The Day of Reckoning - Chapter Two

Day two of the Genii retribution began pretty much the same as the first day had, with Sheppard being jerked to his feet at daybreak. Weak and disorientied, they were shackling his arms above his head before he could remember where he was and what was happening. Dread filled him to the very core. He opened his swollen eyelids as far as he could to find Koyla standing in front of him.

"I hope you slept well, Colonel. Welcome to your second day of punishment."

Sheppard's mouth was so dry and his lips so swollen that he was unable to respond. He tried to spit at Kolya, but the small amount of moisture he was able to come up with just made the attempt seem pathetic. Kolya laughed in his face.

"Better save that for later, Colonel. You'll need it to get through the day." Kolya turned to the crowd that had once again filled the square. "Who is the next family?"

The morning proceeded much as day one had gone with a lot of punching, hitting, and kicking. Unfortunately for Sheppard, some of the afternoon crowd decided to get creative. He had seen a group of teenage boys talking and looking at him much like a wild animal eyes his prey. Early in the afternoon, one of the boys came up with his family and that's when the fun really began. Sheppard knew he was in trouble when the boy brought out a knife. He smiled as he slowly turned it over in his hand right in front of Sheppard's face, taunting him. Sheppard thought this act of punishment was more about a perverse power play than about retribution for perceived crimes.

"Just do it," he whispered hoarsely, his eyes never wavering from the boy.

The boy leaned his face into Sheppard's so that he could feel the boy's hot breath on his face. "Okay...I will." The boy walked around behind him and Sheppard braced himself for the pain. He refused to cry out, but grit his teeth in agony as the boy slowly carved on his back for what seemed like an eternity. Sheppard was barely hanging onto consciousness as the kid came back around to face him. "My father's name was Tannus. If you survive this, you will wear his name for the rest of your days."

When the boy returned to his friends, they gave him what Sheppard deduced was the Genii version of a high five. As the afternoon wore on, two more of the boys carved the initials of their fathers into his back and shoulders. Towards the end of the afternoon, the fourth boy took his turn. He decided Sheppard's back was getting a little crowded, so he went for the abdomen. It took a while, because Sheppard kept passing out and Kolya stopped the boy each time until Sheppard could be revived. He didn't want the Colonel to miss anything.

The last family of the day included the three brothers of a deceased soldier. Each of them had brought a knife, albeit small. Sheppard wanted to ask them if they were also going to wax artistic, because the unused canvas area was really beginning to shrink. Unfortunately, his mouth was so dry and swollen, he wasn't able to get any sound out. As cold as the nights were, the days seemed to be incredibly hot, especially when you were staked out in the sun all day, and he just didn't have any moisture left in his mouth or throat. As they stood there grinning at him, he couldn't help but wonder if the Genii had dentists - because these three were in dire need of one. He had moved on to wondering if they brushed their teeth and flossed on this planet when the first brother planted his knife in Sheppard's right thigh, a few inches above his knee. Since his mind had been wandering, it caught him off guard and he grunted in pain and shock. He barely had time to recover from the first wound when the second brother plunged his knife in Sheppard's left thigh.

He woke to a bucket of water in the face, the shock of the water taking his breath away. He licked every drop of liquid heaven he could from around his mouth, the small amount of moisture just teasing his parched throat. He was never sure what the third brother did, if anything. When Sheppard regained consciousness, the young man was just standing there staring at him. His body was already so racked with pain that he couldn't tell if anything new had been added to the mix or not. Sheppard wanted to incite him to anger in some way, so the man would lose control and kill him, but he just didn't have the energy.

All the passing out and carving during the day had eaten up a lot of time, so Kolya informed Sheppard as they took him down at sunset that there would have to be a day three. They threw him in the cell and set out a cup of water, just as they had the night before. But Sheppard found he couldn't make himself crawl over to the cup. Instead he just curled up and prayed for death.

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Jerked to his feet for day three, Sheppard's mind seemed shrouded in a gray fog. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to focus his eyes. When anything moved, it was as though it left a visual echo in its wake. He also found that he couldn't stop shaking and he felt cold from the inside out.

Sheppard was barely aware as they shackled his arms above his head once again. This time, however, he hung limply, his legs no longer able to support his weight. He was fairly certain that he had dislocated his right shoulder when they released him and his legs folded up underneath him. He was beyond reasonable thought, his world consisting only of the pain, the cold, and the haunting faces of the last two days.

Day three ended up lasting most of the day, even though they were down to the last few families. Kolya was obsessed with keeping Sheppard conscious, which was getting harder by the minute. Sheppard was beginning to go into shock and staying lucid was proving almost impossible. Kolya was having to slap Sheppard or throw cold water in his face every few minutes. Sheppard was thankful no one brought a knife to today's festivities until the brother of one of the fallen soldiers showed up with a whip he apparently used on his animals. Sheppard wasn't sure how many lashes Kolya allowed because he kept passing out and losing count, but he thought it was somewhere between twelve and twenty. He hung limply for over an hour while Kolya tried angrily to revive him. When he finally got his eyes open, Kolya was in his face.

"You have one more family, Colonel. You WILL stay awake and give them satisfaction."

Sheppard's eyes were open, but his head hung lifelessly to one side. He simply didn't have the strength to hold it up. He just wanted it to be over. He was ready for death. More ready than he ever thought he would be. An old woman walked slowly up to him and stood watching him. He waited for her to have a sudden burst of energy that would enable her to smack him into next week.

