Disclaimer: Alas, I don't own Stargate. I do, however, own Death Valley National Park because it's public land. Boom! Take that, suckers!

A/N: Finally, the long-awaited, highly anticipated sequel to Riddles in the Dark! A little bit of behind-the-scenes on this because no one asked; I really wanted to write a fun Sheppard/Lorne friendship fic. This story took so long because I got to 10,000 words and then no one wanted to cooperate with me so I scrapped it and started over. It was originally going to be something totally different, but then I had the genius idea to combine it with another idea and thus, this fic was born. I do hope you enjoy it!

From this point on, you can consider this series AU (that's right, I said series). Spoilers up through season 3's Tao of Rodney, and features season 3 characters who according to the timeline should probably die at some point, but ain't gonna.

I did a lot of research on Death Valley, but if anyone is a ranger there and cringes at how I describe it, I apologize in advance.

Useful Terminology (because the National Park Service uses lots of acronyms):

NPS- National Park Service

VRP- Visitor and Resource Protection: the law enforcement division of the National Park Service

Interp/IEVS- Interpretation and Visitor Services: the rangers who do programs, work at visitor centers, sell passes, etc.

DEVA- Abbreviation for Death Valley National Park

Arrakis

By Minnicoops

Part 1

"Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic."

-Frank Herbert, Dune

He had been hoping for a quiet day, one of those where he could just put in his time and go home. Maybe yell at some folks for swimming in Darwin Falls, write up some tickets for parking in non-designated areas, intimidate people into putting the leashes they knew they should be using back on their dogs. The typical routine of a VRP ranger at Death Valley. Alas, life had different plans for Evan today, the likes of which he couldn't begin to imagine.

It started with the radio call from Ranger Dave, one of the interp seasonals who had been around a lot longer than Evan. He had retired from teaching and now spent his summers living in one of the hottest places on Earth, passing out Junior Ranger badges throughout the day and spending the nights leading stargazing programs. When he called in the missing child, Evan already knew based on who had radioed that this was more serious than a kid wandering a couple of campsites over.

Evan pulled up at the campsite and called in his location to the dispatcher, studying the young couple huddled near the picnic table as he did. The man had his arm around the woman, whose nose was red and cheeks tear-stained, but wasn't currently crying. Dave and another seasonal that was still too new for Evan to remember her name were speaking to the couple. All eyes turned as Evan got out of the car and donned his flat hat before joining them.

"Hello, sir, ma'am," he greeted as he approached. "I'm Ranger Evan Lorne."

The man stuck out his hand to shake. "I'm Tom Jacobs, this is my wife Julia. Thank you for coming."

"Tom and Julia reported that their two-year-old daughter was missing when they woke up this morning," Ranger Dave supplied. "We've been searching the campsite, but haven't seen any sign of her yet."

Evan nodded, he already knew from the call on the radio. "What's your daughter's name?" he asked, taking a notepad out of his vest pocket to jot down the information.

"Hope," Julia said, sniffing back a sob.

"Can you walk me through what happened this morning?"

Tom took the lead as his wife struggled to keep her composure. "We just woke up this morning and she was gone. We don't know how she would have gotten out of the tent. We put the zipper at the top of the door, she can't even reach it. Everything was right where we left it, I don't understand how she got out." He took a steadying breath. "We looked all over, but we didn't see any sign of her around the campsite."

"She knows not to wander off," Julia interjected, on the edge of hysterics. "She's never gone off by herself before."

"Do you think someone took her?" Tom blurted out, tightening his hold on his wife. "Was she kidnapped?"

It wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Evan had never seen a kidnapping case in DEVA before, but that didn't mean it couldn't happen. "We are going to explore every possible scenario," he answered diplomatically.

"Oh, God," Julia sobbed, burying her face in Tom's shoulder.

"Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs," Evan assured gently, "we're going to do everything we can to find your daughter. I'll need some more information from you to pass along, but we'll start searching right away. I'm sure she didn't get very far."

Evan had dealt with plenty of missing persons cases during his time as a law enforcement ranger, and many of those missing children. Most of the time when dealing with kids, especially those that went missing at campsites, the search didn't last long before they found the child nearby. But there were the tougher cases too, the ones that didn't end so well, where kids ended up exposed to the elements for too long or fell from heights or were attacked by an animal. He hoped this would not be one of them.

Julia gathered herself, swiping at her eyes, and handed him a photo with a shaking hand. "This is our little girl," she choked out.

