Author's Note: Heya peeps!
That's all I wanted to say...
Have fun reading the chapter!
Chapter 21
Sheppard had a plan.
It wasn't complete, not yet: the rage doing a slow boil in his stomach was distracting. But he had an idea. It was simple. Hell, he had done it so often before that this time would be a cinch.
"We need to isolate them, cut them off from each other and from Atlantis," he explained to DiNozzo as they marched confidently down the empty corridor. "We need to make them wish they had never… DiNozzo?"
The taller man had stopped a few feet back, and as Sheppard turned to find him, he spotted Tony leaning against the wall, nearly doubled over, looking pale and dizzy.
"What's the problem?" Sheppard demanded, barely attempting to conceal his contempt at the man's weakness, whatever it was. DiNozzo didn't seem to hear it as he stood up straight, but he still glared.
"Nothing," Tony snapped. "Let's just keep moving. We need to make them wish…?"
"What?" Sheppard asked, wondering what the other man was talking about. "No, no wishing. We need to make them suffer. Need to make them know that they can't turn on us like this."
He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. "We need to hit the power stations, preferably the one for the central tower. There's no way they'll be able to track us then."
"And then what?" DiNozzo demanded, standing up even straighter. "How exactly are we going to make them pay?"
For some reason his next words tasted foul in Sheppard's mouth. "Use your imagination, DiNozzo," he growled with a small twitch. He swallowed a few times, trying to get rid of that strange sensation in his mouth. Not rage… not… He shook his head. "They're not going to back down, so neither are we. Now, we hit the power stations. There's no way they'll be able to track us then."
DiNozzo nodded, fingering his holstered sidearm. "Sounds like sense. And after that? What's the next step?"
Sheppard felt déjà vu hit him, but he shoved it away. "One step at a time, DiNozzo. One step at a time. Come on, the nearest power station is this way."
"Shouldn't we hit the one for the central tower?" Tony asked, rubbing at his eyes. "They won't be able to track us then."
Sheppard grinned. "I knew there was a reason I liked you," he told the taller man. "That's a good idea. Come on, we need to double back for that one."
"Are you sure that is them?" Teyla asked the marine one more time. The young man nodded as he glanced at the LSD in his hands.
"As sure as I can be. No one else is travelling in groups of two, or they shouldn't be." The sergeant shook his head. "Unless this device is on the fritz, that's the colonel and Agent DiNozzo."
Teyla shared a look with Ziva, thinking the same thing. But apparently the sergeant was a mind reader as well, because he shook his head firmly. "I haven't met up with anyone from the alpha site before joining this search," he told them. Then he shrugged. "It was my day off, until the quarantine hit. I'm safe: if I am infected, it'll be another… ten hours, at least, before my ATA gene starts malfunctioning."
"Very well," Teyla nodded, reaching for her radio. "Attention, all personnel -."
"Wait," Ziva called, looking over the LSD again. "They've stopped." She shook her head, thinking fast. "Sheppard stole a radio before he ran."
"And DiNozzo had one on him during the quarantine," Teyla caught on. "They've been listening in." She thought fast and put a hand back to her radio. "All personnel, there is no sign of Colonel Sheppard or Agent DiNozzo in the labs. We're moving onto living quarters."
She looked at the LSD and spotted the two dots moving forward again, in the same direction. Ziva frowned. "What kind of secret message was that?" she asked.
Teyla shook her head. "It wasn't. Colonel Sheppard would be able to decode any secret message about the city." The marine nodded in agreement. "If we are lucky, Mr Woolsey will contact us on a private line, and we will be able to warn him. If not… well, we'll just have to follow the two of them by ourselves. We will have the advantage, and hopefully we will be able to knock them out."
"Hopefully," Ziva acknowledged with a dark look. "Because we hit Sheppard with four or five stunner blasts last time, and he's still walking."
"We will just have to be cautious," Teyla told her. "They will soon move out the range of the life sign detector soon. We need to remain on their trail."
Gibbs looked over at Woolsey as Teyla's message ended, and they both frowned.
"Teyla wasn't in the science section, was she?" the agent asked, avoiding looking over at the useless sensors screen. According to it, there was no one on Atlantis at all.
"I didn't think she was," Woolsey agreed. "I thought Major Graham had joined back up with Lieutenant Broden to do a sweep of that area." The commander shrugged. "Maybe they were on a trail… I don't know!"
Gibbs raised an eyebrow at the sudden snap, which Woolsey just shook his head at, rubbing his temples.
"It's been a long day," Woolsey explained in a tired voice. "Teyla knows what she is doing, and we don't have the ability to send a private message at the moment. This virus is wreaking havoc on every Ancient system it can. Nor do we have the manpower to send someone to her location." Woolsey shook his head. "For the moment, she and Ziva are on their own."
