You Mean My Day Just Got Worse?

Author's Note: This is set after Vengeance, but before First Strike. This is a two parter in which part two will be up tomorrow. It's just this idea I had to write. I know I have other unfinished stuff, but this was written in one go and fully completed before posting.

Part One:

Intel: it could make or break a mission. Good intelligence could be the means to a successful mission, whereas bad intelligence could be a team's downfall. The key, however, to laying a perfect trap was to have the intelligence given to ones enemies appear to be 'good intel', but for you it was 'better intel.' One had to have control of the situation to execute a trap well. Once that control was taken away, however, all bets were off in regards to the success of a mission.

However, there was also skill needed to pull off a successful mission. Plenty of missions had backfired due to the inexperience of those underneath oneself. Those under one's command needed to be trained and well adjusted to the ways of fighting.

The last and most crucial piece of knowledge needed to succeed in a revenge plot was to never underestimate one's enemies. That was critical, because once you turned your back on a fallen enemy; it was your fault if you ended up with a knife in your back.

Well, he liked to think he had learned from his past mistakes. He had certainly paid for them enough. Now, with the intelligence planted and the trap sprung, all this cat had to do was bide his time and wait for his mouse to show up. Then, victory would finally be his. Death would not stop him; it could not stop him as he had already conquered death. Death would only come to his enemy now.

Atlantis:

Allies were imperative to have when one was in a galaxy up against two formidable enemies. Well, three if they took into account Michael and his super bug army. Allies that were friends, however, were even better to have. The Athosians were the first allies of the Atlantis expedition, and had proved to be some of the best friends they could hope for. With their extensive knowledge and many contacts on other worlds, their assistance had proven to be invaluable.

Recently an Athosian contact had notified them of a world with ruins on them. Now the Pegasus galaxy was filled with planets that contained ruins of the ancients, but apparently these supposedly were extra special. The planet allegedly housed an old rundown ancient outpost that was once rumored to hold a defense system that had protected the planet for many years. Or at least this was the legend that had been passed down for many years in the settlement that was on the planet.

Well, the idea of a defense system always sounded good to those on Atlantis, so Dr. Weir had sent her best qualified team to investigate. Little did they know as they dialed the gate to the planet, that they were playing right into the hands of a formidable and hated enemy.

Ruinous Planet (MX9-532)

Them team exited the gate onto a beautiful planet. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, there were farmers working in the field that the gate sat on the edge of. Actually, the planet looked like a lot of the other planets in the galaxy. The field that the gate sat in was surrounded by trees and had a road cutting into the forest that Teyla informed them, led to the village. There was also a secondary path that branched off that also led into the woods in the opposite direction. They needed to follow this path, Teyla's contact had informed them, if they wanted to get to the ruins. He had also said that the there was no need to stop by the village as many people visited their world on religious journeys to the ruins, so they would not offend anyone by skipping a trip to the village. So as the team headed down the smaller path to the ruins, two of the farmers in the field moved closer to converse.

"That was them wasn't it?" asked the first.

"Yes, they fit the description. One really big guy with dreadlocks that needs to be carefully watched, a dark woman with skill surpassing her beauty, an annoying loudmouth man who is much smarter than he looks, and their leader who has messy hair and a smart mouth," added the second.

"Oh, well from this far away, I thought that they matched the pictures," replied the first.

The second who was older and getting frustrated with his younger associate, "Just go inform the boss already."

"Right," replied the first.

Ancient Ruins:

The walk to the ruins had been uneventful and fairly quiet since they were only about half a mile from the gate. McKay had hardly had a chance to complain about the walk and all of the gear that he carried. He had improved a great deal since joining the team though, and carried much less equipment than he once had. Since bad things happened to befall the team unexpectedly, he had cut down his supplies to the bare minimum. It still didn't stop him from complaining on a long walk though.

They had arrived at the ruins to find them in terrible disrepair. Ten thousand years had not been kind to this place. There were only a handful of partial walls that outlined some rooms. The rooms contained some parts of consoles that had once been used by the ancients for something. The entire structure was open to the elements though, as the roof had long since been destroyed. The team looked at little disappointed at the state the place was in, but McKay quickly pulled out his scanner and determined in no time that the place was giving off a faint energy signature. Therefore, the trip would still go on. Everyone got comfy as Rodney buckled down to see what he could figure out about the place.

