Note: Sorry its taken so long to update. I also got rid of that shatty chapter I'd written earlier... oh, and as a warning, theres some bad language in this chapter.

Blake sat sobbing in his cell.
It hurt to move, it hurt to breathe.
He wished he could just die.
He knew that he wasn't that far from death, so he sat and waited.
Sobbing.

Sara sat huddled in a corner of her cell.
The guards had come in and killed the thing, dragging its corpse out behind them... its wide eyes leered at her even in death. She could still hear the echoes of its words.
She wanted to die.

It'd been seven months since Donovan and Forrester disappeared. So much had happened since then, contact was re-established with Earth being the greatest change... their personal items had been shipped back on the Daedalus to be returned to their families.

Elizabeth, John, and the others had given up on finding them again; even if they were alive out there, somewhere, they might've heard the rumour that Atlantis was destroyed and didn't think there was any point in trying to return.

"McKay," a nasal voice squeaked from behind, "You should go get some sleep."

Rodney frowned as he recognized the voice to be that of a person who normally showed absolutely no compassion for other humans. "Kavanaugh, piss off."

"You know what, McKay," the man sat backwards in the swivel chair next to Rodney and leaned towards him with a strange look on his face, "I think you are a stubborn, arrogant, prissy bastard. I think you have your head shoved so far up your own ass you could draw a map of your colon for Beckett. I also think you are a genius, and I respect you for that. What I don't respect you for is the total disregard you have for others. Not just me, but for every other red shirt on this city!"

"What... did you just say you respected me? Did you call me arrogant and prissy? You're the slimy little..."

"See! This is why I don't completely respect you. You can sure as hell point out everyone else's flaws but fail to notice what a giant hypocrite you are!"

"Aww, is little Kavanaugh mad because he got told off by Dr Weir?"

"You stupid SOB! Can't you understand that someone has to be the devil's advocate? For there to be a hero there has to be a villain. For there to be white there has to be black... but at the end of the day the actors take off their masks and can live civilized for awhile. But not you - not here! Why?"

Oh hell, Rodney thought to himself as Kavanaugh went on, he's on drugs.

"What are you talking about? You aren't making sense... and I do care about other people!"

"Oh, do you now," the long haired scientist raved, "name two people, other than those idiots you've made your little wonder team up of, that you have lost sleep over?"

"My sister, Jeanie."

"She's not here, she doesn't count."

"Corporal Ainsworth, Captain Rivers, Lieutenant Orr, Blake and Sara..."

The room fell quiet. Silent. Almost tranquil.
Time moved sluggishly as the two humans just sat breathing.
Not moving, not speaking, not thinking of anything but their two missing comrades.

"It used to kill me," Kavanaugh broke the silence, "to have to be the asshole. To be the jerk who ruined their plans. It was defence for me, because it hurt when I was the butt of their jokes. But I also revelled in the brief moments I shared the spotlight with them - it was only when I was a target or spoke out against someone that anyone else cared to notice me."

Rodney's eyes opened, but they were aimed at the floor... this was an uncomfortable moment for both of them, their gender roles told them that this wasn't right. Homophobia trickled in under layers of social conditioning, playing like the melody of a cowboy movie.

"Its easy to be the hero, its not so easy to be the villain. I know - I used to play that role all the time. Hell, I still do every now and then... whenever there was a problem at the SGC, uh oh, here comes that ass hole McKay. Quick, someone find a lemon!"

Now it was Kavanaugh's turn to look at the floor.

"Those kids, they were more than just some grunts to get shot at or be blown up in experiments gone wrong... they were... well... you know what I'm trying to say you son of a bitch."

Coughing, Rodney stood up and grabbed the water pistol sitting on the corner of his desk. "Piss off you egotistical bastard," he grunted at the other scientist, tossing the thing at him, not roughly though.

Kavanaugh caught it, eyes warming for a second as he gazed at the plastic toy in his hands before standing too and almost carelessly shoving it a pocket of his lab coat. "Up yours, cum wad."

Sara slowly stood up, turning to look around the new cell she'd been brought to... wary.
Her eyes roved across the grey stone walls, the brown moss clinging to the south facing rocks, the leaky ceiling and the puddle of dingy water lying static in the far corner. The smell reminded her of her brother's hockey equipment and silage. Unwashed bodies and rot.

A lump lay on a pallet near the puddle of water.

A new tormenter?

Cautiously she approached the pallet, sticking her foot out to poke the human shaped lump.

It groaned as her foot met something wet and squishy.

Quickly she pulled her foot back and receded a few steps... the thing didn't move again.
Again she stepped towards it, this time poking it harder.
A moan permeated from the lump and was received with a swift kick.

It fell silent, but she kept kicking.

She kicked and kicked and kicked it until it'd fallen off the pallet and into the puddle.

Smiling as though victorious, Sara took over the things spot on the pallet and sat grinning like the Cheshire cat. THIS bastard wouldn't be touching her.