The Doctor was at a loss as to what was wrong with the TARDIS. Of all the times that it had acted up he knew exactly what the reason was but this time he had no idea, which was strange in itself. Walking over to a section of the floor he got down on his knees, pulled off the grate, and hopped down to see if anything had broken.

"What's wrong?" Martha asked as she peered down to see the Doctor tinkering around. The moment he had said that the TARDIS had stalled out, Jack was off without a word as to where he was going and while Max looked calm Martha could tell that she was anxious about something.

"Not quite sure." The Doctor called out, looking for anything out of the ordinary. But aside from the sparks that showered down every so often, everything looked fine and that confused him even more; if there was nothing wrong then they should have been on a sunny beach right now.

Pulling himself out onto the floor, he took the hand that Martha offered and stood while saying, "We'd better go out and explain ourselves."

"What?" Max asked, feeling like the universe was conspiring against her. "Isn't there another option?"

"Doesn't look like it. I have no idea how long we could be stuck here, so we might as well get to know the locals."

Max watched Martha and the Doctor walk towards the door and disappear through it. Sighing, she sat down heavily on the stairs and lowered her head into her hands. Things had gone from slightly messed up to completely, royally, screwed up.

"What's with the long face?"

Max looked up to see Jack sit down next to her. "Where'd you go?"

"Figured that you might need this." Jack replied, pulling a hand out of his pocket and opening it to reveal a necklace.

"A piece of jewelry." Max said slowly, staring at the item in question; it was a small pendant held by a thin gold chain with a simple clasp. "Sorry, but I have all the necklaces that I need."

"It's not just a pendant, put it on." Jack urged as he unclasped it and held it towards Max.

She looked at it a few seconds and then took it, putting it on. After hooking the clasp she felt a slight tingle but it disappeared as fast as it had appeared. Not feeling any different she stood and looked at Jack. Noting his surprised expression, she immediately worried that something was wrong. Fumbling with the clasp she asked, "What is this thing?"

Jack blinked rapidly trying to form words but nothing was coming to mind. It had taken a few minutes of searching but he had found the "chamelace" that Rose had discovered before the game station right where she had left it. Knowing that if they were going to be stuck on Atlantis for a while, Max needed to leave the ship without Lorne seeing her before he was supposed to.

That's where the necklace that wasn't really a necklace came in. The Doctor had explained it in layman's terms; whoever wore the necklace could become someone entirely different with no one, except the person wearing it and anyone who saw them change, the wiser.

He snapped out it when Max started to take it off. "Wait," he said, jumping up and moving towards her. "if you want to leave the ship you need to keep it on."

Max paused and saw that Jack was serious. "Then tell me why you were suddenly at a loss for words."

Jack smiled and ran a hand through his hair, "I've seen Rose and Doctor put it on a few times and it never fails to surprise me. That'll keep Lorne from seeing you before you get here. The first time that is."

"Really?"

Jack nodded his head, "Yup." He was still trying to get used to the fact that instead of a middle-aged housewife with brown hair there was a twenty-something blond standing in front of him. If he didn't know that she was very married to Evan then Jack would've suggested they catch up with everyone else at a much later time.

"Huh." Max said, wondering what she looked like. Pulling a mirror out of her purse she caught a flash of blond hair as the door creaked open. Both her and Jack turned towards it and saw the Doctor stick his head inside.

"Will you two stop playing with the chameleon necklace and come out. They've agreed to help us." He said and then closed the door without waiting for a response.

Max paused, wondering how he had seen through the ruse but didn't have time to dwell on it as Jack took her hand and pulled her towards the door. As she stepped outside her heart started to pound and it was all she could do not to go running back into the TARDIS.

Martha raised an eyebrow when Jack emerged out of the ship with a blond and opened her mouth to ask who the stranger was when Jack came up to her and hissed, "I'll explain later. Right now just play along with it."

Martha cast one last glance towards the stranger and nodded her head.

As they walked towards the Control Tower Max maneuvered herself so that she ended up next to the Doctor. "How'd you know I was wearing the necklace?" she asked in a low tone while making sure that no one else could hear her.

"After you've worn it, you can see through it." He replied in an equally low tone. "I take it that you don't want everyone to know who you are."

