A/N: Chapter Beta'd by Angw. Thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed this story. For those of you that haven't reviewed, but have read... shame on you all. Without further delay, here's chapter 7.

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It was definitely below freezing. John could feel it even through the heavy winter jacket and the thermal insulated gloves. On top of that, the planet was more desolate than even the wraith home world. The trees looked like they hadn't grown in years. The ground didn't shift or move as they walked on it. Above all, the only lighting they had was from their flashlights.

Rodney was leading the group, his eyes watching an ancient scanner that he had in his hands. Rodney eventually stopped, standing on top of a small mound of dirt. He spun around several times, pinpointing the location.

"What is it Rodney?" John asked.

"It says it should be right here, but it's not." Rodney didn't look up from the scanner.

"That dirt pile looks like it could hide something." Teyla suggested.

"It's possible Rodney." John added.

"Right." Rodney hastily agreed.

Rodney got down on his knees and pulled out his knife. He then began to carefully pick at the ground. John was always surprised when Rodney showed his talent for archeology. It just wasn't something John thought Rodney had the patience for.

"Anything?" John asked as he sat down on the cold ground.

"No," Rodney replied, "but there's something weird about this dirt."

"Like what?"

"It's incredibly packed and it's almost solid."

"Dirt's not supposed to be that way."

"No, that's what seems so odd to me." Rodney continued to pick at the ground.

John turned to Teyla. "Wanna place bets on what Rodney finds?"
"Place bets?" Teyla raised an eyebrow.

"We're not really betting any money or anything, but we're going to compete for bragging rights. I'm betting he finds a couple of strange rocks."

"I believe we may find a ZPM."

"I think McKay will find nothing." Ronon added.

"Well, now we wait and see." John said. "If it takes him too much longer, we'll set up the thermal tents and be warm while Rodney's cold."

"I heard that Colonel." Rodney snapped.

"Just concentrate on your work Rodney."

"I'm trying, but I'm not superman."

"Yeah, you said that before Rodney."

Rodney was silent for a few minutes before he said in awe, "Colonel, I think I found something."

John stood and walked over so that he could look over Rodney's shoulder. "What did you find?"

Rodney scraped a little more dirt from the mound. It revealed a hatch with a symbol on it, a pointed object much like on the stone slab where he'd met the old man. "This is incredible."

John shook his head. "No, this is creepy. This is the same symbol that was on the stone slab in the middle of ruins on the planet where I met the old man."
"Supposedly." Rodney quickly corrected.

"No, it was real. This just proves it." John knelt down beside Rodney. "Think you can open it."

"I think so." Rodney carefully inserted his knife into a crack between the hatch and the ground. "How much stress can these knives take?"

"Enough, just start pushing." John stated, irritated.

Rodney carefully applied pressure. The hatch slowly began to come out of the ground. John carefully slid his fingers under the raised edge and lifted it so that it revealed an opening. Rodney shined his flashlight down. There was a ladder on one side and the ground was a short jump down.

John shined his flashlight into the hole. "Well, we should check it out." John pointed the remote back at the jumper and engaged the cloak. He then climbed down in to the hole.

He stepped off the ladder and into a large, but dark hallway. The flashlight on his P90 couldn't shine all the way to either end of the hallway. Teyla was the next person down the ladder. She moved to stand next to him. "I cannot see anything in either direction." She said.

"No, neither can I." John replied. "Looks like we're going to have to take a look around."

"For all we know it's maze." Rodney said heatedly. "We could get lost and never..."

"That's why we are dropping markers as we go."

"Markers?" Ronon asked, being the last to come down the ladder.

John pulled out his life signs detector. "This thing also records where the walls are. It's not the most accurate, but it works." John pressed a button on the side of it. "There, this marks the exit. Let's go." John started walking in the direction they were facing.

They shined their flashlights in all directions as they went, trying to figure out what they had found. The walls were identical to the floor and ceiling. There were no lights anywhere. The endless hallway continued without a single turn. It was cold, featureless and made John's skin crawl.