Village: Building situated on the outskirts of a thriving marketplace town.

The young man named Renn, who was working in the field when the team came through the gate, entered the building. It was old and not terribly large, but it was the place that housed the entire operations of his boss. Really this was just a training center and was the place his boss laid low at, to attract as little attention as possible, and made his plans. His men lived throughout the marketplace village and led double lives protecting their cover as merchants, farmers, and workers. Only a few of the most loyal, those who had survived the escape from the Boss's homeworld and witnessed his transformation, were permitted to live on the premises.

Renn walked through the complex to the office of the ranking soldier on duty, Mairs, and informed him of the team's arrival to the planet. Mairs dismissed him with the orders that he was to return to the field and keep watch by the gate, but report anything out of the ordinary by radio next time. As the soldier watched the young man exit his office, he could hardly contain his excitement. The Boss would be very pleased with the news. Mairs got up from behind his desk and walked over to the bookcase in his office. He pulled the particular book that initiated the opening of a passage that contained a set of spiral stairs. He followed the stairs to the bottom.

The room was dark and contained only a few candles, and one skylight up to the daylight above. Mairs could just see the faint outline of his boss sitting down in meditation.

"What is it now? You know I do not like to be disturbed while meditating."

Mairs did indeed know this, but he answered respectfully, "Yes sir, but I have just received word that a certain team of Atlanteans has come through the gate not an hour ago and headed off in search of some ruins."

"Really?" questioned the man sitting in the shadows.

Mairs swallowed and replied, "He is here sir."

The man stood up and walked over past his second in command, the light revealing two bullet scars in his right shoulder, and pulled on his jacket. "Ready the men, we have a plan to execute."

Mairs saluted and strode purposely out of the room leaving his boss alone with his thoughts. Sheppard was here. Well, there would be no mistakes this time. He thought to himself, no intense rage would not get in the way this time. He would master his emotions and do the job properly. That was the only way to ensure success.

Ancient Ruins:

Two hours. That was the length of time since they had arrived at the ruins. The only person who was remotely interested in the place still was Rodney. He had long since dispelled to mystery of the ancient weapon that had once existed. It had protected the planet for a number of years, but had been destroyed in the original war with the wraith. So now McKay was just trying to recover the ancient's notes on the weapon in hopes that maybe they could recreate it for themselves on Atlantis. Ronon and Teyla had opted to go look around at the surrounding area leaving a very unhappy Sheppard to keep an eye on McKay. The Colonel had to be the one to stay as his gene was the strongest and the surviving technology didn't seem to want to work for Rodney's artificial gene.

"Rodney, are you almost done yet?" asked John impatiently. He was really starting to get sick of the planet.

"No, Colonel. But I need you and your magic gene to activate this console over here!" Snapped Rodney not even looking up from the console in which he was working at, but pointing at the one right next to his.

Sighing the pilot walked over to the console that Rodney wanted him to activate, he was about to touch it when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Something did not feel right; unfortunately his gut usually was right, so he turned to around to peer out over the walls of the ruins looking for anything strange. "Are you sure that this is a good idea?" he asked.

Rodney noted the change from playful banter to the serious military mode and looked up as he replied, "Yes this is completely safe. Why is your spidey sense letting you in on something you'd like to share?" He just couldn't resist throwing in that little jab.

Sheppard still look distracted as he took in their surroundings, "I guess I just have a feeling okay? Which panel did you want to me activate?" He asked turning his attention back to the console.

"That one," replied McKay with some slight sarcasm as he rolled his eyes and pointed to the correct one.

Sheppard accordingly touched the correct panel, but could not shake the uneasy feeling that all was not as it seemed. Murphy's Law was a funny thing, and it always seemed to apply to his team.

Forest a ways away from the ruins:

"I feel like we are being pursued," said Teyla quietly as the walked stealthily through the forest.

"Yeah I got that feeling too," answered Ronon with a grunt. He stopped and slowly turned around. A split second later he whipped out his gun and shot it into the bush facing him. He was rewarded with a grunt; however five heads popped up out of the shrubbery and rushed them. Less than five minutes later Ronon had managed to shoot three more, and Teyla had taken out the other too.

"Colonel Sheppard," said Teyla into her comm.

"Yeah," came the response, although somewhat distracted sounding.

