Title: Dreams Vs. Nightmares
Author: Drey'auc475
STARGATE: ATLATIS
Rating: T for some language
Spoilers: none
Genre: general
Setting/Season: near beginning of season two
Summary: Sheppard experiences some strange events as a Dart flies over the city.
A/N: This is going to be a long story (and will go on for a long time, and probably cross over to SG-1), and this will probably be the longest chapter of them all. There will be huge/semi huge jumps in time with this story, but I will let you know. Enjoy!
-----Prologue-----
A dark room; messy, clothes and other items strewn about, as though a tornado had hit. Soft music plays from the speakers of the computer on a simple desk, a screensaver of cheerful and happy pictures scrolls across the screen.
A moan comes from the bed that's tucked into the corner of the room. On it lays a teenage girl, softly illuminated by the light of the computer. She's fully dressed and lying on her stomach on top of the bed covers, as though she simply fell asleep while attempting to reach something from behind the bed-head.
The girl moans again and rolls onto her side, dragging the pillow with her and hugging it to her chest.
Suddenly she kicks out in her sleep and mutters something that is barely audible. She turns in her sleep again, and the pillow is abandoned and falls to the floor. She rolls to her other side and kicks out again.
Suddenly she's on her back, calling again to the darkness. 'No!' she cries. She tosses and turns for another moment and then she lies on her back again.
The girl sits up all of a sudden, and screams out 'Mum, NO!' and the girl is awake. She sits there in the semi-darkness, panting in shock. Sweat gleams on her face and her t-shirt is sticking to her back. She sits there as though waiting for someone. She strains to hear sounds of movement from outside her room, but the house is empty, as it has been for the last month and a half.
She takes a couple of shuddering breaths to calm herself. After three minutes and twenty-three seconds she moves, swinging her feet over the side of the bed, and standing on shaky legs. Slowly she makes her way to the door through a path that has been made on the floor through the mess around the room. She makes it out into the hall and is blinded by the lights she forgot to turn off. Somewhere from the living room, a clock is ringing out the hour: 11 o'clock.
The girl makes her way to the bathroom. She washes her face under the cold faucet and then turns the shower on. She pulls her clothes off and throws them into the overflowing laundry basket. She steps into the shower in a semi-awake state and adjusts the water. She stands under the spray for fifteen minutes, unmoving. Her tears mingle with the water that's running into her eyes.
As she lets the water attempt to sooth her body, she plays the nightmare in her head; but all she can remember this time is screeching breaks, blearing horns, blinding lights and a blood-curdling scream. She doesn't have to remember any more, she knows the dream already; she's lived it.
The water runs over skin that is dented and defaced by scars. A spider-web of white scar tissue fans out from her left elbow and runs out towards her hand. Across her back, large scars cross her left shoulder blade. A larger scar, like a huge welt, runs from her right collar bone diagonally down her chest.
Finally she moves and turns off the water. She steps out of the shower and dries herself on a towel from the towel rack. Wrapping the towel around her, she heads back to her room, switching off the lights as she goes.
She steps in front of her wardrobe and lets the towel fall. She dresses herself slowly, underwear, a t-shirt and a pair of satin boxer shorts. She doesn't bother turning the computer off, but picks up the pillow and crawls back into bed, under the covers this time.
She looks at the clock. 11:24 pm. She rolls onto her side and faces the wall, listening to the music coming from the computer. She sees the blinding lights again and hears the screeching tires as she falls to sleep.
John Sheppard ran; he ran his heart out. All he could concentrate on was the fact that there was a Wraith Dart headed directly for the city. He had been at the furthest reaches of the city, taking a run in an area they hadn't explored fully yet. The nearest transporter hadn't worked due to the damage they had sustained from the siege, so he had had to double back about two miles.
He could hear his feet pounding on the floor of the corridor as he headed for the transporter. Rodney had radioed in to tell him that they had picked up a dart headed their way about ten minutes ago. They hadn't been able to see it because of some recent solar activity from the system's sun, and it had knocked out the long-range sensors.
The colonel's lungs burned, but he didn't dare slow. As he legged it for the Control Tower, John began to get that sinking feeling. If the dart got away then they would know that Atlantis hadn't been destroyed.
