Disclaimer: If it's on the show, it doesn't belong to me. If it's not on the show, it's mine.

Summary: Just some Halloween inspired fun. The team travels to a seemingly uninhabited planet and gets more than they bargained for. Go figure.

Spoilers: A few mentions here and there, nothing too serious.

Characters: Sheppard and McKay focus, Ronon and Teyla

Author's Note: Got hit with an idea and decided to run with it. Not meant to be anything over-the-top fantastic, just a bit of fun. Hope you enjoy, as always.

'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn
And hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
-William Shakespeare

The Gloaming

by Bremm

Chapter 1

"I don't care what it is, Rodney, just shoot the damn thing!" Sheppard bellowed into his radio, sawing with renewed vigor at the rope that currently had him by the ankle, suspending him several feet off the ground. Some distance away, the bark of a P90 echoed loudly through the forest and a smattering of birds took flight, startled.

"Easy for you to say!" Rodney screamed back, his breathless voice bordering on hysteric, and Sheppard grit his teeth and continued sawing. "How on earth am I supposed to know where to shoot it?"

"Shoot its legs," Ronon offered helpfully and Sheppard could hear the sound of Ronon's energy gun overlaying the spray of automatic fire.

"It doesn'thave legs, you Neanderthal! It's a mound of dirt!"

"Has to be moving somehow," Ronon replied pragmatically and Rodney's strangled noise was clearly audible over the radio.

"I believe I am closing in on your position, Colonel." Teyla pipped up and Sheppard sagged a little in relief. The rope was annoyingly thick and had what looked like a strand of braided steel as it's core; it was taking him a long time to saw through it. He had to heft himself up and grab the end of the rope in one hand to hold himself upright, sawing with the other. The strain was leaving a mild burn in his muscles and Sheppard hissed through his teeth as he abandoned sawing long enough to scramble a hand towards one of his vest pockets. Pulling out a life-signs detector, his touch turning it on, he looked at the screen.

"Turn a few degrees to your left, Teyla. You're close." He paused as the dot that was Teyla obediently shifted direction, "You've got it. Straight ahead."

"Oh god, it's not slowing down..." Rodney squeaked over their channel, and the P90 fire died off. Straining to listen, Sheppard caught a few more sounds of Ronon's energy gun, before that stopped as well.

"Guys?" he asked into his ear piece.

"Can't talk now," Ronon barked in reply.

Teyla burst through the foliage to his right, and he quickly ordered, "Cut me down!", allowing his body to fall down and dangle. Wasting no time, Teyla reached down and pulled a long, slightly curved knife from her boot. She slashed at the rope; it frayed to the center and rebounded off the braided steel. With a frown, she took a step back, eyes tracking the rope to where it arced over a tree branch, then disappeared into the high foliage.

"I cannot cut it with my knife," she said worryingly. "The fastest way to get you free would be if I trace it back and untie it at its source. I will return after I have done so."

Sheppard gave her a curt nod, showing that he understood. "Hurry," he told her needlessly. She nodded back and disappeared off in the direction the rope extended, moving at a run.

The blood was rushing to his head, yet his stomach muscles burned far too bad for him to want to attempt to pull himself back up again. He remembered how much he poked fun at Rodney for a similar predicament and vowed to appologise for it. His ankle felt as if it slowly being torn away from the rest of his body – if it hadn't been sprained in his spectacular execution of the cunningly laid trap, the full weight of his body and all his gear was definitely tearing something. His face felt unbearable flushed and began to pound with a headache. He willed Teyla to hurry.

A few more blasts from Ronon's gun cut through the quiet like an afterthought before dying off completely and Sheppard was practically squirming with impatience. He could no longer hear Teyla moving through the forest, so the rope must extend farther than he thought. The minutes wore on, stretching impossibly long, so long that he was about to ask what was taking her so damn long, when finally his radio keyed.

