A/N: Okaay...wellll...I know I said this was going to be three parts, but it's kind of...grown. I'm still finishing up the last part, so I thought it would be better to split it and give you something today rather than make you all wait. So this is now going to be a four part story. Part four will hopefully be up some time on Friday because I'm out all day today visiting my sister who also celebrates a birthday this week, and I won't get to finish and tweak it until then. My mom was clearly only ever fertile once a year...

Thanks again for all the reviews. They are very much appreciated.

Chapter 3

After trailing Teyla's unconscious form along numerous corridors, Sheppard wasn't feeling quite as invincible as he had back in the laboratory. A sheen of sweat soaked his body and his breathing laboured, but he was damned if he was going to stop now. It seemed the kid had been true to her word and mentioned nothing of his abilities to her colleagues, and now they were moving freely around the Pendoran ship, arousing no suspicion with their absence. Hopefully, it would take a while to get that observation room they mentioned ready, and that would give them plenty of time to make their escape.

Beside him, Rodney was also perspiring, and struggling to catch his breath. 'Who...would've thought...someone ...could weigh... this much?'

Sheppard felt guilty that he hadn't been able to take more of the strain himself, but his earlier blood loss meant he was battling dizziness and an encroaching lethargy that threatened to sap what was left of his strength reserves. At least, he hoped it was just the blood loss. 'Maybe Wraith are more...dense,' he suggested, giving one last haul and then letting go to rest as they came to a junction in the passageway.

'So, which way now?' McKay asked, also releasing his grip on their cargo.

'Shhh. I'm listening,' Sheppard told him, closing his eyes and trying to hear something that would give them a clue which route would take them closer to Ronon.

'Listening for what? Are they coming?'

His eyes snapped open again. 'Well, if they are I won't be able to hear them over your constant questions.'

Sheppard felt bad as his friend apologised yet again and shrunk into himself, all the time keeping his terrified eyes glued to Teyla's unconscious form. He had to admit he was afraid she would wake up soon himself, but he just didn't have the time to worry about it. He needed to locate Ronon. The Satedan would be a big help with lugging Teyla to their jumper since he and McKay were struggling to manage it between them. He felt a twinge in his stomach, reminding him that he was in no fit state to be dragging Teyla around at all. He pressed his palm into it hard, the pressure dulling the discomfort enough for him to listen out for their friend again.

Thankfully, Ronon wasn't the type to let go of anger, and despite the fact they'd been held for weeks now, he was still as furious as the last time they'd seen him, just before they'd all been knocked unconscious and imprisoned. He could hear his rage no matter how far away he was, ringing out loud and clear above the thoughts of the ship's other inhabitants.

Sheppard's brain was working at a higher level of functioning than he'd ever imagined possible; not only could he hear the Pendorans thoughts, but he could picture their locations, piecing the information together is if he were completing a 3D jigsaw puzzle and then using it to figure out a route that would help them avoid discovery.

'We go left,' he announced, snatching up Teyla's wrist and starting to pull her. McKay joined in the chore, staying silent, though Sheppard could hear him quietly repeating the mantra, Stay quiet...let him concentrate, over in his mind. He was glad the scientist had something else to focus on other than his fear; it made the volume of his thoughts far more manageable.

Though his load was heavy and dangerous, Sheppard wouldn't even consider leaving Teyla for a second. He'd watched her steadily changing over the past three weeks, increment by increment, as the Pendorans had monitored her gradual and painful transformation. He'd held her in his arms every time she'd returned to the cell through those first two terrible weeks, felt the burning heat in her skin, had tried to still the convulsions as pain wracked her body, all the time remembering his own conversion after being infected by the mutated retro-virus Ellia had taken. He'd watched Teyla morph from the gentle-natured but strong team member he'd always admired into a clawing, salivating, seething mass of primal instinct that wanted nothing more than to suck him dry of his life force and leave him a withered husk. If she could be saved he was determined to do it; and only for a fleeting moment did he allow himself to wonder what would become of her if these changes were permanent. He had to believe he could get them all home to Atlantis and they could all return to normal. That was the only acceptable outcome. Torren needed his mother; Sheppard knew what it was like to grow up without one.

Again, he had to stop and take a breather, leaning heavily on the wall and pressing on his scar for relief from the pain. This was harder than he'd ever imagined it would be. He'd thought his 'improvements' would help, but he just couldn't use them to do everything in his weakened state. He felt shaky and feeble, but he damn well refused to give in to the urge to sit down as say he couldn't make it.