"You could say that." Max deflected the comment while wondering how much she should tell him. She knew that eventually she'd have to tell everything but right now she wanted to stay in the background as much as possible. "How'd you get them to help us?"

"Flashed the psychic paper. They think that we're part of the SGC, whatever that is. Not sure what part we play in that, but I'll make it up as we go along."

Max allowed her lips to twitch in a tight smile, "That seems to be the general plan with you."

"And when has that ever let me down?" the Doctor asked as they climbed the stairs and entered the briefing room where Elizabeth was waiting.

Weir stood as they all walked in, "I'm Doctor Elizabeth Weir and this is Doctor Rodney McKay. You've already met Colonel Sheppard."

"...Piper Halliwell." Max spoke up and while ignoring the looks that Jack and everyone were giving her continued, "This is Captain Jack Harkness, Doctor Martha Jones, and the Doctor."

"Doctor Who?"

"Just the Doctor." The Time Lord replied while Max and the others just sighed. He knew how they felt; just once he wished that they would come up with something original.

Elizabeth was confused but didn't press further, "Please have a seat." Once everyone was seated she continued, "I'm sorry for the misunderstanding earlier. If you had just told us who you were we could have avoided it."

"No need for apologies." The Doctor said, looking at Elizabeth and giving her a slight smile. "We were in the area and decided to make sure that the proper protocols were being followed."

Elizabeth returned the Doctor's gaze and couldn't shake the feeling that there was something a bit off about the statement. After power had been restored and the cloak raised once more John had radioed her that the people they had earlier imprisoned were in fact part of the SGC and needed assistance.

Now she needed to decide if it was true.

"It's strange, I've never heard of your team until now." She remarked, looking at the rest of the team. "Why is that?"

"We like to operate outside of 'normal' channels."

"So you're Trust then?" Elizabeth asked innocently enough. Here was the test; if they really were with the SGC then they would deny the statement up and down and if not...then they would have to find out who they really were.

The Doctor looked into Elizabeth's eyes trying to figure out what the question meant. He had no idea who the Trust were, let alone what they did. And every second he hesitated made them look questionable. "Actually we-"

"aren't." Max broke in cutting the Doctor off. She knew that if he answered wrong then Elizabeth wouldn't hesitate to throw them back in the brig and when the Doctor had started to answer knew that they couldn't take the risk and had to step in. "We are part of the SGC but only those who need to know about us do. We're currently off-grid at the moment so we would appreciate it if in the weekly data burst you didn't mention us to General Landry."

Martha, Jack, and the Doctor looked at Max when she suddenly jumped in; slightly surprised at the action. It's not that the Doctor didn't mind, especially since he had been about to answer wrong, but it made him wonder even more where they were exactly where since she seemed to know all about the SGC and Trust.

"Can I ask what the mission you're on entails being here on Atlantis?" John asked, speaking up for the first time in the meeting.

"Atlantis?" the Doctor asked, the skepticism evident in his voice. "No, can't be."

John raised an eyebrow at the comment and could see that Elizabeth was equally surprised; if they were apart of the SGC then they would've known that this was Atlantis. "You're in the city of Atlantis."

"No I'm not." The Doctor replied with his 'how daft can you be?' look on his face.

"Uh...yeah, you are."

"I'm not. Can't be. I've been to Atlantis before; lovely place, stone archways like you wouldn't believe! Bit of a problem with crabs, but no place is without its faults right?" The Doctor looked around the room, feeling a little smug with himself.

John just looked at the man, not sure what to say. Gazing at the man he wondered if he was slowly losing his mind and a quick glance at Elizabeth and Rodney told him that they were feeling the same way while the rest of the Doctor's team were reacting in a slightly different way.

"You've been to Atlantis?!" Martha asked incredulously, wondering why he hadn't brought it up before. Off and on through out the years he'd told her of the different places he'd been, and when the three of them had been on the run from the Master he'd spoken dreamily of Gallifrey, but never mentioned Atlantis. The Lost City had been stuff of fairy tales and bedtime stories for Martha but now…now she was learning it was all real.

Jack just smiled at Martha's response; considering this was the Doctor they were with it didn't really surprise him that he'd been to Atlantis.

