Chapter 4
Coming through the other side of the event horizon John Sheppard surveyed the terrain. It appeared that the Stargate was located in a fairly large valley and surrounded by a dense forest. Teyla and Ford were already fanning out, establishing a perimeter, while McKay immediately began taking readings.
John's brow furrowed for a moment in thought, he couldn't quite say what it was, but something about this place was off. He remembered reading about the men feeling something like it in the reports, but hadn't thought it would be this overpowering. It felt like being placed in the sights of a sniper that was about to fire on him.
If you see a tall man with long grey hair and black eyes, run, run as fast as you can.
Elizabeth's words echoed in his mind, a warning. His thoughts turned to the enigmatic Dr. Weir, for as every time he thought that he had her figured out she did a complete one-eighty. The way that she had been acting lately had confused him more than anything else.
Elizabeth had always struck him as an unmovable force, impenetrable behind high walls and emotionally cut off from the rest of the human race. But the last few days had been different; she'd been going around the city like a cat on a hot tin roof.
It was only yesterday that John had spotted her on the balcony, lost deep in thought, which wasn't anything new. But she hadn't noticed his approach; usually she knew he was there before he knew she was. Only she hadn't noticed, and when he'd leant forward and whispered quietly in her ear, only his quick reflexes had saved him from a black eye.
Then taking into consideration how she was acting in the briefing this morning, nothing seemed to make sense. John had been entirely amused when McKay had caught her with the paper airplane, but had quickly gone back to drawing. When he'd looked back at Weir she had had her head in her hands and was entirely too still for his liking. Paying more attention to her then anything else, he watched as she looked up with a far off look in her eyes and started shaking. John had hardly noticed McKay ending the briefing and sat forward to call Weir's name. After snapping out of whatever trance she'd been in and giving the mission a go, had been when she issued the warning.
"This way," looking to his left John spotted McKay high up on the ridge pointing off to the west. Firmly pushing Dr. Weir and her warning out of his mind he followed his team up the ridge and into the forest in search of the ruins.
"So what do you think that was?" John looked next to him slightly surprised, having not noticed the young Lieutenant walk up beside him.
"Think what was?" the major had been lost in his own thoughts for most of the walk to the ruins, which spanned nearly six miles. He could hear McKay a couple of feet in front of him muttering 'only one more to go' under his breath.
"Dr. Weir, she looked pretty shaken up," Ford was scanning the tree line; he could probably feel the tension just like the rest of them.
John watched him for a second trying to decide how much to tell him. Weir had told John that she was fine, but he didn't believe it, and had been mulling over what little information he had for the past two hours. She had an incredible intuition that had only grown in their time here. At the risk of sounding like his sister, John truly believed that Weir may be some sort of psychic, and she either didn't know or didn't want anyone else to know.
"She said she was fine," a textbook answer and he knew it, but he wasn't about to tell anyone anything about the doctor.
Aiden gave him a look that told him to expand on the sentence, but after a few minutes of silence gave up.
"So what do you think about the Merry-Go-Round?" John had to smile at that one, the Merry-Go-Round was what people called the Atlantis dating circuit. In a close knit community it was hard to keep secret about who was dating who. At first both Dr. Weir and himself had held up the no fraternization rule among the expedition team, but when it became clear that they wouldn't be going home soon the rule had been dropped. As a result it had become a main topic of gossip, because people were changing partners every few weeks, usually on good terms, or had funny date stories.
One of the most amusing stories was when Dr. Carson Beckett had asked one of the French scientists to join him for a walk on the south pier, late one night. Then sometime around one in the morning a medical emergency had been called, Weir and Sheppard had come running to the infirmary to find the doctor with a small squid stuck on his date's face. It had taken two whole weeks after they got it off, for her face to change from purple to its normal color.
"What do you mean? Is there something that I don't know?" John tore his eyes from the trees to catch the lieutenants' amused grin, "Is there something about me?"
Ford smiled as the major finally asked the right question. A groan issued from the ranking officer, and just like most small communities a lot of the talk wasn't true. One minute John was sleeping with the majority of the women on base, then he'd gotten an Athosian pregnant or he and Teyla had been secretly married. He shuddered at that thought, he tended to group Teyla with his sister in his mind and the thought of them getting married freaked him out.
"Yep, and it's pretty…well, you might not want to hear it," Ford's mood went from excited to somber in less then a second, causing John's suspicion to rise.
"What is it?" Sheppard practically growled at the man, he hated it when they spread lies about him.
"Well…if you insist," Aiden was grinning again, clearly enjoying being able to tell his commanding officer something that John didn't know, "okay, so according to the gossip pool you were seen making out with Teyla in the back of a puddlejumper two days ago."
"That's just stupid. Everyone knows that Teyla was on the mainland and I was training some of the scientists in self-defense."
"Right, which is why that rumor was squashed fairly quickly and replaced with something else," Ford paused as if reconsidering telling the news, but at John's glare he continued, "now the whole city believes that you were up doing certain…nocturnal activities…in the lounge last night, with…Dr. Weir."
Everything seemed to freeze for a moment, even the hidden entities seemed to pause.
"WHAT?"
McKay and Teyla both turned to see, one Major John Sheppard standing in the middle of the path with a look of fury on his face mixed with a little disbelief. Ford blinked at the man, slightly taken back by the outburst, but he rapidly recovered.
