Follow the leader
Author's note: My new fic. Hope you guys enjoy it.
Elizabeth Weir stared at the gate below her. She was standing on her familiar balcony, staring as several team members walked from the blue event horizon. One member, dressed in grey fatigues and carrying a P90, stared up at where she was standing and gave her a sloppy salute.
Elizabeth smiled and nodded, turning back to her office.
Grodin stared jealously as Major Sheppard bounded up the stairs after their fearless leader and took her into his arms. She screamed as he spun her around, but a smile was on her face and when he let her go she laughed, stealing John's hat and putting it on her own head.
Elizabeth walked into her office, still wearing John's hat. John followed her like a lost puppy and sat on the corner of the desk. Elizabeth sat beside him and pulled his hat from her head, placing it on the table between them.
"I hate you, you know that?" She asked, resting her head on his shoulder.
John laughed and patted her hair, leaning forward and kissing her lightly on the nose.
"You love me." He answered. Elizabeth couldn't reply.
Instead she took his hand behind their backs. The glass windows to the office gave the Atlantis crew a view of whatever they were doing, and although they pretended they didn't care, their many eyes glanced often to her office to see what their leader was up to.
A knock at the door broke them out of their small moment, and Carson poked his head through the door.
"Major Sheppard. I need to do your post mission physical." John groaned.
"I need to finish some reports any way." Elizabeth said, smiling as John released her hand and stepped from the table. Elizabeth kissed him on the cheek before he left, and even then he dragged his feet slowly.
Elizabeth shook her head in quiet disbelief, sitting back in her chair and opening her laptop. Her half finished reports were shining back at her and she wondered vaguely why she even bothered to do them, it's not like they were ever getting back to Earth anyway. But she started typing anyway, taking small sips of the cold coffee in the cup beside her and glancing occasionally to the control room to make sure everything was going fine.
John grumpily left the warmth of Elizabeth's office and followed the familiar route to the infirmary, leaving his P90 and vest in the hands of the technical adviser. Mc'affery or something…
Swinging open the doors, he found himself face to face with Teyla and Ford.
"You guys finished?" He asked, glancing behind them for a sign of McKay or Bekett.
Teyla smiled.
"Sir." Her hand suddenly shot out and John, numbed with shock, flew backwards into the wall. Spine hurting badly, John took one look as McKay and Carson joined Teyla and Ford, all of there eyes flashing white slightly. Turning his feet, although they were still slightly numbed, John pushed himself off the wall and scrambled away from his possessed team members, and ran toward the control room.
John felt it getting harder to run. His body had begun to lock, his legs had become clumsy and his fingers refused to bend.
The footsteps of Teyla and possibly Ford sounded behind him, chasing after him, to either kill him or make him into whatever they had become. As he entered the control room, John slammed down his hand on the door alarm. The door slammed shut and thumps could be heard behind him as his friends tried to claw their way through the metal.
Grodin stared at the computer screen in front of him, confused at what he was seeing. The door in one of the corridors had locked shut, as were several others on their way to the control room. The disease alarms began to ring and Grodin turned, confused as Elizabeth came from her office, as red alarms began to flash and doors began to slam shut.
Elizabeth Weir sat contentedly as she finished the last of her reports. Wondering suddenly what was taking John so long to come back from the infirmary, she stopped and listened as thumps could be heard from the control room. Alarms began to suddenly ring, closely followed flashing lights, and her laptop automatically switched off. The lights blinked and died, and as she entered the control room, she noticed all the doors had slammed shut.
She looked at Grodin, who was staring at her, confused.
"What's going on?" She asked him, walking to where he was standing.
"The alarms for a outbreak of a disease are activating. Doors all over the city have shut."
Elizabeth frowned.
"Why have they done that? No one has been near the labs all day! How could we have an outbreak!?"
"I can tell you." John answered, hopping from the corner of the control room, all stiff and in obvious pain. Elizabeth was at his side in a heartbeat, as he collapsed unceremoniously to the ground. Grodin, Stackhouse and Bates helped lower him down more comfortably.
"What happened John?" Elizabeth asked gently, stroking her fingers along his forehead.
John stared up at her.
"I went to the I-infirmary" He stuttered, "A-and Teyla, McKay, C-Carson a-and Ford were a-all there, they're e-eyes g-glowed."
Elizabeth took a deep breath.
"Gou'ald?"
John shook his head, which he could hardly do.
"S-Silver…t-they g-g-glowed s-silver."
Elizabeth felt her heart stop as Johns head slowly lowered to the side.
"John! What's wrong with you John? John!"
John opened his mouth.
"P-pa-ral-y-yzi-ng"
Bates, Stackhouse, Elizabeth and Grodin watched as his head fell to the side, his eyes glazed over and his breathing slowed slightly.
"We have to do something." Elizabeth said, turning to the men around her.
Grodin stared at Stackhouse. Stackhouse stared at Bates. Bates stared incredously at Weir.
"Do what?" Bates asked, as Elizabeth began to pace. "None of the doors will open for us! And we have no Hazmats here!"
Elizabeth shook her head, pulling a radio from the table.
"But we do have the powers of communication." She raised the radio to her mouth, "Hello. If anyone can hear me who hasn't been affected by the 'virus' plaguing Atlantis, stay where you are. The following people are to be known to be affected. Teyla Emmagan, Lieutenant Ford, Carson Bekett and Rodney McKay. If you are in a room with an available Hazmat, please report."
All in all, Bates was impressed. Five people called in, each with a hazmat with them. Before long they had a small group with them in the control room.
