DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from 'Stargate: Atlantis'. They're not my property.

The next morning, Elizabeth arrived at the ancient remains of Ephesus. As it was usual for this time of the year, the place was filled with tourists. Truth be told, Elizabeth sometimes found them to be a nuisance, but other times she was very aware of the needed revenue that came from them and… what use would their work be if it couldn't be shared, in one way or another, with the world? Still, their presence right now here appeared irritating. She was led by a female employee to a small steel gate that had a white sign with "Keep Out" written in both Turkish and English. After the gate she saw a handful of people scattered across a dusty area that looked to have once been a hall. Further up, the flatness was interrupted by a flight of stone steps that were – either accidentally or deliberately – broken apart with a gap in the middle that was the size of a dinner table. From where Elizabeth stood, she could only see someone standing at the opening with a cap and shouting something for the person on the other side to hear them. She smiled and approached the man with his large glasses and floppy hair. "To this day I haven't been able to figure out why you keep that long hair of yours," she said.

The young man turned his face to see a woman in black shorts, red t-shirt and a black shirt that kept waving weakly in the faint wind. Once the woman removed her sunglasses from her eyes before pushing them over her head, he was left standing there for the first couple of seconds. "Elizabeth!" he exclaimed.

She chuckled as the man hurried over to her, giving her a warm, welcoming hug. "Hey, Freddie."

"Didn't think you'd get here that fast," he told her.

"Oh, well, you know me, always eager to discover something that no one has seen in centuries."

Freddie nodded with his hands on his waist. "I'm glad you came," he said. "Oh!" he then rubbed his hands apologetically, removing some of the dust. "I take it you ate or whatever before coming here."

"Yes, and I can't wait to see them," she said, referring to the writings. Freddie was never really the casual-chat person, preferring to get straight to work instead.

"Okay, good. This way," he said and motioned for her to follow him. They reached the dark opening from where Elizabeth could see a dusty slope and, thanks to a few persistent rays of the sun, a man's face and some hands at the other end. Freddie then shouted something in Turkish to the man on the other side. "Watch your step," he told Elizabeth before slowly descending down.

Managing to slide more than walk down the slope, Elizabeth saw an older man standing next to four, perfectly vertical pillars. She was handed a flashlight by Mustafa – one of the archeologists working here. The white light began to perform a quick scan of the entrance she saw on those photographs. Her heart began racing as her eyes moved over the door and writings. "Wow…" she whispered, "I never thought I would see this again…" she said.

"Again?" Freddie looked at her.

"In person, I mean," she added quickly.

"Oh."

Her light stopped at the closed door as she tried to take an unnoticeable breath of amazement and allow her heart to settle. "Couldn't find a way to open the gate?"

Freddie sighed. "No. I hoped it would mention something in these writings," he gestured towards them, "but nothing."

I'm not surprised…, a voice deep inside her was heard. Elizabeth approached the red rocks that made the chamber. Looking at the ages-old surface, Elizabeth then slowly placed her hand on the door. She wished to open it now. But how could she? It was impossible at this moment, for many reasons that she didn't even know. Quickly, she removed her hand and spun around. "Did you find something else in the meantime?" Elizabeth asked her friend.

"No," Freddie replied.

"Okay." She sighed and gave another look at the door. It was waiting there, on the other side… Just waiting.

John took a sip of the hot tea. "Nefis," he said.

"Teşekkür ederim," Fulya replied. Her dark eyes watched him happily with a soft smile on her face. Her dark brown hair fell elegantly on her shoulders that carried a bright green dress that almost covered her bare feet. "Onur birazdan burada olacağını söyledi," she then added.

"Önemli değil, sizinle tatilinizden bir hafta önce karşilaşmayi beklemiyordum," John told her.

"Sana kızkardeşini ziyarete Kanada'ya gideceğimizi söylememiş miydi? "

"Onunla en son kasımın ortalarında görüşmüştük."

"Ah, evet,… sen bir yerden diğerine sürekli yer değiştirirken bir şekilde iletişimde bulunmanin ne kadar zor olduğu ile ilgili birşeyler söylemişti," she replied and giggled. For a woman of 48, Fulya had a rather girlish laugh.

John smiled and put the small tea glass on the short table.

"Ama ben onu aradığımda çok heyecanlandı."

"Güzel, ziyaretimin birisini memnun ettiğini duyduğuma sevindim."

