A/N: Sorry for the lateness of this, but here it is :)

Stargate Atlantis:
Nemesis

Chapter 5
Prisoner

John looked up as Koyla set down a box of supplies, clearly something taken from the Jumper; which meant the ship had probably survived, not that it would fly without a lot of work. He also noticed that the Genii commander had bandaged the wound on his arm.

He blinked and reached a hand back to feel where he'd been struck by the gun; he remembered it all now. It came back like a flood rushing to his brain, how he'd fallen into the mousetrap, the fire aboard the Jumper, Davey's injury, how Jones had died; all of it.

He watched as Koyla sorted through the box of supplies he'd brought back with him. There was food, medical supplies, rope and some thermal blankets. John knew there were more supplies besides that on the Jumper.

Wincing slightly, he rubbed his cold hands together and stuffed them under his arms.

'What happened to Davey?' he asked, trying as best he could to hide the obvious pain he was in.

'He didn't survive,' Koyla said without looking up and also without much care.

'No thanks to you,' Sheppard muttered. He pulled his hands from under his arms, seeing as that wasn't helping to keep them warm. One of those thermal blankets would be nice.

'I saved your life, Major,' Koyla's tone was a little less passive this time. Maybe he was hoping to gain some sort of respect… not that John would ever give him any, not after everything.

'Oh! Well then, in that case, all is forgiven!' Sheppard said sarcastically. Koyla shot him a glare, a slight irritation in his eyes.

'You only saved me so you could bring me back to your boss,' Sheppard continued, 'I guess Cowen wasn't too happy when you came back from Atlantis with so little men and not much to show for all your effort.' Koyla stood, a pistol in his hand, as Sheppard continued his taunting. 'And then you failed to steal the ZPM from us, which I'm sure didn't score you any points either. So—'

He was cut off as Koyla grabbed him firmly by the hair and pressed the pistol under his neck. Sheppard glared back at him defiantly.

'Understand this, Major Sheppard,' the Genii commander said coldly but softly, 'you are only alive because you have this supposed Ancient gene. The instant you are no longer of any use, I won't have any problems with killing you. Even news of your death would be enough to appease Chief Cowen. But maybe, just maybe, if I find something of greater use to me, then I'll let you go when this is all over. It's up to you whether to help me or not.' At that, he moved away and firmly backhanded Sheppard across the mouth before he turned his attention back to the supplies.

John brought a hand up to wipe the blood from his mouth as he watched Koyla wearily. He was awful certain that his adversary had no intention of releasing him no matter what happened.

He had run out of ideas, at least for the moment, and considering he couldn't walk, he had little chance of escaping. You'd better come up with something soon, he told himself or else he was a dead man. Which raised another question, why would Koyla need him for his Ancient gene if the Jumper was damaged? He knew he couldn't fix it, he was no Rodney McKay. Oh well, he was certain he'd find out soon enough.

The instant Koyla turned his back; Sheppard reached out and snatched one of the thermal blankets, as they were luckily the closest thing to him, and wrapped it around his legs, pulling them closer to his chest with his hands. The numbness was started to fade, as he winced at the wound on his left leg. That, at least, was a good sign.

Koyla turned a slight glare on his as he continued tucking the blanket in around his legs.

'What?' Sheppard asked with annoyance. 'I'm not any good to you if I freeze to death. And I'd like some water, too, if you don't mind.' His demand was rewarded as Koyla tossed him a water bottle and one of those power bars that McKay enjoyed.

'Thank you,' Sheppard said with some sarcasm and without the slightest hint of gratitude. He opened the bottle and downed quite a bit of the water, breathing a sigh as he closed his eyes and opened them again. He saw Koyla had begun to pace, walking back and forth near the supplies. From a hidden pocket under his coat the Genii commander pulled a brown piece of paper and trained a small flashlight on it as he studied it.

As Koyla paced, looking over the scrap, Sheppard tried to discern what it was. Each time he got a look at it, he saw that the paper had Ancient writings on it, or what he thought looked like Ancient writings. He thought he might ask Koyla what it was but then decided against it since the Genii commander probably wouldn't tell him anything anyway.

Setting the water bottle down, he unwrapped the power bar and looked around the cavern again. That was when he noticed something interesting on one of the chucks of rock nearby.

There were symbols, numbers in Ancient, letters, too, that he couldn't read, written along the rock. They looked very similar to the symbols written on Koyla's scrap of paper.

John took a bite out of his food and glanced back at Koyla and then at the slab of rock. He finally understood, or at least he thought he did. This place, this cavern, was the reason why Koyla had come to this planet and why he probably needed to keep Sheppard alive. There was Ancient technology here, technology that Koyla obviously intended to seize to help the Genii in the war against the Wraith. Technology that could probably be useful to Atlantis, perhaps even a ZPM.

Dr. Weir sighed as she looked down at the screen in front of her; she had just finished going over the mission report of Beta Team's excursion to M7G-677 to check on how the community of children was fairing and how their shield was doing.

Taking in a breath, she closed the laptop and looked at her watch. Two hours; that's how long it had been since John had left. And he hadn't checked in yet. The Puddle Jumper had also been unreachable. Worry was beginning to overcome her; perhaps the whole ZPM offer had been too good to be true, as John had said.

She stood up, turning to watch her fellow team members doing their work before she strode out of her office and across the bridge to where Zelenka was still busy on his laptop. Ford and Teyla were already on their way back to the city so they'd be on the team she would send to find out what happened to John, Davey and Jones. She dearly hoped that they were alright.