Disclaimer see Chapter 1

The exhausted rescue team left the Gateroom and made its way down to the former quarantine zone. They were all worn and tired. Sergeant Jansen was on the brink of falling over, but he was insisting on walking to the infirmary under his own power. Still, Dr. Garber kept a close eye on him, in case he was not as well as he claimed. She was still not convinced that the healing device they had acquired provided a total cure. It seemed to have gotten rid of the drug in Teyla's system effectively, but in the more severe case of their CO, there were remaining effects of the poisonous dart.

The discovery of the artefact could revolutionize what they knew about medicine and biology in general. So far they had only been able to speculate about how the ancient ability to heal worked, they had never been able to study it. Now, they would have this chance. She eyed her team-mates. They all looked like they needed a shower and at least a week of sleep, but they were holding up all right. Including Teyla. Dr. Graber couldn't imagine the horror she must have been through. She was probably still in shock.

Indeed, Teyla bore only the vaguest resemblance to her usual self. Her hair was in a tangled mess, pieces of leaves sticking in it. It was evident that aside from the daily rains, it hadn't been washed in a while. Dr. Garber's uniform jacket was too wide for Teyla who was thinner than Dr. Garber. The make-shift skirt used to be off-white was stained with dirt, having taken on a green-brown mottled pattern.

Only her straight posture and graceful motions were unchanged by the horrendous trek through the jungle. They seemed to only have slowed down her movement. Dr. Garber could not help but marvel at that, she was too well aware of the slouch of her own shoulders, but lacked even the energy to straighten her back.

Finally, after what had seemed like a kilometre long stretch of corridor, they reached the former quarantine zone. The main room was strangely empty. They were mid way in when a nurse walked up to them.

„Sergeant Jansen. " She nodded to the leader. „The Gateroom informed us that you would be coming. We are trying to reach Dr. Beckett, he should be here shortly. In the meantime, I suggest you lie down over here. The rest of you can sit over by the wall. "

The nurse guided Jansen over to an exam table and helped him out of his jacket and boots. Jansen groaned. His head was hurting fiercely and the wound in his back where the dart had hit him felt like a sword had impaled him. All he wanted was for Beckett or any doctor to arrive and fork over the drugs.

"If Beckett isn't here, aren't there other doctors that can treat us?" he asked grumpily.

"I'm afraid not. Drs. Woods and Viro are getting ready for surgery right now. I could see if Dr. Hendricks can get down here, but I think he's on duty in the temporary infirmary." The nurse shrugged and went back to her desk.

"We have cleared the entire area, the sector is secure. Awaiting your orders, ma'am." Sergeant Forsythe spoke into his radio.

He and his men were gathered in front of the sealed door of the chair room.

"We read two life signs in the room ahead of you. Can you confirm?" Elizabeth's voice crackled over the radio.

"Yes, two life signs confirmed. Energy presence is not expanding further according to Dr. Javier."

"Dr. Grodin confirms that." There was a pause, and then a loud crack echoed over the radio before the connection to the command centre died.

At the same time, the corridor in front of the chair room, along with the entire City of Atlantis was plunged into darkness.

"Dr. Weir, please respond!" Sergeant Forsythe yelled. He switched off his com, and then switched it on again.

"Dr. Weir, this is Sergeant Forsythe, are you reading this?"

His call was met by silence.

It made all sense. John was dying. His vitals were dropping, his heart was slowing, and his body was cooling. But at the same time, he was giving off pure energy. The beeping of Radek's scanner confirmed it, but Carson could literally feel the energy that filled the room. It vibrated through his body, like an invisible warmth. He had never felt any sensation like it.

„Carson! "He heard Radek call his name. The other man was standing at John's side, reading to lift him back to the bed.

Carson moved fast. This couldn't be. It was too early. It wasn't John's time yet. Maybe there was still something he could do. If only he had the time.

„It's too late for that. "He shouted. „Put the interface on him and power up the second chair. "

Radek said nothing and leapt into action. Swiftly, he pressed the interface onto John's head where it immediately lit up. Carson was watching from the other chair, waiting for Radek to reroute power from Atlantis' main system's to the chair room. Alarms had started beeping from the monitors he had set up to keep an eye on John's condition. He was deteriorating fast. Carson prayed that he was not too late. Maybe he shouldn't interfere, but he had chosen to go down this path long ago and he would go all the way.

Seconds later, the lights went out.

