AN: As always, thanks for the reviews, it is much appreciated! Starstruck, I meant to comment the other day I love your new nick! Redick, you would be right, the end is approaching, hard to believe but all good things...(at least I hope you all think this fic is a good thing).

Chapter Eight

The Greater Threat

"Frank!" Sheppard called, louder than before. The Wraith was being oddly reticent. "We need to talk!"

John thought he felt something brush by his arm. He turned abruptly and fought hard not to flinch when Frank was beside him.

"I have no need to talk with you."

"I think you do. I think you are the reason why I keep winding up here." Sheppard disagreed. If he was right, and he was fairly certain he was, Frank was bringing him to this place with his telepathic abilities. "I think…" Sheppard started, pushing himself closer to the Wraith, "That you need me."

Frank remained aloof. "And what makes you so sure, Major Sheppard?" It asked coldly.

"It seems to me that you are the one lying senseless on the floor of your ship, while we are walking aroundfindingall your dirty little secrets." Sheppard poked. He wanted to get to Frank, make him mad enough to say more than he intended.

Frank grinned nastily; "I am not the only one lying senseless on my floor."

Sheppard chuckled, "Touché. I'll give you that, but the difference is, I wake back up and you don't. Do you know where I am Frank?" His demeanor had started out playful and sharpened to a point at the final question.

Frank couldn't hide the flash of worry, and Sheppard saw it. "I see you do know where I am."

"If you kill me, you will never find a way to save yourself." Frank threatened.

"How right you are!" Sheppard exclaimed, "But we seem to be at an impasse because you've said you won't help me." Sheppard was walking around Frank, circling like a vulture waiting for it's prey to cease fighting for its life.

Frank's eyes followed Sheppard, but his body remained rigid. "You said you would not let me live."

Sheppard had said that, and he knew it was still a true statement, which left him with a conundrum. He hated to lie; despite the circumstance it was morally wrong. It wasn't lost on him that he had not long ago pointed out to Doctor Weir the necessity of breaking the rules of morality when it came to dealings with the Wraith. "I lied." That was the truth, not the truth the Wraith believed he was getting.

Sheppard came to a stop directly in front of Frank. "We'll leave. You can have your ship, and your life. Tell us how to release the automated defenses. Tell us what did this to you and your crew." He ordered persuasively.

Frank appeared to consider the offer. Sheppard thought he might have made progress, but then Frank shot his hope to hell in a hand basket. "It is all ready too late."

"What do you mean too late?" Sheppard asked with an air of fatality. He was afraid he all ready knew what he meant.

Frank seemed to look off into the frigid blackness. His voice dropped to a raspy flutter on a swift breeze, "They are coming."

And Sheppard felt his eyes pulled towards that inky dark ahead, and he did feel it. Like a soft glove sliding over a familiar hand, it slipped over his body and clung to his soul. It was foul and fearsome and he felt a fear that the Wraith had never inspired in him before. His eyes widened and he could only stare at Frank who was regarding him with…regret?

"We've reached them and now it's too late, for everyone."

Doctor Zelenka had managed to coax more speed out of the Hive ship than McKay had believed possible. He wasn't sure if it was dumb luck or a feat of scientific discovery, but they had maintained a distance from the four ships that were tailing them. The bad news was they were no closer towards discovering a routine to shut down the automated defenses and they were fast approaching the location that the Wraith logs indicated had been the source of whatever disaster had befallen this ship previously.

Zelenka felt a whisper. A soft disturbance of the air, a shift, and it turned cold. "McKay!" Zelenka hissed.

Rodney had frozen in place, listening and feeling with every sense. Something had changed. "I know." He whispered back at Zelenka, remaining still.

"What's going on?" Markham asked from near the doorway.

"I don't know, now shut up." McKay ordered, trying to concentrate on the changes in the room. Temperature was rapidly dropping. A slight breeze had begun, how did a breeze start in a ship?

Zelenka shivered inside his standard issue jacket. He stared at the sensors and realized something had changed. "They're pulling back!"

McKay turned and looked at Zelenka, the frown still evident from trying to determine the events around them. He saw Zelenka pointing to the display and the look of excitement written across his face. "What do you mean, pulling back?" He snapped.

"Look for yourself." Zelenka said, indicating the panel.

The ramifications of what he was seeing were not lost on McKay. The Hive ships were breaking off their pursuit. He could only think of one reason why they would do that. They were going to die anyway.

The room was now freezing. McKay could see puffs of white from his teammates with each exhale. He stared at the display. They hadn't reached the previous coordinates but they were close. It had to be related and it wasn't boding well. He shook his head, more to himself than anyone in the room, "We need to get out of here."

"How do we do that?" Ford asked, a level of panic present in his voice.

McKay didn't know but the urge to get the hell out of dodge was almost overwhelming. "I don't know Lieutenant, but I think we'd better figure it out, now."

Sheppard struggled to maintain calm, "What do you mean it's too late?"

Frank displayed rank outright fear. "We are all dead now. You were foolish to return to this course."

