A/N: Okay, I know it has been a week and a day, but hey, RL is being a bitch. Thanks to all for the reviews, they help to get me through.

Chapter 6- 1.2101… Leagues Under the Sea

Rodney McKay opened his eyes with a start to stare at a whitewashed ceiling.

He blinked at the sight, forcing his eyes to come to a focus in the harsh glare. When they did, he realized that is really was not a ceiling, it was more like empty space.

White, empty space.

Damn it.

Sitting up from his position of laying on his back, he took in the surroundings to the left and right of him – the all-too-familiar expanse of a world of nothing.

He sighed heavily upon the recognition of where he was, not wanting to believe he was trapped again. He had been through this not that long ago. Though of course, this time he knew he was the invader.

He was pleased as much as he could be as he looked down at his clothes and found they consisted of his uniform. Finally, he was back in a normal outfit. After brushing his hand over his own short hair (he thought thankfully that they were not the dreadlocks that irritated him silently before), he groaned quietly and wondered if he was alone, or if he was imprisoned with a man he had never met.

He peeked behind him and laying only a few feet away was a man dressed in the tank top and leather-like pants McKay had found himself waking up to the last time.

He was on his back, stretched out in the same position Rodney had woken up in, but wasn't moving.

Rodney pulled himself to his feet, calling out, "Hey, Ron… Ronuin… no… Ronon, you up?" He walked the few feet over the bare ground and started to prod Ronon in the side with his foot. Gently at first, then after a few moments without a reaction, his prodding became more violent.

"Why won't you just wake up, huh? You go walking around where you don't belong and now you're just sleeping…" After a few more minutes, or what seemed like minutes, without eliciting movement or sound, he stopped.

It was then he recalled words spoken to him only a few hours before, maybe longer (he wasn't really sure time existed in the mind like out in reality) from his perspective, but it still seemed like an eternity-

"I woke lying down and you were lying where you were. Nothing I attempt to control seems to work."

Memories of the conversation he had with the mad Ancient after they had woken up in an exact duplicate of his present position filled his head. Neither of them could do anything nor hurt each other. They had been stuck because his body had taken too much trauma and displaced them.

Great.

He had never asked Garin Trelio how long he had waited around until he woke up, he had been too angry, but judging by finding the Ancient sprawled on his back, it must have been awhile. He must have gotten sick of standing around.

"Ah, crap." Rodney sighed, hating being in the place of Garin Trelio, and hating the situation. He knew the crash was the reason he was stuck back into a white world and speculated about what the hell he had done to piss the universe off so much that it had it out for him – crashing two Ancient vehicles with him in them.

The other Rodney McKay, the real one… did destroy five-sixths of a solar system, but that wasn't him, it wasn't fair to punish him for that, or the Ma- err Colonel, or Teyla, or even this new guy that was still out like a light. Okay, maybe Ronon did deserve a sort of punishment for snooping where he didn't belong, as Rodney assumed (they really didn't know yet), but to punish everyone… it just wasn't fair.

He sunk to the ground, having nowhere to go, nothing to do. But being restless, he stood back up and started to pace anxiously, thoughts of what was the past week to him were biting at his mind, refusing to retreat and leave him alone.

He heard himself say, "Unfortunate? Two Ancients are dead, I'm dying, and Kate has Elana in her mind. I cannot understand what would posses you to do this! You can't go around doing these things. A Wraith took your wife from you, yes, but we have lost some damn good people to the Wraith too," He remembered how his voice cracked, "so you believing you can do whatever you want is incredibly dense."

"You have no idea what I have been through at the hands of the Wraith so keep silent about it or I swear I WILL COME OVER THERE AND SILENCE YOU MYSELF!"

Rodney in what was passing as real-life for the moment instinctively took a step back as a phantom Garin stepped towards him, "YOU TOLD ME! Your wife was killed by one!"

"Do you believe that is all they did? They took my life, McKay, not directly by feeding on me, but by feeding on the ones I loved! I could not let Elana go, she was the only thing that kept me going after …"

"After what?" Rodney couldn't shake the bizarre vision from his mind, it was like watching himself in a dream, but he was inside his own body… watching.

