A/N: I'm about ready to hurl my laptop into water/fire/highway/something else equally destructive. If I can just keep it up long enough to post a chapter before it crashes…(sigh). Sorry I didn't respond to the reviews sent over the last couple of days. Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing. Enjoy this next chapter!

Chapter 12

"So we may leave?" Teyla asked with a little trepidation.

"No," Ankera answered.

The room erupted in angry shouts. John caught a glimpse of Ronon stalking toward Ankera, his eyes flashing. Teyla was also moving toward the alien. He couldn't see Rodney, but the physicist's irate voice rang out as loudly as everyone else's.

John groaned. The pain in his eye was spreading out into the rest of his head and shooting down his neck. The nausea returned with a vengeance and threatened to join the chorus of protests the rest of his body was making. He was shaking again, so he closed the eye not covered in bandages, trying to focus on getting himself under control.

He must have drifted off. When he opened his eye again, he was in a different room, laying on a soft, wide bed. The light was different in this room, a pale blue that diffused around him. He turned his head toward a soft murmur of voices and saw Ronon and Teyla sitting at a small table in front of a large blue window.

"We're in an aquarium," he mumbled. His throat was dry, though, and he began coughing.

Teyla and Ronon looked up at him instantly, and Teyla smiled when she realized he was awake. She approached him quietly, helping him to sit up a little to drink some water. John leaned back against the pillows, noting that the pain in his head and eye had all but disappeared. It was a distant ache now, and it felt wonderful.

"What's going on?" He whispered.

"Ankera has brought us to his home and insisted that we stay here for a few more hours. He said his people are only allowed to leave the confines of the city at certain times of the day."

There was something in her voice, a hint of skepticism. John studied her a moment. "You don't believe him?"

"I think it's strange we haven't seen anyone else in this whole city," Ronon answered.

John looked from Teyla to Ronon, waiting for them to continue.

"I agree," Teyla said. "If Ankera's people really are so terrified of being discovered by the Wraith, I do not think they would be pleased to find out we have been brought here and told of the existence of their refuge."

John nodded. It made sense. "But Ankera will let us go, supposedly at some point when we won't be caught?"

Ronon grunted, but Teyla nodded her head. "Yes, John," she said. "I believe Ankera sincerely does not wish us harm. He is a scientist, driven by curiosity, but not without heart."

John relaxed at that. He knew Teyla to be a good judge of character; he'd depended on that judgment in the past and was alive many times over because of it. Her explanation made sense, too. Ankera's people would no doubt defend their city as fiercely as he would defend Atlantis.

"Atlantis." John suddenly sat up in bed, turning in a panic to Teyla and Ronon. "Ankera knows about Atlantis. Everything I've seen and done there, he's seen and has a record of."

A movement off to his left startled him, and John turned around to see Rodney sitting up in a chair and stretching his back. He rubbed his eyes, obviously just waking up. Behind him, Carson lay sprawled and snoring on a long sofa.

"Hello, genius here," he mumbled. "When Ronon here was threatening to kill Ankera, I took the opportunity to wipe out all records, files, and documentation related to your 'explorations.' Ankera may know about Atlantis, but he'll never be able to prove it to anyone."

John looked at the scientist in surprise. A slow smile crept over his face. "McKay, I'm impressed."

"Yeah, well, don't ever accuse me of being incapable of thinking on my feet in a dire situation again," he grumbled.

John grinned. "You got all the records, then? Even back-ups?"

"Did I not just say I'm a genius? The whole city is connected to some kind of centralized database. I wiped the records off Ankera's computer and off the centralized database. We're in the clear."

"Did he say how long we'd have to wait?"

"He did not," Teyla answered.

"Well, let's be ready to go as soon as he comes back." John sat up, pulling the covers off of him and swinging his legs around to the side. He gripped the edge of the mattress as the world tilted, but the dizziness passed quickly. Ronon dropped his boots, jacket, and vest on the bed next to him. "And let's be ready in case he doesn't come back soon enough," John added, with Ronon nodding his approval.