"Hey!" Fulya hit him gently on his arm with a grin to which John laughed. "Yakin arkadaşlarımızın ziyareti bizi hep memnun eder, sen de biliyorsun bunu! Hatta beklenmedik olsalar bile. "

"Evet, biliyorum. Sadece şaka yapıyordum, Fulya."

Fulya giggled again and shook her head. "Selçuk'ta ne kadar kalacaksın?"

"Belki birkaç gün."

"Türkiye artik senin için eskisi kadar eğlenceli değil mi ne?"

"Zamanım kısıtlı," he replied.

"Ne zamandır John Sheppard süre için tasalanıyor? " a rough male voice interrupted the quietness in the room.

"Onur!" John laughed.

Onur, a somewhat chubby man with a thick mustache and warm green eyes came in the living room to greet his friend. The two men sat down again and talked about recent and more distant happenings in their lives. A particularly favorite subject for Onur had been his three children and how well they did in school. "Vedat," he said of his older son, "Bir gün bizim ülkeye başbakan olursa hiç şaşırmam"

Fulya simply smiled and tapped his hand gently. "Çocuklarla övünmeye bayılır."

"Eh, gurur duyacak böyle harika çocukları varken onu kim suçlayabilir ki? " John replied. He wished his own father had been more supportive like that during his childhood.

The conversation went on, shifting to archeology. "Ah, Efes." Fulya nodded. "Evet, Müesser geçen hafta orada birşey bulduklarını söyledi." Their daughter had been part of the team that worked on the site.

"Neydi?" John asked.

"Bir çeşit mezar olduğunu düşünüyorlar." Onur replied. "Ama 3,000 yıldan daha eski olabileceğine dair söylentiler dolaşıyor ortada. "

John whistled to this. "Vay be.Başka ne dediler hakkında?"

"Duvardaki yazıların da yabancı bir çeşit olduğunu söylüyorlardı. Daha once Türkiye'nin hiçbir yerinde böyle bir şeye rastlanmamış. "

"Şurası kesin ki," Fulya said with a sigh, "orası daha da fazla turist çekecek." She looked at her watch and then excused herself to go and prepare dinner.

By the time dinner was served, the young woman with her father's eyes and curly brown hair had joined them at the table. The conversation between her and John began in Turkish but soon switched to English on Müesser's request. She needed the practice, as she later added.

"So you don't know the origin?" John asked casually. Archeology still hadn't interested him much but it was a good way to make a conversation with the enthusiastic young woman. That interest though soon increased when Müesser told him that a Canadian archeologist by the name of Elizabeth Weir had joined them. "She translated most of the writings," she said.

"When did she come?" he asked.

"Um, two days ago, I think." She put her fork down after the last piece of the meal had been eaten. "Do you know her?"

"Yes, she's a, uh, a friend of mine," John replied and smiled. "Can I maybe take a look at where you found this tomb?"

"Oh, no, now we think it could be an entire temple!" she sounded excited.

"O-kay… the temple then."

"I suppose it would be alright," Müesser reluctantly agreed.

"Good. By the way, your English is great," John told her.

She smiled to this like her mother. "Thanks. Dr. Weir told me the same thing."

In the brass bowl filled with fresh water, she gently washed away the blood from the stained blade of the dagger. She could feel the presence of someone standing in the middle of the three short steps which separated the bedroom from the other chambers. The tame snarl of the feline only confirmed for her who it might have been. "I already said I needed to be alone, Gord," she spoke as she rinsed the blade.

"Maybe for another time," his voice, in which she recognized concern, was heard.

She took a gray towel and wiped the blade. "If only they allowed at least one Protector to accompany them, this would not have happened." She then stabbed the wall once with the dagger, leaving it there before walking over the white silk curtains that hid the night sky from her.

"Your mother told me they wished to be alone."

"Ludicrous. Both she and my father knew that it is dangerous for citizens of this city to venture beyond its walls without such protection." She rubbed her left arm as her feeling of grief was beginning to get a stronger hold on her outward calmness. The steps she heard told her he came closer to her.

"They had known a small path since children of which none of the other tribes were aware of. This had not been their first stroll there."

A deep sigh escaped her as she could feel the tears building up in front of her eyes. "Ungrateful creatures!" she hissed. "After centuries of providing solutions for their primitive minds and preventing them from slaughtering each other, they continue to display their savageness towards us." She could see his shadow next to her. "I wish to be alone," she told him.

