Author Notes: Okay, so this story has been written for a while, but I refrained from posting, as the route I took with the characters turned sickenly cute and happy. To warn you, this story moves at a VERY fast pace in the first few chapters, so keep an eye on the times. It starts just pre-Atlantis, is Rodney-centric, but will quickly encompass the whole team in season 3 preSunday.

I have not seen season 4, and own nothing in this story. Hope you enjoy!

Lullaby of Screams

Chapter 1: Shadow

Coffee; the scientist's friend. Dr Rodney McKay sat down at his desk at Area 51, casting an annoyed eye over the paperwork that had somehow inexplicably piled up. Seriously, forget the Goa'uld, admin was going to take over the world next. It had taken long enough, but finally – only a month previously – he had been reassigned from Russia, almost two years since he had helped out at the SGC to avert Anubis' little 'destroy the Earth' phase. He wouldn't be staying here long, however. The Air Force seemed to think he was some sort of commodity to be passed around, as only that morning he had received the call that would reassign him to the newly equipped Antarctica base. Not that he was complaining – to be assigned the position of Head Scientist in the home of Ancient technology on Earth was not something he would ever turn down. It was just the prospect of the cold; his blood had only recently started defrosting in the heat of the Nevada desert.

"Dr McKay?" A timid little voice floated over from the doorway, making Rodney roll his eyes.

"What? Unless you're about to blow anything up in the very near future, thus destroying this base, please just turn around now."

"But sir…"

McKay sighed, "Alright, fine, I get it, you need my brain." He stood up, and walked towards the almost trembling scientist (a newbie, Rodney couldn't for the life of him remember the kid's name). His impatience grew, "Move!"

The kid scurried – and yes, that really was the word to describe it, not that he had anything against rodents, mind you, he was just of the opinion that rodent qualities should never be transferred into humans – and led Rodney into one of the labs, where boxes were being unpacked carefully. "Well?"

An SF handed him a clipboard, "Shipment from the SGC."

McKay scanned the document quickly: uninhabited planet, three-hundred and seventeen – very boring looking – artefacts of Ancient origin discovered in a temple, writings being translated in another department, and one lovely little message at the bottom reading 'Have fun' from a certain Major Carter. McKay rolled his eyes. That woman seemed to be exhibiting an unhealthy level of sarcasm ever since the Colonel froze himself in Antarctica and came back. He sighed, "Well, I'm going to go get more coffee – get these to my lab. Preferably without breaking them."

Two hundred and fifty three artefacts in the lab, two hundred and fifty three artefacts in the lab, if one of the artefacts turns out to be another damn paperweight, there'll be two hundred and fifty two artefacts in the lab. McKay groaned. He really, really needed sleep, but he also needed to get a report back to the SGC by the fast approaching deadline of his plane to Antarctica, and there was no way he would leave these idiots in charge. He figured he would sleep on the plane, and as most of the scientists had gone home, at least he would get some peace and quiet. Carefully placing the logged artefact back in its box for storage, Rodney turned to the next one. He blinked, waking up slightly. This one looked a bit more interesting. With the shape of a mini obelisk, about 30cm long and comprising of an opaque silvery-green crystal, now that he looked, it clearly stood out from all the rest. Minuscule Ancient text decorated one side, but they were too small to define.

"Huh." He guessed Carter had missed this one – he had no doubt she sent him the boring artefacts and kept the good ones for herself. He frowned, examining the flat end of the crystal. It looked remarkably similar to the power crystals used in many technologies, but the writing was a new twist. Placing it carefully on the table, he began sorting through the boxes he had already logged. Sure enough, he found what he had presumed to be an insignificant part of a larger Ancient device. Round and flat in design, it too had markings, and also, in the centre, a hole that looked to be the perfect fit for the new crystal. Allowing himself a small smile, McKay took up the crystal and placed it in the secondary device – nothing like a little experiment.

The device glowed for a second, before returning to its dull, inactivated colour. McKay sighed. He had been right the first time – there must be more components, and clearly that was something he did not have. He rubbed his eyes, trying to drag some energy out, vaguely realising that he needed to go and eat something, and reached out to removed the crystal-

A searing pain shot through the skin of Rodney's palm, up through his shoulder muscle and forced the air out of his lungs. The world went black before his eyes, but then his ankles jarred and buckled as he hit solid ground – hard. "Ow! Crap, ow, that hurt." Gingerly, he peeled his hand off the crystal, shuddering slightly as he felt some skin stay behind. He was in a near pitch black room, standing in front of a waist-high pedestal where the damned artefact was now happily sitting dormant. The pedestal had various dials and buttons, all of which were fading out like a DHD. In a last ditch panic, McKay tried to simply reverse the process, but no such luck. The device remained stubbornly silent.