"Nothing you need to know about."

"It's not like we're going anywhere! So you might as well tell me."

"Let it rest McKay. I am asking you politely."

"Politely? You took over my body!"

"I am aware of that fact."

"Well, what else did they do?"

Phantom Garin looked straight into Rodney's eyes and slowly stated, "They took my son. A seven year old boy. Are you satisfied now?" He stepped away and vanished into nothingness.

Rodney shook his whole body and looked around, Ronon was still laying there. He couldn't feel sympathy for the Ancient. He resolved he never would. If he made it off the bottom of the ocean that is. But then what would happen?

---

"Damn…this…sub…" Rodney took a sip of water to soothe his throat from the previous coughing fit as Teyla went to the front to check on Colonel Sheppard and Ronon. He wondered how she could remain so calm and collected through all of this.

He was in bad shape, really bad shape. He knew it. But he was awake, unlike John. So he deduced that he was in better health, which frightened him the most about the situation. That was saying a lot, as they were thousands of meters under the surface of the ocean in a disabled submarine and next to some sort of super-heated-tectonic plate-gone-crazy.

After calculating the odds that they would get back to Atlantis alive, he got even more depressed. It wasn't looking good. But his mind kept going over the schematics of the vehicle; he had to be missing something, something that would aid in the repairs.

It wasn't long before Teyla came back, and checked him over again, "I've cleaned the front section some. Do you need anything from there?" She avoided mentioning how she cleaned up the Colonel's blood.

"Yea, my work-pad. There are the schematics on there."

"I'll only be a moment."

He watched out of the corner of his eye as she left, thinking of all he knew about the submarine, and trying to block out the pain in his chest and throat. All he wanted was to be in the infirmary, in a nice warm bed, with some of Carson's happy-drugs, dreaming of a blonde on a beach. Actually, to be on a beach with a blonde. It certainly was approaching the temperature of the tropics in there.

His train of thoughts was broken when Teyla gently handed him the small computer.

---

He was lying on his back, eyes closed, hands folded on his stomach, and fighting back images of the past week. Of watching helplessly as his life was taken over by a ten-thousand and some odd year-old Ancient. Of the imitation Gateroom he was in for days, of orange couches, of the fighting in the other white expanse, and of the crashing of the Jumper. All he wanted to do was wake up, leave that place.

Then he felt himself being pulled.

The air sucking into his lungs was warm and had a tinge of a smell he couldn't quite place. It was some what metallic, but smoky… The thoughts running through his head were jumbled now, at first he remembered a white expanse… meeting someone… and then the Jumper… how it dove into the hill… but that wasn't right, he was in a submarine this time that crashed into a rock formation with Major Sheppard…wait, Colonel Sheppard, and Teyla…

He felt the warm floor through the back of his shirt and his head resting on something. Moving was posing a problem, after not being conscious (with a real body) for awhile, his limbs were heavy and he struggled to separate reality from the borderline dream of a few moments ago. He heard his own voice, adding to the surrealism of the space between consciousness and unconsciousness.

"I really need to get over there." Rodney said quietly, but demanding nonetheless.

"In your condition, it is best that you stay resting and instruct me."

That was Teyla… she sounded so far away. And was he talking? The copied Rodney then recalled fully what happened in the submarine. He kept listening, expecting to hear Colonel Sheppard at any moment.

"It would be too difficult to explain. Just help me up."

"Rodney, stay still."

"Hey, I'm the only resident genius on this sub; I should be fixing this thing. If it is fixable that is, but I'm not-" The copied Rodney heard a terrible cough and then Rodney continuing, "not going to just lie here like a worthless sack of-" Another cough. Where was the Colonel in all of this?

He found his voice, "I can do it." It was only barely more audible than a whisper, but Teyla's conditioned ear picked it up.

In what seemed like a moment, he could feel a hand on his forehead, "Ronon?"

"Uh, no. Sorry to disappoint you."

She was glad to see one of the two men, there was a little more hope now, "It's alright. How are you feeling?"

He scoffed in Ronon's voice as he opened his eyes to see her bending over him, "You're really asking me that?"

"You have been unconscious for some time, where do you hurt?"