„You're good to go. " Finally. The chair lit up a second later. Carson tried to blank everything else, except his connection to John and the interface. He had to find it with his mind.

Suddenly everything went dark. Every light, every console lost power at the same time. Even the Gate powered down instantaneously. At was as if someone flipped the power switch. For a second, there was utter silence before everyone started talking at once, asking questions, trying to move in the darkness.

„Stop, everyone stop talking! " Elizabeth yelled. It had the desired effect. The voices started dying down fast and within second there was silence in the command centre.

„Grodin, where is emergency power. It is supposed to kick in whenever power fails in the City? "

„It should. But without the use of the computer system, I can't tell you anything, except that everything is off-line at the moment. "

„That's not helping. " Elizabeth commented dryly. She tried to reactivate her com. „Sergeant Forsythe, do you hear me? "

She got no response. The com system was down as well. They were perfectly vulnerable at the moment. If the Wraith decided to attack now, they would be helpless. Just because they had beaten the Wraith once, didn't mean that they had defeated the enemy forever. They would be back, eventually.

„Is there a way to manually bring the power back on-line, or at least switch on emergency power? "

„There is, but it's a bit from here. I could show you on the map, well if I could „ Grodin said nervously. „That's presuming that our power supply hasn't been damaged, if the energy that we detected earlier was a life form, it could „

„We can't assume anything right now. " Elizabeth cut him off. „Take two marines with you and try to switch the power back on manually. We need to get power back to be able to defend the City. Without the computers we are blind. "

At first he though he had finally fallen asleep and this was some pleasant dream were the offending lights that were aggravating his headache were gone, but when Jansen heard the chatter of his team follow the plunge into darkness, he immediately knew that he was not asleep, but that something bad had happened. On a military base, the power didn't just simply go out. There wad always a back-up, especially, in the high tech City of the Ancients.

Before they could do much, their attention was draw to desperate shouts coming from the next room down.

„Damn, what just happened? I can't see anything. Where is the damn back-up power? This can't be happening. "A woman sounded panicked, and then something was knocked over. Metal clattered to the ground.

„Dr. Woods? "Another voice, confused now.

„The respirator! "The first woman shouted. „It must have shut off. "

„I can't find a pulse. But I'm not sure, fuck. I don't think he's breathing. Where is the power? "They were yelling now. More objects fell to the ground.

„Ow. Damn. It's too fucking dark. I'm getting started on compressions. Get that tube out of his throat; I need to get him breathing. "The voice was frantic.

„It won't work. He's too deeply sedated to breathe on his own. "The woman sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

They could hear bodies shift and mumbled counting start as one of the doctors did CPR on Dr. McKay.

They looked at each other horror on their faces. The same thought occurred to them simultaneously. The healing device, It was the only hope now. It might not work, but it was worth a try.

„Here, quickly. "Dr. Garber handed the device to Captain Mars who put it on even as he ran towards the door separating them from the adjoining room. Teyla followed right behind him. The rest of the team stayed behind, knowing that they would only be in the way.

Mars and Teyla came to a halt as they entered the room that served as an operating theatre in the quarantine zone. It was pitch black in the windowless room, only the Ancient artefact that Mars was wearing emitted an intense unearthly blue glow. Dr. Viro was staring at them, having noticed their arrival. In the blue glow, they could see tears on her face. Further back in the room, they could see the shadowy figure of Dr. Woods straddling Rodney, frantically performing CPR. Mars rushed towards her, ignoring Dr. Viro. Within a second he was standing next to the doctor and her lifeless patient how looked white in the blue light. Dr. Woods seemed to not even have noticed him. Only when he put a hand on her arm, she tried to shake him off.

„Dr. Woods, you have done enough. We can help him. We have found an Ancient technology on the planet"

„Can't let him die. He's my patient. "Dr. Woods panted between compressions. She was clearly at the end of her strength. When Mars grabbed her by the shoulders and led her to the ground, she hardly resisted. He quickly moved back to Rodney, praying that it was not too late. He focused on the still man, imagining healing him. Mars had no idea what he was doing. To tell the truth he was scared of failing, of making a mistake. All he had ever done with his gene was flying a Puddle Jumper, but not nearly as well as the major. Just well enough for supply runs for the mainland. He probably wouldn't do as a fighter pilot. And now he was expected to raise the chief scientist from the dead.

„You did it, he's breathing. " Mars heard the words and felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and found Jansen standing next to him. Dr. Viro was tending to McKay. Teyla and Dr. Garber were nowhere to be seen.