"A lifetime ago; actually seven of them. Right!" he chirped, looking towards Elizabeth and John who still wore confused looks. "Like I said, this can't be it. So where are we?"

"On Atlantis." Max piped up.

"She's right." Elizabeth said, regaining her composure and speaking up. "You are in the Pegasus Galaxy and this is Atlantis. But why are you here? I'm sure Landry would've mentioned that you would be passing though and we could expect you."

"Like I said we're off-grid at the moment." Max said, wondering how they were going to get out of this one. Shooting a glance at the Doctor she continued, "Thought we were somewhere else."

A flash of annoyance passed on the Doctor's face when Elizabeth said that they were actually on Atlantis again but let it pass; there'd be plenty of time to figure out where they actually were. "Quite right," he agreed. "it was an unplanned stop. Our…ship experienced some kind of malfunction and we'd appreciate all the help you could give us."

"We're just finishing repairs from the Wraith attack so we're a little strapped for resources at the moment-" Elizabeth began to say but the Doctor interrupted her.

"That's fine; all I need are a few power sources and an extra pair of hands."

"Why the extra hands when you've got your team?" John asked.

"They're not really mechanics, the ship's a bit advanced for them-" The Doctor was cut off as Martha cleared her throat in annoyance and Max frowned while Jack pretended to be hurt. But he ignored them and continued, "they fill more of an advisory capacity."

Max heard footsteps from outside and shifted so she could see without it appearing that she was actually looking. It was Evan with three others that she didn't recognize. Feeling her heart rate increasing she struggled to appear like everything was alright. She knew that since it looked like they were going to be stuck here for awhile she would be running into him but hadn't thought past wearing the necklace Jack had given her the entire time.

"-I can arrange quarters for you if you'd like." Elizabeth said pulling Max out of her thoughts.

"Thank you but we have our own." The Doctor declined as he stood.

"How do you all fit in that small box?" Rodney asked as everyone started leaving the room.

"It's bigger on the inside." Jack replied, flashing the Canadian a smile and a wink. Rodney looked mildly uncomfortable while John looked slightly amused.

"While you're here Major Lorne and his team will be escorting you around." John nodding to the side where the team was standing.

"For your safety of course." Elizabeth hastily added while knowing it was so another incident didn't happen. She still didn't completely trust the Doctor and his team, there was something they were hiding and she didn't know if their arrival was good or bad.

"Of course." The Doctor agreed. "Wouldn't want us to get lost."

As they walked back towards the storage room, Lorne couldn't help but wonder who the four people who had suddenly appeared were. One second he and Lawrence had heard noise coming from the room where the strange box suddenly showed up and then the next he was waking up with a pounding head and Carson checking to see if he was alright.

Turns out that the box belonged to some special ops group that worked for the SGC, he wanted to know what they did 'cause he had been with the Program for a number of years and had never heard any rumors of a special ops group and he's sure that he would've seen them around the Complex at least once but that wasn't the case.

Jack walked up to Evan but remained silent. He realized that this was how the Colonel (or as he was now, Major) met him but was still left wondering how the hell they were supposed to get back with the TARDIS not working. Also the Evan in Cardiff knew that Jack could die, but he'd only done it once before all this and even then Lorne hadn't batted an eyelash despite the fact that Jack hadn't told Lorne beforehand. "There are always more questions than answers when you're with the Doctor." He thought to himself, smirking slightly.

"Something funny?" Evan asked Jack drawing the man out of his thoughts.

"Just thinking how nothing is as simple as it seems. Captain Jack Harkness." Jack replied with a smile.

"Major Evan Lorne."

"Sorry about earlier, we had to move fast and didn't want to waste time with all the diplomatic stuff."

"That's all right; it's been at least a week since I was last knocked out. Had to happen sooner or later." Evan replied with a rueful smile. By this time they had reached the storage room and the two groups made their way towards the TARDIS, stopping at the door. "If you need anything don't hesitate to ask; we'll be right outside." Evan said nodding towards the exit.

"Thanks." Jack said, nodding his head. As he turned around to step inside the TARDIS Jack felt Max shoot him a look of thunder. "What?" he asked, opening the door so she could step inside.