Communications suddenly came on again for the second time in the last five minutes. "Mr Woolsey, this is Doctor Keller."
"Go ahead, doctor," the commander ordered, leaning down over the speaker. He just knew this was not going to be good news.
Keller didn't disappoint. "It's Reilly, sir." She sounded exhausted as well, and sad. "We just lost him."
Woolsey's head wasn't the only one to drop. "Was it from the fever? Or the wound?" He had to know. Even if it meant everyone on Atlantis, or at least, everyone with a radio, knew as well.
"A bit of both," Keller answered wearily. "The fever took its toll, and he was unable to fight back as effectively because he was busy trying to heal himself." Everyone got the sense that she shook her head. "His heart just gave out. We tried to revive him, but this…"
She didn't have to finish the sentence. This way might have been better for Reilly anyway. The evidence that he had murdered the majority of men at the alpha site was overwhelming, starting with his confession. The man would probably never have recovered, psychologically. Woolsey nodded himself.
"Understood, doctor. How is Major Lorne?"
"Struggling," she answered bluntly. "And… I don't see much hope, not seeing as McKay would be infected as well. Unless Ronon and Agent McGee manage to cure Rodney, and fly back here in the next… two hours… I don't think Major Lorne will survive either."
She sounded close to tears. Woolsey understood: he felt like crying a bit himself. "Thank you for letting us know, Jennifer," the commander said softly, before cutting off the communications. He looked up at Gibbs.
"You picked a hell of a time to visit, Agent Gibbs," he muttered with a dark chuckle. "How often have you had to be worried for the life of your agents?"
Gibbs shook his head. "More often than you'd think," he admitted. "But the day isn't over yet."
"Very true," Woolsey agreed, standing up straight. "Let's just hope the cure is on that planet."
DiNozzo peered around the corner with Sheppard before pulling back just in time to avoid being spotted by the four marines guarding the room where the naquadah generator powering the central tower was.
"Well, this makes it interesting," Sheppard growled. "Bastards. I'm their CO, they're meant to follow my orders. Who else did they listen to? Who else?"
Tony got the distinct impression Sheppard wasn't talking to him. He whacked the man in the arm to get his attention. "Hey! How do we get past them?"
Sheppard's hand twitched towards his Earth-made sidearm, but then he shook his head, hard enough to make his whole body twitch. What was wrong with the guy? DiNozzo tried not to snarl.
"Stunners," Sheppard answered after a moment. "More efficient, and we can't think small. We need this to work. Two shots each, all four marines will go down. And then I can make them remember who their commander is," he added in a dark mutter that DiNozzo didn't think he was supposed to hear. "Are you ready?"
DiNozzo grabbed his pistol. "I don't have a stunner."
"What?" Sheppard demanded, turning on the taller man. "Well, you can't use that!" he snapped, motioning wildly at the sidearm. "You'll bring them right to us. We need to be in and out. We need to make the all pay! Dammit, I have to do everything myself!"
And, unable to wait any longer, he rounded the corner, stunner up and already firing.
But he only managed to hit one marine before the others grabbed their own stunners and began firing back. Two shots hit Sheppard before he could take out another one, and he felt himself stumble.
And then the deeper sound of a 9mm being fired joined in with the high-pitched blasts of the stunner, and the second two marines went down in a growing pool of blood.
"What the hell are you doing?" Sheppard demanded, spinning on the spot to face DiNozzo as he put his weapon away. "I told you not to use it!"
"What are you, my mother?" the agent spat. "We got what we wanted. What's the problem?"
Suddenly they both heard pounding feet, getting closer. Too close to run from. Sheppard growled loudly, the frustration and anger needing to be vented somehow. It wasn't enough, and he stepped forward to slam a fist into DiNozzo's unprepared face.
"I told you it would bring them right to us!" Another fist, another slam and Tony went down to one knee. Sheppard lashed out with his foot and connected with the agent's face again. The man fell back, unconscious, blood running down from his nose and forehead. Sheppard grabbed for his own sidearm, ready, and oh so willing, needing to give the idiot on the ground a taste of his own medicine.
"Colonel, stop!"
The feet! He had forgotten about the feet. Giving a growl he looked up at all the stunners aimed at him, knowing he couldn't stand against all of them, not even with both of his weapons.
"Hey, Teyla," he snarled instead, looking at all the faces behind the stunners. "Long time no see."
"John, please," the Athosian begged. "Put the guns down."
"Or what?" Sheppard hissed. "You going to shoot me, Teyla? Betray me? Or have you already?"
"No one has betrayed you, John," she told him confidently. He snorted.
"You're trying to stop me. I know you are." He tapped the side of his head with his stunner, and grinned. "The voices in my head told me you want to isolate me, lock me up… I can't let you do that."
