Disclaimer - the usual
Thanks Debbie418uk2 and angelvala87 for the challenges! (Keep them coming ;D) Here's my reply…
Honour Bound
"So why are we having to meet up with the people fortunate enough to be members of this primitive society?" McKay said in a loud voice as he noisily crunched leaves and twigs under his feet.
Sheppard suddenly stiffened up and stopped walking. He pointed his P90 around warily, "Quiet McKay!"
Rodney sighed and folded his arms across his chest, "What?"
"Shhh."
Sheppard looked around a few more times and Rodney rolled his eyes when there were no further sounds.
After a minute John straightened again and shrugged, "Guess it was nothing, but you need to be careful what you say; we may one day have to rely on these people for our next dinner."
Rodney huffed as they continued to walk under the dense tree cover a short distance away from where they had left the Jumper.
"Teyla is so much better at all this talking and trading stuff than we are."
"I know McKay, but she's gone with Ronon to the mainland back home to visit her people. We've traded with the people on this planet a few times so it'll just be a meet and greet before we discuss terms this time."
Rodney grimaced at the prospect and continued to trample the undergrowth without a care for any stealth.
After a few more minutes of walking they came to the edge of the forest. The trees thinned out and they found themselves in a large open field with a few tents in the centre.
Rodney scowled at Sheppard, "Why didn't we just land here? Save the walk and my muddy boots?"
He lifted up one of his feet and pushed it down heavily into the soil with a wet squelchy sound to illustrate his point.
Sheppard muttered a reply from the corner of his mouth, "They're really superstitious McKay. We don't want them to know we've got a Puddle Jumper, who knows what their reaction would be?"
Rodney frowned, "Oh great, just great! I hope they don't think scientists with blue eyes are a bad omen."
Sheppard grinned as they continued to walk through the long grass towards the village.
When they reached the collection of tents, several people came out to meet them. Sheppard fixed his face with his most charming smile which only served to deepen the grimace on McKay's face.
The man who looked like the oldest of the group beamed and walked over to them, holding out his arms in greeting, "Welcome and praise the Third Moon for your arrival!"
Rodney rolled his eyes and muttered something about 'Voodoo' and 'Witchcraft.'
Sheppard spun around and gave him a warning glare. He turned back to the village elder, "Thank you. I'm Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard and this is Dr Rodney McKay."
"Forgive me! I am Zalarn, the leader of this community."
Sheppard and McKay took in the appearance of the villagers as they were led over to the largest and most elaborate tent in the vicinity.
They were all wearing long animal skins, which were far too baggy for them, over threadbare shirts, skirts and worn out shoes.
As they got closer to the tent Rodney noticed there were two large spears driven into the ground to mark each side of the entrance. He looked warily at the sharp points and frowned when he noticed them glowing as they got closer. He could hear Sheppard talking to Zalarn in front of him and noticed the put on enthusiasm and interest he was feigning in everything the elder was telling him.
Rodney turned his head to look behind and noted in alarm that a lot of the villagers were following them closely. He walked a little faster to catch up with Sheppard.
Unable to find a break in the conversation to alert Sheppard to what he had seen without Zalarn hearing, Rodney reached into his tac vest pocket and pulled out a scanner. It lit up in his hand and he pressed a few buttons while he studied the readings.
"Uh… Sheppard? I think I've found something worthy of investigation." Rodney said as he saw some faint energy readings on the device.
Zalarn and Sheppard both turned around to look at McKay and he stopped walking, still looking at the scanner.
Zalarn's eyes widened and he shouted, "Dark Ones!"
Sheppard stepped forward and stood in front of Rodney, turning back slightly to speak to the scientist from the corner of his mouth, "I think you should put it away."
McKay was looking up in alarm at Zalarn's outburst and hastily stuffed the scanner back in his tac vest pocket.
The villagers began advancing on the two men and Sheppard held out his empty hands, "Hey… We haven't done anything… Let's talk about this…"
Zalarn's face hardened and all of the bouncy joviality which had been present just a few seconds ago vanished. "You wield a device of the Dark Ones and that is enough."
He nodded to the villagers, who quickly grabbed both McKay and Sheppard before they could offer any resistance.
Both men winced as they were forced to their knees and had their tac vests and weapons taken away.