"Colonel." Teyla's voice was overcast by a smattering of static.

"Have you found the end?"

There was a pause that Sheppard didn't like, before Teyla replied, "There is a device here. I am unable to release the rope."

Great. Just great. As if to make matters worse, the distant sound of P90 fire started up again, Ronon's gun discharging enthusiastically in tandem. Taking a deep, calming breath, he said into his radio, "Forget about the rope, Teyla, and go help Rodney and Ronon."

A hesitant pause from Teyla. "I am uncomfortable with leaving you alone."

Sheppard had lost his P90 when he'd inadvertently sprung the trap. It had disappeared into the surrounding bushes and was out of sight; he wasn't about to call Teyla back to look for it. His handgun was still strapped in his thigh holster though, so he keyed his radio to say, "I've still got my sidearm, I'll be fine."

That seemed to be enough for her. "On my way." Teyla responded curtly. The static was gone and her voice came through clear. Then the radio channel fell silent.

Feeling the veins in his head throbbing in time with his heartbeat, Sheppard grimaced. His face felt like it was on fire. Taking a few deep, steeling breaths, Sheppard hauled himself upward just enough to snag a hand on the rope. Pulling himself up to a semi-comfortable contortion, blood rushing blessedly away from his head, he reached with a free hand into his vest pocket and pulled out the LSD again. He couldn't stand not doing anything and watching his team's back was the best he could do.

He studied the screen. Two rapidly moving dots were located about half a mile northeast of his current position – Ronon and Rodney. The sound of gunfire was coming from their direction. However, nothing was on the screen chasing them. Teyla's dot was moving away from Sheppard and obviously heading towards the sound of gunfire.

In fact, nothing was on the screen at all except the four of them. He keyed his radio, "Guys, I'm getting nothing on the life-signs detector."

"That's because it's a goddamn dirt pile! Try switching the settings." Rodney's voice was sharp and annoyed and the report of the P90 in the background was ear-jarring.

Right, right, Sheppard fiddled with the screen as carefully as he could with one hand, not wanting to drop it. He wasn't as good as Rodney at using the life-signs detector, but he'd had the physicist show him how to change what signatures the device read. He switched from large bio signatures to small bio signatures– the screen was liberally covered with dots. Well, at least this planet has an active ecosystem, he thought sardonically. Scrutinizing the mess, he picked out Rodney and Ronon. It was kind of hard not to, they were huge on the screen comparatively. Nothing seemed to be moving in time with them, other than Teyla, so he switched the setting away from bio signatures and into energy.

Okay, that was something. Little insignificant fields were scattered on the screen, but one bright, fast moving dot attracted his immediate attention. Trying to get the screen to show bio signatures and energy at the same, he gave up after a few frustrated, abortive attempts.

"McKay, how do I read different signatures at the same time?" he asked into his radio.

The P90 fire was sporadic now. At least Rodney was keeping his head enough to start conserving ammo. Sheppard had to wonder worryingly, though, what could possibly take that much P90 fire and still keep coming.

"You're kidding, right?" the plea was high pitched and squeaked a little at the end. Sheppard grimaced. "How completely and utterly useless are you?!"

He was about to reply tartly that he was doing the best he could in his current situation when Rodney continued in acid tones, "No, nevermind – the answer is obvious. Just think really really really hard at it, Colonel, and maybe that will work, because I don't have the time nor the inclination to explain it to you at the moment. I'm a little busy trying not to die."

Hooookay. McKay had blown past fear and into anger, which was good. He tended to survive better when working on anger. On a whim, positive it wasn't going to work, Sheppard tightened his grip on the LSD and thought really hard about seeing both energy and large bio signatures.

Definitely didn't work. Torn between wanting to track the energy signature that was chasing Ronon and McKay and watching his teammate's life-signs, he eventually decided on watching his teammates. Teyla's dot was moving at the same pace as McKay and Ronon's as they all moved steadily east and Sheppard realized she couldn't reach them, not when they were all running the same speed.

