"Sheppard?"
Ronon's voice cut through the fog of his distress and John found himself opening his eyes, immediately squinting against a headache that was blinding to the point of nausea.
Rodney looked over his shoulder from where he was working on the door controls. "If you're going to throw up, you might want to crawl over there," he said unsympathetically, pointing to the far corner of the room as best he could with bound hands.
Sheppard started to shake his head and was immediately sorry. It took a full minute before he felt he could safely open his mouth. "How long?"
"You were gone for over an hour. You've been comatose for about fifteen minutes," Rodney replied.
Sheppard squinted at the runner. "Why didn't they take you?"
The runner shrugged. "I'm not from Atlantis."
"Okaaay," said Sheppard, struggling to his knees. "How did they know that?"
"I don't know about you, but I don't remember much after I got hit with that beam," said Rodney, still working on the controls. "The reports from SG-1 suggest that the victim of the hand devices have no control, and sometimes no knowledge, of what information they give."
"Great. You're telling me we may have just spilled our guts to the second worst threat to Earth?"
"Third, actually. You're forgetting the Ori. They've taken over as the main bad guy while the Goa'uld try to salvage what they can of their empire."
"Thanks, that makes me feel so much better," the colonel said dryly.
Ronon helped the colonel to his feet and they walked over to where Rodney was working. It was then Sheppard noticed how badly the scientist's hands were shaking. "Are you okay?" he asked. Apparently it was the outlet the scientist had been waiting for.
"No, okay? No, I'm not! I've just been tortured by a Goa'uld in the fucking Pegasus Galaxy!" Rodney snapped. "The Wraith and the Genii weren't bad enough?" he yelled at the ceiling wincing at the increased pounding of his head.
"We need to get out of here," said Sheppard, calmly.
"What do you think I'm trying to do here, get free HBO?"
"The Goa'uld is planning to use Teyla and Melosh as new hosts for his mate and himself."
"What?" Rodney paused to stare at the colonel before he shook his head and concentrated harder on the wiring in front of him.
"How did a Goa'uld get out here, in this galaxy?" asked Ronon.
Rodney looked at two wires, mystified, before choosing the one on the left and connecting it to a terminal. "They were experimenting, trying to improve the wormhole technology to give themselves an edge over the other Goa'uld and accidentally sent themselves here. The natives had some sort of uprising shortly after they arrived and the DHD was destroyed in process. In true Goa'uld fashion, he still managed to -- subjugate -- the population."
"You mean he killed them," said Ronon.
"As many as he thought he could and still leave himself a slave labor population," said Rodney, digging his fingers into the control panel to snag another wire. "Apparently the natives of this planet age more rapidly than the people in our galaxy, making them less than ideal hosts. When Melosh showed up, the Goa'uld convinced the poor smuck that he was an Ancient and wha-la, instant jaffa-wannabe to help keep the locals in line."
"Why interrogate you and Sheppard? Why does he care so much about Atlantis?"
"He wants to use the Ancient technology to start his own little empire in the Pegasus Galaxy just like the Goa'uld did in the Milky Way," answered McKay, off-handedly.
Sheppard frowned at him. "How did you find all this out?"
"Typical megalomaniac. He can't help but run off at the mouth about how great he is if you give him half a chance."
Sheppard gave Ronon a wry smile and the runner rolled his eyes.
Rodney caught their exchange. "What? Oh. I really am that good, so that's different."
"Prove it," said Sheppard, nodding at the door.
Rodney gave him a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile, despite his aching head, and crossed the last two wires he was holding. The door slid open.
"Okay," said Sheppard, nodding his head and pursing his lips. "I'll give you that one."
They slipped down the corridor, watching for guards, and made their way toward what Sheppard hoped would be the entrance hall. He had no idea where to start looking for Teyla but that was the last place he had seen her, so it seemed a logical place to start.
He peeked through a doorway, only to find their interrogation room, now empty. "Wrong way," he said, heading for the opposite side of the torch-lit corridor.
"You do have a plan?" asked Rodney, keeping his voice low.
"Yeah, it's called 'operation find-Teyla-and-get-the-hell-outta-here'," hissed Sheppard.
"Oh, good, and here I thought we were just wandering around aimlessly," snapped the scientist.
-o-
"I want to see my friends," said Teyla, fuming.
Melosh shook his head. "I told you, they're fine."
"Why are you doing this? They have done nothing to you!"
"The gods commanded it."
"You have been blinded by your faith, Melosh. They are not the Ancients and they are certainly not gods."
"Blasphemy!"
She squinted at him as an uneasy thought came into her head. "Tell me truly, Melosh, what happened to Tenon and Hawliot?"
He looked nervous and guilty. "I told you already, the gods struck them down."
"You mean you stood by and let them be killed," she said with sudden understanding, her voice growing cold.
"They are gods. They decide who lives and who dies," he yelled frantically.
"You let your friends die for nothing," she shouted back, tears welling in her eyes as she thought about the betrayal of the two brave young men she had been so fond of.
