"Ronon…" the man stirred in his sleep. "Ronon Dex…" the soft female voice brushed against his subconscious mind. "Ronon!" Ronon jolted awake, sitting up his bed with his gun in his hand set to kill, scanning the room for the owner of the voice. Seeing no one, he lay back down, the gun lying across his bare chest. Sliding it back into the holster on his bedside table, he ran a hand over his face, more than a little confused.

"Morning." John grumbled as he sat down at the table across from him.

"Morning." Ronon echoed as he ate his bacon and eggs, taking a sip from his glass of orange juice.

"You okay?" John asked, starting on his own breakfast. "You look a little…"

"Didn't get much sleep last night, kept having weird dreams." Ronon said.

"You didn't touch any glowing rocks lately have you?" John asked and he gave him a look. "Had to ask."

"Ronon…" A spike of pain lanced across Ronon's mind, giving him in the image of the inside of a Wraith Hive ship. Strength suddenly left him and his limbs shook. "Please…Ronon." He cried out as another blinding spike of pain seared through his brain. He never felt this kind of pain before, he felt as if his brain was going to explode, the pressure building inside of his skull.

"Ronon!" John exclaimed as Ronon collapsed sideways off the chair and to the floor, his hands clutching his head, blood trickling from the corners of his eyes. "Med team to the mess hall!" He knelt by his fallen friend, unsure of what to do. "Hang on, buddy, just hang on." The man's body, which had almost been convulsing, suddenly went slack as he went unconscious.

Ronon woke to an EKG machine beeping. A strange lethargy had taken over his body, making him struggle to open his eyes.

"Welcome back." He looked over, seeing John and Teyla standing at his bedside. "You had us worried there for a minute."

"What happened?" Ronon asked.

"Doctor Keller is trying to figure that out as we speak." Teyla said, grasping his hand in an attempt to comfort him.

"You had a seizure of some kind right in the middle of the mess hall." John said.

"Seizure?"

"Your brain went on the fritz." John said explaining.

"My head is pounding." Ronon said, rubbing the heel of his hand into his forehead.

"Apparently that's a side effect of the seizure." John said.

"Look who's awake." They all looked over to see Doctor Keller walk into the observation room. "Do you mind if I do a couple tests to make sure nothing was damaged?"

"Go ahead." Ronon said and she got out her penlight, shining it into his eyes to test pupil response. She started to test his motor function and nerve response and he passed everything no problem, with the exception of minor muscle weakness.

"Everything seems to be fine, but I'd stay off your feet for a while until we figure out what happened. Okay?" She said.

"Okay." Ronon said, not really up for arguing. "I'm going to go back to sleep for a little while, I didn't sleep well last night."

"Get some rest, buddy." John said and Teyla gave him a small smile, squeezing his hand briefly. Ronon closed his eyes and was soon asleep.

"Can you hazard a guess on what caused his brain to short out?" John asked as they left the room and Keller looked at him.

"We scanned his brain wave activity when he first came in and noticed that there was a part of his brain that was in overload."

"What part?"

"The part that we don't use, I compared it to scans taken of McKay's brain when he was affected by that Ancient device."

"The one that gave him super powers." John said and she nodded.

"They didn't have much in common, accept for that one part. Some scientists believe that that part of the brain, if activated, could allow the person to communicate telepathically." She said and there was thoughtful silence as they took this in. "I did another scan a short while before he woke up, and that portion was dormant again."

"So…what?" John asked.

"I think someone, or something tried to communicate with Ronon telepathically and it overloaded his brain. We aren't meant to be able to communicate like that in this stage of our evolution, and apparently this is one of the side effects if it's forced on us suddenly."

"So someone attacked Ronon with their mind."

"I don't think they were attacking him. This person, or thing could have turned him into a vegetable if they wanted to, or kill him by bursting a blood vessel in his brain, I'm certain of it. No, I think they were trying to send him a message." She said.

"What message?" Teyla asked.

"They only person who knows that is Ronon, assuming he got it at all, his brain might have shut down to protect him from it before he ever got it." She said and John looked into the observation room at Ronon asleep on the bed.

He was being dragged down a Hive ship hallway by a Wraith soldier on either side. His body was weak and there was a terrible hunger gnawing at his insides, beating at his mind to feed. Dragged to a main room, he was forced to his knees in front of a Wraith Queen.

"How long has it been," she started. "Since you last fed? Too long, I venture."

"I won't do it. Not for you, not for anyone." His voice was different, slightly higher pitched but still gravelly and rough, as if he hadn't used it for ages. "I will not be your entertainment."

"I can feel your hunger." The Queen said. "Bring it in." a human woman was pulled kicking into the room. She was making a valiant effort to break free, but she was over powered by the drones and was pushed to her knees in front of him. The Queen stood behind the woman, looking down at him. "Feed. If not for me, then to sustain yourself."

"No. I won't do it. I'm not a killer!" an intoxicating aroma was coming from the woman, making the hunger inside him grow tenfold. There was a strange tugging in his mouth and he ran his tongue over his teeth.

"That is exactly what you are. Now feed!"

"No!"

"It won't save her, this human. If you won't feed on her, I will give her to one of my soldiers."

"I won't kill her." He said and looked at the woman. She had started to cry, tears creating streaks in the dirt on her face. The Queen pushed her forward and he caught her in his arms, the smell coming from her intensified as she clung to him, seeking safety in him from the Wraith around them.

"Please." She sobbed and he pushed her away, scrambling backwards until his back hit the wall. She fell to the floor, reached out to him. "Please don't leave me to them!"

"I'm sorry." He said. "I can't…"The Queen descended on her and he clasped his hands over his ears to block out her screams of pain and terror.

Ronon snapped out of the dream with a yell, his heart racing and a cold sweat soaking his skin. Nurses and Doctor Keller rushed into the room at his shout and he fought off their seeking hands at first, disorientated.

"Ronon!" Keller yelled. "It's okay! You're in the infirmary!" she said and he looked at her.

"The infirmary?" he asked stilling, his mind confused and reeling.

"Yes." She said gently. "What do you remember?"

"Pain, lots of pain." He said as the nurses began taking his vital signs.

"Why did you yell?" Keller asked and he struggled to remember.

"I had a nightmare."

"About?"

"I dreamt I was a Wraith."