He couldn't shake the consistently growing feeling of dread in his mind. The entire place felt more like a tomb than anything else. What further disturbed him was the symbol of the order of time. There was no strange old man with weird powers about time. There was only darkness.

John stopped as he felt something strange under his foot. He pointed his light down to his foot. "Crap!" He said it just as the floor gave way and sent them plummeting down a long tunnel.

The tunnel wasn't a straight vertical drop, but rather a slanted drop. It finally leveled off as they reached the bottom, depositing at the bottom of the tunnel, right next to an entrance. Ronon quickly tried to climb back up. "We're not going back that way."

"Of course not." Rodney snapped. "We're simply at the bottom of a very large tunnel. With no way to get out."

"Shut up Rodney." John snapped back at him. "We need a plan."

"We seem to have little choice but to go forward." Teyla suggested.

"That's what I was afraid you'd say." John stood up and shined his light forward. The next room was far larger than the tunnel they'd been in. It was a huge room, equally dark as the rest of the tunnel. John stepped into it and was blinded as the entire ceiling light up with a brilliant white light. John put his hand holding the life signs detector in front of his eyes.

After a few seconds, he was finally able to look around. The room was a massive dome, with a handful of smaller domes dotted around the perimeter. Each of the smaller domes was enclosed in walls and had a single door on it. At the opposite end of the room was another entrance.

"Where are we?" John asked.

"I have never before seen anything like this." Teyla replied.

"Maybe it's some sort of bomb shelter." Rodney suggested. "Whatever happened on the surface of the planet didn't affect this place. Maybe the people who once inhabited this planet had to flee down here when say... the wraith came."

"If they did, where are they?" John asked. "Why are there no traces of what happened on the surface?

"Good point Colonel. I haven't really thought about that."

"That dirt may have something to do with it." Ronon suggested. "You said it was strange."

"I suppose it's possible that it might not have been dirt, but simply eroded metal. I mean... ten thousand years of wind erosion can do a number on anything. But why this structure?"

John turned and headed towards one of the smaller dome buildings. "Let's take a look."

There was no real choice in which building to choose. They all looked the same. John picked one in the middle of the entire formation. He approached the door. It was unadorned. There wasn't even a doorknob. He tried pushing on it and the door swung open.

John cautiously stepped forward and instantly recoiled. A horrible smell came from inside. It instantly reminded John of the smell of the dead wraith bodies in the morgue. He placed his glove against his nose and peered inside. He instantly regretted it.

On the floor were a pair of heavily degraded bodies. He couldn't tell if they were human or not. All that remained were the fragments of skin and bones. He turned away and leaned against the side of the building.

"What did you see?" Teyla asked.

"Two distinct bodies." John replied. "Can't tell what they once were. The bodies are little more than fragments of skin and bones. The smell is bad enough."

"I'd imagine the rest of them are the same." Ronon said grimly.

"Yeah. Let's get out of here." John stood and immediately felt nauseous. He managed to hold his lunch in, but just barely.

"Are you alright?" Teyla asked.

"Yeah. The smell is just sickening." John shook his head. "There's only one way to go." John pointed to the other entrance into the large dome. "Teyla, take point. I'm still feeling a little weird."

"You don't mean we're going back into the dark." Rodney said with disbelief.

"That's exactly what I'm saying Rodney. As soon as we get back to the jumper, we're going back to Atlantis and not coming back."

The other entrance led into yet another tunnel. They were completely lost. With only one way to go however, they kept walking. John was already starting to feel suspicious. The old man had told him all these great things about the order of time. This tunnel was just too much.

After almost an hour walking down the tunnel they came upon another chamber, this one was smaller and had three consoles surrounding a central shaft. The chamber lit up as soon as John stepped into it. Once again shielding his eyes, he walked over to the center console.

The console instantly lit up. John looked at Rodney. "Do your thing Rodney."

Rodney came over to the console and began to scan over the various buttons. "This is actually vaguely familiar to most of the systems on Atlantis."

"So it is of the ancients?" Teyla asked.