'You okay?' McKay asked quietly, looking like he was about to pat his back, then thinking better of the gesture.

'Yeah...jus' need a minute,' Sheppard told him, his vision whirling in a nauseating dance. But he could hear Ronon's sheer anger loud and clear now. They were close to him, and if they could just drag Teyla those last few hundred yards, Ronon could take over and free him up to use his energies elsewhere. That thought got him upright again, and they forged on until they came to a corridor where their path was blocked by doors that didn't instantly draw back at their approach.

'He's in here,' Sheppard whispered. 'Think you can do your thing with the door again?'

'Sure...but you might do it quicker.'

'I might, but the way I feel right now I'm not sure I could then get Ronon's cell open, and we really need me to do that.'

McKay nodded his understanding, prising the front off the controls and quickly re-routing wires until the doors gave way to them.

Inside the room they revealed were a number of cells like the ones they'd left behind, and in the one in the furthest corner from the door a hunched figure sat on the floor, head hanging amid a mass of dreadlocks, arms draped over his raised knees.

At first he didn't look up, as if he was used to people approaching his cell and had no interest in what they had to offer. For a moment, Sheppard was worried about what he might see when Ronon showed his face, but he didn't sense any change in his friend; his anger was purely driven by his separation from the rest of them and his inability to break free.

When Sheppard didn't say anything, Ronon head raised a little, his green eyes glaring out from between dangling locks. Then, when he saw who it was standing in from of him, the rage in his expression softened just a little.

'Took your time,' he grumbled, still not moving.

'Yeah, sorry about that – we had a few problems,' Sheppard replied, closing his eyes and concentrating on the door holding back his friend.

'What's he doin'?' he heard Ronon ask.

'He's getting you out...it's a long story,' McKay explained, keeping it brief.

'Oh,' Ronon grunted, apparently accepting that. It was a quality Sheppard had always liked in the Satedan; he never used a sentence where one word would do. Somehow it nicely counterbalanced McKay's verbosity it times of trouble and kept him sane.

A minute later the red lights on Ronon's cell door turned white and the door slipped open.

Ronon bounced to his feet, hesitated just a second, said thanks with a confused 'I don't know what just happened there, but I'll take it as a good thing' look, then for the first time noticed what was lying on the floor just behind McKay.

'What the hell is that thing doing here?' he demanded, looking like he was about to leap on Teyla and snap her neck with one hand.

'Ronon stop!' Sheppard ordered. 'That's Teyla!'

The huge man spun to look at him, and the whirl of anger and confusion in his mind became almost overwhelming; Sheppard had to shut him out because the wave of emotion left him reeling.

'How?' was the only word Ronon could utter.

'They've been experimenting on us all. I had my brain probed, Teyla got turned into a Wraith, and Sheppard's on his way to ascension,' McKay explained, continually checking over his shoulder as he began to edge back toward the door.

Ronon looked down at what had once been Teyla, then back at Sheppard, tears glistening in his fierce gaze. He asked for no further information, his lip simply twitching up into a snarl. 'I'm gonna kill them.'

'No time,' Sheppard interrupted, brushing past him and checking the path was clear outside that room. 'We need to get to the jumper and head for the nearest Stargate before anyone realises we're missing. Can you carry her?'

Ronon looked down at Teyla, then, after a short pause, hefted her onto his shoulder. 'Which way to the jumper?'

Rodney looked at Sheppard, too, waiting expectantly for instructions. Sheppard tried to listen out for clues, to dip into the thoughts of their captors to find out what they needed to know. No one was with the jumper or even thinking about it, so he couldn't get a fix on it.

'Uh, I'm not sure, but I think the docking bay would be the best place to start looking since the jumper's too big to move anywhere else we've seen so far.'

'Make's sense,' McKay agreed, silently adding, Don't question him because he's probably way smarter than you right now.

So Sheppard took point and led the way, putting out mental feelers for any potential threat to their escape.

oooOOOooo

By the time they were outside the docking bay doors, Sheppard was flagging. Like the cells, this place used a far more secure system to bar passage into the bay, and he doubted McKay could get to the controls they needed to override...so this one was down to him.

He started to concentrate on the complicated locking mechanism, his legs buckling as soon as he diverted all his energies to the activity. Keeping them safe on their way there had taken a lot of mind power; he didn't have much left to give.

