Rejoice, for Angela was here!
Notes: There's one or two curse words in there, sorry! Thank you so much for reading and commenting! It's a right thrill to know what you think :) Really, it is, I get pathetically giddy every time!
Dissent
The past seven days had felt like years to Ronon. Inactivity was the bane of his existence. Lie here, sit there; submit to the science team's tests. They knew very little concerning the field and even less of their condition. Beckett was greatly concerned, unable to examine them properly, resorting to observing and questioning them every day.
They'd laid mattresses on the floor in one of the labs so they could sleep. McKay had insisted they stay there to allow him to conduct the experiments on the field. This had the added bonus that they did not have to walk back and forth from quarters to lab. The pain from the bullet wound had receded but having to carry Sheppard made his demise undeniable.
McKay had tried to wake him, playfully jabbing him, before he remembered the Colonel wasn't sleeping and hadn't that been a pleasant day. Unsettling silence had befallen only to be disrupted by McKay's enraged shouting directed at anyone who dared venture in the lab. He never spoke to Ronon or Teyla, not one word despite their insistence, and since then he seemed trapped in a spiral of fury no one could abate.
At least today, they had a purpose. The meeting with Lokas would surely lay many questions to rest. Teyla was hopeful that soon, they would be able to put this behind them. Regain their freedom and have the time to mourn their loss. She ached for the men she had come to regard as family, as well as for herself. All three of them were private individuals and would not allow themselves to shatter until they were alone in their own private corner of the world. Vulnerability was undesirable; hence, they played the game of resilience. She looked at the man standing directly next to her. He was losing.
"Are we going! Why are we standing here like a bunch of random technicians! Are you waiting for Sheppard's orders?" Rodney placed is palm under Sheppard's chin, curling his fingers to press his cheeks so his mouth would move and he appeared to speak. "Major Lorne, move out you jackass!"
Lorne glared at Rodney as he walked pass and snapped, "Move out."
Rodney made to follow but he was the only one to attempt a step, thus stayed rooted to the spot. He turned to Teyla who wore a severe expression.
"You should not have done that. It was disrespectful to the Colonel and to us all."
"Teyla, maybe you've never noticed this about me, but I'm a bastard. I don't fucking care, and in his present state, I doubt very much the Colonel will object. Now, are we going?"
"Yes." Ronon, smart man, did not want to aggravate the scientist further. He shook his head minutely to stop Teyla from pursuing the matter. She fell silent and they dematerialized from the Atlantis gate room.
They emerged from the gate to find a distressed Lokas speaking with Lorne. A further investigation of the surrounding area allowed Ronon to see the Celebrant, standing in between two guards.
"What is she doing here?" Threatening, defiant, angered. Not the emotions you wanted to rouse in a man as big as he was.
Lokas turned to him and raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "She means you no harm."
"Excuse me! Do you see this?" Rodney indicated his shielded group with a jerk of his head.
"It was a mistake! You should not have been included in the veil!" The Celebrant said pleadingly, drawing closer to them.
"Oh that's right! We should've died!"
"Not by my choice!" The pleading look morphed into a sneer.
"How comforting!" Rodney had practically roared those two little words. He was enraged. Everything and everyone could incur his wrath.
Concerned and exasperated, Dr. Beckett had told him many times to calm down; upsetting himself would only aggravate his hypertensive body. Rodney responded with loud abrasive words and personal insults clearly unconcerned with his blood pressure. Beckett couldn't blame him and always left troubled and apologetic. Elephant dosage of sedatives and blows to the head had been mentioned incrementally by various members of staff but neither Teyla nor Ronon had spoken of McKay's momentary forgetfulness. They hadn't said they understood why he harangued everyone who came near; hadn't pointed out that it was simply a defence mechanism, though after so much time spent in his company, the people who mattered knew.
Lokas came to stand between an irate Rodney and haughty Celebrant.
"Mira, we have more pressing matters!" He turned to the team and clasped his hand together in a silent plea. "What I have to tell you is not exactly pleasant." He took a deep breath, his eyes closed, gathering courage to tell these people something they could never be expected to understand. "You friend is not truly dead but he very well might be if we do not hurry."
"That's it! Let's go home! He's obviously senile! I have better things to do than be here with these delusional people. We're done here, Lorne, dial the gate!"
"Please do not interrupt. Time is of the essence." He clapped his hand to his mouth as if he had said a lewd word.
Mira gave him an amused look. "Lokas!"
"I apologise, a very poor choice of word indeed! We must hurry. I have learned of the whereabouts of your companion and it is imperative that we go now to retrieve him. He carries the essence of my sister's intended and she has been allowed to work towards his assemblage for much too long. "
He frowned at Mira who cowered minutely under the stare. "I have told you many times that it was done unwillingly on my part. She forced my hand!"
