A/N: This story is complete in 12 chapters and will be updated Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, give or take a day.

Reciprocal, adj., 1. given or felt by each for the other.

Symmetry, n., 1. A relationship of characteristic correspondence, equivalence, or identity among constituents of a system or between different systems.

Chapter 1 – Dazed and Confused

John Sheppard awoke in darkness, instantly alert. The familiar burn of adrenaline flooding his bloodstream and the abrupt return to wakefulness made him feel as though he'd just experienced a nightmare, but the residual eerie sensation that usually accompanied such fleeting images wasn't present. As he forced his rapid breathing to slow, he realized that what he was feeling was more akin to waking from a dreamless sleep and finding himself inside a nightmare.

Not starting in the slightest when an immense clap of thunder assaulted his eardrums, he threw aside the afghan that had been covering his body and rolled off the sofa, coming upright in a low crouch. His senses sharp, John quickly assessed his surroundings. It appeared he was alone, in a neatly-furnished one-story cabin. He took in the exposed wooden rafters and large oak-paned windows that were intermittently illuminated by lightning and his instincts began to tell him that something was terribly wrong. A glance at his torn and bloody uniform confirmed his suspicions.

Sheppard headed for the other end of the cabin, dodging bits of paper from the desk by the window and other debris that the storm whipped in through the open door. Snatching up his vest, P-90, and sidearm from a low shelf next to the fireplace, he turned back for the entryway and walked quickly toward it, paying little mind to the body with the gaping throat wound that he had to step over to cross into the ill-tempered weather beyond the walls of the building.

John's boots crunched on gravel upon exiting the cabin, and he thought the path to his left looked somewhat familiar, but the one to his right was the important one. He was certain of that, though he didn't know why. What he did know was that something was out here, something important, and he needed to find it fast. For Rodney's sake.

"Who's Rodney?" John pondered aloud, blinking down at his feet. Wind whipped at him, errant strands of hair brushing across his eyelids. Swiping them out of the way, he shrugged. If he could just find what he was looking for, he was certain the rest would come to him. Mind made up, he set out to his right.

Just past the cabin, the path inclined slightly and continued that way for a few yards before beginning the steeper ascent into the surrounding hills. Lightning scorched the night sky above, illuminating the desolate landscape. Crumbling stone structures dotted the higher ground, their shapes melting seamlessly to join the gravel beneath his feet. The loose gravel. Sheppard's foot slipped and he scrabbled precariously against the rocky slope, eventually regaining his balance.

Rational thought suggested that he slow down, but he was just too jittery. Besides, he didn't have the time. He needed to continue his search before it was too late for McKay. "McKay…McKay…Doctor McKay…" Sheppard muttered while he climbed. "Arrogant genius…Atlantis astrophysicist. McKay. Rodney. Rodney McKay. Doctor Rodney McKay. Yes…Rodney. Help Rodney."

The ground leveled off abruptly and John stumbled, overcompensating with the sudden lack of incline. A group of stone structures stood before him. Odd. They had seemed much further away while looking up at them from the cabin. Shrugging again, he stepped toward the central structure, the only one that was still mostly intact. Formed of white and grey marble, or whatever passed for marble here, the building was circular in shape, its roof gently domed.

Inside, he was met by rows and rows of shelves. Strange objects of Ancient origin lined the shelves and John was fairly sure that whatever he was searching for lay within this room. It looked similar to the room from earlier. He stared at his feet again in confusion, growing frustrated by the vague sense of déjà vu. How was it that he remembered this place from before, yet didn't remember it? How long ago was before?

Outside, the darkness was again streaked with electricity, and a sickly pallor was cast across everything in John's midst through the translucent dome. Distracted by the flash, yet still deeply agitated, he jumped when a voice sounded in his ear.

"Sheppard, this is McKay. Come in."

John's fingers automatically brushed past his ear and he frowned. "McKay?" he questioned.

"Yes, who did you expect? Caldwell?"

"No…"

A moment passed before the voice continued, "Oh. Well, good. In that case, I could use your help."

"McKay?" John said again.

"Yes, I think we've sufficiently established that that's my name," the voice snapped. "Are you going to help me or not?"

"Trying…where are you?" John looked around the room, searching for the voice that seemed so close to him.

"I don't know, not exactly."

"Are you hiding? I can't see you." Sheppard switched on the light of his P-90 and shone it around, between rows of shelving and under tables and chairs.

The voice on the radio sighed impatiently. "Well of course you can't see me, Colonel. Not unless you also wandered into an underground science laboratory." There was a pause, and the voice continued with a good measure of alarm, "Oh my God, you didn't somehow follow me, did you? Because that would be very, very bad from where I'm standing!"

"Where are you standing?" Sheppard asked absently, fingering a cube-shaped object on a workbench, fascinated by the turquoise glow it gave off at his touch.

"I don't know! Are you paying any attention to me, Colonel? Colonel!"

"What are you yelling about? I'm not deaf, just busy."

"Well sorry to interrupt your target practice or perimeter-walking or whatever macho military activity you're currently engaged in, Colonel, but my life may very well be in danger here! So if you would kindly get your macho military-goon ass in gear, my genius astrophysicist ass might actually have a chance at surviving the day!"

