Title: Le Beau et La Bête
Author: Me
Length: This bit is about 3500 words. There are four chapters all together.
Warnings: This is DISNEY! Expect to recognise lines from both the Disney cartoon and also from all seasons of Stargate Atlantis!
Pairings: John Sheppard and Rodney McKay.
Dramatis Personae: Beau - John Sheppard
Beast - Rodney McKay
Enchantress - Chaya
John's stepmother - Elizabeth Weir
Gaston - Kolya
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters either from the Disney film, the original French story ,or the brilliant Stargate Atlantis series - not through lack of wishing though...
Thanks and praise: Goddess47 beta'd and laughed at me. Rieval tried to persuade me to use the original French story instead, so I dedicate this to both of them! I did include one scene from the original story - see if you can spot it! Anything else schmoopy, badly spelled, toe-curlingly awful etc. is all my own work!
Le Beau et La Bête – Chapter 1
Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining, floating castle. Although the Prince was a genius and had all the scientific equipment his heart could desire, he was petty, rude and bad with people.
But then, one winter's night, a priestess asked for shelter from the Wraith. Repulsed by her distinctly female appearance, the Prince sneered at the priestess and accused her of being an Ancient. She warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found within and when he dismissed her again, the woman's solid appearance melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress, who was, actually, also an Ancient.
The Prince crowed that he had been right and she was angry. When he saw that he might have gone a little too far, possibly, he tried to apologize, but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart, and as punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast, and placed a powerful… well… 'spell' on the castle, draining most of the power from the ZedPM, darkening the once beautiful city and transforming all the Prince's servants and scientists who lived there at the same time.
Ashamed of his monstrous form, The Beast concealed himself inside his castle, with just a few of his favourite laptops, several satellites, a few MALPs, deep space sensors, lots of coffee and chocolate and the Stargate as his only window to the outside world. Chaya, the priestess and Ancient, told the Prince that if he could learn to love another, and earn that person's love in return, then the spell would be broken, the ZedPM would be recharged and all would go back to how it was. If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time. As the years passed, he fell into despair, and lost all hope, for who could ever learn to love a beast?
Elizabeth allowed herself a moment to sigh, before making a run for the gate. It had been her first trading outing in years, but she hadn't really come for the stalls, the shows, the trading and the gossip. Elizabeth had really come to meet up with Daniel Jack's son. In fact, the Market had been closing already when she left Daniel's house and then, as she made her way through the departing crowd, they had all heard the whine of the first Dart.
Already she could see the beams that were scooping up the victims of the Wraith and bringing misery to families around the galaxy. The Gates were a boon and a curse in one, and Elizabeth swore as she tripped over a tree root and landed in a tangled bush.
This mishap probably saved her life, as the white beam swept up the two people she had been following, but passed her by. Elizabeth was as safe sitting here in this prickly bush as anywhere, so she settled her pack, sent a prayer to the Ancestors that Sumner had made it home safely, and then, with her notes on the City of the Ancestors out on her lap, prepared to wait.
It was raining hard when Elizabeth awoke with a start and the day was clearly over. She stretched and pulled herself up to her feet, then listened out for some clues to what was going on. The Darts had gone and people were merely picking up the pieces and getting on with their lives. The Wraith hadn't culled this planet to extinction, but then they rarely did. It was a trading planet and so all they had to do was wait for one of their so-called 'worshippers' to tell them it was Market Day, and come and help themselves.
Elizabeth sighed and made sure that all her papers were together before setting off. She had spent far too many years researching the City to allow any of her notes to escape her. Daniel Jack's son, the scholar whose own notes rivaled her own, had given her much to think about and losing these papers would have been a tragedy. She hoped that he was safe.
Back at the Gate, she hesitated. She could just punch in the code for home and check on her stepsons, or she could try out the address with the extra symbol that Daniel had suggested. It had been the reason she had been summoned.
Could she? Could she just try it? See what happened?
What if it was an orbital Gate? Or an underwater one? Or that world where people said there were vicious monsters the size of trees? Ancestors! She didn't want to meet up with Kolya any time soon either! She was close to drowning in this rain, so could it harm? She sneezed.
Sam the Carter's daughter, Daniel's brilliant friend, had come up with a machine to check planets before going through Gates. Elizabeth didn't have one of those, but she did have a special code that was supposed to lift any shields for long enough to let a person through. She pulled the blue glowing globe out of her pack and held it over the DHD. Making her decision, she punched in the code and then approached the Gate with the globe held out in front.
As the Gate whooshed into life, she took a deep breath and then stepped through.
It had to be the City of the Ancestors! She had never before stepped through a Gate to find herself inside a palace! There was a wide hall with a high staircase that swept up to a balcony with glass partitions and blinking lights. Elizabeth had never seen anything like it! She looked all around the semicircular hall and then sneezed.
The place was deserted… and yet it didn't feel empty. She felt eyes watching her every move.
"Hello?"
Nothing. She looked all around again, but still nothing moved.
