A/N: This one's a little darker, folks. It's got Rodney meeting Kolya's friend with the knife.
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Pete didn't know what to do. He was scared of the menacing two-legged creature! But he knew that his friends were in danger. Alpha Female and Intense Guy were surrounded by the two-legged creatures in gray. Two other two-legged creatures lay motionless on the ground near the large circle. Pete was afraid his friends would be hurt, too.
He stayed hidden as the menacing guy walked back inside from a balcony. Pete saw that Alpha Female was scared, but she tried not to let it show. "Who are you?" she demanded.
"Commander Acastus Kolya of the Genii. This Atlantis is extraordinary, more than I ever imagined." Pete thought that he seemed almost greedy.
Alpha Female, as befit her position in the pack, was worried about her pack brothers and sisters. "What have you done with the rest of my people?"
"I'm quite sure they have no idea we're even here."
"Then they're safe," she persisted.
"Yes."
Now that the most important question had been answered, Alpha Female wanted to know more about the two-legged creatures in gray. Pete approved. A hunter should learn everything possible about the prey before attacking. And he had no doubt that Alpha Female would fight to protect her pack.
"How were you able to bypass the shield?"
Menacing Guy was growing impatient. "With a time-tested combination of strong drink and a weak mind," he replied in a crisp tone.
Alpha Female stepped forward. Pete sensed that she was about to strike the first blow. Since she did not have claws or sharp teeth, he didn't know how she would attack.
She spoke again. "There was a time when our two people considered becoming allies. Why are you doing this?" Her tone was conversational and attempted to lull the listener, to convince him that of course his actions made no sense. Her voice promised forgiveness without any questions if he would only be reasonable. In short, she was using her voice, and her words, as a weapon.
Unfortunately, Menacing Guy resisted the attack. "You're in possession of supplies we vitally need. Hand them over without difficulty and we'll leave peacefully."
Liar, thought Pete. Alpha Female sounded skeptical, too. "Or?" she asked.
"We're both intelligent people, Dr. Weir. I'm sure there's no need for me to demonstrate once again the strength of my resolve."
At that threat, Pete jumped up so quickly he bumped into a wall with a thump. If he had to, he would fight to protect his pack leader! Menacing Guy heard the noise, though. "What was that?" he snapped. Alpha Female looked at Intense Guy, who shrugged.
"I don't know," she said.
"Jumping at shadows?" sneered Intense Guy -- bravely, but stupidly, in Pete's opinion.
Menacing Guy took a step forward, a deadly look in his eyes. Alpha Female quickly stepped in and tried to distract him. "Which supplies did you have in mind?" she asked.
"All of your stores of the C4 explosive, all of your medical supplies, the Wraith data device you stole from my people, and one of your ships."
Ooh, Pete knew the healer would not be happy about the second item. He'd complained a lot about wasted supplies after Pete had chewed up several bandages and swabs. (Oh well, it had been fun anyway.) Intense Guy, who apparently didn't know when to keep his mouth shut, said, "Is that all!"
"No. Where is Major Sheppard?"
For a minute, Alpha Female looked and smelled even more scared than she already was. Then she calmed. "He's on the mainland," she lied easily. "What you're asking for is not easy. We've had to divert a lot of power in order to prepare for the storm. The armory's safety doors have shut, which means we can't..."
Menacing Guy stopped her in mid-sentence. "I know a lie," he cautioned. Obviously he didn't completely know a lie, Pete thought, because the two-legged creature with the spiky hair was still in the city.
There was a brief interchange involving Intense Guy's leaning on the console. Then Alpha Female said defiantly, "Your request is unreasonable. And you can't possibly need all our C4, all our medical supplies."
Menacing Guy told her that she wasn't in any position to tell him what was reasonable, then sent her away to fetch some of the supplies. After that, he turned and stepped closer to Intense Guy. "What are you doing here?"
"My understanding -- I'm being held hostage." Intense Guy was certainly being very snarky.
