Rodney never arrived at the lab. Instead he was distracted by a single beam of light shining through the clouds, finding just enough of a break in the grey to show its defiance. It was a moment of symbology, and as much as Rodney hated things of that nature, this one stopped him in his tracks. And he heard her.
"Lovely, isn't it?"
He turned. She was there, of course, looking surprisingly frail. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Don't come near me. Get the fuck away."
"Rodney, listen. . ."
"Don't call me that! Don't talk to me."
"I am sorry, so deeply sorry." She hurried to stand in front of him as he turned. "I misunderstood, that's all. I had thought. . ."
"You thought wrong." He turned again, and again was blocked.
"You really have no desire to ascend."
"Is that what all this is really about?" He laughed. "You scare me with visions and torments of death, and tell me that ascension is such a good thing. Well, you know what? Sucks for you, obviously!" He shouldered past, and stopped in his tracks. He had pushed past her. Very solidly. Differently.
She stood there, watching, her eyes heavy.
Rodney slowly turned to face her. Stood right before her, his hand cautiously reaching out. He took the fabric of her dress in his fingers, rubbed it lightly, raised his hand to touch her curls. There had always been sensation before, like a dream. Even on the other station, she was there, but not. Not until that monstrous form emerged. But now. . .she smelled of peaches. She was soft. She was gentle, she was there. Real. Underneath his hands, his hands which suddenly touched her everywhere, rubbing her shoulders, fingers threading her hair, lingering over her breasts. He breathed in deeply, with a shudder. "How?"
"You want this. You just never realized it. I wanted to show you."
"Show me what?"
She smiled, almost shyly. "Me."
He understood. This was the real Dantanunana, the real Dot, not a form or projection or half-being, not a representation of a thousand lost souls. This was the lady as she was when she first stepped foot on the other station, seeking her destiny. Before she was trapped for eternity. She was lovely. Light. Different, somehow. There was nothing menacing, or even seductive. She was pure, yet womanly. Not the good girl, as her coy smile showed, but not dangerous. And his heart went out to her. "God, I. . .it's so unfair. What they did, I mean."
"It is. But we can solve this. Please, I so want to do this." Her voice was rich, but. . .normal.
Rodney was finding it hard to breathe. "Why haven't you come to me like this before? This is. . .if you had just. . ."
"I could not. And I can't stay this way. It requires too much."
His brows raised. "The energy? You really are the cause? That's why you were able to do this?"
She looked confused, then scared. "I have to go."
"What? No! No wait, please, just - just hang on a minute."
"This really is your path. You can help us. Please, Rodney, help us! Join us!"
Rodney could only stand there and watch as she faded, and left behind a hole unlike anything he had ever felt. The sunbeam was gone, the skies were darkening. He suddenly realized how empty he was, a vessel that needed to be filled by her presence. The halls around him were foreboding. Everything looked so flat, so one-dimensional. If that was the bliss that joining would afford him, then he would take it.
And that was when he started walking, and when the halls started to close in around him.
Nothing changed, physically, but the corridors felt like a pressing tunnel, each side waving inwards. He rounded a corner and found a door, where one should not have been, and it opened to reveal a control room, like the ones in the underwater city. He quickly backed away, into someone who asked if he was okay. But he couldn't see them, and shrugged off the restraining hand and increasingly frantic speech. Next thing he knew he was running, pushing at the walls as they tried to cave on him, slamming bodily into them and into people as he approached a more populated sector. He saw several people running towards him, and turned tail, pounding down the corridor with the pursuit tight on his heels. He managed to close the elevator door in their face, and slid down the wall, gasping, wringing his hands. The doors opened to an empty hall several levels down, and he had to crawl out, then push himself to his feet. And a small voice sounded in his head. "They know, my love. You have to do this now, you can achieve so much if you do this now. They will destroy you. You know what torment awaits. They do not trust you, they think you are mad. They will destroy you."
"No," he whispered, standing in the abandoned hallway, clasping his head in his hands. He bent over, forcing his brain to think in a more linear fashion rather than drifting in sporadic clouds that obscured his reason. He straightened, hearing a sound, darting his eyes left to right. "I won't let that happen."
"You know what to do."
"I can't. I'm afraid."
"You can."
"Yes." It terrified him. In fact, he couldn't believe he was thinking it. . .but she was right. He was useless like this, so just maybe. . .besides, with the Wraith coming, couldn't he protect the city? What if he didn't survive the attack? What if, in some odd way, this was meant to be?
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Dr. Zelenka!" Lt. Ford ran into the lab, rushing up to the man. "You give up your search?"
"I had to check on this project, it has to be precisely timed. But I was going to. . ."
"Look, never mind, I found him. But he ran. Called backup, but man, he's fast. And he ain't right, man, I'm telling you. Something's up. Bad."
Radek straightened instantly. "You informed the Major?"
"He's out looking for him." Ford snapped his hand up, shaking a headset at Radek. "I found this on that table over there. Been trying to contact you."
Radek pointed, agitated. "Is the project. . .I needed to wear different earpiece, can not do that with headset." He snatched the radio from Ford and placed it in his ear. "Where did Rodney go?"
"Lost him in the elevator. But we've got people looking everywhere."
"Right." Radek waved Burkes over and pointed to a graph. "I'm joining you."
"Actually I've got a team out. Why don't you pick a spot and hang out, see if he shows up. Burkes here can keep him in the lab if he shows, right Burkes?" There was a nod, and Ford clapped Radek on the shoulder. "The minute you see him. . ."
"Yes, yes of course." Radek muttered impatiently, and followed Ford out on his heels.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sheppard had a cold feeling. Screw his concerns, his emotions, his damned ego. Rodney was an intelligent man, there was no way he would let what. . .happened. . . ruin everything. Hell, if he was going to 'fess up and charge headlong into this friendship thing, then dammit, he was going to have to do it. No longer a team mate. No longer a co-worker, or part of his duty, or someone to annoy. He had seen her, he was certain of it, a small figure with bright red hair walking down the hall, a figure he had seen once before, right as she mutated. No hallucination. It was here, and suddenly everything made too much sense.
And the fact that he couldn't find Rodney scared the shit out of him.
He had contacted Elizabeth. And Teyla. And Dr. Beckett, who had medical teams on standby. Every man available was out searching for someone who had simply disappeared. Not in the labs, in the corridors. The entire station's personnel was on alert to notify either Sheppard or Weir the moment they saw him. John was scared he had taken off to an unexplored part of the city, lost maybe, or trapped. Their exploration perimeter was ever widening, but they were limited by restricted power sources, and since the spikes in the system, those limited sources were stretched to the limits, if working at all. One generator was gone for good, having suffered some kind of feedback that like everything else, made no sense. Beckett had informed him of Rodney's theory, that somehow this Dot person was responsible for the drain, but he had his doubts. However, seeing her in the hall, in what looked like real flesh and bone, made him reconsider.
His team was spread wide. His weapon was ready. There was no way she was taking him. Not after the crap Sheppard had put himself through, realizing that he was worth fighting for.