A few hours later, they were still waiting. Carson had woken up and fussed over John. Teyla and Rodney had dozed off in the chairs. Ronon refused to relax, keeping watch over all of them. John was equally as anxious as Ronon, but his body betrayed him, and he was soon dozing on the bed he'd woken up on. The light from the blue window did not change or indicate the passage of time in anyway.

When Ankera finally burst into the room, he took everyone by surprised. Ronon spun toward the door, raising his weapon. Teyla and Rodney flew out to their chairs. John jerked awake, sitting straight up in the bed then slumping over to the side as he was hit with a wave of dizziness. Carson had been the only one other than Ronon awake for Ankera's entrance, sitting quietly and watching over his patient. He grabbed John's arm, steadying him and keeping the pilot from falling over.

"I apologize for my abrupt entrance," Ankera announced, slightly out of breath. "It is time to leave."

"Finally," Ronon growled. The others stood up, relieved to be going and anxious to return home. John grabbed Carson's shoulder as he stood, taking a minute to get his feet under him before stepping forward.

The group moved out into the hallway. John watched Ankera's back, noting that the alien seemed to be tense, although for all he knew, that could be his normal posture. Ankera turned his head back and forth down the hallways, his eyes wide. John wondered if he was searching for any signs of life. The hallways were empty.

"We are almost there," Ankera whispered.

John breathed a sigh of relief a second too soon. As they rounded the corner, they were suddenly confronted with a group of aliens, similar in look to Ankera. Their alien stopped abruptly with a gasp. Ronon was already moving to one side of the corridor and pulling his weapon. Instinct took over despite the fact that half his head was swathed in bandages, and John moved to the other side of the hallway, his hand automatically dropping toward his thigh holster.

A sound behind them had the group spinning in that direction, and they found themselves suddenly surrounded. The aliens facing them on all sides were all wearing some kind of uniform, and John wondered if they were soldiers or law enforcement personnel.

"Wait…" Ankera whimpered. "Please…"

Ronon hesitated for less than a second before firing into the group in front of them. Their reaction was instantaneous and smooth, reflecting their extensive training. One of the aliens dropped as Ronon hit him with his stunner, but the others quickly converged on the large man. The aliens were tall and thin and deceptively strong, and John watched in horror as the runner was quickly knocked unconscious. He stepped toward him, thinking for a split second that he could salvage the situation somehow—that they could still escape. He had just enough time to see one of the alien's swinging his arm at him, and then his head exploded in pain.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

John woke up to another gray ceiling. His head was throbbing again, and he wondered if waking up in Ankera's home and their failed escape attempt had all been a dream. This time there was no soft bed underneath him. He felt like he was lying on the floor. He turned his head and saw that he was lying on some kind of bench made of the same smooth, hard metal as the walls.

Teyla suddenly bent over him, and he realized his head was in her lap. She moved his hair back and brought a white cloth toward his face. As she gently pressed it into the left side of his head, he grimaced at the spike of pain it caused. She pulled the cloth away, and he saw that it was now covered in spots of blood.

"Lie still, John. You have been injured." She spoke quietly, but a firm hand on his chest kept him from rising.

"Of course I've been injured," he sighed. "I hate my life." At Teyla's raised eyebrows, he shook his head, immediately regretting the movement as the throbbing in his temples intensified. A minute later, the pain had lessened enough for him to focus back on Teyla's anxious face. He waved a hand at her, trying to brush of any questions about his well-being, and asked a question of his own.

"So, we're still in the city?"

"They're giving us the grand tour—medical labs, spacious quarters, and now, jail," Rodney said, stalking back and forth in front of a barred door John was just now noticing. John suddenly remembered Ronon going down in the fight and he tried to lift his head. Teyla quickly pushed it back down.

"Ronon?" John asked.

"I'm here," the man in question answered. "I'm fine."