"Looks that way." Rodney pressed a few buttons and a hologram appeared. "We're here." Rodney said as he pointed towards a group of flashing dots on the hologram. "This is a holographic representation of the maze we're in. If I'm interpreting this right, there's an elevator in this central shaft." Rodney banged his hand against the central shaft. "See, it's hollow."

"Can we get on the lift from here?" John asked.

"Give me a second." Rodney pressed a few buttons. "There, that should do it."

There was a loud bang, followed by a quiet humming of an elevator moving. A door appeared on the central shaft as the elevator arrived.

"Any idea where it's taking us?" John asked.

"A large room," Rodney began, "which should have an exit hatch. It's then an hour of so walk back to the jumper."

"How do you know that?"

"Just judging from where I know we entered this nightmare."

John stepped into the elevator with Teyla, Ronon, and Rodney. Together they rode the elevator up the shaft. John couldn't help but still be slightly unnerved. He could tell the rest of them were. Teyla was calm on the outside but her eyes betrayed her real feelings, she was terrified. Rodney's fingers wouldn't stop moving. Ronon was pacing back and forth. Whatever this place was, it wasn't good.

The elevator stopped and a door appeared in front of them. John pushed it open and walked into the room. It was already lit by a series of torches. John glanced around.

There were five alcoves in the room. Each one contained a stone coffin. "Okay, that's just creepy." John said.

"It's some kind of burial chamber." Teyla said.

"Out of the morgue into the room of death. McKay, where's that exit?"

"There should be a ladder just inside that center alcove." Rodney said.

"Alright. Keep your eyes open." John cautiously stepped toward the center alcove. He spotted it as he scanned the left wall with his flashlight. "Ronon, you first."

John waited as Ronon climbed onto the ladder. "The hatch is blocked Sheppard." He said.

"Can you shove it open?"

"Probably." Ronon grunted.

"John, I am getting a very bad feeling about this place." Teyla said, the nervousness evident in her voice.

"Yeah, I've got the same feeling." John replied. "We'll be out of here soon."

"Then we're not coming back. Right?" Rodney added nervously.

"Right."

"I don't think you're leaving." A voice hissed from the shadows. A single figure began to move. It was dressed in all black. John brought his P90 into firing position. "It's been so long since I've seen an apprentice here. The last... expired a short time ago. For an order, they certainly were... delicious."

The way the figure said 'delicious' made John's skin crawl. "Who are you?" John asked.

"I am the real leader of this pathetic order." The figure stepped into the light.

John would've recognized the face anywhere. It was a wraith. John immediately opened fire. "RONON GET THE HATCH OPEN!" He yelled.

The wraith didn't flinch. The bullets impacted its body and just seemed to bounce off. John suddenly felt very vulnerable. Teyla added her P90's firepower to the mix, trying to kill the wraith. They both stopped when their clips were dry. John hastily began to reload.

"You see." The wraith said. "I used this order for so long. I fed upon the last of them not so long ago. I haven't had to hibernate. On top of that, I learned all their tricks. I learned everything they are. I have every ability of an order of time master. You can't hope to stop me. I will feed on each and every one of you."

John stepped in front of Teyla. "No you won't."

"IT'S OPEN!" Ronon shouted.

Rodney immediately darted for the ladder, Teyla slowly began backing towards the ladder. John held his ground. He stared the wraith in the eyes. "You won't get to feed on us." He said defiantly.

"John, come on!" Teyla begged from the top of the ladder.

"You can run." The wraith snickered. "But you can't hide."

John slowly back up towards the ladder. He knew that as soon as he started climbing the wraith would be all over him. He knew he couldn't just stand here like this. He turned his back and quickly climbed up the ladder.

He heard the wraith scream and give chase. Ronon slammed the slab back over the hole just after John was clear.

"That won't hold him long." Ronon said.

"Then we'd better get moving." John yelled. "McKay, lead the way."

"This way." Rodney replied, already sprinting towards the open plains where they'd parked the jumper.

They were only a few seconds away when the stone slab shot from its place in the ground and the wraith crawled out. "I shall feed!" It screamed and gave chase.