A/N: If it ever seems like I have a split personality in regards to titles, not all of them are mine, some are my beta's. She came up with this one and the name for 'Rodnon.' She's great.

Electronic hugs (and at the request of krysalys, Wilbur chocolate) for all who reviewed. I love feedback, thanks so much. I thought I'd get a bunch of responses, and I was right. Also, for the lurkers, Hi ! Hope you're enjoying this.

I decided to post this chapter now, or I'll never stop tinkering with it.

Chapter 4-Fried and Screwed

"Rodney!" John yelled over at the scientist who was trying to push himself off of the console. They were all thrown as far front as they could possibly be, and the submarine was still sinking and angled to the ocean floor and out of John's control.

"What!" He got an answer from two men, one on both sides of him, and neither of whom he could see in the pitch black.

"I would like to know what's going on here!"

"Sort of hard to tell in the dark, Maj- Colonel."

"Maybe we should work on getting light?" Teyla was on the far side of the sub next to Rodney digging in her vest pocket.

"Right, light. Where's my…" Rodney darted his eyes around the sub for his gear, unable to focus on anything when a small light suddenly appeared from next to him, shining around, and another one quickly showed up too.

"There's your light." John and Teyla both had their small flashlights out, retrieved from their vest pockets.

Ronon braced himself on the console and lifted himself from the prone position, "You're making us look bad, doctor."

"Oh, shut up would you?"

"Don't tell me to shut up."

"I can if I want to."

He motioned to his muscular arms, "I can be beat you up, this is a rather fit body."

Rodney snipped, "Cause physical harm to the original, that's real mature."

John cut in rather agitatedly, "Rodney!" He yelled for the second time since the sub went haywire, "Stop and focus on what just happened to this thing. It feels like we're sinking damn rapidly here." He moved so as he had his feet resting against where the console and floor met, his back against the floor, but due to the angle of the sub, he was practically standing. The chair was directly behind him so he had to actually crouch. He held the flashlight so it would illuminate most of the front section.

Teyla had already done the same, but since the other chair was behind Rodney, she could lean fully against the floor. She spoke to Rodney, "It began when the Colonel attempted to contact Atlantis. Perhaps the communication systems malfunctioned and set off a reaction."

Rodney and Ronon glared at each other as they followed suit and struggled to stand up.

"Astute observation. Now shine the lights over there." Rodney pointed to a spot centrally located on the controls, they did and he reached out and began to play with some buttons, "No power… hmm..." He crouched down further and pried open a panel on the bottom, revealing the usual flat, clear crystals.

"Maj- Colonel, move over," The alternate Rodney attempted to pass John who didn't move, "Now?"

John looked to his left at Ronon wondering how long it would take for him to be driven insane trapped in a sinking submarine with two Rodney McKays, "You honestly have no idea how to let Ronon have control back? It is his body after all."

"No I-" He changed direction with his speech; "you don't believe I'm doing this on purpose do you? Do you even know what I just woke up from, hmm? I'd rather be d-" He stopped himself quickly.

Rodney glanced up at Ronon, knowing precisely what he was going to say. He had never told anyone the extent of which Garin Trelio had played with his mind, not even John. It came to a point before the chase through the bowels of the city that he wished it would just end; he couldn't take the watching helplessly anymore. He looked back at the crystals, pushing the memory out.

John responded, "I've been told what happened, but now isn't the time to talk about it."

"Exactly, so let me just get over there-"

Rodney mumbled, "Crap."

John let out a breath, "I don't like the sound of that."

"Me neither." The copied Rodney crossed Ronon's arms, desperately wanting to get over to that panel himself but knowing it would be hard to even maneuver over there with a Colonel in the way.

"The main power conduit is completely fried, along with the two bypasses."

John moved him along, "So…"

"So that means we have no power to the engine systems. None. We will continue to sink at our present rate, which is bizarre due to this angle… and crash into the ocean floor to wait out the rest of our lives, our unbelievably short lives, unless by some miracle I can find another way to reroute the power supply that I haven't found in the months of studying this submarine."

Before John or Teyla could edge in a comment, Ronon's voice muttered, "Great going Major. Damn it, I meant Colonel." He could not believe he had finally escaped the prison of his mind only to be trapped in a sinking sub with himself.

