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Chapter Three

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Teyla and Sheppard looked up from a perfectly normal breakfast to see a very angry McKay striding towards them. He planted himself directly in front of Teyla, crossed his arms, and glared angrily at her.

"I blame you," he said. She laughed, a little confused.

"What did I do?" she asked mildly.

"You told me about your dream, and what you said about the creature gave me a nightmare!"

"What happened?"

"It burst out of the trees, pushed you, kicked Sheppard in the stomach, and tried to grab me. It's nail... claw... things- gashed my head opened..." he could see both Sheppard and Teyla looking at him with wide eyes. He touched the side of his head and felt blood.

"Oh no!" he moaned. "I's happening to me too!"

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When Ronon woke up he was nearly blinded by the pain in his body. He wasn't sure what he was feeling this pain from; if it was from the seekers or the queen or some other torture that had been inflicted upon him while he slept. But he knew he was very badly hurt, beyond exhaustion; and hungry.

He rolled onto his back and tried not to scream as the pain he thought could not get any worse exploded over his body.

"I've got to get out of here," he thought to himself. But after that battle with the queen, he doubted himself for the first time. He would never make it off that ship alive.

After he'd laid there for a while, trying to gather the strength to get up, he heard something. He forced himself to his feet, biting his lip and trying to focus on that pain instead. Several wraith appeared at his door. He debated fighting but just as quickly dismissed the idea. He smelled seekers, and in his weakened state he'd probably get himself killed.

The wraith opened the door, shoved someone in, and left. Once they were gone, Ronon looked at his new cellmate. He was surprised to find a woman. She was small and slender and seemed young; she couldn't be far over twenty. She had long blonde hair and light skin and terribly frightened green eyes. He reached out a hand to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked her. She shrugged, rubbing her arms nervously against the cold. He noticed that her brown tunic and skirt were made for warm weather. Her boots, at least seemed right for the temperature. But still, she must be freezing. He didn't feel it as strongly, with all the blood rushing through his body and fueling his bruises. He wished that he still had his coat to give her.

He wished that she would talk; anything to break the silence that was dragging. He wondered if his friends on Atlantis were often annoyed with him for his silences.

"I'm Ronon," he said finally.

"Adeena," she introduced herself. Her voice was deeper than Ronon would have expected for someone of her size.

"Where are you from?" he asked, easing down agains the wall. For a minute he thought that she wouldn't answer.

"Rashan," came her timid answer, almost too soft to hear. "But we were culled."

"So was my world," Ronon said. "Almost 9 years ago." Adeena gasped.

"And they've kept you alive?" she questioned in amazement.

"I was a runner," he explained. "For seven years. But I made some friends, and they helped me. I've been living with them ever since." Adeena cocked her head in confusion, sitting back against the opposite wall, as far away from him as possible.

"Then how were you captured again?" he sighed.

"I had to leave; didn't want them to get hurt. And I had a promise to keep."

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Beckett was a little surprised to see Sheppard's team in the infirmary again so soon, with new injuries. This time Teyla seemed fine; but Sheppard was obviously in pain and McKay's head was bleeding.

"What did you do, get into a fight?"

"Teyla's dream creature attacked us," Sheppard grumbled.

"What?!"

"It was MY dream," Rodney explained. "It kicked him and tried to grab me; but it mostly missed."

"Mostly," Beckett agreed. "And you both dreamed it?"

"No, just Rodney."

"Was Teyla in the dream?"

"Yes, but it just pushed her aside-"

"And I feel fine." Carson frowned.

"Hm. Well, let me get you boys under a scanner and see what the damage is. Have you told Elizabeth what happened?"

"No, we came straight here," McKay said.

"I see. Teyla, love, would you mind radioing and asking her to come down here at once, please?"

"Of course," her voice became a gentle murmur in the background as Beckett turned to Sheppard.

"Alright, off with your shirt and lets have a look."

"What about me?" Rodney complained.

"I already know what happened to you Rodney. Nurse, will you please start his scan and get him ready for the stitches? I'll take over in a minute." he turned back to John, who'd just gotten his shirt off, and gasped.