"Stop flirting with my husband." Max replied, giving him another look.

"I wasn't flirting, I was just simply introducing myself."

"You were flirting." Martha called out from her spot behind the control panel.

"No I wasn't. Why does everything think that I flirt with everyone I meet?"

"Because you do." Max replied with a teasing smile.

Max struggled, trying to free herself, as they forced her up the stone steps but the men had a strong grip on her arms. The drumbeats sounded deep within her stomach and she could hear the roar of the crowd as their leader finished speaking. Twisting around she called out for the Doctor, he was somewhere in the crowd; she knew it, but he was lost in the sea of faces. Max continued to struggle as they reached the top and the men stopped, turning her around to face the crowd.

Briefly her vision swam and Max felt sick to her stomach. But it cleared and she was left with a pounding heart and the realization that she was going to die.

Max sat up with a gasp and it took a few minutes for her to realize that it had just been a dream. Heart still pounding she pushed back the covers back while swinging her feet out from under them. Sitting on the edge for a moment, Max wondered why she was suddenly having that nightmare again; it had been years since she last had it. "Maybe it's because I'm with him again," she thought as she got up and pulled on her clothes. "back on the TARDIS; familiar surroundings and all that stuff."

Knowing that everyone was asleep, she quietly made her way to the engine room and moved around almost silently so she wouldn't wake anyone. Walking she silently walked around the panel, gently brushing her hand on the smooth surface taking care not to touch anything.

"What are you still doing up?"

Max turned around, hand still on the panel, to see the Doctor standing in the doorway with an amused look on his face. "I could ask you the same." She replied as he walked fully in and joined her at the panel.

"So who's the lucky guy?" He asked after a few moments of silence.

Max raised an eyebrow, wondering what he was talking about but then realized what he meant. "How'd you know?"

The Doctor raised his hand while wiggling his ring finger, "That and Jack told me."

Max shook her head while smiling and filing a reminder in her head to ask Jack about what the Doctor had exactly wondered about her, "Name's Evan."

"Any kids?"

"Five. How many Companions have you had since me?"

"Three, well four." he replied, pretending not to notice how she abruptly changed the topic. "The first one made it halfway through her second trip before wanting out."

Max laughed at the image of someone refusing to go any further with him. "Well it takes a special kind of person to travel with you."

They were silent for a minute, both not wanting to touch the subject of their last trip together but knew that they'd have to eventually. "Noticed that you seem to know your way around but I don't recall ever taking you here."

The smile faded from Max's face as she frostily replied, "Just because I stopped traveling with you didn't mean that I had to stop having adventures."

The Doctor was intrigued, from the last time he had seen her he had assumed that Max would want to settle down, "What kind of adventures?"

"I'll show you." Max said, grabbing the Doctor's hand and pulling him towards the door. Opening the door she stepped outside while being slightly surprised at not seeing Evan or someone else standing guard. "Doctor Wier must have thought that we wouldn't be going anywhere." she thought to herself as she led the Doctor down the familar hallways. It had been years since she had visited the Hologram Room but knew that it was the best way to show him that they really were on Atlantis.

Walking in the room, Max realized that the trip had been in vain because since she didn't have the Gene so the program wouldn't activate for her.

"What's this?" The Doctor asked as he walked over to the control podium. As he moved towards it, the podium sprang to life and started to glow.

"Uh...it's a hologram projector." she said, trying to comprehend why it had suddenly sprung to life because last time she had checked the Ancients weren't Time Lords (or from Gallifrey for that matter). Smiling she moved closer towards the Doctor and pressed a few crystals until the "welcome" message was playing.

The Doctor watch Max work and saw that she was wearing that smile that said she had something hidden up her sleeve. A women with brown hair and dressed in a white gown suddenly appeared and started talking. As she did the Doctor realized that she looked familiar but couldn't place the name with the face.

"…in the hope of spreading new life in a galaxy where there appeared to be none. Soon the new life grew, prospered. Here…"

Then he suddenly made the connection. Slowly walking towards the hologram he stopped just short of it and looked at the image in the face. "Chara…" he whispered, finally realizing that he was on Atlantis.