instinctive step towards him, concern for him written all over her face. It was an expression Rodney had seen many times over the three years they had been on Atlantis together. She had worried about everyone in the city, it was her job and she was that kind of person, but Rodney had noticed that there had always been another level to that worry where John Sheppard was involved, even though she tried to hide the extent of it. It was interesting that this Elizabeth retained that particular trait.
“I’m okay,” Sheppard said to her with a nod, their eyes meeting for a long moment. She nodded as well, and he sat up, his breathing only just calming to a normal rate. He ran a hand through his hair, looked over, and saw Rodney. “Hey. You okay?”
“Close enough. You?”
“I’m fine,” he replied. Sheppard did look remarkably calm about the whole thing in Rodney’s opinion.
There was a cry of pain from their left as the last Replicator pulled his hand out of Ronon’s head. He slumped forward, panting. Three seconds later, without warning, he lunged forward, knocking the Replicator to the ground, and started pummeling him, wordless snarling coming from his mouth. The two guards rushed at him and pulled him off, not without some difficulty. He continued to thrash and struggle, cursing them and the one on the floor all the while.
“Ronon! Calm down!” ordered John. “Ronon!”
The Satedan looked at him. “Whatever it was, whatever you saw, it’s over,” he said calmly and forcibly. “It’s over.” He locked eyes with him. Ronon gave a reluctant nod, stopped his struggling and allowed himself to be pushed to the floor, but his face was still twisted with a wild and unbridled hatred that he didn’t bother to try and contain.
Kedan stepped forward. “You have been most difficult prisoners to interrogate. Even with the added stress we put on your minds, you have all shown considerable resistance to our methods of gathering information. Even though Dr. Weir seems reluctant to reveal her findings to us.” The Replicator glanced at her. She looked him straight in the eye, her face completely blank. Like one of them.
Kedan closed his eyes for a second. “Very well,” he said to her. “We found a similar explanation in the others. But do not fool yourself, Dr. Weir. We will know everything soon enough.” He turned away and signaled to the others, who began silently filing out of the room.
“So,” John said conversationally, “what happens now? I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’re going to let us go home?”
“A correct assumption, Colonel Sheppard. You will stay here until we have finished with you.”
“And when you’re finished with us?” asked Rodney, nervousness and anger mixing in his voice.
“I think we already know the answer to that one,” said John, eyeing Kedan. If he hadn’t known it was impossible, he would have sworn there was the ghost of a smirk on the Replicator’s face.
Kedan, as usual, didn’t say anything. John hated bad guys who were the silent type. It made foiling their plans so much more difficult.
Kedan moved towards the doorway, and John was reminded strongly of their previous encounter in his cell. “Dr. Weir,” Kedan summoned. She didn’t move from where she was standing. He said her name again. Nothing. He stepped towards her, grabbed her arm, and began pushing her out the door. John’s protective instincts had made him instinctively jump to his feet the minute Kedan touched her, but, as much as he hated too, he stayed where he was, watching as Elizabeth was forced from the room.
The door slid shut. “Well,” said Rodney hopelessly, getting to his feet, “what are we going to do?”
“You’re the genius, figure something out,” growled Ronon.
Rodney opened his mouth, doubtless to make some snappy remark, but nothing came out. His brow creased and his shoulders slumped. “I honestly have no idea how we’re going to get out of here,” he admitted.
“Well,” said John brightly. “I guess it’s a good thing I have a plan then.”
Everything shifted again. The balcony disappeared, replaced by a dimly lit Ancient style laboratory. The place was swarming with Replicators, busily working on some unknown project. Technical specs covered the computer screens, accompanied by writing in Ancient that scrolled by at lightning speed. John walked to the center of the room, where an intricate set of holographic blueprints hovered over a worktable.
“What is all this?” he asked Elizabeth. She walked forward and stood beside him.
“This is what they’re working on. What they have been working on for the past several months now.” She reached out to the hologram and began manipulating it, showing the different projects being worked on, all machines of such complexity that John couldn’t even begin to guess what they were for, but he figured it probably couldn’t be anything good.
“So what exactly...?” he began.
“They’re weapons, of course. At least, most of them are. New weapons, for a new battle.” She turned to him, dropping her hand from the projection. “This particular faction of Replicators officially broke off from the others about a year ago. Apparently there was some sort of disagreement between Kedan and Oberoth that couldn’t be resolved. He left Asuras and started his own group on another planet, leaving some supporters behind to be his spies. All the while, he began developing this technology that would eventually allow him to take control over the entire Replicator population.”
