Sorry to have left y'all at such a bad place last time. Wish I could say it wouldn't happen again, but then I'd be lying! Hope you have fun with this chapter!
Chapter Fourteen
After Teyla had set Ashina on the floor and pulled her handgun, she turned toward the suit, but she stopped short when she saw the suit was aiming its laser at Ronon's heart. At that range, there was no way Ronon could survive.
Without hesitation, she fired a round, only to see the bullet bounce away, because of the suit's force field. She had to close her eyes from the resulting brilliant white flash of light. If bullets and Ronon's blaster had no effect, what else could they do?
There was a strange guttural sound coming from John's direction. She glanced back in time to see John stiffen, then his body began to convulse as the suit morphed from diving equipment to heavy-duty fire fighter gear to something Teyla couldn't quite make out, one form going to another in rapid succession.
Teyla stepped out from her position as she watched in horror. Ronon scooted further away from the suit as it continued with several more transformations. The morphing seemed to come faster and faster, and all John could do was ride out the transformations that made him bend and contort with each change.
Ronon got to his feet, pulling his blaster again. He aimed the weapon, but held his fire as he squinted at the bizarre happening. Rodney stepped out from behind the machine he had taken refuge behind, horror etched upon his pale features. The suit seemed to be exacting its toll on John as it shifted from one form to the next, causing him to scream hoarsely in pain.
Teyla turned in Rodney's direction, her eyes wide in confusion. Rodney opened and closed his mouth a few times, then let it gape slack-jawed until a stream of words began spewing from his lips. "Oh, geez, Teyla, I had no idea – I swear, no idea at all that the kill switch would cause... this."
Teyla limped toward Rodney. "Kill switch? Rodney, what do you mean by kill switch?" she asked with barely contained emotion as she closed the distance between them.
Rodney's breath caught as he pointed at John, who was still in the throes of nonstop transformations. "And – and I certainly wouldn't have done it if I'd known... I mean, damn, I was just – I was just trying to stop the suit before it killed Ronon. Damisk's notes said the kill switch could work... but this – this... "
Rodney froze in place, his movements mired by what he was seeing.
"Rodney, what is going on here?" she asked in a rush, her words harsher than she meant for them to be, but she didn't have time to be gentle.
She stopped in front of him. Ronon came up behind her before Rodney could reply. "Whatever it is, it looks like it's killing him," Ronon said breathlessly as he held his left arm close to his chest.
Teyla put a hand in Rodney's direction and Rodney squeezed his eyes closed. "Rodney, can you stop this?"
He turned toward her, shaking his head, and said, "Honest to God, I just thought it would just stop the suit – not do... this!"
Rodney's gaze returned to John again. He looked so lost with guilt that Teyla put her hand on his arm and squeezed gently to get his attention. "Rodney, what can we do next? Is there some mechanism to stop this – this kill switch's actions?"
Rodney shook his head, looking more desperate now. "No, no, not once it's started. Once activated, there's no turning it off. It has to work through on its own."
Teyla took a step in John's direction, intending to see if she could help him in some way, but Rodney put out a hand to stop her. "Teyla, you and Ronon keep your distance."
Teyla turned, bewildered. "Why?"
Rodney swallowed and shook his head. "We don't know for sure if this kill switch will incapacitate the artificial intelligence or not – the suit might make John attack us when we least expect it. I mean, it's already tricked us into a false sense of security once today."
Teyla looked at Rodney, knowing her frustration was evident in her tone and stance. "There must be something that can be done!"
Rodney's words were slow in coming, then he said, "I – I think it's causing the suit lose its cohesion, hopefully for good, but we won't know that for sure until it stops."
Teyla tried to force away her emotions in an attempt to regain her composure, but one look at John and her anxiety mushroomed. "Rodney, we cannot just stand by when John is in such obvious distress!"
"I know – I know, but there's nothing more we can do. Damn it, what the hell was I thinking!" Rodney admonished himself.
Ronon looked at Teyla, then back at John as he shook his head. "McKay, you were right to use it. I don't think Sheppard would have been able to stop it on his own and sooner or later, all of us would have been dead."
Rodney glanced over at Ronon, obviously shocked enough to pull out of his fugue for a moment. "Seriously?"
Ronon nodded as he wiped at the blood dripping down his chin from the cut on his lip. The lip was already swelling, but it looked like nothing compared to the swelling that was happening with his left elbow – though Ronon seemed oblivious to his injuries, more concerned with Sheppard than himself. "Sheppard was losing his fight against the suit. The shots were getting closer and closer. If you hadn't taken him out with this, I wouldn't be alive right now. You looked into his eyes. You saw how putting us in danger was killing him."