"We have just taken out a team of men who tried to kill us," answered Teyla.

That seemed to catch the pilot's attention, "WHAT?"

This time it was Ronon who responded, "The men are.."

"Genii," said the Colonel coolly finishing his sentence for him. Both Ronon and Teyla heard the sound of guns being drawn over the comm.

"Colonel?" questioned Teyla.

"Hi Kolya," was the last thing she heard Sheppard say over the comm.

Ancient Ruins:

They were surrounded by ten Genii soldiers and their pesky boss, Commander Acustus Kolya. All he their weapons trained on the two Atlanteans, well mostly on Colonel Sheppard. Rodney was still sitting on the ground with his data pad in his hands and the guts of the console littered on his lap and around him. John had drawn his gun and had aimed it at Kolya's head.

"Lower your weapon Colonel, you are obviously surrounded and really would only get off a shot before my men retaliated," taunted Kolya.

Sheppard narrowed his gaze at Kolya's direction and replied unfazed, "How much lower would you like it? Your head isn't good enough for you? How about your heart? Or your…"

"Enough, if you do not drop your weapon I will be forced to shoot Dr. McKay, and we will carry on this discussion without him," replied Kolya with dead seriousness.

"Whoa hey, is this really necessary," asked McKay nervously looking from Sheppard to Kolya and back to Sheppard. This was bad, very bad. They were surrounded by armed Genii and a particularly evil looking Kolya. Rodney watched as the Colonel lowered his weapon and one of Kolya's lackey's remove it from his grasp, as well as his radio. Why Kolya hadn't shot Sheppard yet was an intriguing question, but the biggest one of all was asked by the Colonel a second later.

"I seem to remember you dying at our last little encounter," drawled Sheppard as two Genii forced him to his knees and pressed their guns to his head.

Rodney had to hand it to him, the man never lost his cool in situations like these, but sooner or later his smartass remarks were going to get him seriously hurt or killed. He sincerely hoped that Ronon and Teyla were on their way to get back up or at least help them, because with Kolya, every second mattered.

Sheppard's comment seemed to get a rise out of the genii commander as a replied bitterly, "Yes, but death is not the only way to cause suffering. Death can be conquered if you know the right people."

Kolya walked over and squatted down to look Sheppard in the eye, "There are more ways to conquer an enemy than just death."

"Oh good so I can rule out death on today's to do list then," replied the Colonel sarcastically.

McKay watched as his friend's comment earned him a kick to the gut. Sheppard didn't make a sound, but pushed himself up and glared at Kolya. Rodney was really starting to worry about Kolya's intentions and why the man was alive because Sheppard had killed him on their last encounter. He, Rodney, had watched as a unit of Ladon's men had come through the gate and escorted the body and Kolya's remaining men to the Genii homeworld to be dealt with. What had gone wrong?

Unfortunately a bad situation had just gotten worse. Kolya's radio had activated and one was his men was reporting "The gate activated, four wraith darts have just come through. Wraith are beaming down. Twenty….. gun fire……. ahhhhhh." They listened as the man screamed and the radio contact stopped.

Soon they heard the all too familiar whine of the darts overhead. One dart and a bunch of wraith were heading right for the ruins. Kolya was livid, the wraith showing up were not part of his plan. He ordered all of his men to go remove the wraith except the two holding Sheppard at gunpoint and the one guarding Rodney.

Ronon and Teyla had silently been making their way back to the ruins. They had heard Sheppard's greeting to Kolya before the radio transmission had been cut off. No doubt Kolya had taken away their radios. They maneuvered themselves so that they were in a position just by the back entrance to the ruins, but were still under the cover of the trees so that they would remain undetected. Since the walls were only waist high, they were able to see everything that was going on, only the conversation was hard to hear because of the distance.

Teyla and Ronon had come up with a plan while watching the scene unfold, and the wraith had provided the distraction that they needed. The genii played further into their hands when over half of them left to attempt to take care of the wraith problem. Ronon moved away so that he was facing Sheppard and waited until his captors fully had their attention on making sure he didn't try to escape, that they were not looking at the forest anymore.

That was when Ronon made his move. He stood up so that the Colonel saw him as he aimed at the Genii guards. Two seconds later the pilot dove at Kolya getting out of Ronon's way allowing him to shoot the guards. Teyla on the other hand took to opportunity to take out McKay's guard. That left Kolya. Unfortunately when Sheppard dove at him the momentum had knocked him off and Kolya had taken the split second to grab hold of McKay, who was very confused, and put a gun to his head.