"No, not this time," he told her and wrapped his arms around her. The feel of this embrace crumbled those calm walls of hers and she finally gave in to her grief, releasing her tears. The young woman collapsed in his arms.

Elizabeth woke up with a heavy stone on her heart and a heavy tear on her right cheek. The pain…

The next day, John almost tripped over a shovel on the ground as he and Müesser made their way to the entrance behind the ruptured stone steps. He noticed a hand waving between the steps before a woman quickly came out. John smiled when he noticed that familiar face. "Hello there!"

Elizabeth looked his way and grinned at the site of her friend. "Imagine you here," she said and needed to take only one step forward to be in close proximity to him. Smiles and quick glances were exchanged before an embrace followed. Without a word, Müesser quietly distanced herself from the two and hurried to her work.

"Well, something's changed about you," she said. Elizabeth brushed his smooth cheek quickly with the back of her hand. "Almost didn't recognize you without your beard."

"Apparently I look better without it, I was told," he replied.

"There is some truth to it." She hadn't seen this man in five months but it felt so much longer for her. "What brings you here?"

"Ah, I was looking at a map on the train to Xian and remembered I haven't been here in a few years."

"And…you decided to just hop on a plane to Turkey."

"Yup."

"Very spontaneous of you," she remarked.

John laughed. "It works."

"How did you manage to –"

"Müesser," he replied.

"You know each other?"

"I'm a friend of the family."

"I see," Elizabeth managed to conceal a smirk.

"And this…" he pointed to the entrance, "Is ancient Krolevian?" John asked.

Elizabeth took a deep breath. "Yes," she replied and turned toward the entrance for a moment. "By the writings anyway. The design is…" she shook her head. "Somewhat strange, not characteristic for them."

"Oh. Can I take a look at it?"

A sudden smile stretched across her face and her eyes, if they could glow, they would to this. John found this a bit strange. "Yes!" she exclaimed. After descending down, he was shown the sealed chamber. Observing it, he also noticed Elizabeth's curious look toward him. "What?" he asked.

"What do you think?" she responded with another question.

"I, uh…" John looked back at the entrance and its surroundings. "I don't remember anything like this back in the City… but then, I find the existence of an ancient Krolevian… building outside of Delonia even stranger."

"Mm…" she quietly agreed and returned her gaze to the chamber much to John's relief. The way she kept observing him whilst he scanned the find made him slightly uncomfortable.

"What do the writings say?" He pointed to them and then shoved his hand back in his pocket again.

"It's a poem," she replied. To his look Elizabeth added, "We…I haven't been able to translate it entirely yet, but from what has already been translated, it talks about a man and a woman who venture into an unknown forest where they are met by a… dark wind that eventually snatches souls and makes them its prisoners. Though, the emphasis seems to be on the woman through the poem."

"Does it give a clue to what's inside?"

"It could be a tomb…"

"Müesser mentioned a temple as well?"

She shrugged.

"You've no idea what's inside then." He saw her shake her head. "Who's Freddie?" John suddenly asked.

"A colleague, friend. He's the reason I'm here."

"Freddie Jefferson?"

"Yes."

"Okay." He paused. "And you haven't found a way to open this thing?"

"Not yet. I was just going to go back to the hotel to go over some notes-"

"Dr. Weir!" someone shouted from above.

"Yes?"

"Dr. Jefferson has found something he wants to show you!"

"On our way!"

They returned on the surface and took a short walk on an ancient white-stone pathway that led them to a small red tent. Inside, they found Freddie with a cup of coffee going over photographs of the writings and their translations. Elizabeth made the quick introduction.

"Ah, you're John, yeah, Elizabeth mentioned you a few times."

"That's good to know," John smiled and glanced at his friend. "And what's that?" he asked about the manuscript.

"Oh this, it's, uh, a…I've been looking at some of the writings and…"

"What did you find?" Elizabeth asked.

"I think it might be some kind of a religious site!" he said with excitement.

Elizabeth stood quietly in her place, observing her colleague. "How did you come to that assumption?"

"Well, we know it talks about this forest and this dark wind that captures the woman's soul."

"You mean both their souls."

"No, only the woman's."

Elizabeth came to stand next to Freddie, her hands on the wooden table. "The emphasis is on the woman but it doesn't mention that only her soul is taken."