Rodney now knew he was breathing way too fast. He closed his eyes for a second, trying to calm down. This weak attempt was then completely foiled by the horrible sound of both multiple guns being cocked, and the sound of zat guns opening. An electrical charge running through his body rendering him unconscious didn't help much with the calm plan either.

"Look at his clothes-"

"He's gotta be rich."

"Nah, look at his skin, don't look like he's ever fired a weapon or carried a knife. Everyone knows the rich are the most paranoid."

"So who d'ya rekon he is?"

"Dunno. Poke 'im – see if he wakes up."

A sharp prodding on Rodney's already aching forehead forced him to finally open his eyes. He was in a windowless room, dimly lit, being poked by three scarecrow excuses for children, no older than eight. "Hey! Get off!" He batted their hands away sharply. The littlest one of the three gasped and ran out of the room, while the other two merely moved back until they were out of his reach, and regarded him coolly. "What? Look, why don't you go get your parents? I'm sure it's well past your bedtime." He knew he probably shouldn't antagonise anyone right now, but his head was pounding like an EM pulse had gone off in his brain, and he was too tired and hungry to care about any semblance of nice.

The boy raised an eyebrow, exchanging an odd look with the girl. Before they could resume poking him, however, a voice from the doorway called over, "Den, Emily – out, now. Yarek is waiting for you up top – you're late."

Both children left without a word, and the woman closed the door behind them as she moved into the room, pointing a zat gun in Rodney's face as he sat up. McKay froze, before raising his hands. His brain was working overtime, and getting absolutely no answers. That was a zat, Emily was an Earth name, the woman was – if possible – skinnier than the kids, and they all spoke English. Nope. He had no idea where the hell he was. The woman glared, "Who are you, and how did you get that deep into the catacombs? Where are you from?"

McKay blinked, clenched his shaking hands into fists, and swallowed his snide nature; he had no idea how spaced apart zat shots needed to be to stun twice instead of killing the second time, and he did not feel in the mood for an experiment, "I'm Dr Rodney McKay – Earth."

The woman barked a laugh, "No shit genius – we're all from Earth. I meant what camp? And Doctor's a bit of a weird name, isn't it?"

"What? No, my name's Rodney, a doctor is…never mind. Wait, did you just say we're on Earth?"

The woman rolled her eyes, "There really isn't much useful grey matter in that skull of yours, is there?"

"You're not helping. You don't understand, this can't be Earth – I was just on Earth, so unless this is some sort of lunatic Air Force training exercise, which I doubt, this can't be…oh God. I am so screwed. I am so completely utterly screwed."

"Really? I wouldn't have thought any woman would go near you."

McKay blinked in shock of the retort, but then, "I'm sorry, you have no idea what a doctor is, but you're up to date with slang? Well aren't we the clever one?"

"Clearly. Your level of comprehension on the other hand…"

"Look, just shut up a moment will you? I'm trying to think."

The woman rolled her eyes, but lowered her zat gun – something Rodney had completely forgotten the existence of since his mind had started trying to place things together. Unfortunately, with the headache fast turning into a migraine, that was becoming rather difficult. Finally, she gave up waiting, "Look, I'm busy."

"I'm in a parallel universe."

"Excuse me?"

"It's the only explanation; the crystal must have acted like the mirror. That's the only way I could have got here. What was your name again?"

The woman had a very sceptical look on her face, "Laura."

"That's great, look what do you know about these catacombs? What about the Ancients?"

Something seemed to click behind Laura's eyes, and for a moment Rodney was hopeful, but then, "Wonderful, I've got a Crazy on my hands. Just the way to end a perfect week."

"What? No you don't understand!"

"Oh I really think I do. You stay right there, I'll be locking you in, so don't get any ideas of slitting our throats while we sleep, okay?" Laura backed away, drawing a key from her pocket, opened the door and stepped outside, "I'll bring you something to eat when the raiders return."

"Oh, crap - food!" Rodney stood, but a wave of dizziness and nausea hit him full on, forcing him to lean against the wall. In all the confusion of the artefacts and the crystal, all he had eaten was a few power bars over the course of his work, god knew how many hours ago. Laura hadn't heard, however, and the thick metal door had been locked. Struggling to clear his head, Rodney forced himself to stumble over and bang on the door, a rising panic creeping all over his skin, "Hey! Wait!"

No one came. Rodney slid down the wall, trying to breathe slowly and force his thoughts to work coherently, but everyway he looked at it, he was going to die on a bastardised version of Earth in a cold dark room in a matter of hours, and no amount of IQ was going to prevent that.

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: Please review!! (Can you guess where I'm going with this?)