It was nearing midday, and the sweat poured off John's face as he swung his water bottle beside him. The Atlantian version of air-conditioning wasn't functioning in this part of the city and it was damn hot inside.
As he neared the transporter, John's legs started to burn. He could hear his ragged breaths echoing around him.
John heard his watch beep midday over the pounding of the blood in his ears. It had been exactly twelve minutes since Rodney had radioed in.
Something was in front of him, something shimmering blue and silver. It seemed to be strung across the narrow hallway that he was headed down. Thinking that it was simply an illusion projected by the Wraith, he headed straight for it.
John thought he heard Elizabeth call his name over the radio, as he passed through the illusion.
Suddenly, he felt as though he had missed a step going down. But that didn't make sense, the hall way was flat, and he knew it. He had then expected to fall straight on his face, but the last thing John remembered was the sensation of falling…
Rahni fell asleep as soon as she closed her eyes. She felt like crap. The shower did nothing to help her. She vaguely remembered falling asleep to the Dream again.
After what seemed like only seconds, she was woken again by a huge weight landing heavily on her bed. She sat up quickly to see a mop of black hair, wide hazel eyes, and the flash of a gun before the… creature rolled off the bed and onto the tiled floor. She heard a crack and winced. It sounded like the… thing's… something had connected with something hard. She crawled forwards to see what had happened.
It was a man that had landed on her bed. He was curled on the floor next to her computer chair. The light from the computer threw shadows onto his face.
Rahni looked up to where he seemed to have come from and saw a shimmering field above her head. As she watched it, it shrank and disappeared. Subconsciously, she looked at the clock. 12:01 am.
She reached into her bookcase and found her torch. She turned it on and shone it into the man's face – and almost dropped it. Fumbling with the torch, her heart began beating very fast.
This is SO not possible! she thought. She shook her head and shone the torch into the man's face again. This time she kept it there for a moment. She dropped the torch on the bed next to her and rubbed her eyes. Seeing the flashes of light again, she threw back the covers and reached for the torch again. She climbed out of bed and went to kneel next to the man. Biting her bottom lip, she shone the torch full into his face again.
The man groaned and shut his eyes tightly against the light. Rahni quickly flicked it down. She didn't want to wake him.
What now? She chewed her lip and sat back on her hunches. She looked around her small bedroom. What was she going to do with him? She tapped her knee as she though.
She stood up and crouched next to him and grabbed his arm above the elbow, pulling him out from under the desk. She hooked her arms under his armpits and dragged him onto the thick rug near her bed. She could smell him, aftershave and sweat. It was everything she dreamed of. And more…
She lay him down and grabbed her pillow. Rahni sat down near his head. She placed the pillow on her knees and then gently moved his head onto the pillow. She pulled the blanket down from the bed and draped it over her shoulders, letting the rest trail over the man's chest.
Before Rahni went to sleep, she reached under the blanket and found the gun in its holster attached to his right thigh. She pulled it out and placed it on the bed next to her head.
Finally Rahni leaned her head back on the bed and fell into an uncomfotable sleep that was filled with different dreams of hazel eyes, blue portals and the sounds of gun fire.
The next thing he knew, John was waking up in a dark room. Expecting to find himself in the Infirmary, he was slightly surprised to not hear the beeping of machines and monitors.
Opening his right eye slowly, he looked to his left, where Carson, Elizabeth or Rodney usually stood if he was in the Infirmary, but the space was unoccupied. He opened both his eyes and frowned.
The room he was in seemed dark, and he seemed to be getting a mouse's perspective of everything.
John moved his head to the left to see more of where he was, and was rewarded with a sharp pain. He lifted his hand to rub the back of his head and his fingers brushed something that felt soft and smooth.
Placing his hand on the smooth surface, John began to move his hand north.
His pillow stirred and moved.
John's hand stopped it's wondering. He pulled it away and sat bolt upright, spinning around to see a girl about the age of eighteen sitting with her back to a bed and a red blanket draped over her shoulders struggling to stand, trying to kick a pillow away at the same time.
John's head began to reel and he began to feel faint. His head hurt terribly. He began to stand, but a wave of dizziness overcame him, and he sank to his knees again and fell onto his side. The last thing he remembered was the girl reaching for him and a blinding blow to his head.
