He remembered Janus' determination to make him remember who he was as Icarus.
His brothers brought him back to the box and he remembered the humiliation as they held him down, helpless to Janus's sad blue eyes as he touched the device on his back and brought the fire back to his body.
"You are my flesh and blood, Icarus," Janus insisted through his screams. "What makes you think that you are not? You are destined for greatness. You are destined to bring us peace. Your brothers are trusting you to lead them to victory. Without you we cannot take Atlantis. Without Atlantis we cannot destroy the Wraith."
They emerged on a desolate, red and black world.
Teyla had never seen anything like it before. A vast desert of black dunes stretched as far as the eye could see under a deep red sky. Sheppard nearly lost his footing as they stepped through onto the fine gravel, but seemed to gain a little strength, pulling back as he started to realize where they were.
"No," he whispered. "No, no, no. Why did you bring me back here?"
Teyla looked up at him, reading absolute terror in his eyes that startled her.
"It is the only thing we could think of to help you," she answered.
Sheppard pulled back more. "You should have left me," he protested weakly. "It's too dangerous. They'll … get you, too."
"We will be fine," she tried to reassure him. "We would not have left you to die without doing all we could to help you."
Ronon limped forward, dragging Sheppard and Teyla with him. "We're here and we're not going back," he growled. "If you don't want to go I'll carry you."
Sheppard continued resisting, the terror in his eyes spreading to his face and trembling body as he whispered, "They're coming."
And then Teyla saw the white heads emerging over the dunes around them. They were surrounded. Dozens of aliens advanced swiftly and silently, guns drawn. Up close they were massive and heavily muscled, with cold red eyes and the pallor of the Wraith. The strange devices blinked softly on their bald heads.
"What do we do?" Ronon asked her quietly, his blaster already in hand.
"Do not shoot them," she answered tersely. "They may think we are one of them."
"That's if these stupid devices work the way we think they do."
Four aliens approached, stopping in front of them and looking them up and down. Seeming to be satisfied with their inspection, two then reached out and pulled Sheppard from their grasp, turning and immediately marching away. The other two flanked Teyla and Ronon, clearly as an escort.
Teyla glanced at Ronon, eyebrow raised, and followed. They had no other choice.
After a 20 minute march, they could see low buildings in the distance. Sheppard had protested at first but then silently allowed himself to be dragged forward, miraculously managing to mostly stay on his feet. Around them, the aliens marched silently but kept their weapons sheathed.
Inside the barracks Ronon and Teyla were ignored, so they followed the aliens escorting Sheppard down into the cool interior of a clean and sparse building. A long, empty hallway lined with doors led them down to the end where the doors opened, revealing a glass coffin-like box large enough to hold one person lying down.
Sheppard renewed his struggles at this point, but he had grown so weak that it was easy for the aliens to manhandle him, hauling him over to the box and lying him down inside, holding him still as they pulled straps over his body to keep him down.
Ronon's hand was on his blaster again, but Teyla put her hand on his, her eyes shooting a silent warning. Wait and see.
A control panel lit up nearby. One of the aliens pressed some buttons, and then all four left the room, leaving Teyla, Ronon, and Sheppard alone. Ronon rushed to the box to find it sealed shut, and Sheppard mercifully unconscious. Suddenly, a flash of light engulfed the Colonel, so bright that they couldn't see him for nearly a full moment.
Shielding her eyes until the light dissipated, Teyla approached the box, touching it, and the glass sides dissolved.
"Help me," she ordered Ronon, pulling the straps off of Sheppard's body.
Checking his pulse and finding it strong and steady, she cupped Sheppard's face, patting gently as she tried to wake him up. His eyes fluttered then turned towards her.
"Teyla?" he rasped.
"Colonel," she smiled. "Are you alright?"
Sheppard blinked in confusion. "Yes?"
"Can you sit up?"
Sheppard pushed himself up with apparent ease, but Teyla noted the fine trembling in his forearms. "What happened?"
Teyla had a suspicion she knew what the box had done and reached out to touch Sheppard's side. "May I?"
When he nodded she pushed up his t-shirt and pulled away the bandage. The skin underneath was completely healed. She felt his leg, and again, the wound was gone.
