A/N: Wherein Chaya gets it...

Chapter 25

Chaya had her attention focused on a computer read-out as she stepped into the astronomy lab so she didn't notice the table was empty right away. When she did look up, she stopped dead in her tracks, and Carson was right there behind her. He clamped a hand down over her mouth, pulled her in, and sunk the needle into the side of her neck. She struggled and kicked, but Carson was a stout fellow and held on tight, and soon she began to wind down. When she was just making sluggish movements and no longer making any noise, he lowered her to the floor. Her eyes were still open and staring at him with clear recognition and a hell of a lot of hostility, however.

Carson situated his face right above hers and smiled. "I've just injected you with tetradotoxin. Are yae familiar with it?" Her eyes grew a little wider and she did manage to make a small noise in the back of her throat. "Ah, somehow I figured you would be. Puffer fish venom – very dangerous. Got it from the toxicology lab the other night. They've been doing some very interesting research with it in conjunction with cryogenics, but I digress. Oh, don't worry, it wasn't a lethal dose. However, your heart should be slowing quite a bit right about now." He put a hand to her throat and nodded. "Yes. Perfect. A few more minutes and it will be barely detectable. Pity, that. First person to find you will probably think you're dead. And you and I will both know that won't be the case, now, will we?"

He stood up and carefully returned the syringe to the case and put it away. "Oh, don't worry, love – I'll make sure you're put in cold storage for a few days. Hopefully you'll expire on your own before I have Dr. Biro do your autopsy." He rubbed his hands together and gave her another smile. "Well, now, have a pleasant evening." Then after quickly gathering up what samples were still in the room, Carson stuck his hands in his pockets left.

Chaya's eyes remained wide open.

-oOo-

John had to stop at every other landing for a quick breather. The pain killers dulled the aches, but he was still pretty weak for having not eaten for nearly three days and the effort of just going down stairs had him panting. And to top it all off he shifted – that was a heavy draw on reserves, too. He wanted nothing more than to just curl up and sleep, right there, and damn the consequences.

"C'mon – we have to keep moving," Lorne said from below. Ronon was taking up the rear, and he looked like he was about ready to just flop John over a shoulder and haul ass.

"Sorry, haven't eaten in awhile. Trying not to pass out here," John replied through his teeth, his hands wrapped around the railing in a death grip.

"Jesus, why didn't you say something?" Lorne replied. He dug in a pocket of his vest and pulled out a Powerbar. He unwrapped it as he came back up a few steps and handed it to John. While John folded it in half and just stuck the whole thing in his mouth, Lorne glanced up at Ronon. "You got one?"

Ronon was ahead of him. He dug the spare in his vest out, did the same thing Lorne did, and handed it to John.

John nodded his thanks and they continued down the stairs. He was just swallowing the last of the second bar when Lorne stopped them with a raised hand.

"Rodney, were about to enter the dead zone. How's it looking?"

"Gotcha. So far, things are clear. Kolya is still in control, and, uh, Carson is wrapping up his, um, loose end. And he's all right," he added before Lorne could ask. Then a second later he added, "He's leaving now."

"Copy. Talk to you on the other side." Lorne glanced at John and noticed some of the cuts on his legs and arms had started bleeding again. "You gonna make it down okay?"

John just nodded, but from the way he held his lips drawn in, he didn't look so sure himself.

Lorne frowned. "Okay. Let's move."

John began counting progress in number of landings. After four he actually began to feel a little stronger and was moving a little easier. By the time they passed the sixth he was able to walk without scraping his claws along the floor. He didn't like how he was leaving drops of blood in their wake, however, but they were small and hopefully not too noticeable.

As they got to the seventh landing they were back in radio contact with Rodney. And Rodney was panicking.

"…Something's up. I repeat – Kolya is onto us. Damn it, major, come in!"

"I hear ya, doc," Lorne replied. "What's he doing?" He motioned for John and Ronon to move, and started down the stairs at a faster clip.

"He's found the video feed has been tampered with," Rodney replied. Then there was an audible intake of breath. "Oh, crap! Uh, Lorne – they're coming to get me. I'm switching locations and will be back shortly."

"Understood. We'll be getting out on SL2 in a second. Keep me posted. Lorne, out." He glanced back briefly and without a prompt they all picked up speed.

