Yeah Angela! You're so great and grand, I'm right jealous!
Confidence
His heart sank in his chest faster than his body to the ground. He had been wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Again, his mistake would bring peril to their lives. He shouldn't have assumed anything! Rodney had been so relieved when he had thought of the shield. So happy that they had a way out, they could just walk to the gate and everything would be fine. He hadn't really thought it would not work!
The guards came and stood around them, grinning widely. They taunted them as they struggled to comply with their orders. Getting up when shot in the leg was a feat. Getting up in synchronicity with two other people who had also been shot in the leg was near impossible.
They were led to a granary, as had been asked by the Celebrant, and made to sit in the middle of the large circular room. It was made of wood, stood tall and was almost empty. A partial examination of their injuries had brought the conclusion that none were life threatening. One corpse per force field please! It also brought grounds for interrogations. Shouldn't they be bleeding, profusely? Small blessings, no matter how unnatural they be, were still welcomed.
Ronon could feel it crawling under his skin, his every instinct rebelling against this passivity. They were completely vulnerable. They had all been shot and now he thought McKay was beginning to crack under the pressure. Teyla was holding on, closing herself off to anything that did not pertain to their survival.
Immensely uncomfortable, he tried to shift his weight. He sat, John snug between him and Rodney. Ronon had tried to reason with him when he had seen Rodney gently cup the side of John's head and lean it on his shoulder. It had been an awful sight, Sheppard's head hanging limply backwards, his neck stretched, but it would not be painful to the man; it was only painful to them. Both he and Teyla had argued; let her sit by Sheppard. Let him support the weight of the lifeless soldier. All to no avail. The minute Ronon had reached for Sheppard's head, to carefully balance it on his own shoulder, McKay had snapped, told him to keep his large grubby paws to himself.
He looked for means of escape. It was his priority; saving himself, saving them. In this galaxy, no one ever stopped running, hiding, fighting and everyone learned to muddle through. Teyla and he could cope. He remembered telling her to thwart any distractions, concentrate on what could be used to survive. Anger was an ally if you allowed it to be. It was unwise to let pain weaken them.
Teyla took in her surroundings, occupying herself with what she knew: searching for means of survival, for ways to fight. Her train of thought closely followed Ronon's. Live Teyla, live to fight another day. Feed the pain that feeds the anger. Forget the bullet wound, forget the dead.
For the moment, she detailed the granary. Four guards stood at regular intervals. No grains to be had in this town. Why had they come here if not for food! These people had none. The basis, the one thing the Athosians had always kept was grain. They had been fools to come here, trust in the High House. Fools!
As Teyla's musings had paralleled Ronon's, Rodney's met hers on a perpendicular path. Fool! He was a damn fool! What had he ever done but get them in trouble! He was useless to this team, so useless! He had gotten them shot. His low threshold for pain had long been broken. It burned. Burned! How funny was that! They didn't know, they didn't know the only way to make it burn was to shoot. Shoot, and fire would spread! He let out a hollow laugh.
"Rodney?"
Control, stay in control! This is not the time to lose it, McKay!
"Um?" He met Teyla's enquiring gaze and smiled tightly. "Just thinking."
That's it; no one wants a crazy scientist on their hands. You know what Sheppard would – NO! Don't think about Sheppard, don't think at all.
His throat constricted, his eyes watered but he held it in. He wanted to wail, to scream but held it all in. He could feel Sheppard's head, limp against his shoulder and he moved his hand so it would rest upon his friend's. That's what he had done earlier, on the platform. Rodney could do the same, offer comfort. Comfort to a dead man. He laughed again, a savage bark that escaped him.
Voices came from outside, preventing Teyla from asking, preventing Rodney from breaking. ,
"She has gone too far! Her quest has blinded her! Innocents! She has forsaken innocents!"
"They are here, in the granary. We have been told they are still alive."
"Of course they are still alive! Have you no sense, boy!
The guards shuffled nervously but did not leave their post. The door opened with a loud bang and a tall man strode in. He had longish red hair, sparkling green eyes and a stature demanding respect. He was of a venerable age but held none of the frailty that comes with an abundance of years. He walked to the captive sitting in the middle of the room. Dismissing the guards without a glance, he instructed them to stand outside the building and wait.
He stood and observed the four occupants of the granary. He took in Teyla's cold and appraising stare, Rodney's scared but defiant features, John's slack body and Ronon's fierce eyes. His face remained impassive.
"Who are you?"
"Who are you!" McKay answered aggressively, nearing the end of his rope, so close to losing control on his overwrought emotions.
"I am Lokas. I have come for you."
"Come for us! Oh great! What are you going to do to us, umm? You want to kill us, after all these attempts! One out of four isn't bad but really, I've seen better odds on other worlds!"
Teyla pressed a hand to his and he fell silent, to let her speak. "On whose behalf have you come?"
"The one you know as the Celebrant. She informed me of your situation. It has gone too far, it is now beyond her control. I have come to send you home."
"Good. Let's go." Ronon signalled for Rodney and Teyla to get up.
The man stepped back and let them get to their feet. To their great surprise, he did not speak any further simply preceding them to the door.
