Passage through the Ages by Spirit of Chrysophylax
Author's Note: As part of the beta process the original plotline of this chapter has been altered dramatically. This is a completely new adaptation of the original story by Wormhole. Enjoy!
Chapter Four: Troy
John attracted Elizabeth's attention so not to arouse suspicion from the guard. "Do you know anything about this time?"
Elizabeth caught the wave of John's hand and the question pointed to her. "There was a Trojan war over a person named Helen…"
The guard who let them in overheard the name that transcended lingual barriers and interrupted them. "Helen? You know of Helen?"
Elizabeth quickly turned to face the man. "Of course I know of Helen, who doesn't?"
"The king would like to know all that you do of his wife, Elizabeth," the guard stated in Greek. "Tell me, do you know her whereabouts? Or anything of her abductor? Paris?"
The diplomat paused for a moment, closing her eyes briefly in thought. John stood by her side, an expression of curiosity and concern etched on his face. "Elizabeth? If it helps, I think Paris and Helen reached Troy within three days. Ask how long has passed since her abduction."
"Sir, how many days have passed since the ruffian took your queen?" She ignored the look of amusement on John's face as he mouthed, 'ruffian?' her way.
The guard stood firm. "Four nights."
Elizabeth tossed her hands up. "I'm afraid they're probably in Troy by now. What can we do to help defend against the Trojans?"
"Begin by going before the king. Any information you retain about his wife and her captor will be well rewarded. Perhaps he shall even offer your friend Hermione's hand in marriage," he said, gesturing to the Air Force Major. One of the guard's eyebrows went towards the sky as he sized up John.
John glanced between the guard and the diplomat. "Excuse me?"
"The daughter of Helen and Menelaus, John. He thinks Menelaus will let you marry her if we tell them the history of the abduction." she whispered to him in English.
John turned to fully face her. "You can't be serious!"
"He is. Oh, and I'd be a little more cautious. Hermione's only supposed to be about nine years old right now."
Her military companion turned a light shade of green. "Okay, now I'm starting to wonder if I should've left my wedding ring on..."
"It probably wouldn't have helped. They have no idea what a wedding ring is."
As the guard began to lead them towards the large building several hundred feet away, John moaned, "Oh, kill me now..."
Elizabeth ignored him and followed the guard into the main building. "Dr. Jackson would kill to see this," she commented quietly, in awe of the simple royal decorations adorning the sides of the hall. At the end of the massive corridor she saw a large stone throne, with a man who could be no other than Menelaus seated in it.
"King, I present Elizabeth and John of Atlantis, who come with information of Helen and the tramp, Paris." The guard bowed and backed away to stand against the wall.
Menelaus stood as soon as the mention of Helen was made. Greek or not, John could tell this guy was worried. "What news bring you of my wife?"
Elizabeth glanced at John. "I'm afraid she and Paris are already in Troy."
Menelaus looked at her suspiciously. "How do you know this? Are you not a spy for Paris himself?"
The diplomat decided to play along with legend. "Atlanteans know all, King. Have you not met others like us?"
The Spartan king's gaze softened only slightly. "You are the first, although I have heard stories of your kind and did not believe in their powers."
"You believe in Zeus, Hermes, Aphrodite, Persephone, Hades, Poseidon, Athena and gods of their stature, do you not?"
Menelaus sat back down on his throne. "They possess such powers of omnipotence, as you claim to."
"Yes."
John had no idea what the two were conversing about, and he let his eyes wander. They landed on a small form, a child partially hidden behind a stone column a few feet away from him. He had a horrible feeling in his gut that this was Hermione. He looked back at Elizabeth.
"Elizabeth, let's just hope that getting out of here will be easier than getting out of Shelob's lair. I don't want to marry a nine-year-old." The two exchanged a glance before Elizabeth turned back to Menelaus.
----
Back in the real, "modern" Atlantis, Rodney stalked up to the technician who had called him on the radio. "What's so urgent that couldn't wait till morning?" he growled.
