Yes, another chapter! An apology for the length of time this fic has taken me ;) I plan to have Unforeseen finished in the next week or so, I am going to write it until my fingers bleed and push all other projects to the side while I do :D We are on the final run now, and things are about to get a whole lot worse on Atlantis...

The sound of his feet, dragging slowly over the filthy floor, seemed overly loud to his ears. So too was the ragged noise of his breathing that he knew was entirely too quick to really saturate his blood with oxygen efficiently. Sweat poured down his face and his entire body was drenched with it, but he carried on dragging his sorry ass further and further away from everyone in the city. He knew that he was living on borrowed time; his sugar reserves were already almost depleted when he had snapped back into reality, already drenched in sweat and trembling as he ran for his life from the gun fire and shouting voices. There was blood on his hands and holes in his clothes and although Daraal's amazing healing abilities had managed to close most of the bullet holes, there were still two, painfully large holes left in his body. The one in his upper right thigh troubled him the most as he walked deeper into the bowels of the city. The bullet hole in his shoulder was merely a nagging throb as his body began to close down, the pain diminishing the closer he came to dying.

Despite how pitiful his last moments were playing out to be, Rodney was somewhat glad to be able to use his last precious minutes to protect everyone on Atlantis. His final, lonely walk, ensured that the Nenec within him would harm no one else, and it brought him a sense of peace. All thought of moaning about his predicament was forgotten when he realised he had saved lives with this desolate ending of his own. He would not lament his life cut short, or cry over how many things he had still to achieve. He simply carried on while his body slowed down towards inevitable coma and death, and in a way, he welcomed it. He wouldn't have to confront John Sheppard, his very best friend who had taken the first attack. Nor look upon the ruined face of Evan Lorne, for he had seen the damage second hand, through Daraal's memory. He wouldn't have to live with the burden of the guilt he felt at the deaths on Muo, nor would he have to look Bann in the eye and admit he was the monster that took his relatives lives.

The corridors were dark, lit only with the weak, muted light cast down from the security lights that came on at his presence. Further along the corridor where the lights were still to come on, sinister shadows of irregular shape darkened the walls and floor and he shuddered whenever he approached them and a light failed to come on. Eventually, with a sigh that barely made a noise in the quiet corridor, he fell slowly to the ground. Plumes of dust and grime flew into the air when his body hit the ground, and had he been more himself, he would have covered his nose and mouth in disgust at the thought of breathing it in. As it was, he lay there in extreme discomfort, his slack face half buried in years of filth, and breathed away the last moments of his life.

His gallant thoughts of earlier were slowly replaced as his usual snarky side pushed through the haze momentarily. It wasn't right goddamnit, and it certainly wasn't fair, he idly thought. To perish in such a dark hole of nothing while hunger clawed at his belly and hypoglycaemia caused dizziness in his starving brain, was so completely unfair. He used what remained of his reserves to push himself onto his back; he might as well die in a more comfortable position. His hands flopped over his stomach to slip to his side, and as his breathing slowed, he became vaguely aware of the noise of something coming down the corridor towards him.

Someone coming to save him, perhaps? Oh how he hoped it was! Then, when he realised what that actually meant, he hoped it wasn't. When he saw a man's head move into his viewing space, he hoped it wasn't a medic. When he heard the soft, gentle voice of Carson Beckett, he hoped it was just his imagination. Even when he felt the sharp jab of the glucose injection in his thigh, he hoped against hope that it was merely a hallucination.

All of his suffering, everything he had been through, was for nothing if they revived him now. His plan to destroy the Nenec with his sacrifice was being undone with the introduction of the life saving serum to his blood stream. They were risking their lives to save his and he wouldn't allow it! He weakly tried to push them away, tried to shout at them to back off and let him be. His fighting and heightened emotions must have triggered something as he felt himself slowly disappear to be replaced by the very creature he fought so hard to destroy. As he disappeared, he was sure he felt the numbing effects of sedation, knowing that Carson had not only injected the fuel his body craved for. He disappeared as the Nenec snapped into existence, and he blinked out with a final hope that the doctor had some kind of plan up his sleeve.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"...heavily sedated...blood sugar level...split the two..."

John slowly came to, pushing his way through the sedation Carson had administered earlier, gritting his teeth against the pain that brought him quickly back to reality. Though his mind was still dulled by whatever Carson had given him, he was aware enough to know that they were discussing Rodney McKay. The voices of the others sounded relatively close to him, and as he continued to rise out of his stupor, he listened in on their conversation.

"I can't even find the containment weapon that is spoken about in the data base." It was Zelenka, his voice tense with worry.

"I don't think we need it, he is so suppressed, I doubt the transformation could happen anyway." Carson's voice sounded less confident than his words made out.