He hadn't actually noticed it until she brought it up, but now he did, "Head. Hurts like hell, but I think I can sit up." He used his arms to push his upper body to a sitting position, and then noticed John lying next to him, head bandaged and resting on a blue jacket.

Teyla anticipated his question, "He has also been out since the crash."

He snipped worriedly, "Fabulous. How about, uh…" He nodded his head to the back of the sub where he heard their voices coming from.

"His condition is also bad."

"How bad?" He slowly stood, careful not to fall over from the onset of a dizzy spell, and aware of Teyla at his side.

"I suspect internal injuries."

Rodney went off, "This is one horrible day. First of all, I'm watching as a seriously screwed up Ancient masquerades as me, is chased through Atlantis, escapes though I fight like hell, we crash, wake up, there's more fighting, then I wake up five months later, but only moments to me, in a body that's not mine only to have a sub crash with me in it. We're all banged up at the bottom of an ocean. What else is going to happen me!"

"We cannot predict the future, only hope to inspire it for the good."

"You always were the calm one. How do you do it?"

Teyla let a small smile pierce her lips as she let Rodney stand alone in Ronon's body, "It stems from patience and years of leading my people." She bent down to John's level and gently checked the back of his head.

"How's he doing?" He looked over the military man, how pale and clammy he looked.

"His wound has stopped bleeding some time ago," she put two fingers to his neck, "and his pulse has steadied."

"So better than before I take it?"

"Yes. As are you." She brushed John's cheek with the back of her hand.

He looked down at her then towards the back of the sub where a muffled cough could be heard, "But the original over there is getting worse?"

"Correct. I should get back to him." But she didn't move.

"I'll just go; someone should stay with M- Colonel Sheppard." He knew she must have been going back and forth since the crash.

Teyla looked up at him with tired, but strong eyes, "Alright."

It was a brief walk to the back of the submarine, he silently thanked that it was level and he didn't see any water seeping in. That would have been a little too cliché for his tastes. Like one of those corny science fiction movies that his sister Jeannie was always into.

He saw himself resting against the right wall, eyes closed, taking short breaths, and not looking good at all. On his lap rested a computer pad that looked worse for wear.

"Hey. Sleeping on the job again, huh?"

The original McKay, and the true one as far as he was concerned recognized the eerie tone of his own personality in Ronon's voice, "Oh shut up, would you? Genius in pain here."

"Excuse me, just thought that you'd be on your way to getting this thing up-and-running."

"I would be if I could stand."

"What are you talking about?"

He coughed into a cloth, "Hard to stand for long without help. Head's spinning, you're a little blurry, and oh yea, I'm coughing up blood!"

"Hey, don't get all snappy on me, McKay." He walked over to the open panel and started fiddling around.

"What are you doing?"

"We have to get this sub moving."

"We, since when is there a we?" He coughed again.

His copy went back over and picked up the canteen for him, creeped out that he was nursing himself.

"I'm the one that's going to be solving this problem, just sit over there." The original, and he thought the best, Rodney waved his copy away.

The other Rodney glared using Ronon's face at who he had been told was his true self, angry and frustrated at the reality he was being faced with. It was completely unfair, he never asked for this. But he wasn't just going to sit on his ass and let someone else work on getting them out of this. "I'm helping, and it's not as if you can get up by yourself, you admitted it."

McKay stared at Ronon and recognized his own determination and stubbornness, but brought up a fact, "You don't know these systems as I do."

Ronon-Rodney stood back up and crossed his arms, "I'm a quick study, but you know that don't you?"

"Working together would be beneficial."

The two McKays turned their heads to see Teyla standing there.

The alternate version of Rodney asked what was on the two men's minds, "How's the Major," he snapped his fingers, "err, Colonel? I'm never going to get used to that."

"The same as before."

The two men didn't know whether to be relieved that he wasn't getting worse, or disappointed that he stopped getting better. The healthy McKay turned back to the one on the ground, "Let's get working, shall we?"

"Alright, fine. I'll talk you through. The life-support is running, though it's having some problems with the heat-" He paused for a cough and continued, "still have to find a way to direct main power to communications and the engines, other than the two bypasses because those are fried."