He studied the small, round face looking up at him from the photo, her wide green eyes sparkling with joy as she laughed at something unseen. Her cheeks were still chubby with baby fat, and she had just enough dark, curly hair to pull into two pigtails. She was reaching up like she wanted to be picked up, her purple shirt riding up to reveal her round belly. He had a nagging feeling that he'd seen this girl before somewhere, that for some reason he knew who she was. He must have seen the family somewhere in the park earlier in the week.

"These things happen sometimes," Evan said, finally looking up from the photo. "Kids see something they're curious about and walk away and get lost." He decided not to mention the kidnapping angle again. "We'll find her."

"Please, Ranger Lorne," Tom said, his own eyes watery. "She's our whole world."

The Jacobs looked at him with so much faith, so much trust that he would somehow bring their baby back to them. Evan didn't have kids of his own, but they always managed to pull at his heartstrings. He studied the picture again, struck by those green eyes. He would find this girl. He had to.

Hope was nowhere to be found in the campsite. She was nowhere to be found in surrounding areas either. In fact, after three days of searching, there had not been a single clue as to her location.

The search and rescue operation was large, including volunteers from all divisions of the park and the outside community, as well as local law enforcement in surrounding areas. It was mid-September, meaning temperatures in the park still reached the mid 90's during the day, and without water heat stroke could set in fast. Not to mention, there was plenty of dangerous wildlife to be concerned about. By now, the probability of finding a body were astronomically higher than finding her alive, if they found her at all. If an animal had taken her, they might not even find that.

Of course, there was also the possibility that she had been kidnapped, which at this point might bode better for her chances of still being alive. Based on the quiet disappearance, this was a more likely scenario, even though the parents didn't understand how a kidnapper would have gotten her since she slept between them in the tent and they were light sleepers. NPS had continued to run the search and rescue in the park while law enforcement in California and Nevada had taken the brunt of the kidnapping investigation, but at this point neither search had any leads.

Evan had been part of missing person cases before, even a couple involving children, but this one was getting under his skin more than usual. Maybe it was that the girl was so young, or that he had been the ranger assigned as point-of-contact with the parents those first couple of days. He had stayed well past his shift to continue helping with the search, his gut telling him that she was still in the park somewhere. Every time he looked at the photo of her, he became more convinced that he was right. It almost felt like he knew where she was and just couldn't remember; like when he'd misplaced something important and knew it had to be in the house somewhere, that it couldn't possibly be anywhere else, but he had no recollection of where it had gone.

He'd become convinced in the last 24 hours that she was not in the search perimeter his team had set up near the campsite. He had tried arguing that they needed to look further out, but even he had to admit it didn't make sense. A two-year-old girl with no water would not have been able to walk that far and he knew it. And yet, his instinct told him that she was out there. They just weren't looking in the right place.

"Thought I told you to get out of here. I wasn't kidding, Evan."

Evan glanced up to see his supervisor approaching his car. Greg Fausse had tried to send him home multiple times over the last two days, and had even threatened to escort him out of the park himself, but Evan had ignored him.

Damn, caught red-handed. "Who ratted me out?" Evan asked.

"Your piece of shit car," Greg told him in a flat tone, knocking on the side of the car.

Evan had technically clocked out a few hours ago, but then proceeded to drive around in his personal vehicle to continue searching for the girl. The problem with that was that his Jeep was not only some kind of nasty greenish brown color, but was rusting so badly that pieces were falling off and was easily recognized by pretty much all the park staff. "I'm off duty," he argued, which was true. "I can volunteer my time off if I want."

Greg gave him a look that said he wasn't amused. "There's a reason we have limits on the time you can work. You've been going non-stop for three days. If you're too tired to see straight, you become a liability to your own safety and the safety of the rest of the team. This is exactly how rangers get dead. I want you out for at least twenty-four hours to get some sleep, or I'm not letting you come back."

They'd already had this fight, twice, though he'd upped the time from twelve hours to twenty-four now. Logically, Evan knew Greg was right, he was already at the point where lack of sleep was impairing his judgment. He probably shouldn't even be driving right now, if he was honest with himself. But he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep if he tried. Not when he knew Hope was still out there.

Still, he didn't think Greg's threat to sideline him was idle. The man had lost two rangers in his career in avoidable situations like this because they were too focused on the job to see the danger they'd put themselves in. He didn't need to become another statistic, or worse, put someone else in harm's way just because he was being stubborn. "Alright," he agreed reluctantly. "I'll go."

"Good," Greg said, patting the open window frame twice. "You can come back Thursday morning."

"She's still in the park, Greg," Evan told him. "I know it."

Greg nodded. "We haven't stopped looking, and we won't until we find her or find evidence she was nabbed. But it's a lot of space to cover, and at this point..." He didn't need to say that at this point if she was out there, they'd be recovering a body.