"Don't worry I told them all that you two wanted to keep it secret, which is a sure way to eliminate the rumor," even as the major looked ready to kill him Ford couldn't keep the grin from his face.
"Major Sheppard, you know how the people of Atlantis are, if you ignore the rumor they will move onto a new one in a couple of days," Teyla had come up to them and placed a calming hand on John's shoulder, "I know that you care about Dr. Weir so just ignore it and the rumor won't get blown out of proportion."
It was a measure of John's absentmindedness that he didn't denying he cared for her, but simply looked at the woman and nodded.
"Okay let's keep moving, the ruins can't be that far away," John cleared his throat and walked on in their previous direction.
There was a rumor about him and Dr. Weir? He was used to having things said about him, but never paired with her. For some reason it bothered him more than any of the others, even the ones about Teyla. It probably had to do with the fact that he didn't want her reputation spoiled, because she was the team leader and he respected her. That had to be it. John once again pushed the woman from his thoughts as he spotted some odd shaped rocks in front of him and the trees had gotten less dense, they'd finally come upon the ruins.
Carefully stepping into the small clearing he did a quick scan, looking for anything that someone could hide behind. The watchers were there, but for some reason the farther into the ruins he went, the farther away they got.
Sheppard heard the footfalls of McKay and Ford behind him, naturally assuming that Teyla was there as well, he could never hear her approaching. Her and Weir, he swore that the women could sneak up and scare a ghost without anyone noticing.
"The readings are coming from over there," McKay pointed over to a half collapsed building near the edge of the woods, and the scientist proceeded to make his way there.
Looking around John saw that Teyla had joined McKay and they were both walking around the structure, looking for an entrance. Ford was poking around what looked like a fountain that had pinkish colored vines coming out of it. John was about to make a comment about poison ivy when something else caught his attention.
A young woman, maybe 25 years old with long brown hair, was standing on the edge of the woods behind Ford. She was tall for a woman, almost as tall as him, and there was something about her…something that didn't sit right with him. She was calmly studying the newcomers with a cool clear blue gaze, as if trying to decide to kill a bug with her show. The clothes that she wore reminded him of an elegant dress made for a royal court. A deep brown color that clung to her hips set off the dark tone of the mysterious woman's skin. As if sensing his gaze her eyes locked with John's and a clean feeling of fear laced through him, this woman was dangerous.
"Who are you to desecrate this place?" the woman's tone was sharp with a clipped accent, but it got the attention of the rest of his team.
"We're explorers, simply looking for new things to study," McKay started into the normal speech, but somehow John thought it was lost on the woman.
As if by magic another person came out of the woods, with a determined stride. The man seemed to be all hard edges and corners, but the long grey hair swung in the light breeze and his black eyes held John glued to the ground.
If you see a tall man with long grey hair and black eyes, run, run as fast as you can.
Panic laced through John's body like a raging flood, Elizabeth's warning ringing in his ears. The man seemed to radiate with power, a force that could not be stopped. Without sparing much time for thought John turned slightly to his team while readying his P90.
"RUN! RUN NOW! GO FOR THE GATE!" John opened fire on the man and barely noticed Teyla grab the stunned scientist and instantly follow the order. Ford on the other hand opened fire on the man.
The aim of both men was true, but it didn't seem to help as the man stopped and the bullets whipped right through him, leaving only a grey mist in their wake. Those black eyes stared expressionlessly at John, who was about to tell Ford to run once again when the wind was knocked out of him.
Looking around John saw that somehow he'd been thrown through the air and slammed into one of the walls behind him. Glancing around for his teammate, John saw that Ford was lying in a heap ten feet from the place he had last been.
Pulling himself to his feet, and doing his best to ignore the pain in his shoulder, John charged at those void black eyes. A twisted grin came across the man's face before he lifted a hand and John flew back once again, feeling the wall crumble around him.
As he watched the two beings move toward him he could only hope that the rest of his team got away.
Just run, Elizabeth's words echoed once again in his mind.
It's too late…I'm sorry, that last thought was all he had time for before darkness engulfed him.
A scream ripped through Elizabeth Weir's throat, and was quickly stifled. She leaped out of her bed landing awkwardly on her left leg; her knee buckled throwing the distraught doctor to the ground. Quickly pulling herself up and using the wall for support, she lunged for the door.
Elizabeth stumbled into the hallway, almost dropping to the floor again. Clad in pajama pants and a tank top she made her way, barefooted to the end of the hallway, where John Sheppard's quarters were located.
She made a frantic leap from one wall to the other side where his door was, trying to keep the weight off her left leg, it slid open in her presence. Immediately dropping to the floor, ignoring the pain, the images from her dream came rushing back.
The team arriving on the planet and finding the ruins, then the man appeared with them, the man with black eyes. Teyla and McKay weren't there, but John and Ford had been injured and captured. John's words still hung in the air.
It's too late…I'm sorry.
Somehow she had known that John had actually spoken those words and that they were meant for her. They had been captured, and she knew that if she didn't do something they were going to die.
"Unauthorized off world activation!" the voice came over the communications system, but she couldn't tell who it was.
Elizabeth could feel the pressure of the air around her, closing off the entrance to her lungs. Eyes watched her from every direction and as the voice on the system called her name the darkness claimed her.
