Hello again! I'm hoping that you all haven't given up on this story, I had a few commissions to work on and hadn't a minute to write! But, chapter 11 is up now and like I said before, I am upping the pace. Hope you like it and please leave me a comment to let me know as I enjoy reading your reactions :D Thanks for your continuing support!


Once the team had been debriefed and their reports of the incident handed in, Woolsey made the decision to place a temporary ban on travel to Muo, a decision that was met by anger and fierce opposition by many on the base, especially by John and his team. But Richard Woolsey was a somewhat stubborn man, and stood his ground, refusing to change his mind on the matter.

"I have a duty to care for and protect the people on this base and I would have hoped that you of all people would understand, Colonel," Woolsey said heatedly after John and made his thoughts on the decision perfectly clear.

"I understand your position yes, but you're talking about leaving our friends in a time of need!"

"Yes. Well, if your reports on the matter are anything to go by, your presence on Muo will not be of much help anyway. As you have all detailed quite clearly in your reports, highly trained, powerful Muoan's were killed outright, and I fail to see how you would fare any better against the same threat. On the other hand, your request to spend time searching the database in order to help the Muoan's, I can agree to. The other teams can take up your workload for one week, I can not grant you longer than that. If you find any thing that you think might be of help to our friends, then you may contact Bann, but until this threat is taken care of, no one will be departing for Muo."

They had decided to take turns in scouring the database, splitting into pairs that worked opposing shifts, briefly meeting at lunchtime to share any information they might have found. By the fourth day, the four of them were becoming disheartened as their searching was proving useless. The database held many accounts of interactions with hundreds of species, but there did not seem to be any information regarding the Nenec or T'ny'K.

"It's as if they never entered the information or wiped it from the database entirely. There isn't even one mention of Nenec anywhere that I've searched." Rodney mentioned as they finished their lunch. "And that is not like the Ancients as they appeared to have left very meticulous notes and information on just about every other species they ever met with, except the one we are searching for."

"Perhaps they didn't want to be reminded of their actions." Murmured Ronon as he wiped his mouth clean with is hand.

"Perhaps." Teyla said as she placed her cutlery on her now empty plate. "I have no doubt that mass extinction orders would be something that they might want to forget."

"Maybe we will turn something up soon. Anyway, it's our shift now, so you guys go relax, we'll let you know if we find anything." John said as he stood to leave the table. "We better get started, we've only a few days left." He said to Rodney who quickly forked the remainder of his lunch into his mouth then went to follow to John, but not before getting his flask filled with fresh, hot coffee.

After about two hours of searching the database, John was already bored and tired. Sighing, he rubbed his strained eyes, becoming more disappointed the longer his fruitless search went on. Still, this kind of research wasn't exactly his forte and there were many files that he had skimmed over or passed to Rodney due to the excessive amount of ancient text that he barely understood. He took a five minute break to stretched out his stiff body, taking a wander around the room while Rodney continued to stare at his screen.

With regards to Rodney, John mused over the fact that he and the others had been surprised to find that the scientist continued to function much better than they had anticipated. They had been worried that perhaps the incident might have set him back a little, might have made him withdraw like he had done so many times before, but he appeared to be handling it all very well. A little too well, John thought. The fact that Rodney had only really spoken about the incident during his debriefing was a little concerning to John, but rather than confront him about it, he simply kept an eye on him. Watching him now, he seemed perfectly normal as he sat in front of the computer, but John was sure that at some point, the aftermath of what Rodney had seen would hit and he intended, as always, to be there when it did.

"Can you not do that please, you know how much that gets on my nerves." Rodney said without taking his eyes from his screen.

He was referring to the one thing John was doing that annoyed the man no end; scuffing his feet as he wandered around the room. The noise irritated Rodney when he was trying to concentrate, as he had pointed out so many times in the past few days, but John couldn't help it, it was fun to wind Rodney up. But he knew he really should get back to searching, so sat back down and started reading where he had left off. Rodney poured himself another coffee from his flask and drained the mug without stopping for breath.

"Any joy?" John asked as he raked his fingers through is unruly hair, knowing what the answer would undoubtedly be.

