Author's Notes:- Thanks to Stonedtoad for betaing.
Glad everyone's enjoying this, I'm working on the next part.
"What actually happened?" the Doctor asked Rodney.
"Jeannie and I were working on developing my ability to sense things," Rodney explained, "She felt something so we went to investigate."
"Felt?" Tollas asked with amusement.
Rodney turned to him a look of disdain on his face, "Yes felt. Jeannie and I have incredible talents."
"Then what?" the Doctor clicked his fingers at Rodney to hurry up making John almost choke with laughter.
"We entered the room then it locked and we almost drowned," Rodney said in a sing-song voice.
"Rodney," John scolded softly a little shocked as his friend jerked violently looking confused, "What?"
"For a moment I thought Jeannie was in trouble," he frowned, "She must have just got a shock."
"Are you sure?" John asked intently.
Rodney nodded confidently, "I'd know if she was in real danger. She'd let me know."
x
Jeannie was managing with great effort not to alert her brother of what was happening. She couldn't let Rodney get caught by this thing.
"What the hell did you do?" she muttered to Aris who was staring at the Master-Wraith.
"They told me about the Wraith," he explained softly.
"So?"
"I was sure I could find a way to defeat them," Aris continued.
Jeannie looked at him incredulously, "And you brought it here?"
"I had it sedated," Aris replied.
"Which allowed me to take over it much easier," the Master told her, his voice a deep rumble as he stood at the door. He opened it again and glanced out across the ocean, "I shall enjoy ruling this place," he mused.
"Not going to happen," Jeannie snapped, despite her better judgement telling her to shut up.
He moved to Jeannie who shook at the effort to prevent her mind from yelling for help, she didn't want the other three to be put in danger.
"My dear Miss McKay," the Master stroked her cheek with a reptilian finger tilting her face up to his, "I know you can contact your brother, I know this. Call to him and bring the Doctor here."
"No."
The Master laughed sending shivers down her spine, "You have one chance."
Jeannie stepped back, "I don't bow to you," she spat at him.
"I gave you a chance," the Master reminded her before he spun and grabbed Aris by the throat. Pushing the man against the wall he slammed a hand against the scientist chest and started to feed.
Aris cried out in pain as his life was drained from him. The Master turned, flung the corpse at Jeannie's feet and she screamed.
"Jeannie?" Rodney cried turning to John and the Doctor fear covering his face, "She's in trouble."
"Let's go," John started to move stopping the Doctor, "You need to find out who tried to kill them. Let us get her."
The Doctor nodded, "Go."
Rodney raced through the corridors John at his side towards Aris' lab, he skidded to a halt his eyes wide.
"We can't go running in," Rodney stopped his friend.
"What's going on?"
"I can't see through her eyes or anything like that," Rodney replied annoyed, "It's a feeling more than anything."
"Alright, I'll have to trust your feeling," John frowned, "So what do we do?"
Rodney bit his lip closing his eyes he reached out his mind as Jeannie had told him, "Follow me."
Moving slowly the two men slipped into the main lab seeing the door open leading them onto the balcony. John stopped Rodney as he glanced over the railing; he moved slightly closer to the other door and glanced in before turning to his friend and motioning him back into the main lab.
"I have an idea," John told Rodney deciding to leave out the alien that was holding Jeannie hostage, "And she's going to hate it."
Rodney stared at his friend as he listened to the plan, "She's going to hate it," he agreed, "But I don't think we have a choice."
"Get back to Tollas and the Doctor," John ordered, "And as soon as you 'feel' Jeannie's with me put a force field around this lab. It should hold the bad guy for a while."
Rodney stood frozen jumping as John grabbed his arm.
"Trust me Rodney," John said his voice intense.
Rodney nodded before he ran.
x
John watched as Jeannie stood her arms crossed facing the Wraith as it talked. Her back was rigid in fear and John tried to keep himself calm enough to get her out.
"I'm not calling anyone," Jeannie snapped at the Wraith, John mentally labelled him Tim.
"Then I shall kill you now," 'Tim' threatened.
"You would have done that straight away if that was the plan," Jeannie replied her voice neutral.
"Ahh, you are clever for a human," 'Tim' told her with a laugh, "I always wondered about his fascination with you Earthlings but I can see that you and your brother are exceptional."
'Tim' moved towards Jeannie and she backed up moving closer to where John hid.
"That's it," John murmured, "A little closer. Come on."
