A/N: Ah the joys of the winter season. The freezing outside, the snow, and the colds. I seem to have been doubled-teamed by germs. The pile of tissues next to me at this moment, would scare you. Anyway, I've complained enough. Such a great response to this story, I just want to take a moment and thank all that have reviewed thus far. I'm glad your enjoying the story so much, it's all I could ever ask for. So, without further ado, a more then late update. Enjoy.


Chapter Five: Deception Tastes Sweeter Then Truth


Teyla's back was straighter then a plank of wood, her hands folded neatly on the table and a look of pure complacency played across her face. She would, under no circumstance let on to anyone, especially this A'vokien leader see that she wanted nothing more then to run down to the infirmary and see if John was alright.

Commander Dran was currently indulging Weir in pleasant talk. Most of which for Teyla, went through one ear and out the other because her mind was elsewhere. Before this, the lengthy meeting had consisted of Elizabeth telling Dran about their current situation in Atlantis, though just the general information. It wasn't wise to show your new acquaintance all your cards in one sitting, so she kept mostly to the threat the Wraith posed to them. Weir was more then surprised to find the Commander had no idea what a Wraith was, and that their society wasn't plagued by such foul creatures, as Dran put it.

Up to that point in time, they had heard nothing, via person or intercom from the infirmary. Which meant to Teyla that either nothing was particularly wrong or; and this she tried her hardest not to dwell on, that they were too busy down there to call up. And busy, in that part of the city usually meant something had gone horribly wrong.

Teyla wondered then when had her life become so hectic? She remembered a time when all she worried about, was a possible culling from the Wraith, about whether or not she would see another day after the last. Now, life had taken on a completely new load of troubles, most of which she never asked for or even dreamed could be possible. But did she mind? No, not a bit because here in the city, she had purpose. Life had more meaning to it, a greater satisfaction to her. What with the chance to see other worlds, the wonders of meeting new races far outweighed the mass of danger that could come with it.

Her thoughts drifted on to if the people of Earth had never come to Atlantis, if say she was still living in her village and not the city, would she still be alive? Would she perhaps be one of the thousands upon thousands eventually captured and consumed by the Wraith----a fate worse then death. The very thought made her shutter, making the sound of her name being said, sound distant and surreal.

"Teyla, are you alright?" Weir came again, looking more concerned over the Athosian's wellbeing at the moment then the pressing matter of her team being under alien arrest. Teyla realized Dran and Elizabeth must have begun discussing the actual events on the planet while the Athosian was lost in thought. A costly mistake from what she could read from the Commander's self-satisfied expression. Perhaps he thought distraction was a character flaw.

Teyla bowed her head, nodding once. "I am simply concerned about the Major's health, I was collecting my thoughts."

"We all are, it was a very unfortunate accident from what I've ascertained from each of you." Weir agreed as Dran sat back in his seat, looking to make himself comfortable and taking up the same position of Teyla with his long, thin fingers laced together on the tabletop. Weir looked to him then, feeling the man was some how seeking for an apology, though he really didn't deserve any at all. "And I think that the actions on both sides were, equally as accidental. Wouldn't you agree Commander?"

Dran turned his gaze towards Elizabeth, his lenses gleaming in the overhead light making his eyes flash brightly. "As it would seem, that planet, what you call P2M-744 has yet to be explored by our researchers. Rather foreign territory considering the land's under our jurisdiction. That temple you found had gone completely unnoticed to us until now."

Weir watched the Commander carefully, trying to judge what he was saying was in fact the truth, though the man was very hard to gauge as she had quickly discovered. With such controlled and calculated emotions, well, even the diplomats back on Earth had their boiling points, plights they were passionate about. Dran didn't seem to have any. "Have you ever seen a temple like that on any of your other planets, any similar devices?"

He seemed to think the question over, gears working in his mind so smoothly, the answer that came afterwards was more poetic then Weir had expected. "Why yes, we have, partially. The temple belongs to the wondrous yet, sadly long extinct race called the Yu'set rumored to be thriving in the beginnings of our known history. They practiced strange rituals of renewal we devised eventually lead to their own destruction. A rather, tragic end." The Commander mused, sounding smug. "In pursuit of prolonging their lives, they inadvertently shortened them."