Upon seeing that things were as good as they good be in the back of the sub, Teyla left the two scientists talking, as the Colonel had called it, techno babble, and went back to where John was lying.

She stopped and stared.

He was rubbing his face with his left hand.

"Colonel?"

"Mmm." Was his answer, he was still between being awake and unconscious.

Her legs working again, she quickly knelt on one knee by his side, "Come on, open your eyes now."

"I don't want to."

She smirked at his response, "Well, we can't all have what we want. Do you remember anything?"

She watched as his eyes fluttered open and searched around him, "We crashed." He felt the bandage, "Head wound, huh?"

"Yes."

"So, I've been out then?"

"You have, I was getting worried there for a little while."

He mocked, "Just a little while? That hurts. I thought you liked me."

She smiled a bit, glad to have him back, "How are you feeling? Can you sit up?"

"Head hurts…I can try." His eyes scanned the floor around him as he pushed up, "Hey, what's that?"

"What?"

"Under the pilot's chair."

Teyla narrowed her eyes and went over to where John had mentioned and pulled out a small, red-pear shaped device. "That is a good question." She went back and showed it to him.

"He brought that thing? Christ, he would."

"Care to elaborate, Colonel?"

"Oh, yea. Rodney has been working on trying to get me to activate that for the past couple days. He can't and it was driving him crazy, being the workaholic that he is."

She grabbed another canteen from the packs she had stacked back where they belonged and handed it to him, watching as he slowly started drinking, "And you will not help him?"

He brought the canteen down, "Not after the last device I touched for him. The hair incident."

"That was some time ago."

"I'm still wary of his research projects. No crime in that. Where is he anyway?"

"In the back, with the other Rodney."

"He's still hanging around?"

"They're working on getting the submarine functioning." She set the small device down by the gear. "Our Rodney is not doing well. His condition is deteriorating, I'm afraid if we don't get back to the city that we will be reduced to three."

"Four actually." John started to stand, Teyla pulled him to his feet by his right arm and it took a moment for him to stop swaying, the loss of blood made him dizzy. "Let's take a field trip."

The two walked through the middle blast doors, John supported by Teyla for most of the short way. John blinked at the sight of Rodney sitting on the floor, looking too close to white for his comfort, and Ronon standing at a panel, working. They were talking in their own language all scientists seemed to have learned, so engrossed they didn't turn their heads.

"What's a soldier have to do to get some attention around here?"

The two looked over and saw him with his arm around Teyla's shoulders, trying not to lean on her.

"Welcome back to the world of the living, for how long, I have no idea." The original Rodney coughed.

John countered, "That's comforting, Rodney, thank you." He eyed the man, he really didn't look good.

"He's just saying that at the rate we're going we're not going to fix this in time. It's just impossible. What did you do, anyway?" The copy McKay slammed the panel shut angrily, not really at the Colonel, but in general.

"Hey! All I did was hit the comm. system."

He snipped back, "That evidently sent a power surge through the whole system, and you ignored the automated warning."

The original Rodney was happy to just let his copy express his frustrations, talking for the last few minutes non-stop took a lot out of him.

Teyla tried to ease the situation, "None of us had a way of knowing this would happen."

John went on directing his speech at copy McKay, "Two heads are better than one, but what about Dex, we can't just-"

"I don't exactly know how I got control, so relinquishing it is more than a minor problem Maj- Colonel."

John teased, "My rank isn't that hard to remember."

"When one just wakes up from what I have been through, those details aren't a priority."

John pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead, "I think I need to sit down." The world suddenly got extremely blurry and his head was swirling.

"Back to the front?" Teyla felt him lean on her.

"It doesn't matter; I just really need to sit." He sunk down to the ground before they could turn around and leaned against the wall where the blast door would close. "Shouldn't Atlantis know there's something wrong down here yet?"

Teyla took the opportunity to sit down for the first time since she woke up, "We missed the first check-in a fair amount of time ago. But it would be a couple hours before another team would reach us down here."

John thought about the situation, stranded with two McKays, "Perfect."

A/N: Atlantis shall be back in the picture next chapter, don't worry. As always, feed the bunnies!