'Sheppard!' McKay squawked, panic lacing his voice.

Sheppard leaned his head against the doors and gave a dismissive flap of his hand. 'I'm good...I'm good...' he insisted, though he felt pretty sure the door was the only thing stopping him face-planting on the floor right.

'You are not good...you're about as far from good as you can get. Let me see if I can get this open...'

'No, Rodney. I got this.'

Sheppard got back on his feet, admittedly still a little shakier than he would have liked but at least he was upright. Leaning on the door for additional support, he began to visualise the locking mechanism, unlocking it one step at a time.

When the final part of that lock drew back he commanded the doors to stay in place while he whispered to the others, 'Stay here. There's a couple of Pendorans inside I need to deal with, then you can follow me in.'

'You're in no condition to take them down,' Ronon rumbled, making to set Teyla down.

'I'm not planning on getting into a fist fight, buddy,' Sheppard told him. Then he gave them both a firm look. 'I can do this...trust me.'

McKay gave him a nervous smile and a twitchy nod, while Ronon just stared back at him intensely, then shrugged. 'Okay.'

It took several minutes for the door lock to give up, but give up it eventually did. Sheppard stood straight, made sure he wasn't going to fall the first time he took a step, then ordered the doors apart just wide enough to let his slim frame through, leaving a sticky trail of blood on the inner edge of the left door panel as his shirt brushed against it.

The two Pendorans were further down the bay, servicing one of their own craft. Occupied with their work, they didn't hear him approaching, giving him a chance to get right up close before one of them lifted his head from the engine he was fine tuning and spotted him.

'Hey, guys,' Sheppard smiled, giving them a nonchalant grin.

'One of the samples!' the Pendoran gasped, causing the other to snap his head round in response.

As they both rounded on him, armed with the tools they'd been using, Sheppard's lost the smile and raised both his hands, lifting the two Pendorans clear off the floor and then slamming them together, knocking them out cold.

'That was so...cool!' he whispered to himself, remembering to open the door a little further to let his friends through.

He turned towards them, enjoying the moment right up until the point everything went black...

'There he is...That's right, Sheppard. Let's have those eyes open.'

McKay and Ronon's faces slowly emerged from the fog clouding his eyes as Sheppard's consciousness took up residence again. He blinked quickly and attempted to sit up, thankful that Ronon was there to grasp his forearm and hold him steady before he could flop back again.

'You okay?' Rodney squeaked.

'Yeah...yeah...I'll be fine once we get off this ship. How long was I out?

'Not long...thirty seconds tops,' McKay replied with a crooked and relieved smile. 'You just needed a power nap, right?'

'Right...I feel better already,' Sheppard lied, hoping to reassure him. Then he noticed something. 'Uh, guys...where's Teyla?'

'She's right...Oh crap!' McKay had turned to look at a spot on the floor behind both him and Ronon where they had presumably left her, and which was now conspicuously unoccupied.

'You lost her?' Sheppard hissed. 'I'm out for thirty seconds and you lose her!'

'Well, we were busy trying to wake you up!'

Ronon took hold of Sheppard's arm again and ripped him up from the floor to a standing position far quicker than his brain was happy to accommodate. He swayed, grasping Ronon's shirt and hanging on until his balance kicked in.

'She won't go far,' he told them.

'How'd you know?' Ronon asked, his eyes scanning the room for any signs of movement.

''Cos she's hungry.'

McKay's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets, and he immediately scooted behind his man-mountain companion. 'And we're unarmed!'

'Not entirely...you have me,' Sheppard reminded him.

'You just passed out!' the scientist squeaked, unconvinced.

'And now I'm awake again.'

'That's not very reassuring!'

'Shhh!' Ronon hissed, cutting short their argument. 'Listen.'

They all listened, a horrible throaty growl carrying to them from somewhere nearby.

'She's close,' Ronon whispered, his lips curling into a half-smile

'Well, thank you for stating the glaringly obvious!' McKay shrieked, visibly trembling.

Sheppard reached out to Teyla with his mind, forming a connection, seeing what she could see. She was up high...way off the ground. She'd climbed up on top of one of the Pendoran craft and...was looking down on them.