"The machine has healed you," she said in wonder.
Sheppard suddenly seemed to realize where he was and scrambled off of the box.
"Wait. What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"We are trying to figure out how to get that device off of your back," Ronon growled. "Think that machine can do that?"
The terror that had been in Sheppard's eyes not so long ago returned. "No. They … they do it another way. They're coming back. When they do … I might be different. If I am, you have to promise to get back to Atlantis. Go without me and close the 'gate. Don't ever let anyone from this address through. They are dangerous. They're going to try to use me to take Atlantis —"
"John." Teyla interrupted the frantic man firmly. "Listen to us. We know the danger we are in. You need to explain to us what we need to do to help you. We will not leave until we know this."
Sheppard's mouth was closed in a firm line as he looked at her and Ronon, but Teyla knew that he was in no position to order them to leave.
"Ok," he finally said, quietly. "This has happened before. They are supposed to recharge the devices on a schedule, but we were … deployed a few times and didn't get back in time. I remember that. They are going to come back. You need to stay back and do nothing when they do. If you try to interfere they will stop you, because nothing is more important than recharging that device on a soldier. Do not interfere. No matter what. Watch everything. I won't be awake for a while afterwards. I don't know how long. I always woke up in my room. The recharge won't start to work instantaneously so that gives you some time. But you won't have a lot of it. Sometimes … sometimes Janus comes. If he does you need to talk with him. Try and figure out what's going on and how we can stop these guys. But don't show him you're a threat in any way. We need to get out of here, and you need to get back to Atlantis so we can warn them."
"Warn them?" Ronon asked.
Sheppard looked at him steadily. "War is coming."
The door suddenly opened, and the four aliens returned, striding with purpose towards Sheppard, brushing Ronon and Teyla aside. Ronon's hand automatically went to his blaster, but Teyla stayed his arm.
"Wait!" she hissed. "Remember what he told us."
Ronon growled, every fiber of his being trembling with the desire to help Sheppard, but he backed down, melting into the shadows of the room with the Athosian.
Sheppard had backed away from the aliens, hands outstretched towards them, and then put up a fight Teyla and Ronon had never seen before. The man fought tooth and nail, but the aliens clearly had dealt with him before. He was quickly brought down as one of the aliens wrapped a thick strap around his wrists and forearms. They carried him kicking and struggling back to the box and laid him down on his side on the bed, facing Teyla and Ronon.
Teyla read the flashes of anger, pain and humiliation on his face as he looked at them, pinned under the hands of the aliens. But she could not look away to give him a moment of dignity. He had ordered them to watch so they knew how to work the device.
A third alien took a palm-sized object from the control panel near the box, pulled the neck of Sheppard's shirt down, and a high pitched whine emitted from the device.
Sheppard gasped and squeezed his eyes shut, renewing his fight under the alien's hands. A clawed hand twisted in dark hair, pressing his head and bound arms to the bed in an effort to still his struggles. Ronon tried surging forward again, every instinct screaming at him to help Sheppard. Again, he was stopped by a soft word and strong hand from Teyla.
After a moment, the sound from the device stopped, and the aliens stepped back. Sheppard lay still, gasping, then his eyes slid shut and his body went still. One of the aliens checked something on the control panel, then all four filed out, leaving Sheppard unconscious on the bed.
Ronon rushed forward as the door shut, taking a knife from his belt and slicing through the bonds on Sheppard's arms, turning him onto his back. There was no response from the man, and he checked his pulse, finding it still strong and steady.
"That's what we need," Ronon said angrily, gesturing at the control panel.
"Agreed."
Teyla stood at the control panel and tentatively touched the device she had seen the aliens handling. It was smooth and oval shaped and had no discernible buttons or controls. When she lifted it from its place, however, a soft voice from the shadows spoke suddenly.
"It is not your time yet."
Startled, Teyla leapt back, lifting her gun at the same time as Ronon.
A man stepped out of the shadows of the room, seemingly from nowhere, dressed in simple grey robes.
"Who are you?" Ronon demanded.
The man turned cool blue eyes on the Satedan.
"I am Janus."