"And the device within the temple belonged to these, Yu'set?" Teyla asked then, searching her memory then for any recollection of the race, finding she remembered nothing.

Dran looked to her, starring down his nose. It seemed that the aspect of speaking to anyone lower then the person in charge was very bothersome to the man. Something Weir duly noted. "So it would seem. Though as I said before, our knowledge of the situation on Verathus, your P2M-744 is only partial. I suspect from the outer working of the temple that it's of Yu'set make, though this device that you speak of, the one your team found, I've in fact…..never heard of."

"So you have no idea what it's capable of?" Elizabeth asked finally.

He nodded slowly, twisting his expression into something that looked like sympathy. "As I've said, no." Dran raised a lath hand, running two fingers along the length of his left eyebrow, to then smooth back his stiff, slicked hair. "And again I apologize about the condition of your solider Dr. Weir, but the A'vok won't accept accountability for something that we weren't even aware of. I'm sure if you placed yourself in my position, you'd do the same thing. It's a matter of, wrong place at the wrong time, you understand. An accident."

"Do your people often on accident, treat your visitors so harshly?" The Athosian mumbled bitterly, loud enough for even the two armed A'vok standing close behind Dran's seat to hear.

The comment made the Commander raise the brow he had just touched.

"You must understand, Miss Emmagan." This being the first time Dran had even addressed her by name. "We're in the middle of a great political shift in power. A new emperor is just days away from being apointed leaving us scrambling to deter any sort of, terrorist activities on seven different planets. Your actions were viewed as a threat, and all threats must be dealt with accordingly. And errors, not only are costly, but can't be undone."

"We do understand that, Commander, we're not blaming you for your extremes, under the circumstances. But I have a man badly injured on one of your planets, from something you have no idea about and you're expecting me to except that with a smile." Weir retorted, taking on a sterner tone. She didn't exactly agree with the not blaming the A'vok for what they did to Sheppard's team while being taken captive, she supposed it was the sort of behavior any secret service agent would take preventing a possible threat, but from what Teyla described to her, Dran's men had gone a bit above and beyond the notion of 'determent'.

"If it was at a better time Doctor, I assure you, you'd have the full support of the A'vok, but now, our resources are spread quite thin. But, in consideration, I think we could let you're little, innocent exploration----." That last word he said towards Teyla hinting on condescending. "—go with a fair warning."

"But what about Major Sheppard, Commander?"

Dran shrugged his shoulders, speaking in a straightforward tone. "In the struggle to attain knowledge Doctor, one must expect to sacrifice much for it. But you have my sympathies for your comrade. From what I've heard, he seemed like a good man."

"You speak of him as if he were dead!" Teyla snapped, unfolding her hands and placing her palms, hot and outstretched on the table top, wanting more then anything to show Dran just how much she appreciated his men's behavior back on the planet.

He turned his blazing eyes to her then, dark and gleaming with a deeper malice behind such a calm and controlled face. Dran seemed to relax then, smiling softly, furrowing his brow. "I've upset you, please, forgive me. Your Major Sheppard still lives, in an altered state but alive nonetheless; forgive my rudeness. The, A'vok don't believe in letting a man, or woman go on living in such a way, trapped like a prisoner in their own body."

Teyla, had intentionally left out the part where McKay claimed John was speaking to him inside his head. Leading both Weir and Dran to believe Sheppard was simply comatose. She wasn't exactly sure why she had left that most important detail out but, at the moment she felt it was something John wouldn't want the Commander to know.

Just then there came a knock at Weir's office door. Everyone looked up to find a technician standing looking more apologetic for interrupting then anything else. She cleared her throat and held up a folder. "Ah, Dr. Weir, I need you to look something over."

"Can it wait Brooks?" Elizabeth sighed. Even with this crisis, Atlantis kept running, people still had their agendas to see to, and it seemed to Weir she needed to be in more places then one at the same time.

"I wouldn't take a moment of your time Doctor, and, it's pretty urgent." Brooks replied clutching the actually, empty, folder in her hand; inwardly pleading that Weir would just agree and step out of the room for a minute. Brooks seemed to sweat where she stood, finding the A'vokien leader's eyes burn into her.