Zalarn looked down at them coldly, "The punishment for any allegiance to the Dark Ones is death."
Rodney looked up at him indignantly, "Death! Isn't that a bit harsh…it's just a scanner."
For that comment he felt something sharp as it jabbed him in the shoulder and he bit back a cry. He turned his head to see the closest lurking villager had thrown back his animal skin covering to reveal a belt tied around his waist with all manner of knives and daggers attached. Rodney swallowed when he saw the tip of the blade the villager was wielding had a red glint and he looked down at his shoulder to see the material darkening.
Sheppard looked at Zalarn, "I swear we're on the same side. These 'Dark Ones,' we call them the Wraith and we want them gone as much as you do."
One of the villagers rushed over to the elder and spoke, "He has one too. They are both in league with the Dark Ones."
Zalarn nodded and held out his hands to the crowd, "Judgement will be served. We must prepare for the ceremony!"
The villagers all started speaking in excited whispers as they walked away and all but two guards for the prisoners remained.
The guards lifted Sheppard and McKay up to their feet and pushed them along towards the far end of the row of tents.
Sheppard looked behind to check their distance away from the guards and moved closer to Rodney so that he could speak unheard, "There's only two of them and they've made the common mistake of walking behind us. The Jumper's not too far away and I haven't seen any ranged weapons."
Rodney looked back at him with fearful eyes and pressed a hand to the cut on his shoulder. He lifted it up to show the blood-stained palm to Sheppard as he spoke, "Run? All the way back to the Jumper? In case you hadn't noticed, Colonel, I'm hardly the Olympic sprinter you're relying on for this little plan to work."
"You'll do fine Rodney. I'll be right behind you. When I say go, run and don't look back."
McKay frowned down at his red palm and nodded absently, "Uh… okay."
They were at the last tent when one of the guards called out, "Stop! Go inside."
Sheppard looked over his shoulder at their captors and made sure they were still a fair distance away. He exchanged a knowing look with Rodney and gave him a little push at the same time he said, "Now!"
Rodney did not need to be told twice and he ran, quite literally, for his life.
He nearly lost both his boots in a particularly deep puddle in the muddy field as he skirted around the edge of the tents to find the place where they had entered the village.
He could hear someone behind him and did not turn, he was just grateful for Sheppard's close presence. The mud splashed up his legs and made fast movement difficult and exhausting. He was soon wheezing and his heart pounded painfully in his chest as he dragged his feet out of the bog.
He suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of his leg and nearly lost his footing. Rodney assumed it was because he had just wrenched something due to the mud and he kept going.
After a few more difficult paces he reached his target and followed the obvious track he had made with Sheppard earlier, back into the forest.
As Rodney neared the edge of the trees something which felt like a hand shoved him hard in the side of his back and he stumbled again, nearly flying headlong into a thick tree trunk looming in front of him.
He gasped under his breath, "Come on Sheppard, no need to push. I'm going as fast as I can."
As he put as much distance between himself and the village he heard a man call out behind him and it made him relax a little, "No! Stop! Don't go in there, the trees are full of ghosts!"
Rodney weaved and dodged around the trees and crashed through the undergrowth. After a few more seconds he had to stop as he was having trouble breathing. He panted and gasped as he leant forwards on a tree trunk and pressed his face against the bark.
"What…the…hell?" He mumbled between breaths. Rodney knew he was quite unfit, but he had never run so hard that it had become this difficult to breathe.
He felt more than a little drained, detached and dizzy as he leant more heavily against the tree. He glanced around and his eyes widened when he found that he was completely alone. Sheppard was gone and it seemed that no guards had pursued him either.
White spots danced at the edges of his vision and Rodney blinked through them as his breathing became more laboured and the weak feeling more pronounced.
He pushed himself off the tree and swayed. He then looked down at his shoulder and wondered whether such a small cut was producing the symptoms he was experiencing. He did not know and but he knew he had to get back to the Jumper and use the HUD to find out what had happened to Sheppard.
He moved as quickly as he could and drew in deep breaths to try and clear the overwhelming faintness. He limped onwards and watched his feet as he began to shiver, thinking smugly that Ronon would be proud that he was able to track the path of broken twigs and deep footprints he had made earlier.