Menacing Guy almost smiled at that. "I mean here in Atlantis. Why did some of you stay behind?"
"Oh. I was helping with things," Intense Guy said nervously.
"Like what?"
"You know, make sure everyone got out okay." Pete thought he was a lousy liar.
"Isn't that the work of someone... less important?"
"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" Intense Guy tried to laugh, but it fell flat.
"You have a plan, don't you?"
"I've got lots of plans about lots of things."
"I'm interested in the plan you have to save the city." Menacing Guy looked... well, menacing.
"I never said anything about saving anything," stammered Intense Guy.
Menacing Guy put his hand on Intense Guy's shoulder. It was the same gesture Pete had seen the healer use, but the context was frighteningly different. "Not yet," he said as he nodded to another gray-clad two-legged creature. The other one pulled out a long knife. Pete thought that both he and Intense Guy gasped at the same time.
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Menacing Guy and the one holding the knife had taken Intense Guy into a small room with a long table and lots of chairs surrounding it. It took a long time for Pete to sneak his way over to the room, but he finally got there. Intense Guy sat in a chair, one sleeve of his jacket in shreds. Fortunately, there was no blood... yet.
Menacing Guy walked around the table, his hands clasped behind his back. "Dr. McKay, why aren't you telling me everything? You have to know we're going to hurt you for that."
"I'm not telling you squat!"
Menacing Guy shook his head in mock regret. "You brought this on yourself." He nodded to the guy with the knife, who sauntered over.
"As a scientist, Dr. McKay, you should appreciate this." He slowly drove the knife point deep into Intense Guy's upper arm. Blood welled up around the wound. "The main nerve for the whole arm spirals around the bone close to here." He demonstrated by stabbing the knife into a nearby muscle. "Very close to where I am now. If I slip..." he flashed a nasty smile. "A little medical knowledge is a wonderful thing, isn't it."
Intense Guy gritted his teeth and refused to let on how much it hurt. "Medicine... is not... science!" he snarled.
The two-legged creature with the knife tsk'ed. "Now what would your Dr. Beckett think if he heard you say that?"
Pete thought he was going to be sick. He gave a little whimper as he compared the pain of his own cut leg to what his two-legged friend must be going through. At the sound, Menacing Guy whirled around. "What are those noises?" he snarled.
That gave Pete an idea.
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The cutting had stopped for the moment, and for that Rodney was grateful. When the initial stab had failed to make him divulge any information, the bastard had continued his work enthusiastically. Eventually, as he had known he would, Rodney told them about his plan.
Kolya and the other guy were now huddled together at the other end of the room, no doubt discussing how they could use the information they'd pried out of him. Suddenly Rodney heard four more thumps, each louder than before. Both he and Kolya looked around for the source of the noise, but found nothing.
Then there came a threatening growl from one of the emergency doors of the conference room, which now stood open a crack. Looking into the shadows, Rodney saw a dim shape with bristling fur. As he watched, the shape puffed up to almost twice its size and growled again. Rodney inhaled sharply as he realized what it must be. Now, he just had to play his cards right.
Kolya strode over, obviously having heard the growl and seen Rodney's reaction to it. "You know what that was," he said in a dangerously low voice. "Tell me!"
"I... I really don't know," Rodney quavered, hoping it sounded convincing.
Without taking his eyes off Rodney, Kolya snapped his fingers and the knife-wielding thug approached. "Okay, okay," Rodney said quickly. "There's a chance, a very small chance, that one of our, um, Athosian nighthounds got loose in the chaos."
"Athosian nighthounds," Kolya repeated disbelievingly.
"Yeah. Real nasty things, too." Almost as if on cue, they heard the growl again, then footsteps running away. "Oh, and I forgot to mention that one of them had a hurt leg that Beckett was treating. That made the thing even meaner..."
Kolya abruptly held up his hand to stop Rodney's flow of words. "Enough! We'll find it. But I wouldn't try anything stupid if I were you. There are at least a dozen armed men still in the control room." The two Genii left and Rodney sighed in relief.