"Ha, fine indeed. You're nuts, the whole lot of you," Carson said, waving his arms and looking a little freaked out. He moved over to squat next to John, lifting the bloody bandage covering his eye and poking and prodding the eye itself until John cried out.

"One of them buggers hit you pretty hard on the left side of your head, causing your eye to bleed. That's got me a wee bit worried, I'll not lie to you."

"How's Ronon, doc?" John asked. He didn't want to think about his eye and the possibility that it could be damaged, maybe permanently. There was only so much hitting it could take, and John had surpassed his quota on his first trip to this planet.

"A mild concussion, at least. I'd wager you're suffering from a throbbing headache as well," he answered, placing the bandage back over the injury and securing it tightly.

There was no use denying it—Carson would see right through that—so John nodded in acknowledgment.

"They took my medical bag, otherwise I'd give you something to take the edge off. Sorry."

"Not your fault," John answered. He pushed against the bench, and despite the hands trying to hold him down, he managed to sit up. He had intended to stand up, but even the change in altitude from lying to sitting was almost too much, and he scooted deeper onto the bench and leaned his head against the wall. From his new position, he could see Ronon sitting on the floor with his legs pulled up and his head buried in the arms folded across his knees.

"What's our situation?" He asked, looking around at the others.

"Our situation? Well, let's see. You're bleeding, Ronon has a concussion, we're in jail in an underwater city, and they've taken away all of our supplies, radios, and weapons." Rodney ranted, waving his arms back and forth like he was conducting a symphony.

John looked at Teyla to confirm. She looked like she was about to disagree, or at least put a more positive spin on things, but in the end, she just shrugged and nodded in agreement. Rodney had, for once, summed up their situation concisely.

Ankera suddenly appeared at the door. John was about to demand some answers from the alien, when the door slid open and he was shoved into the cell with the rest of them. A soldier behind him slammed the door shut just as quickly and locked it with a resounding clang before disappearing from view.

"Ankera, what is happening?" Teyla asked him.

The alien was shaking and he lowered himself carefully to the floor against the opposite wall. "I apologize—" he started.

"You do that an awful lot," John drawled. Ankera paused, sucking in a deep breath. His face twitched and jerked as he looked at each of his fellow prisoners in turn. John thought his skin looked different, too—more of a pale, bluish green than the translucent green of earlier.

"Why are we in jail?" Rodney asked, standing over the alien with his hands on his hips.

"I have broken our most sacred law, and in so doing, jeopardized the safety of the entire city."

"By bringing us here," Teyla said, confirming her earlier theory.

Ankera nodded. "Yes. By revealing the existence of our city, it is believed that, through you, the Wraith would eventually find us and finish the destruction they once began."

"You must know we wouldn't give you up to the Wraith. They are as much our enemy as yours," Carson objected.

"I do know this, and I believe you would not do anything to harm my people or our city, but there are others who are not so understanding." Ankera took a deep breath, pressing his long bony fingers into his chest in some odd mannerism. "You must understand. My people are ruled by their fear. Mostly, it is a fear of the Wraith, but by extension that fear encompasses all outside worlds and what contact with others might bring upon us. A few of us are driven by what we are not allowed to experience for ourselves, living our lives through the lives of our explorers. Our research is tolerated, but not accepted, and even now, there are those working to ban the technology completely. I fear that my actions, while motivated to undo the damage I caused you, will give them the final 'evidence' they need to complete their task and make my life's work illegal."

"Sorry if I don't feel very sympathetic to your plight, since right at this moment, I'm in jail." Rodney continued to stand over Ankera.

"What will they do now? To us?" John asked.

Ankera finally looked up at him, his eyes sad. "I have been charged with treason and you have been charged with the attempted destruction of our people. We will be executed in the morning."

Oops. Cliffhanger again. I was going to post two chapters so as not to leave you all on a horrible cliffhanger, but the next chapter ends in a place that is beyond horrible. So, I will post two chapters in a row next time so as not to leave you all in that horrid, horrid place…I really need to pay attention to where I break up the chapters in my next story. Sorry.