Jannickie Nordlie – Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Fyd818 – I love Rodney too lol. I'm glad you liked his introduction as well as the scene with John helping Liz control her powers. The stuck in the narrow space scenes were my favourite to write in the last chapter so im glad they turned out alright. Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Steph7085 – I'm glad you liked the scene with John and Liz stuck in a narrow space they were my fave to write. Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Moonlightfaery – Yep this is an AU, it seems I can't get enough of them lately. Thanks for the review, I'm glad you like the story and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Izzles – I'm glad you like the Sparky moments in this story especially the stuck in a narrow space part. Teyla's identity will be revealed soon and it's a bit of twist, hope you enjoy this chapter, thanks for the review.
- - -
Chapter 7
John and Elizabeth finally arrived back at the Aurora having avoided several groups of Genii soldiers. They walked up the ramp closing it behind them. They headed for the bridge but before they got there they heard noise coming from the ship's infirmary. John stayed in front of Elizabeth as they followed the sound to discover Marcus and Ronon hovering over a man's body.
"You made it then?" Lorne questioned rhetorically as they entered the room.
John nodded and gestured to the man lying on the bed "That the earth element?"
"Yeah, meet Rodney McKay," Lorne replied.
"What happened?" Elizabeth asked.
"He fainted," Ronon stated and both John and Elizabeth had to suppress a smile "I used my powers and he fainted."
"Well I suppose we can't blame him," John reasoned "It is a lot to take in."
"I'm going to get us out of here, stay with him, I'll be right back," Lorne instructed them all as he left the room. He knew they needed to get off Geldar as quickly as possible, with the Genii searching for them it was a miracle they hadn't been found already.
"Where'd you find him?" John asked Ronon after Marcus had left the room.
"Running through the market, we didn't even have to tell him who we were or what we wanted with him, he just came with us. He was very eager to leave," Ronon replied.
"That's not at all suspicious," John retorted as he felt the ship take off.
"He said he was running away from home," Ronon told them with a shrug.
"And you believed him?" John questioned.
"No, but we had other things to deal with at the time," Ronon explained and John left the conversation there and went to sit down on one of the empty beds. Elizabeth joined him, sitting next to him as they waited for Marcus to return. They felt the hyper drive engage and a few moments later Marcus walked back into the room.
"Are you going to contact the council and tell them you have him?" Ronon asked gesturing to the man still lying unconscious on the bed.
"Not yet, if the Genii are here then they have ships around here somewhere too and I don't want them picking up the transmission. I'll wait until morning and contact them then," Lorne told them.
Their attention was drawn to the bed as Rodney emitted a small groan indicating he was waking up. Marcus moved to the side of the bed and waited until the man opened his eyes and blinked several times.
"You're real?" Rodney questioned obviously having thought he'd dreamt the last few hours.
"Yep," was Lorne's brief reply.
"And the big guy… he really…" Rodney trailed off as if to search for the right words.
"Created a ball of fire out thin air?" Lorne finished for him "Yeah."
"What happened to me?" Rodney asked.
"You fainted," Lorne informed him and Rodney looked somewhat embarrassed for a moment before sitting up. He looked at Ronon warily for several seconds before turning to look at Elizabeth and John.
"Hey," John said with a two fingered wave at the man.
"They're the other elements," Lorne told him "John Sheppard, the water elemental and Elizabeth Weir, the wind elemental."
"Nice to meet you," Elizabeth greeted barely keeping the humour out of her voice at the man's baffled, wary expression.
"Ronon, why don't you show Rodney to his room," Marcus suggested and Ronon nodded his head in silent agreement. He left the room with a scared looking Rodney following him.
- - -
Elizabeth walked into the kitchen to put and end to the noise that was emanating from that room. She entered the room and sighed when she saw John and Ronon shouting at each other once again. It was the middle of the night and they still managed to argue with each other.