He barely had time to bowl his friends out of the way before Teyla struck, landing on his back and shredding both his clothes and his skin with one hand, while grasping his hair to slam his forehead into the cold, hard floor with the other. Momentarily stunned and vulnerable, he was vaguely aware of Ronon's battle cry just before Teyla's weight lifted off him, taking most of the back of his BDU shirt with her. It took a few seconds longer for him to shake off the fugue and kick back into gear, and by then Teyla had flipped Ronon onto his back and was hissing and clawing at him while Ronon held her off at arm's length, his muscles quivering with the effort.

'Sheppard!'

Sheppard rolled onto his side and raised his hand, lifting Teyla off of him. 'I can't hold her forever! Get something to restrain her!'

'Like what?' McKay asked, still looking terrified.

'Your belt or something,' Sheppard grunted, already feeling the strain of holding her.

'Are you kidding? In the cells they had to use chains. A belt isn't gonna do it!'

'It's better than nothing!'

'I will kill you, Sheppard. I will feast on your life while your friends watch on helpless,' Teyla screeched in rage, limbs wheeling as if trying to propel herself through the air toward Sheppard so she could rip his arm right out of its socket.

A sudden and undeniable fatigue hit him, the effort of keeping her at bay in an instant too much to sustain. His eyes rolled back, just for a second, then he snapped back into focus, raising Teyla up again just as her feet almost touched the floor.

Teyla hissed, grinning with ferocious glee as she watched him growing weary.

'Oh, my God! Sheppard, don't pass out yet. We need you to hold her,' McKay screeched, fumbling his belt out of his clothing, while Ronon did the same.

Sheppard tried to obey that request, he really did, but a haze began to creep in on him and he knew he couldn't fight the encroaching darkness any longer. He passed out to the sound of McKay's panicked thought, I'm not gonna make it to forty!

oooOOOooo

'He's back!'

Sheppard snapped his eyes open, ready to fight. McKay and Ronon leaned over him, looking...happy. They were actually smiling. When he'd blacked out he'd been sure they'd all been about to die at Teyla's hands. So what the hell had happened?

'Wha...?' was unfortunately about as far as his vocabulary could stretch for the moment.

'Maebus tranquilised Teyla for us,' McKay explained. 'She came to the cells to check on you and when she found us missing she figured out we'd head for the jumper.'

Sheppard looked around at the dark walls of the cabin surrounding them, spotting unrecognisable tech and compartments dotting the dark walls behind his friends. 'This isn't the jumper,' he pointed out warily.

'No...no it's a Pendoran Scout Vessel, they use them to carry out reconnaissance on new planets to check if they're worth visiting.'

Sheppard looked from McKay to Ronon and back again. 'So who's flying?'

'Maebus...at the moment,' Rodney confessed, looking worried. 'Although I was kinda hoping you might take over now you're awake 'cos I'm not sure a kid should be flying this thing.'

'You think I am a child, Dr McKay?' Sheppard heard Maebus call back to them.

'Well...yes, actually,' Rodney replied, casting her a puzzled look.

As McKay turned to look her way, Sheppard could see Maebus' tall, slim form sitting at the controls of their ship. She certainly looked like a youngster to him, at least compared to the other Pendorans they'd seen. Had they somehow been mistaken?

'I supposed it is understandable that you would think of me as young,' she conceded, 'This body has, indeed, only been in existence for approximately fourteen of your Earth years. But I am old, Dr McKay, very old.'

Something suddenly clicked with McKay, like the proverbial lightbulb moment. 'You're clones...like the Asgard. You transfer your minds from one body to another.'

She seemed to ponder that a moment. 'Yes, something like the Asgard, although their cloning process was never as effective as ours. So sad about them...they were a truly brilliant race...'

Maebus returned her attentions to the controls, taking them rapidly through space.

'You think we should mention the Asgard we ran across in Pegasus?'

'No...she'd probably just wanna stick them in a cage and poke at them,' Sheppard quipped.

'Huh? Good point.'

'So, what happened to the jumper?' Sheppard asked, levering himself up into a sitting position.

'The Pendorans had stripped it right down to its basic components to study how it worked. Not even you would have been able to piece the thing back together in time for an escape.'

He thought it odd that Rodney would say that, as if he thought Sheppard was smarter than him now. It must have taken a lot for him to admit that, even in such a seemingly passing comment. He sensed sadness in his friend...and disappointment. Intelligence was everything in Rodney's life, well...almost everything, although Dr Keller was up there in the rankings too these days, and now he thought he was getting left behind...fearful he wouldn't be the 'go to' genius of Atlantis anymore.

