Manah – Thanks for the review. I'm glad you like my stories so much. DanJan are one of my fave pairings too but Sparky and Spanky are top of my list at the moment. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Steph7085 – I'm glad you liked the RononTeyla scene in the last chapter as well as the final scene, thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Fyd818 – I'm glad you think Rodney is in character and that you liked the scene with Ronon and Marcus yelling at him. I'm love writing the Sparky scenes in this story so I'm happy to hear you like them. The Ronon and Teyla scene in the last chapter was my favourite to write in the last chapter so I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

- - -

Chapter 10

He could make plants grow.

That had to be the most ridiculously stupid and useless power he could possibly have. Ronon could throw fire balls, John tossed round orbs of water, Elizabeth could send grown men flying through the air, no one knew exactly what Teyla could do but they knew she was damn powerful and he… he could make plants grow.

Rodney watched as the small plant in front of him increased in size before he decreased it again. He just had to end up with the crummy power, he couldn't have had any of the cool powers, no, he had to get this. Life was so unfair.

Why did it always have to be him? Why was it the only luck he seemed to have was bad luck? He'd been born on one of the worst planets in the galaxy and as a teenager happened to run into a man carrying some kind of weapon making him drop it which resulted in it breaking. It wasn't his fault the guy hadn't been watching where he was going but he'd been punished for it anyway.

It turned out the guy was working for one of the many gang bosses on Geldar and when the boss had found out what he'd done he'd tried to have him killed. Rodney had managed to plead for his life and make the gang boss believe he was more valuable alive than dead. He'd been forced to work for him for years and that was when he had developed the weapon that had led to the attack a few days ago.

Everyone was still mad at him for that, well the guys were anyway. Elizabeth and Teyla seemed to have forgiven him which was ironic considering Elizabeth was the only one hurt by his lies. Marcus had made him fix everything on the ship and then declared him to be the ship's engineer. Ronon scowled at him every time they were in the same room and John was just completely ignoring him which was probably the worst of them all, at least Marcus and Ronon acknowledged he was alive but as far as John seemed to be concerned Rodney didn't exist.

He knew he probably should have told them the truth but how was he supposed to know Tobias would find him way out here? Sure the man was one of the wealthiest gang bosses on Geldar and had pretty close to unlimited resources but that didn't mean anything. How did he even know which ship they were on and where they were, space was big, really big, it should have been almost impossible. Marcus had yelled at him for over an hour with Ronon standing there looking menacing. Apparently he could have blown the whole mission, exposed the location of the Secret Council's secondary base and got all the elementals killed therefore destroying the universe, all because he'd lied, how ridiculous did that seem.

Deciding he'd had enough of watching the plant in front of him get bigger and then smaller and then bigger and then smaller, he stood up and left his bedroom heading for the engine room. Marcus's punishment had turned out to be more of a reward for Rodney, he enjoyed messing around with the engine and the rest of the ships systems. He'd even managed to improve some of them in the last few days and he found the job to be a great outlet for his frustration.

He passed by the spare cargo bay and the noise inside caught his attention. He opened the door to see Ronon and Teyla fighting with each other again, sparring, Teyla had called it. He didn't see the point, they were friends why the hell would they want to beat each other up?

Teyla had tried to explain it to him, told him it was a way to improve your skills and learn new ones from your partner. He still didn't see the point, it seemed like a waste of time and energy but who was he to judge. He left them to it and continued on his way to the engine room. The hum of the engine was much louder in here and the small flashing lights and occasional beeps of the computer systems were a relaxing sound for him. Apparently they drove Marcus crazy but the man had no appreciation for technology anyway. As long as it worked Marcus was happy, if it didn't work he either hit it or sent someone else into fix it.

Rodney headed toward one of the consoles to access the ships sensors, he had a few idea's to make them better and now seemed like as good a time as any to implement them. He might not have an amazing power but his mind more than made up for it. If this was the best way he could help in this mission then that's exactly what he was going to do.

