Title: The problem with nice villages
Author: Belisse
Category: H/C, Angst
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A small fic about another race that hurts John Sheppard, or shameless Shep whump.
Warnings: Mention of torture.
Status: Complete
Beta: Chrystalline, though all the mistakes are mine as I added some things after getting it back from her.
Season/Episode: Season 2
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: I don't own them, I only wish I did.
Author's notes: This was supposed to be a short ficlet, just to satisfy my inner demon. But no! The bunnies got all angry and demanded more, and then Chrystalline kept insisting on making a longer story. But I barely have time to think about daily stuff, I really can't commit to another monster fic, when I already have one and it's currently on hold. So I decided to keep with the original idea of a one-shot and later, I'll make a companion fic that will cover another side of the story. I really hope you all like it!
Enjoy!
-0-0-0-0-0-
The mission had been a failure, and he knew it. It wasn't even a big mission; just some recon, finding nice people, getting some new potential allies against the Wraith and maybe the Genii. But no! It wasn't meant to be; they had to have a problem every time they stepped out of the gate. They had found another planet with an unusually advanced civilization that looked good but was as bad as they come. John didn't want to give up hope yet, but things were looking pretty grim around him as he sat on the cold floor. He was only wearing his gray pants and a black t-shirt. They even took his socks. John stared at his bare feet, of which he sometimes saw three or four, depending how dizzy he was while he was awake. He had been taken prisoner on their second night there.
At this point John wasn't sure if the others were safe, but he had heard nothing. His captors hadn't said a word; he wasn't sure if that was good or bad. There were moments when his mind got clogged with all the worries. What if they were prisoners, too? What if they got back to Atlantis but can't get back here? What if they were dead?
No, he couldn't afford that, not when he was lucid, anyway. His captors weren't too fond of physical torture, but they did a good job of screwing up the mind.
They kept John drugged most of the time, and it wasn't just sedatives. Every time they came through the door with a needle in hand, it meant hallucinations, nightmares and the worst uncontrollable fears. John spent his day going from complete and utter darkness, to seeing his captors as monsters that changed in a blink of an eye. The drugs made it all worse, because on top of that there were questions. All at the same time, all with the same purpose; to know about the gene and his real reason to visit this planet.
It takes only one little thing to screw things up. The people of the planet lived in an Ancient city. The place looked nothing like Atlantis and yet retained that Ancient quality that distinguishes their work. The place was in fact a real city, not like Atlantis that is capable of flying. There were high buildings; some were round with some long and bended spikes on top. It looked different and yet the feel of old wisdom and history was there. The people were nice at first, but they didn't share the city with the Ancients when they were on the planet. They occupied the city a bit after the Ancients left. This meant that they had lots of advanced technologies, but didn't precisely mean that they understood them. Most of what they had was small weapons and system consoles, and although many in the population had the gene, it was already weakening and fading away. There were only a few Ancient instruments they used, because they had figured out how to turn them on.
Given the fact that they lived in a city that was not built by them, there were still many weapons and systems that hadn't been initialized because it required someone with a really strong gene. Then John Sheppard came through the gate. Their first night there, the people of the planet were friendly and seemed to be generous. Rodney and John asked some subtle questions about the Ancient technology and the ruler, called Ocnus, made sure they had a proper tour the next day. Nothing the team had seen gave them reason to suspect foul play.
Because until then, there was none.
They saw building after building, but nothing worth ogling for long; no new ZPMs, just a few Ancient toys. They finished the tour with the building where they meant to negotiate a possible alliance. John had felt uneasy when they asked them to leave their weapons out of the building. But it was a government building and security was a big thing for them. John accepted, knowing that just in case anything went wrong, Ronon will have a hidden weapon or two.
Colonel John Sheppard, curious by nature, walked in the building with his team behind him. They were being escorted to a room when Rodney got his attention.
Rodney strayed from the group and entered a dark room filled with covered consoles. The colonel placed just one foot inside the room and it lit up like nothing he had seen before. All the blue lights and Ancient screens lit up along the walls, and all the consoles turned on, Ancient writing showing in bright light. Then on the center of the room some sort of hologram appeared, and it somehow reminded John of what he saw the day he activated the chair on Antarctica. Whatever the Ancients did there, it was important. John turned to look at his team, and noticed that Ronon had gone very still. He looked around and saw Ocnus staring right at him, his face filled with a mixture of amazement and concern. John frowned and asked Ronon, "You okay?"