But then another thought struck him, and Rodney's lack of self-confidence wasn't a priority any longer. 'Where's Teyla?'

'Do not concern yourself, Colonel Sheppard,' Maebus instantly chimed up. 'She is currently unconscious in our cargo hold. Even when she wakes, she should not be able to break free of it.'

The moment of panic that had seized him released its grip and he breathed easy again as Ronon helped him up into a seat. For one horrible moment he'd thought she'd been left behind, but no, they'd all made it out as he'd hoped. 'Thank God!'

'Thanks to Maebus, actually,' Rodney corrected with a smirk. 'You were right about trusting her.'

'So, what's the plan?' he asked. It wasn't that he needed to ask, he could have just read Maebus' mind to know, but it seemed an unnecessary intrusion, not to mention a waste of strength.

'We had not travelled too far while we were testing you because we planned to study more species from the Pegasus region before leaving the galaxy. We're making good time, and once we reach the outskirts of Pegasus I will take you to a safe planet with a Stargate, from where you can make your way home,' Maebus told him. 'You need not fear, in a few days at most you will be home and we have supplies enough to keep us going until then.'

'What about Teyla?'

Maebus looked saddened at the thought of his friend's condition. 'Teyla is still not quite Wraith...though not fully human either, and I cannot be sure what toll an incomplete genetic alteration will have on either of you. I believe food will sustain her for now, but I cannot be sure. There is a hatch small enough for us to lower food to her, but not large enough for her to escape through. We can safely feed her, as long as is necessary.'

Sheppard knew what Maebus meant. They would feed her until they made it home, or until she died, whichever was the eventual outcome. The Pendorans had sure as hell done a job on her, on the both of them, in fact. He could only hope Dr Keller could fix things once they got back to her. 'And what about you?' he asked Maebus. 'What will you do?'

'I...I do not –'

In that moment, all power to the ship died, plunging them into complete darkness. A second later, emergency systems kicked in, bathing them all in a jaundiced glow.

'Wh...what just happened?' McKay stammered, eyes huge as saucers.

At first Maebus didn't answer. Her hands fell away from the controls and her arms dropped limply at her sides, her shoulders slumping. 'They have found us.'

'Oh God!' McKay whimpered. 'Are you sure?'

She nodded, turning her seat to face them. 'I was hoping we would move outside of their scanner range before they noticed we were missing,' she sighed. 'It seems they discovered our escape sooner than I anticipated. The mothership flies faster than these smaller craft...they have simply caught up to the point where their disrupter pulse can interfere with power to all but our essential life support systems. Now all we can do is wait for them to arrive and take us back on board. Perhaps it is for the best. I can try to stabilise the results of the experiments...'

'I'll take my chances back on Atlantis, thanks,' Sheppard told her, having absolutely no desire to return to his cell and the daily torture sessions they laughingly called treatments.

'Maybe I can get the power back on,' McKay said, running forward to the controls.

'It will not work,' Maebus told him. 'This is a fails safe we build into all craft to ensure none of our specimens can escape.'

'Okay, well, then we'll wait here like sitting ducks and not even try,' Rodney snapped, folding his arms and brooding. 'Did you ever really intend to help us?'

'McKay!' Sheppard warned, stalking forward and taking charge of the situation. 'Maebus...maybe you should let him take a look. The two of you might be able to figure something out. After all, I'm pretty sure you're gonna be in as much trouble as we are if they take us back on the mothership.'

'If you're gonna do it, better do it fast,' Ronon grunted. 'If their ship's faster than this one it'll be here any time.'

Maebus didn't wait a moment longer, and opened up the panel controlling the engines. Their ship was drifting...dead in the water, so to speak, its previous forward momentum leaving it travelling onward, but at a much slower speed that was reducing all the time. Ronon was right; if Maebus and Rodney didn't fix this thing immediately, they would be back in their cells within the hour. Rodney couldn't take much more...neither could Teyla. And worse than that, Sheppard had a pretty good idea why they'd been keeping Ronon prisoner. Teyla needed to feed soon, and since he and McKay were apparently a source of fascination to the Pendorans, Ronon had to be the food to keep her going...at least until they'd studied her enough. There was no way he would let that happen.

All too quickly something blocked the light from the nearby moon, casting their craft in foreboding shadow. They looked up through the transparent canopy of the cockpit surrounding them to see the Pendoran mothership sliding into position, readying to swallow them up.