After a minute, Pete popped into the room, having doubled back after growling and running away. He ran over to Rodney and flopped down at his feet. "Thanks, I owe you one," Rodney said. Somehow, he didn't feel quite so dumb talking to a dog now. Hesitantly, he reached down and gave Pete a quick pat on the head. The dog panted happily in response.
"Right. Now we have to figure out how to get rid of the Genii, get to the grounding stations, and save the city. How can we do that with those thugs outside? I don't think the growling diversion will work again -- very scary-sounding growl, by the way. Good job on that." Rodney paused for a second, then snapped his fingers several times. "We need to get Major Sheppard. You know, tall guy, bad attitude and worse hair. You've got to tell him... Wait a minute. What am I doing? I'm talking to a dog. A clever dog, but a dog nonetheless. No offense, pal. Oh God, I think I've lost too much blood." He finally stopped his rambling when his head hit the conference room table.
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Elizabeth couldn't believe what she saw when she returned from gathering the supplies the Genii insisted on. Rodney looked awful. His arm was covered with blood and he appeared woozy. "What did they do to you?"
"I tried to keep my mouth shut," he said miserably. "I tried - I just couldn't..." He stopped as Kolya walked over, holding a two-way radio and looking furious.
"What's the meaning of this?" the Genii leader demanded.
"I honestly have no idea," said Elizabeth.
"It's a radio," Rodney said sarcastically. "The arrow points to the 'talk' button."
Kolya held up the radio, pushed the button, and identified himself. Both Rodney and Elizabeth were incredibly relieved to hear John's voice coming from the other end. "Kolya -- that's a hard name to pronounce. Is that a first name? My name's Major John Sheppard and I have hidden the C4 where you will never -- I repeat, never -- find it."
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After he heard the spiky-haired guy's voice coming from the black box, Pete realized that this was who Intense Guy wanted him to find. He sniffed the floor outside the control room until he found the right scent. Then he ran off in pursuit. Along the way he dodged more of the creatures in gray, and at one point heard the whiny female voice complaining about something. Finally he reached a platform overlooking the ocean. The spiky-haired guy was there, but he was not alone. Two of the gray creatures were hidden around a corner from him, pointing the deadly-looking sticks at him.
Suddenly, one of the gray-clad creatures ran towards the spiky-haired guy. Loud thunder-like claps could be heard, and then the second guy ran out. There were more thundering noises, and then silence. When Pete looked out at the balcony, he saw the spiky-haired guy standing next to something that was broken and sparking. The two creatures in gray were down on the ground. The spiky-haired guy spoke slowly and deliberately into another of the black boxes. "Let me tell you what you did wrong here, Kolya. A: you lost two of your men. B: you damaged the switch before I could separate the grounding rods, which I'm sure you're gonna get an earful from McKay for; and C: you lost all of what little credibility you had with me."
Pete could hear Intense Guy yelling through the black box.
"I guess we're even!" shouted Spiky-Haired Guy.
Time seemed to slow as Pete heard the next words from the box. "Say goodbye to Dr. Weir!"
Spiky-Haired Guy looked at the black box, almost in a panic. "The city has a self-destruct button. You hurt her, I'll activate it. Nobody'll get Atlantis." After a pause, he yelled desperately, "I'll give you a ship! I'll fly it out of here for you myself. Kolya?... KOLYA!"
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fififolle: As we saw, Pete's definitely going to be looking out for his friend Rodney.
Livy1213, Orka: Now the fun really starts!
Belisse: Isn't Pete a great judge of character? ;-) He's finished Round 1 versus Kolya, stay tuned...
threegraces: Biting is a good thought...
Emma: They're definitely making progress with Elizabeth as a strong female character. Not sure about Sora, but you're right in that the deck seems stacked against her.
TBC (fade to black... but I won't make you wait several months)
Please R & R...