A/N: The reviews have motivated me and candies to you all for them. Since everyone's been quite restless concerning John getting out of Harl's clutches, I decided to post this chapter extra early. But don't think it a regular thing since I still need to take it slow. The ending is continuing to give me trouble.

6

It was like a dance; a lovely, deadly little dance with no music, no pattern. All impromptu. John was good at impromptu, but Teyla was better. They circled each other like wolves over the scraps, prowling and fixated one on the other with muscles tense enough to rip themselves apart. Teyla kept her arms stiff, John kept his loose, but they were both wound tight enough to spring like a fanatic jack in the box.

" How much longer?" John asked. Teyla lunged, and sticks clacked with the reverberation of gunshots. Teyla was offensive, John defensive, and he blocked every strike until she backed off and resumed the circular prowl.

" That depends on you, Colonel."

She attacked again, and John defended, but her strikes were fast and brutal, driving him back when the blocks did not work and the sticks struck him in the ribs and face. He gasped, and when Teyla backed off again, spat blood. She looked at the stain of blood on the floor, and her face slackened as though the sight saddened her. She returned her gaze to John.

" You must try," she pleaded, and the plea was like a metal switch to the heart. John wiped his mouth with a trembling hand.

" I am."

Teyla attacked again, fast, vicious, grunting out battle cries. She got John in the flank again, the face, the back, and finally the leg. The pain was tenacious. It refused to abate or even tone down. She drove John back into the wall of the gym, striking faster, furiouser. John warded but the strikes got through. Finally, Teyla stepped back.

" I know you are," she said, panting, despair making her eyes shimmer.

John heaved breaths, and shivered with pain and blood tracing lines down his face and back.

She moved toward him, and he shrank back, gripping the sticks tight. She backed off, almost ashamed, it seemed, with her eyes cast to the floor.

Strength abandoned John and he slid down the wall to the floor. He shook his head. " I – I can't..."

Teyla's head shot up, and despair became desperation. " Colonel, you must. You can. You are stronger than this, far stronger. You cannot give in."

John couldn't stop shivering. He sighed, so weary that eternal rest sounded nice right about now. " How much longer?"

Teyla approached him and knelt before him. He twitched when she reached out her hand, and relaxed when she placed that hand on his head to stroke his hair. Her sorrow was painful to see, but her eyes held his, locked his gaze so he could never turn away.

" I do not know."

His heart sank. No, plummeted like a rock through thin air. There had to be an end. If there was a purpose, there was an end, a goal to reach, a task to achieve. there had to be, or why keep fighting?

John's whole body sagged in inexorable exhaustion. " I'm so tired, Teyla. I wanna sleep..."

Teyla smiled, and it was such a sad smile there seemed no point to its existence. " I know. But it can be fought. You are a fighter John. It is an instinct for you. Let it guide you. Let it save you. Let it bring you to the end, whatever end that might be. You always say, you would rather go down fighting."

John chuckled wearily. " Yeah, I do."

He gathered the small flecks of energy scattered about his body to congeal them into one center mass. Teyla rose and stepped back. John gripped the sticks, and lunged. The dance resumed, the offensive was John's.

It still hurt like hell.

SGA

Kace cracked his eye open to the twilight illumination of the prison, and smiled.

No time like the present. Tonight was the night. He probably could have pushed the time without incident, but he admitted to the fault of impatience, and he didn't know how well days old blood would work on the scanner lock.

The wonders of mind-reading turned potential kinks in the system to big, gaping chasms. The scanners did not read palm prints as the black-clad meat heads made it appear. They read biological structure, the teeny-tiny bits and pieces that formed the human structure – or something like that. Kace didn't care for the details, they didn't matter. What mattered was that there was more than one way to open the lock.

Kace rolled from his bed, turning to plant his feet firmly on the floor. He was feeling smug. He knew it was pushing fate, since irony was so eager to humble the prideful, but it was a hard emotion to push down. Thankfully, his overwhelming enthusiasm was not so tricky to temper. He crept across the floor to the huddle figure on the bed.

