Chapter Twenty Six

I want to hold you close
Soft breath, beating heart
As I whisper in your ear
I want to fucking tear you apart

She Wants Revenge – Tear You Apart

The storm was ferocious, the rain was lashing down like tiny needles upon John's face as he stood beside the ruined control panel of the fourth grounding station. His hair was plastered to his head, the wind blowing like a typhoon in his face as he stood in the midst of the storm screaming into Genii communicator he had snatched off the wrist of a soldier he had killed. It was going wrong, it was all going so horrifically wrong. His rage was bubbling over, his voice hoarse from yelling into the damn thing as those words prickled at his consciousness feeding the murderous beast in the pit of his stomach.

"Doctor Pierce is dead."

John didn't believe it, he refused to. It wasn't possible that Cass had died, he would have felt her life being extinguished as part of his soul disappeared along with her. Yet the possibility was tearing up his insides and wrecking havoc on his damaged psyche. The thought of her corpse drove him literally insane. He wanted to destroy something, to ruin and mangle anyone who had had a part to play in her murder.

There was a darkness growing inside of him, one that he greeted with wide open arms allowing it's numbness to overtake him in abundance. He needed not to feel at the moment. The cold, barren wasteland was dragging him in once more drowning him in a sea of emptiness before he came to stand on the abyss once more. He was alone, for the first time since he met Cass he was completely devoid of emotions. He couldn't feel anything, just a strange absence where his heart and soul used to rest.

He wouldn't allow himself to think of the moments he would now live without her. He couldn't stand the echo of her voice in his ears, repeating the same words over and over again like the chorus from his favourite song. Her eyes would never glimmer like diamonds when she gave him that sweet, careless smile. Her touch...

John closed his eyes for a second at the sense memory of her skin contacting against his. He would never be able to kiss her again, to murmur in her ear at night so that she laughed so hard he could feel it vibrating against his ribcage.

"Your perfect." she had whispered in the early hours of the morning as he kissed her lips, his hands doodling patterns down and along her midriff.

"Perfect is a first." John told her, his fingers tracing a circular motion along the dip of her belly button.

"So was beautiful." Cass admitted, as John's fingertips teased just a little bit lower, hooking on her sweats and caressing the tender flesh underneath.

"Never?" John questioned, trailing his nose along the length of hers.

Cass closed her eyes, her breathing hitching as she arched against his mischievous fingers as he sought out the warm cleft between her legs.

"Only you." she mumbled against his lips.

He was alone. His happiness had been so viciously snatched away and there was vengeance in his veins. John dealt in violence daily and he was sure as hell going to use it to cause some mayhem for Koyla and his strike team. This has just become personal.

There wasn't time to grieve and John wasn't the type of guy to break down and cry. At the end of this he would drink himself into a stupor but not before he'd taken out the bastards that had killed Cass. He forced everything back, putting up bricks to cover up the raw intensity of his feelings. The wall would hold for as long as he needed, just as it had when his mother had died. He had lost so many people over the years. His mother, his friends and now Cass, he had never expected Cass to become a causality of his troubled life.

"I am going to kill you." John promised Koyla over the communicator before tossing it to the ground and crushing it under his boot.

This was war.

Irony wasn't wasted on Cassandra Pierce, just like she knew it wasn't wasted on the soldier she only knew as Sergi. Healing people was her life's work and the Infirmary was the sheer embodiment of everything she believed in. It was also the place in which she was about to take her final breaths.

Sergi's evergreen eyes bored into hers as she stood before him. They had been standing like this for minutes and the apprehension was killing her. She was waiting for the next attack, she had been expecting it the moment he'd shoved her through the automatic doors but it hadn't come. Instead he had had her pack their entire stocks of Prussian Blue into a medical kit bag for him before they had come to this point. It was the moment of no return and there was no going back for either of them.

"Strip." he framed the words on his lips, licking them as he spoke.

"Make me." she challenged.

Her defiance was back with a final burst of vigour and Sergi found that commendable. There was fire in her eyes and Sergi remembered this was what it was like when you destroyed someone. This was that last tremble of hope before the end. He knew how to break that down, she wasn't the first person he had diminished and she doubted that would be the last.

That slap resounded through the air like a gunshot as the back of his hand connected with her cheek, turning her head so hard it caused her gasp to echo through the empty room. Already his grasping hands were on her open flak jacket shoving it off of her shoulders and yanking it down her arms and tearing it from her slender body. It dropped to the floor in a heap at his feet.

Cass wrenched away, the backs of her thighs banging against the treatment bed as Sergi's fist grabbed at the front of her T-shirt hurling her closer. She felt the cold, steel blade of the combat knife penetrating through the material of her yellow T-shirt before it brushed across her tender flesh. Her breathing hitched as the knife travelled higher, the point digging into her skin leaving a thin scratch in it's wake.

Sergi's lips were curled into a sneer as he leaned in even closer, pressing the point into the space just under her ribs.

"Tell me that you want this." he growled, adding just the tiniest bit of pressure.

"That I want you to cut me?" Cass hissed through her teeth as he dragged the blade across her stomach.

It hurt like hell. The warm blood was trickling from the incision, leaving a rivet of red seeping through her buttercup yellow T-shirt. His face was buried in her throat as he inhaled the sweet scent of her supple body.