-oOo-

Kolya stepped into control and noticed Peter Grodin was still on duty. That made three double shifts this week. The explosion had all of the techies' schedules messed up, and it was good to see some people took their jobs seriously. He nodded to the man as he walked past and headed for security. As he stepped in he saw Ford was sitting behind the major's desk and going over some paperwork that was left unfinished. The young man glanced up and appeared quite shocked to see him. Everyone on duty started to stand but Kolya said, "At ease, gentlemen." They all settled back down, but were far from relaxed as they returned to their duties. That made Kolya smile faintly.

He walked over to the bank of monitors. "And how is our other guest doing this evening?" he asked as he glanced at the feed from quarantine.

"Meditating like normal, sir," the man replied, his tone rather bored.

Kolya made a sound in the back of his throat. That she had stayed so calm and unflappable since being confined irritated him more than anything else, and for him proved she wasn't human at all. As soon as they were done with Sheppard he thoroughly planned on cracking that serene armor she had wrapped around herself. He let his gaze wander over the other feeds for a moment before something started to bother him. It took a couple minutes, but his subconscious finally let its suspicion be heard and Kolya was back studying the screen to the quarantine rooms.

The door to the woman's cell was undamaged.

He quickly walked the length of the bank of monitors and checked a select few screens. The last one confirmed it – the feed had been tampered with. The astronomy lab was completely empty on that last screen and the telescopes were in their original positions. "Lieutenant!" he shouted.

Ford was in the room in a flash, his expression actually … frightened. "Sir?"

Kolya whirled on him. "Who has been in here besides security?"

Ford's mouth opened and closed a few times, then he finally said, "I don't know, sir." He looked past the colonel at the four men on duty. "Have you seen…."

"Dr. McKay," one of the men said. "And I think Dr. Zelenka was here a day ago fixing a server, sir."

Kolya growled. "You men, with me," he said and looked at Ford and three of the men on duty. He turned to the last one. "Call Sgt. Bates – have him take a team to bring both men here immediately." Before the man even replied Kolya was heading for the door to control.

Peter looked up in alarm. "Colonel, something wrong?" he asked, his surprise very genuine. He quickly and surreptitiously killed the video tap he had up on his screen before the colonel got close.

"Bring internal sensors up, now," Kolya snapped.

Peter hopped over to another console and brought the system up on the huge flat monitor above that station. Life signs appeared all over, but as they went through the city level by level three in particular were moving quickly in the stairwell, and as Kolya watched they exited on SL2. He nodded to Ford and they jogged from control.

Peter waited patiently for Rodney to come back online, then relayed the message.

-oOo-

"Oh, crap!" Rodney blurted. "Uh, Lorne – they're coming to get me. I'm switching locations and will be back shortly." He cut Lorne off in mid reply as he disconnected his laptop, swept everything up into his arms, and headed for the door. He quickly spun around, went back for the zat, and was out the door. He went for the stairwell, went up one floor, and headed for a room he knew was unoccupied and unlocked at the moment – John's guest room. He was gasping for breath as he reconnected, but it didn't stop him from cussing as the computer took forever to reboot. Then he was back on and Rodney slumped back in the chair. "I think I'm going to puke," he muttered as he held a hand to his chest. That was too much excitement. "Okay, I'm back." He quickly scanned video feed. Then he got Peter's message. "Oh, crap." He called up a feed from the internal scanners as well. "Major, you're going to have company."

-oOo-

Lorne kicked the door to the stairwell open and didn't give a shit if it was heard. "Go go go," he said as he drew his gun, not the zat, and provided cover for Ronon and John.

"This way," Ronon said and led John into a side hallway. Lorne jogged backwards a few steps before he spun and caught up with them. He heard the elevators ping a second before he got Rodney's message.

"Where…." John only managed to gasp that one word out before Ronon directed them into another side hall, this one longer, and it took everything he had to keep moving. He wound up crouching low and digging in with everything he had in his powerful legs, and it made for a very smooth, gliding, inhuman gait. Ronon glanced back at him once and grunted.

"Greenhouse," Lorne replied from behind. "No cameras, lots of hiding places, exit to the outside."

"They've split up," Rodney reported a moment later. "Two men are going to try to flank you from the left."

Lorne just grunted in reply as he caught up to John. Then gunshots rang out and Lorne grunted again as something punched him in the back and a bullet went through his leg. He staggered forward, and would have hit the floor face first if John hadn't reached out and grabbed him by the back of his vest and hauled him back up like he didn't weigh any more than a child. Then Ronon was shoving both of them into a side hall and they bounced off a wall and landed in a very undignified heap.

John blacked out briefly, but when he could hear and see again he could smell blood and heard Ronon returning fire with his nine mil. He shook his head and sat up. He could see Lorne pulling himself up into a sitting position opposite him, his teeth bared in pain, and he was bleeding pretty heavily from his thigh.

