Rodney awoke slowly, his head was pounding almost as if he had hit it a couple of dozen times against a brick wall, and by the feel of it the wall had won. He tried to raise a hand to his throbbing head but he couldn't move, he was almost paralyzed.

"Ah you're awake." Rodney tried to turn his head towards the voice but only his eyes could move, he didn't like this feeling. He was helpless, vulnerable to any kind of attack.

"Yes." He tried to say, but the muscles in his mouth just wouldn't move. He had to settle with just staring at the figure that was to the left of him.

"Good. Now Rodney do you remember what happened?" Rodney's eyes widened, and one of his eyebrows rose slightly. How was he supposed to answer when he was paralyzed?

"Oh yeah right. It'll wear off soon. It was just a stunner." Rodney eyes widened still further, the eyebrow sinking back into its original position. He had been stunned? When? How? Where?

"Look Rodney there's something you need to know." The figure came closer and Rodney recognised him as Major Sheppard, inside Rodney let out a sigh of relief. He was safe, John would protect him. "Rodney, Atlantis has been compromised." Rodney's mouth fell open, his eyes widened and he stared horror struck at John.

"See I told you the feeling would come back, anyway. Hostile aliens have infiltrated the base; Weir, Beckett, Ford and Grodin have been compromised. But the rest of Atlantis don't know this, they're all following orders. We've got to get to the gate and get help from earth! We can't let aliens run Atlantis." John looked straight into Rodney's eyes, Rodney held the gaze.

"So, we gotta help them." He slurred, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. There was something fishy going on here.

John smiled, seemingly pleased that Rodney had grasped this concept so quickly.

"Yeah, we've gotta help them. Can you move yet?" Rodney tried to move his hand, he could just about flex his fingers but that was all.

"Ah well worth a try." John turned away from Rodney and headed towards a table, it had a laptop open upon it.

Rodney managed to get his first look at the room, it was large, the floor was made of the same material as all the other floors in Atlantis, the only difference was that it was slightly wet. As Rodney's eyes scanned the room he recognised several smashed cylinders in a row on a table.

"Why we here? This was where the virus escaped," His voice was returning slowly, and he could now move most of his hand.

"Yeah it was. We're here because we don't want the rest of Atlantis knowing where we are. I need you to help me figure this out." John brought the laptop towards Rodney and set it down on his lap. Rodney stared at the flashing dots, and realised almost immediately what it was.

"What do you want me to do with a life signs detector?" he asked, as he watched the many different blinking dots moving about Atlantis.

"I need you to shut down every single life detector in the city." Rodney wrenched his eyes away from the screen to look at John, he had to be bluffing!

"How many time times do I have to tell you, I'm not superman! How am I meant to shut down every single life signs detector in the city? Why do I have to shut down every life signs detector in the city?" John looked at Rodney for a moment, as thought contemplating what to tell him.

"We can't have anyone finding us before we get to the gate." Rodney looked back down at the laptop briefly before glancing up at John; he looked straight into the brown eyes and nodded.

"Can you move much yet?"

"My head, my arm and I'm getting some feeling back into my legs and ex…"

"Don't need to know McKay! Too much information" John moved away from Rodney towards a locked door, Rodney watched him for a moment before turning back to the laptop and beginning his work.

XXXXXXXXX

"Carson?" Elizabeth's tentative voice made him open his eyes, he tried to raise a hand to his face but he couldn't move.

"Carson, you're awake" Elizabeth's face appeared above him, she was smiling at him but he could see the worry cleverly hidden in her eyes.

"Aye" he said quietly, he didn't really remember much about how he had got here. He managed to flex his fingers slightly and knew instantly that he was in one of the beds in the infirmary.

"Do you know what happened Carson?" Carson waited for a while before replying; he wanted to regain a bit more feeling so he could actually talk coherently.

"No, not really. The only thing I remember is talking to you about the Major." Carson turned his head slowly to look at her; he saw Elizabeth was nodding slowly. She was disappointed that he couldn't tell her anything else, but she wasn't going to go blaming him.

"Okay, now you rest! That's an order Carson!" Elizabeth gave him a brief smile before heading out of the infirmary. Carson watched her leave before trying once more to move. This time he managed to move both his arms and most of the upper part of his body.

'Now I just need my bloody legs to work.' He thought as he sat up in the bed, he seemed to be the only patient in the infirmary. That was strange, where was Rodney? He had been here before, hadn't he?

