Author's Note: Okay, not too much action here, just lead up. Don't worry, I'm planning some serious action (and worse whumpage) for later chapters ;)

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Lose It All: Chapter One

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Ronon had not let anyone distract him. When McKay failed to get through to him, he had called on Sheppard and Weir in hopes that they could talk him out of his reckless plan; it was hopeless, useless; Teyla was dead. Running around the galaxy in denial wouldn't bring her back, and it certainly wouldn't honor her. But Ronon ignored them all.

"Ronon, stop." John was watching him run around his room, packing a single bag. "We all want her back just as much as you do, but she's dead!' his voice was rough with emotion. "Rodney does over-exaggerate things sometimes; but I don't think that there's any other meaning to "crushed her skull"!"

"Why are you giving up on her?"

"I'm not giving up! I'm accepting the truth--- with is incredibly hard for me to do, by the way--- and trying to keep the living members of my team in the "living" category."

"She's still alive, I know it!"

"How?"

"I just know! I can feel her, okay?" he buried his hands in his hair. "I can't explain it; but I feel her. Always have, kind of. And I still do. She's... hurt; really hurt. But she's alive."

"How do you know what you're feeling isn't just wishful thinking?"

"I can't afford to believe that."

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Once Ronon was off of Atlantis and on the planet, he felt the tiniest bit better. The feeling was much clearer here; Teyla was hurt, but she was not dying; not yet.

He saw footprints that led through the gate, and evidence that someone had been carried through. Blood stained the ground, and Ronon cursed softly. She was still bleeding.

There was plenty of evidence that her captors had taken her through the gate, but no evidence as to where. He backtracked their trail from the gate, to the spot where the fight had taken place. There, his soldier's eyes read the evidence there like a letter; and he found out exactly what Teyla had done. He also, to his surprise, found that Rodney seemed to be right. He traced all of her movements, and it did indeed seem that she had been hit over the head; and if the force of that hadn't killed her--- judging by the marks on the ground where her head had hit--- the fall most certainly should have. And he remembered a momentary feeling a few minutes before Rodney had returned from the planet; for a second, he thought that he'd felt something terrible happen. But it had faded instantly, and he thought no more of it. But there was every indication that Teyla had been killed here; so why wasn't she dead? Not that he was complaining, but he didn't understand. And he didn't like not understanding.

He'd hoped to find some hint of who these people were by how they fought, but he came up with nothing. Whoever they were, he didn't recognize them.

"Don't move," he heard a shaky voice behind him. He processed that for about half a second, took another half-second to decide whether or no he should simply shoot the person, and decided against it. He slowly rose from his crouch, and heard the delayed click of a gun's safety being released.

"I mean it! I'll shoot you!" Ronon obediently stopped moving, not wanting to freak the guy out if he had an itchy trigger finger. Besides, he had to find out if this guy knew anything.

"Hey, I'm not one of the guys who were here before. I'm just looking for my friend."

"The girl? Why would you come after a dead woman?" So apparently the guy knew something about what had happened.

"She's my friend," Ronon said slowly, his hands curling into fists. "And I don't do too well when people try to kill my friends."

"If you value your life then you'll stop looking now. My people will kill you if they find out."

"Your people?" Ronon growled, his fists tightening. "You're one of the people that took her?"

"Took? She nearly killed me; and my people left me here to die thanks to her!"

"Nice of them," Ronon muttered.

"Shut up! I hope that they do let her die this time for what she-" he got no farther. Ronon turned on him, ready to blow his head off. He was surprised to find his adversary little more than a boy; but his rage let him quickly forget that as he advanced on the startled young man.

"You had better hope that she doesn't," he snarled, his voice low and deadly. "You had better hope that I find her alive and unharmed; or you'll wish that she'd killed you here." The kid was frozen in place, seeming too afraid to speak. "Believe me, I won't be nearly so nice about it as she would have been." But oddly enough, he did feel mercy. At least, a little. He was just a kid, not much older than twenty; about how old he had been when he had first run. And much like him, the kid was young and foolish and reckless---the fact that he had threatened Ronon said as much---but he was obviously a good fighter to have survived against Teyla. Not that Ronon thought that she would have killed him anyways; his wounds, though painful and clearly bad, were not putting him in any immediate danger.

Considering all of this, along with the fact that the kid had been one of the people who'd come for Teyla and had to know something about where to find her, Ronon slowly lowered his gun.

"What are you doing?" the kid stammered, amazed. "You're not going to kill me?"

"No," Ronon shook his head, his dreadlocks flopping in his face. "I'm going to help you and make sure that you won't die; and then you're going to help me find her, do you understand?" he nodded nervously. "And if you try to trick me, or kill me, or lead me into a trap, you had better pray to whatever gods know know that your death won't hurt." he nodded again.

Satisfied that he'd sufficiently terrified the him, Ronon took the kid's gun and stuffed it into his bag, then dug around in the backpack for the medicine and bandages that he'd swiped from the infirmary on his way out. He made a mental note to save most of them for Teyla; he knew that she was going to be badly hurt when he found her. That was why he'd packed this stuff, anyways. But he could spare a little on the kid; after all, he did need his help to find Teyla.

"What's your name?" he asked finally, locating a roll of bandages.

"Darus," the boy said warily, accepting the bandages and the medicine. Ronon nodded, in spite of the whole situation having to hide a smile. He could see in Darus's eyes exactly what he was thinking. What kind of guy was this that he'd threaten to kill him and then give him medicine? Or perhaps more bluntly, was this guy insane?

Ronon saw no need to ruin the young man's illusion. With any luck, the kid would be more willing to cooperate with and please a crazy man.

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A/N: I don't know, what do you think? I know that Ronon got way less worried by the end; but he's still sure that she's alive; and now he has someone who might know where she is; so right now he's not worrying, just concentrating.