John vehemently denied responsibility, "I didn't do anything."

Ronon responded, "Like hell you didn't. You had to touch something."

"Just the comm. system." The military commander of Atlantis crossed his arms.

Rodney nodded, "Then that was the catalyst."

And the alternate him added, "So you did cause it."

Teyla attempted to lighten the mood, "Faulty wiring, right Colonel?" She had heard him blame other mishaps on that aspect.

"Exactly. Thank you." He aimed his voice at the two McKays and thought if one of them didn't fix this, he would go crazy defending himself from them, "You see? Not my fault." He then recalled the feeling he had from the sub, "Although… there was something weird before…"

The two McKay's ears perked up, one looking rather bizarre since it was Ronon Dex after all, "Like what?" Again, both talking at the same time.

John shrugged sheepishly, "The computer was yelling at me."

Teyla asked, "Could you actually hear it, or was it more like a feeling?"

"Feeling, a really strange feeling, like it wanted me to respond to it."

Rodney blurted out, "Or warn you."

The copied McKay looked straight at himself, "Of course."

"Its own diagnostic system."

The conversation between the two of them continued, "That automatically alerts the pilot."

"Lot of good that did." Rodney huffed.

"I – you should have piloted."

"Yea, but I had work to do."

John once again interrupted, "Anyone care to fill us in? Sub still sinking here."

Rodney and Ronon both sighed, Ronon talking, "The Ancients must have installed a sort of diagnostic system that relates information directly to the pilot, though why it's not in the Jumpers-"

He was cut off by his original self, "In our research Radek and I uncovered some information that the Jumpers we have in Atlantis predate these sub models."

"The Ancients developed this system after the Jumpers were already built?"

Rodney turned back to Teyla, "It looks that way. Or they just didn't feel the need to install them in Jumpers. They have other safety precautions."

Teyla continued, "Does this have one to prevent our inevitable crash on the bottom?"

Rodney got the hint, "Right, working on the problem now. Though I really don't know if there's anything…" He pried open another panel, words trailing off and all thoughts no longer focused on hurting Radek when they got back for apparently not deleting the copy of his consciousness and that copy taking over Ronon Dex's body, not knowing how to surrender control.

---

Dr. Alexa Stroh walked into Storage Room 27D next to Dr. Radek Zelenka and looked around. At first glance, everything seemed normal.

"This is the disturbance you brought me down here for?" She commented to Radek without being mean about it, she was really just teasing him.

He continued walking, "We are barely in the room yet."

Alexa smiled and followed, actually glad that she was out of the lab with one of the few people she had seen stand up to the Chief Scientist. She understood why other people didn't, but she wasn't one of those types. Rodney immediately figured out that she wasn't when they first met before the first return trip to Atlantis.

He had made a flippant remark in the lab at Cheyenne Mountain, when it was just the two of them, about some of her previous work being not up to par and returned to his quarters with an earful of angry German and a red handprint on his face. She knew everything she had done wasn't perfect, but the research he was referring to earned her the spot she had in Atlantis and she wasn't going to let it be tarnished by his comments. She was surprised when nothing ever came of the incident, perhaps he was too embarrassed that 'another dumb blonde' had put him down.

Major Lorne was following behind the two, scanning the room for anything that could pop out from behind a shelf, anything to explain how some devices had ended up on the floor and no one was caught going in or out of the room.

They walked through the almost endless rows of shelves, paying close attention if there was something out of place, but nothing was until they rounded a corner and came upon an area far into the room, where the large surplus consoles had been placed.

Radek muttered, "Oh, great."

The farthest shelf that had stood alone a few feet from the wall was suspiciously angled, some devices had been put back, and there were four basketball sized objects on the floor.

Major Lorne pointed with his P90 at them, "What are those?"

Alexa replied, "Anchors. Extremely heavy anchors."

"They were most likely used to secure boats we haven't found yet."

"They're not dangerous?"

Radek shook his head, "Not in the least."

Lorne passed them, "Alright, I'll just put them back on the shelf for you."

The two scientists looked at each other for a brief moment before Alexa called out to the soldier, "I don't think you want to do that."

"Why not? You said they weren't a danger." He crouched down by the first one.

She shrugged, "Have it your way."