More pushing fate. If he did this wrong, then he and Sheppard would be in a fix. Kace wasn't up on the idea of having to break Sheppard's neck if the wild man attacked, but if Sheppard's waking was a feral one involving slender fingers squeezing the life out of Kace, then he'd have no choice. Kace positioned himself into a ready crouch with thigh and calf muscles tense. He slowly reached out, jabbed his finger hard into Sheppard's back, then scuttled back a ways.

Sheppard moaned, shifted, but stayed sleeping. Kace scowled, scuttled forward, poked harder, scuttled back. This time he got nothing. Kace began grinding his teeth.

" Shep. Hey Shep!" he hissed. No response, no movement, time to up things. Kace moved forward. " Shep!" and smacked Sheppard across the back of the head.

The reaction was immediate. Sheppard gasped and bolted upright with Kace bolting back. Sheppard's eyes were animal mad as they darted about the darkened cell, chest heaving with wild pants.

Kace grinned, and inched forward still folded in a crouch. " Easy friend Shep, easy there. It's all right. It's just me, your pal Kace."

Sheppard's eyes lock incomprehensibly on Kace. As Kace neared, Sheppard shrank back. Kace rose just a little in order to hold his hands out before him.

" It's okay Shep. I'm not going to hurt you." He stopped four feet from Sheppard's bed. " It's all right. You're all right. Now, I need you to listen to me. Are you listening? Do you hear me? Because this is really important."

Kace felt John's inner turmoil like a twister in his brain, but he'd been sensing that the day he met the man. It increased as John tried to puzzle the current situation out. After several agonizingly long minutes of battling his own brain, Sheppard finally, hesitatingly, nodded.

Kace breathed out a relieved sigh. " Good, good Shep. Keep paying attention, all right? I think you're gonna like this. You wanna get out of this place? Want the pain to stop, and the bad man to leave you alone?"

No brainer there. Sheppard immediately nodded, and his head twitched.

Kace grinned. " Wonderful, because today's your lucky day. You get what you want. You see, I don't want to stick around here either, Shep. What say you come with me, huh? You stick close, I get you out of here. Of course, we have to make a few stops along the way, but no big matter." Kace tapped his own skull with one finger. " Got all we need to avoid our mutual enemies right up here. You stick with me, you're home free. Know what I mean? Freedom?"

Even in the wan light, Kace saw Sheppard's eye light up like miniature suns, pooling with tears of desperation. He moved his head in a jerky nod.

" Fly," Sheppard croaked so quietly that Kace barely heard it.

" Yeah, exactly. Fly out of here. Flee. And all you gotta do is stick close, and I swear I won't let anything happen to you. Sound good?"

Sheppard nodded.

" You up for it?"

Sheppard nodded again. No matter his injuries, Kace could sense the chemical conflagration that would give the man the energy he needed to do this. " Right, good. Just remember to stay close, keep quiet, and do exactly as I say."

Another nod.

To test how good a listener Sheppard was, Kace moved toward the cell door. John slid from his own bed into a crouch and followed. Mission one accomplished. On to mission two.

Kace pulled the bloody cloth from his pocket, and sucked in a sharp breath while muttering a silent prayer to the Ancestors. " Here's to fortune and faith," he said. He slipped his arm between the bars and pressed the bloodied side of the cloth to the scanner. He waited, and waited, and waited...

A beep, a thunk, and the door moaned open an inch. Kace winced at the sound and gritted his teeth to stifle a cry of triumph. He looked back at an expectant Sheppard to give him a massive smirk.

" Freedom, little friend. Step one."

Kace turned back to the cell door. With a caution that made his hands tremble, he eased the door open enough for him to slip through, and held it as Sheppard ghosted him. Once out, Kace released the door that remained in the same position. Sheppard crouched beside Kace, patient as a loyal pet. Kace held up a finger.

" Give me a moment." He expanded his mind to encompass the entire prison, just enough to get a general impression of the current states of minds. All incoherent and rambling. The prisoners were asleep, but some lighter than others. They would have to move fast.