"Yeah," Evan mumbled. He'd heard this before, too. He wanted to make his argument again that they needed to expand the perimeter, but the fact was that Death Valley was a massive park, and even the space they were searching now would take weeks to go over thoroughly. Greg had 35 years of experience doing this; Evan knew he took it seriously. He sighed in defeat, deciding it wasn't worth the fight. "Thursday," he confirmed before pulling out of the parking lot he'd been loitering in.

He probably should have headed straight home, but figured now that the sun was going down he might be able to sneak around the long way and prolong his own personal search for just a bit longer. Maybe he would get lucky and see something that would remind him where she was.

Why did he feel like he should remember where she was? It wasn't like he had put her there. He shook his head at himself, deciding he was definitely losing it.

The darkening dirt roads stretched out before him as he drove, quiet now that most visitors were settling in for the night. He passed a couple of cars, but as the last of the light faded on the horizon, he found himself completely alone under the canopy of brightening stars.

It was one of the things he loved about this park. Most people heard the name "Death Valley" and expected a hot, dry, lifeless crater. But there was so much beauty to be found here. It was one of the best national parks to see the Milky Way, for one. And despite the extreme environment, life still found a way to flourish.

Evan had worked at some other parks, but there was something about this one in particular that captured him. He spent most of his days off hiking and painting scenery, and couldn't count the number of times he had laid out under the night sky. He had made some friends here, actually got along with pretty much everyone, but he didn't spend a lot of time with anyone outside of work. It was like he never quite fit in, but when it was just him under the velvet banner of endless galaxies, he felt like belonged here.

"Shit!"

Evan was so lost in thought that he barely noticed the shadowy shape until he was slamming on the breaks to avoid hitting it. His heart hammered at the unexpected near miss as it bolted across the road. The thing, whatever it was, had been about the size of a person, but it didn't move like a person. Or an animal for the matter. "What the...?"

He had an overwhelming impulse to follow it. Grabbing his gun out of his glove compartment, he hopped out of the car and ran after the shadow before it disappeared into the deepening twilight.

Perhaps it was the lack of the sleep or the strange compulsion that had been dictating his moves the last couple of days, but he barely even considered how reckless it was to take off across the desert on foot at night when he couldn't see possible dangers. Luck was on his side, though, and he managed to not step on any rattlesnakes or trip on any loose stones as he chased the shape across the rocky landscape.

He was sure the thing was going to outrun him, it was quick, but it stopped abruptly after a five minute chase. Evan jogged to a stop about fifteen yards away, training his gun on it. He still couldn't quite make out what it was. It was shaped like a person, but too tall, and there was something odd about it. He realized with a jolt that there was no light reflecting off of any part of it, and that it didn't even have a shadow. The moon was a waning crescent so there wasn't a lot of light, but there was enough. But it was like the thing consisted of negative space.

He got a decidedly unpleasant feeling in his stomach and his palms began to sweat. What the hell was that thing? His feet wanted to stop, but he forced himself to keep moving closer. As he slowly approached, he thought he caught a glimpse of something in the thing's arms, something shaped an awful lot like a small child... Hope.

Evan's pulse quickened, but he kept his hands steady on his gun. "Don't move," he warned, stopping again, now within a couple of yards.

The thing turned, but its arms were empty. He'd been sure he had seen her, where had she gone? And what was this thing? It looked like it was wearing some kind of hood, it face just as black as the rest of it. He flipped the safety off on his gun. "Where's the girl?"

Slowly, it raised its head until the moonlight shone against its inhuman eyes. Evan felt all the air freeze in his lungs as it met his gaze. They weren't really eyes, they were... he didn't even know how to describe them. It was like there were two black holes where its eyes should be, and they were hypnotic, sucking him in so he couldn't look away. As he stared into the black voids, he thought he could hear something, very faintly. A buzzing sound, like the whine of a mosquito in his hear, except it was like he was hearing it in his mind. It made his skin itch all over.

And then, without any preamble, the thing blinked out of existence. It was just... gone. Evan gasped in a breath to his starved lungs, blinking furiously to try and rid his eyes of the lasting image. He was covered in goosebumps, even though it had to be over 90° still.

"Hope!" he yelled, once he could breath again. He searched frantically, but she was gone, same as the thing.

He looked around for a few more minutes, but it was clear that whatever the thing was, it was long gone. But it had Hope, of that he was sure, and he wasn't going to stop hunting it until he'd found her.