"Do you know how incredible it is to take the life-force of another being?" the Wraith asked, he turned stretching as Jeannie backed even further away from him closer to the door than before, "The feeling is like nothing you will ever know."
"And never will," John said as he grabbed Jeannie pulling her to the hole in the balcony before throwing them both off into the ocean below.
x
Jeannie screamed as they fell suddenly her mouth was filled with salt water and she was sinking. Panic filled her but someone had a hold of her and was yanking her up. She gasped as they broke through the surface sucking in a lungful of breath staring in confusion at John who was swimming them back to the city. Before she was able to think straight John pushed her up onto the platform joining her after a few seconds. They both lay on the floor gasping for breath.
Jeannie pulled herself to her feet walking to lean against the wall shivering as the slight breeze permeated her soaking wet clothes.
"Hey," John managed to get up, "Jeannie?"
Jeannie couldn't say anything as the sob was ripped from her throat, she was shaking violently and not from the cold.
John pulled her into his arms rocking her as she clung to him, "You're okay. You're fine."
"He killed Aris," Jeannie gasped, her voice shaking, "John, I couldn't stop…I couldn't even…"
She was cut off as John kissed her, his fingers slid into her hair as she held onto his waist. She could taste the salt from the water and for a moment she was warm again.
John moved away from her, Jeannie jumped as the presence in front of her changed just before she felt his hands fix around her neck. She struggled as he choked her.
"Rodney!"
x
Rodney was walking fast with the Doctor to where John and Jeannie should be. He started running the moment Jeannie's cry for help hit him, turning the corner he was horrified to find his best friend throttling his sister. Rodney tackled John throwing him away from Jeannie and to the floor.
The Doctor caught Jeannie as she dropped helping her sit down turning as Tollas arrived carrying the medical kit he'd brought in case either had been hurt. The Doctor grabbed it and threw it open.
"Sedative," he yelled at Tollas.
The other man grabbed a sedative handing it to the Doctor, "Here."
The Doctor moved to where Rodney and John were rolling about on the floor Rodney trying to defend himself against his friend who was much fitter as well as more dangerous than he was and who Rodney could tell was not in his right mind.
The Doctor waited until John was in reach and slammed the sedative into his arm sighing in relief as John slipped into unconsciousness. Rodney pushed off the ground and ran to Jeannie. She was taking deep breaths of shock resting against her brother as he hugged her tightly.
"TARDIS," the Doctor ordered Rodney motioning for Tollas to help him, "Now."
Rodney lay back on the bed in the infirmary annoyed that Carson was making him stay here when he had things to do.
"Hey," a voice he hadn't expected came from the door.
"Major?" Rodney asked confused as to why the recently promoted leader of Atlantis military, "Is something wrong?"
"Nope," John replied pulling over a seat.
Rodney frowned looking around waiting for the other shoe to drop, "Why are you here?"
"To check up on you," John told him amazed that he didn't seem to understand, "You just walked into an energy sucking cloud."
"You were right I was the only one who could do it," Rodney reminded him woodenly.
"McKay," John said slowly, "I've known guys who've been through black-ops training who wouldn't have done that."
Rodney turned his head away, "It wasn't anything special."
John stared at the other man confused, for someone so willing to point out his own brilliance he couldn't take compliments which confused and intrigued John. At that moment John decided he was going to get to know Rodney McKay a little better.
x
John lay back on the bed in the infirmary, he was still feeling a little freaked that he had actually been dead for a few minutes not to mention the bug that had been attached to him.
He opened his eyes when he heard a noise; John was quite surprised to find Rodney McKay starting to slink away.
"Hey McKay," he called.
"Major."
John waited for a second before rolling his eyes, "What are you doing here?"
Rodney looked slightly embarrassed, "I…eh…I just came to see how you were doing."
"Still starving," John replied with a grimace, "I fell asleep before dinner came."
Rodney laughed softly.
"You did good," John told the scientist.
"I…"
John smiled at seeing Rodney flustered again, "You had 38 minutes and you managed to get our asses home. That was a good thing."
A small smile touched Rodney's lips, "Ford got us through in the end."
"Yeah," John agreed, "And he's getting recognition for it but if it hadn't been for you we'd all be eating vacuum about now."
Rodney licked his lips the small smile becoming slightly more pronounced before he stood up, "I'll try and get you something to eat."
x
John and Rodney sank in unison to sit against the wall on the balcony. They hadn't spoken much to one another since the 'destruction' of Atlantis and had somehow arrived on the balcony together.