"Nope. You?"

"Not really, there doesn't even seem to be any reference to the destruction of T'ny'k. I find that more strange than anything. They destroyed a planet yet never made a record of it, anywhere, or any mention of the species they annihilated."

"Come on, this is the ancients we are talking about, nothing makes sense with them." Rodney replied.

John nodded in agreement as he opened a new file containing yet more ancient script.

"This is useless." He muttered as he yawned and scratched at the rough unshaven hair on his chin. Deciding to look at one more file, he opened the next on the list and tried to understand what it said.

"This one looks interesting. Blue...flammable...beats?" He said, trying to decipher the ancient he was reading by speaking the words out loud. "Blue...flaming...breasts?"

"Wait..." It was clear by the tone in his voice that Rodney thought he had found something, "Send that one to me."

"Well? What is it?" He asked when it appeared that Rodney had no desire to be forthcoming on the contents of the file. The scientist's index finger moved across the screen without touching it as he mumbled what he was reading much to John's annoyance.

"Rodney?"

"It's a classified, password protected file. It is named Blue Flame Beast, give me a second to break into it."

Rodney's fingers deftly moved over the keyboard with practiced ease, attempting to break into the file. John took another wander around the room, knowing better than to scuff his feet this time or interrupt Rodney lest he dive into a rant regarding being interrupted. As he was on his second lap of the room, Rodney let out a little triumphant yip and John knew he had succeeded in breaking into the file. He waited on the excited babble of information that usually followed Rodney's successful discovery of something, but was puzzled when it didn't come. Instead, Rodney silently viewed the screen, his eyes widening as he read, while the colour drained from his face.

"Oh God..." He whispered.

Nothing ever good followed that statement. John knew that from experience, lots and lots of experience, so he wandered back to wait on Rodney elaborating on what he had found. The man continued to stare at the screen, his eyes moving quickly as they read what the file contained and John began to feel more unsettled the larger Rodney's eyes became.

"Oh God..." he repeated, his mouth now hanging wide in a look of shock.

"Care to let me in on the secret?" John finally said when it was clear that Rodney was so immersed in what he was reading that there was no hope of him willingly telling John what he had found.

"Those...bastards." Was the reply he received, leaving John even more exasperated.

"Rodney, seriously? What is it?!"

"It's what we've been looking for. It doesn't say anything about Nenec or T'yn'k but I am sure this is what we've been searching for." Rodney finally took his eyes from the screen and when he looked at John, his expression was one of fear.

"Well what does it say?"

"It clearly tells the entire story of their encounter with the Nenec, from start to bloody end. How they fought against them, why they felt they needed to be stopped. It even has the signed order for the destruction of T'yn'k, though the name of the planet is designated by a number."

"None of this is anything we don't already know." John said, wondering why Rodney seemed to be so scared of what he was reading.

"It doesn't end with the destruction of the planet though." Rodney said as he turned back to the screen, highlighting a small area of text by circling his finger around it. "This tells of something else they did."

He noted the way Rodney's hand trembled, knowing that it had nothing to do with blood sugar as he had seen him eat a mountain of food at lunchtime. Whatever Rodney was reading had him scared, yet John had no idea why it should. He dragged his chair over to sit beside Rodney, wanting to know every detail of what the man was reading.

"So what does it say?"

Rodney opened his mouth to speak but hesitated, tearing his eyes from the screen to look at John with an intense gaze.

"Before I tell you what it says, I need to tell you something else."

He didn't like the sound of that. If Rodney had something to tell him, it could only mean one thing; the situation was much worse than he had first believed it to be. As Rodney flicked his hands nervously while staring at the floor, John tried to imagine what was worse than a Nenec on the loose, coming up with the horrible idea that there was more than one, perhaps many on the loose. Rodney heaved a deep sigh then looked back to John again.

"I've...I've been having these dreams..." He started.

"Okay..." John replied, wondering what the hell this had to do with the matter at hand.

"At least, I thought they were dreams, but now I am sure they are not."

"I don't understand."