"What is it?" he looked down at himself, and bit back a curse. His side was covered in a dark, blotchy purple bruise.

"Oh my," the doctor breathed. Teyla finished her radio call and came back over. She stopped short at the sight of John's bruises, unable to speak for a moment.

"Alright," Beckett was back in control again, "Nurse, go get him some ice; I'll finish up Rodney."

"Yes sir," Beckett had Sheppard lay down, and took the needle from the nurse to finish Rodney's stitches.

"OW! Can't you put me under for this?"

"Afraid not, Rodney; I need you to be awake and lucid to explain to Elizabeth when she comes in." The nurse returned with Sheppard's ice, and started a scan on him.

"This is the weirdest thing, " he commented. "Why was I affected? I mean, it wasn't even my dream."

"I think Elizabeth has some idea," Carson said as he finished Rodney's stitches. "There you go. And here she comes." Elizabeth entered the infirmary, and froze at the sight of the team and their injuried.

"It happened again," she breathed. She'd sincerely hoped that what had happened with Teyla had been a one time thing. Carson nodded.

"Yes it did. It was McKay's dream," Rodney took the cue to explain.

"We were walking in the woods, on M7G-677; and all of a sudden it jumped out of the trees. It pushed Teyla out of it's way and kicked Sheppard in the stomach; and it tried to grab me. It missed, but it scratched me," he pointed to his head.

"And it hurt you and John both in your dream?"

"Yeah. Both from his dream."

"Now will you tell us what you know?" Carson pressed.

"Wait, you know what's been going on?" McKay demanded. Elizabeth sighed.

"No. I don't know anything about the dreams, or why you're all getting hurt in them. But I do know something about the creatures." Teyla's eyes narrowewd. "Ronon told me about them, a little bit. Teyla was the only one of you to give them a name, and she was right. They're called seekers."

"Wait, why are they after us?" John asked.

"They're not; at least, I didn't get that impression from him. I don't think they know us. They're tracking him to find the city. That's one of the reasons that he left; to throw them off and get rid of them."

"Why couldn't you tell us before?"

"I promised Ronon that I wouldn't tell anyone why he left."

"But seekers do not hunt one thing to find something else," Teyla argued. "They hunt runners, they hunt whatever their masters tell them to; but they hunt instinctively. They hunt to kill.

"But don't you think Ronon knows what he's talking about when it comes to wraith?"

"I too have dealt with seekers," Teyla said. "They killed a very dear friend of mine. Do you trust me less?"

"No, of course not. But you said yourself that it wasn't purely instinctive when it looked at you." Elizabeth reminded her.

"Fine, let us suppose that they are looking for the city; why? They hunt across worlds, between stars. The city would not be a worthwhile hunt for them."

"You said they do what they'e told," Carson said. "Maybe they were told to find the city."

"Maybe," she conceeded, but she seemed unconvinced.

"Elizabeth," Sheppard cut in. "What else did Ronon tell you?"

"Nothing I can share," she said apologetically. "And nothing that will make me let you go after him yet; for all we know he's defeated all the seekers already and is getting on with his promise."

"And what promise would that be?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that either."

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Ronon found himself groaning awake once again, and he shifted his sore muscles. This last sleep had actually been somewhat refreshing; at the very least it cleared his head. He wondered how long he'd been asleep.

Looking around, he spotted Adeena, still leaning against the wall farthest from him, and as far from the door as possible. He grinned; this girl wasn't taking any chances.

After a few minutes he noticed something in the room that hadn't been there before; a tray of food. He rose painfully to his feet, driven by hunger more then caution. The contense of the tray, as unidentifiable as it was, didn't look too revolting; andn it didn't smell or taste poisoned. Why would the wraith poison him, anyways? They wouldn't kill their own food before they got a chance to feed. And even if they had somehow drugged it, which he found unlikely, he was beyond the point where he cared. He'd eaten far worse as a runner. But he still felt obligated to make sure Adeena was alright first.

"You hungry?" he asked. She shook her head, curling into a tight ball. He sighed. "You should eat."

"No," her voice was barely above a whisper. In Ronon's experiance, there were only two kinds of people who spoke that way all the time; people who were guilty of something, or people who were terrified. He was certain that Adeena fell into that second catagory.