“Ah, and let me guess... next the entire galaxy,” said John.
“Exactly,” she sighed. “I’m sure Rodney noticed on the way here that there were no energy readings being picked up by his scans.”
“Yeah, he did. Spent the entire walk messing with his computer trying to find out why. Heard him talking to himself - he probably adjusted the thing about a dozen times.”
“He could have adjusted the settings until it broke, and he still wouldn’t have found anything. That’s the main focus of the research here - completely undetectable power sources, invisible to scanners of any kind.”
“That’s some advantage. They could cause all kinds of trouble with tech like that.” She nodded. He leaned against the table, eyeing the glowing blue hologram in front of him. Then he turned to her. “There’s one thing I don’t get. How did you get here?”
“I was kidnapped a month after you got away. Oberoth was interested in how I was able to hold them all frozen for that long. He had been keeping me alive for study.” There was a tremor in her voice as she said the last word. John laid his hand over one of hers, which were clenched tightly around the edge of the table, and gave a gentle squeeze. She gave him a grateful look and continued. “One of Kedan’s spies eventually found me in my cell. It turned out she was curious about ascension. She had heard about it from some of the others, and decided it might be worth while to ask me about it, since I’m still partly human.
“After talking to me, she abducted me and managed to smuggle me off of the planet. She brought me here, hoping to convince Kedan that ascension was the way to ultimate power over Oberoth, and that I could help him achieve it.”
“He didn’t buy it,” guessed John.
“No. He didn’t. Kedan has no interest in ascension. And, therefore, he had no interest in me, other than as a source of information. Apparently he thought that I was some sort of...” she spat out the word disgustedly, “pet of Oberoth’s, and by torturing me he could show his defiance against him.”
She turned her face away, unable to continue. John’s hands tightened, and he felt the familiar stir of anger that threats to Elizabeth had always caused in him. At that moment, he wished that Kedan was human so he could kill him very slowly and very painfully. The earlier vision of destroying the Replicators once again played in his mind. ‘That would work too’, he thought threateningly.
Elizabeth looked up at him, astonishment, and a little bit of fear, covering her face. “That anger... I couldn’t help but pick up on it... it completely filled your mind just now... ”
‘Oh.’ He had actually forgotten about her current connection to his mind. John glanced at his hands and saw they were still gripping the table. He quickly released them, and turned his attention to the display in front of him, staring at the glowing diagrams for several moments before responding. “I... I get... easily upset when someone threatens or hurts the people that I care about. But, then again, you know that already.”
“Yeah. I do,” she said, her eyes soft. Seeing that he didn’t really want to talk about it, she tactfully continued her story. “Kedan altered the nanites in my system, made them easier for him to control; that’s what he did when he forced me to do this to you. With the controls in place, he eventually decided that I could be of some use, and put me to work with the others in the lab.”
John straightened up and turned to her, a question popping into his mind. “Did you ever try and escape?” he asked. The haunted look entered her eyes again, and she stepped away from the table, head bowed, examining the way her fingers laced her hands together. As she walked, their surroundings changed. The laboratory faded away, and they were back on Atlantis, strolling down a sunshine filled, window lined corridor that possessed a fantastic view of the city stretching out below them. Once again they were alone.
“I did try to escape,” she said slowly, lifting her head. “Many times.” She took a breath. “On the first two attempts, I didn’t even make it out of the complex. The third and fourth times, I actually got within sight of the stargate before Kedan ended the vision.”
“I was stupid, I guess,” she continued. “I should have realized what was going on, but... it was absolutely seamless, there wasn’t any break or pause in time that showed when reality ended and the vision began... and I wanted so badly...” She trailed off.
“Every time... it was fake every time?” he said, sad disbelief in his voice.
“Every time but the last,” she said quietly. Her right hand drifted to her left forearm, reminding him of the way he had seen soldiers behave when remembering old, long healed wounds. He glanced at her. Her face was closed off, blocking any further discussion about that particular incident. “But the fake escapes weren’t the worst experiences they created,” she added. “There were worse things.” She looked at him briefly, sorrow hidden behind her eyes. “Much worse things.”
They walked in silence for some time. John didn’t press her to say anything else about her captivity, and she didn’t offer any more information about it. In a way, he was glad. Hearing about what she had been through... he wasn’t sure which he wanted most - to either hurt someone very badly or just hold her in his arms until every bad memory was erased from her mind. He quickly shook off the jolt of surprise caused by the last half of that thought.
“How much longer do you have?” he asked a few minutes later. “He’s bound to get suspicious of it taking this long.”
