Please see first chapter for disclaimer, rating, warnings, pairings, etc. Slight swearing in this chapter.

Part 10/12

Chapter 10

Checkmate

"Kell! I know you're listening, answer me!" Ronon yelled into the radio. He was pacing the bridge, muscles tensed in anger, but he stopped abruptly when the radio gave a burst of static and then Kell's voice could be plainly heard in the room.

"Why hello again, Ronon, I assume that you got my message?" came the smug voice of the murderer, echoing through the room and causing Allie to shrink back against Elizabeth, who gently shushed her and took her back to her room.

Ronon growled a curse, avoiding the eyes of his friends, then replied, "Yes, I did, you slimy bastard, now what do you want?"

Kell chuckled into the radio, a sound that raised the hairs on the back of Teyla's neck. She moved silently to Ronon, placing a hand on his shoulder in support.

"You know what I want, Ronon Dex," Kell said. "I want you."

Suddenly the connection was broken. Ronon stared blankly at the silent radio in his hand, then yelled into it, "Kell!"

When no response was forthcoming, Ronon swore loudly and hurled the radio at the wall, where it would have smashed to pieces had not John grabbed it out of the air.

"Come on, Ronon, we need that!" he admonished, then tossed the radio back to his friend and turned to open a storage compartment. He fished out a small handgun and Ronon's blaster, which he handed to the big man, then another handgun and his own P-90, which he strapped onto his vest.

As he straightened, John spoke, clearly but tersely, as time was not on their side.

"All right. You need to go surrender now," he said to Ronon, who nodded.

"What!" Elizabeth asked in alarm, having just come back into the room. John turned to her.

"If Ronon surrenders, Kell will take him inside the complex to gloat. Once he's inside, he can undoubtably take out the guards," here he looked at Ronon, who nodded.

". . . and once the guards are out we can bust in and rescue Rodney," John finished.

Elizabeth did not look completely convinced, but Teyla shot a warning look at her before she could object further.

"All right," Teyla sighed, stepping up to Ronon with a hand held out. "Give me the handgun."

Ronon looked conflicted, then shook his head determinedly. "You're not going," he said.

Teyla quirked an eyebrow at him. "Not going?" she repeated suspiciously.

Ronon gave her a look. "Not going."

"Hm," Teyla said out loud, muttered a quiet "We'll see about that," then continued, "You will need backup."

"I've got John, and it's too dangerous for you anyway," Ronon said, then turned and walked out of the bridge and down the ramp to the planet. John gave Teyla a sympathetic look and followed. Teyla and Elizabeth did as well.

"Too dangerous!" Teyla said angrily when she caught up to Ronon. "I have spent the majority of the last two years either being attacked in my home or travelling the galaxy looking for a place for my family to be safe! Believe me, this will be a relief compared to that."

Ronon sighed, not looking at her, but shook his head and kept walking. Teyla growled and stepped in front of him, forcing him to look at her.

When he did, she spoke, so softly that only he could hear her.

"I will not lose you again. Do you know what it was like, not knowing whether you were alive or not? You told me you would never leave again. You promised," she said, her eyes communicating the intense emotion she felt. Ronon started to reply, then shut his mouth silently.

Teyla narrowed her eyes, seeing that he was still not convinced, then without taking her gaze off her husband, she said, "John. Give me your gun."

John, who had been standing a few feet away with Elizabeth, where they were both trying not to look like they were eavesdropping on their friends, mutely unclasped his P-90 from his vest and handed it to Teyla, who took it with a nod of thanks.

"Do you see this coin?" she asked Ronon, withdrawing a small bronze circle from her pocket. He nodded, frowning slightly in puzzlement.

"I got it at the last planet for Allie's collection," she continued, then, without warning, flung the coin high into the air, and in the same fluid movement, brought up the gun and fired a single shot. As gravity exerted its power and the coin came plummeting back down to land in Teyla's outstretched palm, she continued, "I think I may have to get her a replacement."

He took the small coin from her and his jaw dropped. In the precise center of the metal was a small, clean hole, which was smoking slightly. Ronon glanced up at Teyla, then back to the coin, disbelieving. Teyla shrugged and gave John back his weapon.