"I'm sorry Commander Dran, I still have a city to run, you understand." Weir said finally.

"Of course." Dran grinned faintly motioning towards the door as if allowing Weir to do her own business. As she stood, he stood, bowing to her with a deeper smile. Though his reasons were deeply seeded in who knew what, the man still had his manners. The very notion made Teyla sick to her stomach as she watched him. If they didn't need the A'vok so badly, she would have gladly escorted him to the Gate herself and kicked him out of Atlantis.

Dran sat back down watching Weir as she walked round the conference table and met the woman named Brooks at the door. They spoke hushed and Weir seemed to pause, considering something as she placed a hand on Brook's shoulder and both women walked out into the hallway.

"You're opinion of me is lacking, isn't it Miss Emmagan?" The Commander casually asked off the side of his mouth, looking back to Teyla after his stare at the empty doorway ended. His eyes were piercing, penetrating, and for the first time in a long time, Teyla actually felt uncomfortable.

Keeping her composure, the Athosian angled her head slightly, frowning. "By your actions today Commander, I see no reason to let you take step in this city again." She watched as the piercing glare curled over; Dran smiled lightly, leaning into the table as he gestured with a hand.

"Oh, considering I didn't have you and your, so called 'team', shot on site----" The Commander's words trickled harshly from his thin lips, and that glare returned, harder then Teyla had ever seen it. "----You should be on your knees kissing the ground I happen to walk on. Or perhaps I'm not being clear enough for you, though this is the first time I've met an Athosian; I can see why your people were almost wiped out by these, Wraith."

Teyla, fumed, clenching her jaw. In all her days, she'd never been so openly slighted.

Dran grinned triumphantly, leaning back in his chair. "Now that, is the fire I expected to see. When you recalled about how you, underhandedly put down one of my more promising pupils, I didn't believe it." He watched her for a moment, Teyla on the other hand looked about ready to leap across the table, close the few feet between her and the Commander and make it the last time he ever, insulted her and her people.

He continued shameless. "The people of Atlantis hold promise my dear, I'll say that. Though, primitive in your technology, you have a certain charisma, that the A'vok soldiers of late have been deficient."

She swallowed down her anger, breathing it through her nose in a long calming sigh. "If you believe that you can come here, abuse us, then expect that we come to some sort of trade agreement. You are very mistaken Dran."

"Lost the formalities?" The Commander frowned, seeming hurt. "Very well Teyla. You see, I'm not a cold man, in fact I can be very, very agreeable. You've only need to be agreeable back, and I think your commander, Dr. Weir in on the verge of starting something exceptionally productive between our people. I wouldn't think you'd want to disrupt that, would you?" He paused a fleeting moment, not even letting her reply.

"It could mean great things Teyla; a great many things if our cultures intertwined. The things we could share with one another. I have to be honest, life as of late on my home planet, has become frightfully dull. And when a situation gets trapped in a rut…oh---" Dran smiled coyly, placing a long finger on his lip, tapping it lightly. "One has only to fathom the numerous possibilities on how to end it. Breath new life into an already dying social structure."

He laughed to himself. "As I've always said-----a man who wields ideas, truly wields power."

The Athosian stared him down unflinching though inwardly she couldn't believe the things he was saying, and the twistedly sweet way Dran presented them. "You, Commander, are a mad man." She said finally wanting more then anything to leave that very minute, seeing a slight flinch in one of the armed soldiers standing behind Dran, she had a feeling her latest comment might have been crossing the line.

Dran seemed to don one of his many masks, this one was the more familiar calm and calculated one.

"That, remains to be seen Miss Emmagan." His shoulders squared out then, making him look nearly attracted to the chair he was in. Dran continued with a chilling tone. "And I would suggest to you; not to look for it."

Meanwhile out in the hallway, Brooks had stopped Elizabeth a few feet from the door, pulling her over to the side.

"What the matter Christy?" Weir asked, taking concern for the young lady's frazzled appearance. Then again Brooks often looked frazzled, but now seemed worse and far more noticeable.

Brooks cleared her throat again and winched up her freckled cheeks. "Well, we just received a message via the Stargate pertaining to the A'voks."

"And?"

