Chapter 10: Shooting stars
He was spinning around dizzily like a rotating top spun out of control. If he wasn't a pilot used to weightlessness and g-forces, he would have thrown up a long time ago. Suddenly he felt his body slamming viciously against the hard bark of a tree trunk. Pain exploded everywhere and he literally saw stars as his body fell limply to the ground. The black cloud now floated high above the sky, a Darkness amidst the darkened sky. Further away, he caught sight of Rodney clutching his broken ankle and looking at him with wide-eyed terror on his features.
As he lay gasping, trying to catch his breath, he thought he heard Rodney yell his name; the scientist was trying to drag himself towards him. "Hang on! Sheppard! I'm coming!"
Damn it, Rodney! Stay away! he wanted to cry out, but he was hurting too much to even say a word. He wondered how much more he could take of this. Long streams of black smoke once again reached out towards him, lifting his fallen body from the needle-golden pine forest floor high above the ground. He knew then that it was toying with him, punishing him for his earlier defiance before it moved in for the kill. At its touch, he felt his blood burning, boiling deep within himself. It felt as if he was being burned alive from inside out. From far below, he heard Rodney gasp, "Sheppard! What can I do?!"
I don't know Rodney! I don't friggin' know!! he wanted to yell back, but the Darkness was closing its hold around him, engulfing him, squeezing the life out of him, suffocating him. Then, pain as he had never experienced before struck him. His head swung back and he screamed, writhing in agony. Survival instinct took over and his hands reached out, grabbing, calling, commanding all the silver-blue sparks of lights which he knew was floating all around him (even though he couldn't see them in the Darkness) towards him.
At first, he felt them resisting him; it almost seemed as if the tiny dancing sparks, the ones that looked like lighted fireflies, had ceased to exist in the unnaturally darkened land caused by the eclipse. But he refused to give up, persevering, calling them towards him; he would not take no for an answer. It took a while but like a dam bursting its banks, all the small shimmers of light suddenly appeared out at his command, racing towards him, entering him, filling him with electrical current until he found himself glowing brightly a silver-bluish-golden aura. His eye sight heightened, he could see more auras all around him, every single sparkle of molecule – it almost felt as if he was now seeing a different world, another dimension, and he wondered about it. The tiny lights felt strange, alive, energised as they entered him. He didn't know what they did to him, all he knew was that they intermixed with whatever had been injected within him and that he would be able to use them to defeat the Darkness.
He called more towards him, and even more still for he somehow knew that what he had was not enough. Soon, he felt as if his entire body was electrically charged, burning bright, almost too bright. If he took anymore of the tiny blue flying lights he wondered whether he would be destroyed.
-oOo-
"Sheppard! What are you doing?!" Rodney shouted urgently as he stared at John, partially covering his eyes from the intense glare that the pilot was emanating. John Sheppard's floating form was now glowing as bright as a mini sun and it was almost impossible to look at him without hurting his eyes. Concern and worry vibrated in his voice, but Rodney no longer cared whether Sheppard heard it or not.
He knew that Sheppard was doing something dangerous, something that would likely place the colonel's life in danger. Knowing Sheppard as well as he did, the pilot always did, especially if he thought that his actions would save lives – and Rodney knew that John would try to protect them from the Darkness that Sheppard spoke of. Only the pilot seemed able to seem it, but Rodney no longer doubted that the threat was very real and that Sheppard now battled a battle that could cause his life. He saw Sheppard look his way, the tightness in the colonel's features betraying the pain that he was in; his unnatural blue eyes shinning ever so brightly now, almost alien in nature. He suddenly felt afraid for Sheppard.
-oOo-
John turned his gaze away from Rodney knowing that the scientist could not do anything to help him. This battle was his alone. His entire being was buzzing with energy as if on overdrive, yet, he instinctively knew that it wasn't enough to fight the Darkness. He had to risk more and refusing to think about the consequences of the damage he was doing to himself, he called still more of the lighted fireflies towards him. He could not stop what he had begun for he knew that to do so, he would be risking the Darkness going back into Teyla and Ronon. If he were not here, he suspected that the Darkness would have gone for them instead, taken all those who were marked with the rashes. He sensed that if the Darkness took Teyla and Ronon again, this time they would not survive. He knew that he had to destroy the Darkness once and for all while he was now enclosed by the Darkness itself. He could feel the Darkness slowly killing him; he could feel himself slowly dying as he called more of the dancing lights into him.
