"Elizabeth, wake up."

She awoke disoriented, and as her senses came back to her she saw that she was back in the infirmary, and Rodney was standing over her. "How long?" she asked, her voice strained.

"Almost a day. Carson said you were in some kind of coma, but he's never seen anything quite like it. Your brain waves were all over the map. Both of you."

"Both of us?" Ignoring the throbbing pain in her head, she turned, finding John in the bed next to her. He looked dazed. "Well, isn't this familiar." She mumbled.

"You're awake I see." Carson said. He tried to sound cheerful, but they could all hear the worry in his voice. "How are you feeling?" He asked her.

"Like I've been run over by an angry truck." John answered. He tried to sit up but thought better of it. He slumped back down, covering his eyes with one hand. "This has something to do with that escape pod, doesn't it?"

"We're sure it does, but we have no idea how. You only woke up when we moved the pod to a make-shift lab at the edge of the city."

"Is it emitting some kind of energy?"

"We don't know yet. We called you as soon as we got it powered, and since then we've been focused on setting up the remote lab."

"As soon as you can, run every test we've got. I need to know if there's a connection. And Rodney, tell Zelenka to search the ancient database for a High General Deri, and a woman named Maia."

"What?" he said, "Who are they?"

"Just do it Rodney." She snapped.

Looking hurt, he stormed from the room.

"When you're feeling a bit stronger, I'd like to take some blood. There are a number of tests I need to run to get a better idea of what's happening. Until then, just stay here and rest."

Elizabeth was more than willing to comply. She sighed and almost immediately fell asleep. Her sleep was deep and, thankfully, dreamless; she awoke feeling a little better. She looked over to find John sitting up in his bed, massaging the back of his neck with one hand.

"How are you feeling?" She said, causing him to startle.

"Better." He said, looking over at her. "You look like hell."

"Whatever this is seems to be harder on me. It would make sense if—" She struggled to sit up. "What if these dreams—or whatever they are—what if their effects are somehow translating into our real lives?"
He shrugged. "That seems pretty far out."

"We live in the lost city of Atlantis; how can you think anything is far out?"

"What do you think, should we tell someone?"

"We may have to eventually, but for now, I have this feeling that we should keep it between us."

John nodded, and at that moment Carson came through the door, carrying a tray. "I'd like to take some blood, if you're feeling up to it."

Elizabeth nodded and winced as Carson filled a small vial with her blood. After he had taken blood from John, she spoke up. "Carson, I've been having a bit of trouble sleeping lately, do you think you could prescribe something?"

"I don't know Dr. Weir. Ordinarily I would, but we should find out what's going on before I give you anything."

She glanced at John, a bit nervously. "I think you're all making a big deal out of nothing. I'm fine, I'm just—tired. If I could just get a few good night's sleep—"

"Alright, alright." He said, throwing his hands up. "I'll give you a few sleep aides," He said, "but it's a temporary measure." He walked to a counter top, placed the vials in a holder, and produced a little white bottle. "One pill a night, only if you need it. Try warm milk first."

"Thank you Carson." She said, smiling too sweetly. "And since we're feeling better, do you mind if we get out of here?"

He thought for a long time. "Alright, but I don't want either of you going back to work for a few days, at least."

"Fine." She said, and snatched the bottle from his hands. She slid off the bed and walked out, with John close behind.

He fell into step with her. "What should we do about this?" he asked, his face stern.

She shook her head. "I don't know just yet. Right now I just want a break from all these visions while I sort out what to do." She stopped at the entrance to her quarters. "For now, just get a few good nights sleep."

"Right." He said, sighing.

Elizabeth started taking the pills that she got from Carson, and she went a week without a single vision of Maia and Liu. She returned to work, and as the days passed, she started to think that it was just a sign of stress. She wouldn't think about why John shared the same visions.

Seven days after her last vision, she got her usually glass of warm milk and opened her bottle of sleeping pills. It was empty. She cursed softly and tossed the bottle across her room. She hadn't realized how much she had come to rely on the pills to keep from dreaming about that place. She didn't know why, but those visions terrified her. Maybe it was because she hated that the workings of her own mind were out of her control. But, she was afraid of what was going to happen to these people, and what it would mean for her. She looked down at the cup in her hands, and thought about them.

There was a chime from her door that made her jump, sloshing milk onto her robe. She shrugged out of it without thinking and answered the door. Rodney stood there, looking down at a laptop. "I found that file that you wanted. I'm sorry it took so long, but I—" He looked up at her, finding her in her short nightgown and nothing else. He blinked twice. "I—I uh—"

Elizabeth sighed. "Yes Rodney?"

He swallowed hard. "Well, I had to dig it out of the database and, and try to reconstruct the damaged portions, and then have it translated, and we've been really tied up with studying the pod." He stopped to take a breath, "It's quite fascinating really. We figure that Atlantis must have once been stocked with escape pods in case of emergency, but all the bays we've come across are empty. We're assuming that at some point some of the Ancients used it to abandoned the city. That means that maybe some of them didn't ascend, and there could be living—"

"Rodney," she said, "the file?"

"Well, that's just it. We know the pod was altered so that only one person could activate it, and after the second incident, we got an idea. We ran Major Sheppard's fingerprints against the hand impression on the pod. It's an exact match." He turned the laptop around. "Meet General Deri."

"Oh my God," she said, "It's John."

"So it's John now?"

"Rodney please—"

"You're right," he said. "Of course. Fine. I've got a lot of work to do, so just look this over okay?" She took the laptop and closed the door. She walked to the bed and took a long swig of the milk before she settled in with the laptop.

The report was definitely degraded, but it showed her enough to confirm her suspicions. This man—High General Deri—looked exactly like John Sheppard, and he had lived in Atlantis over ten thousand years ago. She started to wish she hadn't asked for the information; it raised more questions than it answered, and frankly, it was scary. If Deri was real, then odds are Maia and Liu were real too. This whole thing was starting to make her wonder who she really was. Was she herself, Elizabeth Wier, leader of the Atlantis expedition? Or was she just an echo of Maia; something left over from a woman who lived thousands of years ago?

Elizabeth turned her attention to the fragmented description of General Deri. From what she could gather, Deri held the rank of captain before the third Wraith incursion, then the Atlantian Council gave him an award and promoted him to High General. It mentioned a few relatives, another High General, and a foot solider a bit younger than him. That was all the report said. She didn't know what good the report do, except maybe to assure her that she wasn't going crazy. But now that she thought about it, she would almost prefer insanity. This whole situation was scary, and she knew it wouldn't stop until she did something about it. Right now, she had no idea what to do.

Sorry I haven't had time to add any authors notes. I've really enjoyed all you reviews and I'm really glad you're liking the story. There's plenty more to come.