Part Nine

"I'm invulnerable," Rodney told the hallucination of Major Sheppard. He was hoping to see the familiar grin of his mischievous co-conspirator, but the pilot continued to look shocked and appalled. He didn't like seeing that expression on his friend's face, so he turned to look at Teyla and Ford instead.

The Athosian had picked herself up and knelt beside Ford, who was beginning to rouse.

"M'okay," he mumbled, waving her hands away. "Where's…" he trailed off, seeing the corpse dust and the mummified bodies that littered the corridor.

"Doctor McKay found us," Teyla told him, her voice shaking. Rodney frowned. Teyla's calm was already almost legendary on Atlantis – no, he corrected himself, had been almost legendary – and it was strange to hear her sound so perturbed. "He saved our lives," she continued.

Well, that was an odd thing to say. How could he save their lives when they were already dead?

Teyla stood up and helped the groggy lieutenant to his feet, pulling his arm around her shoulders.

"Rodney, come home with us. Carson figured out what's wrong with you." John tried to make his voice as gentle and persuasive as he could. "Let him try to help you."

The scientist shook his head stubbornly. "Carson is dead too. Everyone on Atlantis is dead, and I'm hallucinating you. I'm only seeing you because I miss you – because I'm so alone, because I'm still alive and you aren't. Survivor's guilt, isn't that what it's called? I can't bring you back, but I can avenge you. Chaya said – no, Carson, Carson said to avenge everyone. So I am. I'm doing pretty good, they're so surprised they can't seem to get organized. And they can't hurt me. I took too many of them, and now I'm stronger than them."

His words seemed to hit Sheppard with an almost physical blow. "Chaya said? Rodney, it isn't real. Whatever you think, it didn't happen. We're still alive. Chaya tricked you."

"Why do you always argue with me? You're a product of my disturbed imagination, you shouldn't be arguing with me." He felt irritated and aggrieved. Sheppard couldn't stop being his usual annoying self even in Rodney's mind. "I don't – I don't want to talk to you anymore." He scrubbed a weary hand over his face. "This is hard enough, John. Don't make it harder."

The cold, dull energy he pulled from the Wraith didn't seem to last long, and the more he took the faster it went. Rodney had lost count of how many Wraith he'd drained, but he was beginning to think he'd reached his limit. It became easier to drain them with each one he took, but the power wasn't filling him the way it had before, and he was starting to feel sick again. The little flame of vengeance Rodney had been carefully nursing had been abruptly snuffed out by the disturbing hallucination of his friends.

He turned away from the vision of Sheppard but was halted by a latex gloved hand on his arm that dragged him back to meet resolute hazel eyes.

"We're real, McKay. We're all alive. Chaya must have messed with your mind so you'd go after the Wraith." John sensed he was losing the scientist and spoke with greater intensity. "You have to fight it. Come on, Rodney…" He ground his teeth in frustration as the other man obstinately shook his head and tried to pull away.

"Rodney… " An idea struck him and John tore off his gloves and grabbed his friend's hands. "You're so cold -" he started, looking down at the hands clasped in his own, then broke off as his strength left him. He paled, but didn't let go.

Rodney couldn't help but pull in energy from the contact. The skin of the man before him was warm and dry and comforting, completely unlike the clammy, rubbery feel of Wraith skin. The energy warmed him, too, sweeping away the dead, ashy indifference of the Wraith. He closed his eyes and drank it in eagerly as it broke through the brittle shell of indifference he'd pulled around himself, then washed away the grief and anger underneath.

"Doctor McKay!" The voice called him back to his surroundings. "Doctor McKay, let him go!"

He opened his eyes to find the source of the intrusive voice, and found John Sheppard on the floor in front of him, gray-faced and wheezing and pulling weakly at Rodney's grasp on his hands. He snatched them away and stumbled back, looking around himself in surprise.

"What are you – how did you get here?" He spotted the other members of his team. "Ford? Teyla? You – I thought you were dead."

"We are not dead, Doctor McKay, but we may yet be if we don't leave here. You must help us back to the Puddle Jumpers." Teyla tried to speak calmly but wasn't sure how much longer she could manage it. "I can't carry both of them." Ford tried to straighten up and stand without her support but swayed alarmingly. "Please, Doctor McKay! Can you help the Major without draining him?"

Sheppard reached for his latex gloves and pulled them on slowly with fingers that trembled with weakness, then held out a hand to his wayward scientist. "Help me up, McKay."