"Something is off, we should leave," Ronon said, glaring at the leader of the planet.
John frowned. "Why?"
Next thing he knew, they were surrounded by fully-armed guards. The team got their hands up instantly and closed in back to back as they searched for the best approach to their predicament.
"What's going on, Ocnus? We were getting along so well." John looked around.
Ocnus face went completely serious as he replied, "Take him!"
Ronon hit the guard that made the first move and then suddenly the room was flooded by even more guards; it was as if they were hidden all over the place. They went from a dozen to a couple of dozens in an instant, and most of them attacked John.
John didn't want to resort to bloodshed over a misunderstanding. He held on as much as he could, fighting anyone who dared come close to him. But on a sudden move, someone tackled him from behind, that took the last protection he had; staying close to his team. After that it was easier for the guards to overpower him. John fought with all his will, while he looked around for his friends. Rodney was being dragged out of the building, Teyla was beating the crap out of a couple of guards, and Ronon was taking out all the guards that he could, mostly those trying to get to John.
It wasn't enough to overpower all the men that were attacking them, and they dragged John away. He heard Rodney's protests in the distance, Teyla calling to Ronon to stop whatever he was doing, shouting her protests against the actions of the guards.
Then the guards turned into another long hallway and propelled him through the first door to the left. He couldn't hear his friends or the commotion anymore.
Once inside, John was stripped down to his pants and shirt before he managed to hit one of the guards and pull free of the rough hands. He stood up and backed away, deeper into the room. The frantic soldier stopped when he hit the wall and had to watch as the guards around him walked toward him.
John tried to remain calm, to apologize for any unknown cultural mistake. "Can't we talk about this? I'm sure there's an explanation… for whatever you think I have done."
When Ocnus walked in the room, John gave him a cautious smile. "Ocnus, what is going on?"
"Why did you come here?" Ocnus asked deadly still.
"I told you; we go through the gate, we explore and search for allies."
"What is the room for?"
"How the hell should I know? I've never been here before."
Ocnus walked out as suddenly as he had come. One of the guards tackled John, trapping him against the wall. He started struggling, but as more guards joined the group, John only managed to fall to the floor. He tried to fight them off, but in vain; it only got him a punch in the face. It was enough to disorient him, and they pinned him down, strong enough that he couldn't move.
He thrashed, bit, fought and screamed in frustration, but in all that he didn't notice the man who entered the room with a needle in his hand. He barely felt the prick in his thigh, and the burn of the drug making way into his veins. Pain overcame the Colonel; it was too much. Falling like a stone about summed up his reaction.
The next few days were just a haze, complete with colorful hallucinations and even more drugs. All John could remember was some of their questions, "What did he do in the room? What was the room for? Why had no one else managed to initialize it before? Where did he come from?"
He couldn't answer any of those questions; maybe if he had Rodney it would have been a different matter. Once or twice - he really didn't know for sure - he told them that he activated the room because it was Ancient technology and he had the gene. Other than that, he had no idea why the room only responded to him. Of course, they didn't believe him, and therefore the treatment wasn't nice.
Right now John wasn't even sure of how much time had passed since they took him. Days were mixed with the nights, sometimes collapsing together, giving him no sense of time. Other times were just a swirl in which he seemed to dwell for an eternity without feeling or thought.
Today was no better, except that his captors had seemed to either give up or take a break. Both were really improbable; they might be planning something worse. For the first time, John was able to take notice of his surroundings without colorful monsters or scary clowns. He was in a small room, roughly the size of his own room in Atlantis, but it was covered in bright lights with a full glass wall on the right side, by the door.
It was like being under a microscope. John hated it.
Right then he started thinking about his team. If they were alive, they must know where he is. There had to be some sort of rescue plan going on. At least he wanted to believe that and not give into the feeling that everyone in Atlantis gave up on him.
