UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
"Who are you?" the man demanded, rubbing his mouth with one hand. "How do you know Kisri?"
"Just take it easy," Sheppard said, raising his hands slowly. "Nobody needs to get hurt here. I'm John, that's Teyla. You got a name?"
The man swayed, confused. "Daras."
"Ok, Daras." John was watching the man closely. He was shaking, sweating, his hand wasn't steady. It was either withdrawal or the lingering after effects of the gas. John himself wasn't feeling so crash hot, and he hadn't gotten nearly as large a dose as Daras must have, so he was betting on the gas. "Kisri is a friend of ours."
"That's a lie. Kisri doesn't have friends." Daras snorted. "She hates humans."
"I don't know, she kind of grows on you after a while."
"Stop lying to me!"
Clearly this wasn't a man to joke around with. "Ok, I'll stop lying to you. Truth is, she asked us for help. Being the nice guys we are, we said we would."
"You can't trust her. She'll betray you."
"I'm not too worried about that." John's money would be on Ronon in a fight every single time.
"She's using you," Daras insisted. "Help me find her. We can kill her."
"She's guiding us through this maze. We kill her, we're stuck down here," John replied in his most reasonable tone. "I don't know about you, but this isn't where I want to die."
"You're right," Daras said slowly, lowering his weapon. "You're right."
"Of course I am."
"We need to find her, make her take us to the surface, and then kill her."
John wasn't going to argue with a madman with a gun, though he couldn't imagine why Daras had decided that they were friends now. "That's a good plan."
"What about the other two?" Teyla interrupted. "They are still unconscious."
Daras looked at his unconscious friends, grunted, and turned his weapon in their direction. Before John could say a word, he had shot them both twice. John gritted his teeth; that amount of blood meant 'fatal'.
Teyla's eyes widened, but John caught her gaze and shook his head a tiny bit. They couldn't risk antagonising this worshipper.
"Let's go," Daras announced. "Come on. We need to find her."
"You're right," Sheppard muttered. "We do need to find them."
"He has a weapon," Kisri whispered to Ronon and Rodney. Teyla, Sheppard and Daras were standing in the middle of a large round chamber. Kisrey and the men were crouched in the entrance of a tunnel leading into the room. They had almost walked into the first group a few seconds ago, before seeing the dim figures and stopping.
"I can take him." Ronon was fingering his gun hilt lovingly, his eyes as hard as jade as he stared at the red-headed worshipper.
"That won't work, you'll hit Teyla and Sheppard," Rodney said impatiently. He was right: the pair from Atlantis were right in the line of fire.
"I didn't say I'd kill him. It'll be set to stun."
"He'll kill them if anything goes wrong," Kisri announced. "I'll show myself. He'll try and kill me, and you can kill him while he's distracted."
"That won't work either," Rodney said impatiently.
"It will!" Kisri insisted.
Rodney looked at Ronon. Ronon shrugged. "Best plan we got."
"It's a terrible plan."
"We're running out of time." Kisri glared at McKay. "Do you have any better ideas, Doctor?"
Rodney sighed a sigh of defeat. "No. Just… you know, be careful."
"Stay here and mind this," Ronon told him, handing him the canister of gas. "Kisri, go left. I'll go right. You distract him, I'll shoot."
Kisri took off without further discussion, staying low to the ground, wishing she were dressed in clothes a little less visible. Sheppard was still talking to Daras, trying to calm the man down. It wouldn't work. Kisri had met Daras on several occasions, and each time he had done nothing but reinforce her impression that he was as crazy as they came.
Teyla said something. Daras' reply was louder than before, and angrier. He came from a planet where women were treated poorly, Kisri knew. Teyla was setting him off. It was now or never, before someone got hurt.
"Daras," she said, standing up and hoping Ronon was in position.
Ronon was stuck. His coat had snagged on a rocky outcrop and he had had to shed his sword before he could take it off. To avoid being heard, he had to move very, very slowly. He wasn't in position to shoot Daras when Kisri stood up.
He did have a very good view of her getting shot, however.
Kisri stumbled forwards, her hands pressed to her diaphragm, her eyes wide. Sheppard roared and tackled Daras, knocking the gun from his hand. Teyla ran to Kisri; Rodney sprang from the mouth of the tunnel; and Ronon leapt to his feet and lunged to Sheppard's aid.
Daras fell to the ground with Sheppard on top of him, but as he did so, he got his feet between them and kicked. Sheppard flew over Daras' head and slammed into the rocky ground. As Daras rose to his feet, a gleaming knife appeared in one hand. No doubt he would have used it on Sheppard, but he didn't get the chance: Ronon placed himself between the two men, a knife in his own hand, and attacked.
Kisri, lying on the floor watching, noticed something. It was a ring of carvings in the ground, all the same symbol, in the very centre of the chamber.
"It's the last symbol," she told Teyla. "This is the last symbol for the maze. Why is it on the ground?"
"Lie still," Teyla insisted, running her hands over Kisri's torso, trying to find the wound. "You are injured."
Rodney crouched next to the two women, handgun in hand, clearly prepared to protect them from the vicious knife-fight going on a metre or so away. He had put the canister on the ground beside Kisri.
Sheppard got to his feet and pulled a handgun, yelling for Ronon to get out of the way. Daras, stronger and faster than either of them due to the Wraith enzyme, ducked under Ronon's knife and tackled the man, sending him crashing to the ground and causing Sheppard to skip back to avoid them.
Sheppard stepped inside the ring of symbols. They suddenly glowed blue, and the entire chamber floor shivered. The walls began to vibrate, and to Teyla it looked like parts of the wall were receding, sliding upwards into the roof of the cavern.
"Hey, Teyla," Kisri croaked.
"Yes?"
Kisri opened her mouth to say something, then paused, shook her head and sighed. "Never mind." Looking at McKay, she added, "We found the final chamber, Doctor. Maybe you should shoot Daras." She pointed at the man, and instinctively, Teyla and Rodney turned to look.
Suddenly, the world began to swim. Teyla tried to stand, but her legs were weak, and she was lying on the cave floor before she knew where she was.
She was still trying to figure it out when the blackness descended.
Hm. What just happened? Tune in for the final instalment next!