„Let's get out of the way. You've done your job. "Jansen said and led Mars back to the main room.

Carson was standing in the middle of what appeared to be a maze. The room he was in was small and square in shape; four corridors led away from it, one on each side. It looked just like the corridors on Atlantis, but everything was narrower and had a claustrophobic touch to it. Carson shuddered slightly.

He knew that he wasn't really standing in a square room like this. In reality he was sitting in one of the Ancient's chairs trying to save John's life. The last thing he could recall was trying to focus on finding to connection to John. This was probably how the chair represented it for his mind to process. Under different circumstances, it would be very fascinating. But now, he didn't have time. There was no way to know how John was doing.

Carson took the corridor to his left. It stretched down for quite a bit before it separated again, giving him the choice to go left or right. On the right was a closed door, whereas on the left lay another corridor going downhill from where he was standing.

Carson chose the door. Luckily it wasn't locked. He stepped inside. The room was dark, only when he looked up; he saw a faint source of light. On the ceiling of the room, was what resembled a miniature sky. A black night sky with sparkling stars, but there weren't just stars, there were names attached to them. When he unintentionally focussed on one of them, the star drifted closer and the name became clear, written in the beautifully slanted Ancient characters. It was a star map that he could somehow access with the help of the chair, in a way like John had brought up Earth's solar system back in Antarctica.

Beckett forced himself back to the issue at hand; he was here to save John. He had to continue searching for him. He left the room and took the corridor that led downwards.

He had hardly taken ten steps when he noticed it getting colder. He hurried on. The corridor made a few turns, but didn't branch off anywhere. A good ten minutes passed at least, by now the temperature was below freezing, Carson estimated. He heard a sound not too far off, it sounded like the waves of an ocean crashing against the shore. He already feared to have run into a dead end when the corridor branched ahead of him.

There was no way to tell where to go, so he didn't waste time thinking and headed left. Another door waited for him after a few paces. Like the previous door, it wasn't locked.

He opened to door and stepped into a frighteningly familiar scene.

He was standing in the chair room, right next to the chair, he was sitting in. The strange thing was that he could see himself sitting in it. He was looking down on himself and what he saw didn't reassure him. His chair-sitting self was breathing hard and rapidly, his face pale and sweaty. It looked like the experience was taking a lot out of him. If it at least worked, it would be worth it to Carson. He looked over to John. The alarms had fallen silent, or Radek had turned them off. John was surrounded by an eerie glow of warm light.

No, Carson's mind, screamed. Not yet! He had to get out of this illusion and back to searching for John in the maze. He had to find him.

His mental command was obeyed and he found himself back in the corridor. With renewed determination, he raced back to the last junction and took the other direction. The sounds of the waves grew louder and soon the corridor opened up the give way to a beach.

The beach reminded Carson of a particularly beautiful spot on the mainland. Not sure what awaited him; he took a few cautious steps onto the beach. At first he couldn't see anyone else around, but suddenly he could sense a movement of air behind himself. He whirled around and saw the person he had least expected to appear.

Chaya was standing there, smiling at him. She was holding the Ancient interface in her hands, offering it to him. He didn't take it.

„John is waiting for you. I went to him, to welcome him, but he didn't wish to join us. He doesn't know it yet, but we are his people and one day, he will join us. But it is not his time yet. Now, he needs you. "Chaya explained.

„John is an Ancient? " Carson was astounded.

Chaya ignored him.

„Take this and reach out to him. " Chaya put the Ancient interface into his hands.

„Will he remember? "

„He might. "

„Main power seems to be back on-line, sir!" one of Sergeant Forsythe's men stated the obvious as the lights flickered back the life in the corridor in front of the chair room.

„The energy reading have dropped, but I'm still reading elevated levels in the room. " Dr. Javier informed them.

„Dr. Weir, this is Sergeant Forsythe, do you read? "The Sergeant tried his com again.

„Yes, sergeant, you have been out of contact for a while. We assumed that power had been lost all over the station. "

„Yes, it seems so. It just came back on-line. We are ready to proceed at your orders. We are still getting signs of abnormal energy levels from the chair room, now reading three life signs in the room. I suggest we enter the room to gain control of the situation and get our people out. "

„Go ahead and good luck! "

„All right, we are good to go. "

Two days later:

Elizabeth sighed as she closed the last of the reports concerning the incident two days ago. The City was back to normal operations. The power at come back on its own without a hitch and there had been no discernable damage to the power generators or any other part of the station for that matter. Only the door to the chair room had taken minor damage when Dr. Javier from Sergeant Forsythe's team had shortened out the door controls. But it was nothing that couldn't be fixed quickly. In fact, she had just signed off on the maintenance report.

