A/N: This chapter is shorter due to the fact I thought you all would like this part now instead of waiting until next week. I have some thinking to do about Chapter 10 and college is currently kicking my freshman ass to be frank.

Lirenel- yep, Hermiod speaking Quenya. You are an official Tolkienite, congrats. Krysalys I'm sure you are too, if I hadn't just read or flipped through the books I wouldn't have known either.

Glad you all are liking it!

-not beta-d, life is busy for her too. The last chapter is now beta-d though.

Chapter 9­-Spiral Down Under

Teyla reached him in the same position she left him in - lying on his back, and his head on her jacket. She knelt over the still Rodney McKay, the original and until a few hours before, the one and only. It was obvious now he wasn't the sole person in the galaxy who described himself as such.

She gently felt his forehead, the sweat beading on it. Then she moved her hand to his neck, and became grateful that there was still a pulse. A pain shot through her heart that there was nothing to be done to help him. There wasn't a single outside scratch on him and she knew that his lungs had to be damaged. Not only had he been coughing violently when he was conscious, it was bloody and there was no way to treat that at the bottom of an ocean. He had to be taken back to Atlantis.

Despite the heat that the submarine's life-control systems were struggling to stifle, she felt that he was cold, and his body was in an almost constant state of shivering.

She set herself down against the wall and laid Rodney's head in her lap. In a further attempt to warm him and ignoring the fact she was uncomfortable from the added body heat, she took her bundled jacket and stretched it over his chest.

His shallow and labored breathing was felt by Teyla and she tried not to think of him dying, not after saving his life a few times, and he wasn't going to pass away quietly in the back of a submarine under thousands of meters of water. He had survived more close calls than most of the men she knew, and more bizarre ones at that.

No, he was not passing to the other side like this.

She closed her eyes as she gently stroked his hair, letting his subconscious know he wasn't alone.

Then she felt the sub jerk downward, her body lurching to catch up.

"Damn it!" Sheppard's voice echoed.

-

John had been focusing his thoughts on piloting the sub, and only on piloting. He didn't have the ability or strength to think about anything else. Not on the unconscious Ronon-Rodney beside him, or on the original in the back, not on Atlantis, not on his own persistent headache and nausea from the blow to his head, or even on what copy Rodney had said before he drifted off.

The only thing that existed in his world was the submarine.

And it wasn't happy.

In fact, it was pissed.

Pissed that its controller was not listening.

It was not used to such a stubborn pilot, usually they talked back in addition to communicating with the other systems needed to actually set the sub in motion. Before when it had detected the failing power conduit and attempted to warn the operator, it was ignored, leading to harm to itself.

This time, it wasn't going to let itself be ignored. It became louder and louder in John Sheppard's mind, echoing throughout his consciousness, drowning the world out.

It was hard for John to disregard it and keep the sub ascending, or crawling really, to the surface with the diagnostic system yelling at him. So he answered.

He closed his eyes and directed his thoughts towards the blue light at the far end of his sight. When he did, the rest of the sub reacted by jerking down. It lost its pilot. Ronon-Rodney's arms flailed upward from the sudden force, John's stomach felt as if it was left behind, and his head pounded.

"Damn it!" It was what the sub wanted, to be answered, and now it was no longer going up. He could feel it spiral back towards the ocean floor. He swore out of frustration.

"Colonel!"

He couldn't hear Teyla calling from the back as the sub landed with a thud. He wasn't paying attention since his mind was filled with a presence and a growing light.

"Diagnostic systems are not to be ignored, sir."

John furrowed his eyebrows at the medium-pitched female-esque voice in his head. He thought at the swirly blue image, "Umm, okay… You are?"

"The Diagnostic and Warning system for Underwater Craft Twenty-Seven. Commonly referred to as E.H." The system responded with what can be described as annoyance at the superfluous question.

The identification further confused the Colonel, it was too eerie to be true, "What's that stand for?"

"Elana Hulin." It was even more annoyed at the man.

"Why that name?"

"It is in jest of the engineer's daughter." Everyone knew that.

"Really?" John knew Elana Trelio didn't like the water, never thought her father would name a sub after her, before she had married.

"Yes."

John was about to respond when he was shaken out of his trance. The light faded away and the real world seeped back in as Teyla shook him by his shoulder.

"Are you alright?"

He opened his eyes, "Yea. That was… weird."

"What exactly? You would not respond to me for several moments. I was beginning to think-"

"No, I'm still with you. Unlike our scientist…s and weapons specialist. How are they?"