"Teyla, it wasn't like that. They had a choice. They chose to defy the gods. What could I do?" pleaded Melosh.
She shook her head slowly. "You are not the man I thought I knew. I pity you, Melosh."
His face changed from guilt to anger at her comment. "You promised to bond with me."
"You promised me the moon and the stars of the sky," she countered. "We were children, Melosh, with childish fantasies -- but I am a child no longer."
He grabbed her arms and shook her. "Look at me! Look me in the eyes and tell me you have no feelings for me. That you felt nothing last night."
"It is true I felt affection for you…"
"There is another," he interrupted. "Someone with whom you feel more than mere affection," he spat out jealously.
"It does not matter if there were," Teyla said sadly, looking at the ruined man before her. "My feelings toward you would not change."
"They will change – in time," he insisted, his voice taking on a hard edge. He walked across the room and opened the door to reveal Denwen holding a small tank in his arms. "The centuries ahead will soften your resolve." He reached in and removed the Wadjet from her tank and began walking toward Teyla.
-o-
Ronon paused, holding up a hand and cocking his head slightly. Sheppard took the hint and strained his ears, catching only a few faint words, but he recognized one of the voices as Teyla's. They followed the sounds and soon they found themselves outside the same chamber where they had first been darted. Cautiously peeking through a crack in the door, Sheppard confirmed that there were only three people in the room. Teyla was backing away from Melosh with a look of revulsion on her face. It took the colonel a second to realize what the man held in his hands.
With a quick glance at Ronon to confirm his intentions, the men burst through the door. As Denwen raised his hand device toward Sheppard, Ronon wasted no time. Grabbing the old man and snapping his neck in a single, fluid movement, he let the body drop to the floor without so much as a backward glance. The tank Denwen had been holding also crashed to the floor in an explosion of broken glass and liquid.
"You killed our god!" shrieked Melosh. He was still holding Wadjet, which kept them from approaching him too closely.
"Listen to yourself, Melosh," pleaded Teyla, pressing herself against the wall as hard as she could while looking nervously at the wriggling creature he held just inches from her body. "You cannot kill a god!"
"Rodney," said Sheppard, loud enough for everyone to hear. "If he doesn't put that thing down by the time I count to three, I want you to destroy the power converter."
The scientist glanced toward the glowing orb. "Are you sure?" he whispered just loud enough for Sheppard to hear, obviously heartbroken by the idea of destroying such a potentially useful object. "If I could get it back to Atlantis…"
"Rodney," growled the colonel.
"Right." He walked over to the orb, cautiously picking it up and examining it.
The snake-like creature in Melosh's hand squealed and turned in the direction of the scientist. Rodney swallowed hard despite the distance between them. Suddenly, Denwen rose to his feet, wrenching his chin to the left with the heel of his hand. Sheppard winced at the sounds of cracking bones that could be heard.
"See," Melosh told Teyla excitedly after he recovered from his astonishment at seeing his god rise from the dead. "They are gods!" As he thrust Wadjet toward her, Rodney dashed the globe to the hard stone floor of the cave.
Sheppard and his team dived for cover as bolts of energy exploded in waves from the broken device. Melosh was not as lucky and was blown back several feet near the puddle of murky water and broken glass that was all that remained of Wadjet's tank. The Goa'uld dropped from his limp hands and into the liquid beside him. The water seemed to attract the energy bolts and Wadjet screamed even as she was turned to a blackened husk.
Denwen wailed and reached for his mate, turning himself into a conductor in the process.
"Go!" Rodney yelled at them as the energy emissions became increasingly unstable.
The team burst out of the cave's entrance and into a downpour. Sheppard and Ronon each grabbed one of the torches to either side of the entrance, jerking them out of their iron sconces just as an explosion rocked the ground under their feet and a blast of energy shot from the cave's entrance, barely missing the two men.
"Let's get outta here," said the Colonel, taking the lead down the slippery mountain path.
-o-
In the remnants of the throne room, Melosh dragged himself to Denwen's burned body, tears streaming down his face as he clutched his god to his chest. At that moment, the Goa'uld jumped from his dead host to Melosh, burying itself in his neck. The former Athosian writhed in pain for a moment but then grew calm as his eyes glowed.
-o-
It was pitch black, except for an occasional lightning strike, and footing was slick as Sheppard's team made their way down the path.
At one point, Rodney began to slide dangerously toward the edge, but Ronon's quick grab at the back of his shirt stopped the scientist. Rodney murmured a thank you even as he rubbed his throat where collar of the shirt had caught him. They were several hours into their escape and drenched to the bone when Sheppard called for a brief rest break. Looking back the way they had come, they could see more torches bouncing high above.
Sheppard winced as a boom of thunder echoed through his aching head. "How close, do you think?" he asked Ronon, trying to gauge the speed and distance of their pursuers.
Before the runner could answer, there was a rumbling sound and both Dex and Teyla gave a yell as their footing vanished and part of the path gave way, sliding down the side of the mountain and taking two of their team members with it.