Authors Note: This hasn't been beta-read so I apologize if it has grammar/spelling errors in or if the characters sound a bit off.

Please let me know what you think of this, complaints, suggestions; any feedback would be helpful as long as it is constructive. It is all written already but going through stages of betareading, with this only checked over by myself.

Also please read "Window to the Soul" and "A Sour Taste in the Mouth" the prequels to this. "The Perfect Pair" is the sequel to this, as will be my Christmas fic if I can write it all in time.

Spoilers: For Season One episode "Hide and Seek" but none others I can think of.

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Stargate in any incarnations of course and I'm not making any money, this is just some harmless fanfic fun.

Chapter 1: The Usual Unusual

It had been so unexpected he hadn't been able to struggle.
He'd felt some kind of tentacle grasp his left foot, dragging him down.
There'd been nothing to hold onto to resist and soon he'd found himself deep in the depths of the lake.
With no breath in him he'd felt relieved almost when the tentacle had dragged him into a submerged wraith ship. It was like a grappling hook escorting unfortunate prey to them.

Of course he felt stupid now, it was so obvious there had to have been a reason this world was uninhabited, as if he'd ignored Occam's razor. In this galaxy the simplest explanation was usually something to do with the life sucking fiends.

He doubled over, spluttering out the water he'd accidentally swallowed.
It seemed best to get as far away from the entrance hole as possible, if it had been a trap for food he didn't want to hang about to find out.

The ship was twice as unnerving as the last he had visited, the surrounding waters creating odd acoustics compared to those on the surface.
The corridors seemed deserted so far, not that he could tell where he was. There had to be an escape hatch, the opposite of the one he'd been sucked through.
So he occupied his spooked mind with that task.
He smiled bitterly, Sheppard had been right and now he was suffering for his mistakes.

Sheppard shook off his wet hair, watching Ford follow him through the odd entrance system to the ship.When McKay had disappeared everyone else had panicked, especially Beckett, but after thinking logically there had been only one step to take which was to follow in his footsteps and search. Only doing that had in fact created the exact same result as before, finding themselves sucked down into the wraith hive the lake had hidden.

He heard the odd warbling of a radio, Ford taking charge of the situation as he formulated his plan.
The lieutenant informed him of his instructions, glancing round uncertainly, feeling uncomfortable in the wraith ship.
"I ordered the others to stay up on the surface. Sent a few to contact Atlantis base but Beckett is staying up top in case there's trouble."
"Good call Ford. Let's hope Rodney still around here"
The words had only just left his mouth when they heard an anguished scream. They set off full speed in the direction the pained shout came from.

Arriving on the scene the sight they saw as bizarre, the wraiths expression as disturbing as the scream from the scientists mouth.
Sheppard shot at it, warning rather futilely, unsure it would do any good.
Last time he'd been late and witnessed this he'd been force dot kill Sumner in order to get at the wraith.He was surprised when it did in fact withdraw, seeming relieved and fleeing unexpectedly.

McKay just knelt there, back facing them, silent and gasping for breath through the pain. His hair they noted was unaffected by grey, giving them some hope.
Sheppard reached out to turn the man around, instead seeing an entirely different visage than was before him.

Ford yelped at McKay and Sheppard's mouth hung open, not understanding what they were seeing but sure that the boy, perhaps only a teenager, was certainly Rodney McKay; who held a wide eyed look of fear on his face.
"Who are you?" the young man asked, his voice showing his fear further.
The two soldiers were speechless for a minute.
When he finally recovered his voice Sheppard asked to no one there, "What the hell is going on?"