No! He couldn't afford that, not now. He didn't want to end like this, wondering if those he called friends gave a damn about his well-being. That wouldn't change his position or his fate, although when the time came, he hoped for swift death before giving up his friends to his captors.
A headache formed in his temples, then moved into the base of the neck and deep into his brain. He moved into the corner and rested his head against the cool wall. Something should be happening because no one had stopped by in a while.
Then again, as always he came to conclusions too soon. He opened his eyes and saw the same group of people that visited him every day. The door snapped wide open as they walked into the room. Even if he was too weak to fight them properly, John resisted as much as he could. When they cornered him, he got to his hands and knees and tried to slip out between someone's legs, but it ended up just like every other day. The guards pinned him down while another bastard injected a new combination of drugs into his body.
The next few events John saw as if in slow motion.
Feeling the needle going out, John only heard the glass wall break into a million pieces. The men holding him let go to attend the new problem. John didn't know what to do, how to react. Something big was happening, but he couldn't focus on anything but the fact that the drug they had injected was a new one. He started breathing faster, the feeling of suffocation pushing him to the edge of panic.
John slowly slid up against the wall and pulled his knees to his chest. He closed his eyes in an attempt to hold on to reality as the room began spinning. He heard shots, but he couldn't react to it; his legs didn't want to move. He started to lose feeling all over his body, and it was creeping up.
There was more gunfire; this time it was closer. The spinning had reduced a bit, and John managed to look up to see Ronon making his way toward the room, shooting and slicing everyone on sight. John felt himself sliding to the side and then the lights went out.
Dark swirls covered his sight; he heard people talking, shouting, but he couldn't make out a single word. They were screaming and whispering at the same time, and lights danced above him.
He drifted in and out of the swirl world. At one point where he felt as if there were nails going into the back of his brain. He wanted to scream, but no sound came out. He tried to grab his head in his hands, but nothing happened. John couldn't move, couldn't see, and couldn't hear anything around him; only the pain in his head was there.
Oblivion took him once more. How long? He wasn't sure, but he knew that things had changed when he woke up. First there was a faint sound; someone walking near him, and then voices. The voices got louder and louder to the point that they awoke him.
"Carson, what happened last night was not normal!"
"Rodney, we're dealing with unknown substances. I'm doing my best."
Then another voice joined the others, this one a female. "Do you think he'll come out of it?"
The voices faded into the background, and he fought to keep himself a bit awake. Then the voices returned. "It's been over a week!"
"And he's been drugged with God knows what, for almost a month. His vitals started stabilizing, he's getting there, but you have to give him time."
Then there was silence again. John didn't know what to think other than trying to move. Suddenly John felt like opening his eyes; his eyelids felt like lead, but he tried anyway. Once he managed that, he noticed that the lights were a bit dim. He stared at the ceiling for a while, and then he moved his head to the side.
Elizabeth was sitting by his bed, reading from her tablet pc. When she looked up, she noticed that he was awake.
His mind went blank for a moment, and all the questions he had just vanished. He wanted to know how they got him, how they knew where he was. How much time had passed since the whole ordeal started. "Hi."
Elizabeth smiled at him and turned to call Carson before greeting him, "Hello, welcome back."
At that moment, Carson appeared by his bedside. "How are you feeling?"
John took a moment to think about the question and then replied, "Like I was run over by a truck and got stuck between the tires."
Carson moved around him to check his vitals. "Sorry about that, but it might last for a couple of days."
John looked around once more, trying to get his bearings. "What happened?"
Elizabeth and Carson eyed each other, and then Elizabeth turned her gaze toward John. "What can you remember?"
John thought for a moment, but when he tried to talk, he coughed instead. Carson quickly produced a glass of water and John took it gladly. "Thanks," he said, glancing at Carson. He turned to look at Elizabeth. "They took me when the room activated."
She nodded. "For some reason they thought that when you activated the room, you were there to take all the Ancient weapons away. It reminded me of the reaction when someone takes away a child's favorite toy. We tried to reason with them, telling them about the gene and the difference from person to person, but that seemed to fuel their determination to keep you. No one in their history had known that particular room was of such high importance, but as much as I tried, they didn't want to hear reason."
John was fighting to keep his eyelids open, and for a moment he seemed to win as he stared at Elizabeth. "You went off world?"