Ronon ducked back as return gunfire blew chunks from the corner. He ejected his spent clip and loaded another. He was bleeding from a couple places as well, but they appeared to be grazes.

"Shit!" Lorne said as he pulled his belt off and wrapped it around his thigh. "So fucking close." He twisted the leather and hissed.

John scrambled to his feet. "How far?" he gasped.

"Sixty fucking feet," Lorne replied. "Next hall on the right."

John glanced quickly down the hall and saw it. Then he ducked back as more gunfire came their way. Ronon just held his hand around the corner and fired a few return shots.

Lorne was unwrapping a field dressing one handed. He glanced quickly to his left – he knew that hallway just wrapped around and headed to another that led to the foyer. They were trapped. Then he noticed John was staring at the wall, specifically the big divot they both left in the sheetrock when Ronon shoved them. John reached out and sunk his claws through the thick vinyl wallpaper and bared his teeth in a grin.

"Sixty feet. Yeah, I can do it," John muttered softly and started pacing, wall to wall.

"Oh, hell no," Lorne said. But he snapped his mouth shut as John looked at him – his eyes were wide and completely dilated, and he was growling with each rapid exhale. He looked … insane. "Oh, fuck," he said, and Ronon turned to see what was going on. His eyebrows rose.

Only one other time in his life had John put himself in a berserker state – it was when he broke that pilot out of the Taliban camp, and he was in human form when he did it. It helped, and it was messy, but he still remained fairly restrained. But he was in his true skin now, and he could feel the adrenaline running through him, felt his fur standing on end, his muscles humming. He jogged a few dozen feet down the hall, turned, and simply said to Ronon and Lorne, "Duck." Then he took a few running steps and launched.

He impacted on the wall above Lorne's head, actually took a couple running steps along the wall on all fours, and shot out into the hall. Ronon barely ducked in time, then he was laying down cover fire. John met the opposite wall and ran along it for a few strides, his claws tearing out chunks, then leapt again as shots tore up more chunks where he just was. He twisted in midair and barely felt something burn across his mid back, then he impacted with the opposite wall. Three more powerful strides and he was launching again. This time something went through the heavy muscle of his left calf, then his shoulder clipped the corner and he spun into the hall that led to the greenhouse. He landed hard and slid for a good thirty feet, then his claws were clattering on tile and he was heading for the wide doors that were opening as if by magic.

Lorne sat with his mouth open – it had all happened so unbelievably fast – and stared at the wall in the hallway. He could tell every place John's left hand dug in for purchase – there was a little splash of blood from his missing claw forming a ragged exclamation point. His brain was still trying to register what he'd just witnessed when running footsteps came from the hall to his left. He turned his head and saw Ford and another man approaching, P90's raised. "Stand down," he said softly to Ronon. "He's away."

Ronon glanced that way and seemed about to protest, but he dropped his gun and went to his knees. Only then did he realize he was bleeding, and it just made him smirk.

Kolya arrived a moment later. "Watch them," he said, then jogged after Sheppard. Alone.

Lorne noticed Ford was a little wild eyed. "You can lower your gun, lieutenant. We're not going anywhere." He applied pressure to his leg wound and bared his teeth – it wasn't as bad as he first thought. When he glanced back up he could see Ford was, well, torn. Oh, sure, now the kid has a crisis of conscience, he thought bitterly. Huh, wonder if he has a thing for Keller…. Then he glanced at Ronon and saw he was watching the kid as well, and he had his hand on the activated zat. For his sake, he better not, or else Ronon will rip him to pieces, he decided. "It's not too late, kid," Lorne said calmly as he settled his hand closer to his own zat. They wouldn't know what they were – that was a bit of an advantage.

Ford continued to look unsure, and his unease was rubbing off on the other two men. Finally the kid lowered his weapon. "Stand down," he said. "The major's injured…."

Ronon took him and the man next to him out. Lorne got the third.

"'Bout damn time," Lorne said and tightened the belt and dressing on his leg. Ronon held a hand out and pulled him to his feet.

"C'mon, he's going to need help," Ronon said as got one of Lorne's arms over his shoulder. "Didn't you see me activate the zat when I dropped?"

"In all honesty, no. I was too busy bleeding."

Ronon grunted. "I'll forgive you, but just this once." They headed for the greenhouse.

End Note: Spider-John, Spider-John, does what ever a ... Hmm, nope - just doesn't have the right ring to it.