A.N: I'm really sorry about the long wait. As I'm sure you've noticed, I'm an extremely slow updater. It's mostly due to the fact that I get drawn to a different fandom very quickly and that I rewrote this chapter at least four times?
AND! I just got a puppy and although she's extremely cute, she also pretty damn frustrating sometimes too.
I'm not really clear on the SG-1 timeline during the finding of Atlantis, so the first scene is from my imagination.
Enjoy!
XXX
"Chris, DUCK!"
Chris instinctively ducks, avoiding a laser-like beam that flies where his head was just a second ago. He turns around, his gun raised into the air at his attacker and shoots at him three times. The human-looking alien stumbles back a few steps, the bullets hitting his unprotected arm, his leg and his armour. The Jaffa curses out in pain and Chris takes the chance and runs for it.
"Retreat!" His team leader, Alex McAllister, yells. "Retreat to the Stargate!"
"No way," Chris thinks sarcastically. "We've been overrun for about thirty minutes and now you give the signal for retreat?"
A Jaffa runs at him from his left and tries to hit him. Chris barely dodges before a fist is headed towards his stomach. Instincts overcome his mind and before he realizes what he's doing, he waved a hand at the Jaffa and the alien flew away with an incredible force. The Jaffa looks incredibly surprised at what hit him, since he hadn't sensed any oncoming attack. Chris scowls a little, angered that he had unwittingly used his powers and a little scared that someone saw. But he still has a job to finish before he worried about such things. He raises his gun and shoots once, inwardly grinning when his shot went straight to the Jaffa's heart. He scans the area for anyone who saw what he had done before his senses suddenly prickled.
He feels the incoming beam more than he sees it and moves to the right just in time. He feels the incredible burning pain at his left side of the chest and bites on his lip to restrain from screaming. Curses flies from his mouth as he staggers and his vision blurs.
"Chris!" He didn't have to turn to know it was Charlie Kirk, his best friend from school. His dark brown hair pops up at the corner of Chris' dotted vision. "Let's get you out of here…" Charlie lifts Chris' arm over his shoulder and half-carries him towards the Stargate, a big circular device filled with what looks like water.
Chris grunts in pain as his left side burns with pain and flashes at every step. He suddenly wishes that Wyatt was here to heal him. The Stargate isn't far off, but the Jaffa are catching up quite quickly and it wouldn't be long before they overtake them at the speed they're going. "Charlie… Charlie…"
"Nope," Charlie interrupts him, knowing exactly what Chris was going to say. "I'm not going to leave you here. The Stargate is really close, come on Chris!"
Chris looks ahead, trying to instil the same optimism that Charlie apparently has. But the pain instantly turns the optimism into pessimism. "Shit, shit, shit! Charlie, it fucking burns!"
"Yeah, that's generally what those damned weapons do," Charlie grunts, trying to speed the pace up.
McAllister comes running towards them yelling, "Hurry it up," and shooting quickly and precisely. Chris swallows his groans and quickens his pace, not wanting to place his team in more danger any more than he could. He reaches the Stargate with difficulty and walks through with no hesitation (which is a big change considering that on his first mission he nearly had to be dragged through the thing).
The SGC is a welcome sight, no matter how chaotic the room is in. Medics pile into the room and Charlie gives Chris up to them and they ease him into a stretcher. Chris releases a groan, turns his head to the left and shuffles his body into a less painful position. He closes his eyes, finally relieved that he is in good hands and drifts into unconsciousness.
XXX
Chris wakes up to silence, broken only by a frequent beeping. He opens his eyes slightly and looked around the infirmary, eyes finally resting on his sleeping brother by his bedside. He smiles, knowing Wyatt probably haven't left his side for however long he's been sleeping. "Wyatt… hey, Wyatt!"
Wyatt's brilliant blue eyes snaps open and swiftly lands on Chris. "You're awake!"
"Genius," Chris snorts and immediately regrets it. His left side complains in pain and he moans a little.
Wyatt frowns. "Easy there, Chris. You got yourself a pretty bad injury there and you lost a lot of blood. You should rest for the next day or so."
"Or you can just heal me," Chris telepathically moans to his brother. "Jerk."
Wyatt only raises an eyebrow at him before standing up from the plastic white chair. "Yeah, well I'm glad you're awake now. Charlie was pretty worried about you, you know."
"Yeah well shut up," Chris grunts unhappily. "It's not like I wanted to get beamed at."
"Rest up," Wyatt says, ignoring Chris' previous comment. "I'll come and see you later. I've got some work to catch up on."
"Workaholic," Chris mutters. "Where's Charlie?"
"On another mission," Wyatt says on his way out the door. "I'll tell him to come visit you when he gets back." He pauses and sticks his head back in. "But, knowing the medical record for the both of you, he'd probably be resting on the bed beside you with a worse injury." With that said, Wyatt leaves.
Chris grins to himself. It's sort of true, he supposes. The two of them had stuck together throughout the Air Force Academy and had become two of the best of their classes – and two of the most reckless as well. Chris doesn't know why they are – he thinks it's because he loves the thrill of the danger so much. He loves the feeling of his heart beating rapidly in his chest and when his adrenaline skyrockets… it's almost addicting. He knows that growing up in a witching household had definitely influenced his love for the thrill. Hell, it's probably the reason why he loves it so much.
As for Charlie, well he came from a witching household himself too. It was the reason why the two had become so close in the first place. They were isolated, the two of them, from the rest of their classes. They had powers that they had to hide and both of them weren't very good at keeping it to themselves. They both had felt the urge to tell someone about it, to talk about their witching heritage with. And they found each other. A beautiful friendship was formed.