The City gave her not so much cause to worry; it was the people living in it that were the problem. As so often in recent months, people had gone off and decided to do what was best in their minds. She was supposed to be the one to run this place. What was going wrong? Was she too lax? She thought that she had shown that she didn't tolerate blatant violations of rules when she had demoted Dr. Zelenka for keeping vital data from her. But that had obviously not deterred the scientist from embarking on another unauthorized experiment. She didn't doubt everyone's best intentions, surely Dr. Beckett and Dr. Zelenka had meant the best for John when they had kidnapped him from the infirmary, but still, she had decided otherwise. She didn't make her decisions with reason behind them, as her staff seemed to believe. She just had had bad luck recently with the jungle planet to turn out to be the home of a deadly bacterium and a difficult native culture.

But thanks to Sergeant Jansen team, they had managed to turn the tide there and had even obtained valuable technology. Only Teyla had requested not to return to the planet. Elizabeth couldn't phantom why. From what she had gathered from Sergeant Jansen report, Teyla had had quite animated conversations with the Chief in Ancient and he had seemed quite taken to her.

Carson had a full infirmary. It was his first day back on duty since what had happened two days ago. Dr. Woods had convinced him to take at least a day off after Sergeant Forsythe had called for a med team after finding him and John unconscious in the chairs. Although Carson hadn't suffered a detectable ill effect, he still felt a little tired. But he wasn't going to mention that to Dr. Woods. He felt bad enough after he had heard what had happened during the power failure that he and Radek had most likely caused when they had powered up the second chair.

There was a lot of blame to go around; he was going to have to straighten to out later. But first he had to go about his jobs. Luckily, most of his patients were doing well. The healing device from the jungle planet was already making a significant difference. Without it, the infection that they had brought back from the planet would have been lead to a long and agonizing death for those affected. He hadn't had much time yet to study the healing device, but he theorized that since it only provided a limited effect, it probably worked by enhancing the bodies own systems.

Bates was sitting in bed, already waiting for Carson.

„Good morning Sergeant. Good news for you. You're good to go. "Carson announced cheerfully.

„That's the news I have been waiting for. Thanks doc. "Bates replied, a grin spreading over his face. „Where are my clothes? "

„Not so fast. I want you back here every two days for the next week to make sure that the healing device did its job. "

„No problem. How long until I get back to work? "

„One week until you're cleared for light duty here in the City, two weeks until you get to go off-world again. "

„All right. Clothes? "Bates asked impatiently, but still happy to get out of the infirmary.

„Right there. " Carson pointed out the stack of clothes on that a nurse had placed on the edge of the bed.

Carson moved on to his next patient that caused him much more worry. Rodney was doing a lot better physically, the infection was under control and the latest x-ray showed that the fracture in his leg was finally starting to heal. But although, Rodney had been conscious most of the previous day, Dr. Woods had told him that he had made no attempt to interact with anyone. Even when Elizabeth had been there to visit, he had only pretended to be asleep. At least that's what Dr. Woods and the nurses had thought. Rodney wouldn't tell anyone how he was feeling.

Carson approached the bed and glanced at the monitors. From what he saw, he could tell that Rodney should be awake. He certainly couldn't tell from the man's posture. Rodney was lying motionless in bed, facing the wall.

Rodney was drifting. He didn't want to be awake. Being awake only hurt. Being awake opened him up to the assault of the images. They seemed like memories, recent memories, but Rodney couldn't place them properly. There was pain and fear. He hadn't been so frightened in a long them. He remembered waking up and not being able to breathe. There had been something crushing his chest, it had been dark. Everything had hurt. The panic, the pain and the feeling of being suffocated returned every time he woke up. Only when he drifted back into unconsciousness he could find some peace. When he was awake, his body and mind hurt.

„Rodney, wake up. I know you are awake. "

Rodney heard the familiar voice from above. He didn't move. He didn't want to get up and deal with anything right now. The least of all did he want to deal with Carson. It was Carson's fault that John was dead.