He was burning up and still he called more of the sparkled lights into him. Not enough! Not enough! I need more! He did not know how he knew that, he just did. It was getting more difficult to retain coherent thought now. If he did not release the lights soon, they would soon destroy him like an exploding star or a falling comet. But he knew that he had to risk it, he knew that he had to use all his resources; it was a fight to the death. The light within him was building up to a crescendo, to a point that was blinding. Pain! Oh God, the pain! He felt as if he was about to lose his mind. Nothing but pain and agony surrounded him. He was losing his tentative hold onto sanity, what he was meant to do, what he was fighting for; he was becoming lost in the world of a thousand silver-blue energised lights and to the Darkness that was draining the life out of him. The silver-blue lights sang at him, danced around him, inside him, outside him, all around him, lulling him to remain with them forever, to take more of them inside him. To burn as bright as a flaming comet: to sing their song of mystical wonders; to be one with them.
No, I cannot! he told them, shaking his head, knowing that where they wanted him to go, he could never return – for their world was not his world. These lights were like sentient beings, he could not understand them until now, and they were there to help him fight the Darkness for there was something within him that was different – there was something within him that made him the Chosen One.
Why? Why? Why? Why? They asked in disappointment; a sing-song chorus of voices calling out in unison; they wanted him to stay, they wanted him to be one with them, they wanted him never to leave them. They did not understand that if he stayed, it would mean that he would not be able to return to home, back to his friends, to Atlantis, to where he belonged. He knew that if he stayed, he would not be the same again.
For a moment, he wondered whether they were truly speaking to him or whether they were the by-products of a fevered mind. Doubts began to form. He did not know anymore. With his last grip of sanity, he knew that he had to release the lights now before they burned him up to the point of no return, before they changed him forever. With a yell, he suddenly struck out at the Darkness, shooting all the silver-blue lights he had collected deep within him out into the heart of the Darkness – an explosion in the darkened sky; aiming them like silver-blue and now gold arrowheads into the Darkness. Eagerly, the lights did his bidding; they went towards where he directed them; stronger than ever after his merge with them.
The black entity of Darkness raged out as it saw what he had done. Yet more lights shot out from him like shooting stars or thunderous lightning, causing potted holes of light beams to slash into a jet black cloud, wounding it. Then the Darkness began shriek in pain; braying like a thousand wolves shot by arrow shafts and he felt the black cloud tremble all around him. For a few heart beats, he hung in the air. Then with a shriek of pain and howling terror, the Darkness shattered, exploding into a shimmer of stars and he felt himself dropping, falling – slamming into the ground hard this time; knocking the wind and the breath out of him; cracking things that were not meant to be cracked.
Pain exploded inside and outside him. Darkness swamp before his eyes but a different kind of darkness now, a familiar kind of darkness, one that he had experienced before, not the type of darkness from the malevolent being that was trying to kill him. There was nothing for him to hold on to now. He stared at the sky, seeing it getting brighter as the sun revealed its face again, bringing light back to the world of darkness; the eclipse was over. However, soon, even the sight of the sky above faded and he felt himself slipping, fading away into nothingness.
He had emptied himself out of the dancing silver-blue lights, shooting them into the Darkness and it seemed when he had released them, they had taken a part of him with them.
As if from far, far away, he heard familiar, anxious, caring voices calling his name with the sound of panic especially in one of them. Rodney? He recognised the scientist's tone by the various threats that the other was raining down on him at the moment. Something about being a damn fool for risking his life again; that he had better be all right or he would have to suffer through cold showers for a month. He wanted to smile, to reassure his friend, but he had no strength left in him. He felt someone lifting his head, pillowing it against something soft; he felt a gentle hand on him; smaller, familiar, caressing his hair away from his sightless eyes. Teyla? he wanted to ask, to call out and speak her name, feeling glad and relieved to know that she was back to herself once again and conscious. His eyes were open, but he could not see anything anymore. All was dark shapes and darkness now. Death called to him. A rough, low voice spoke; he recognised the sound of Ronon's voice, even if the words were no longer recognisable. They were with him; his team was with him again. He had done his part; they were alive; the Darkness was gone. He could rest now. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to slip away…
TBC
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