Warnings: Spoilers for the excellent SGA novel Reliquary by Martha Wells (published by Fandemonium Books)

Disclaimer: SGA characters, TV episodes, and SGA novels are not mine. This story was written for fun, not profit.

Note: This two-chapter first SGA fanfiction effort is my attempt at writing different points of view for the action packed second to last chapter of this SGA novel. I wanted to see John's mighty struggle from McKay and Teyla's points of view. It probably won't make much sense unless you read the book. The text in italics is quoted from Wells' book. Pardon my medical mumbo-jumbo.


Chapter 1

Zalenka had patched up the com unit so that they could hear the headset conversations from John, Bates and the others who were entering the jumper bay. Yells crackled through the radio signals as bursts of MP-90 gun fire rattled first intensely then sporadically, needing no amplifier to be heard through the glass windows and doors of the control room.

"Major, did you get in?" Bates said.

"Negative, stay back. He's in here with it." John ordered.

McKay realized that John must have made it inside Jumper 5.

"Wow. You're a little different." John said a few minutes later.

Dorane's response was audible but faint. "The transformation occurs whenever I leave my athenaeum for more than a few hours. It's inhibited by the field I use to activate my version of the Ancient gene. It prevents me from staying in this city, from traveling to any other world. I told you, all my people were affected by our biological weapons."

"Yeah, you told me. But I wasn't listening to that part," John lost his ironic tone when he added. "What's in the box?"

"It's a very small explosive, only meant to release a substance in the air."

McKay was thinking about how pedantic Dorane sounded when he realized that the box contained the biologic weapon that Teyla had warned them about.

"McKay, did you see that?" Peter Grodin ducked his head back from the balcony. "The lights from one of the other jumpers just flashed on. Who's activating it?"

"What? I don't…," following where Grodin was pointing, Rodney noticed the lights of some of the other jumpers flickering. One of them even rose up slightly on its pad before settling back down. "Oh, it must be Sheppard. That deadly retrovirus he got infected with is making him more and more sensitive to all the ATA technology. Shut up now, I am trying to listen."

"That's disappointing, because I really didn't want you to have the satisfaction of killing me. But you already did, didn't you? Did you think I didn't know that?" John's voice sounded like ice.

"I suspected it. I didn't expect you to be able to function this well in spite of it." Dorane's disdain marked every word. "But it means nothing. You claim Lantian heritage, but even with the gene, you're all just cattle for the Wraith."

"Thanks, but we already knew that." John said evenly. "Why don't you just head for the Stargate? You can probably make it."

"I fear I have lingered here too long already. Once my condition is triggered by leaving the athenaeum, it advances swiftly. I am dying, even as you are." Dorane said nonchalantly.

"You know, I really wish the ancients had done a better job of getting rid of you." John said in a long breath. Then he added, "Bates, fall back to the corridor and close the blast door."

"That won't do any good. The Lantians didn't want to get rid of me. They wanted to punish me."

"Oh yeah, that was so unreasonable of them." John seemed to have noticed something. "You can't open the container."

"Don't excite yourself, it's on a timed release." Dorane said. "I really did think of every possibility, including the one that I might be incapable of opening it when the time came."

John reply came a few moments later, "And I'm guessing I won't just be able to seal the jumper's hatch."

"It will react rapidly with oxygen, becoming corrosive. The ship's shielding won't hold it in for long."

"We are so totally screwed," realizing that he had spoken aloud, McKay glanced around the room to see if anyone had heard him. Not that it really mattered, that insane, homicidal maniac was really going to kill them all. What a waste of a brilliant mind to spend thousands of years plotting and scheming against those long gone Ancestors.

Running through all the scenarios he could think of, McKay concluded that there was really nothing that he and the others in the control room could do to stop him. He fervently hoped that John could pull off one of his last minute, seat of the pants heroic solutions. He had seen the iron-willed determination in John's eyes as he, Bates and the three active marines walked off armed to the teeth. But he had also seen the pain and physical strain caused by their two-day ordeal.

All they heard next was a quick burst of gun fire, heavy breathing and grunts followed by a thud which sounded like bodies hitting a hard surface. Then noises and groans of pain sounded more distant.

"Rodney, John must have lost his headset," McKay was startled by Elizabeth Weir's voice. "Can you see what's going on?' Thinking that a wall of glass would offer no protection from Dorane's biological weapon, McKay stepped into the balcony and looked up at the jumper bay above them.

"I don't see any… Wait, I think Sheppard and Dorane just rolled off the jumper. The major is lucky, he landed on top. Oh, that's what he meant that Dorane has changed. He looks bigger and he's got claws longer that Sheppard's. They are at each other's throats. The jumper is hovering above the Gateroom, with the ramp is still open. Crap, Dorane just threw off Sheppard and is making a leap for the jumper ramp…"

Suddenly speechless, McKay tracked Dorane's flight off the upper balcony, just missing the ramp that suddenly snapped closed and falling to the deck below. The others from the control room joined him as they all stared as Jumper 5 lowered into position—a quickly widening pool of blood and bits of white and brown matter spreading below. Well, that was an appropriate ending for Dorane, McKay thought, squashed like a bug by a jumper's magnetic field. Poetic justice of a sort.