Carson eventually gave up. Rodney refused to react to him. Dr. Viro had no been certain how long Rodney had been clinically dead during the power failure. Carson could only hope that he hadn't suffered any damage. So far nobody had been able to evaluate his mental status. They had cut down on his pain medication in order to get him to wake up more, but it didn't seem to be helping as Rodney didn't want to communicate with them. Hopefully, Carson would soon have good news for Rodney.

Carson slipped into the small room where John was resting. He had regained consciousness for the first time during the night and according to the duty nurse, he had seemed coherent.

When Carson walked up to the bed, John opened his eyes and watched Carson's movements eagerly.

„Good morning, John. "

„Carson? " John croaked, his voice not quite working yet.

„Don't rush it. It might take some time to get used to talking again. "Carson handed John a cup off water. After John had taken a few sips, Carson spoke again.

„I need to ask you a few questions. "

John nodded.

„Do you know where you are? "

„Atlantis, Infirmary? " The last part came as a question.

„Right. Do you know who you are? "

„Major John Sheppard. " John replied tiredly. Carson could see that the conversation was taking a lot out of him.

„What is the last thing you remember? "

John didn't reply instantly.

„Chaya. "He said after a pause. „She …she was there at a beach, I think. It's all pretty muddled up. I think she wanted me to come with her. "John rubbed his forehead.

„Give it time. It's not that important now. "Carson soothed. „Get some rest, you need it. "

„No, I'm not hearing this again. " Elizabeth was exasperated.

Carson had come to her office to personally update her on the condition of his patients. Elizabeth had immediately known that something was up. Normally he would have just contacted her over the com or sent her the report, unless there was a serious problem. It turned out that Carson had come to apologize for what had happened two days ago. While he seemed genuinely sorry that he and Radek had caused a power failure that had nearly caused Rodney death, he had not apologized for having gone against Elizabeth orders in the first place.

Elizabeth got up and walked over to the window.

„You were right this time. Your plan worked, but it was dangerous. You nearly killed someone because you were dealing with technology that we don't fully understand yet. It was too much of a risk. I made my decision for a reason and while we are not in the military, I expect you to follow my orders without questioning my reasoning behind them. I'm especially disappointed that you and Dr. Zelenka had been planning to go ahead with the procedure from the start. My opinion never mattered to you. It cannot work like this. I can't be in charge if my authority isn't respected. I'm going to make a note of the incident in your record. If we were on Earth, the situation would look quite different for you. "

„I know. " Carson answered, not caring. He had expected nothing less when he had made his decision. He had saved a life, now he only needed to worry whether in saving it, he had prevented it from moving on to a higher form of existence. But there would be time for that later. He would wait for John to approach the topic.

Rodney carefully opened his eyes. He hurt and he was thirsty. He wanted to avoid dealing with any of the medical personnel, but thirst had won. If only he could quickly get some water and then go back to sleep without getting poked and prodded. There had been a cup of water on the nightstand when he woken some time before and one of the nurses had caught him. Rodney rolled to his side, biting back a groan as his body protested in pain against the movement.

When a filled cup suddenly appeared in front of his face, he drank gratefully. The cold water soothed his throat and abated his thirst. Just when he had closed his eyes again, intend on dozing off again into pain-free oblivion, someone poked his shoulder.

Rodney ignored it. He was poked again.

„Come on Rodney. I need to know that you are all right in there. "A voice whispered. A familiar voice that sent a shiver down his spine. John! But Carson had said that John was going to die. The memory of a deathly pale John lying in bed flashed through his mind.

Rodney opened his eyes and looked up. John was looking at him, a concerned expression on his face. It changed into a smile when he saw that Rodney was looking at him.

„John? "

„Yes. I'm here. Are you okay? "

„You are asking me that? Carson said that you were dying, that they couldn't help you... How…" Rodney rambled, still shocked over seeing John.

„I don't know. Apparently Carson figured something out with a piece of Ancient tech. "John answered his mind back with the memory of Chaya. He needed to sort that out in his mind first.

„I don't remember much at all. Most of it is a blur. But I remember you being there a lot. "John added.

„If I hadn't been so ignorant in the first place, this never would have happened! " Rodney snapped at John. All his guilt came bubbling back to the surface as he looked at John exhausted and worn, sitting in a wheelchair at his bedside.

John shook his head.

„I don't know what you are talking about. But it doesn't really matter. You were there for me, that's what I remember." John squeezed Rodney's hand.

The End

A/N: I wrote two endings to this story. This is the first ending. The next chapter is the second ending.