Title: Exit Strategy

Author: illman aka hexicode

Fandom/pairing: Stargate Atlantis, no pairing

Summary: As far as he could tell, he didn't have a hell of a lot of time to do anything so he might as well make it count.

Rating: all ages

Warnings: angst

Disclaimers: The characters and settings aren't mine. No profit is being made, this is for entertainment only. A/N: Reworked and expanded version of Exit. This might turn into a series of ficlets, but I'm not sure yet I can make it work.

oOo

When he watched Rodney dial the Gate for the fourth time, John realized that they were truly and utterly screwed.

Rodney kicked the DHD and howled in pain, jumping around and holding his sore foot. Under different circumstances, John wouldn't have been able to resist a teasing comment or two, but right now he was more concerned with their impending death by ray gun.

"Now would be a good time to get that force field up!" Rodney shouted as he tried to pry off the panel hiding the control crystals. If one of the crystals was damaged or missing, all the time in the universe wouldn't save them.

Raising the force field was the only way to just maybe buy enough time for Rodney to fix the DHD, but it was a sure way of trapping Teyla and Ronon on the other side. If they were still alive, that was. John couldn't afford to assume otherwise. He'd never left anyone behind, not in Afghanistan and not in the Pegasus Galaxy, and he wasn't about to start today.

"Rodney! Don't use this unless the force field drops!" John tossed Rodney a grenade. He had only one grenade left, probably not even enough to take out one of them robotic soldiers.

"You mean before it drops…" Rodney started, but John didn't hear the rest of it, he was busy racing down the corridor, the newly erected force field shielding Rodney and the DHD.

John had never run this fast in his life. His heart was thumping so heavily against the inside of his chest that all other sounds were drowned out. The corridors all looked the same; each junction had several more leading off deep into the alien complex. John couldn't find the spot where they – no he – had left behind Teyla and Ronon, never believing them when they assured him they would catch up with them at the Stargate.

He squeezed into a side corridor just before he was almost spotted by a group of patrolling soldiers. John held his breath, not daring to move, as rattling footsteps approached. For a moment, he thought he was in the clear, but then, they stopped. The silence was dreadful and for a moment, John had the urge to jump out and take down just one of the bastards who had killed half his team. As far as he could tell, he didn't have a hell of a lot of time to do anything so he might as well make it count.

John took a last breath and jumped. He threw his only grenade towards the enemy soldiers, not caring about escaping the blast himself.

To his surprise, getting torn into tiny bits didn't hurt. John only felt a brief sensation of pins and needles before a white light engulfed everything.

oOo

"Colonel Sheppard! Colonel, wake up!"

"Sheppard!"

Someone was slapping his face and calling his name. It took him a second to realize the wrongness. It wasn't happening. He had to be dreaming but that didn't make any sense either because he was dead.

Another hard slap landed in his face. He instinctually opened his eyes.

Teyla and Ronon were looking down on him, wearing concerned expressions.

"You shouldn't be here. You can't." John closed his eyes, hoping that when he opened them again, the cruel hallucinations would be gone. They weren't.

With a wavering smile, Teyla extended a hand towards him. John stared at her even while he took the proffered hand and sat up.

"You can't be here," he repeated.

"It wasn't real. None of it was," Ronon explained off-handedly as if that would explain everything.

"It's all right. We are fine," Teyla said gently.

Willing to believe them for the moment, John looked around. The Stargate was looming behind them. Rodney was leaning against the partially dismantled DHD, looking rather out of it. When he noticed John looking over, he waved.

"It seems this planet is some sort of testing ground, to examine our behaviour. We all woke up here after we completed the test scenario."

"She means after we 'died'," Rodney piped up.

John could wrap his dazed brain around that. It made more sense than any other explanation he had considered so far.

"Let's go home." For the first time in what seemed like a long time, John smiled.

The End