"We did it," Rodney broke the silence after about ten minutes.
"Yeah," John replied.
Rodney turned to him, "So long Rodney?"
"You're Rodney remember?" John replied hoping to deflect the question.
Rodney gave him a hard glare.
"What the hell did you want me to do?" John demanded, "Stand there and give a three hour speech about how truly honoured I was that you were my friend?"
"Well an hour and a half at least," Rodney replied laughing before giving a deep sigh of relief, "We did it."
"Yeah we did," John nodded, "You did…again."
Rodney dropped his head.
"Take the compliment," John told him.
Rodney nodded and they sat together for a little longer, just reassuring themselves that their best friend was safe and well.
Jeannie staggered into the TARDIS being helped by her brother while the Doctor and Tollas placed John on the couch.
"I'll get back to check on the force-field," Tollas told them.
The Doctor nodded before turning to check on Jeannie. She was standing leaning against the console watching as Rodney checked on his friend.
"Jeannie?" the Doctor asked gently.
"I need to change," she whispered.
"Alright," he gently rubbed her shoulder for a second before moving out of her way, "I need you to tell me what happened after."
"Give me a few minutes," Jeannie told him.
Rodney was watching his friend as he slept on the couch wondering what was going on. He now understood what Jeannie meant about being able to sense what was normal because what he'd felt when he pulled his friend away from his sister had not been normal.
"That wasn't John," Rodney spoke up when the Doctor sighed loudly.
"I guessed that," the Doctor replied.
"What do we do?" Rodney asked.
"Wait until Jeannie is ready to talk to us," the Doctor told him.
Rodney nodded and they stood in silence waiting until John groaned as he started to wake up.
"What the hell happened?" John demanded against the pounding headache.
x
Jeannie re-entered the room back in jeans again however she was wearing a top that covered her neck completely hiding the red marks she'd recently acquired.
"Jeannie," John gasped as the memory flooded him, "I…"
"It wasn't you," she whispered moving to stand by her brother, "We have a big problem."
"The Wraith," Rodney noted.
"It's so much worse than that," Jeannie told him, "It's the Master."
"The Master is working with the Wraith?" the Doctor asked.
"Even worse," she sighed.
"What could be worse?" John asked wincing at the sound of his own voice.
Jeannie took a deep breath, "The Wraith is the Master."
"Oh no," the Doctor groaned.
"Is that who attacked you?" Rodney demanded of his sister.
Jeannie nodded, "Yeah. The Master can control minds but I don't know how he managed to get into John's."
"What do you mean?" Rodney asked.
"The Master has to be in direct contact with the person he's controlling," the Doctor explained, "He has to either look directly into the eyes or touch the subject."
"He didn't do that," John murmured before looking worried, "The Wraith can make you see things that aren't there."
"He's using the Wraith's abilities," Jeannie murmured.
Rodney chewed his lip, "Why John?"
"What?" the Doctor asked.
"Why John?" Rodney asked again, "Why not try to get into my mind, or Jeannie's or even you?"
"He wouldn't get into the Doctor's mind," Jeannie told her brother.
"Then what about us?" Rodney said.
"I'm not sure," the Doctor mused softly.
Jeannie let out a very soft gasp, "It's the twin thing."
"Of course," the Doctor smacked his hands together.
John and Rodney shared a look.
"What is?" John asked for them both.
"Rodney and Jeannie are connected," the Doctor explained, "There's no way for the Master to break into their minds."
"It's a closed circuit," Rodney realised his eyes wide, "We've got a feedback loop so if he tried to attack my mind Jeannie would automatically counter it."
"So I'm the only one he can control," John frowned at this thought.
"You're safe in the TARDIS," the Doctor told him.
"But we need him to help stop the bad guy," Jeannie reminded them.
"I have it," Rodney told them, "Back when you first came to Atlantis you connected us together."
"So we could stop the telepathic creature," the Doctor reminded him.
"Exactly," Rodney replied, "We used the link when Kolya came after us as well. Can't you set it up again?
"It's a good idea," Jeannie said softly, "Link our minds together."
The Doctor took in a deep breath musing over the idea before nodding, "Okay. Jeannie…"
"I know where they are this time," she replied heading back into the TARDIS.
John glanced up at his friend, "This is going to be very interesting."