God he wanted her, willing, unwilling it didn't matter. Under duress like this just heightened the lust that was racing through him. She felt so good pressed against him like this. They had a little time together before he killed her, he wanted to look into her eyes at the height of his climax as he slit her throat with his combat knife.

Cass's hand was already slipping towards the holster on Sergi's waist where the double barrelled gun was residing. Her fingertips were wrapping around the grip of the weapon withdrawing it from the holster as Sergi's fingers chased up the inside of her shirt along the line of her rib cage.

"Put the knife down." she uttered, jabbing the barrel of the gun hard into his sternum.

"You think you have the upper hand here?" He asked her as that sick smile twisted across his lips.

"I'm the one holding the..."

The abrupt explosion of pain in her gut was excruciating. Cass screamed in agony at the sudden fiery sensation that lit up her insides as she squeezed the trigger of the gun she was holding. There was a roaring in her ears as the pistol bucked in her hands at the point of recoil.

Sergie stumbled a step backwards, his glittering eyes wide with surprise as he stared at her, the bloody knife still clasped in his hand from where he'd stabbed her. The thick red patch was spreading rapidly across his olive green uniform as his knees seemed to collapse out from underneath him.

"You shot me." he rasped, raising his arm towards his mouth.

It took her a second to realize that he was reaching for the communicator on his wrist. The gun was still level with him, her hands shaking as she tried to hold it steady. The second gunshot hit him straight in the chest before he even had a chance to flick the tiny red button to call for help. His body bucked at the impact before his eyes seemed to glaze over and his body sloped to the floor as if in slow motion.

The gun slipped from her fingers as the adrenaline coursed through her body. It clattered to the ground at her feet as she swayed for a single second whining at the ragged, burning in her stomach. She was barely managing to keep herself upright as she gazed down at the steady stream of life that was pouring out of her own wound through her slim fingers. She had seen enough stab wounds in her years as a doctor to know that this was bad. She was already responding on impulse, her slick fingers already groping for the nearest bundle of heavy duty cotton pads, before she snatched up the roll of gauze along side it.

She only had minutes to grab what she needed before more of the Genii arrived to check out the gunshots. There wasn't a chance in hell she could fend them off, not in this state. Already the adrenaline was beginning to creep out of her system, she could feel her energy diminishing as blood drops stained the pristine tiles of the white floor.

She needed somewhere safe where she could patch herself up, somewhere the Genii couldn't find her or enter, somewhere to ride out the attack on their city until help arrived. She clasped a pad to the bleeding gash before exiting the Infirmary through the set of double doors before her eyes came to rest upon the Teleporter at the end of the corridor.

Safety.

Her mind was working as fast as it could as it flagged up images of her stealing away inside of the closet sized contraption. The Genii weren't imprinted on the mechanism so the only way they could enter was by manually pulling the doors open. They wouldn't even have to know she was in there if she managed to keep quiet, when they had first arrived on Atlantis, they had suspected the Teleporters were small storage areas.

Move, she urged herself as the sound of footsteps echoed further down the corridor around the corner. Faster.

Cass's hand smashed against the panel as she sagged against the doors, begging them to open as the heavy set of footsteps grew louder. There were two of them, she could hear their chatter as they strode even more quickly towards the 'T' junction at the opposite side of the corridor.

Please...

The doors open and Cass hurtled herself inside the confined space, smacking the close button with the palm of her hand as her knees suddenly buckled from underneath her. She collapsed to the floor, writhing in pain at the exertion as the doors closed, sealing her safely inside. Her breath was coming in ragged pants as she shuffled into a sitting position, her back pressed against the interior wall as she struggled to breath through the somatic sensation.

It was only then did she dare to look properly at the stab wound she had just endured at the hands of Sergi. Her hands were trembling when she lifted the cotton pad to inspect the damage. Nausea was clawing at her stomach as she tried to look at it objectively and failed miserably. The incision was deep and ragged, the flesh torn as it oozed blood freely. She was starting to feel light headed, she suspected blood loss was the cause behind it but there wasn't a damn thing she could do about that besides try to stifle the bleeding.

The agony was almost unbearable now, her entire body was shaking as she felt all of her nerves begin to vibrate in shock at the trauma she had suffered. She grasped a fresh cotton pad and held it as tight as she could to the gaping rip on the lower half of her torso in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

A coldness was sweeping in over her body, it wrapped her up like a blanket as she felt her eyes starting to flutter shut as her head tilted back against the wall. There was barely a fleeting second to accept the knowledge that this was how Cassandra Pierce was going to die.

Hey guys! I'm in a rush at the moment. On the way to work and I thought I'd throw this chapter up for you all to read! Hope you enjoy.

Lan: lol I think if you look into the depths of Rodney's char there's always been a smidgen of courage. I don't think anyone could live with the guilt of not trying to help someone in that situation. Thanks for the review!

Brn: AHHHHHH! Pom poms to the face! I thought he would have ago,try reasoning with Sergi, he evaluates the situation in terms of science so I wanted her uselessness to come into play. Hope your hosp visits going as well as could be. Thanks very much for the review.

Monkey: I will never get bored of your reviews, I only apologize that my own reply is short at the moment. This is what I meant by worse than a break up! Thankies very much for the review, I reallt an grateful.