- - -

John threw an orb of water across the room and Elizabeth used her own powers to change its direction, a gust of wind hit it altering its trajectory and making it hit their target. He smiled at their success which they seemed to be having a lot of and turned to look at Elizabeth.

"We're getting good at this," he stated proudly and Elizabeth returned his smile.

"How about we try it with more than one orb?" she questioned and John stared at her curiously for a moment, she really was enjoying this.

"Alright," John agreed before making an orb appear in front of him. He then split the large orb into three smaller ones and sent them in different directions. This time though he decided to give both himself and Elizabeth an extra challenge. He attempted to control the movement of all three orbs, they flew around the room in various different patterns making it harder for Elizabeth to hit them and send them where she wanted them.

The first one impacted the target followed closely by the second and John doubled his efforts on the last orb. Elizabeth missed several times and it took her a few minutes to finally catch it blowing it into the target where it disappeared. She let out a deep breath and smiled triumphantly.

"Wanna take a break?" John asked noticing they were both slightly worn out and she nodded her head before moving over the counter and sitting herself on it. John walked over to join her and started routing through the cupboards to try and decided what he wanted to eat.

"Sandwich?" he asked Elizabeth.

"Sounds good," she replied before he set about the task of making them both something to eat. When he'd finished he handed her one of the perfectly made sandwiches, at least in his opinion and she thanked him before eating it. They ate in silence allowing their bodies to recharge from the drain of using their powers so much.

"Ready to go again?" he asked her once they had both finished and she nodded her head before jumping down from the surface she was sitting on. Unfortunately John had been taking a step toward her at the time and they found themselves only inches apart. She looked up at him apparently having realised their predicament and he saw something in her eyes he was sure was mirrored in his own. He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers the small amount of contact sending sparks of electricity through his body as he captured her lips with his own.

She didn't respond at first and John was about to pull away when she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. He placed one hand at the back of her neck and the other on the small of her back and pressed her against him. He got lost in her, in the taste of her, the feel of her lips beneath his. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't thought about this moment several times over the past few weeks but this was way better than anything he had imagined.

Abruptly she pulled away from him breaking the kiss and trying to take a step back only to realise she was trapped between him and the counter. "I can't do this," she whispered before sliding out from between them and running out of the room.

John sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration, why the hell did he have to kiss her?

- - -

Teyla kicked Ronon hitting him in the chest and sending him crashing to the floor with a thud. They had been sparring together for days and so far he had only managed to beat her once though he was definitely getting better. She was finding it harder to beat him now than the first time they had fought and with the speed he was learning it would not be long before they were on equal footing.

He got up from the floor with a low groan and after ensuring she had not caused any damage she walked over to one of the few crates lying around the room and picked up her bottle of water. He followed her reaching for his own bottle and sitting on the floor.

"Where did you learn to fight?" he asked her as she sat down next to him.

"My father taught me at first, he believed I should be able to defend myself. Then when the Secret Council came for me they took me to their base on Athos to train me. I was kind of their experiment, they wanted to see what would happen if they told us who we were and trained us to use our powers, apparently they didn't like the result," she stated bitterly before going back to the original question "Anyway, when they were teaching me to use my powers they also taught me to fight."

"Did you know, what they were planning to do to you?" he questioned.

"No," she replied "I knew they were becoming afraid of me and that they might do something but I didn't know they would put me to sleep for four years."

"How can you be so ready to work for them after what they did to you?"

"How can you work with John when the two of you have been fighting on opposite sides of a war for years? It is simple, we do not have a choice. The fate of the universe rests in our hands and if we choose to put our own selfish feelings above that then we are dooming everyone else. I am not happy about what they did, nor do I forgive those responsible but I cannot condemn millions of others to death for their mistakes. This journey is a part of who we are and nothing can change that," she explained and Ronon nodded his head slowly. She seemed wise beyond her years and he felt that now perhaps he understood her that little bit better.

