The Journey

Chapter 8

John raced along the corridors, trying to find the shortest route to the lower control room. He could only hope that he would get there in time, before the creature could harm Beckett. If he was right than there was only one way they could defeat the creature. Their weapons were useless but there was one weapon the Wraith and this creature would be defenseless against. At least that was what he had gathered from the prophecy and his earlier encounter with the creature. John rounded the last corner and stepped in the control room. To his relief, his was still in time. The tall creature had a terrified looking Beckett in a choke-hold. Obviously it hadn't detected him yet. For now, he kept in the entrance way, the darkness shielding him from immediate detection. The creature's raw and intense emotions easily projected over the distance. It wouldn't hesitate to kill Beckett; its only goal was the ship a ship that the Ancients had hidden within the temple structure. They were just a means to an end. Negotiations were going to be pointless. The only change he had to set his plan into motion was to provoke the creature into attacking him. He took a deep breath and ran into the room.

"You are wasting your time, the ship is long gone. You will never get off this planet!" He taunted the creature. For a second, the creature stared at him, along with everyone else in the room. John was well aware that his teammates had to be thinking that he must have finally lost it.

"Liar!" the creature roared in indignation and lunged towards John, tackling him to the ground. At the same time, it relinquished its hold on Beckett, who immediately backed off towards the wall with the others as the creature was blocking the exit.

As fast as he had been violently tackled to the ground, he was yanked to his feet.

"You are lying. Tell me where the ship is and I will spare you."

"I will tell you nothing." Sheppard said coolly, knowing what was coming. He could sense that the creature's anger and hunger were about the override any sense of strategy. Before he could see another word, incredible pain erupted in his chest. Normally, the sensation would have brought him to his knees, but the creature held him upright, as it kept its hand pressed to his chest, starting to feed of him. John tried to remain as calm as possible, but the pain was so intense he couldn't help but scream. The initial shock faded a second later and he invested all his energy and projecting the pain into his thoughts, seeking out the creatures easily accessible mind. The outside world vanished has he entered a mind filled with hunger, violence and need. He was overwhelmed with memories of the past, memories of places he had never been it, memories of people the creature had killed, unerringly he pushed forward, projecting all his pain at the creature.

The creature was stronger than he had anticipated. It wavered a few times, but it never let up. John could feel his mind weaken, wondering how much energy he had already lost, as information threatened to overwhelm him.

Everything threatened to turn black, John felt like he was falling very fast, the colours rushing past him, everything blurring together, voices turning into a cacophony of painful sounds. John was losing the hold on his mind and knew it. He was going down along with the creature and he knew it. He had been aware of the risk. If that was what it took to safe his friends and he would do it. He had come to this planet knowing that he might not come back. As he was falling, he felt a familiar presence for a second, like a sudden flash in his mind. Someone was reaching out to him. He tried to find the presence again, but the downward pull of the abyss was too great. There it was again, another flash, then another. It was Teyla; she was trying to reach him, trying to help him find his way hope. With all his strength he concentrated on her, on trying to find her amidst the chaos.


After what seemed like an eternity, the creature let out a piercing howl and let go of John as it collapsed to the ground. John staggered for a second before also collapsing. For a moment, they all stared at the scene in front of them, then Beckett hurried towards the creature, quickly binding tying it up with the plastic restraints that they carried in their bags. He had no idea whether the material was strong enough to withstand the creature's strength, but it was all they had at the moment. Once assured that the creature was out of action at least for the time being, he went to check on John. He was relieved that his pulse was still strong, despite the other man's ragged appearance. John's face was pale and blood soaked the front of his shirt where the creature had touched him to try to feed upon his energy. Beckett was just about the push up John's shirt when John started to stir.

"Owww," he groaned, raising one hand to his head. "Did it work?" John started to sit up, but Beckett stopped him.

"Stay down; you are still bleeding from where it touched you. Whatever you were trying to do must have worked; the creature is out at the moment. It didn't succeed in feeding off you." Beckett explained having a closer look at the vaguely hand shaped injury to the major's chest. As he touched his patient and focused his mind, the laceration slowly started to mend. It still took a lot of effort, but he already noticed that his ability to heal was not random but he was starting to gain conscious control over it.

John relaxed as he felt the pain in his chest and head steadily diminish. He felt exhausted, his plan had worked out, but the creature had been far stronger than he had anticipated and he had had to enter far deeper into its mind than he had ever wanted to. Had it not been for Teyla, he doubted that he would have found his way out again. But he now understood what Teyla had meant when she had told him that everything happened for a reason, when he had been about to let the creature feed upon him. Had he not done so, he would never have learned about the history between the Ancients and the Wraith, nor why the Wraith feared and hunted telepaths. The Aronans, an alien race they had encountered less than two weeks ago had never heard of the Wraith. It had been a complete mystery to them. Now he understood. There were telepaths on Arona and the Aronan military was not above using telepaths to their strategic advantage. It all fit together. Now, they had to find the ship that was hidden in the temple. The Wraith were coming and Atlantis was going to need them. He needed to tell the others what he had learned. They needed to know, Atlantis needed to know. John wanted to get up but before he could even try, he fell into an exhausted sleep.

Teyla watched with concern as Dr. Beckett stepped away from John and he was still lying on the ground, unmoving.

"Dr. Beckett, how is John? Can you not heal him?"

"He will be fine, as far as I can tell. He is exhausted; the creature did suck some of his energy out of him. Not much, but he did lose a couple of days probably. I have no idea what else he did to the creature. I'm sorry I can't tell you more. I haven't found any other I injuries."

"Thank you doctor," Teyla longed to be closer to John, but the paralysis caused by the creature's poison was slow to wear off, even with Beckett's help. She had some feeling back in her arms and hands, but her legs still refused to comply with the orders of her brain. Still she wanted to be close to John to make sure herself that he was indeed going to be already. She had seen too many people dear to here die at the hand of the Wraith. Seeing John being attacked by this Wraith-like creature had brought her back to the night many summers ago when she had woken up to find a Wraith hovering over her father. She had run and never looked back. But this time, it was going to be different; John was not going to die. The Prophecy had told of tests they would have to brave on Athos, this had been one of them.

TBC