"Dr. McKay, Major Sheppard says that you should dial the gate for a planet with no atmosphere," Bates said through the com.

McKay tore his eyes away from the scene below. He rushed back to the dialing console to quickly identified a suitable address from the database and punch the sequence of symbols. Silently praying for the gate to hurry up, his eyes drifted to the balcony above. He could see John and Sergeant Bates leaning over the jumper bay balcony. Blood from wounds on their shoulders and arms was clearly visible, a deep crimson standing out from the black background of their uniforms and their sickly pale skin. The two men seemed barely able to stand, hands tight on to the railing for support.

The clicks of the last chevron locking into place sounded incredibly loud. Startled, Rodney suddenly remembered John's recent dramatic reaction to the transporter. The metallic ripple of the event horizon swooshed into the jumper bay before settling within the gate ring. As Jumper Five smoothly eased through the gate, Rodney saw John crumble to the ground, hands clutching his head. The instant the jumper swept through, Rodney shut down the gate.

"The area is secure now." The rest of Bates' call through the com system had an uncharacteristic worried tinge. "Medical emergency in the jumper bay. It's Major Sheppard. We need a crash team now."

"Oh no," Rodney said heading for the stairwell. He took the steps two at a time despite how utterly drained of energy he felt. With a sinking feeling, he was remembering the times today he had told John that he was going to die. Was it two or three? He had said it because he was very concerned and hadn't meant to sound like he was rubbing it in his face. He was pretty sure that John had understood that when he had told him to shut up. But as he realized that John seemed very likely to be dying right now, he felt petty.

Feeling lightheaded from the exertion, Rodney entered the jumper bay and walked towards the two injured men. Dr. Biro was tending to sergeant Bates who, while clearly dazed, seemed more interested in following what was happening to the Major. Dr. Carson Beckett and two medics, crouched on the ground next to John who was lying unmoving on his back. One of the medics had just finished cutting off the Major's tac vest and t-shirt, revealing a mass of purple bruises covering his torso. Blood flowed freely from deep gashes running down from both shoulders, crisscrossed by shallower scratches, including some around his neck. He looked as if he had been mauled by a giant cat, which, Rodney thought, was not that far off the mark. Except cats, even enormous ones, don't inject people with metamorphogenic killer retroviruses.

Unsure about what to do, he kneeled next to John's head, trying to stay out of the way of the medical team. Looking at the Major, Rodney felt uncharacteristically helpless, his mind generating no brilliant idea to save him from the ticking time bomb that Devane's gene therapy had triggered in his body.

A low moan signaled that the Major had started to regain consciousness. His body tensed and he began to raise his arms. The medic to his right held down his arm.

"Major Sheppard, can you hear me?" Beckett said in his gentle Scottish twang while preparing a syringe. "Hold still son, I am going to give you something for the pain."

Arm movements frozen, John opened his eyes, his pupils immediately constricting to a pinpoint and disappearing in the light green iris. Letting out a low moan, he clamped his eyes shut. He grasped Rodney's arm pulling him closer. Rodney could feel John's entire body shivering. He tried to speak, but instead he had to fight to breathe. His nose had started to bleed.

Rodney understood what John wanted to ask him, "It's gone, it went through the gate." At that, John lost consciousness, his grip on Rodney's arm gone. The fear gripping his stomach made Rodney so angry that he looked at Beckett and shouted, "My God, Carson, will you get off your fat ass and do something!"

Beckett barely glanced up to say, "That's not helping, Rodney."

He and the medics worked quickly, covering John's mouth and nose with an oxygen mask, placing monitors on the chest and, with difficulty, inserting IVs in both arms. They communicated with each other in staccato medical phrases, sounding off diminishing vital signs and increasing drug dosages.

Standing up to move further out of the way, Rodney tore his eyes off the scene. Nearby, he saw Teyla, whispering something to Elizabeth. Their faces looked pale and drawn. Further down the large hall, medics were wheeling a bright orange gurney with Sergeant Bates. Rodney had only a moment to register that they were entering the transporter when the sound of a brief agonized yell made him look back at the Major. One of the medics tried to hold John down as convulsions wracked through him.

"Pulse ox is 85% and dropping," the other medic read off the small digital instrument placed on Sheppard's left index finger. She fixed the mask placement and adjusted oxygen levels. "He is going into shock."

"We have to sedate and intubate him," said Beckett rattling off drug dosages to the medics.

Rodney turned back toward Elizabeth, "We should shut down the transporters and all non-essential ATA technology in the tower. John's sensitivity to it has increased exponentially. He was getting excruciating headaches from it before and now, it's killing him."

"That's something we can do," said Elizabeth before relaying the order through her headset. When she was finished, she asked "Rodney, do you have any idea what kind of sensitivity range he has?"

"A couple of hours ago, he managed to track down Teyla through the bowels of Atlantis. He just commanded a jumper to lift off and go through a Gate. Now, I have no idea."