"Just...kill...me," he managed to croak out, his voice barely audible through his dry, swollen lips.

The woman continued to look at him. She reached out and touched his cheek. He flinched, expecting a blow of some kind, but she gently caressed his cheek and smiled.

"You have a good heart. I believe you have suffered enough. I forgive you for killing my grandson. I only ask that you honor his death."

Sheppard watched as she walked away, completely numb both inside and out. And then he surrendered to the darkness. He wasn't aware of the men who unshackled him, letting him drop bonelessly into the dirt. He wasn't aware of Kolya telling his men that anyone who had friends among those killed by Sheppard was welcome to issue their own punishment. He wasn't aware of the men who stood kicking his unconscious form as he lay bleeding into the dirt. He wasn't aware of the two soldiers that dragged him to the gate and deposited him on the ground by the DHD.

Kolya slapped Sheppard in the face until he finally got his eyes open a slit. "Colonel, I'm sending you home now. If you manage to survive and you find you cannot live with your guilt, then return to me and I will put you out of your misery." He put a gun to Sheppard's temple and pulled the trigger. Sheppard didn't even flinch as the empty gun made a clicking noise. "I will do you this favor as one soldier to another."

Kolya stood and looked at the man next to him. "Dial the gate."

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Weir was in her office with Colonel Caldwell, trying to convince him to help her rescue Sheppard when the alarms went off.

"Unscheduled off-world activation."

"Do we know who it is yet?" she asked as she walked out of her office, Caldwell hot on her heels.

"No IDC yet...Ma'am...it's the Genii home world."

Weir's face drained of color. "Ma'am, we have an incoming radio transmission."

"Play it," she said.

The tech hit the switch and Kolya's voice filled the gateroom. "Dr. Weir, this is Commander Kolya of the Genii. We are finished with Colonel Sheppard. I am about to send you what is left of him through the gate. If you want him back, I'd suggest you lower the shield. You have about 20 seconds before Colonel Sheppard either arrives in Atlantis or impacts your shield. It makes no difference to me which you choose." The voice ended abruptly.

Caldwell looked at Weir. "You can't lower the shield. It's probably a trick."

"And what if it's not?" she asked. "Lower the shield," she said to the tech.

The shield was lowered and a few seconds later, Sheppard barreled through the event horizon and landed in a heap on the floor. The soldiers surrounding the gate kept their weapons trained on him until it became apparent that he was unconscious. As the gate shut down. Elizabeth raced to Sheppard's side. "Get a med team down here, NOW!"

She gasped as she turned him over. He was still shirtless and shoeless. He was covered with both dried and fresh blood mixed with sweat and dirt. What she could see of his skin was either ghostly pale or mottled with varicolored bruising. His hair was caked and matted with blood and dirt. Both eyes were blackened and swollen, as was most of his face. His bare upper torso was also covered in bruises, blood, and dirt. His back was a mass of open, bleeding wounds.

Elizabeth pressed her trembling fingers against his neck, not really expecting to find a pulse. She was almost breathless when she discovered a weak link to life pulsating gently under her fingertips. "I've got a pulse. He's alive," she announced to anyone who was listening. She thought she heard an audible sigh of relief from those in the room.

Carson Beckett entered the gateroom with his medical team and paused at the sight of Sheppard. "Bloody heck," he said under his breath. He kneeled beside Sheppard and Elizabeth looked up at him, shock evident on her face.

"He's got a pulse, Carson. He's alive."

Beckett wasn't really sure how anyone that looked like Sheppard did could be alive and he knew how badly Elizabeth had been stressing about not being able to help the Colonel, so he decided to check for a pulse himself. Pleasantly surprised at finding one, he then listened to Sheppard's chest and checked his neck and face. He turned to his team. "He's breathin' and his airway is clear. Let's get him to the infirmary as quickly as possible. We cannot do much for him here."

Elizabeth watched as they carefully moved Sheppard onto the gurney and began rolling it toward the infirmary.

"Carson..." she said, catching his arm as he started to turn away.

His expression did nothing to ease her mind. He paused, unsure of what to say. "I'll do what I can, lass." And then they were gone. She stood there for several minutes, her thoughts tangled between having him back and not being sure if he would live. She had seen him in bad shape, but wasn't sure she had ever seen anyone in that bad a shape that wasn't dead.

"Dr. Weir." She looked up to see Caldwell approaching her. "Dr. Weir, that was not very smart. That could have just as easily been a Genii strike force prepared to enter Atlantis."

Her anger flashed as she assimilated the fact that Caldwell would probably just as soon that Sheppard was dead. "But it wasn't, was it? It was John Sheppard, the military commander of this base and a good friend. And while we are on the subject, what if it had been a strike force? We had a military contingent on the floor of the gateroom. We could have reactivated the shield in seconds and easily handled the few soldiers that might have gotten through. It wasn't worth the risk of killing Colonel Sheppard."

"I'm just saying that..."

"I'm well aware of what you are saying and I'd appreciate it if you didn't say it in front of me. I'm still in charge here and I make the decisions. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to contact Colonel Sheppard's team and let them know he's back." She hurried to her office, afraid she would cry in front of Caldwell and she knew she absolutely could not risk doing that.

TBC

Well, at least he's home. Now the hard part begins.