"These dreams, seemed more like memories, like someone else's memories, not like dreams at all. Now that we've found this file, I am sure that the dreams are connected to what is in it." John simply stared at him, perplexed. "In the dreams, I am on another planet, with other creatures and the planet gets destroyed. In the dreams, I am the one remembering, not watching it happen but actually remembering what happened. John, I think I saw the destruction of T'yn'K in my dreams and now I know why."

John stared at him incredulously. "Are you seriously saying you've been dreaming about the Nenec? Come on Rodney, you have been through a terrible ordeal, it's not surprising that you have dreamed about it! But that doesn't mean this is related to what happened on Muo with the exception of your mind elaborating on what you experienced, supplemented by what information we have since heard!"

"No John, I've been experiencing this since before what happened on Muo. I...I've been experiencing it since the incident with the Ascension machine."

"Are you telling me that something has been wrong with you and you haven't said anything about it?!" John spat angrily. "Rodney, what the hell?!"

"I didn't want to be taken off the team again!"

"Taken off the..." John rubbed his hand through is hair and tugged at it as he growled loudly. "Godamnit McKay, fuck the team! Think about yourself!" Then it dawned on him what Rodney was trying to say. "Wait, are you saying that you have been dreaming about the Nenec since before you first heard of them?"

Rodney didn't reply at first, clearly torn between saying nothing or betraying himself by owning up to the fact he had suffered side effects from the Ascension machine. When he eventually nodded, John let out an infuriated cry and jumped to his feet. He quickly paced the room back and forth as his mind absorbed what Rodney was telling him, but soon his anger deflated and he return to the chair and threw himself into it.

"Okay, tell me one thing. Why do you think there is a connection between your dreams and what you just found?"

"I know they are connected because the file contains all the information that I have dreamed about. It details the ancients attack on the planet and while it is written from the point of view of the ancient who wrote it, I have seen it from the point of view of a Nenec who was there when it happened."

"This...I...how?!"

Rodney raised his hand and again circled the same square of text he had earlier.

"This here, tells of their capturing of a Nenec family, and their ultimate demise."

"So?"

"So I know for a fact that the family in question was called S'unnu't because I have somehow been privy to the memories of their capture in a forcefield of blue flames, and their disposal at the hands of the Ancients."

John cocked his head as something occurred to him. "A blue flame forcefield?" He asked as something dawned on him.

Rodney nodded. "They captured the family in the forcefield, and brought them aboard a ship. They disposed of the parents by blasting them out into space, but they disposed of their child, by bringing him to Atlantis, where they physically broke him down while extracting his DNA. They effectively, slowly disintegrated him while alive and uploaded his entire genome map into the database in order to study his species so they could eradicate the survivors easier."

"But that's good! It should tell us their findings and how to deal with the Nenenc on Muo! But wait, how did they do this?" He asked warily, already sure that he already knew the answer as something clicked in his mind.

"Did you know that Nenec had a natural healing ability, evolved because the planet they lived on was so volatile? And did you know that they have a natural forcefield that surrounds their bodies, to protect them from the extremes of their planet?"

"Rodney..." Dread filled him, he at once did and didn't want to hear what else Rodney was going to tell him.

"The ascension machine was not simply used as a means to ascension. As I said before, it was the basis on which the Sarcophagus was designed. It is a very powerful tool, almost too powerful. It is actually like having a God at your very command, that is how powerful that machine is." A sad smile appeared on his lips, a smile of regret and a sadness John could not quite fathom. "I remember being so damned angry at you that day my legs got fixed, so angry that I hit the keyboard in frustration when you turned away from me. Something popped up on the screen but I was so busy yelling at you that I didn't really read what it said. I vaguely remember the word 'reintegrate' and while I pressed the keyboard to close it, I can only assume that I activated it instead."

John stared at Rodney, realizing that if everything he was saying was true, it meant only one thing.

"I guess that is why you were the only one who survived the Nenec attack then." He said as he continued to stare at the now fidgeting scientist. "I had wondered how the hell you could have survived when all the others were slaughtered. It struck me as odd that the Nenec would kill everyone except you. But then, it isn't exactly going to kill itself, is it?"

Rodney looked as if John had slapped his face, his blue eyes filled with hurt, yet he said nothing as he stared back, allowing his features to speak for him.

