Section 2 – The Pain…

"I have no desire to hurt you more than is absolutely necessary, Dr McKay. In fact, your suffering will greatly speed up the achievement of my goal. You should be thankful you are playing such a major part in helping me."

Rodney had been chained down to a table in a small room. The flat metal he was lying on was almost vertical so that when Michael approached him, they were face to face. Rodney's wrists and ankles had thick bands of metal around them and his tac vest and shirt had been removed so that his heaving chest was visible. His arm was bleeding where the claw had stabbed through him and his teeth were gritted against the pain.

Michael took a large needle and a Wraith scanner from one of the benches with an assortment of stomach turning medical instruments laid out on it and spun around to face Rodney.

He placed the scanner on Rodney's chest and moved it down until he found what he was looking for. Michael's expression altered into one of mock surprise and he said, "Now there was me thinking that you did not have one after what you and your people did to me."

Rodney harshly whispered, "One what?"

Michael took away the scanner and stabbed the needle deeply into the left side of Rodney's chest at the same time as he roared, "A heart!"

Rodney howled and writhed as Michael pulled the plunger and the syringe was filled with dark arterial blood. He drew the needle out and a thin line of red ran down Rodney's chest as his screwed up his face and whimpered.

"Now, now. It will not do to have you passing out on me, Dr McKay, or you will miss the most important part of my experiment."

He took another syringe from the table and Rodney flinched when Michael jabbed it into his uninjured arm and depressed the plunger. Michael smiled nastily, "There you are. That should keep you totally lucid throughout the whole procedure."

McKay's body was suddenly wracked with violent spasms as the drug flowed around his system. His eyes flew open and he arched away from the table he was restrained to and cried out weakly. Michael pulled another strap around from behind the table and drew it across Rodney's midsection. He buckled it and pulled it tight so that McKay's squirming lessened as he could no longer move so much in the restraints.

Gradually the tremors stopped and Rodney was left panting and jittering every now and then, but completely awake. He gasped, "What are you doing?"

Michael went over to the tray and selected a long, thin bladed knife and brandished it in front of Rodney's fearful face. He waved it about as he said, "Thanks to your team, I had to leave my last batch of hybrids and they were wiped out. What I need is to breed a more intelligent hybrid. You fell into my trap so easily, Dr McKay, and it really was only you who I wanted."

John ran back to the ladder and climbed up into the harsh daylight. Teyla and Martins followed him as he sprinted to the square and met up with Lorne.

John pulled out his life signs detector and baulked when he saw that there were at least twenty more readings coming from the tunnels. He organised his men and was grateful that Lorne had not wasted a moment and had already sent several back to the Jumper to get help.

"Where's Perez?" Lorne asked.

John shook his head and Lorne furrowed his brow.

John led the way back into the tunnel with a lot of support behind him this time. He thought to himself, "Hang on, Rodney." And willed the message to break through and somehow reach McKay wherever he was and whatever was happening to him.

Rodney was breathing heavily in fright due to whatever drug Michael had given him, but he managed to grind out in between pants, "So you're going to use me in order to make some more of those monsters?"

"Yes. I have been told that you are an intelligent man. I am going to use your genetic material to breed a better strain of my creatures."

Rodney struggled against the restraints, but Michael simply tightened them all further until Rodney could hardly breathe because of the pressure around his abdomen from the wide strap across him.

"Now there is only really one thing I need from you, but as you and the others from Atlantis have caused me so much grief in the past, you deserve to be punished for what you have done to me."

Rodney shuddered as the knife moved closer and he kept his wide panicked eyes on the tiny blade where he was completely immobilised and at the mercy of the psychotically calm Wraith hybrid.

Rodney asked in a trembling voice, "What do you want?"

Michael grinned at him nastily with his sharp teeth on show, "Blood."

Rodney winced as Michael sank the knife into his side just below the strap across him and sliced a line down to his hip. He gritted his teeth and hissed through them as blood dribbled from the wound and ran down the table into the collecting tray Michael had laid underneath his feet. Blood had already started to gather there as it dripped from the puncture wound through Rodney's arm.

McKay trembled and his voice wavered in time with his body, "S-s-stop! It hurts!"

"Good. Perhaps you can understand what I have been through a little better now?"