" Stay in the center of the hall," Kace whispered. He rose, just a little, up enough to move fast, while low enough to be a little less conspicuous. Sheppard mimicked his every move. They hurried down the corridor and crouched on reaching the prison door. Kace pressed the cloth to it, minutes passed, and the lock made a tiny beep. The familiar thunk sounded that made Kace grimace. No time to lose, it was a hard sound not to hear. He inched the door open, again enough to squeeze his body through while keeping the rusty hinges from crying out. Kace slipped passed the barrier, Sheppard following with more ease. Again, Kace left the door as it was, and the two straightened to hurry up the stairs.

Again, another canyon like flaw was the fact that the prison keeper relied too much on the scanner locks. The portly man's snores carrying from his little niche at the bottom of the stairwell stayed with Kace and John until they were on the other side of the door at the top of the stairs. A wraith sucking the fat man dry wouldn't have wakened him, not from that drunken stupor.

The grandiose halls of the Chief Judge's mansion were patched and angled sharply in black and dark blue. Kace cast his mind about, sensing presences. A few upstairs, several in the room across the hall, none in the immediate area. They were good to go.

Kace kept to the wall, John followed. Up the short flight of stairs, passed the room with all the alien gadgets to stop at the next chamber beyond. Mental imagery snatched here and there had aided Kace in forming a kind of mental map. This room was Harl's private study, and it was usually the private places of the rich where all the best collections were kept. Kace wrapped his fingers around the brass handle and pulled the door open wide enough for the two to slip through.

The massive window across the room spilled snowy-white moonlight over everything, sharpening objects with shadow and silver blue. Kace licked his lips.

Glass cupboards and open shelves covered the walls, and light sparked off all the shiny pretties cluttering every shelf whenever Kace moved. His fingers twitched to take the larger objects, but common sense had him noting the smaller, easier to pocket trinkets. Crystal candle sticks, boxes of precious metals inlaid with more crystals every color of the rainbow, antique items from long dead civilizations, and more of those alien devices, a few blinking to life whenever he moved near with Sheppard keeping close behind. Kace ran his fingers across the edge of the open shelves, and gingerly touched the glass of a cupboard.

" My friend Shep." He looked back at the skinny man, and grinned. " Say hello to the high life."

Sheppard blinked at him, then looked at the objects, growing nervous at the blinking alien gizmos that were such a bane to his life. Kace's grin softened to a smile of sympathy. It was a mighty big temptation to grab some of the devices and use gentle coaxing and kindness to get Sheppard to do what Harl couldn't. Harl's impatience, fear, and putting his need for self preservation above all else had been his undoing. Kace had caught Harl's worries – saw his plots and plans. The chief Commander wanted results on activation of the devices – immediate results. Had Harl not let paranoia get the better of him – have him jumping to cruelty and torture – he could have earned Sheppard's trust...

Or maybe not. Kace couldn't be certain. There was something more, a reason why pain was utilized rather than civility, and also why even in his warped state Sheppard still managed to scrounge up the resolve not to reveal what the shiny gizmos could do.

Besides, Kace had his own setbacks. Number one, there was no saying what these items were capable of, and activating a weapon while it was being pointed in the wrong direction was good incentive not to activate it at all. Number two, it would make Kace no better than Harl or Gorek. And number three, it wasn't a necessity. Better to buy known weapons with what he stole then mess with the unknown.

Kace reached out his hand and placed it lightly enough on Sheppard's shoulders to only produce a flinch rather than have him pulling away. Kace didn't let the hand linger. Bad time to be pushing fate.

" Relax, friend Shep. We won't be taking any of those what's-its."

Sheppard relaxed, but didn't take his eyes from the device.

Kace glanced around until his gaze landed on an ornate rug made of the shimmering thread that was so rare, spread out before Harl's desk. The rug was medium size, thin, but Kace knew the threads to be strong. It was why they were so coveted. That rug could last a thousand years before ever getting a single fray. Kace hurried over to it and dragged it over to the shelves. Small items, such as rings and artifacts, he shoved into the hidden pockets inside his coat. The slightly larger palm-sized boxes and like-sized knick-knacks he set on the rug.