"Are you sure about that, Doctor Beckett? Any miscalculation could result in untold fatalities."

He heard the intake of breath and the soft sigh that followed, knowing that the Scottish doctor was doubting himself as Woolsey's question had intended.

"I can't guarantee anything. This entire debacle is so far removed from the norm, I can't even say this is a good idea. I also can't keep Rodney in the state he is in for very long. It could be detrimental to his health to prolong this."

"Well I would prefer for him to be contained if it is possible. I don't want him moved without it unless absolutely necessary. Keep me appraised of your progress and alert me when you are ready."

"I'll get back to searching for that containment weapon." Zelenka sighed.

John heard the two men leave and tried to crack his eyes open, a motion hampered by the sticky gunge that held them closed. He must have moaned or moved as Carson's voice sounded beside him within seconds.

"Easy son." He said, feeling the gentle hand of Carson on his arm, making sure he didn't sit up.

John looked at him, seeing the tired worry lining his face, knowing that some of that worry was for John himself.

"I'm fine doc." He muttered as he eased himself into a different position, and it wasn't a lie, he did feel less overwhelmed than he had the last time he had woken. "What's going on?"

"We looked up the data you told me to, and know what happened to Rodney. But he took himself off into the closed down parts of the city, with what appeared to be the somewhat admiral attempt to save us all by dying."

John's brows furrowed in worry and he tried to move his head to look around the infirmary for a glimpse of Rodney.

"He's okay, a couple of bullet wounds that are already almost healed. But he's not here. He is in a holding cell, being attended to by other medical staff. I have him on a couple of IV's. One to keep his body glucose within certain limits that will keep him alive until we can fix him, but not overly power the Nenec should it emerge. The other has a sedative in it, to keep him in a restful state."

"To what end?" God his face ached and it annoyed him immensely to have to force his words out of his immobile mouth.

"Doctor Zelenka has found the programs used by the ancients to both disassemble and reassemble the Nenec. We are hoping that we can use it to somehow split the two of them apart."

"How?"

"I've looked it over with Doctor Zelenka and we both agree that if we disassemble Rodney into the data banks, it will split the DNA into two separate files and we need only reassemble Rodney, leaving the Nenec in the system like before."

With anything, there were risks, and as Carson filled him in with the possible outcomes, John's gaze fell upon Evan, and it hurt to look at the man. But the sight of Evan reinforced what they were dealing with. No matter the risk to Rodney, they could not allow this beast to cause any more pain or death. He knew there was a possibility that they would lose Rodney, but it was a risk they had to take. He understood that only too well, but that didn't stop the knowledge from piercing a hole in his heart.

"I'd like to see him." John said after a few moments of silence.

Carson simply nodded his head in understanding then set about removing the wires that hooked him to the machines at his bedside. It took a few, long minutes to ease him into the wheelchair, his stiff muscles and injuries doing their best to immobilize him, but he managed with a moan or two and with the help of Carson's strong arms.

Beckett pushed him to the locked down, heavily guarded area, in which Rodney McKay lay on a medical bed. There were four soldiers outside the room but only one within, as Carson felt it necessary to maintain Rodney's dignity as a patient. John rolled his eyes, it was so typically Carson. Rodney looked so peaceful laying there. So much so that it almost seemed overkill to have him laid out, locked inside a cell once used to hold Wraith. He looked as if he was in a coma, no threat to anyone, but John was more than aware how very quickly the Nenec could make an appearance. Machines had been set up, constantly monitoring Rodney's vital signs as well as an EEG that monitored his alertness. The room was hushed, as if any sound might make the monster appear. John almost found it amusing as he watched the nurse in the cell tip toe around Rodney's bed as if he was a sound activated bomb. Almost amusing, except it wasn't funny, not in the slightest. Rodney's eyes rolled lazily around their sockets, occasionally opening briefly before closing again.

"How deep is he?" John slurred, gingerly wiping a stray dribble from the side of his mouth.

"Deep. He isn't aware of us." Carson replied as he took a look at the readouts one of the nurses handed him.

"How long until you move him to the ascension machine?"

"As soon as Zelenka has found the damned containment thing that was used for the original Nenec. We just can't take the chance."

"And if he doesn't find it?"

The nurse called Carson away to look at something and he left John, his question unanswered. A large, fully armed soldier deactivated the force-field that surrounded the holding cell, then opened the cell door for Carson, securing it closed behind him and reactivating the field. John felt unusually self conscious as the soldier nodded to him in acknowledgement. No wonder McKay had hated the wheelchair so damned much, it really did make people look at you differently. He could see the shock and pity in the soldier's eyes and it didn't sit well with John. He knew he probably looked like he had been hit by a twelve ton lorry, but that didn't mean he had to feel weak in front of a subordinate. He raised his head stiffly and straightened his spine, ignoring the way it popped and the grunt that escaped him, then nodded back with his best, I-am-still-in-charge-here face, before he looked towards Rodney again.