Turning back toward the road, he realized he had actually gotten pretty far out and didn't have a flashlight to make his way back. Stupid. Carefully picking his way across the desert, he managed to not kill himself before he climbed back into his still running car.

Forget going home, he needed to round up some help to search for this thing. He did a U-turn and headed back to the ranger station.

Greg had been less than pleased to see Evan turn back up after their chat, but news that he had spotted the girl outweighed his wrath. That is, until Evan described exactly what he'd seen.

"I know it sounds insane," Evan defended, having realized as he told his story out loud how much he sounded like a lunatic. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it, but I know this thing had her."

"You're sure you saw her?" Greg asked suspiciously.

Evan hesitated. He hadn't seen her well enough to make a positive ID, but everything in him told him that the thing had the girl. "I'm sure," he lied.

Greg gave him a look, seeing through the flimsy lie, but nodded. "We will go check the area you think you spotted her, but you're going home. You haven't slept for three days, Evan. You're obsessed, and it's not healthy. I'm taking you off of this investigation until you get your head on straight."

The other rangers present were watching the exchange with wide eyes.

"Greg-" he began to protest.

"No," Greg insisted firmly. "You're sleep deprived. You're seeing things, acting recklessly. You need to go home and sleep."

That just pissed Evan off more, but he knew better than to try and change the man's mind. Greg didn't screw around. Instead of responding, he whipped around and stalked out of the building.

"I don't want you driving," Greg called after him. "Patrick will take you home."

Great, he was getting a chaperone. Now he couldn't sneak back to the spot where he had seen the girl. Not that he really could anyway; it would be crawling with people soon if they actually listened to him. Maybe they wouldn't, though, since they seemed to think he was hallucinating. Some rational part of his brain told him he was acting like a little kid throwing a tantrum, but he didn't care. He continued to walk out without looking back.

He climbed into the passenger seat with a huff, slamming the door behind him. Patrick followed him out, but stood awkwardly next to the car, unsure what to do. He was a good kid, easy to get along with, but he'd never seen Evan angry before. Actually, Evan doubted any of them had really seen his temper before, he tended to be pretty laid-back. Probably didn't know what to do.

"It's fine, Patrick," Evan told him through the open window, jerking his head toward the driver's side. "Keys are in the ignition."

Patrick got in and started the car, but didn't say anything. It was going to be a long drive. The one time Evan wished he lived in the crappy, government housing in the park...

"Someone going to follow us?" Evan asked, assuming that's how Patrick would get back after driving him.

He nodded as he pulled out of the parking lot. "Yeah, Brenna."

Evan spotted the headlights behind them and resisted the urge to sigh melodramatically. He needed to quit acting like a child if he didn't want to be treated like one. Instead he told Patrick where to take him. There were only a few towns around, so not a lot of options for which direction to go.

They were quiet for a while before Patrick spoke up. "I hope it's not weird for me to say this, but that thing you were describing? It sounded a lot like something this guy I've run into a few times would say."

Evan raised an eyebrow at him. Where was he going with this?

Patrick shifted uncomfortably, but continued. "Yeah, he's kind of... odd, I guess. But in a harmless way. He camps in undesignated areas usually, doesn't get permits. Things like that. He's out looking for aliens."

Okay, Patrick definitely thought he was crazy. "Looking for aliens?" Evan asked incredulously.

Patrick just shrugged. "I asked him about it one time. He's kind of closed off most of the time, but I'm nice to him so we've sort of built a rapport, I guess. He told me he's seen weird stuff in the park. Stuff that can't be explained."

"And you believe him?" Evan's curiosity was peaked, though he was still suspicious of why exactly Patrick was telling him all of this.

"Oh, I dunno," Patrick said, as if he'd never really thought about it much. "I always just thought he was a just little weird, but like I said, harmless. But who knows? There's tons of stuff in the world that can't be explained. Like the moving rocks."

Evan stared out the window, chewing on the thought. The moving rocks were a strange phenomenon, but it was also assumed there was probably a perfectly reasonable scientific explanation that they just hadn't completely figured out yet. His encounter with the thing earlier... He couldn't even come up with a theory for that.

"What's the guy's name?" he asked, not sure what he would even do with it. He supposed he was desperate enough to follow any lead at this point.

Patrick glanced over at him with a small smile. "John Sheppard."

Fun fact: Being a VRP Ranger in the National Park Service is statistically the most dangerous federal law enforcement job. Thanks to all the rangers who keep our parks safe and protect their beauty for future generations!

A/N: The moving rocks are a strange phenomenon that actually happens in DEVA. In 2014, scientists think they finally cracked the mystery as to why. Check out Death Valley's website for more info.

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