"I know, Mira. Though you should've spoken earlier, at the present time it is irrelevant. Now, we must go, for it will take us the better part of the day to reach our destination."
"We must ask for further explanation. How is it that you affirm Colonel Sheppard to be alive when his body has lain with us for many days?" Teyla didn't want to believe him. False hopes had never faired well on the mourning path.
"That is only the physical representations of the one you call Sheppard. He is very much alive, on a known world. As I have said, we must hurry. I shall be most pleased to answer any questions you might have after we have retrieved all the individuals who carry the essence.
"What the hell are you talking about? What essence and what does Sheppard have to do with it!"
"Please, place your trust in us. We will take you to him. Follow."
Mira went to dial the gate and Lokas beckoned them to follow. Ronon shrugged, Teyla nodded and McKay glared.
"Perhaps we should do as he asks. If he can lead us to the Colonel…"
This was too much for McKay's fragile control. "What are you talking about, Teyla! Have you all gone insane! Sheppard is right here and he'd dead! He's been dead for the past week. I've been sleeping, sitting, working and being bored beside his body for a week! HE'S BEEN DEAD FOR A WEEK!" He breathed in deeply, his eyes clenched shut. "Let's just go back home and wait for this damn force field to disappear!"
He was so angry. His skin was flushed, his eyes shone brightly and he shook Sheppard's body, though it hardly moved, being tightly held by Ronon. Teyla wanted to reach out to him but she knew he wouldn't accept any form of comfort, just as he had rejected her this past week, had rejected everyone. Ronon roughly gripped the enraged man's wrist, where it grasped Sheppard's shoulder, and spoke firmly. "Enough."
Lokas took a step closer to them. "I assure you, we are being truthful. What you hold against you is not your friend. It is solely his physical representation. "
"I don't know how it works for you but in my world, when the physical representation of someone stops moving, breathing and generally functioning, it means they are dead. Look, this here, it's a corpse, a body, a cadaver. It's dead. There's nothing there! It's dead! It's not Sheppard, it's just matter, and if it wasn't for this field it'd be decaying right now, so don't tell me he's not dead when I can clearly see he is!" Rodney turned to Teyla and she flinched under the hatred in his glare. "Tell him he's dead, Teyla! Tell him!"
He waited for her to speak. When she didn't, he attempted to shake her as he had done with Sheppard. "Tell him! Tell him he's dead! Don't just stand there looking at me like that! Tell him he's dead so we can get the hell off this planet, get the hell out of this shield and get rid of Sheppard!"
She could only steel herself, reach out and rest a hand on his back as he came undone. He wouldn't want that. He wouldn't want this outburst to go on much longer, to have everyone know how tenuous his control really was, so she spoke gently, if a bit harshly, in the hopes that he would calm down.
"Rodney, stop! I will not allow you to speak to me this way any longer! We will go with Lokas because we have nothing to lose! Do you understand?"
His face hardened and he truculently jutted out his chin. "Damn it! Damn you, Teyla! Do you have to be so high and mighty all the time! I'm not going anywhere with him! Sheppard's dead! Are you too much of an idiot to see that! Did you miss the signs! The stillness, the non-breathing! God! I'm surrounded by a bunch of morons! I thought you were better than that! Even Ronon can see Sheppard's dead!"
"I've told you before McKay, quit your whining! You'll shut up and move or I'll make you!" Ronon eyes were dark and his voice threatening. He wanted to rage just as much as Rodney, but it would serve no purpose. If there was a chance they could find their leader alive, he just had to take it. If Lokas was a foe and it brought them to their deaths, at least they would know they died with honour, having done all that was possible for the man who would do the same for them.
"Fine! Gang up on me! If Sheppard were here, he'd say this was a crazy plan and tell you all to go to hell!"
"He's not here and you forget too easily. Sheppard loves crazy plans and he never leaves anyone behind. He's behind, right now." Ronon knew it was unproductive to think they'd find him, it could bring only pain, but he hoped nonetheless. He had lost too many friends to refuse pursuing this possibility.
Rodney's shoulder slumped as he recognised that Ronon did not make threats idly. "Fine! Stuck in a shield with a dead guy and two degenerates, obviously that doesn't make my life unpleasant enough! Of course not! What could we do to make it truly horrid? Oh, I know! Let's all ignore the BODY and go LOOK for the dead guy!"
"McKay! I will hurt you!" Ronon squeezed Rodney's shoulder with slightly more pressure than was necessary and succeeded in putting a term to the man's tirade.
They followed Lokas unaware that beyond the gate the soil they stepped on carried a bizarre contraption. John stood in this device, as still as his corpse, watching versions of himself die, piece by piece.