The technician acknowledged his presence and pointed to Doctor Weir's office. "Sergeant Bates wishes to talk to you, Doctor. It seems Major Sheppard and Doctor Weir have gone missing."
Rodney's face turned from grumpy to seriously concerned in an instant.
----
"King Menelaus," Elizabeth continued, ignoring John at her elbow. "Paris's abduction of Helen sparked this war."
"That seems obvious," he replied icily, reminding the diplomat of her head scientist back on Atlantis.
"Many will die. In fact, you will wage war against the Trojans for ten years before ingeniously defeating them."
At this she caught Menelaus's attention. "Surely you cannot know the future to that extent! Only the Oracle of Delphi can tell such predictions! Unless...unless the tales are true. Atlanteans are a supreme race..." His gaze suddenly became wild. "Such supremacy must be given to my family!"
Elizabeth let out a sigh. "I apologize, King, but my companion is not inclined to marry your daughter."
"For what reason? Such an honor is hardly something he should refuse. Imagine the rewards of becoming part of the royal Spartan family! He could have more than simply my daughter. Concubines more than he can count."
Elizabeth grimaced. "If he could speak your language I'm sure he would find that an enticing offer, but there is one other thing I haven't mentioned as of yet."
Menelaus eyed her. "Name it."
"He is unavailable. Mine, in fact. It would be unwise to force him against his will." Elizabeth sidestepped protectively in front of John, who was by now so hopeless without the diplomat in understanding any of the goings on.
Menelaus's eyes narrowed. "You are in no place to make demands, Elizabeth of Atlantis."
She stood her ground. "And the Trojans are at your doorstep. Make your choice."
John tapped her on the shoulder. "Shouldn't we try not to interfere in the historical timeline?"
She whispered back to him, "I have the feeling that this isn't the real timeline. Remember the live action video game thing in Germany? And what about those giant spiders? What if we're just in the Atlantis database?"
He looked at her pointedly. "Have you lost your mind?"
"Not the time, John. King concubine over there is head over heels for you to marry his daughter. He wants the superior Atlantean blood in his line."
"Elizabeth, what did you tell him?" Automatically John's hand went to the knife still strapped to his hip, but he didn't unsheathe it.
She sighed again. "That as Atlanteans we're omnipotent like the gods he believes in..."
John cursed under his breath.
"And that you won't marry his daughter becauseyoubelongtome." She spat out the last part as fast as she could, hoping it would take him more than a few moments to decipher it.
His eyes widened. "Elizabeth!"
"I'm saving your life! Think of it as compensation for all the times you're going to save my life." Her eyes silenced him and she turned back to the king of Sparta. "Make your choice."
Menelaus snapped his fingers and the guard who escorted them in began to move towards them.
"Elizabeth..." John drew out, hand still hovering over his knife sheath. "I've got my knife."
"Don't, John." She switched to Greek again. "You have no quarrel with us. We gave you what you asked for: information. You have a war to fight with the Trojans, not with Atlantis. You do not want to spark a war with omnipotent beings! It would be like declaring war on Zeus."
Menelaus held up his hand and the guard stopped. "War on Zeus is only wise with help from the Titans."
Elizabeth had a sudden flashback to her home on Earth, sitting in front of the TV with Remember the Titans playing on it. She shook it off. "Who are your Titans, then?"
"Liz, I don't like the look in his eye. When I say, run for it. The nearest exit. We'll side with the Trojans if we have to."
The king stood slowly. "As far as you are concerned, Elizabeth of Atlantis, we are the Titans."
Knowing danger when he saw it, John swiftly unsheathed his knife, bellowing "RUN!" Elizabeth and the military leader bolted from the hall, outrunning the guard and the closely-following Menelaus. The king had a sword in his hand. Elizabeth paled.
Outside, the noise gave away that the Trojans were scaling the outside wall, being fought off by Spartan warriors who stood their ground.
John and Elizabeth started up a flight of stairs outside the main hall, Menelaus and the first guard in hot pursuit. Neither seemed to acknowledge the sounds of battle, which furthered Elizabeth's belief that they were not in the original timeline.