"Hello? I… I'm sorry to intrude… I… I was at the Market… I… Hello?"
She twirled around as she heard… whispering. But there was no one there.
"Hello?"
"No." She distinctly heard a voice whisper.
"Hello? I mean no harm I… I… I… h… atchoo!"
"Och Kavanagh! Have a heart! She's soaked t'the bone!"
Elizabeth twirled around again and this time she almost screamed as a transparent blue, shimmering ghost with dark, curly hair and bright, merry blue eyes appeared in front of her.
"Look, you canna stay for long. Rodney will be furious, but you canna go home like that! I'm a doctor and I can help ye."
"No!" A second, pony-tailed ghost appeared with a sour expression. "You know what the Prince would say! He does not want guests! You, lady, need to go back home. How did you get past the shield anyway?"
This ghost waggled a finger at Elizabeth, who stepped backwards and nearly fell over when she found herself facing yet another ghost.
"Is not a good idea! One cup of tea, then she goes, yes?"
"You are not in charge, Radek." The second ghost, Kavanagh, stated peevishly.
"I am Chief Scientist!"
"An' I'm a doctor!" the first ghost with the strong accent interrupted. "I'll tell Rodney if you like, but she needs to recover." He floated over to Elizabeth and looked sad when he realized that he couldn't actually touch her. "Come with me, Lass, and we'll find ye a…"
All argument was interrupted when a sudden roar erupted from one of the corridors, and all three ghosts whirled around.
"Oh crap!" the doctor said and Radek and Kavanagh simply disappeared.
Elizabeth nearly screamed when a vast shadow that seemed to be all teeth and claws, swooped down on her and dragged her into the light.
"What are you doing here?" A voice roared at her.
"I'm… I'm sorry…" She answered, trembling.
"You are not welcome!"
"I didn't mean…"
"Och, Rodney, have a heart!"
The ghost with the strange burr spoke softly and she felt drawn to his friendly voice.
"She came to laugh at me!" The monster growled and then turned its attention back onto Elizabeth. "Admit it! You came to stare at The Beast!"
"I… I came here from the Market. I was escaping the Culling!" She tried to remember her lessons in Diplomacy, a subject she had always been good at, but she didn't feel confident of success.
"The Wraith!" The Beast roared and dragged Elizabeth with him.
"My Lord, this may not be good idea." Elizabeth recognized the voice of the ghost called Radek.
"Go and make the cell available."
"But Sir, she's only…"
The Beast growled and the ghost winked out of sight.
Thankfully, The Beast left her alone once she had been flung into a cell. It was more like a cage than a real dungeon, and the floor was hard and smooth, but she was still trapped and very cold.
"Hey!"
She looked up and saw the two ghosts with the accents, the Doctor and Radek.
"Hey, lassie, what's your name?"
"I'm Elizabeth. Who are you? Where am I?"
"I'm Carson and this is Radek. We live and work here in Atlantis."
"The City of the Ancestors?"
"Aye! That's the one!"
"But The Beast…?"
"That is Prince Rodney." Radek told her ruefully. "He has a bit of a temper."
"He's a prince?"
"He is." Radek replied again. "But I am scientist. Can you tell me your home address? I can send a message back for you."
"The… the Beast will allow that?"
"No, but I will do this anyway." Radek shrugged and grinned.
Elizabeth wrote the address down and then settled back to eat the food that Carson had brought her. Perhaps she would be able to find out if Sumner had arrived home safely? And maybe, one day, she would see her favorite stepson, John.
John looked up from where he was spreading straw for the horses and sighed.
"It's not right that you should have to work like this, John."
"Mora." John sighed and tried to ignore her.
"You should be a lord with a hundred servants! You would never have to do this again!"
John said nothing. He had heard this all before and it just made life hard for him when he went home. His older brothers were jealous that Lady Mora, the niece of the Great Acastus Kolya of the Genii, should want to marry him and not them! The trouble was that he never seemed to see it coming. Neither of them seemed to realize that there was so much more John wanted out of life! If only Mora would take Sumner or Everett instead…
"You will be my husband and consort." Mora told him crossly. "And you will rule at my side when I am Queen!"
A shadow of a tall soldierly man fell over John and he managed to keep his anger at bay. Commander Kolya had obviously joined them and John found the man creepy.
"Mora, my dear. And John."
"Commander." John grunted with a vague nod in the Commander's direction. He then turned his back on both the unwanted visitors and strode off to place the fork back in its place.
"You know, my dear," John heard the sinister soldier tell his niece. "You could have anyone! You don't have to have this stable lad!"
"He's the most handsome man in all the federation, Uncle, that means he's the best. And don't I deserve the best?" She shook her head of curls in a very princessly fashion and set off to the house that John called 'home'.
John had plenty of chores to do. It wasn't that he was badly treated, it was just that he was the only one in the house prepared to do the work. If he didn't muck out the horses, clean the house, cook and keep the house, then it just wouldn't be done.