Rodney could only look at the shaking hand and gape at the soldier. He didn't know what was going on. He remembered leaving Atlantis for Proculis to question Chaya, but he also remembered finding everyone in the city dead, drained by the Wraith; only a swiftly fading Carson left to inject him with some mysterious substance and beg him to go after those who had killed his friends.

John's hand fell as the exhausted man's remaining strength began to run out.

Suddenly, Teyla realized what part of the problem was. "You can touch him wherever his skin is covered, Doctor McKay. The gloves and clothes will protect him."

He looked down at John for confirmation and received a tired nod.

"Let's go home, okay, Rodney?"

The John Sheppard kneeling before him seemed far more real than the confused memories of his prematurely aged and wizened corpse on Atlantis. Occam's Razor, Rodney reminded himself. The simplest explanation was usually correct, and this reality, however strange, was still more likely than the other. Or perhaps it was just wishful thinking and insanity that made him want to believe that Sheppard was alive.

He made up his mind and grasped the offered hand, hauling his weakened friend to his feet. He pulled the major's arm across his shoulders and headed for the docking bay, followed by Teyla and a still-unsteady Ford.

"Your nose is bleeding," John said tiredly in Rodney's ear. He rummaged in his pocket with his free arm, coming up with a slightly grubby handkerchief.

"How did you find me?" Rodney asked as he accepted the cloth and blotted the slow trickle of blood pooling on his upper lip. They continued to converse in hushed tones.

"Sensors on the Puddle Jumper. Once we realized you hadn't gone on through the Proculis Stargate, we started looking around." He grimaced when Rodney offered the soiled handkerchief back. "For heaven's sake, Rodney, just keep it. My turn to ask a question. Why did you go to Chaya? I wouldn't have thought you'd want to go anywhere near her."

"Never again. But I figured, she's an Ancient, she has to know more about the Wraith than anyone else, right? Maybe she'd know what was happening to me. She didn't. She changed my memory – made me think you were all dead – and sent me after the Wraith. It's strange, I remember both series of events now. If you weren't here talking to me – if I hadn't – god, I'm sorry I've done this to you. You shouldn't have come after me. Are Carson and Radek okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, they're fine. I'll be fine, too. Carson's waiting for us in the Puddle Jumper. He figured out why you can – um, what happened to you. It's something to do with the gene – "

A Wraith appeared around the corner, snarled at them, and began to back away. Rodney dropped John and lunged at the creature. In moments it was another dry corpse, and he pushed it away from him, gagging and shuddering from the freezing, bitter taste of it.

"Rodney?"

"Doctor McKay?"

The voices of his teammates pulled him out of the fog of pain the Wraith's energy had wrapped around him. "I thought – " he turned his head and spat to clear his mouth of the taste of bile and ashes, " –I thought I was getting used to it."

"We must leave, and quickly," Teyla said urgently, and Rodney pulled Sheppard's arm over his shoulders again and grimly forced himself on. By the time they reached the docking bay and the cloaked Puddle Jumpers the only one not staggering and gasping for breath was Teyla, and the strain of supporting Aiden was beginning to show in the deepening lines around her mouth.

Carson jumped up when they appeared. "What have you done to yourselves now?" he exclaimed, coming forward with Markham to help them into the Jumper.

"Check on Ford first, he took a pretty good blow to the head," Sheppard instructed. "Markham, take the other Jumper. I want to get out of here now." He stumbled toward the pilot's seat, but Rodney pushed him into the seat behind it.

"Let me, Major. You can hardly stand up by yourself, much less fly this thing." He sat and placed his hands on the controls, but nothing happened. "What –" he muttered. John leaned over and put his hand on the console and it lit up immediately.

"It may not recognize your gene anymore, Rodney." Carson strapped Ford into the other passenger seat before checking his pupils.

"Guess I'm driving after all," Sheppard tried to grin as he switched seats with Rodney.

Moments later the cloaked Jumpers were dodging the Wraith Darts surrounding the hiveship. They cleared the field without revealing their presence and headed back to Proculis.

The return trip was blessedly uneventful. Carson quickly diagnosed Ford with a mild concussion and let him slip into a light doze from which the physician woke him every few hours. An examination of Rodney showed nothing urgent in need of care since his nosebleed had already stopped.

John lasted nearly three hours into the long return trip before succumbing to exhaustion. Carson and Rodney gently transferred him to one of the benches in the rear of the Jumper so the Scotsman could take over the controls. At his suggestion, Rodney relinquished the copilot's seat to Teyla and stretched out on the other bench. To his surprise, he fell into a dreamless sleep almost at once.