"This is crazy. Do you realise what you are admitting?"

Rodney stared into space, saying nothing in reply, his fidgeting ceased and he sat there unmoving.

"Rodney?"

His eyes blinked but John could see he wasn't quite there, still lost in whatever thoughts he had in his mind.

"Rodney, we have to..."

The words caught in his throat as he saw a flash of blue light ignite behind Rodney's eyes. When he blinked and looked towards John, there was a smile on his face. The smile was more of a sneer, a cruel twisting of his mouth that was nothing at all like Rodney McKay. But then John knew instantly that this wasn't his friend before him anymore, owing to the dark expression and the fact his eyes were glowing faintly.

"I really wish you had not found that file, John." The voice was low and menacing and John swallowed hard, knowing that it was the Nenec within Rodney, speaking.

Even though he was scared, his mind still raced with questions as it puzzled him how the Nenec could have used Rodney's body to kill all the Muin. Rodney was unfit, not particularly athletic and certainly not the strongest of people, and yet this insidious mind within him had somehow utilized Rodney's body to become a deadly weapon. He himself had been controlled by the White Death a few years previous, and even she had been unable to change his strength or agility, merely used him as he was for her own gain.

"Blood, ruin and revenge." The man, no, the thing before him said. He could not think of it as Rodney, lest he hesitate in any way and get himself killed.

It fixed him with its glowing stare and as John recoiled, it reached forward and grabbed his arm, pulling him closer. He looked on in horror as the face before him began to change. A rush of blue spread from the hairline to cover his face in what looked like hard, black, leathery skin with turquoise scales dotted throughout it. His eyes opened impossibly wide and changed so that the white sclera overlapped and hid the blue of his irises, turning a dark shade of yellow as his pupil stretched into a slitted hole from which the blue light shone brighter. The structure of his face remained more or less the same, but with the new skin and the fact his hair had receded completely, it looked nothing like the man that had been there moments before. John winced as he heard crackling sounds and given the fact the thing before him was growing, he assumed that what he could hear was its bones and muscles lengthening. Its neck and spine elongated and with the lengthening of its limbs, it wasn't long before it was towering over John. The T-shirt that Rodney had been wearing now failed to cover the stomach, riding up and stretched over the chest and shoulder muscles that bulged through the material. The trousers filled to almost bursting but it didn't grow so large as to destroy the clothing, which made sense as Rodney hadn't been found naked the night Muo was attacked, but when John thought on it, his clothes had been misshapen and slightly torn. But he had assumed that had happened during the skirmish.

John yelled out as he felt the now huge, clawed hand dig it's fingers into his skin and he found he was terrified out of his skull as the beast looked down on him with it's terrible yellow glare. He had just watched his best friend become something awful and even though he had seen it with his own eyes his mind was barely able to believe it. The creature raised a hand before it's face and inspected it, ignoring the man who squirmed to get out of the hold of the other.

"Ahh, I see now. I didn't become full Hell-nen after all. It seems this body has limits." It said with a rough growling voice that sounded nothing like Rodney. "It explains why it took me so long to dismember those filthy beasts. But when I gain full and complete control, you will all know my revenge."

John baulked at the idea that this was not a fully enraged Nenec that stood before him, but what he assumed that a normal one would be, if one could ever be seen as normal. While he twisted his body to get out of its grip, he hit the communicator in his ear and yelled for backup. But before he had even finished speaking, he was hauled, high into the air and thrown across the room with one very easy movement. He hit the wall then landed in a heap against it and barely had time to register pain when the Nenec was on him, grabbing him by the arms to dangle him painfully before it. When he had hit the wall, his communicator had become dislodged from his ear and he cursed the fact he had been unable to finish the call.

"How beings like you ever thought you could destroy my people is a mystery to me. Cowards. Had you fought in normal combat with us it would have been your kind that would have been annihilated. Pathetic, stringy and weak, no wonder you are fuel."

John raised his legs and kicked out at the Nenec's chest, but it simply threw him away as if he was a piece of balled up paper. He smashed into the computer desk on the far side of the room, feeling the equipment dig painfully into his body as he landed on them before sliding over the edge onto the floor, taking the expensive kit with him. He slowly and painfully pulled himself to lean against the wall, clutching at his aching side which he was sure held broken ribs.

