DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from 'Stargate: Atlantis'. They're not my property.
"We woke up these things?" John asked whilst looking at the large cages.
"Looks like it…" She shivered slightly, remembering the horrible scene of before. Elizabeth approached one of the cages where the strange smell was stronger. "What kept them alive for so long?"
"In the absence of modern, computerized surveillance, you have giant cats guarding your property… great," he said.
Elizabeth turned around. "But, if their sleep was disturbed when we entered the library," she paused, "what was that creature that we erm… saw in the arena the first time?"
John thought about this for a moment. "It had to be one of these, but if it was … why didn't it attack us?"
Elizabeth nodded to this. John's loss of balance reappeared and he almost fell entirely to the floor. Elizabeth ran up to him. "Happened again," she said.
"Felt dizzier this time," John said, giving himself a moment.
This worried her. "Do you feel hungry or thirsty?" Elizabeth asked him.
John shook his head. "You'd think I ought to, but … no, I don't." He breathed in deeply and then returned on his feet once more. "I can't say that it's not causing some concern to me though," he forcefully admitted.
"Can we continue?" she asked carefully.
"Yeah, yes, we can."
They exited the room and then hurried down the hallway with two large bronze doors waiting. The oval doors were decorated with two big images of felines standing upright on their back legs and facing each other; between them was the sun and inside it a shark trapped by a serpent's grasp. These two doors were certainly very different from the ones they had come across earlier. Elizabeth noticed red smudges – no doubt blood – close to where the doors met. On the walls next to these doors were two burning torches and one above the doors. This time it was Elizabeth who pulled out the torch on the right side. Both looked behind them at the distant scene of death as they turned off their flashlights. Then finally they pushed the large doors, which opened rather easily.
It was strong light which met them from the moment they stepped on the bronze floor; but light coming from the walls where more, but taller and elegantly thinner torches were aligned. They gave brightness to a large hall where every wall and the ceiling were covered in bronze. On the corners were tall feline statues quite similar to the images from the Protector's Hall, and just like them, their eyes were disturbingly alive. Each statue was at least ten meters tall. A special path made of black and green stone led to the small altar at the other end, where there was only a small silver bowl with green flame emerging from it.
When they looked up at the ceiling, they saw a painting with photographic realism of the entire Bronze City in great detail. Observed from afar, the shape in which it had been built resembled two feline eyes. Four tall watch towers close to four green stones were the large creatures stood bravely and cautiously, protecting the city from enemies. Looking back at the walls of this possible shrine, they saw representations of the sun, the repetitive appearance of sharks, and of course the four-legged animals which had been so prominent throughout this ancient city.
There were also the eight-meter high and ten-meter wide tapestries hanging from the ceiling. Snowy-white, the central tapestry showed a beautiful woman in fine, rich clothing standing in front of a kneeling feline, her hand on its black head. Behind the first animal were several more, lined up almost like an army. Beneath it was a simple description: Her Royal Army.
The tapestry to the left showed a young man with a pouch, sitting on the back of a gray cat with scrolls of many colors in his hands. The creature that carried him was pictured in a leap from one platform to another, and behind it were shelves filled with scrolls – so very similar to those from the library.
The tapestry on the right side of the central one showed a sitting feline watching ever so vigilantly over two human infants who slept on a beautifully-colored blanket. The other twenty one tapestries all featured these animals, with each depicted as either a protector of the city or simply a patient helper to the royal family and their subjects. Unsurprising by now, they were all in their usual excellently preserved condition. Elizabeth felt disappointed that she could not find some kind of description of how the ancient inhabitants of this place succeeded in creating such long-lasting materials; she figured some hints had to be in the library.
Below some of the wall images were small tables with various objects like knives, plates, small shields decorated with those familiar jaws, vases, and some scrolls. But they also noticed blood on many of these objects. There were traces on the floor, leading from the main gates. It didn't take the two visitors long to figure out what this meant. "They didn't like those looters running away with these," John said. "They must've caught them here."
Elizabeth had a different opinion as she observed the traces and remembered the horrible scene from before. Nothing gave a solid impression that this could be where the kill took place. "Or they were killed when they left this shrine with these artifacts," she said.
John took a good look at the objects. There wasn't only blood on them, but saliva as well. "They brought them back here," he added.
Elizabeth nodded. "And this looks like a sacred shrine…" she said as she took in the richness of the place. "Devoted to the Protectors, I imagine…"
"So, their purpose wasn't only to guard the city," John said of the cats.
Elizabeth approached the bowl with the burning flame. On the surface on which it had been placed were a paw ready to attack and that winged creature which had attacked John days before, engraved in it. She found it strange along with the question of how this flame had been lit in the first place. She knew that this ancient people kept no such shrines for anyone else, any spirits or even members of the royal family.
"How religious were the ancients?" John asked her.
"Well, they believed that the soul reached the heavens after death and thought of immortality as a great sin. But the facts of it all are still fuzzy and incomplete. Although, I think religion wasn't a big part of their lives."