"Right…okay. Just have to find this one thing, then I can help Rodney." Sheppard turned his head and his light to the workbench opposite where he was standing, a glint of shiny metal catching his eye.

"Yes, help Rodney! Helping Rodney is a very good idea…uh, Sheppard, why are we talking in third-person?" The voice went from sounding hopeful to confused and slightly concerned. "Sheppard?"

John ignored the voice's question and stepped toward the shiny object at the edge of the table. It was rectangular and roughly the size of Rodney's tablet computer, though slightly thicker, and appeared to be solid metal with the exception of the two touch plates that were set into its surface. There was writing in Ancient on each of the plates, which may have been helpful to Rodney, but the characters meant nothing to John.

The plate on the right was lit a steady sea green and brightened a little at Sheppard's proximity. The left-hand plate flickered between amber and green and he knew immediately that this was it. This was what he was searching for.

"Colonel? John? Are you there?"

Sheppard didn't respond to the worried voice, but reached out and placed his palm against the blinking surface. A slight ripple of energy seemed to pass through his hand, but just as quickly the sensation was gone and both touch plates glowed a steady green. John pulled his hand away from the device and stood staring at it in confusion before turning to take in his surroundings.

This room was familiar. He'd explored it that morning with Rodney, but he didn't recall why he was here now. He and McKay had returned to PX9-253 to investigate some 'very interesting energy readings', but hadn't found anything at all interesting at this location and had quickly moved on to other areas. Which returned John to his question: why had he come back to this place?

"Colonel Sheppard, please respond before I am forced to freak out due to the assumption that you are dead or unconscious somewhere, meaning that my eventual death is also imminent!"

Sheppard stopped pondering his current location at hearing Rodney's voice, a voice that clearly suggested its owner was already freaking out. "McKay? What's wrong?"

"Oh thank God!" The relief in the scientist's voice was quickly covered up by annoyance. "Are you finally speaking to me again, Colonel?"

"When was I not speaking to you, Rodney?"

"Just now…you said you were busy, trying to find something to help me, and then you weren't answering on the radio."

"I…don't remember that…"

"Are you okay, Sheppard? You sound a little weird."

John shook his head, still feeling a bit dazed, but whatever fog had been shrouding his brain seemed to be lifting. "Yeah, I'm fine. At least I think so. Remember that room we visited this morning, up in the ruins?"

"Yeah, there wasn't anything important there so we moved on. We split up to look elsewhere, which is exactly when all of my trouble started, mind you. Why?"

"I'm in that room now, and I just activated a piece of Ancient technology, but I can't remember why I decided to come back here."

"What's it do, the thing you activated?" Rodney asked, his curiosity causing him to momentarily forget his own worries.

"No clue, it's just a chunk of metal with a couple of glowing touch plates."

"Oh yeah, I saw that this morning. It lit up when I touched it, but I couldn't get it to do anything else. I took some scans of it to look through later."

Sheppard stood staring at the device and was beginning to feel very uneasy. "Well you may remember it, McKay, but I don't. Nor do I remember coming back up here…in fact, I'm not recalling much of anything since we left here this morning…did you ask me to come back?"

"No, why would I? That wasn't where the energy readings were coming from."

"Did I mention where I was going when we left earlier?"

"You were going to keep exploring in the hills, even though I told you it was a waste of time, and I was going to go make myself useful looking around those caves we saw, down past that cabin. We made our regular check-ins until my radio reception started breaking up a few hours ago, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, so we just agreed to keep looking and meet back at the gate at sundown. You seriously have no memory of any of this?"

"I sort of remember talking to you on the radio…but nothing definite. You don't think it could be something to do with this thing I touched?"

"I have no idea, Colonel, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I have bigger problems at the moment."

"You have a bigger problem than my sudden inexplicable case of amnesia?" John asked in disbelief.

"Hello, that's generally what 'imminent death' indicates! I'm trapped in a lab in one of those caves, and from what I've been able to gather, I've got a little over eighty minutes before I'm going to suffocate. All the air is being sucked out of the room. Oh, and that hour and change that I have? That's only if I don't drown first! There's a stream somewhere that's running off into the caves from all the rain earlier, and the ceiling is leaking like a sieve. So yes, I'd say my problem ranks slightly above you not remembering which MRE you had for lunch. If it's not too much trouble, I would appreciate getting out of here before I have to start hallucinating certain blonde SGC officers to pass the time until my demise!"

"Okay, Rodney, just calm down. I'll get the Ancient device to go, and we can figure out why it's not letting me remember the entire afternoon later." John's tone was annoyed but resigned as he picked up the metal object and slid it into his pack. He then reached into his pocket for his LSD, only to find it missing. "Crap."

"What? Don't say that. I seriously don't need to hear you say that right now, Colonel!" McKay whined.

John ignored him. "Do you have your LSD? Mine's gone."

"Gone?"

"Yes, as in not here. And it may not surprise you that I can't remember where it is so you're going to have to tell me where you're at, McKay."

"I believe I've already mentioned that I don't exactly know, but if you can get to the cave entrance nearest the cabin, I might be able to guide you here with my LSD so long as my radio keeps working."

"My thoughts exactly. Just hang tight. I'll be at the cave entrance in ten." John jogged out of the domed building, the wind muffling Rodney's grumbled reply.

TBC…