Neither man had noticed she was in the room yet and she watched them for a moment to try and figure out what they were fighting about. It sounded like John had been in here making himself a midnight snack when Ronon had walked in and stolen it. She rolled her eyes, the pair of them were like five years old. It was the fire balls that started flying around the room first followed by the water orbs. A fire ball came hurtling towards her head and she ducked down to avoid it. It flew over her head impacting the wall behind her.
She stood up straight and decided to put an end to this before they killed someone or woke up Marcus and Rodney. "Will you two stop," she shouted above the noise and the two men turned to look at her. "It's the middle of the night and some of us are trying to sleep."
Both men had the good grace to look ashamed and sufficiently chastised at least for now. "Sorry," they both mumbled.
"I don't want sorry," she informed them "I want peace and quiet for a few hours so those of us who aren't mentally five years old can get some sleep."
If either man had a reply they never got to voice it, the ship lurched suddenly knocking them all of balance. Ronon fell into the chair behind him whilst Elizabeth fell to the side. John's arm went around her waist to catch her preventing her fall as he placed his free hand on the wall to steady them both. They felt the tell tale signs of the ship dropping out of hyperspace before Ronon stood up, clearly not happy about being knocked off his feat "Now what?"
John let go of Elizabeth as he headed through the doorway that led to the bridge and Elizabeth followed him with Ronon right behind her. The ship lurched again throwing them all into the wall of the corridor. When they finally made it to the bridge John dropped into one of the chairs and Elizabeth sat in another as Ronon stood behind them. One of the consoles was beeping insistently at them trying to inform them of the incoming transmission. John hit the button and a man's face appeared on the screen. They all recognised him as the Republic Inspector who had been aboard the ship a few days ago.
"Cut your engines and prepare to be boarded," the man stated.
"Is there a problem, you inspected our ship a few days ago," John reminded him as Lorne and Rodney arrived on the bridge. Elizabeth looked at the sensor readings noting that there were five Republic ships surrounding them. She tugged on Marcus's shirt to get his attention and gestured to the readings. Marcus looked down at what she was pointing at and gave her a concerned look. They both knew the only reasons the Republic would come after them with five ships is if they intended to arrest them.
"Stop your ship and prepare to be boarded," the man instructed them again.
"We're on our way to a pick up we're already late for," John stated and he was sure he heard Rodney muttering something about just doing as they asked.
"We know that you are working for the Secret Council and therefore are under arrest for treason," the inspector informed them calmly.
"We don't work for the Secret Council," Lorne lied.
"If you do not cut your engines immediately you will be fired upon."
John's hands hovered over the controls as he looked at Marcus for instructions. They couldn't stop, if they did they would be arrested and imprisoned, possibly executed and then they'd have no chance of stopping the weapon before it destroyed the universe. Marcus nodded to John who immediately cut off the transmission and increased the ship's speed. The Republic ships opened fire and John dodged and weaved his way around most of it.
Ronon and Marcus had grabbed hold of the nearest surface to brace themselves for the shots John wasn't able to avoid. Rodney however stumbled into Ronon who grabbed him and pushed him into the only remaining chair. John couldn't get the ship away from the Republic ships that were surrounding them. The Aurora was a big ship and didn't dodge and weave as well as a smaller ship would have. As another shot impacted the ship there was a small explosion and they started leaking atmosphere. Ronon immediately moved to seal the breach as John once again unsuccessfully tried to get away from their attackers. They wouldn't be able to go into hyperspace until they had cleared the Republic ships.
"I can't get free of these guys," John stated and Lorne moved to the seat Rodney was sitting in. He grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the chair before sitting in it himself. He began pressing buttons on the controls and within a few seconds the ship in front of them exploded as it was hit by the Aurora's weapons fire.
"Now go!" Lorne called but John was already piloting the ship through the gap Lorne had created. Once he was clear enough of the Republic ships he engaged the hyper drive.
Elizabeth watched the sensors intently for any signs they were being followed and when several moments went by with no sign of their attackers she sighed in relief. "They're not following."