"Teyla, if you switch your direction slightly to the right and move a little faster, you'll come up behind whatever's chasing Ronon and McKay, if the two of them slow down a bit."

"You want us to slow down? Are you mad?" Rodney's voice was incredulous.

"Slowing down is not a good idea, Sheppard." Ronon added. "Whatever this thing is, it's deadly. It kills the ground as it passes over it."

Frowning, trying to picture that in his mind, he asked, "Kills?"

"As in it's leaving a trail of incredibly dead and incinerated plant-life in its wake, what the hell did you think he meant? It's gotta have something beneath the mound of dirt, acid or something, like a slug trail-" Rodney said irately.

Suddenly realizing that he never told McKay which setting he found the creature on the LSD, Sheppard said, "Its signature is energy, McKay, not organic."

Sheppard could perfectly picture the expression on Rodney's face, because the sporadic P90 fire stopped and there was just the sound of Ronon's gun firing. He could see Rodney's face in his mind's eye, gaze narrowed and distant as the cogs turned in his head, the massive intellect taking that piece of information, dissecting it...

"It's a machine, obviously... Buried in the forest bed, probably motion detecting and we activated it by stepping on it, which is pathetically primitive, but effective. That would leave it covered in a protective mound of dirt that effectively slows down our bullets enough to not damage it... Ronon's gun is practically useless, it's just throwing up clouds of dust..."

That's what Sheppard liked to see: answers. "Can you shoot its legs, like Ronon said?"

"Nono, I can't see its means of propulsion from here... there's no gap between the thing and the ground, at least, not wide enough for us to see if it has legs or not... certainly not enough to tell how it's moving itself..."

"It's fast." Ronon remarked.

"Yes, thank you for that, Ronon. I hadn't realized." While Ronon sounded only slightly exerted, Rodney was breathing heavily, his words coming more as broken pants than actual sentences. He knew McKay wouldn't be able to keep up the pace much longer.

"I see the trail that Rodney described." Teyla remarked suddenly. "I believe I am directly behind the creature – I can see Rodney and Ronon ahead of me.

"What, I don't see- oh, yeah, careful Teyla, it's right in front of you... What does it look like from behind?"

A pause and Sheppard continued to scrutinize the LSD. Ronon and Rodney had obediently slowed down and Teyla had closed the distance. She was right behind the pair.

"It is difficult to tell in the dim lighting, I can barely make it out. It appears as if the forest bed itself is moving..." A brief sound of surprise, "I am not sure, but the creature appears to be glowing."

"Glowing?"

"Yes, a slight glow remains briefly on the forest bed after the creature passes over it. It fades quickly."

Rodney made a noncommittal humming noise as if he found the information interesting, but didn't offer anything and the radio channel was briefly silent.

"It eats up the ground?" Sheppard asked, struck with an idea.

"Yes, we've established that." Rodney replied snidely.

"Do you have any grenades on you, Ronon?"

A contemplative pause, then Ronon replied in barely concealed delight, "Two."

"Do you think you can time it so the thing passes over where you've dropped it just as it explodes?"

In a slightly affronted sounding voice, Ronon replied, "Easily."

"You think that hadn't occurred to me, Sheppard?" Rodney cut in, "I'm not an idiot. I have noidea what powers that thing. We're not exactly that far ahead of it that I'd even remotely consider blowing it up a good idea - I have no idea what reaction that could set off, let alone-"

"The dirt should dampen the blast enough." Sheppard remarked. "Just put as much distance as you can between you and it. Teyla, back off for now."

The LSD showed Teyla slowing and then coming to halt. Rodney still continued his breathless objections over the radio, but the dots that denoted him and Ronon did increase their speed. After a moment, Ronon rumbled over the radio, "First grenade."

A few seconds later the sound of an explosion rippled through the forest.

-to be continued