"What, being hacked up by a madman? I don't think so somehow."

Michael curled his lip into a snarl, revealing a row of sharp teeth. But Michael did not lose his temper and held onto his insane thread of calm with his fingertips even in Rodney's defiance.

Michael paused and frowned down at Rodney's legs. He said in a smooth unemotional voice, "Now that will not do at all."

He went back to the tray and returned with a pair of scissors. He slit the sides of Rodney's trousers and pulled them away. By now Rodney was gasping in pain and holding his tongue not to cry out as blood flowed from the cut.

Michael removed the central strap around Rodney's belly and pressed the point of the blade on the reddened skin from how tight it had been holding him against the table. If Rodney had thought of squirming away from the table or the blade, he decided against it, as any shifting would only cause the knife to hurt him again. Tears leaked from his eyes and streamed down his face as he drew in rapid shaky breaths.

Michael whispered gently, "Pitiful. I have not even started yet, Dr McKay."

Michael pushed the sharp, already blood-soaked knife into Rodney's abdomen and he could not hold back the tortured cry that left his throat this time and echoed around the room.

"Now, now," Michael said soothingly as he cut a thin line through Rodney's skin until he was bleeding again, "I have no wish to gag you, but if you continue, you may alert the others to where you are."

Michael cut Rodney carefully, not making any of the slices so deep as to be life threatening on their own, but enough so that Rodney was in absolute and prolonged agony and blood was pouring from him for Michael's needs.

The drug Michael had given him worked exactly as planned and he remained conscious throughout the whole ordeal. Rodney was in too much pain to notice the affect of the drug upon him. He was whimpering and occasionally a croaked scream was torn from him by the blade as it shredded his skin and he continued to bleed heavily onto the table and down into the container.

Rodney started muttering incoherently when Michael moved onto his uninjured arm. The knife cut a shallow incision in his bicep and then another until the blood ran down over the metal hoops and his shaking hand and dripped from his fingertips into the tray. The only words Michael heard were, "Carson," and, "Elizabeth."

Michael paused and angled the blade up so that he could press it against McKay's chin. Rodney tilted his head back as Michael increased the pressure to the point only just before it broke skin.

He asked, "Now, why would you be mentioning the doctor who created me and the leader who authorised such a godlike travesty of an experiment."

Rodney closed his eyes and furrowed his brow and Michael lessened the pressure so that he could open his mouth to speak. Blood continued to leak from the many cuts all over his body and his eyes remained tight with pain as he opened them and looked down his nose at Michael.

He gasped while barely moving his mouth, "They're dead! Both of them!"

Michael stepped back and dropped the hateful, bloody knife on the tray of instruments and flexed his fist as he approached Rodney again. McKay looked back at him with his eyes filled with tears and he whispered sadly, "They're gone and torturing me to death will never satisfy you for the payback you feel you need. I wasn't the one who did this to you and now there's no-one alive for you to blame."

Michael pulled out a small device and depressed one of the buttons on the innocuous looking box. He stood back and smiled nastily as Rodney watched his movements in terror.

One of the monsters approached and tilted its head, first at Rodney, and then at Michael.

Michael spoke to the creature, "Hurt him, but don't kill him."

The monster's claws clicked on the floor as it approached McKay. He struggled in the restraints and breathed heavily through he clenched teeth, but the pain and the chains binding him were too much and he could not get away from the salivating monster coming towards him. It puffed its foul breath over Rodney through its clawed mouth and he turned his face away in disgust. The grey shiny armour glinted in the dull lights inside the room.

The creature tucked its claws into its arms and slammed the flat part of what passed for a fist into McKay's stomach. Rodney sagged against the restraints as his breathing stopped for a few seconds and then he sucked in an unsteady breath.

Rodney looked up at Michael on the other side of the room and said, "Carson's dead."

"You are lying to get yourself out of this," Michael said quietly.

Rodney gasped, "No."

The monster snarled hungrily and hit Rodney's face hard enough to make his nose bleed. It then rested the blunt edge of its claw over Rodney's chest a pressed heavily until there were a couple of cracks to signify that some of McKay's ribs had been broken. It halted for a moment and then punched Rodney in the chest.

Michael said slowly, "I think I have enough blood from you now, so I have no other use for you except vengeance."