"And they said if Commander Dran didn't report back to them in the next half an hour, they would consider it an act of interplanetary terrorism and be forced to take---" Brooks gulped. "---severe actions against us."

Weir nodded, the A'vok race in itself seemed severe just on it's own. She could only imagine what sort of trouble they could unleash if provoked. She didn't need another Genii incident. "Alright Christy, tell Peter to reply that our, negotiations have been successful and Commander Dran will be heading back shortly."

Brooks paused, clenching the empty file in her hand.

"Is there something else?" Elizabeth asked, briefly eyeing the folder. Brooks followed her gaze at the plain manila folder and gasped lightly. "Oh this?! No, no it's nothing really, Peter gave it to me as an excuses to interrupt your meeting. I'm sorry I lied." Christy stammered looking apologetically up to her leader.

Weir smiled thoughtfully, placing a comforting hand on the young woman's shoulder. "It's alright Christy, it was good thinking."

Once again the technician paused, recoiling. "There is something else. Dr. Beckett called up from the infirmary. In eight words or less, Major Sheppard isn't doing very well. And he wants you and Teyla down there ASAP."

"What did he mean by not doing very well?"

Brooks recalled the brief and disturbing communication to the control room, she herself was present for only a few short minutes ago. "Well, he didn't get into specifics, sounded like something happened after he said it and Dr. Beckett had to go. But he wasn't his usual cheerful self if that's any indication."

Weir didn't like that one bit. But she had other matters to contend to at the moment. "Tell him, if he calls back, that we're on our way."

Brooks nodded hastily and clutched the empty folder to her side, hurrying her small frame back down the hall. Weir closed her eyes and sighed. And this day had started out well. She regained her composure quickly and turned back to enter the debriefing room. As she walked in, Elizabeth felt the invisible tension in the room, it was almost like walking into a wall. She caught Dran at the end of his sentence, something like. "for it."

Weir's sudden presence caught both of them off guard, Teyla looking to her in a silent thankfulness that Elizabeth was surprised by. Dran simply smiled, his whole body relaxed, melting back as he stood, giving Weir a short bow. "I hope everything is well Doctor." He said politely.

"As to be expected." Weir replied, giving him a hesitant smile as she walked over to the head of the debriefing table, watching the Athosian's eyes dart for a moment to the Commander, and narrow hatefully. Did she miss something?

Glancing away, Elizabeth turned her attention then to Dran. "Commander, I hate to cut our time short, but your military forces have contacted us, they seem more then eager to have you back."

"Work beckons." Dran mused, as he held a hand out to her. "Please, if you'll escort me to Dommeris's Ring---" He grinned softly, correcting himself. "Or should I say, your Stargate, Doctor; I would much obligated. There are a few more urgent things I wanted to discuss with you." His eyes inevitably shot to Teyla, still sitting. "In private."

Elizabeth nodded. "Of course." Though really she had no desire what so ever to be alone with this man, not with the uneasy feeling she walked in on a moment ago. Something about all this just wasn't right, the conversation was too clean and she still had the matter of possibly doing something about John. "There are a few more things I'd like to talk to you about as well Commander."

"Please, call me Sylis." Dran bowed to Weir again with such poise and respect that Teyla couldn't tell off hand if he meant it at all. Perhaps it was just her who had a problem with him, maybe she was just over judging him for what had begun as a misfortunate mistake. But the things he said, about her and her people, were those just words said in the heat of anger, or something more. Either way, her trust in him neither grew nor waned, for it was never present in the first place.

"Teyla, Dr. Beckett asked for you to go down to the infirmary as soon as you can." Weir spoke to her lightly, wondering what exactly was going on in the Athosian's head at the moment. Teyla simply nodded, standing up and leaving without excusing herself, catching one last roguish grin from Sylis that made that sick feeling in her stomach return. She left the office and that feeling behind her, concentrating on getting to the infirmary, getting to John.


"So you see." Dran let himself be guided towards the Gate room by Weir after their long and slow walk through the city's many corridors. He stopped them then, seeing his two guards, which he had dismissed at the time to wait for him there, standing by the Stargate.

"We have so much to offer one another Elizabeth." They were on a first name basis now, or at least what Weir would have liked him to believe.