Sheppard wasn't quite sure how to feel, wasn't sure if he should be worried or relived for the man. There was something very wrong in seeing Rodney McKay so at peace. The man was a multitude of nervous ticks and constant movement, so much so that seeing him this utterly still was unnerving. He sighed as he rubbed at the bandage that tied his jaw to his head, the soft material itching his two day beard growth. He watched as Carson adjusted one of the pumps running Rodney's IV's, then scribbled in the notes by the pump. John's eyes was drooping somewhat when Carson looked back at him, clearly still weakened by his injuries and it prompted the doctor to exit the cell.

"We better get you back colonel, I need to get things in order and find out if Zelenka has that bloody containment thing yet."

John was grateful to be returning as his neck and shoulder were going into spasm and as Carson pushed John's wheelchair out into the corridor, he relaxed back into it with a sigh. But there came a high pitched scream from behind them and then all hell broke loose. The four soldiers in the corridor rushed in to the room, and Carson could not stop John from trying to race after them as he jumped out of the wheelchair to limp behind.

The screaming nurse was plastered against the back section of the cell, gripping the bars as if trying to get through them as she continued to whimper and scream sporadically. The guard, or what was left of him, was lying half in and half out of the cell door, little more than a bloodied corpse. Like a scene from a horror film, Rodney McKay stood, gore dripping from his mouth and down his clothes as he flexed his muscles and threw his head back to howl loudly. Only this wasn't a pretend scene from someone's twisted imagination acted out for the big screen, this was very, very real.

One of the soldiers opened fire, bullets tearing through Rodney's flesh as the man screamed in defiance at the death of his colleague. But Rodney stood his ground, squaring his sight on the man and smiled nastily. He wiped blood from his mouth and laughed at the expression on the soldiers face as the light from within burst through his wounds and began to heal them. Before the light faded, Rodney had moved at incredible speed to pounce on the soldier and John watched in horror as he tore into the man. As he ripped at the man, Rodney began to slowly change, his eyes being the first thing to turn as yellow colour spread over them, and it was all John needed to see.

"Get out! Everyone get out!" John ignored the agonizing pain that ripped through his face as he shouted, grabbing the others and pushing them back out of the room. "MOVE!"

He had to physically move Carson who was shouting fearfully for the scared nurse, but John knew there was nothing that they could do for her now. He had no idea how long it would be before the Nenec could fully transform. Now that it had eaten (and the very thought of it turned his stomach and made his blood run cold) it had the fuel it needed. But until it changed completely, they had a very slim chance of escape. He could hear the fallen soldier roaring and firing his gun, the nurse screaming her lungs out while John and the others ran for their lives, and he said a silent prayer that the poor unfortunate souls would die soon and end their agony. Even though it pained his heart, he was glad when the screams abruptly stopped and the gun fire silenced, and he felt sorrow when he heard a small cry from Carson. But the silence meant that Rodney, no the creature, had more fuel in its body and could transform any second.

Carson was huffing beside him as they ran through the corridors, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the horror as was possible. His eyes were wet and his pallid face was filled with fear and sorrow, but he still spared a worried glance at John.

"I'm fine, doc." He said as they all managed to reach the transporter at the far end of the corridor.

There was just enough room for them all to fit in and the doors seemed to take an eternity to close. They all shrieked in panic as a fully formed, enormous, snarling creature came barreling down the corridor towards them. It was huge, almost filling the corridor with its bulk as it's massive claws scraped on walls and the floor as it sped eagerly forward with a speed that shocked them. One soldier opened fire while the others screamed at the doors to close, as if it would make them shut quicker. The gun fire just further angered the Nenec and it lowered it's head to unleash a roar that hurt their ears as it ignited its force field around itself. The sight of the huge beast hurtling through the corridor, ablaze and snarling was terrifying and they each sighed out a breath of relief when the doors finally closed. John hit the control panel display to take them to the transporter nearest the infirmary, feeling the pull in his stomach as they were whisked away from the danger zone. As they exited the transporter and hurried to the infirmary, John tried not to show how badly he trembled from exhaustion.

"I have a plan." He said and Carson looked at him quizzically, raising a hand to steady John when he faltered.

But John gently pushed his hand away, there was no time to lose or waste over his own healing injuries. He had to stand tall, get this situation under control and he was sure he knew how. Problem was, he didn't think he would survive what he had in mind, nor Rodney for that matter, but he wasn't about to tell anyone that.

TBC... Leave me some cookie comments! :D