Sheppard had seen many things with the Wraith, but never before had he seen one display anything closely resembling scared, but this one was. Not even when he had pierced the Marilyn Manson Wraith Keeper's belly with the sharp end of their stun weapon, had he seen open fear displayed. Instead, she had gloated in what would be their certain death. "We had no choice."

"Was it not you that told me there are always choices?" Frank commented with what Sheppard could only describe as snideness.

Sheppard licked his lips, "Yeah, I did." The things that come back to bite you in the ass, he thought wryly.

"Look, Frank…there's still time. Help us, and we'll help you." Sheppard offered, wanting to appear legitimate and the entire time cringing inwardly that their help towards Frank would be to finish him off.

Frank read him like a book. "I would rather see you die."

Sheppard scowled at Frank, "That makes two of us." He admitted.

Another wave of icy air buffeted the two. Sheppard turned away from Frank, startled at the chill, and sought to seek out the source. When he turned back, Frank was gone. "Frank?"

His voice echoed in this netherworld and there was no reply. For the first time, Sheppard believed Frank was truly gone. He didn't feel his presence and he couldn't fight against the stifling feeling of being alone. He felt a panic well up from within and wanted out of here. The problem, he was sedated. His body was lying somewhere and he couldn't wake up. He screamed a quiet scream and prayed Beckett would get him out of here.

Teyla sensed a break in her awareness. Sheppard's head was pillowed on her lap, and at first she stared at him, looking for any sign that he had stirred or made some sound, but he remained lifeless. She shifted her attention to Beckett, but he was maintaining watch on the Major's vitals. It wasn't until she addressed that awareness on a subliminal level that was Frank that she realized what had happened.

"He's dead." She said.

"He most certainly is not." Beckett denied, mistaking Teyla's comments to be in regards to Sheppard.

"The Wraith." Teyla clarified.

Beckett cringed, "Are you sure?"

Teyla nodded, "Can you wake the Major?"

"Aye." Beckett was more than happy to do so. They could get Sheppard on his feet and get the heck out of creepsville, and that would be just fine by him. Sheppard's neck was a massive blotch of inflamed tissue at this point, and he had begun to run a moderate fever, both of which alarmed him. He hoped that McKay and Zelenka had figured out a way to get off this ship and safely home.

He was preparing the hypodermic when he felt an involuntary shiver course through his frame. It felt colder, much colder. He lifted his head and peered into the corridor searching for any cause of the drop in temperature, but the dim lighting revealed nothing. "Teyla, did it get colder in here?"

"I believe so." Teyla answered, gently lowering Sheppard's head to the ground, and standing cautiously, pulling out one of the guns she had learned to operate. "Now would be a good time to wake the Major." She said urgently.

Something was there. They couldn't see it, but they both could feel it, and the urge to get away was overwhelming. Beckett plunged the needle home, and absently tossed it back in his bag, not noticing when it fell to the side on the floor. "Come on Major, wake up!" He called, thankful the stimulant should work quickly.

As if on cue, Sheppard groaned, and his eyes cracked a miniscule amount. "Frank's gone." He said, his voice hoarse, and Beckett wasn't sure if it was from the cold or from the cottonmouth one gets with being drugged.

"Teyla told me." He confirmed for Sheppard. "Did you find anything?"

Sheppard shook his head, still recovering from the sedative, and trying to shake off the last dregs of unconsciousness. "Something bad is happening. I couldn't get Frank to give me anything, and then he was gone."

Sheppard reached out for help up, which Beckett was more than happy to provide. There was an air of vulnerability to their party in this lonely corridor that cut to the bone, and made him want to run back to the Jumper or rendezvous with the other group. "We need to get you back to Atlantis."

"I know."

Teyla rejoined the two men, "There is nothing up ahead, but I feel something…"

"Something very very bad." Sheppard supplied the rest. "I think it finished off Frank."

"We need to find the others." Teyla took the lead, letting Beckett help Sheppard.

"Radio?" Sheppard queried. Teyla's negative shake confirmed his fear they were cut-off for the time being from the rest of the Atlantis group. "Head for the Jumper." He ordered. He could only hope McKay would follow.

"The radio won't work." Markham had clicked the button, pulled the radio off his vest, and tried Stackhouse's, all to no avail. Something was jamming their signal.

McKay felt himself throttling into full-blown explosion. "How can the radios not work, they worked five minutes ago?"

Ford was used to McKay's momentary panic attacks when the situation went south, and knew the doom and gloom would follow, and then someone would snap him out of it and he would focus on finding a solution. He figured this would be a good time to fast-forward McKay to the solution part. "McKay, get over it and figure out a way to get us out of here!"

McKay snapped his teeth shut, having been on the verge of a tirade against the Wraith, the Major, and this whole debacle. Solution, right, he could do that, he thought fervently. He was intelligent, genius even; he'd figure something out.

The Jumper would be working. The Hive ships systems had gone down when whatever it was the Hive shiphad re-encountered. He didn't know what it was, but he had to believe the Jumper would be able to provide some answers. "The Jumper. We need to get back to the Jumper." McKay could only hope that the others had done the same.