A guard that John had missed at the top of the stairs readied his sword to stop them.
"Who in the Underworld are you?" he demanded, and John looked at Elizabeth for translation.
"Atlanteans with no intention of harming you," she shot back, scrabbling to get her own knife out to ward off the approaching Spartan king. "John!"
John inched up the staircase, almost to the top. "Get behind me, Liz."
Elizabeth tugged the back of John's BDU when the king and the first guard were right behind her. "JOHN!"
The Air Force Major heard the feeble clash of military issue blade on hardened sword steel and turned to find Menelaus with Elizabeth in a throat lock, his sword's point resting on her collarbone. Reluctantly, Elizabeth translated the king's words. "Drop your blade, John of Atlantis, or her lifeblood will forever stain my stronghold."
----
After the short debriefing from Bates, Rodney, Zelenka and a few scientists made their way to John and Elizabeth's last known last known position, having traced it with the help of the city's sensors. No sign of them. Zelenka almost stepped into the room to find out what happened to them when Rodney laid a hand onto his shoulder. "Wait."
The room was one of a handful in the lower levels in the west wing that John and Elizabeth were exploring; it faced the outside wall of the tower.
Rodney received a transmission from the Control Room of a lightning storm directly overhead. Rodney ordered the shield to be raised to be on the safe side.
Just before the shield went up a lightning bolt broke through the wall of the tower, but disappeared before it hit the room. With confusion written across their faces, Rodney and Zelenka looked at each other for an answer as to what just happened.
-----
The standoff on top of the main hall continued. John held his knife tight, not giving in to Menelaus's demands; even though his threat was real enough, John couldn't believe he would execute it. "What, and risk war with the Atlanteans?" Elizabeth translated for the king.
For good measure she added, "Zeus would strike you down if you harm me."
Menelaus pulled Elizabeth back a little. "I'd like to see him try." Still with his arm locked around her neck he held the sword high, in apparent triumph.
As if on command a lightning bolt appeared from nowhere out of the clear blue sky and struck Menelaus's sword, causing him to drop it.
Seizing her chance Elizabeth pulled free from his grasp and scrambled towards John's protection and asked the one question he was wondering. "What just happened?"
John took a moment to think about it. Really? Nah. He shrugged his shoulders in response to her question and shook his head so not to believing what he just saw. He looked at her. "Never mess with Atlanteans?" he said hopefully.
Seething over having been beaten, Menelaus rubbed his right hand, noticing the overbearing silence around them. The battle below had stopped. He looked down and saw everyone staring at them; they had all witnessed the strike.
But before anyone decided on their next cause of action, they all witnessed John and Elizabeth disappear before their very eyes.
-----
A harsh, cold breeze suddenly whipped through John and Elizabeth's clothing; making them both wrap up for warmth. A few people passed them by and gave them strange looks. Elizabeth noticed it and pointed it out to John. "We'll have to see about getting some new clothes soon," she yawned a bit in the middle of the sentence, "not to mention food and sleep. Going in between Greek and English is exhausting."
They started walking around the deck of the ship to see where they had landed. "At least we got out of our last adventure in one piece. A vacation at sea would do wonders right now. Although I wish that the sea was the one Atlantis is floating on."
"I've been thinking, in between all those life-and-death situations. What if we're still on Atlantis?"
John folded his arms to his chest. "How do you figure? Thirtieth century live action games, giant spiders and webs with healing capabilities, and the Trojan war? The last one, maybe..."
"The Ancients could have made technology to transport them to different time periods to study them, kind of like holodeck programs in Star Trek. Remember, they created personalities of historical figures. Maybe the Ancients did the same thing but on a larger, more interactive scale."
"How do you explain thirtieth century Earth, then?" John pulled her away from a couple of children running in their path.
"I have no idea." Elizabeth spotted the name of the ship on one of the life-rings. "Oh, no! John, look." She gripped his arm fiercely.
John turned and read out the name Elizabeth pointed out to him. "RMS Titanic… Oh shi..."
The sound of the ship's deafening horn drowned out his last word.