Lorne rubbed his hands together and then placed them under one of the anchors and lifted. Or rather, tried to lift. His arms were straining under the pressure of the weight, his legs burning, and his face red and sweating before he gave up and looked back. "So, they're heavy. How'd you get them up on the shelf in the first place?"

Radek grinned, "Effortlessly." He walked over, bent down, and looked over the round anchor. He located what he was searching for and pressed it. A piece of the outer covering folded open. He pressed a few buttons on the inside, and closed the casing. The anchor then rose off of the ground, and with some guiding from Radek's hand, went to the shelf and rested on it.

Alexa went over to help with the others, and the Major stood there trying not to look defeated.

Radek was in the middle of moving another one, "Whoever was in here must have run into shelf and was unable to replace these. They were the only ones on the ground."

"That means we can rule out our science team." Alexa moved one of the anchors to its storage place.

"All the scientists would know how to move these?"

"Yes, Major." Radek was hunched over the last anchor to the shelf.

"So, it was one of the military?" Lorne asked, not wanting to believe one of his was snooping unauthorized.

Alexa was looking around at the consoles, "Seems that way." Her eyes set on one that looked different from the others and she moved over to it, "Radek, what is this one?" She traced the metal that lined the panel on top and eyed the monitor.

Radek turned his head as the anchor landed on the shelf and his eyes widened slightly, "Don't touch that!"

She pulled her hand back, "Why?"

"Yeah, what's your deal, Doctor?"

"That's right, you two wouldn't know about that particular console."

Lorne shifted his weight, "Why don't you fill us in?"

"That is Garin Trelio's computer."

"Oh." Alexa Stroh knew immediately what that small comment meant.

"That explains it." Lorne, Stroh, and the other new members of the Expedition had been given access to previous reports from Atlantis. Though few actually read them all, these two did.

Radek immediately had a thought; there was obviously someone down there… "Alexa, there is a possibility that the someone who was in here… used it."

"Purposely?" Major Lorne asked.

Alexa observed, "Not necessarily, if they did not know exactly what it was they could have mistakenly copied themselves."

"But nothing else?" He asked again.

Radek eyed the computer console, "No, all consciousness data was expunged before storage."

Lorne kept pushing, he really didn't like the idea of another McKay after spending some personal time with him off world, "Are you sure? Because the report said you and Dr. Grodin copied Dr. McKay, and that is one scary thought, doctor. We can barely handle the one."

"It was an accident, believe me. I cleared the data myself." Radek wasn't as sure anymore with himself; Dr. Garin Trelio did install quite a few redundancies like all Ancient technology…

"So there's no duplicate McKays running around? Because if there are, I'm going back to Earth."

Alexa was the voice of reason, "I'm sure there isn't, Major. But we'll investigate the console nonetheless, in addition to that security footage."

The trio packed up and left, intending to return with a cart to move Garin's computer up to one of the labs. Radek Zelenka took a look back, secretly hoping that nothing was going to come of someone's intrusion into the room, they had enough problems with that fissure on the ocean floor, not to mention the Wraith.

Xxx Xxx

"Seriously, you've been working at that thing for an hour and fifteen minutes now. Just let me-"

"No." Rodney stated firmly to his other self as he was in the back compartment of the submarine. He knew the systems, not the copy that was standing right behind him in Ronon's body.

"Damn it, what the hell are you so worried about, that I'm going to fuck something up worse than this situation already is? We are in a sinking sub without power and no way to contact Atlantis. Hell, check-in isn't for another twenty minutes so they don't even know something is wrong down here. Oh, I know, you're afraid that a 'less experienced' version of yourself will show you up? Newsflash, I am you, so we will both take the credit, alright?"

Rodney spun around angrily aiming his found flashlight at him, "You are a fucking mistake. One Radek is going to pay for when I get us out of here."

The comments ate at him and he got right up to Rodney's face, "You know I don't want this! I can't take it! A few hours ago I was dying and watched a psycho live my life for days."

Rodney couldn't take looking at himself reflected in Ronon anymore and turned back to the compartment he was working at, "Yes, well, you weren't the only one."

The duplicate Rodney took a deep breath, "Tell me Garin paid for this."

"He's gone, deleted, non-existent." Rodney waved his hand back at the other man.

"And I was supposed to be too." His voice was quiet.