"How do they know we're working for the Secret Council?" John questioned.
"I don't know," Lorne responded "But we should all get some sleep, I'll contact the Council in the morning."
"Okay," Rodney said as he walked off the bridge.
"And one more word out of either of you and I'll shoot you," Lorne informed John and Ronon before he too turned to leave the bridge. Elizabeth smiled slightly before glancing once more at the sensors, reassured they weren't being followed she stood up and headed to her bedroom. John and Ronon also left the bridge without a another word to each other as they headed in separate directions to their rooms.
- - -
Lorne slumped into the chair on the bridge and immediately hit the sequence of buttons on the console that would send a transmission to the Council. The elements were all sat in the kitchen eating breakfast. Thank fully John and Ronon had been civil to each other all morning and Marcus was glad for the break from their arguing.
"Agent Lorne, request to speak with Councillor O'Neill," he stated when the young woman appeared on his screen.
"One moment please," the woman told him and Lorne wasn't even paying attention when the screen went blue. A few seconds later O'Neill's face appeared on the screen.
"Agent Lorne, good to hear from you," Jack greeted his voice drawing Lorne's attention back to the screen.
"I have the earth element," Lorne stated.
"What not even a hello?" Jack questioned humorously and Marcus was caught between smiling and rolling his eyes.
"Hello Councillor O'Neill, how are you?" he placated.
"I'm just great Lorne and how are you?" Jack asked clearly amused with himself.
"Tired, we got attacked by the Republic in the early hours of this morning, they know we're working for the Council," Lorne explained and Jack's face became serious.
"That's not good," Jack stated obviously.
"I know, they could have at least waited until a decent hour," Lorne quipped before moving the subject back to the mission. "The earth element is on board."
"Well done, you're doing incredibly well, I'm sending you the file on the final element," Jack informed him and Marcus sat up straighter.
"What, I have all the elements."
"No you don't," Jack said simply and Lorne could feel his frustration building.
"There are only four elements, earth, wind, fire and water, I have all four of them," Marcus stated adamantly. Sam's words from his last communication with the council came back to him 'the first part of your mission is far from over'.
"There's a fifth element," Jack explained and Lorne sighed, "The fifth element is energy, look I don't have time to go into detail about this, everything you need is in the file, good luck agent Lorne."
The transmission cut off and Lorne was left to stare at the blank screen. There was a fifth element, he knew he shouldn't be surprised, with all the twists this mission had taken already nothing should surprise him but this did. Why had the council not told him there were five elements? They had kept all the important details of this mission from him and it was making it harder to do his job.
He looked down at the console to where a small light was indicating that he had received the file on the fifth and final element, at least it had better damn well be the final element. He hesitated in reaching for the control, perhaps there was a reason they had kept the fifth elements existence from him. Maybe there was something about this person they hadn't wanted him to know until he had to.
He pressed the button to download the file onto a data pad and made his way to the kitchen. John and Ronon still weren't arguing at least not with each other, they seemed to have at least temporarily allied themselves against Rodney who by the sound of it had insulted their intelligence levels. Elizabeth was sat with a book in her hand ignoring the squabbling men in front of her.
"Listen up," Marcus called and everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him. "We have another element to pick up."
"That's not possible, there are only four elements," Rodney stated as if it was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard.
"Well apparently we have a fifth, energy," Lorne told them and Rodney looked like he was about to protest but Ronon kicked him under the table eliciting a small yelp of pain from the man who then immediately shut up when Ronon glared at him. "I haven't read the file yet so I can't tell you anymore than that, just thought you should all know."
Everyone watched as Marcus left the room before Rodney turned angry eyes on Ronon "What the hell did you kick me for?"
"Because you're a know it all," Ronon answered him with another glare that made Rodney shrink back.
"A fifth element," Elizabeth mused quietly.
"Well this is definitely getting more and more interesting," John stated.
TBC