"The potential is endless. Why with the A'vok's technological means, our shear bounds in science and medicine a partnership between our two groups more then justifies itself." Sylis laced his fingers together behind him, engrossed in their conversation to even notice that the Gate had already been dialed and the watery event horizon waited for him and his men.

"Comman----" Weir began but was stopped when Dran raised a finger, smirking. "Sylis." She corrected herself. It seemed a handsome and dark man had an equal handsome and dark name. "I must say it's a tempting offer."

"Far more tempting then you'll find anywhere else." He smiled walking them both towards the Stargate. "And all I ask is for your cooperation in a few matters, the ones we discussed----"

"Elizabeth! There you are!" Came McKay's bark over the constant rush of the horizon just a few feet away from them. Both Dran and Weir turned as the physicist trotted up, looking rather breathless and two seconds away from a meltdown.

"Commander I'm glad you're still here." Rodney couldn't believe he was saying that as a matter of fact. If he never saw that man again, it would make his lifetime. Still, couldn't burn the bridges just yet.

"What's the matter Rodney?" Elizabeth asked, waiting for him to catch his breath. McKay gulped and let out a small cough, considering he ran all the way here, he was feeling pretty good, strange as it was. He didn't even feel the beginning of a stitch in his side and his lungs weren't hurting as much as they use to.

"I hoping all went well with your little pow-wow." McKay began, eyeing Sylis over carefully before continuing.

"The fact of the matter Commander is that we need to go back to the planet."

Dran stood stone still, staring down at McKay with a grimace as his glasses gleamed blue in the Gate light. "And might I ask, what for?"

"No surprise there." Mumbled Rodney. " It's beyond urgent that we bring that device we found in the temple back to the city in order for us to research it and hopefully rectify what it's done." He watched the Commander's expression, finding it unchanging. "Meaning to make Major Sheppard a little less brain dead." Rodney was blunt, if not truthful.

The A'vok nodded leisurely, seeming to mull the request over before replying with subtle unaffectedness. "It can't be done."

"What?" McKay blurted, blinking.

Dran wrinkled his brow, adding plainly. "Besides that device in my opinion is a danger to anyone near it, it simply has to be destroyed."

McKay flinched, finding the answer ridiculous. "Well then why not let us destroy it---after we're done studying it." If Dran really didn't want the thing in existence, if he really had something against it, for whatever reason, Rodney could have easily found a way to get rid of the device. Sink it in the ocean, let it loose to drift in the black of space, whatever needed to be done.

Weir nodded in agreement. "You said yourself it's no use to you Sylis. If it might help my people----" But she was then cut off by Dran who raised a hand, essentially silencing them both.

"You forget, we are in the middle of a great political shift, the borders of each planet are being carefully monitored, passage is forbidden under--any—circumstance until it's over; it simply isn't possible."

McKay thought it over. This was the first he heard of this, political thing. Sure it was good enough reason to be cautious but, the situation was a dire one. "What, what if we went under your military's supervision, you can escort us there; watch us like hawks if it makes you feel safer. But that machine is the key to saving Major Sheppard's life, it's an obvious necessity."

"Are you sure you need this, device Rodney?" Elizabeth sighed, looking towards McKay. This wasn't going well at all and Rodney wasn't helping in the slightest. But Weir knew well enough when the man got an itch about something, you'd know. Moreover, if Dran decided to get rebellious, all her careful brick-laying could be destroyed, or worse, he could order an attack on the city, and seeing just a glimpse of what sort of weaponry the A'vok had; it be short battle. McKay looked to her briefly then towards the Commander, glaring up at him, taking on the excitable tone that usually meant things were more then bad.

"Yes, the technology is essential in order to figure out what happened, what caused it could easily answer how to get him back. Even if we can't move the device, your men can supervise us as we work, but I don't need to mention that time right now is passed critical."

Sylis shook his head, taking a most apathetic sympathy, if that could even be accomplished. "You have my deepest apologies. But it's out of my hands, I'm only a small faction in a must larger protocol. The time and pull alone that it would take to get clearance such like that----"

Quiet for only a second, Rodney winched up his face even more; feeling the anger and frustration bubbling up inside him. "That's bullshit! You know you have the authority to do it, you just don't want us snooping around because of something you're obviously hiding." McKay's eyes went wide, he lowered the accusing finger he was pointing at Dran and backed a step up. Where in the hell had that come from?