He paused, then looked over at Rodney and said, "Don't beat yourself up over this. Just figure out what we have to do to help save him."
Rodney shook his head. "We are still several hours out from being rescued. If this doesn't subdue the suit, we're as good as dead."
Teyla took in Rodney's pronouncement, then turned back to Rodney again. The desperation in Rodney's eyes was so strong it was almost too painful to see.
"Think, Rodney, is there something else we can do to help John?"
Rodney's gaze darted around the area as he shook his head, then he took Damisk's recorder from his tac vest. "I – I don't know, let me look at Damisk's notes again. Maybe there was something I missed the first – "
Rodney stopped when a seizure overtook John. John's eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed to the floor, his arms and legs jerking. Ronon took off running toward John before Rodney could to stop him. Teyla reached out with one hand and called, "Ronon, wait!"
Ronon paused, looking down at John, who had gone limp and unmoving, then glanced back at her and Rodney. "He's not moving. I need to make sure he's still alive."
Rodney looked at him warily. "Remember what happened the last time you touched him without advance warning!"
Ronon shook his head. "I don't think we need to worry about Sheppard or the suit right now."
Teyla held her breath as Ronon bent down and put a hand to John's chest, then a finger to his carotid artery, checking for a pulse. He sighed and nodded, glancing back up at them.
Teyla left Rodney to approach Ronon and John. John looked awful as he lay unconscious. The suit was still without its regular cohesion. It was almost dripping to the floor in places. Most of it still covered John, but its luster was gone and it just looked like old melting rubber.
As she neared him, Teyla could see where there were holes in the suit's black material. John's uniform could be seen underneath. With horror, she saw the clothes had also been torn in places by the terrible strain of multiple transformations... and in those places, the skin underneath was raw and bleeding, as if its top layer had been torn away with the uniform's fabric.
Teyla bent down beside Ronon, momentarily more worried about the suit than the injuries. "The suit – while it is not in control –should we not use this chance of opportunity to remove it?"
Ronon took hold of some of the more ragged areas of the suit's material covering John's right arm and pulled at it, but despite its limp appearance, the material was still amazingly strong and refused to yield.
Rodney shook his head as he came up behind them. "Don't waste your time with that. I don't think it would work anyway. The suit might have lost some of its cohesion, but I think the situation is temporary at best. It's still chillingly resistant. I think it's beyond our physical strength to remove – "
Ronon pulled a knife and held it to one of the holes in the suit. Rodney grunted. "That's an exercise in futility, but feel free to ignore my advice and go right on ahead."
Ronon slipped it inside easily enough before turning the sharp edge to cut the material. There was no shimmering effect this time, but the knife failed to slice through the material no matter how much force Ronon used.
Ronon put away his knife and Rodney gestured quickly with one hand. "Roll him over and see if the suit's connections are still imbedded in John's neck."
Ronon gently took hold of one of John's shoulders and, with Teyla's help, turned him onto his side so that John's head was resting against Ronon's thigh. Teyla leaned closer and saw the filaments from the suit were still firmly entrenched in John's neck.
Rodney cursed under his breath as Ronon rolled John back to the floor. Ronon kept his hand on John's shoulder for a moment, then he glanced up at Teyla. "McKay, you've gotta find a way to fix this."
Rodney scowled. "Yeah, yeah, I know and I will. The main question is can I do it in time to save John and the rest of us."
Teyla didn't miss a beat. "Yes, you can, Rodney. In the meanwhile, let us see what we can do to make John more comfortable."
Ronon didn't move for a moment, then he shook his head. "No, we need to restrain him."
Teyla's eyes widened before she nodded in reluctant understanding. Ronon turned to Rodney. "McKay, where's that cable you were talking about?"
Rodney pointed and began to give directions. Ronon went to get it with Rodney limping off behind him while Teyla waited. Teyla almost pulled her handgun to have it out and ready to train on John if the suit started moving again. Even thought she knew the bullets would be automatically deflected by the force field, it was the only weapon she had to use against the suit. The reality of their situation was if they didn't find a solution soon, someone was bound to die.
oOoOoOoOo
The first thing John heard as he awakened was McKay talking to Teyla and Ronon. "You see, the host doesn't have to be a willing subject. They become a slave once the AI connects to them. The suit needs a body for support and as a power source, but they don't have be a willing participant. That was the malfunction Damisk discovered after his last upgrade enabled the AI to have a broader range of control. Once the assistant put it on, he couldn't control the suit at all."