Sheppard followed him, watching curiously, nervously, anxiously. Kace flashed him a reassuring smile before peering into a slightly larger box and proceeding to remove the jewels there in. " See anything you like? Take it. This is free shopping, my friend. Anything a hand span or smaller is up for grabs."

Sheppard looked from him to the shelves. He stepped back, and reached up to pull two long, heavily carved sticks resting crossed on a stand on the top-most shelf. Not even close to being a hand-span. More like an arm span, maybe longer, tipped with a dark, burnished gold on one end, and some kind of rough leather on the other from what Kace could see. Sheppard didn't toss them onto the rug, just held them, one in each hand hanging loosely at his sides.

Kace looked at Sheppard, and Sheppard Kace.

Weapons. The word flashed through Sheppard's mind. Important weapons, ones that made Sheppard feel comfortable, safe, as though they had been his all along. Kace shrugged.

" Not exactly what I had in mind when I said take what you want. But weapons might not be a bad idea."

Kace moved along the shelves, then to a cupboard. He became the one to follow Sheppard's example, and took an ornate set of knives from a cupboard. One he tossed to Sheppard, the other he slipped into his belt. He moved quick on grabbing this and that, glancing over his shoulder, opening his mind wide to sense presences. When he felt one, he paused, and waited, but it grew distant when whoever it was turned down some hall or into some room. That was the only flaw to his telepathy; the need for visual contact for the deeper reads. Everything else was just heightened empathy.

Again, not a good time to push fate. It was actually painful to pull away from the shelves still bursting with goodies. But the small pile on the rug satisfied his need. He could get a lot with that pile – better weapons, clothes, food, maybe even purchase some sort of space transport or a list of ring symbols to one of those paradise worlds he'd heard rumor about (if they were more than just rumor). Kace took the corners of the rug and pulled them up to form a sack that he lifted and slung softly over his shoulder, keeping the items from clattering. Kace looked back at Sheppard.

" Let's go."

Sheppard nodded. They slipped out of the room, continuing to keep to the walls, heading to the end of the corridor and turning right. Another corridor, only this one ending at the biggest – it seemed – of all the chambers, even more bursting with shiny trinkets, but all too large for Kace to risk carrying. Armor, for the most part, and larger weapons like staffs and spears. Vases, bowls, pictures, mirrors, and more odd antiques – Harl knew how to throw his riches around. The vases could have fetched a price capable of feeding ten families for ten years.

The bigger divide between rich and poor was technology. As folks outside these walls made their living scratching through dirt in an effort to urge vegetables to grow, Harl's act of 'work' was to spout out judgment without trial. Technology did the rest for him; holding the prisoners and safe-guarding the house.

As Kace always liked to tell a few of his old buddies – it paid to be rich. In Kace's case, rich wasn't the goal. Taking what he needed to obtain what he really needed was the purpose. Ammo, weapons, food – means of survival. And the rich provided it. Plus it gave him something to do.

Kace headed to the other end of the room and the door there leading into the kitchen. He pulled the bloody cloth from his pocket and slapped it on the scanner. A beep then click. Kace hauled the door open and the two entered the massive kitchen with its ten stoves and tables. The exit to freedom was on the other side. Kace slowed, and scanned the area beyond. Presences, but not close enough to worry about. He pressed the cloth to the scanner, the thing beeped, and the door clicked open.

The two men stepped into the moist night with their breath misting in the air. Kace sucked in that air until his lungs felt scrubbed clean of urine stench.

" Oh yeah! Smell that Shep? If freedom had a scent, this would be it. Breathe it in, friend. Breathe it in deep."

He looked back at Sheppard. The skinny man was studying his surroundings with anxious confusion, and he was shivering. Kace sensed the beginnings of relief, but it was as though Sheppard were treading toward it warily, like one approaching an animal they didn't want to spook. Smart man. Don't start jumping up and down in joy until freedom was a certainty. They weren't out of this yet, not until they were through the ring where Harl could never find them.

There was more, though. The confusion was tapering toward fear. Kace knew that the moment he had decided to bring Sheppard along that there would be no immediate parting once out of that den of debauchery. With Sheppard's brain shot to the nether world, he wouldn't be able to survive on his own. Fortune for him, his friends were somewhere around – hopefully, considering if they hadn't already gone back to their own world.