Rodney had his eyes closed again and he begged, "Please, stop! You don't have to…"

His quivering voice was cut off as the monster delivered a sharp jab to his solar plexus and Rodney could not breathe again. Michael called out, "Enough!" The monster backed away into the corner of the room where it awaited further instructions.

Michael walked back to Rodney, whose skin was now black and purple in some places where he was bleeding internally from the hits. He pulled the tray out from under Rodney's feet and poured the alarming amount of blood gathered there into a large, clear container and sealed the lid.

Rodney sobbed, "They're dead and it's my fault!"

Michael frowned in anger at McKay and took a clean knife from the table along with a small container. He said coldly, "There is still one more thing I require to complete my research and I am glad my drug has meant you are still conscious and can feel everything I am doing to you."

Rodney stopped moving and sniffed. He looked at Michael with his eyes wide and tried to get away as Michael pressed his hand against Rodney's side in a death grip and pinned him immobile to the slab using his Wraith strength.

McKay squirmed his hips and struggled, but the massive amount of blood he had lost and the pain was too much for him to get any ground on Michael. The Wraith pulled Rodney's legs apart and cooed at him, "Now, do not make me restrain you so tightly again, Dr McKay. This will be so much easier if you do not resist."

Michael moved the knife forwards between Rodney's legs and McKay suddenly got his strength back when he realised what was about to happen. He yanked against the restraints and managed to wriggle himself free from the grip. The knife nicked his inner thigh as he used his feet to squirm in the restraints and moved himself away from his near castration.

Michael stood up straight and said, "Very well. If that is how you would like to play it…"

He drew out his stunner and shot Rodney in the chest. McKay arced away from the table as his muscles tensed up and then fell back down and went completely limp, but his eyes were still open and darted around in panic.

Michael said, "Ah, I may have forgotten to mention, but the drug I gave you means that you will stay conscious, but remain immobile even after being stunned. There is nothing you can do."

Michael walked very slowly over to Rodney's still form and Rodney closed his eyes as Michael brought the knife forwards again.

An alarm suddenly went off just as Michael was about to cut through the material of Rodney's boxers and he ran back to his equipment and cursed, "No! How could they have broken through the defences? Never mind." He glanced over at Rodney where he lay strapped to the slab and was still bleeding out onto the metal from all the cuts. His eyes widened when he looked at the monitor again and he muttered in fury, "There is not enough time! I must have a proper sample or my experiment will fail!"

Rodney's face was pale and shining with sweat. His eyes slowly closed as he fought a losing battle with consciousness due to his desanguination. The Wraith grabbed another syringe and went back over to McKay. He jabbed it into Rodney's neck and pressed the plunger. After he pulled it out, Rodney's muscles went into spasm and he convulsed for several seconds.

Michael said, "Another dose should keep you nicely lucid and mean that you can move again even after being stunned."

Rodney went completely limp after the flailing stopped. He drew in a shaky breath and said, "Why don't you just hurry up and kill me and then you can take whatever you need."

Michael grabbed the knife again and said, "Now where is the spirit of revenge in you? I would take no enjoyment over killing you, Dr McKay."

Michael walked over to him and released the restraints around his wrists and ankles and did not bother to catch him as he pitched forwards and landed in a crumpled heap. Rodney immediately curled up and drew his knees to his chest as he groaned. He wrapped his working arm around his bleeding and battered torso as he continued to sob and moan both Carson and Elizabeth's names miserably.

Rodney gasped as Michael pulled him upright with a strong hand under his arm and then curled the same arm around Rodney's neck as he pressed the point of the blade against McKay's already torn up and bleeding side. The creature in the corner looked on and to anyone coming through the door, it was hidden in shadow.

"Well then what are you doing?" Rodney wheezed through the choke hold Michael had on him. The grip tightened and Rodney's pale face took on an even unhealthier pallor as what little blood he had left inside him along with the oxygen flow to his brain were restricted. He moved his hand up desperately as his other arm hung uselessly by his side, but his fingers merely scrabbled against Michael's sleeve and he did not have the strength to pry away the grip.

"Right now this is called assurance."

Rodney did not have the breath or the time to ask him to elaborate before the door to the room they were in was suddenly kicked open.