Teyla glanced back at Ronon who was still unconscious in the chair next to the Colonel and at the back of the sub, "They are the same. We need to get back to the city." She began to check John over with her eyes.

"We do. I just don't understand why this is all spiraling out of control. We were moving just fine… slowly… but fine." John scratched his head through the bandage he still had wrapped around his wound and looked at his hand, dried blood under his fingernails.

"Rodney mentioned something about us being pulled toward the bottom, we are being held down."

"He should've stuck around a little longer to explain that." John looked around at the sub, the temperature still mostly uncomfortable but getting nicer by the minute. "The system that was warning me about the power conduit is trying to talk to me."

Teyla cocked her head at John's matter-of-fact comment, "What was it saying?" At this point, nothing was going to surprise her about Ancient technology. It can do wonderful things.

"I don't know, we were interrupted. But I think it's mad at me." He replied sheepishly.

"Wouldn't you be if you tried to warn someone, they ignored you, and then you were harmed?" She replied as she observed the tired look that overtook his features. His eyes were droopy and dark and his face lost a bit more color than the last time she saw him, only a few minutes earlier.

"I guess so." He paused and continued, "I'm going to try it again."

"Is that a wise idea? You look worse than before."

"Oh, well, it's our only option at this point."

Teyla simply nodded as John closed his eyes. She sat down behind the out of conscious Ronon, waiting a few moments before returning to check on the original Rodney McKay.

-

"He's stolen the magic tooth, who knows what powers it may convey." Rodney mumbled as he sat on the white ground across from a seated Ronon Dex.

Ronon stopped playing with the tooth and bone necklace his had around his neck, "What did you say?"

"Nothing you would understand."

"Try me."

Rodney dropped his hands that had been folded across his chest, "It would be pointless since you wouldn't know what a television special is."

"I don't like your tone, McKay." Ronon scowled.

Rodney shrunk his sarcasm down a little bit, "Well, it's from a documentary about cavemen. I thought it applied."

The full scope of the remark was lost on Ronon Dex, but he understood enough of it to be insulted. He knew it was useless to take out the boiling rage he had in him, that the man before him wouldn't feel a thing, but it didn't stop him from wanting to.

"There really isn't another way out of here?"

Rodney snipped, "For the last time, no. I hate being here as much as you do."

"But you don't have someone in your head." Ronon clenched his fist and unclenched it.

"I did, so I know how much it sucks. In fact it was worse than this, you have no idea."

Ronon didn't look up, "I think I do."

"No, you don't! You're not being systematically driven insane by a mad scientist are you?" Rodney's anger was rising.

"Some might say that."

"Oh let it go! I watched that bastard be me for days, be me, act like me. I was trapped, imprisoned, had my mind ravaged by him. You are just lucky that you didn't get stuck with him."

Ronon breathed deeply and thought for a few moments, "I'll take your word on that, McKay." He was sincere.

Rodney calmed, "Okay then. We're making progress."

-

John's eyelids were closed, but his eyes were moving under them and his head slightly turning as the images changed in his mind. He was following where the diagnostic system was leading him.

He was inside the sub, could see the routes, coils, crystals, synapses… every intrical part of the inner workings. There was one word to describe it.

"Cool."

"That word is unfamiliar." The diagnostic and warning system replied questionably.

"It means… awesome, amazing, you know… cool."

"Affirmative." The system kept guiding John through the structure of the submarine.

"Glad you got it, DW."

"D.W.?"

"E.H. is the sub, not you, so you're D.W."

"Yes, sir." The semi-mechanical yet eerily human voice responded.

The speed at which the images came at John increased to the point where he was barely able to catch a glimpse of their shapes as the blurry forms passed by him.

"Wait, slow down."

"In a moment." D.W. kept going and then halted the tour.

John looked at the space surrounding him. A conduit was to his left, enlarged so it was the size of the front half of the submarine itself. He felt incredibly small at the recollection that Copy Rodney held that very same piece in Ronon's hands.

The blue light that represented D.W. floated before him and there was an undulating light within the conduit, but pulsing in only the slightest.

"As you can see, the replacement part is working efficiently."

"Right…" John looked into the light, grateful it wasn't the white-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel kind, "Why do I feel there's a 'but' coming?"

"There is." The computerized personality responded, programmed to answer every question to the best of its knowledge base. It went on to its original line of talk, "However, it is simply not enough to return to port."

"Rodney said the generator was at full power." He wondered how much more was needed.