He was about ready to drop when he reached the place where the Puddle Jumper was cloaked and his hands visibly shook as he held them out in front of him to find the invisible ship.
The motion made it more difficult to breathe and Rodney lowered one of his arms and wrapped it around his chest. He furrowed his brow in fear and confusion at his difficulty.
His outstretched hand soon bumped into something he could not see and he traced the edge until he found the rear hatch. He mentally opened the door and stepped into the space in front of him.
As he walked over the threshold the Jumper materialised around him. He rushed forwards as quickly as he dared to not exacerbate his breathing problem.
He stepped into the cockpit and spun the chair around to sit down. As he lowered himself to sit, a massive pain tore through his back and he screamed when all his thoughts were replaced by the sensation.
When he opened his streaming eyes and found that he had fallen onto the deck in the Jumper and was lying on his side.
"Oh god…" he moaned as his vision began to darken, "No no no I need to save Sheppard."
He gritted his teeth and hissed as he moved a hand behind himself and felt a wooden shaft protruding from the side of his lower back.
"So much for not having any ranged weapons…" he muttered as he pushed himself upright and sat dazed for a few seconds on the floor.
His leg throbbed sharply when he moved and he frowned and spoke angrily, "Oh what now!"
He looked down and found the hilt of a knife sticking out from the back of his right calf. "Oh great, McKay the human pincushion!"
He rolled his eyes and used his arms to haul himself upright using the chair for support and frowned at his predicament. How could he sit down to fly the Jumper with the arrow sticking out of his back?
Rodney now felt glad that Ronon was not with him. The Satedan would probably already have snapped the shaft of the arrow off at the price of lots more agony for the scientist.
He turned the chair sideways and sat down slowly and awkwardly. Now that he knew the arrow and knife were sticking out of him, Rodney could feel the pain building up and found breathing even more of a struggle.
He shook his head to clear it and brought up the HUD to locate his missing team leader.
He frowned when he saw a large group of life signs in the village, but no single reading anywhere to signify that Sheppard had just got lost in the woods.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid…" McKay said and closed his eyes, "Of course Sheppard said 'Don't look back.'"
Rodney had been so preoccupied with the tiny cut on his shoulder that he had missed the significance of that phrase and it had taken all this time for it to seep through his mind.
He gritted his teeth as he lifted the Jumper off the ground and out of the clearing. He kept it cloaked and flew the short distance to the village over the trees.
He hoped the superstitious natives would be sufficiently spooked by the plan he had, to run away and let him rescue Sheppard. He now wished that he had never brought out the scanner and had linked the fact that the people of the village were suspicious and how Sheppard had insisted on keeping the Jumper well hidden. They would never have had to go through all of this and would be laughing it up in one of the tents, no doubt being fed with exotic food and hearing strange tales from Zalarn.
Rodney quickly snapped himself out of his misery as he hovered the Jumper over the scene below. He narrowed his eyes at the figures as they built up a large mound of straw and branches.
"Oh please!" Rodney muttered when he noticed a solitary life sign in the middle of the pile they were building, "That is so ridiculous. Burning at the stake…"
He shifted uncomfortably as he sat side-saddle in the pilot's chair and winced when he knocked the knife still embedded in his leg.
He scoped out a likely group of candidates for his plan and swooped the Jumper down towards them. He skimmed the craft close to the ground over their heads and then powered it back up into the sky.
He watched the HUD in grim satisfaction as the group all fell over in the wake of the passing Jumper. He had no desire to actually hit and injure any of the villagers, but he had to find a way to rescue Sheppard and realised that he may have to be prepared to do whatever it took.
He turned the Jumper so that it was hovering vertically several metres above the crowd so that he could look out of the window at the people below. They had stopped in their task of building the fire and were looking up at the sky in fear.
Rodney knew that he did not have much time left before he passed out and could feel a creeping cold clutching his heart as he got weaker. In desperation he swooped the Jumper down on the crowd again and spun it rapidly around to watch the reaction.
Several of the villagers were running away and others were picking themselves up off the ground.
Rodney swayed in his precarious position and nearly pitched out of the seat again. He grasped the control panel to steady himself, grimaced and steeled himself as he swooped again to terrorise the people on the ground below.