Annoyed, he shrugged.

"Suit yourself," he muttered. He wolfed down as much of the meal as he needed, but didn't finish it. Eventually the girl would need to eat, keep up her strength, if she wanted to survive.

"Ronon," he looked up in surprise when she said his name. "Are we going to die?" he shrugged.

"Everybody's gotta die sometime," he said. "But when I do, it won't be on a hive."

"If you escape," she began hesitantly, "will you find my father? I want him to know what happened to me."

"Where is he?"

"He was off-world during the attack." Ronon softened a little bit, feeling sorry for her.

"Yeah, I can do that." he said. "But I can do better. When I get off this ship, I'll take you with me."

"You would do that for me?"

"Sure; no one deserves to be stuck here. But when the time comes I'm gonna need your help." Adeena nodded, surprise still evident in her gaze.

For a while they remained quiet, Ronon re-evaluating the possibilities of escape for the both of them. Adeena was lost in her own thoughts, staring at the toes of her boots. Ronon couldn't even begin to guess what was going on in her head; she was so radically different then anyone else he had ever known. He realized how badly he wanted to understand her.

After a while, he saw her eyeing the tray of food, and he pushed it over to her.

"Hungry yet?"

"Thank you," she said softly, accepting it.

"Sure." He returned to his almost comfortable place against the wall, and settled in to wait for the wraith to return.

Over the next couple of days (Ronon assumed) that they were trapped, Adeena relaxed, and she and Ronon started to become friends. They talked about their friends, in an attempt to keep their minds off the current situation; and Adeena quit acting like a scared rabit. Maybe it wasn't the easy friendship that Ronon had slid into with Sheppard and Teyla and even McKay; but for him it was enough.

The wraith hadn't returned since they'd brought Adeena, except to deliever food, which was how Ronon had begun to tell time, figuring two meals per 24 hour period. But as glad as they were that they hadn't returned or tried to kill them, Ronon was getting restless. He didn't understand these particular wraith at all, and it made planning their escape difficult, because he had no way to predict what would happen. Adeena saw that it was frustrating him and tried to take his mind off it for a while, asking him questions about his friends and their world (which he answered selectively, protecting the existance of Atlantis). But eventually she ran out of questions about them, and found a new subject.

"How old were you?" the question distracted his agitated pacing and he looked at her in confusion. Embarassed, she lowered her eyes.

"I meant when you were first running." he had to think about it.

"Almost 22," he paused. "How old are you?"

"Nineteen." He shouldn't have been surprised. She didn't look or act much older; when he'd first seen her and pegged her in her twenties he was being generous. But she was just a scared girl, on most worlds considered an adult but still trying to figure out what that meant.

"Do you have any family besides your dad?" he asked, her awkward attempt to help him making him do the same. And he liked her voice.

"I had 2 brothers," she said, "They were a couple years older then me. My mother died a few years ago, and they've always protected me."

"What happened to them?" she shrugged.

"I don't know. They defended me during the attack, but there was an explosion, and we were beamed up by a dart. When I woke up I was alone, and the wraith brought me here." she stopped for a moment, willing back tears, Then she looked up at Ronon.

"What about you?" she asked. "What was your family like?"

"They were average to look at, I guess. My mom, my dad, and a kid sister. My mom was beautiful. She loved gardens and flowers and everything that grew. The city was hard for her. So my dad bought her a manor house in the country; lots of land and big gardens," he cleared his throat. "She was a refugee, a survivor from another world. But when my father met her, he said that he knew she was the only woman he'd ever love. Just about the only time he ever showed emotion. But he died in battle, and my mom was taken." he stopped talking, as if suddenly aware that he had given up more of his past then he was quite comfortable with.

"What about your sister?" she asked. "What was she like?" he was amazed at how comfortable he was telling Adeena all this.

"She was about 13 years younger then me; but she was cute. Terrified of storms; I used to have to sit with her and hold her till she fell asleep. But she died in the culling I was taken in, I think. I miss her." Adeena smiled a little.

"You remind me of my brothers," she said. "I know that you'll get us out."

"I hope I don't disappoint you."