"Correction, it is functioning at normal stable full power." The blue light shimmered.

The Colonel saw the world around him begin to fade, but he fought to stay in the artificial reality as the view around him changed again. Now he was standing by the relay, in proportion to the conduit he saw a moment ago, that came from the generator.

D.W. continued, "The power generator has to be modified to output enough energy to the engines to break from the ocean floor."

"How do I do that, and what do you mean 'break'?"

"Diagnostic and warning systems are designed only to diagnose and warn. The craft could not sever the hold on it by the force."

"So you can't tell me how to fix it?"

"No."

"And in talking to you, I lost control and the sub ended up under thousands of meters of water again?"

"Yes."

"Why did you bother me then! I had the sub ascending fine!"

"You were putting too much strain on your body. You would have lost control at a higher depth and sent the craft to the bottom another time, with more risk of crashing. A few minutes ago held less risk of this occurring."

"Okay… anything else you need to tell me?" This computer was getting on John's nerves a tad.

"No."

"So you're not going to yell at me anymore?" It had been the strangest feeling he had encountered, a submarine yelling at him through his own mind.

"Not unless it is necessary."

"Alright… nice chatting with you."

The virtual world of the workings of the sub shimmered away as John disconnected from the diagnostic system back to the real world.

-

"Huh."

"What?" Ronon asked, half wanting to know the answer. Both men had remained in their seated positions on the white ground, surrounded by nothing.

"I was just thinking about this little mission that's posing so much trouble. You see, once power was lost the sub accelerated to a descent speed that's beyond what the engines are capable of."

Ronon's silence urged him on, "It increased as we got closer to the fissure, and then even with full power the ascent is going slow. Combine that with the fact the fissure is interfering with Atlantis' sensors, the connection is obvious."

Ronon's questioning expression prodded Rodney to continue, "The fissure has to be emitting a field, probably gravitational… maybe magnetic given that the sub is made of a type of metal, I don't know if they've tested its magnetic properties though. There are a few metals that aren't magnetic and since we're in another galaxy…" He waved his hand, "but I digress. The field must have pulled the sub down once it became a powerless piece of material and it won't let go."

"Then how do we get free?"

"I haven't thought that far yet."

"I see." Ronon was anxious to get out, to move around in his own body, to be back above sea level.

Copy-Rodney looked down at his shoes and thought about what he knew of the submarine's systems, what he had learned from himself. He needed to find a way to boost the power supplied to engines.

When he looked up, he was alone in the white world.

"Great."

-

John Sheppard and Teyla Emmagan were discussing what he had just been informed of by D.W. It wasn't really a surprise to Teyla that the Ancestor engineer of the submarine had decided to name the vessel. She came across many instances where the men from Earth had referred to cars, guitars, and even golf clubs by a name. Not to mention John had just nick-named the warning system. Perhaps the ATA gene linked the two races more than they thought.

Neither one of them was going to pretend they knew how to alter a submarine power generator to produce more energy. There was one person with them that possibly could, two versions of him. One was unconscious in the back of the vehicle, the other in a Runner's mind and also currently unavailable.

"I'm going to try it again."

Teyla responded to John's comment, "That is not wise, didn't the system say that your body will not be able to handle the added strain?"

"Yea, well…it's that or we just sit down here. We can't afford to do that." He breathed heavily, his own strength already passing.

He was about to start the ascent again when a low moan came from Ronon in the chair next to him. Teyla and John looked at each other and she went over to him, gently resting a hand on his shoulder.

"Ronon? Wake up."

Another sound came from him as his eyes began to open and adjust to the light.

"Is that you, Ronon?" Teyla asked, unsure of exactly how she was going to explain the events of the past couple of hours to the man.

"Yes." He said quietly, becoming aware of the numbing pain throughout his body. That was something he didn't miss being in his own little world he had been sharing with a copy of Rodney McKay.

"Welcome back," The colonel said as he closed his eyes against his own dizziness, but quickly opened them again. "You've missed a lot."

"I've been informed." Ronon commented. The other two looked at him strangely and he pointed to his head, "McKay in a white world."

"Oh. You talked to him then." Teyla sat down in the jump seat behind John.

"Yes."

John thought a moment and turned to Ronon seeing an opportunity, "Before I ask the question of how in the hell you managed to download a scientist into your head, I have a favor to ask you."

A/N: They just can't seem to get off the ground can they?

(evil laugh)

The Bunnies are getting quite fat for this fic, and they would like to stay that way so feed them!