"Guards. You will forget what you have seen today." He raised his hand to their eye level and a ring shone out to them.
The guards answered as one "Yes, Sir."
Teyla, Rodney and Ronon found themselves once again on their way to the gate. It was slow and painful but they kept up with the man's long purposeful strides. They followed him silently albeit distrustfully. The village seemed deserted but as they passed the building where they had first seen the Celebrant, they could hear a familiar chant. Mass.
Teyla couldn't help the doubts that crept into her mind. How could it be, after everything that had transpired, that this man would simply take them to the gate. It could be a trick but they had nothing to lose. This was a time for trust. She was not cynical; she could still have faith in her fellow man. Teyla gave herself up to that faith and concentrated on more important things; namely a certain doctor who was much too quiet at her side.
I don't even want to know. Rodney was perfectly happy to go along, follow this man and wait for the other shoe to drop. He didn't even care. He was tired of these conflicting emotions. Too much fear had been spent, first on the fire, then on Sheppard. Oh God Sheppard. Rodney had to hold his limp form tightly against him to prevent it from pulling him down. He tried to ignore it but it was difficult as every step he took carried the both of them. How do you ignore such a thing! Knowing he had to, he waited for the moment when they would be able to turn off this force field and he'd go, collapse in a dark corner of Atlantis. Let this mission pour out of him. It always worked. Have a little breakdown, or a massive one, see Heightmeyer for a few sessions and get back to work. Every time someone died, it was the same story. This wouldn't be any different. Sheppard was just another soldier. He wasn't anything to write home about. Giving a decisive nod, Rodney pushed away any feelings and thought only of the problem at hand: the force field. Sheppard was probably rotting in hell and he didn't care! He really didn't care!
"Hey you in front! Are you familiar with this field holding us together?"
The man answered without looking back. "Yes." A moment's silence followed.
"Oh for the love of…what do you know about it!"
"Not here. I will explain when we have reached the Ring."
Which they did, two hours later. They slumped to the ground, their injured legs begging for a reprieve from the strain of the exercise. Rodney glared up at the man and spoke in his rudest tone.
"Well! The force field?"
Then man stood, towering over them. "It is designed to preserve the body. You should not have been included, should not have been protected by its power."
Ronon did not like the sound of that at all. "We should've died in the fire."
The man had the grace to look sheepish. "Yes. Not through malice! It is a necessity!"
"Well, that's just fine then! I would gladly die a painful burning death if it wasn't demanded of me through malice! That changes everything! Thank you so much for your kindness! Would you like for us to wait here with you until we get out of the field and you can try again! I'm sure we'll burn easy! We haven't had any fluids in a while; we should be nice and dry. It shouldn't take long too –"
"Rodney!" Teyla had to rein him in again.
Lokas went on as though Rodney hadn't spoken. He understood their anger but there was nothing he could do, except to inform them. He took a deep breath and plunged, wanting to get the unpleasantness of it all behind him. "The one that has passed should've been alone in the veil. It is intended for the body only. I have never witnessed this before. Its primary function is to preserve the body for the period required by the loving to bid farewell and release the essence to the higher planes."
He began pacing as he spoke, his gaze lost in the horizon. "Your life is not in danger whilst you are in the veil. You will not feel hunger, or thirst. You will not be harmed by natural occurrences. I can see you have been injured and can only assume it was by man-made forces, evil intent. You are at rest. Your body is suspended between time. It will not age, will not change until the time you are released."
That made sense, explained why they weren't hungry, why they weren't bleeding, why Sheppard's skin was still tinged with the pink of vitality.
"There are certain happenings which have come to my attention. I do not know how it will affect you, or the one who has passed. For now, I can only assure you of your safety."
"How long are we to stay like this?"
"The veil has a minimum duration of fifteen suns. I cannot affirm with conviction that it is the case here. It could be longer."
"How much longer?"
"Much longer. The veil has sometimes been used by the grieving as a way to keep their loved ones near for too long a time. It is inadvisable, frowned upon, but it has been done."
"We could be like this for life." Ronon despised the thought. The sweet taste of freedom had been returned to him by Doctor Beckett when he extracted the Wraith's device. He had no wish for it to turn bitter again.
"You might never die, trapped within the veil…"
As the repercussion of that statement found its way inside, to squeeze the hearts of the team, a tall, muscular, black-haired boy came running.
The boy, who was certainly nearing the age of maturity, stopped a few steps from the red-haired man. "Lokas. We must go, the Celebrant is ready and she will speak."
Lokas turned to the three sitting colleagues. "I must go. I wish I could speak with you longer. "
"No no no no! You can't go! You need to tell us what happened! What are we going to do?"
"Come. In seven suns, come through this Ring. I will be waiting. Now you must return to your world." He turned and left with the boy.
They got to their feet, slowly, pain hampering their movements. They walked to the DHD and dialled the gate. They found their way to the Alpha Site, knowing they would find the means to communicate their presence to Atlantis.
It was a concerned Elizabeth that awaited them on the other side of the wormhole. They were early, though overdue for check in by a few hours. Due to the distance between the village and the gate, it had not been too hard on Elizabeth's nerve. She had faith in their abilities.