Watching as the beast moved so quickly towards him, he almost couldn't trace its movements, but he saw the raised clawed hand and steeled himself for the blow that would surely come. If he had thought that he had been prepared for the blow, he was sorely mistaken as it felt as though the huge hand had almost taken the head from his shoulders and even though he felt his jaw snap, he was mildly surprised to find that he had survived the blow when he hit the floor with a jarring thud. Dragging himself in a futile attempt to get away, he screamed as he felt claws rake deeply down his back and suddenly he was in the air again, held high above the Nenec's head so much so that he was mere centimeters from touching the ceiling. Then he was thrown again, only stopping when he collided with the solid desk across the room, yelling when he felt his shoulder pop out of it's joint. As he lay on the floor gasping, the Nenec slowly made its way towards him, walking on all fours, its head cocked to the side with a huge grin on its ugly face. He saw a shimmer of blue around its body and knew that even if help somehow did arrive soon, the creature would be unstoppable due to that shimmering forcefield.

"You just know too much, but I'm not sorry that I have to do this. I rather relish it in fact." It said, the glow behind its eyes brightening.

His heart was beating so quickly and his breathing was so shallow that he was sure he was about to pass out and how he wished that he could have when that incredibly strong arm pulled back to deliver the killing blow. But to John's relief, the Nenec froze mid swing and snarled.

"No!"

He watched as it appeared to shrink slightly, as if it was pulling in on itself. The blue skin rippled on its face and for a moment it looked as though the Nenec was losing its ability to keep in control of Rodney's body. While John hoped that Rodney would burst through any moment, he felt ill at what this all meant for the scientist. But his hope was dashed when the Nenec reasserted its control over Rodney's body and dealt him a blow that snapped his head to the side so violently, it would be a miracle if his neck was not broken. He would never know if it had been, as John disappeared when that blow had hit, his mind shutting down so quickly that he didn't even have time to form another thought.

.
.

"John?" Rodney whispered in a frightened voice. "John?!"

He looked down on his friend who lay injured and unconscious on the floor at his feet, having no recollection of how it had happened. Last he remembered was telling John about what the ancients had done to the Nenec, was sure he had went as far as to tell him about his dreams, but he remembered nothing else until a few moments ago when he had woke up, standing over John's crumpled body. He knelt down beside John and pressed a shaking hand to his neck, relief washing over him when he found a slow steady beat beneath his fingers. Sitting back on his haunches, he continued to look at his friend in shock, noticing the huge scratches on his face, the large angry bruise that spread over his forehead and the strange angle at which his lower jaw was sitting. His clothes were ripped in places and the flesh beneath was bruised and battered.

Rodney was all too familiar with the feeling of deja vu that suddenly overwhelmed him as he had experienced it before, had lost time before, on Muo. He gulped and looked down at his hands, finding on them what he had expected; signs of trauma and splatters of John's blood. His clothes were warped and one of the seams in his t-shirt was burst, the materials dotted with blood, as they had been on Muo. His body ached, his back felt slack and his limbs felt loose as if they had been pulled and stretched beyond their normal limits.

Rodney was not a stupid man, he knew what this all meant, even if he was afraid to actually admit it. As his mind reeled with the enormity of his situation, he barely noticed the armed team of men who barged into the room, his eyes fixed on John and the injuries he had apparently dealt him. When someone placed a hand on his shoulder, he turned to stare into the anxious looking face of Evan Lorne. He was asking what had happened as the others attended to John, but Rodney couldn't answer as he felt the undeniable sensations that came with a rapidly dropping blood sugar level. This confused him as he had been eating like a pig for days now and there was no reason for a hypoglycemic attack, but as his thoughts became increasingly muddled, he accepted the fact that he was on the verge of passing out and he began to fall down, his descent controlled by Lorne whose worried eyes were the last thing Rodney saw before slipping into darkness.

TBC...
PS: the mention of White Death is in connection to one of my earlier stories. It makes sense that John would remember the experience.