"I've been practicing," she said, then held out her hand to Ronon again. This time, he withdrew his sidearm without comment, handing it to her respectfully. She nodded in approval, then spoke to Elizabeth.

"I'm afraid you'll have to stay with Allie," she said regretfully. Elizabeth laughed.

"That's okay, I'm not sure I could keep up with all of this shooting anyway," she joked, then turned to go back to the ship, calling back over her shoulder, "But don't kill Kell completely, I want to have a few words with him myself."

Planet's surface - Just outside the Secret Underground Bunker

"Okay, so here's the plan," John said quietly as he, Ronon, and Teyla hunkered down behind a convenient mossy log, just outside of where the computer said that Rodney was. They could see a hut in a clearing in the woods they had trekked through, small but being patrolled by two heavily-armed men.

"You go up, pretend to surrender, then while you're giving them your gun we'll shoot 'em," John continued, but Teyla interrupted him.

"Trade guns, that way you can just stun them," she said, and Ronon nodded.

"We don't know if they're just hired guards or if they're part of Kell's plot - if we can bring them back to Atlantis they can stand a fair trial."

John saw that he was outnumbered, and handed his P-90 to Ronon before continuing, "Kell knows about us, since he told Michael to watch for three men, two women, and a little girl. That means we'll have to sneak up on him quickly and quietly. Ronon, as soon as we shoot the guards, you get inside and look for the first security camera you see."

"And shoot it?" Ronon asked, then without waiting for an answer he straightened and walked towards the hut.

"I was going to say disable it," John sighed to Teyla as he pointed Ronon's blaster at the guards. "But whatever works."

Secret Underground Bunker - Outside

"Hey! I surrender!" Ronon yelled, holding John's gun in plain view of the guards, who recovered their surprise quickly and pointed their guns at him.

"Who are you and what do you want?" one of them said gruffly. Ronon sighed dramatically.

"I'm Ronon Dex, tell Kell I surrender and he can let the hostage go," he deadpanned, then waited for the guard to fish his radio out of his pocket before handing the other one the gun.

"Commander!" the first guard said into his radio. "Dex is here, sir, he's just surrendered. We've got him covered."

Ronon tried to look innocent and harmless, no small feat for a man of his stature. The guard nodded in response to something he heard from the radio, then turned the radio off and said, "Okay, Dex, hands on your head, no sudden moves."

Ronon complied happily, and as the guards shoved him in front of them, about to enter the hut, he heard the tell-tale whooshes and grunts of someone getting shot with his blaster. He turned to see the guards slumped on the ground and John and Teyla running towards him.

"We'll tie these two up, go fix the cameras," John said breathlessly, tossing a set of handcuffs to Teyla. Ronon nodded and opened the door to the hut. He saw another door, this one metal and much more highly advanced than the construction of the hut, and guessed that it was an elevator. Scanning the interior of the hut quickly, Ronon found a small camera in the corner, pointed at the elevator door. He flattened himself against the wall, moving towards the camera but staying in its blind spot, then, when he reached it, he simply turned it towards the ceiling.

"Okay," he whispered. "We're good to go."

John and Teyla snuck into the room and Ronon punched the button for the elevator. The doors opened with a whoosh, and the three friends stepped inside. They reached the bottom of the shaft quickly, keeping their guns trained on the door. When it opened, they saw a low-ceilinged, dark passageway, lit by fluorescent lights in the ceiling. The passage ended in a door, which Ronon tried carefully.

It was unlocked, so he whispered, "Let me check it out," before slipping through it. Seconds later, he reappeared, beckoning insistently to his friends. They came through the door into another passage, easing it closed behind them, and Ronon pointed to another door opposite them, through which they could see the outlines of two guards standing at attention.

John motioned for a retreat and the three returned to the first passage, making sure they were out of earshot before conferring in lowered voices.

"We need a distraction," John said. Teyla waved one of the guards' radios around.

"Will this do?" she asked. John looked at Ronon.

"See?" he said. "I knew there was a reason we brought her along."