"Not very common of ancient cultures?"
"Nope. By the way, come and see this," she called him.
When John did so, he narrowed his eyes. "Don't tell me they worshipped that thing as well?" he said of the bird.
"I somehow doubt it. We barely came across mentions of it, but…." Elizabeth placed her fingers tenderly over the paw engraving, when suddenly five needles emerged from it and one punctured Elizabeth's index finger. "Shit!" she removed it quickly but not before a few drops fell over the engravings and the bowl with the flame. John quickly reacted to this by wrapping the wounded finger with a small makeshift bandage from his sleeve.
"Shit, that hurt!" she cursed again to this. The needles slowly retracted and the flame suddenly turned from green to red and grew considerably in intensity and size.
As they watched this, the main doors of the shrine began to quietly seal themselves until an inner lock secured their position for good, unbeknown to the two visitors.
"Okay, old rule of not touching anything starts applying again," John said.
They moved away from it, deciding to return to the main entrance. But when they couldn't pull or push the doors open, it gave them another, in the line of many, reason to worry.
"Guess we should get used to being locked in like this so often," Elizabeth tried to joke while they walked back to the middle of the hall. Then suddenly John grabbed her wrist, almost gluing her to him in a protective manner. She saw sudden alarm on his face as he stared in front of him. "What-?" she tried to ask.
"Just stay where you are," he said to her in a warning tone.
"What? Why?" She received no answer when she saw him looking around, barely moving with his guard on. "John?" Elizabeth called him.
Finally the green shade which was indeed more of a shadow in his eyes looked back at her. There appeared a speck of puzzlement to her reaction before he looked back at the wall. "Can't you see them?" he said.
She was confused. He still held onto her. "The wall?"
John shook his head. His eyes were not seeing the walls; his eyes were seeing ghostly, pale images of much larger animal eyes staring back at him and her. There were many – some high upon the surface of the statues, while most of them, in their large size, were on the floor observing them. "Them," he said more quietly and nodded carefully at the creatures.
But Elizabeth's eyes saw nothing but the solid structures around them. "I… need a better description than that," she told him.
"There's so many of them," he said.
"John, what do you see?" His behavior added another worry to this shelf of her mind.
"How can you not see them?" he turned to her.
Elizabeth moved her head back. He appeared slightly irritated. She knew this would cause something unpleasant but she asked anyway, "Are you alright?"
It was now he who mimicked her movement. "They're everywhere! We're surrounded! They're-!" when he looked back at where his gaze had previously been, John went silent for a moment.
Elizabeth moved her head slightly and slowly to the side to catch a better look of his profile. With his parted lips and wandering eyes, he seemed so very confused. "What the -?" He moved his arm slowly across the empty space in front of him. "They were right here…" he almost whispered. It was finally then that he let go of her wrist.
Elizabeth took a step back. She saw him step forward and try to find something with his gaze. "Where did they go?" he asked quietly.
"John, what did you see?" She asked with a voice that appeared more firm than she had expected it to.
"Those things."
"Which? The cats?"
"Yes!" he turned to her.
"How?"
"There were so many of them. They just stood there, watching us. Didn't you see them?"
Elizabeth shook her head to this.
John groaned. No, this could not have been his imagination. "Are you sure?"
"Pretty much, yes," she replied. She barely took a step forward. "What did they look like?"
"Well, big… huge, some of them." He paused, contemplating something. He then rushed toward her. "What did you put inside me?" he asked in a barely restrained tone.
"I'm sorry?"
"That so-called remedy of yours. When you mashed or whatever the hell you did with it. What was it made of?"
"Um…I, uh… mostly plants, can't recall the kind," she replied; his change of behavior was beginning to worry her more and more.
He pressed his lips and exhaled through his nose like a bull. "Were there any hallucinogens among them?"
"No, don't think so."
He appeared somewhat agitated by this. "Are you sure about that?"
"Yes," she responded calmly. "Although…not the best time to mention this but, it was mostly a…experimental drug."
He backed away from her and covered his face with his hands. "Now you tell me," he said as his palms started dragging themselves downwards along his face.
"I'm sorry. I only noticed that after I gave it to you. But you seem okay…mostly."
He looked back at her. If he could shout "Are you kidding me?" without it appearing like some strange manifestation of rage, he would have done it. "Loss of balance, hallucinations, lack of thirst or hunger… what's next?" he asked.
Growing agitation, Elizabeth thought. "I don't know," was her response.
The way John moved his jaw was a telling sign of his growing change of behavior. "Give me the torch," he then said.
"Isn't the light in this room and your flashlight enough?" she dared to ask.
"If it was, I wouldn't have asked," he told her. "Please, the torch," he repeated his request. She complied.
Taking it, John started looking around again, but this time more intently. "What's the point of locking us in here?" he asked.