“I have a little time left. It’s really only been about ten minutes, although it seems longer in here. Kedan won’t interfere for another five.” They stopped walking, pausing in front of a large window overlooking the south pier. “We need to figure out how you and your team are going to get out of here, John. We may not have another opportunity like this to actually plan something. I’ll do whatever I can to help, but I don’t know how...”
“You’re coming with us,” he interrupted quickly.
She nodded, surprised. “Of course.”
“Good, because for a minute there it sounded like you were planning on staying behind.”
“Not if I can possibly help it,” she said seriously. Their eyes met for a moment in the soundless communication that had always been so easy between them.
“And not if I can help it either,” he said, simultaneously making a silent vow to himself that he would do everything in his power to make that a true statement. He looked into the clear, penetrating green of her eyes. Absolutely everything.
“Alright,” he sighed a second later, “what can you tell me about the layout of this place?”
oOo
Rodney shut his eyes. “Stop it, stop it, stop it,” he whispered, trying to block out the sound of the alarms blaring in his ear. They had started ten minutes ago when the ship had taken its first hit and they had lost all power to the hyperdrive. Since then it had been one disaster after another - one of the hangar bays had caught fire, effectively sealing off that entire part of the ship, they were operating on minimal sub-light engines, every scrap of food left seemed to be citrus flavored, and now level two was venting atmosphere out into space. And to make the situation even more critical - Rodney’s family was on board.
“Mer. Mer. Rodney!” He opened his eyes to see his sister Jeanie standing in front of him, holding a frightened and tearstained Maddie in her arms. “Mer, you have to snap out of it. We need you to focus.” A shower of sparks flew from one of the computer consoles as another burst of fire shook the ship. Maddie gave a small cry and buried her face in her mother’s shoulder. “Shh, it’s okay, sweetie,” Jeanie soothed. “Uncle Mer is going to fix everything.” She turned back to him. “Look, you’re the one who knows this technology, not me. Just tell me what to do.”
Rodney looked at his sister. She was counting on him to save her daughter’s life. He took a deep breath and shook his head. “Right, okay... um... first we need to...” He went into full technical mode, giving instructions so fast even he could hardly keep up with what he was saying. But nevertheless, she followed them exactly, Maddie clinging to her leg the entire time.
The ship continued to be bombarded by enemy fire. Over the comm they could hear the shouting from the bridge as the captain and his remaining crew tried their best to push back the onslaught of fighters swarming around the ship, as well as take out the guns on the enemy vessel. But their weapons were severely diminished, the shield was nonexistent, and Rodney knew, even with both Sam and Sheppard out there flying, they weren’t going to be able to keep this up for much longer.
Something flashed on his computer monitor. There was a small amount of power registering. “Yes! Yes! It’s working! Haha!” he shouted in triumph.
His mental victory dance was interrupted by a shout over the comm. “Colonel Sheppard, do you hear me?” barked the captain. “Colonel Sheppard, respond!” There was no answer. “Colonel Carter, I can’t reach Colonel Sheppard, is everything alright?”
“No,” Sam yelled through her radio, “I saw him take a hit. He’s... Ahhh!”
“Colonel Carter! Colonel Carter!” She didn’t respond. “Dammit! Jacobs increase firepower on that ship...”
Rodney didn’t hear the rest. There was a buzzing sound in his ears, and a sick, horrible feeling in his stomach. Sam... Sheppard... They were both... gone. Just like that. He couldn’t believe it...
“Mer, we’re losing power again!” Jeanie’s voice broke through the haze that had settled around his mind. He pushed his grief away to be dealt with later. He had people to save.
He looked at his console and swore. “We’re losing hull integrity too. This ship’s falling apart.” Another blast rocked the ship. There was a crash behind him as something on the ceiling snapped off and fell.
A child’s voice let out a piercing shriek. “Mommy!” Rodney spun around, terror filling his heart.
“No!” he cried, throwing himself to the floor. Jeanie was lying there, covered in a dusting of rubble from the ceiling, her head bleeding, a heavy metal coolant pipe not two feet away from her. She wasn’t breathing. “No, no, no, no, no...” he sobbed, unable to stop the tears pouring down his face. “Please,” he whispered, burying his face in his hands. “Please...” More sparks flared and everything shook. There was so much noise... “Make it stop...” he begged. “Please...” A high-pitched whistling sound began that canceled out all the noise around him, and it grew steadily brighter until everything whited out and disappeared.