He knew it would be the last time he could do it. As he could now barely keep his eyes open and his breathing was becoming shallower with every passing moment.
He gazed at the HUD after he finished his pass when the Jumper pointed to the sky once more. All of the villagers had now run away from Sheppard in panic and the coast was clear.
McKay sighed heavily and groaned at the motion. He flew the Jumper down and hovered it as close to Sheppard as he could. He opened the rear hatch remotely and staggered up onto his feet.
Leaning against the inside of the Jumper as he proceeded, Rodney grabbed a knife from one of the supply crates in the rear compartment and limped painfully out onto the rear hatch of the Jumper.
He had no time to congratulate himself at how close he had got the craft to Sheppard, who was tied to a wooden post in the middle of the stack of wood and straw.
There was blood down one side of the Colonel's face and he blinked slowly up at the man who had suddenly appeared in front of him.
Sheppard smiled at Rodney and said sleepily, "You look how I feel McKay."
Rodney grimaced as he cut through the ropes, "As much as I'd like to compare injuries with you… We need to get out of here, before they realise we're just using more of our 'Dark One' voodoo."
Rodney soon had Sheppard free from the post and he slumped forwards heavily into McKay's chest.
Rodney put his hands under Sheppard's shoulders and struggled under the weight which made his breathing become ragged and fast through pain. He desperately dragged the Colonel onto the hatch and prayed that he did not fall over backwards, as he did not think he would live to tell that tale.
He heaved Sheppard's limp form as best he could but was not able to gather enough strength to make it all the way into the Jumper. He closed his eyes and thought, "I'm not going to let it end like this! What a stupid way to die!"
He said out loud, "Come on John. You know I can't do this on my own. Damn witch burning, cannibal primitives in some forsaken backwater of the Pegasus Galaxy…"
Sheppard heard him and mumbled, "You're gabbling again McKay."
"Well then help me out then!"
Sheppard obeyed and pushed up with his feet so that Rodney was able to finally get him inside the rear compartment.
When asked later, Rodney had no memory of how he had managed to get back to the pilot's seat and fly the Jumper all the way up into orbit and through the space gate, having lost as much blood as he had.
The staff on Atlantis received an IDC, but no radio contact could be made with the occupants. The craft silently and mysteriously came back through the gate and rose on autopilot into the bay above the Gate Room.
A squad of marines were sent up to investigate and quickly radioed in a medical emergency when they found Sheppard on the floor in the rear compartment and McKay slumped over on the control panel with a messy knife wound to his leg and a deeply embedded and savagely wrenched arrow in his back.
Rodney was intubated and hooked up to a ventilator for two whole days after Carson repaired the damage caused by the knife and arrow.
Sheppard had a fairly serious concussion and had to be sedated for monitoring. Carson gave him the all clear for light duties as Rodney still lay unconscious, but now breathing on his own, in the infirmary.
Sheppard sat reading a book next to the scientist as he continued to sleep. Rodney's face was still deathly pale from blood loss, even though he had already received several transfusions. Thick bandages covered the expertly stitched wounds on his leg and back and there was a small pad over the cut on his shoulder.
After a while, Rodney opened his tired eyes and looked at the man next to him, "You… you made me leave you behind."
Sheppard frowned at how quiet and weak Rodney's voice sounded and lifted his gaze to peer into his friend's sad face. He looked a little sheepish, "Uh… how're you feeling Rodney?"
"Like crap and like I nearly died because some natives decided to use me for target practice."
Sheppard kept a straight face and spoke seriously, "Yeah, I'm really sorry about that Rodney, but I took a pretty good hit to the head." He pointed to the row of stitches on his temple.
Rodney sighed softly as he drifted off to sleep again and mumbled, "Why did you stay behind?"
He was not sure exactly what had happened on the planet and whether Sheppard actually followed and was incapacitated by the natives. He also knew that Sheppard had not really answered his accusation and would probably be too embarrassed to admit it if he had anyway.
McKay felt a little flicker of anger that the Colonel felt his life was so expendable to protect the civilians and especially as he was so frequently called arrogant and irritating by his peers.
Rodney was just glad things had turned out alright this time and hoped it never happened again.
A/N – Hang on a moment…I already wrote this…no I didn't…This was the original ending in my mind for Jumper-Jacked...hence the confusion