Elizabeth was a fantastic cook, but she was a scholar first and he would do anything for his stepmother. Everett and Sumner just cared about wine and gambling and spoke of nothing but soldiering, while Father indulged his two older boys and hit John if things were left undone.
Sumner's contribution to the household consisted of shopping, sometimes even buying food, while Everett's was to criticize John and basically order him about.
Perhaps he should take up Mora's offer of marriage, John mused, at least it would get him away from here, but he just couldn't stomach having anything to do with the girl – princess or not. He didn't mind girls as such, but he couldn't marry one.
Besides, she came with 'Uncle Acastus' and the whole planet of the Genii and, frankly, John would rather marry a Wraith Queen.
He washed up and made his way to the kitchen to start cooking. Life had been so much easier when his father had been rich, before the three older men of the house had discovered the gaming tables and races, and they had lived in a large house with staff to do all the things that John did now. It wasn't fair that his father and brothers seemed to blame him for their misfortune, but John just kept going, hoping against hope that some day things would improve.
At the moment, his greatest sorrow was that his beloved stepmother was missing.
Elizabeth owned the house they lived in now and had married Father as a favor to Jack O'Neill, the leader of the planet Terra. She didn't put up with her husband's rudeness and could even make John's brothers behave civilly, but she had gone to talk with Dr Daniel and the news of the culling was spreading. For all he knew, Elizabeth could be in a hive ship, dead or waiting for death.
Ever since he had seen his first Wraith Dart, John had wished to fly. He had visions of flying in space to, first, rescue the people culled and then, second, destroy the Wraith ships once and for all. He read all stories of the Ancestors avidly, dreaming of the ships they were supposed to have flown and planning what he would do with such technology.
As far as he knew, the Genii were the only people to have the ability to make space ships, but they were too busy building weapons that would destroy more than just the Wraith. They seemed to want to conquer the universe! Marriage with Mora would give him access to the ships, but at what cost?
He just hoped that one day Elizabeth and her friends would find the Ancestors and negotiate with them to persuade them come back and destroy the Wraith… or else give him the ships to do it himself.
When Elizabeth had left, on the fateful morning, she had asked each one of her boys what they wanted her to bring back from the Great Market. Everett had demanded a gold trimmed waistcoat, Sumner had wanted a new gold watch and Father had told her to get him some proper boots as his two pairs were seriously old-fashioned.
John hadn't been able to think of anything he desired, so he had told her that he just wanted her to come back safely. She had smiled warmly and allowed him to accompany her to the Gate, where she hugged him, then stepped through the Puddle (as John called it) and that was the last time he saw her.
Father was now upstairs with Kolya, planning. It made John sick that he was so eagerly grasping the money and assets that really belonged to Elizabeth, assuming that his wife was dead, or at least as good as. Who knew what Kolya was offering him now that he was rich again? John moodily banged the oven door closed on the chicken he was roasting for their dinner and cursed, just as he heard footsteps on the stairs down to the kitchen.
"JOHN!"
crap! "Yes Father?"
"What's this I hear about you refusing to marry Lady Mora?"
Double crap! "I don't love her, Father."
It was fairly inevitable that he would be knocked to the ground. He picked himself up and found himself being hauled across the kitchen and pushed up against the wall.
"You will marry her! She's rich and a princess and one day she will rule the Genii!"
"I don't want to have anything to do with her or the Genii!"
His head rang with the blow.
"You will marry her!"
"No!"
Father shoved John to the floor again and put his hands on his hips in exasperation.
"I don't understand how any son of mine can be so bloody stupid! She's got ships! She's got men and gold! They even have weapons! Isn't that what you are always going on about?"
"No Father. I will not marry her."
"You will marry her. She will bring us riches and power and I will personally force you to the temple where you will be gagged and bound until it is time for you to…"
Just as his father was moving towards him, probably for more violence, Sumner came running down the stairs, shouting.
"Father! Father! The Gate just activated!"
Father whirled around, temporarily forgetting his quarrel with his youngest son.
"Wraith?"
"No… I don't think so. I haven't heard the whine."
"You!" Father pointed at John. "Up and see what it is! NOW!"
John was only too glad to obey this command!
The Gate wasn't far from the town John and his brothers had moved to five years before. Most towns grew up fairly near the Gate on most planets, since it was the only way to get off the planet and therefore the only way the population could trade with others.
John jogged to the Gate to find that it actually was not the Wraith. There was a crowd gathered around the object that had appeared and the people parted, when John was spotted, to allow him through.
"It's addressed to Lord Patrick, John." Halling told him. Halling had once worked for the Sheppard family, but now he only spoke to John.
"How can it be 'addressed'?" John asked, but it soon became obvious. The thing that had trundled through the Gate was a machine on wheels, a bit like a trolley. Attached to the trolley was a folded piece of paper and on the outside Lord Patrick Sheppard's name was written.
John snatched the paper and opened it up, gasping at its contents.
"It's from my Stepmother!" He told the audience gleefully. "She's alive!"