John shook his head and moaned softly. Everything hurt – so much that the overwhelming stream of pain impulses made it impossible to determine what hurt the most. He tried to roll over to get up, but nothing happened. His body simply ignored his orders to move. This time, it wasn't a problem with the AI, but only his own exhaustion that hampered his movements.
Then he saw his hands and feet were bound with heavy cable wrapped several times around them, and he smiled. Good, he thought, it's about time something held this suit back besides me.
He did manage to raise his head to look at the others. They were huddled around Ronon as Teyla bandaged Ronon's left elbow, then she helped him into his arm sling again. The big guy usually dealt pretty well with pain, but he was in a tight grimace by the time she was finished. A sprained elbow added to the shoulder injury and a fireworks of bruises lining his left side from his ribs to his head didn't look to be any fun at all.
John let his head drop back to the floor. He paused for a moment as he realized he couldn't hear the mechanical monotone of the artificial intelligence droning inside his thoughts. His heart leapt at the thought the AI might have gotten fried in the horrific experience that happened before he passed out.
He could still feel the rapid-paced morphing of the suit as it shifted from one configuration to the next – everything had became a blur of nonstop agony. It felt like his body was being torn apart. Even now, the pain throbbed across his limbs and torso, though not as overwhelming as it had been during the transformations. He glanced down at his hands which were trembling, then realized there were other muscle groups also quivering with pain and exhaustion.
"Geez," he whispered when he looked at the bloody patches covering his body.
What a fool he'd been to actually believe he'd suppressed or subdued the AI earlier. The AI was only bidding its time in order to find a way out of the facility, and they'd given it the route by announcing the escape exit via the ventilation system. How monumentally naive they'd all been!
Then everything had come to a screeching halt when Woolsey announced they were going to quarantine Sheppard and the suit – and it was at that moment the suit chose the attack. After all, there was no point in continuing the charade any longer.
John swallowed hard as he recalled how the suit had come so close to firing on Ronon. It was worse knowing the killing wouldn't have stopped with Ronon – Teyla, Ashina, and McKay would have also been in line for elimination, all because of John's inability to control the suit.
John chewed on his lower lip as he searched his thoughts for ways to get the upper hand with the suit – some plan that had a viable chance of success. There had to be some angle they could use, some weakness the suit had, if only he could find it.
Maybe McKay had some ideas that would help. John decided it was time to test the waters. He raised his head again and called, "McKay."
His voice was weak and hoarse, probably from the suit's earlier strangling attempts and his screams during the transformations. It hurt to talk, but he had to get McKay's attention.
He hadn't spoken loud enough apparently, because Rodney continued with his explanation to Ronon and Teyla, "The kill switch affected the suit's cohesion. Its ability to morph into other configurations worked against it this time, as the kill switch used the suit's capabilities as a weapon against itself."
There, that was a weakness. That was exactly the kind of thing they needed to use against the suit. John took in a long breath to gather his strength. If there was one weakness, there might be more.
John stopped, remembering a flash of insight he got from the suit right after the kill switch had been activated. Somehow, he knew the sensations involved with the kill switch had been a familiar memory for the suit. Damisk must have used it at least once before he was killed, because the suit had experienced it before.
"So the suit is neutralized?" Teyla asked as she finished with Ronon.
Rodney shook his head. "I don't know that is a fact yet or not. My scans indicate the suit's still operational, but the kill switch took it offline."
Ronon gingerly tested his range of motion with the bandage and sling. It wasn't much. "Can we use that kill switch again if we have to?" he asked.
Teyla looked horrified at the thought. "Ronon, you can honestly ask that question after seeing what the suit did to John? Ignoring the physical strain of withstanding so many transformations, there are his other injuries to consider, and the fact that it triggered a seizure. We cannot put him through that again."
John closed his eyes. His friends were trying to look out for him when they should have been watching out for themselves. He had to make them understand. Taking a deep breath, he called out again, louder this time. "McKay!"
Rodney still didn't hear him, but Ronon did. He turned to look at John, a big smile breaking out on his face. Teyla and Rodney followed his gaze and sighed in relief.
"It's about time you came around," Ronon said as he reached John first. Teyla and McKay limped their way over behind him.
When Teyla arrived, she sat down with Ronon's help beside John and put a hand on his forearm. "John, it is good to hear your voice again. How are you feeling?"
