A/N – Sorry this took so long. I had a paper due for school and then I didn't have internet access. And this other idea was bugging me so badly that I had to write a chapter of that story, before my brain would allow me to continue this.

I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 5

Voices slid across the void, contradicting the images that flashed in her mind. Blackness surrounded her, not just the blackness of night but the kind that lived. The kind of darkness that took on a life of its own, and engulfed all of those who were lost in it.

Except that wasn't the only thing, there was a presence somewhere out there, a presence that was somehow familiar to her. She took a step forward and the blackness blurred, throwing her into the middle of an encampment.

A large fire burned in the center, surrounded by dancing people. They were dressed in bikini style leather clothes and wearing masks that covered their entire faces. Their bodies were painted all in white, contrasting sharply with the blood red of their headwear. The people danced around her as if she didn't even exist, singing along with the drums that banged in the distance.

Behind the dancers stood a ring of people, which appeared to be of a different social class in the least. They all wore long clothes, dresses or robes, of differing shades of brown. One woman with long brown hair and sharp blue eyes seemed to draw her gaze. The woman scanned the crowd, seeming to pause on the area that she was standing before looking around and nodding to someone in the distance. Turning her head to look in the same direction as the woman, the blood froze in her veins.

A tall man with long grey hair and black eyes was making his way through the camp, directly towards the blue eyed woman. As he continued on his path he passed what seemed to be two large X's on the edge of the firelight. Moving closer to the structures she saw exactly why they were there.

Strung up on the X's were two men, arms and legs spread apart and tied to the posts. A large bruise was forming on the face of one of the men, it covered the majority of his face and the swelling had forced one of his eyes closed. Looking over at the lighter skinned man she noticed that he had dried blood down the right side of his face.

She stepped closer to that man, he was the most familiar, as if there was something drawing her to him, this was the presence in the darkness. This man had drawn her to him, something tells her that all of this has happened before, that she knows this dark haired handsome man.

Stepping close enough to see the stubble on his chin she couldn't resist reaching out and cupping his face in her hand. The man moved his face closer to her hand as if trying to wake up. Encouraged by the movement she stepped in and ran her other hand through his messy hair while rubbing her thumb along his cheek. Shaking his head again, he fought his way to consciousness, opening his eyes to look around blurrily until they locked with her own bright green eyes.

The man's eyes widened at the sight of her, confirming her idea that she knew him.

"Elizabeth?"

The disbelief was evident in his voice, as if she was the last person he expected to see. Then it all came rushing back in a roar of jumbled sounds. She was Elizabeth Weir, daughter of Robert and Christine Weir, an accomplished diplomat and leader of the Atlantis expedition. The man in front of her was John Sheppard, the same John Sheppard that she had seen captured by the man with black eyes.

"John," she stared into his eyes, really allowing herself to see this man for the first time in her life. He was scared and confused, not for himself, but for her. Because she was in this place where John was being held against his will, and how she had gotten here.

"How did you?"

"I don't know. All I know is that I'm going to get you out of here," John was obviously still confused, but he let a moment of hope flash in those deep green depths.

Suddenly the air seemed to solidify, eyes closed in on her and frost came off of her breath. John's eyes shot up over her head and instantly hardened. Turning to look behind her, even knowing what she would see.

The man with obsidian eyes was staring right at her, not through her like the others, but he could really see her.

"You do not belong here!"

The voice seemed to come from everywhere, echoing off the air and in her mind. A tearing feeling gripped her; it felt like she was being ripped in every direction. Not able to hold it in anymore she let loose a pain filled scream that tore at her throat. Dropping to her knees loosing awareness of everything around her except John, he was still there, her rock. His presence, something she hadn't really noticed before was strong, keeping her locked in consciousness, but it didn't keep her here.

"Elizabeth!"

John's voice followed his through the haze, as the other voices, which she'd just noticed grew closer.

Elizabeth's eyes tore open, assaulted with the harsh lighting of the infirmary. Quickly closing her mouth, cutting off the screams and ceasing the thrashing, she looked around and noticed Carson Beckett and several nurses rushing from the other room to her side.

"Dr. Weir? Are you alright, what happened?" the chief medical officer was at her side checking the monitors and her vitals.

"I'm fine, really," she looked around, something was different, it was as if she was suddenly so alone, but not really. The vision, that was all that it could be called, was fresh in her mind. John Sheppard. That was it, she could still feel him, very faintly, but he was there none the less.

"That must have been a really horrific dream," Beckett was taking her vitals and watching her out of the corner of his eye, before waving the nurses off, "We found you unconscious in Major Sheppard's room. Care to tell me why?"

"I had a bad dream," she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, "I don't know why I was in there, I just felt like something was wrong."

"Do you always go to the major when something is wrong?"

The sentence was said innocently, but she shot the doctor a sharp look anyway.

"I don't know," heaving a sigh and running her hands through her hair she looked back up at the man that had become her friend over the last three years, "I had a dream that he had been captured."

The doctor looked startled, but quickly looked around to see if anyone was watching.

"What do you mean?"

Elizabeth cocked an eyebrow at the Scottish man, urging him to continue.

"Well, shortly before we found you Teyla and Dr. McKay came through the Stargate, without the major or lieutenant. They said that they had been captured and wouldn't elaborate until they spoke with you."

She did remember that there had been an unauthorized off world activation before she had passed out. Meaning that her visions had to be true, and John was being tortured on that planet.

Quickly jumping off the bed, only to have her left leg collapse out from under her, and have Carson grabbed her just before she hit the ground.

