A/N: Thanks a lot to my reviewers, I hope this chapter will make you happy. There are a lot of things planned for this story and hopefully I'll have two more chapters in the next couple of days.

Enjoy!


Chapter V: Never to Return

The following day Major Sheppard awoke to the sound of the door being opened to reveal the guards. There was no need for an explanation, as the team knew they were going to see Elek again. Ford and Sheppard helped McKay get up from the floor and then silently followed the guards out of the cell.

Sheppard secretly hoped that Elek had changed his mind about them and that he and his team weren't going to experience first hand the kind of death Amara had described to him the previous day.

The moment they entered the main chamber, they immediately noticed that the atmosphere had changed entirely. Even Elek's behavior was different, he was smiling and received them as honored guests. Sheppard noticed Amara was sitting right next to Elek. The team looked at each other in utter bewilderment, shrugging as they moved further into the room.

Elek got up from where he was seated and addressed them a whole lot friendlier than he had when they had first met him. "I would like to apologize for our treatment towards you in the past couple of days. After carefully watching your behavior, I came to realize that you couldn't possibly be Ancient. Now sit ... eat, then we'll talk."

Sheppard's suspicion about the man's true intentions grew by the second. He wasn't sure whether to thank him for the food, as he was really hungry, or to just shoot him.

They ate in silence and Elek didn't disturb them until each of them was finished. "I would like to inform you that you are no longer prisoners. But we are still not very comfortable with what we have gathered from you. You have awakened the Wraith." Elek's tone changed from friendly to accusing rather quickly.

Major Sheppard couldn't contain himself any longer, "Gathered? You just let us starve for two whole days and beat one of my team members!" Instinctively Sheppard looked around him, expecting someone to swing something at him, but nothing happened.

Elek gave John such a serious glare that he received it as the swing he had expected earlier. "We have our means to retrieve information. We do not need to share them, especially not with intruders." Sheppard had heard enough, "Ok, I'll go for that. But, what about the Wraith? You seem to be untouched by them."

"They do not dare to challenge us." Elek snapped back at Sheppard, feeling his anger slip.

"What makes you so special? You are human equals food."

"Enough!" Elek's anger had totally slipped, "You are free to go! For now but do not dare to ever return again! Because next time we will not be as forgiving as we were now."

"I'm still wondering for what reason we were imprisoned in the first place." John waited for an answer but didn't get one, while his team pleaded with him to drop the argument all together. John sighed getting the message and finally looked at Elek, "Can we at least get our stuff back? There's this one item that without it we can't get home."

Elek seemed to relax a little, "You will tell Maur which item it is and he will retrieve it for you." He pointed at the guard who had escorted Sheppard's team out of their cell the first time. Sheppard quickly walked up to him and described what he needed.

Elek faced Sheppard once again, "You shall remain here until Maur brings you the item you requested. After that you will be escorted back to the Stargate." Sheppard turned back to Elek as soon as Maur had left the room and noticed Amara was standing right behind him. The man bowed to them in a way that could only be interpreted as 'Good bye'. Major Sheppard stared at Elek, shooting a quick glance at Amara, who didn't seem to acknowledge anything around her. Elek, on the other hand, gave him a look, which held the middle between recognition and hatred. Sheppard couldn't figure it out and that unnerved him more than anything.

Elek left the room, as did most of his staff, few guards remaining to keep an eye on the team. Sheppard turned back towards his team and looked at McKay, who was looking a whole lot better than the previous day. Rodney didn't acknowledge John looking at him instead he was staring at his wrists. Eventually he looked up, "I know I'm the pessimist here, but doesn't this feel like the 'never to return' chat that you gave us the other day?"

Sheppard lowered his voice a notch or two, "Let's just be thankful they are letting us go. Tonight we will be in Atlantis, pretty much not giving a damn about this place. So let's take the hint and leave this place."

"Yeah, but what I'm trying to say is…" But Sheppard cut Rodney off, "I know Rodney, something is not right, let's just pray we are wrong, okay." Rodney gave him a shrug, knowing there was nothing he could say that would change the Major's mind.

At that moment Maur re-entered the chamber, carrying the GDO, which he willingly handed back to the Major.

As they were walking back towards the beautiful beach, Sheppard couldn't believe that two days ago he was hoping this place could possibly be the ideal spot for a well-deserved holiday. But now he was leaving it with a big sign that read, 'trespassers will be shot'.

He didn't mind staying away from this place for ever because he wasn't ready to experience first hand how cruel the death was that could have been theirs if Elek hadn't send them back home.

Sheppard couldn't deny though that there was definitely something not right about how Elek had all of a sudden changed from a beheading tradition to just letting intruders get away.

At least he was sure of one thing Amara was staying on the planet and wasn't in any way going to go back to Atlantis with them. They had never settled on anything. She belonged with these mysterious people.

When they had finally arrived at the Stargate, it was Teyla who dialed home while Sheppard entered his code the moment the wormhole connected. He watched how Rodney and Ford were the first to step through, closely followed by Teyla and himself.

But as soon as Teyla had stepped into the event horizon, he could feel the all too familiar pain in his head. 'Argh… this can't be happening!' This time it was way worse than the first time, in seconds he was lying flat on the ground, grabbing his head with both hands and screaming out in pain. He could just barely make out the guard named Maur holding the small device.

TBC…………


A/N: Sorry about that, will update soon. I promise.