"It doesn't say that the man's has been taken as well either," Freddie told her.

John quickly interrupted as he sensed this might take longer. "When you say a religious site, could we be talking about a possible temple?" he asked the archeologists.

"Maybe. I mean, we speculated even earlier about such a thing, but after reading this, it seems more likely."

"That's too high of an expectation," Elizabeth said to that. "We don't know if it really is a temple yet, let's not go to such conclusions," Elizabeth replied.

"I wouldn't say –" Freddie began.

"It's not a temple," she replied calmly but firmly. Sudden silence overruled everything for a few moments in the tent.

"You almost sounded certain of that," John said.

"That's because we came nothing of that kind in the City itself."

John pulled his head back. "What about the o-"

"Nothing of that kind, John," she reminded him, now her look was more determined.

He stared at her longer, and would have continued to do so if Freddie didn't interrupt. John said nothing but looked back at Freddie throwing a suspicious glance Elizabeth's way at times.

"You didn't tell him about the temple we found in the City?" John asked as he and Elizabeth approached the exit of the city afterwards. Both archeologists continued to argue in their own way about the meaning of the writings to the point that John felt he would get a headache as a result even though he ended up being only a spectator on the side.

"No."

"And that's because…"

"It was destroyed."

John blinked. "But the remains?"

"There were none."

He grimaced to this before letting out a laugh. "What, it vanished?"

"All I was told is that nothing that could even remotely resemble an ancient Krolevian religious site was found."

"That doesn't sound right."

"No, it doesn't."

"You think they might not be telling everything?"

"It's possible, but… I don't think they would on this one. Besides, they seem to relish reminding me of what I had done to the City…" she spoke with a drop of sarcasm.

"And what's their opinion on what you found here?"

"They'll be sending a team to check it out here next week," she replied.

Amongst the ruins, a man and a woman sat before a long wall, examining it still. It had been one of the rare pieces which had managed to survive the destruction in the Bronze City five months earlier. A short-haired woman with thick glasses leaned closer to her colleague. "What did you find?" she whispered in the dusty room.

The older man had a red cap on as he gently brushed his hand over the smooth wall. "It seems their religious beliefs were stronger than we thought," he said. "Look at this," he pointed to the drawing of a sleeping person placed on a platform and surrounded by people. Above the man was a pale image, floating, waiting. "By the looks of this, and… well, it makes sense."

"What does?"

"This is the ending ritual, when his spirit has finally done his last farewell and he leaves the host." He got up and ran over to the other end of the wall. "If the person who died," his hand began gliding slowly over the images as he spoke, "if he had done something incredibly noble during his lifetime, something that helped his or her people… the heavens would grant his soul a… second chance."

The female archeologist stood up and approached him. She observed the representations. The pale ghost entered the body of another man. "A host? A live one?"

"Yes. Well, the host would be asleep, and this…by the way its described here," he pointed at the writings in red, "it would be a dream he would not remember," he replied.

She brought her face closer to the last sentence. "This was willingly done."

"Yes. Usually the host would be someone the family was fond of."

"It doesn't say how long the soul remains there…"

"No."

"A second chance for the diseased to say goodbye to the ones he loved…"

"Exactly."

Both stood there, continuing to observe the walls. "Remarkable," she added in the end.

Elizabeth felt exhausted when she returned to her hotel. She took a quick shower and then went to bed. She needed rest and only hoped she wouldn't oversleep and miss her meeting with John.

Her pale hands removed some of the black sand gently. They uncovered a white marble stone in the shape of triangle. Slowly they removed it to reveal a black entrance. "What could this be?" her voice asked. Suddenly something black with eyes too strange to be described emerged from the hole and with black teeth and no lips devoured her.

Elizabeth sat up on the bed with her heart beating out of control. Realizing where she was, in this familiar bed, with the sun setting outside, she then jumped out of the bed and grabbed her notebook. Writing down two pages of memories, she then closed it shut and kept it between her hands with her eyes closed as she took a deep breath. That moment, that one single moment had felt like her heart was being ripped from her chest. She felt helpless, used, afraid…. Slowly she opened her eyes and took a deep breath, so deep that she swallowed it. Elizabeth looked around the room. There was more to this… there had to be. She put the notebook down on the table and then went to the bathroom for another shower as she glanced at her wristwatch. John was waiting….