John began to regain his senses. His surroundings seemed to have changed. The room he was in was flooded with late-afternoon light and he heard the hum of a machine. Truly thinking he would actually see Carson standing next to him this time and that it had all been some insane dream, he turned to his left and opened his eyes.
There was a person occupying the space next to him, but it wasn't Carson or Elizabeth. This was somewhat disappointing.
There instead was the same girl from before. She was asleep next to him, sitting on the floor, her head in her arms on the bed near John's head.
She had very dark, brown hair and slightly browned skin. Her hair seemed damp and her eyes were red-rimmed as though she had been crying. John noticed that he was on the bed this time, instead of the floor so it must have taken her a great effort to get him up here – John wasn't exactly the lightest person in the world. He couldn't quite remember who had told him that…
John sat up and looked around him. His head ached but he chose to ignore it. There was a bookcase next to the bed filled with heaps and heaps of books. On top of that, there were several CD cases, and a small Bonsai-looking plant. It seemed to be dead.
A CD player sat in the corner looking dusty and unused. The humming sound was coming from a computer near the door. It sat on a grey hardwood desk accompanied by a red leather computer chair. On the other side of the door was a built-in wardrobe, the doors plastered in pictures of bands and actors he didn't know. Now that he could see the rest of the room, all the walls were covered in posters. On the cupboards above the built-ins, a green and blue striped tie hung from the door handle.
A curtain blew in his face, and he spluttered as he tried to push it away. He managed to push the curtain away making the wooden rings at the top clatter together.
The sound made his head hurt. Clutching a hand to his forehead he turned to the window.
"What the fuck!"
Beyond the window, the view was not sea and city, like he had become accustomed to seeing out his window. Beyond was grass and trees, and most of all, road. He watched as a normal Earth motor-vehicle drove passed the driveway that led to a carport on the side of the house.
His jaw dropped as he saw a child ride on a bike along the footpath across the road. The girl's next-door neighbour was out watering the garden. A dog barked down the road, and a cat streaked up a tree.
This was definitely NOT Atlantis.
Rahni sat up and stretched, trying to get the knots in her back out. That's it, she thought.He sleeps on the floor from now on.
She looked around to see the man who had fallen through her bedroom roof sitting up staring out the window with a look of utter disbelief on his face. She winced.
She reached forwards and laid a hand softly on his shoulder. He jumped and swung round to face her. She shrank back and held her hands up in front of her. He had a look of great confusion on his face and Rahni couldn't help but smirk to herself.
His confusion turned to a frown. "What?" he croaked, then cleared his throat
Rahni shrugged and shook her head at the same time. Still the man frowned at her.
She took a deep breath and stood, pulling at her t-shirt. She stretched out her hand to him. "I'm Arahnia Peters," she said. "But you can call me 'Rahni'."
The man looked at her puzzled. She had a different accent, one that he couldn't quite place; defiantly not American. He stared at her out stretched hand for a moment, and then extended his own.
"Major John Sheppard."
Rahni became tight-lipped and shook his hand. She pulled away quickly. She walked to the door and turned a switch on the wall. The ceiling fan began to spin.
John looked from Rahni's back to the scene outside the window. Rahni turned back towards him, noticing the direction of his gaze. She went over to the computer chair and sat in it, facing him. He continued to look back and forth. Rahni took a deep breath before talking.
"Your wondering why the view outside isn't Atlantis, aren't you?" she asked.
John stopped looking back and forth and focused his gaze on the girl. She gave him a small smile.
"Now, you're probably wondering how I knew about Atlantis. No, I don't read minds, I… just… know… Well, it's all very, very complicated, but, um, all I know right now is that you fell from a shimmering-blue portal in my ceiling at midnight last night. Don't ask me how to get you back, because I know about as much about this as you do. Well, maybe a little more…
"Well, er, I guess I better explain where you are –"
"Yes, please do," John said icily, managing to find his voice again after the bomb-shell the kid had dropped. Rahni faltered a little at his cold tone, but continued anyway.
"OK. You are in a small town called Wanneroo, in Queensland, Australia – that big ol' island continent in the South Pacific Ocean. This is my… parents… house."