Elizabeth smiled. "Yes."
"Thanks."
"But that's not what got you out of there."
"I know, but you tried."
Carson decided to join in the storytelling and added, "It was actually Ronon who got you out."
Then Elizabeth continued, "While I tried diplomacy, he went out to the city without my knowing. When diplomacy failed, he gave me a plan B."
John looked around once more. "Teyla and Rodney?"
"They're both okay." Carson said as he placed a hand on John's shoulder, "Rest now. You can see them later."
John nodded as Elizabeth moved to take her tablet pc, then she looked at him. "I'll be back later."
"Ok." John felt sleepy once again and allowed his body to win over. Then he heard Carson say, "Call me if you need anything."
He tried to reply back but he didn't even notice that he fell asleep.
Days passed by and John sometimes felt that he ad lost the grip on reality. Some days he was good, others he was barely able to concentrate on a single and simple conversation. He got frustrated enough of being in the infirmary, and he tried several times to be as far as he could from the place. It got to the point where Carson let him go before they managed to kill each other.
John felt screwed up all the time. He honestly thought that when they brought him back, things were going to get good again. Just as before, but they didn't. Sometimes he was ok, and then the next moment he wouldn't even know how to tie his shoe.
Carson kept telling him that he still had some residue of the chemicals in his body. And it was that what was causing the disorientation. He tried to get his mind off of it, by asking for light duty, but Weir and Carson had refused to give him any clearance for any type of duty at least until his system returned to normal.
Now, he just tried to get through the day, by hiding from Heighmeyer, Carson and Weir. And trying not to forget how to flush a toilet.
He was sitting on the floor of a balcony, resting his back to the wall and looking at the ocean. When the door opened, it was Rodney.
Rodney walked out to the balcony and turned to face him. "I'm sorry."
"About what?" John asked heartlessly
Rodney walked back and forth then faced him again, "Maybe I could have done something more, to get you out of there faster. But I couldn't."
John slowly shook his head, "You don't have to figure out everything Rodney."
"But still, we could have tried to prevent them from taking you."
"I'm not blaming anyone. So don't blame the team and even less; yourself. There was nothing you could do."
Rodney turned as if confused in what to say next, and before he said anything else. John stood up and walked towards Rodney. "Carson says that things will get back to normal. I really hope he's right."
"And then?"
"And then… we'll see."
Rodney was about to say something when his radio came to life, "Dr. McKay, we need you in lab 3 ASAP."
Rodney clicked the radio and replied, "I'm on my way." Rodney looked at John and before he could say anything, John said, "Go, I'll be fine."
"Ok, but don't do anything stupid."
"No Rodney, I have no intention on jumping from the balcony." John said quickly while he rolled up his eyes.
He heard Rodney muttering something but he couldn't make out what it was. John shook his head with a bit of amusement, when the balcony door opened once again. Ronon walked into the balcony and leaned against the rails besides John.
John knew that his team was trying to cheer him up and make him feel better, but at the moment he didn't wanted any pity. And he wasn't going to get it now.
John turned to glance at Ronon, "Hello Ronon."
"Sheppard."
John stared at the Runner, "So, did Elizabeth send you this time or was it Carson?"
"Neither." Ronon said with a smirk.
"Oh! And why are you here?"
"We're on an ongoing war with the Wraith, and not every human out there is going to be nice because we're humans too."
"Your point?" John said while giving Ronon a frown.
"Is not the end of your life, at least you shouldn't think it is. If is not this that gets you, it might be the next time you step through the gate. It doesn't matter, but you shouldn't put yourself down for something you can't control."
John really didn't need this right now. "I know that… I'm just… frustrated."
"I understand, but maybe you should focus it on something better than staring at your own frustration, alone in a balcony."
With those words, Ronon turned around and walked into the hallway. John knew he was right and maybe he's been too hard on himself lately. He breathed in deeply and turned towards the door. Once inside the hallway he looked around and didn't know where he was or what he was doing.
John felt like screaming or pulling his hair out which ever was more satisfying. But Carson had said it will pass and so he hoped as he started walking aimlessly trying to remember what he was doing.
The End… for now.