The Commander's sympathy washed away as quickly as it came. "Might I reminded you, Dr. McKay is that you and your, team, are under A'vokien probation, as permitted by me----"

Ignoring his outburst for a later time, Rodney jumped back on the subject fully clawed. "Major Sheppard is currently on life support because his body can't keep itself running anymore, it's deteriorating itself because of your machine! Do you understand that Commander?! Unless we can get to that device and study it properly, He--will--die." He emphasized, trying to get some reason with the man, but the A'vok stood unmoved, replying with a dismissive gesture.

" My hands are tied Dr. McKay, if it were any other time…."

"You son of a…." Rodney began defensively when Elizabeth butted in.

"McKay, we'll figure something else out. There has to be another way."

Feeling his welcome here had more then diminished, Dran gave them each a short nod. "I wish you luck Dr. Weir, as to you Dr. McKay, we'll be in contact." Leaving with a grin that made Weir's blood run a little colder, the Commander turned and motioned for his two men to follow him behind. All three stepped through the event horizon with a hissing whoosh before the connection cut out and the Stargate was dark once more. Much to McKay's objection.

"You're---you're just going to let him go are you?!"

Elizabeth tried to relax a bit, this wasn't going to be easy; then again, whatever was? "Rodney, if Dran is the only string we have left between helping John and him dying, I'm not willing to snap it, understand? The Commander and I have come to an agreement of sorts----"

"Oh you're not serious! You actually made trade negotiations with him? You don't honestly trust him do you?! His men acted completely irrational, which doesn't surprise me coming from a supped-up, neo-Nazi, alien military----" Rodney snarled.

Weir gently interjected. "I've made amends for what you and Major Sheppard did on that planet. We don't even know what Dran was planning to do with you otherwise, and I wasn't willing to find out. He's right, we've been let off with a warning, let's leave it at that."

Rolling his eyes, McKay crossed his arms over his chest, feeling a sudden chill run through him. He didn't feel well at all, perhaps he should have stayed in the infirmary after all like Beckett ordered him to. "Easy for you to say, you don't have a disembodied Major running the damn peanut gallery up in your head." He had left as soon as he was sure John was stable. And when Sheppard thankfully told him to go find Elizabeth, Rodney left without retort, finding he couldn't stand being there anymore either.

Weir looked puzzled, unsure she had heard that last comment from the physicist correctly. "What do you mean, in your head? What's going on?"

McKay, peeved more then angered to have to explain this yet again, lighted up at seeing the look of disquiet on Weir's face. Besides, working himself up wouldn't really help anyone, especially himself. "I see you didn't get the memo." McKay replied with a regretful smile before he began his ranting explanation. "That device on Dran's planet, the one that we inadvertently activated, transferred Sheppard's consciousness into my head leaving him with zero brain activity. On top of that, according to Carson his body is actually breaking itself down."

"How is that even possible?"

McKay turned then, Weir ultimately following him as he made his way across the Gate room, explaining hurriedly as they walked. "Something in the device's particle wave changed the molecular structure of the Major's body, I'm not sure how or why, but essentially; John's body is slowly decomposing itself. Now whether that would or wouldn't happen if his consciousness was in his own body, I'm not sure of either. But we just let our one and only chance of finding out walk right through the Gate."

"Either the Commander reconsiders, which I'm not holding my breath for might I add, or we discover something comparing the device on P2M-744 to some of the Ancient technology we have here."

Now finding herself in the hallway leading to the infirmary, Weir agreed, though in truth the concept still baffled her a bit. "Alright. Whatever you need from me, you have. I'm sure if anyone can find another solution Rodney, it's you." Which was all the comfort she could find at the moment. If it wasn't a threat from outside the city, or from inside, it was something else. But even the greatest of explorations have their pitfalls, and she was slowly learning to except this. Though the possibility of losing one of her best members didn't make that concept any easier to swallow.

McKay stopped them then in the corridor, giving Weir a direct look. "For John's sake, Elizabeth….you better be right."

"Me too." John grumbled sadly, echoing in Rodney's mind.