"Now do you have more questions or are you still trying to put of my kicking your ass again?" she asked him suddenly and Ronon found himself slightly thrown by the bluntness of her words. In the week that he had known her he had never heard her say anything like that and it shocked him slightly.

Teyla noticed his stunned expression and laughed lightly "You did not think I was always sweet and innocent did you?"

Ronon didn't have a response and it made her laugh again, it was strange how he couldn't seem to take his eyes of her when she was smiling or laughing. He mentally shook himself and recovered enough of his senses to stand up and place his water bottle back on the crate.

"What are we waiting for?" he questioned and Teyla accepted the hand he offered her and allowed him to help her up from the floor before placing her bottle next to his and moving back to the centre of the room.

- - -

Marcus was sitting on the bridge when John came walking in looking rather dejected and he was about to call him on it when the man dropped down in the chair at the weapons console and looked at the floor. When he looked back up again a moment later his face was completely neutral and Marcus wondered briefly if the sad expression had been there at all.

"Anything going on up here?" John asked in a tone of voice that told Marcus the man needed something to do, something to distract him from whatever was bothering him.

"Not really, but you can always go and help Rodney in the engine room if you're bored," Marcus stated humorously and John stared at him incredulously for a moment before narrowing his eyes slightly.

"I think I'll stick with boredom, beside have you seen how possessive McKay's become of that engine room. I'll get my head bit off if I try to go in there and touch anything and I could quite happily do without him rambling on at me today," he replied and Marcus shrugged.

"Don't say I didn't offer," he said and John was about to respond when the sensor console beeped. John stood up and walked over to it sitting down in the seat as he studied the sensor readings the computer was displaying.

"There's a fleet of Genii ships heading this way," John announced in alarm making Marcus's head snap around in his direction. "According to this they'll be here in fifteen minutes, I didn't think the sensors could see that far whilst we're in hyperspace," John mused though that really shouldn't have been at the forefront of his mind at that moment.

"They couldn't, Rodney made some improvements," Marcus informed him as he moved to get a look at the sensor readings. "We're not going to be able to outrun them," he stated and stood up straight as he tried to figure out what they were going to do. There was no telling what the Genii would do if they got their hands on the elementals but there was nothing they could do.

"Well?" John questioned impatiently.

"I'm thinking!" Marcus exclaimed "Get the others," he instructed and John went to do as he was told as Marcus sat down and pulled up the ships files. He deleted everything that had anything to do with the SC including the logs of any transmissions and the information on the location of their secondary base where they'd picked up Teyla. He then pulled up the file on the weapons location memorising as much of the information as possible before he purged that from the system too.

John came back into the room with Carson and the other elementals in tow all of them looking curious and worried at the same time, no doubt John had told them what was going on. Marcus glanced back at the sensors, they only had a few minutes now and there was nothing they could do but wait. "They're going to catch us," he stated, "there's nothing we can do about it. We'll just have to find a way to escape. I've deleted all the information from the ships computer and I'm sure they'll try to get it out of us but we just have to hold out until we can get away."

Everyone in the room nodded their heads in agreement except for Rodney who just stood there looking scared. "When you say try to get it out of us do you mean torture, as in hurt and beat us until we tell them what they want?"

"More than likely," Marcus told him calmly.

"Okay, just checking," he replied his voice slightly higher than normal.

"None of you do anything to get yourselves killed, I'm guessing the Genii want you alive but if you provoke them they may just kill you anyway and if you die, everyone else in the universe dies too," he instructed the elementals.

"I suppose that makes us expendable," Carson replied lightly which slightly eased the tension in the room.

"Maybe, but I'd prefer it if we didn't die either," Marcus replied with a small smile before his face became serious again "We'll get out of this," he stated confidently and the beep of the console behind him told him the Genii fleet had arrived.

TBC