Secret Underground Bunker - Interrogation Room

Kell, after recieving the message of Ronon's capture, had gloated happily for a while, only worsening Rodney's fear, and was in the middle of a rant about how long he had waited for his revenge when his radio beeped urgently.

"Commander!" a muffled voice yelled. Kell picked his radio up.

"What is it?" he asked excitably.

"It's the prisoner, sir!" came the reply. "He's collapsed! I swear we didn't do anything, sir, he just fell down!"

Kell's face soured and he growled an expletive, then motioned to the two guards.

"Go help them," he sighed angrily, watching them salute and leave the room.

"Stupid buffoons. And you," he continued, rounding on Rodney. "If this is some sort of trick you will pay with your life!"

"Oh I kinda doubt that, Kell," John said as he entered the room, gun raised.

"Yeah," Ronon added. "Seeing as how that's what you'll be doing."

Ship - Corridor

"Well!" Elizabeth burst out as John emerged from the room where they had taken Kell after shackling him heavily. John smiled a tired but happy smile.

"We've got him, he's in there," he said. Elizabeth made a small noise of satisfaction, then pushed past John and went into the room.

"Wait!" John called after her. When she did not respond, he muttered, "Oh well I suppose I should go in there before she hurts him too bad . . ."

Ship - Storage Room

Teyla and Ronon were standing on either side of Kell, who was handcuffed to a chair in the middle of an empty storage room. Both had their hands resting casually on their guns. Kell had been making pointless comments about Ronon's mother for a few minutes when Elizabeth strode into the room and promptly began swearing at their prisoner.

Kell sat up slightly straighter as he was confronted by the angry pregnant woman.

"Well!" he said, cutting her off as a lewd smile crawling across his face. "Apparently instead of killing you that bullet got a little busy!"

John, who had followed Elizabeth into the room, sighed and moved forward to punch Kell in the nose. The prisoner winced, a line of blood running down his face.

"Would you care to wipe that off for me, please?" he asked Teyla, who smiled, leaned forward, and punched him as John had. Kell groaned, then spat blood and turned back to Teyla with hatred in his eyes.

"I should have killed you when I had the chance," he said, then regained his cocky attitude and added, "Or maybe I should have just bedded you a few times, I'm sure that would have tamed you of your wildness."

Teyla cocked an eyebrow as Kell laughed, a sound abruptly silenced when Ronon drew his blaster and fired a single shot at Kell's chest. The man slumped against his bonds and Ronon turned back to his friends.

"Don't worry, it was set on stun," he sighed regretfully, then suggested, "How about we stick him in a stasis pod while he's unconscious? That way he'll keep until we can get him to trial."

"Sounds good," John agreed. He and Ronon picked up Kell's limp form and took him away.

Teyla and Elizabeth watched their husbands go, laughing quietly.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Elizabeth asked Teyla, who nodded and replied, "Yes - they do all the work for us, although I did quite enjoy punching him myself."

"I'm quite sure Ronon enjoyed shooting him, too," Elizabeth added, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Teyla laughed. "Indeed he did."

To Be Continued...

A/N2: Yay they got him! Woohoo! And wow that was a long chapter. I was considering splitting it up into two bits, but they seemed to roll better together. Tell me what you think!

A/N: I am SO SORRY that this chapter took so long to post! Erm . . . no excuses other than the ones you've heard a million times before (RL got in the way, finals week, I got sick, work was stressful, etc.), and I can't promise a quick update because chapter 11 has been giving me strife for about five months now, but I swear I'll get it up as soon as I can. After that it's just the epilogue, and then it's finally over!

Hannah554: Oh god thank you so much for sticking with this story, I can't believe it's taken me so long to update it! Argh! And yes, Kell has his ways of finding information -evil laugh- but that'll all get cleared up in the next chapter (I hope!). Thanks so much for reviewing, hope you liked this one, too!

fyd818: Mm, yeah when I picture Kell he's like a lion ready to pounce, I tried to get that into that scene as much as I could (he's a bit like Kolya, I think, quiet and dangerous). I'm really sorry this took so long to update, and I promise I'll get the next one up sooner (it's the trial, yay!). Thank you yet again for letting me play in your sandbox, this AU is definitely my favorite one ever! -hugs-