John decided the best response would be to ignore her question. He didn't want to lie and if he actually told them the truth, they wouldn't want to listen to what he had to say.
Rodney came to a stop a few feet away, obviously hesitant to get any closer to John and his ATA gene body-jacking suit. Smart guy. They didn't call him a genius for nothing. John noticed how Rodney's gaze darted all around him, but wouldn't quite meet John's eyes. Guilt. It was radiating from Rodney's expression in huge painful waves.
Normally, John would have worked to help alleviate Rodney's misplaced emotions, but he had other things on his mind. He didn't know how long he had before the suit would take over again, but he had to make sure the others understood his orders first.
"McKay," he started, but his voice was too raspy. He cleared his throat, then said, "If it even looks like the suit is back in control, swear to me that you will use that kill switch again. No matter how many times it takes. You have to ensure the safety of the others by keeping me from hurting them."
Rodney's eyes bulged and he shook his head. "What? Do you have some sado-masochistic tendencies that I don't know about? Damn it, that last stunt nearly killed you!"
John shook his head. "I'm still alive."
Rodney threw a hand into the air in exasperation. "I wouldn't call what you are right now still alive. You're in a whole world of hurt."
John shook his head, his voice becoming more hoarse every time he spoke. "Yeah, but I can handle it, especially if it means this suit won't come after you guys again."
Teyla squeezed his hand. "It will not do us much good if what you ask us to do kills you."
John closed his eyes. They didn't get it. Damn it, they just didn't get it. They didn't understand the degree of danger they still were in. "That's fine if it keeps you guys alive. I mean it, you have to keep yourselves safe at all costs. That's your top priority. Consider it an order."
McKay leapt into rant mode. "Get this straight, Colonel Sheppard, I will not willingly participate in your murder! Neither will Teyla or Ronon!"
When John opened his mouth to speak, Rodney shook his head and pointed a finger at him. "Don't! Don't even say it! We are not going to kill you!"
John sighed. "Rodney, this artificial intelligence wants to kill you. It took everything I had to keep it from doing that, and even then I was fighting a losing battle. I can only imagine what would happen if the suit got hold of someone less stubborn than me. There would be no stopping it."
He swallowed, then continued, "That kill switch only scrambled the AI's systems. It will come back online soon and when it does, it will continue its earlier mission to kill all of you."
John licked his chapped lips. "It can't kill me, Rodney. I'm its meal ticket and its only way out of here, so it will keep me alive at all costs."
Rodney looked a little sick as realization sunk in. He muttered, "Unless it jumps ship and latches onto me."
John nodded. "Exactly. That is why you need to contain the situation while you still can. Just keep hitting that kill switch as long as you have to, even until the suit's power source is used up, if that's what it takes."
Teyla stiffened. "But you are the power source."
John met her gaze and nodded. "Whatever it takes to get the job done."
Ronon looked at McKay after remaining silent the entire conversation. He put out his hand. "Give me the kill switch, McKay. I'll do it, if it comes to that," he said quietly.
Rodney shook his head dismally. "It's ATA-gene specific. It won't work for you."
John looked at Rodney. "Then, it's up to you. Rodney, you have to do this. Nobody else here can."
In the silence that followed, Rodney's shoulders sagged a little, Ronon exhaled sharply and Teyla's hand squeezed John's more tightly. John was about to speak again, but gasped instead. "Rodney, the suit – it's starting its reboot sequence. Hit the kill switch again!"
Rodney hesitated, torn between duty and friendship. "I – I can't!"
"Do it – " Sheppard ordered, only to stop in mid-sentence as the suit constricted around him with agonizing tightness.
John couldn't help the low moan that followed as the holes in the suit's makeup filled in and the suit reconstituted itself. It began to ripple across John's body. Rodney backed away automatically. Ronon took Teyla by the arm and helped her up, then they all retreated several feet.
Ronon glanced at Teyla and said, "Get Ashina and move as far away from here as you can."
John bit his lip as he tried to prevent the suit from moving, but it was like trying to stop a tsunami. There was some resistance as the suit moved his bound hands and feet in an attempt to get free.
Ronon gently pushed Teyla in McKay's direction. "Go now! I'll cover you."
Teyla frowned. She glanced at John, then at Ronon and Rodney before she left, hobbling away as quickly as she could, which wasn't very fast.
John's breath caught as he waited to see if the cables would hold the suit back or not, but then the suit created a laser that appeared higher up on John's arm to get a better angle and used its fine beam to slice through the cables, first on his wrists, then on his legs.