Sheppard used his moment to pick up one of the discarded guns, but as he turned to aim at Kolya, he met the sight before him. McKay was not looking very happy, and Kolya was pissed. Ronon ran up to stand beside Sheppard and said, "The wraith are here."

Not even looking at Ronon and keeping his gun trained on Kolya the entire time, the colonel replied, "I'll finish this, you and Teyla make sure we have a path to the gate. We'll be there in a minute."

Ronon noted the seriousness and accepted that this was Sheppard's battle to finish, so he ran off to help Teyla who was attempting to hold her position at the entrance to the ruins as the wraith fought to enter.

However, the standstill was brought to an untimely end as the wraith dart chose that moment to show up. Unwittingly Kolya had walked right into the dart culling beam as he forced McKay to slowly back up. With a growl from Sheppard, the colonel dove in after them.

Unfortunately Teyla saw the whole thing pan out as she fought with the wraith that had neared their position. Ronon did too, and in a fit of anger took out his two wraith and the one Teyla had been fighting. They ran as fast as possible chasing after the dart. They quickly exited the wooded path into the field firing at the darts. They watched as two entered to open Stargate, but managed to bring the last one down. Seconds after the gate shut down, they saw it dial again as the remaining Genii fled to another world.

The two teammates ran to the downed dart. It was badly damaged, but enough intact that they thought that perhaps they could still free those trapped inside the buffer. All they could hope for was that this was the dart that had taken Sheppard and McKay.

Atlantis:

Dr. Elizabeth Weir was worried. Granted she always worried when this team was offworld, but when Teyla had called in to request back-up her worry had grown substantially. She knew that she shouldn't have favorites, but a certain dark-haired flyboy had taken a hold of her heart and wouldn't let go. Not that she'd admit it to anyone of course, because she had a firm policy of not getting romantically involved with those under her.

Teyla had radioed in to request back-up and the assistance of Dr. Zelenka. She had proceeded to inform Elizabeth of the trouble that had befallen the team while on this planet. Elizabeth had immediately summoned Lorne's team and another unit of marine's the escort Dr. Zelenka to the planet to assist Teyla and Ronon. Hopefully the buffer on the dart did indeed hold Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay. However, if that was the case, Kolya was also in there as well.

Kolya. That was another thing causing her to worry. How was this man alive? According to the team, he had been killed during their last encounter with Lucius and given over to the genii. Maybe a little chat with Ladon is in order she thought to herself. Right now, however, she would wait to hear from the team offworld, in hopes that she might hear the story for herself from the long time foe, Kolya.

Atlantis: Later On

It was past midnight as Elizabeth sat at her desk with a cup of coffee reading the mission report from MX9-532. Unfortunately, Ronon had not shot down the correct dart. They had freed the people from the buffer only to find it full of villagers; they of course had been extremely grateful and had returned to the village. The village leaders had proposed trade relations and a team was currently attending a feast there to seal the deal. Kolya's lair had been searched by Lorne and his marines, but the search had been fruitless. All of the remaining genii had fled as soon as the wraith left leaving little to be learned.

Both Ronon and Teyla had returned to Atlantis with Lorne, Zelenka, and the marines. They had debriefed, but no solutions had presented themselves there, and Dr. Keller had hauled them off to the infirmary for their post mission exams. Nobody was happy. Ronon was obviously extremely upset and had been last seen in the gym beating the crap out of one of the punching bags. Teyla had gone off to meditate, while Lorne was working with Zelenka to find their missing CO and boss. Zelenka was attempting to locate them using the new trackers that had been assigned to all offworld team members, but the systems were new and hard to pinpoint the location of the trackers just yet. Lorne was going over wraith hotspots and trying to figure out where recent hive activity had been. The worst news that they had received was that the Daedalus had been recalled to Earth and wouldn't be there for a while. In fact a new ship, the Apollo was supposed to be their before it.

All Elizabeth could do right now, was hope the Sheppard would find a way to bring himself and McKay back home. Atlantis couldn't afford to loose them now. Deep down, she knew she couldn't loose him either.

TBC, The rest will be up tomorrow!