There could be a reward involved for returning Sheppard to them. Good incentive to seek them out. That and the good night's sleep knowing that Kace hadn't simply abandoned Sheppard. Kace wasn't keen on having partners – he enjoyed solitude too much for that - but neither was he as heartless as he tried to make himself out as being.

Kace jerked his head to the left. " This way," he said. Like with inside, they kept to the walls and the shadows they created, and Kace opened his mind to the presences patrolling the grounds. When they came to the to where the wall turned, Kace stopped, crouched, and waited as the presence on the other side moved away. His eyes were on the forest across the open grounds. He pulled his gaze away to peer around the corner. The guard taking this section wasn't in sight. Time to move.

" Run, Shep," Kace hissed. He started the race, but Sheppard being unhindered by a rug full of trinkets eventually took the lead, slowing enough to stick by Kace. They tore across the grounds for the darkness of the forest, the cold air biting their faces and lungs. Sheppard stumbled, wheezing, but caught himself before falling.

" Keep it up Shep!" Kace hissed again.

A bellowing shout snapped through the silence like a shot. " Hey!"

Kace didn't need to chance a glance over his shoulder. He could feel the guard's presence closing in fast blazing with rage and panic.

" Move it, Shep!" Kace cried. Redundant words with Sheppard, even weak as he was, several steps ahead, fueled by the fiery chemical of fear. Fortune wasn't smiling on Kace, and was forcing him to make a choice. Loose the goods or get overtaken by the guard. Fate made the decision when he stumbled and tripped. The clatter of trinkets drew Sheppard's attention. He glanced back, slowed, and whirled to race back to Kace. Behind Kace, the guard was close enough for him to hear the thump and crunch of pounding footfalls. Kace tried to scramble to his feet which kept slipping from him on the wet grass.

" Blast!" he cursed, slipping, scrambling, clawing the dirt, and slipping again. That's when Shep reached him at the same time as the guard. Kace twisted enough to see Sheppard strike the guard across the face with one of the sticks. The guard lurched sideways, righted, and pulled a gun from his holster that Sheppard swiftly knocked from his hands with the second stick while simultaneously whipping another strike to the face with the first. The man stumbled back, Sheppard stalked forward, and dropped into a crouch to swing the first stick and knock the guard from his feet onto his back.

Without hesitation, Sheppard rose, moved forward a little, twirled the sticks, and whacked the guard unconscious with both. Dispatching the guard barely registered on Sheppard's emotional wave. He was completely blank, and the only result of his exertion was his heavy panting and trembling arms. He transferred his right stick into his left hand to reach down to Kace. Kace gave Sheppard a look of momentary bewilderment, then finally took the offered hand. He nearly pulled Sheppard down hauling himself back to his feet. Kace slapped his hands together, ridding them of grass, and picked up his sack of goodies to sling back over his shoulder.

Kace regarded Sheppard with a mix of wonder and incredulity, then clasped the man's bony shoulder and smiled.

" You're a weird one, friend Shep. Makes me glad I'm obviously on your good side."

The lack of emotion was gone. Fear had wormed its way back in, stronger than before, hand in hand with more confusion as though Sheppard had just woken up in a strange place. He looked down at the sticks, then at Kace, asking without speaking concerning what had just happened.

Kace could only shrug. " You saved my butt, friend. Let's just leave it at that and get out while we still can."

He clasped Sheppard's shoulder again to give him a little shove forward. Sheppard moved, only to falter two steps in so that Kace had to grab his arm. He kept hold of that arm when Sheppard's exhaustion hit Kace like a wave. The skinny man was shaking bad now, his legs even more so. He practically half-dragged Sheppard to the safety of the trees where they finally slowed, and Kace let Sheppard lean against him.

" Town's not that far," Kace said. " Then we can rest."

Sheppard nodded numbly.

SGA

A/N: If you're thinking to yourself " how could Sheppard fight so well if he's so weak?" then you forget the wonders of adrenaline.

And, yes, I know you wanted the team to be the ones to rescue Sheppard, but don't count their involvement out yet.