Rodney gasped in pain as the Replicator withdrew his hand from his forehead. He crumpled to the ground, breathing heavily and sweating, and glared at the blank face of the machine standing in front of him. No trace of emotion whatsoever. He looked away, still feeling sick with the toll that experience had taken out on him. He closed his eyes for a second, and could still see her lying there. It had been so real.
He looked over at Ronon, still trapped in whatever torture they had created for him. Rodney didn’t know many specifics, but he knew that there were some dark things in the former Runner’s past, and he hated to imagine what he was being put through right now. He turned his gaze to the right to see about Sheppard. He was still being interrogated as well. Wait... was that Elizabeth who was doing it? It was her alright. Her hand was immersed in Sheppard’s forehead, an intense look of concentration on her face. Well, he supposed, as far as he knew she was still only part Replicator, so it made sense she would have to work harder at it. Assuming it was really her. In spite of what the Replicator leader had said, he still didn’t quite fully believe it. And what she was doing right now definitely didn’t do anything to eliminate that doubt. The Elizabeth Weir he knew would never forcibly take over someone’s mind like that.
Sheppard suddenly fell backwards as he was released from the mind connection. He grunted in discomfort, his chest heaving as he drew in deep lungfuls of air. Elizabeth took an instinctive step towards him, concern for him written all over her face. It was an expression Rodney had seen many times over the three years they had been on Atlantis together. She had worried about everyone in the city, it was her job and she was that kind of person, but Rodney had noticed that there had always been another level to that worry where John Sheppard was involved, even though she tried to hide the extent of it. It was interesting that this Elizabeth retained that particular trait.
“I’m okay,” Sheppard said to her with a nod, their eyes meeting for a long moment. She nodded as well, and he sat up, his breathing only just calming to a normal rate. He ran a hand through his hair, looked over, and saw Rodney. “Hey. You okay?”
“Close enough. You?”
“I’m fine,” he replied. Sheppard did look remarkably calm about the whole thing in Rodney’s opinion.
There was a cry of pain from their left as the last Replicator pulled his hand out of Ronon’s head. He slumped forward, panting. Three seconds later, without warning, he lunged forward, knocking the Replicator to the ground, and started pummeling him, wordless snarling coming from his mouth. The two guards rushed at him and pulled him off, not without some difficulty. He continued to thrash and struggle, cursing them and the one on the floor all the while.
“Ronon! Calm down!” ordered John. “Ronon!”
The Satedan looked at him. “Whatever it was, whatever you saw, it’s over,” he said calmly and forcibly. “It’s over.” He locked eyes with him. Ronon gave a reluctant nod, stopped his struggling and allowed himself to be pushed to the floor, but his face was still twisted with a wild and unbridled hatred that he didn’t bother to try and contain.
Kedan stepped forward. “You have been most difficult prisoners to interrogate. Even with the added stress we put on your minds, you have all shown considerable resistance to our methods of gathering information. Even though Dr. Weir seems reluctant to reveal her findings to us.” The Replicator glanced at her. She looked him straight in the eye, her face completely blank. Like one of them.
Kedan closed his eyes for a second. “Very well,” he said to her. “We found a similar explanation in the others. But do not fool yourself, Dr. Weir. We will know everything soon enough.” He turned away and signaled to the others, who began silently filing out of the room.
“So,” John said conversationally, “what happens now? I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’re going to let us go home?”
“A correct assumption, Colonel Sheppard. You will stay here until we have finished with you.”
“And when you’re finished with us?” asked Rodney, nervousness and anger mixing in his voice.
“I think we already know the answer to that one,” said John, eyeing Kedan. If he hadn’t known it was impossible, he would have sworn there was the ghost of a smirk on the Replicator’s face.
Kedan, as usual, didn’t say anything. John hated bad guys who were the silent type. It made foiling their plans so much more difficult.
Kedan moved towards the doorway, and John was reminded strongly of their previous encounter in his cell. “Dr. Weir,” Kedan summoned. She didn’t move from where she was standing. He said her name again. Nothing. He stepped towards her, grabbed her arm, and began pushing her out the door. John’s protective instincts had made him instinctively jump to his feet the minute Kedan touched her, but, as much as he hated too, he stayed where he was, watching as Elizabeth was forced from the room.
The door slid shut. “Well,” said Rodney hopelessly, getting to his feet, “what are we going to do?”
“You’re the genius, figure something out,” growled Ronon.
Rodney opened his mouth, doubtless to make some snappy remark, but nothing came out. His brow creased and his shoulders slumped. “I honestly have no idea how we’re going to get out of here,” he admitted.
“Well,” said John brightly. “I guess it’s a good thing I have a plan then.”