"Whoa, there lass, not so fast; I understand that you want to get out there and get those men back to Atlantis, but you need to slow down a second," Carson eased her back into a sitting position, and for the first time she noticed the black wrap that was tied around her left knee. A dull ache was originating from the joint, sending tingles all the way up her leg, causing her to grimace, "you strained that knee pretty badly last night, whatever it was that you were doing. Although it probably wasn't just last night, you've been walking around a lot lately and it's not good to put an old injury through that much stress. How did you do that anyway?"

"I have been busy. Now if I promise to take it easy will you let me go figure out a way to rescue my people from that god forsaken planet," she couldn't help getting angry with the man, if he had seen what she had he wouldn't be wasting time either.

"Alright, but after this is over I'm ordering you to get some rest. Is that clear?"

"Crystal."

This time she slid off more slowly, holding herself up with the bed until she was sure that the strained joint wouldn't buckle. Then proceeding to limp out of the infirmary, in the general direction of McKay's lab, hoping to find him there and extract all of the information she could about the planet.

By the time Elizabeth reached the hallway outside the door to McKay's lab she was seriously considering cutting her leg off. The injury occasionally flared up if she spent an excessive amount of time on her feet, like just before the Genii attack three years ago, but for the most part if she rested it for a day or so nothing else happened.

However, since taking the job as leader of this expedition she had rarely had a moment to herself, let alone a time to rest with her feet up. Coupling that with the recent stress of impending Wraith attacks, the prophetic dreams returning and two of her best people being captured, she was probably up for the, busiest woman in the galaxy award.

Finally the door to the astrophysicist's lab slid open to reveal a distraught Rodney McKay looking through papers, as if his life depended it. Limping up to the table in front of him she glanced at the papers in his hand, and saw that they held everything they knew about the planet he'd just been to.

"Rodney?"

Startled, the man in question jumped at finding her so close to him.

"Elizabeth, are you all right? Beckett said that you'd collapsed or something?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, but I need you to tell me exactly what happened on that planet, everything that you can remember," while saying this Elizabeth slid onto a stool that had been pulled up to the workbench, taking some much needed pressure off her knee.

The scientist looked around as if suddenly at a loss for words, and then took a seat opposite her.

"Okay, it all started when we went through the gate, I guess, we all felt as if we were being watched. After walking for what seemed like forever, the ruins were in front of us. Teyla and I went to explore the building that the energy readings were coming from whilst the major and Ford looked around the rest of the area. All of a sudden there was a woman standing on the edge of the ruins and I tried explaining who we were so that she wouldn't panic. Then…, then the man came…"

"The man with black eyes?"

"Yes, he… Wait how did you know he had black eyes?"

Elizabeth shifted a little under his scrutiny, trying to figure out a simple way to explain how she knew what this man looked like.

"Never mind," Rodney shook his head, as if pushing away the previous thoughts, "the man came into the ruins and before I even had the chance to open my mouth Sheppard was yelling at us all to run. Teyla grabbed me and I saw Sheppard and Ford both go down before we were out of site. The woman chased us all the way to the Stargate; I wouldn't have made it if Teyla hadn't been pulling me along."

Elizabeth didn't say anything for a moment processing what she had learned, that dream was a little fuzzy, but hearing the retelling from Rodney had showed her things that she hadn't known. Like the fact that John had told them to run as soon as the man had appeared, that meant that he'd kept her warning in mind. But it hadn't saved him.

"We need to go after them," she looked up at the man that had spoken. McKay was watching her with panic in his eyes, the scientist had really changed in there time here. When she'd met him, Rodney McKay had been concerned with one thing; himself. But now he cared a lot about other people, his friends more than anything else.

"We will, but I'm not going to risk more of my people unless I know what we're up against," her look hardened, she didn't want to hurt him, but he had to have a clear head to be useful. And it appeared that it worked, Rodney glared at her, but gave a nod and went back to looking at the papers, "if you find anything unusual let me know immediately. In the meantime do you know where Teyla is?"

"I think she's on the mainland."

"The mainland?"

Rodney looked up at her again, his brow furrowed, "Yeah, the mainland. She thought that maybe some of the older Athosians had been to the planet and knew something that could be useful."

Elizabeth nodded, dreading the long walk that it would mean in order to talk to the woman. Slowly she slid off the stool, instantly regretting sitting for so long as her knee had stiffened up. Trying to hold in any outward signs of pain until she was out of the lab, it became apparent that she'd failed when Rodney gave her a questioning look.

"Elizabeth, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just an old injury flaring up."

He looked down at her leg, noticing the black wrap and gave her the deepest look of concern that she'd ever seen from him.

"You've been working too hard, this wouldn't have happened if you took it easy every once in awhile."

Weir blinked, first Beckett now McKay, was everyone on Atlantis channeling her mother?

"I promise that I will take a vacation as soon as I get all of my people safely back on Atlantis," she cocked an eyebrow at the physicist, daring him to say anything more on the subject.

"Fine, but I'm holding you to that," Rodney managed to look concerned and defiant at the same time.

Damn that man! First John was talking her into things and now this from McKay! Do I have a sign on my back that says 'tell me what to do, I appreciate it'?

Bottling up her frustration, she turned and limped as fast as she could out of the lab.

If Teyla was on the mainland that meant that was where Elizabeth had to go, no matter how much her leg would protest. Maybe these people that Teyla was speaking with could tell her something about the man with black eyes.

Making her way slowly to the jumper bay, she silently sent out a thought to John, almost confident that he would hear it.

I'm coming John, just hang on.