"Yes, you were. I instructed Radek and Peter from my infirmary bed to get rid of …you as soon as possible. My mind had been messed with enough that week."

"I would have done the same, I suppose in a way I did? After all I was copied not so long before I'm sure you gave the order to have me erased. Damn, is that weird actually saying that aloud… I'm not real… oh my god. This whole thing sucks infinitely."

"That is an understatement. The whole problem surrounding you…me… plus a disabled submarine? It's like the universe is punishing me."

Ronon's eyes narrowed, "For what?"

"Destroying five-sixths of a solar system with an Ancient weapon."

"Really? That's… cool in a way. Amazing accomplishment, you have to tell me more about this."

"Some other time, work to do."

"Right, right."

-

John Sheppard had his eyes closed and felt the movement of the submarine, the downward movement. It was a rapid pace, much faster than the rate he was piloting it at and what it was immediately following the power failure. He turned to Teyla who was beside him, "Is it me, or is the sub accelerating?"

"I have noticed it also. It seems to be progressive, we do not have long until the bottom is reached. There is also a slight glow radiating from the bottom."

"Let's hope we don't get there."

"At this rate, we will be there. Your attempts at accessing the controls have failed, and Rodney hasn't been able to fix the relays. It is going to be a long day."

"You've got that right. I'm going to check on our two McKays… can't believe I just said that…"

Teyla shook her head, "Who would have ever thought this would happen?"

He stood as best he could, "No one in their right minds. Keep an eye out there and wish me luck."

Teyla nodded, "Good luck with the both of them," and he climbed up to the back of the sub.

John came across a sight he thought he would never see, Ronon Dex hovering over a working Rodney McKay looking extremely interested in what he was doing. "Any progress on those lights?"

"Hold on to your pants Colonel, I don't like being rushed." He kept moving several crystals around the control box.

"Sorry to break it to you, but we're heading to ocean floor faster than before. Haven't you noticed?"

The copied Rodney answered, "Of course. How could we not?"

John pressed, "Any ideas why?"

"Not at the moment." Rodney replaced a crystal and said, "There. That should do it."

The sides of the submarine began to glow a weak light blue, and grew more intense. The color also changed into more of a natural light.

John looked around at the now comfortably lit sub, "Cool, what you do?"

Rodney moved on to another panel and popped it open, "Got the emergency lights up and running. They work on completely separate system of course, and not nearly enough energy to power the sub, but at least we're not in the dark anymore and I have decent light to work by. I've also routed a bit to the life-support systems."

"Why weren't the lights on before?"

Ronon answered that one, "The trigger that would have activated them was also fried."

Teyla's voice called up from the front of the sub, "Colonel, Doctors, you should see this. It is most… fascinating and frightening."

The three men looked at each other and began to carefully make their way to what was now the bottom of the sub, as it was still extremely angled. They immediately saw what she was talking about.

"Crap." Rodney muttered. "Just what we needed, more things going wrong, horribly, terribly wrong."

"We don't know that yet." John retorted, "We only know that we can see the fissure, that it is glowing, and we're headed directly for a rather large rock."

Rodney snipped in Ronon's voice, "Rock? I'd say more like an enormous boulder projecting from the ocean floor."

"We have established that," Teyla eyed the rather formidable formation, "The question is what is to be done?"

Rodney noticed how fast they were heading towards the fissure, the ocean floor, and the boulder in their way, "Without power to the engines… nothing." He snipped angrily at life in general.

"Brace yourselves then." John held on to the side of the sub, the others found similar places to go.

Rodney kept going on, bitterness in his voice, "Nothing we do is going to help, the force of the impact alone-"

The other Rodney took over using Ronon's voice, "Will cause significant damage to the-"

John cut him off, "Shut up Rodney…both of you."

"Yes, please." Teyla nodded her head, looking straight ahead at the boulder that was now right in front of them.

The submarine went head first into the very top of the rock formation, throwing the team further into the front. It flipped over the top from the forward momentum, and rolled down the other side to come to a rest, the emergency lights flickering inside.

A/N: Yes, Queen Cliffie, that is a name I earned a couple months ago with Assassin.

Might be awhile to update… life, college, etc interferes. But, I will try very hard to actually write and make it work. It's all in my overloaded head.

Comments? Electronic anything shall be sent in abundance for them!