John listened to her with his head cocked to one side. He paused for a moment after she had finished to take it all in.
"Australia?" he asked. John began to recognise her accent. "As in… Earth?"
Rahni nodded somewhat resigned.
"Yeah. Look, how about some breakfast?"
John looked at the kid, looked out the window and raised an eyebrow.
"It's late afternoon," he stated.
"Well, dinner then?"
At the mention of food, John's stomach grumbled. He did feel really hungry. John nodded and made to get off the bed, but swooned as his head began to pound.
Rahni raised her hands to steady him.
"How about some Panadol first?"
John sat on the edge of the bed as the girl rushed out of the room and returned with a bottle of water and a few tablets. She sat on the bed next to him and handed them to him. He swallowed the pills straight away and then drank half the water.
Wiping his hand across his mouth he muttered his thanks. Rahni smiled at him and got up and began to pace the room. Something came to John.
"You mentioned something about Atlantis?"
The girl stopped mid-stride and slowly turned to him.
"You're wondering how I know?"
John nodded and clutched his head. Rahni began her pacing again.
"Well," she began, "first of all, I know because the whole thing is almost public knowledge. The whole 'Stargate' thing. The reason for that is that…"
Rahni paused here, unsure of how to continue. John looked at her impatiently. She was reminded of Jack O'Neill. Shaking her head, Rahni took a deep breath and continued.
"The reason it's public knowledge is that…well, it's a TV program. You know, a TV show. Like Wormhole X-Tream. A fantasy. Well, obviously not so much of a fantasy now, but enough of one to have its own fan club. I mean, the whole Stargate idea is legendary to the Sci-fi community! You, Weir, McKay, O'Neill, Carter – you're all heroes to us, people to idolise! But it's all fantasy. The Stargate doesn't exist here! It never did! There is no Stargate Command under Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. There is no Atlantis Expedition as far as I know, and there seems to be no such thing as the Ancients or the Goa'uld. I don't really think that there's an Ancient Outpost fifty miles outside of McMurdo, or a great hunk of spaceship called the Daedalus full of alien toys.
"Now, as far as I can tell, you came here from a parallel universe, one that actually has a Stargate in it, and has all the really cool stuff I just mentioned. But for now, I have no idea as to how to get you back through that portal."
Rahni took a breath and waited for the barrage of questions to follow her short outburst. In truth, she was jealous. Jealous of John Sheppard, the most gorgeous hunk of spunk to ever go through the Stargate! Here he was, sitting on her bed, dressed in only a black t-shirt and sweat pants. His holster and his sidearm hung over the end of the bed and his joggers sat beside him, on the floor. She had removed them before she had hauled him onto her bed.
Before he could question her, John's stomach grumbled loudly again. John swore he thought he heard it talk. Rahni made a face.
"How about some food?"
John found himself half an hour later sitting in front of a steaming hot meal of Mongolian Lamb and Stir fry. John could not believe his eyes. He hadn't had Chinese food for practically a whole year now. It was the first thing that he was planning to do once he got back to Earth. John LOVED Chinese food. His tastebuds were having a field day in his mouth and his stomach was almost chewing his insides out.
"Dig in," Rahni encouraged seeing the look of desire of his face.
John didn't need asking twice. He took the plate of rice that Rahni passed him and dished out lamb and veggies from the take away containers.
He sat there for a moment, savouring the smell of the sauces that were enhanced by the steam rising beneath his nose.
Rahni smiled to her self. She took a small amount of rice from the pot in front of her as John began to shovel the food into his mouth, slowing only to chew his food slightly.
As she watched John eat, Rahni was forcibly reminded of her older brother. A vision of her and her family eating at that very table rose in her mind and Rahni immediately lost her appetite. Focusing on the man in front of her, she tried to push the image from her mind.
John knew had bad eating habits, even at the best of times. He looked up in time to see Rahni lay her fork down next to her plate. He stopped shovelling food and tried to swallow.
Now that John had the time, he took in the girl's appearance. She seemed sad as he had noticed before, but she also seemed thin and unhealthy, like she was undernourished. Noticing how she placed her fork down, John realised that she mustn't be eating right.