It was the red fire in the silver bowl that answered his question as it suddenly began throwing sparks towards the feline statues, where a triangular hole in the cat's chest received them. Pretty soon white and green mist began to emerge from tiny holes next to their shoulders; it traveled straight in an invisible, narrow path to the next statue until it formed a rectangular rope, almost like a belt around the space where John and Elizabeth were. In a form of tiny leaks, smaller amounts of the mist began to travel toward an invisible meeting point in the center. When it was reached, a small cloud was formed from which tiny red drops began to fall on the ground. As more fell, the floor in the middle of that black and green pathway began to disintegrate. The rain stopped and a round hole in the floor was created. The mist disappeared shortly after. The middle pathway suddenly lowered itself several meters down. The parted floor then started moving further apart, creating small tremors along the way. When it finally ceased, it revealed dark steps going down.
Standing at the top of these steps, John tried to catch as much of what the torch provided for him as he could. His previous agitation had managed to tame itself for now. "Looks okay," he said and looked up where he saw those same ghostly faces from before. He shut his eyes and shook his head briefly. They were not real; they couldn't be.
Elizabeth tried to keep an eye on his change of behavior, but this sudden revelation stole her attention rather easily. They took the risk once again and descended down those stairs with John leading the way.
Many heavy paws stepped up next to the entrance, the tails moving slowly and the eyes watching those strangers go. They were not as ghostly as before, now.
After the last step was a wide tunnel. Beyond the flickering but bright light of the torch, beautiful wall paintings were revealed on each side. Young men and women playing with the Protectors; these were happy themes, making this a rather nice turn from the ones they had encountered before. A few were shown helping a feline mother give birth to her young, others nursing the kittens. Elizabeth was surprised to find such representations in this hidden place instead of somewhere more public and open. She asked John about his health. He responded with a simple 'Oh, fine.' Elizabeth assumed he was telling the truth.
As they progressed down the corridor, they could hear the sound of running water and even feel the smell. Touching part of the tunnel's wall, she felt these to be much older than the painted images on the higher levels.
Reaching the end of the tunnel revealed to them a river, a vast running river beginning with a waterfall from the much higher black rocks on the western side in this cave. This river continued over the sharp edges only several meters further in a form of another waterfall. The torch was of little use here as light from various and, at times, unknown, sources gave clear and much needed visibility to this place.
The two sides of the cave were connected with a bridge. Chains and plates made of gold stood quietly and calmly over the loud river. Beyond that bridge another tunnel awaited them. Stepping on the first plate assured them that it would be safer to hold securely on the chains so as to avoid falling in the river. John tried to see the height of the lower waterfall to his right but it was not possible because of the distance. When Elizabeth's foot reached the middle plate, she suddenly slipped. While trying to catch and hold on tightly to the chain, her flashlight fell in the water and her feet were almost touching the surface. Elizabeth saw John's outstretched arm and grabbed onto it.
"Watch your step," he told her, sounding slightly annoyed as he pulled her up, accidentally much closer to him than intended. She simply nodded, feeling tamely insecure of what verbal response to give him.
Continuing inside the second and much bigger tunnel, they saw cobwebs on most of the walls, hiding the images behind them, while its tiny inhabitants were unwilling to allow a human hand to remove them. A disturbingly loud animal roar was heard very near, echoing through the tunnel. They spun around only to see an incredibly large cat-like creature charging towards them. "Oh, crap," Elizabeth uttered before she and John immediately began running though the much darker tunnel. They could hear the creature running, the earth nearly trembling under its large weight. They could hear the heavy breathing, which felt much more frightening than a thundering roar. She glanced behind her where the impish game of light and shadow gave a much distorted view of the creature. But she saw those large, white fangs that must've belonged to a jaw that could behead a polar bear easily. And it was fast, even for its size.
"There's an opened entrance!" John shouted to an opening of a room. Both desperately hoped for either a solid door or perhaps a way to escape this place. When they ran inside the room, the fading light revealed another chamber of the cave, but one which had stone platforms on different levels next to the walls. There were possibly bridges connecting them but they were gone now. Searching franticly, John noticed one heavy, stone platform just above the entrance, appearing more like a door. "Hold this!" he handed the torch to Elizabeth and then jumped to the lowest and nearest platform next to the one above the door. The way it had been pushed up and held by tight rope, he figured some weight and a sharp instrument would do the trick. The distance between the two platforms was not small but he managed. Once on the upper platform, the surface suddenly lowered significantly as a result of the weight. "The torch!" he shouted over to her. She threw it his way. He barely caught it with his right hand almost catching and absorbing the flame itself. As the intensity of the tremors increased, they knew the creature would burst in here in mere seconds. John held the torch next to the thick ropes, hoping the flame was strong enough to loosen them on time. "Come on…" he said at the time which seemed like forever. The rope finally gave in and the platform fell down, barricading the entrance. John was helped to his feet by Elizabeth, with both waiting to see what impact his action had on this.