She shifted, glancing sideways at the men with her. John did the same, taking in Ziva beside the alien woman. Of course they were working together. "You did, didn't you?"
Teyla looked back at him, suddenly standing very still, as if the smallest movement might set him off. "Did what, John?"
He shook his head, wishing he didn't feel it. Wishing he didn't feel so betrayed. But it was too late. It was too late for them all. They wanted to betray him. They wanted to cut down his allies, like DiNozzo lying unconscious on the floor. He would show them betrayal.
He raised the pistol. "You shouldn't have done that, Teyla. Me and DiNozzo, we were just doing our jobs. You really… should have let us do our jobs."
Teyla shared a look with Ziva. "What are you talking about, John?" the Athosian asked. "You knocked out Agent DiNozzo. Because he shot your men."
John flinched, nearly falling for it and looking behind him where the two men were breathing shallowly. "Don't… You're lying. He was helping me, I wouldn't… he wouldn't… Stop lying to me!"
He brought the stunner up as well, face contorting into a snarl as Teyla and Ziva shared another look. But he couldn't do this anymore. How was he going to get away? There had to be a way. They wouldn't shoot him. They all had stunners. Maybe, if he moved fast enough…
He flinched to the right where the open corridor beckoned, but every hand aimed at him tensed. "Don't do it, colonel," Ziva pleaded, entering the conversation for the first time. She kept on glancing at the unconscious DiNozzo. Suddenly he grinned. Of course. There was always… that.
The pistol in his left slowly dropped until it was aimed at Tony's head.
Ziva took one step forward but stopped when he cocked the gun. "I wouldn't move if I were you, Officer David. And you know it takes more than one stunner blast to knock me out. Do you really think you can take me down before I kill him?"
"Easy, John," Teyla tried to soothe. "You don't want to shoot Tony. He is your ally, remember."
He couldn't help the snarl on his face. "No, he isn't! He betrayed me. He gave me away to you!" Realization seemed to dawn. "He was working with you all along, wasn't he? Wasn't he!" God, he wanted to pull the trigger. But if he did that he would never get away. He would never get revenge for their betrayal. "He shouldn't have done that!"
He took one step back. "You can't stop me. No one can, not in this city." He laughed, and it sounded strange even to his own ears: dark, deep, mad. No, it couldn't be his laugh. It felt like his laugh.
His aim had wavered slightly, and noticing it, Ziva took another step forward. He snarled, bringing the gun back up and took a second step away. "You'll pay for it," he promised, that urge to shoot someone, one of them, any of them… all of them, it pounded away in time with his heart. "You'll all regret doing this. You shouldn't have done this. You'll regret this."
And he turned and ran, stunner blasts dogging his steps as he retreated. But he beat them all, and, a new plan in mind, he headed for the science labs.
They would all pay for this. Every single one of them.
They had taken retreat from the rain in the back of the jumper, shutting the hatch to keep out the cold as well. The lights were on, which was a good sign, but after an hour, McKay was still out.
McGee and Ronon sat on a bench each, facing each other and trying not to share a look every single minute as they waited in uncomfortable silence. Ronon still was unsure about having used the potential cure on McKay, of that Tim was sure. But the taller man had agreed it was the only course of action they could have taken.
Besides out right shooting the scientist, of course.
Still, McGee felt the pressure. If McKay died, he would feel responsible. Doubts were already plaguing his mind. Maybe they should have waited it out. Surely Atlantis was ordered enough that all infected personnel could have been quarantined. After all, it had been nearly eight hours, he thought, since they had left. Surely Tony, and Colonel Sheppard, and anyone else with the ATA gene would have been isolated.
If they had known about who was sick, who was the target. If Doctor Keller had figured it out. If…
He rubbed his forehead again and leaned back, sighing.
Ronon chuckled from where he was sitting patiently. "I know how you feel. I hate waiting."
McGee smiled slightly. "You seem to be well practiced at it, though."
The alien's head tilted slightly. "You have no idea. Waiting seems to be a constant theme on Atlantis."
"Earth's a cautious planet. For the most part." He frowned. "It's weird, actually. Everyone's really impatient, but on the whole, caution is practiced more."
"I had -."
A sudden noise from the space between them interrupted the Satedan before he could finish his sentence, and they both looked down, sliding quickly to the edge of their seats.
McKay groaned again, before moving slightly, as if he was aching all over. His face scrunched up, and he groaned again, struggling to find a spot on the floor for his hands to rest. Ronon had put a splint on McKay's wrist, but the scientist still gave a small yelp as he put pressure on it for the first time. And then his eyelids fluttered open.
And Ronon leaned down over him, caution on his face. "McKay. Are you… you?"
What do you think? Reckon McKay's cured? Reckon Sheppard's really going nuts? Reckon Atlantis is having a really, really bad day?