John studied her face. She seemed to have big dark circles under her eyes, and they held far too many wrinkles for someone of her age.
She smiled at him from across the table and John smiled back. She passed him another bottle of water.
"Where are your folks?" he asked.
Rahni pursed her lips and looked down at her plate. "Out," was all she said in reply.
John sensed that there was more to it but he let it slide. He wasn't sure if her trusted this girl entirely yet.
"Look," Rahni said, "I know this is all a lot to take in, but it's all true. I didn't even think that these sorts of things happened to people like me, but… I guess I was wrong."
Rahni looked down again and scratched her upper arm, absently pushing the sleeve of her t-shirt up with her right hand. John looked at her hand and saw a white scar crossing the back of her palm from her wrist to the little finger. Her hand was rubbing her shoulder and John saw that her elbow and upper arm were laced with tiny scars, some of the bigger ones creating a spider web effect. She looks like she put her arm through a window, John thought.
Rahni caught his gaze and pulled her sleeve back down. He didn't need to know about her scars yet.
John looked back at his food and began to eat again, somewhat slower than before.
"So," he began. "Tell me more about this…TV show?"
"Ah, well, you know most of it already. There's this one show called Stargate: Atlantis and it's mostly about you guys in the Pegasus Galaxy. It mainly follows the major missions and happenings on Atlantis. Also stuff that isn't really included in the mission files.
"There's another one, Stargate: SG-1, which started before the Atlantis mission, at the SGC. Er, nine years it's been running. I didn't even think that that was even real, but it must be, or there wouldn't be an Atlantis expedition…" Rahni petered out with her explanation after that.
John just slowly chewed on his food as he mulled over what Rahni had told him.
Rahni pushed on and told John about all the things she knew that no ordinary civilian would. She told him about what had happened to Ford after the siege on Atlantis, she told of Teyla's ability to connect to the Wraith because she had Wraith DNA. She also told John of what McKay had been doing on Earth before he went to the Pegasus Galaxy.
"Woah, woah, woah," John said, dropping his fork. "That's all top secret intel, how the hell can you know about it at all? I didn't even know that. What are you? CIA?"
Rahni raised her eyebrows. "What!" she exclaimed. "I just told you. Because of a TV show!"
Something snapped in Rahni, something that had been building up over the last month. Suddenly she was yelling at John.
"You don't have to believe me, Sheppard! All I'm asking is that you listen to my side of the story – and you never know, I might actually have something interesting to say! It could be the difference of weather or not you get home!"
And with that, Rahni got up and left the table. John watched her as she walked down the hall to her bedroom and heard the door slam.
John sat at the table and mentally kicked himself for going off like that. He had no right to question her. She had been kind and generous, looking for nothing in return, and he had attacked her on what she was trying to tell him.
John abandoned the food, and jumped up from the table and went and knocked on Rahni's door. There was no answer.
"Arahnia?" he called knocking on the door again. He heard nothing.
John bit his bottom lip and pushed the door open.
Rahni was sitting on the bed, clutching her pillow across her chest and clinging to a silver locket. She had the locket open in her hand and was staring at the contents. She looked as though she was crying.
John stood at the doorway, unsure on how to proceed. If only Elizabeth were here, she'd know how to deal with the situation. But then, Elizabeth would have never got herself in to this situation. Being the diplomat that she was, Elizabeth always knew what to do. She always made the right decisions that led to the right…situation.
John sighed and went and stood near the bookcase. He looked at Rahni. She still stared at the locket.
"Who's that?" John asked. He could see a picture of a red-haired woman in the locket.
"My mum," Rahni stated. She sniffled.
John felt stupid, but he pressed on anyway. He could only guess what had happened to this girl; it had to be something pretty awful.
"Look, I'm sorry for what I said before. I was…outta line."
Rahni looked up at him. Her eyes were still wet and red.
John knelt down in front of the girl and wiped a tear off her cheek.
"See, the thing is, I…really wanna go home. But I can't do it by myself. Please… will you help me?"
Rahni gave him a watery smile. John smiled back.
I know that I've posted this story/chap before but there are now some changes. Please wait for the next chapter.
Next: John chucks a bit of an alcohol-induced tantrum…