"Now." Elizabeth began to the group assembled around her, "We need to focus on fighting this thing. Any more news on those affected?"
Mc'affery stepped forward, holding his hazmat head cover under his arm.
"The doors on level nine have been ripped apart. We saw them as me came through. We also found the cafeteria empty, and that had to be filled with people at some point. We think some of the people affected got in and affected the rest. But we haven't seen any affected ones yet. Thankfully. They look super strong."
Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond when someone stumbled from her office. He crashed into a desk when Bates leapt forward and held him up as Elizabeth ran forward to talk to him.
"John?" She asked, cupping his cheek with her palm. John blearily opened his eyes.
"What hit me?"
Elizabeth shook her head.
"You don't remember?"
John frowned in thought.
"I remember Teyla ramming me into a wall…after that it's a little fuzzy."
"A disease is plaguing Atlantis." Bates said as John turned his head trying to focus on his face. "Several people are infected already, including Teyla. Atlantis has gone into lockdown."
John shook his head again, pushing Bates gently away, trying to stand up alone.
Elizabeth tried to take a step forward, but John shook his head. After a few stumbles, he had managed to get his general bearings and stood without assistance.
"So, what are we going to do?" He asked to break the silence.
Elizabeth took his hand in hers and shook her head.
"The infection makes the person violent, as proved by you, and we have no idea what it is, or a cure or anything. Most of our scientists are infected…"
John shook his head.
"It's possession. It's not a virus. It's possession."
Elizabeth frowned.
"How did you know that?"
John lowered his head. When he raised it, his eyes glowed silver.
The sound of five guns being cocked could be heard, before the all raised and pointed at John, including two knives from Stackhouse and Bates.
Elizabeth stared open mouth at John, as he stepped back, evilly.
The sound of claws against the metal doors around them could be heard.
"They have come for me." John hissed, smiling.
As bending metal reached their ears, all Elizabeth could say was…
"Oh."
As the infected people began climbing through the broken down doors like wild animals, Elizabeth only faintly registered Bates pushing her behind him, into the corridor. Mc'affery was lying unconscious on the floor, so she quickly pulled off his hazmat and escaped into the first corridor.
Walking with an amazing pace toward the Stargate, she paused as loud crashes reached her ears. Teyla and Ford were…kissing…in one of the store rooms. Frowning, Elizabeth quietly shut the door and locked it.
Continuing on her journey, she arrived into the gate room. The control room was quiet now and she could see no movement except for the slow sluggish movements of Grodin. Grodin peeked over the top of the railing into the gate room, spotting Elizabeth. She nodded and indicated he should dial the Stargate. He frowned and she indicated with her hands the letters and numbers of the world John's team had just returned from. Grodin nodded in understanding and dialed, it seemed like an eternity later that the blue event horizon finally splashed out.
"Elizabeth." The familiar voice behind her made Elizabeth's heart miss a beat and she turned to find John, his eyes fully silver, staring at her from the doorway. He had become their leader.
"Who are you?" She asked, taking a small step backwards towards the gate.
John cocked his head to the side.
"Don't you recognize me?" He asked, voice hollow and deep.
Elizabeth shook her head.
"Your not John. Your just using his body. You're a parasite."
John smiled.
"You are correct. Out of all of my brothers and sisters, I am the only one able to speak. I am their leader."
"What do you want?" Elizabeth asked vehemently.
John smiled again.
"I want to go home Elizabeth. As does my brothers and sisters. We came here by mistake, and now we wish to go home."
Elizabeth faltered.
"Well the gate is open. But you can't have my people."
John shook his head.
"What are you going to do about it? I can kill you where you stand."
"But you will never get home."
John shook his head.
"I will spare your people."
From the doorways came the entire crew of Atlantis. Including some of the Athosians who had come for supplies.
They crowded around the gate, with John in front.
His head bowed, as did the everyone else's, before light came out of their bodies, coming together to form one light being.
John raised his head and looked around, confused, catching sight of the being.
The being nodded it's head at Elizabeth and slowly walked through the Stargate. The Stargate disengaged and the lights all flashed back on.
The people around her glanced around in confusion.
"What happened?" John asked, taking a few steps forward, "I remember going to the infirmary…"
Elizabeth smiled, standing tall and kissing him on the cheek.
"It's over." She whispered, "There is no need to worry."
John smiled.
"I never doubted it."
As people around them began to file out, John took Elizabeth into his arms and swung her around, only stopping for a kiss.
"Do you think we should yell Lieutenant?" Teyla asked, sitting on an upturned bucket. Ford, watching the door with his eyes, stood up and turned the knob, to no success.
"It's useless. Anyway, it could be dangerous."
Teyla nodded, obviously not convinced.
"What should we do if we are the only ones left?"
Ford stared at her.
"We aren't going to be the only ones left…are we?" He asked fearfully, moving closer to her. "Are you having a vision? A glance into the future?"
Teyla shook her head.
"I am only enquiring as to the possibility."
Ford stared at her, eyes wide and mouth hanging open slightly.
"I never thought of it."
Teyla shook her head slightly.
"Perhaps we should make plans as incase it does occur."
Ford nodded nervously.
"I guess it's up to us to keep Atlantis going…"
Both Ford and Teyla stared dazedly at the door to the closet.
Glancing back at Teyla, Ford squirmed.
"Are you injured Lieutenant?" Teyla asked, gripping his arm.
Ford shook his head negatively, staring at her hand, gripping his arm.
Both sat in awkward silence.
THE END