"Damn it, no," John whispered to himself, fighting every move as he was made to get to his knees.
The others were still far too exposed, even with Ronon herding them along. There wasn't enough time for them to get away before the suit would start shooting at them. They'd foolishly wasted their escape time hovering over him.
Ronon backed away, still facing John with his weapon drawn. He caught John's gaze as John struggled not to stand and said, "We can beat this thing, Sheppard. Just stay strong."
Ronon turned and moved toward Ashina, probably to pick her up. John felt his hand moving up against his will in preparation of firing at his friends and he railed against it with everything he had. It didn't help. Nothing helped. The suit was now targeting McKay and there didn't seem to be any way he could stop it.
John started to call out to warn him, but the suit muzzled him again. Teyla and Rodney were almost to Ronon and Ashina, and a little more protective cover, but Rodney was still pretty exposed. Teyla glanced back and must have caught a glimpse of John's face as he got to his feet, because she shoved Rodney in Ronon's direction just as the laser fired.
The shot missed both Teyla and Rodney, but her leg injury threw off her inherent sense of balance and her momentum caused her to crash into some shelving. Miscellaneous parts, some of them heavy, fell on her and the force of the falling objects knocked her out.
Damn it, John thought at the same time as Rodney said the words aloud. Ronon righted Rodney to keep him from falling. The moment Rodney was steadied, Ronon bent down and picked up Ashina.
He immediately handed the sleeping child to Rodney and said, "Here, take the girl. I'll get Teyla. Get as far away as you can as fast as you can."
The suit started firing again. It was all John could do to throw off the targeting system just enough to cause the shots to miss Rodney and Ronon. The suit forced him to move forward, step by step. Worse, he was moving faster instead of slowing down the suit. His teammates were about to become laser fodder and there seemed to be nothing he could do to stop it from happening.
"Crap," John whispered as the suit's targeting systems locked on Ronon as he bent down to grab Teyla.
John felt sick – physically and emotionally sick. He couldn't allow the suit to cause them any more harm than they'd already experienced. Summoning up strength he thought was expended long ago, he fought against the suit and surprised himself when he made a little headway – at least enough to delay firing. Needless to say, the suit wasn't happy about his success.
John groaned with the suit's response as it applied pressure to his hip and ribs.
In the meantime, Ronon took hold of Teyla's tac vest, ignoring the danger he was in, and began pulling her to safety, but he struggled to move her at a brisk pace.
John rallied himself against the suit one last time. He had to give them another moment to get out of harm's way. Because of his increased resistance, the suit tightened around his injuries in agonizing punishment. It didn't matter, they needed more time and he was going to give it to them.
The suit continued to retaliate for John's impudence. John cried out when he felt one of his cracked ribs snap and he was sure he was going to pass out from the pain. His hold on consciousness was tenuous at best, but when he glanced up, he saw Rodney's head duck out from behind some protective cover, probably because he'd heard John's cry.
Rodney stared at John with a blend of horror, apprehension, and guilt as Ronon continued to pull Teyla along, but Ronon was still out in the open. The sight of Rodney holding the sleeping Ashina up to one shoulder was odd, as if out of place, but the frustration on Rodney's face was classic McKay.
Glancing away from John, Rodney bit his lip and waved to Ronon, then shouted, "Move your ass, Ronon! Sheppard can't hold on forever, you know!"
When Rodney glanced back, there was something in Rodney's expression that spoke to John – and he knew there wasn't any more time left for words, only action. With his mouth muzzled, John couldn't have said anything aloud anyway, but then he didn't have to.
John knew Rodney was aware what had to be done, he just wasn't prepared to actually do it. Rodney's eyes begged for a reprieve. No, don't make me do this, they seemed to say.
Just do it, Rodney, he replied through their visual exchange.
Rodney hesitated, then John's right arm raised upward and the targeting system on the laser began to activate. There wasn't any time left. The next shot was perilously close to Ronon.
Rodney's shoulders slumped, then his reluctant acceptance radiated in his tired body language. Rodney closed his eyes. He must have pressed the button on the kill switch again, because fire erupted in John's mind and body as the suit began to morph in rapid sequence again.
John was able to see the others duck into an adjoining aisle, disappearing into the maze of aisles, machinery and shelving of the facility, leaving him alone and he felt a flash of relief that they were getting away right before fire bombs exploded inside his head and his body began to spasm. He passed out a moment later.
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Chapter 14