'It's too late!' Maebus gasped.

'Not if I have anything to do with it.' Sheppard looked up at the craft and let his mind go free, allowing it to wander those gloomy passageways and find those bearing down on them on the bridge of the mothership. He saw into their minds, learned how the disrupter worked, saw coding and connections...then he lost it as his mind fazed out.

'Colonel Sheppard...you must stop,' Maebus pleaded, rushing to his side where Ronon was already squatting and calling him back. 'You have not had enough treatments yet. You're weak and your body cannot take much more. We didn't prepare you for this level of activity...'

McKay crouched beside him too, now, begging him to stop. 'Sheppard...you don't have to do this. You saw what happened to me when my genetics got altered. This could kill you.'

Sheppard looked into the eyes of his three companions, even Ronon silently imploring him to stop, but he couldn't. He knew it was dangerous, but right now he was their only hope of breaking free again. 'If I have to, I'll damn well ascend to stop them. You're my team. I'll do whatever it takes to get you all home.'

'Sheppard...John...please you know the other Ascended won't let you help us. It's against the rules.' Rodney rarely used Sheppard's first name, and only ever when he thought he was certain to die. Sheppard could feel the fear exuding from them all, fear of capture, but also fear of him sacrificing himself to save them. But what else could he do? If he didn't try this, and they were never rescued, they would most likely remain the experimental subjects of the Pendorans until the day they outgrew their usefulness.

He gave Rodney his best, lop-sided smile. 'C'mon, McKay. When have you ever known me obey the rules?'

McKay tried to smile, but Sheppard could feel his pain at not being able to convince him to stop. Still, there was no time for another plan. He had to try one more time.

He concentrated hard, connecting with the Pendorans again. The ship was right above them, about to collect up the scout vessel. They had a minute at most as they lined their craft up with the docking bay. He mentally scrolled through their control systems on the bridge again, instantaneously understanding what controlled navigation, propulsion, weapons, core systems and the disruptor pulse. Identifying the power relays feeding it, he sent new instructions to other systems, re-routing their power supplies to the disruptor and overloading its circuitry.

'Maebus...get ready...to fly!' he grunted through clenched teeth, as his body started to convulse, his brain burning with the effort. The ship above them began emitting strange sounds, and then a thumping explosion rang out, buffeting their craft.

Sheppard kept up the onslaught on the ship, his mind feeling progressively more disconnected from his physical body, helping him to focus every ounce of energy he had on the task of releasing them from the grip of the disruptor pulse. But they needed more than that, and the primary explosion needed to feedback into other systems; propulsion, weapons, scanners, he didn't want to leave them with anything but the bare necessities to survive while they carried out repairs. There could be no chance of them following them this time. A part of him wanted to destroy them completely, even thought they deserved it, but he wouldn't lower himself to such a murderous act. It would be easy to do. He was a mass of tingling energy...no longer human...leaving that part behind with all its worldly baggage and distracting emotions. This was true freedom, a feeling of peace...of complete unity with the universe. He was letting go of the physical, and it didn't matter. Releasing the ties to his body just made him stronger...

A massive blast blew their craft clear of the mothership and set them on their way.

'You did it, Sheppard,' he heard McKay cry, grasping his body and shaking him. 'You can stop now...Sheppard? Sheppard!'

He was looking on the scene, no longer part of it, removed, impassive, at peace.

Ronon, who had remained crouching beside him throughout, dropped his chin to his chest, and though Sheppard couldn't see his face, the shake of his shoulders told him the man was crying.

Rodney just looked on in disbelief, his jaw hanging, head shaking. 'No...' he croaked. 'That can't be it...Sheppard...John...please!' And then Rodney, too, was crying, sobbing into his hand. 'I should have gotten us away from them sooner...I should've asked Maebus for help like you asked me to. I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry...'

Those words stirred something in Sheppard, something familiar, something he had held onto for so long he realised he actually felt empty without it.

It was...guilt.

And with the recognition of that emotion came a heaviness that weighted him down, anchored him to this place, held him firm and wouldn't let him go. A rush of sound and light surrounded him, whipping up like a tornado out of nowhere, sucking him in and tossing him around until he had no idea of where he was or what was happening. Overwhelmed by the sensations, he gave up to them, allowing the encroaching blackness in the tempest to claim him and take him back to the peace he had enjoyed for so short a time...