And to their surprise, after their graduation, they had ended up being at the same base. Chris had wondered if Wyatt had anything to do with it, since he knew that Wyatt had put in a good word for him, and he probably told them that he worked best with Charlie.
Cheyenne Mountain was entirely not what he expected. He was extremely excited to get there, but imagine his surprise when he found out that Cheyenne Mountain wasn't your typical air force base. He learned about the whole universe out there that the USA had been exploring secretly. He learned about the Stargate – the mysterious technology created by the Ancients to travel to other worlds that also have the Stargate using a special code. Each world has a special code, and if you enter the code, and if there's enough power, a connection between the Stargates will activate and one can walk through it and end up on the other side.
The Ancients, the creator of the Stargate, were a very technologically advanced race whose appearance was much like humans. They wandered the world with spaceships, and came to Earth. They stayed here, but had become extinct. Many believe that a plague had come on the Earth and destroyed the Ancients.
But there was also something else that had made the Ancients' population vanish. There was a process called Ascension, and Ancients who Ascended were rumoured to become beings of pure energy and live on a completely different plane of existence. Many Ancients wanted Ascension. It was a sort of Heaven, Chris supposes. And who would deny Heaven?
XXX
Grumbling in frustration, Dr. Elizabeth Weir pulls yet another file from a seemingly endless pile. It has been a few days since they had found Atlantis, the place where it was believed that the Ancients were previously occupying before being chased away by an unknown enemy and had ended up on Earth. She could hardly contain her excitement at the idea of going there. The amount of knowledge and technology that could be earned from that trip was endless.
However, she's still missing some soldiers to go along with her. She is searching through new graduates from many of the military schools across the United States and is currently flipping through some soldiers that the SGC has. They had given her some files that they had recommended to see if she'd like to see any.
She scans the file through, tired from the many dozens files she had looked over before. She raises an eyebrow, impressed at the applicants' skills. Running her eyes over his family history and other information, she grins to herself.
She had gotten herself an excellent candidate.
Christopher Halliwell.
XXX
Chris wakes up to feet tapping against the floor. He groans a little, not bothering to open his eyes. He couldn't tell who it is, his senses tell him it isn't Wyatt, but it isn't Charles either. "Who is it?" he mutters, his voice a little hoarse.
"Uh, hi," a female voice stutters. She clears her throat a little hesitantly before saying, "I'm Doctor Elizabeth Weir."
Chris cracks a green eye open to look at the woman. She's in her thirties and had shoulder length wavy brown hair and a deep set of brown eyes. She's thin, but not frail-looking, and has some sort of commandeering aura around her. "And what can I do for you Dr. Weir?" he says quietly, closing his eye again.
"I came to recruit you for a special program that the SGC is overlooking," she says. "The SGC recommended you to me."
Chris sighs, not in the mood for the talk. "It all depends," he says lazily. "What kind of program it is, who's coming… you know, the usual."
"I'm not sure if you know yet, but we've recently found Atlantis City," Elizabeth says, watching the younger man's reaction carefully.
She wasn't disappointed.
His head snaps her way and his green eyes are wide with anticipation. "You mean the Atlantis City? The one where the Ancients occupied before Earth?"
"Yes," Elizabeth says smiling. "Your commanding officer said you were a genius and dedicated soldier. I want you to come with me to Atlantis… after you've healed up. What do you think?"
Chris frowns a little, however excited he is. "I don't know. My family is here and considering everything I know about Atlantis…it's a huge possibility that I won't be coming home often will I?"
"That's right," Elizabeth says. "But that's the risk we're all taking. It's a chance of a lifetime officer, and you need to be willing to acknowledge the possibility of never coming back."
Chris sighs and looks away, thinking deeply. What would his mother say? His aunts? His cousins? His brother? "Oh god," Chris thinks in half-horror. "Wyatt will freak if I go." He glances at Dr. Weir and he knows that she's right. This is a chance of a lifetime. This is Atlantis, for goodness sakes. Everybody in SGC knows about Atlantis. The amount of knowledge and technology waiting for them to be gained at Atlantis is staggering… and for him, it's a chance for him to see the flying technology that the Ancients have. He wonders what kind of planes or helicopters or flying machines that the Ancients used. The thought of flying one is incredibly alluring.
"You know the gain we could get from going there," Elizabeth continues, seeing the conflict in him. "I'm sure we can find something that will interest you there. The Ancients must have some kind of advanced technology airplane of some sort."
"Exactly what I was thinking of," Chris mutters, still looking away. "What are you leaving behind?"
Elizabeth gives him a surprised look and then her expression softens. "My family, my fiancé, my beloved dog – a life that I've been carefully constructing since I was young. My dream life of relaxing with my husband and children." She flicks her head in his direction. "How about you?"
"My family," he sighs. "I've always been extremely close with my family. We've been through so much together, it's almost amazing. My brother works here, you know? He's a doctor… name's Wyatt Halliwell." She nods, having read that in his file. He continues, "He's always been overprotective of me, and I know he's going to freak out if I go." He grins weakly at her. "Could you give me some time? There's a lot of to think about… I mean, there's so much I'm leaving behind, but there's so much more I'll be gaining if I went."
"I know how you feel," she sympathizes. "We'll be leaving in a week, so give me your response in two days. I believe that will be enough?"
"Yes," Chris says. "Thank you."
XXX
End Chapter Two.
Review please? It really gives me motivation to write more… I'm serious. Even if it takes a long time, a review usually makes me write more and write faster too. So more review tend to equal faster chapter.