'Oh crap!' He launched himself off the bed, forgot he couldn't move his legs and fell to the floor with a loud BANG. One of the nurses came scuttling over to him and helped him back onto the cot,

"You really shouldn't be moving just yet Doctor Beckett." He nodded, his face going slightly pink with embarrassment. He lay back onto the bed and waited for the nurse to walk away before beginning his attempt to get up again, more slowly this time though.

XXXXXXXXX

"How much longer McKay?" John asked irritably, he was watching the door through which they had come.

"Well if you stopped asking me that every five minutes it would probably be done by now!" Rodney snapped back, he was getting frustrated with the laptop and with the Major.

"Well I'm sorry if I'm rushing you Rodney but we do have the whole of Atlantis looking for us. Should I just go outside and ask them if they can go back to their quarters for half an hour whilst you try to shut down the life signs detector?"

"That would be nice, and whilst you're out can you grab a cup of coffee?"

"If you're not careful McKay I'll spike it with lemon."

"WHAT? You know I'm deathly allergic to citrus! You wouldn't dare." Rodney stared wide-eyed at John, who stared back unblinking. It was at that moment that he remembered what had happened.

"Oh god! Oh god! Oh god!"

"What?"

"Your that woman! You're not John! Atlantis isn't taken over!" Rodney chucked the laptop to the floor and struggled to his feet.

"McKay what are you on about? You may be suffering some effects from that dart that you got shot with." Rodney watched him, his body drawn up against the wall. "McKay, it's me!"

"No! It's not!" John began to smile, not the normal quirky John smile but an evil smile that made his features look distorted. Rodney tried to back away instinctively but he was already against a wall.

"Took you long enough. I was hoping that you might have shut down the detectors before you remembered but never mind." John began to walk towards him, his hands clenching into fists.

" How come I couldn't remember anything? I thought stunners were only meant to stun people, not take away their short term memory."

"Well it also helps if that person hits their head pretty hard when they fall." John was right in front of him now, "But you really shouldn't have told the rest of Atlantis about me. Well technically you shouldn't be alive, but I don't think you'll be around for much longer anyway." With that John grabbed him by the front of the scrubs that he was wearing and threw him over the table that held the smashed cylinders, he felt the glass cut his arm as he went over them. He smashed into the wall and slid to the bottom of it, the wind knocked out of him.

"I was seriously pissed off that you survived, I hadn't thought about the possibility that if you lived you might be able to see what I was doing! But that problem won't exist for much longer now will it?" John came towards him once more and lifted him easily from his crumpled position on the floor.

"Please, no!" he said before he was thrown once again to another wall, he couldn't move. He knew that if that happened again he'd be dead for sure, he closed his eyes and waited for the end, but no hands grabbed the front of his scrubs. He opened his eyes cautiously, John wasn't anywhere near him. He tried to lift his head slightly, and he saw John slumped in a corner of the room his head in his hands.

"Major?" he called softly, he saw John look up his eyes distraught and barely focused,

"McKay? Where am I? What's happened?" Rodney's head was pounding again; he laid it back onto the cold floor before speaking.

"We're still in Atlantis, you've been taken over by an alien consciousness. All you need to do is contact Carson or Elizabeth and tell them that we're in the…" But John had risen from his position on the floor his face livid.

"That will not happen again!" he said, Rodney realised that the woman must be losing control. John must be fighting her,

'Come on John, you've got to get us out of here!'

McKay closed his eyes trying to fight the nausea that was threatening; he heard footsteps coming towards him until they stopped right in front of him. He knew that this was the time when he would die; at the hands of someone he had counted a friend.

"Good bye Doctor McK…" Suddenly running footsteps could be heard outside the door, Rodney opened his eyes in time to see John pull him up and hold him in front of him as a shield. The door burst open to reveal Lieutenant Ford, Major Lorne, Lieutenant Phillips and another marine that Rodney didn't know, he saw them hesitate as they saw him being held in front of John.

"Let me pass, or I'll kill him." Rodney felt cold metal being pressed against his neck, where had he got the knife?

'He's as bad as Teyla for hiding weaponry' he thought as he felt the knife dig into his neck. The marines kept their guns pointed at John and McKay, until they saw the small trickle of blood starting to ooze from Rodney's neck. They lowered their weapons reluctantly, and stepped aside, they couldn't let Atlantis' best scientist get killed.

John moved swiftly towards the door, still holding Rodney in front of him he made his way out into the corridor turning so Rodney was still in the way of any bullets.

Rodney sighed, he was never going to escape this! Never!

Hows it going so far? What's going to happen to Rodney? What's guna happen to John?

Please keep the reviews coming. cya soon for the next instalment