A/N: Phew! This is by far the longest chapter I've written, but it didn't seem right to split it into more than one, so here you are, enjoy!
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She had been wandering around for about three hours, and Elizabeth still had no idea where in the ruin she was, nor how close she was to the device or an exit of some sort. She was exhausted, dirty and hungry. Her ankle had only gotten worse the more she walked on it and her skull felt like it was splitting in two. Elizabeth was getting dangerously close to doing something she had never before considered: She was on the verge of giving up. As soon as the thought entered her head she angrily pushed it away. She wasn't a quitter, never had been and if she could help it, never would be.
Elizabeth pushed herself up from where she had been sitting, determined to press on until she found what she was looking for or collapsed from the strain.
She wobbled a little as she rose, and her feet were slightly unsteady as she once again began to walk down the hall. She unwrapped her second power bar and devoured it quickly, aware that she would need the energy. Her canteen was still about half-full, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would never make it to the Athosian village on her water supply, and the nearest water source wasn't too far from where they'd left the puddlejumper. But I have to try. I'm certainly not going to just curl up into a self-pitying ball and die.
Dr. Elizabeth Weir wasn't one to go down without a fight.
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A half an hour, three rights and six left turns later, Elizabeth felt herself shutting down and knew she had just about reached her self-imposed extreme of going until she dropped.
She stumbled over to the wall and clutched at it in a desperate attempt to stay upright, but it was to no avail. Her shaky legs gave out and she slid to the ground, breathing hard. Okay…maybe I'll just rest for a few seconds.
Elizabeth could feel her eyelids drooping shut and fought to keep them open. Sleep beckoned enticingly, and she wanted nothing more than to accept the invitation, but she had a terrifying feeling that to give in would be dangerous. She made one last valiant attempt to get up, but she could hardly lift her arm, let alone her whole body.
"Ariadne…" A haunting whisper echoed down the corridor.
Elizabeth's eyes widened, That name…
"Elizabeth…"
She was shocked, frightened, and terribly curious all at the same time. She suppressed a shiver as the ghostly entity repeated her name.
"What!" Elizabeth was aware that her voice was reaching the upper limits of its range, "What do you want from me! Who are you!"
Everything suddenly went silent, as though whoever or whatever was calling her had to stop and think about her inquiries.
A bright golden light suddenly flashed in the space in front of her, a sharp contrast to the dim glow cast by the torches; and Elizabeth had to shield her eyes against its unexpected intensity.
Just as quickly as it appeared, the light faded, and when Elizabeth opened her eyes she saw in shock that she was no longer in the twisting hallways she had spent the last few hours of her life in, but rather a spacious well-lit room with elaborate frescoes painted along the length of the walls and the ceiling. Looking closer, she could see that most of the images were of a beautiful young woman with long black hair and piercing rime-grey eyes.
In the largest of the pictures she was wielding what looked like a burning sword in one hand and holding an octagonal object in the other, in the next she was shown on her knees with tears pouring out of her eyes, and in another she was shown standing with a handsome man.
In the middle of the room was a large rectangular platform with square blocks raised to different heights making up its surface. The squares had ancient writing on them.
Elizabeth looked around her in wonder and bewilderment. She had no clue how she had been transported there, nor what her sudden arrival might portend.
"Elizabeth…"
She whirled around so quickly she almost fell over, and came face to face with a mirror image of the woman in the paintings. Well, she would have been a mirror image, except for the fact that the live version had her own personal backlighting.
"You're an ancient," Elizabeth breathed in awe, "An ascended ancient!"
The woman laughed, her distinctive grey eyes sparkling in amusement. "I guess I'll take that as a compliment."
"But…Who are you? What are you doing here? Why am I here? How do you know my name?" The questions tumbled out of Elizabeth's mouth before she could stop them.
The woman raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms in a way Elizabeth found eerily familiar. "My name is Ariadne."
Elizabeth's mouth dropped open in a way she was sure did nothing to convince the ancient of modern-day humans' intelligence.
Ariadne sighed and walked over to the large stone table and it immediately lit up. "As for why you are here…," she turned and smiled at Elizabeth, "You are here because I have allowed you to be."
Elizabeth blinked in confusion, "I'm not sure I understand."
The beautiful ancient started pushing the squares in a way that looked random, but must have been some sort of a code because the whole platform suddenly started glowing with a pulsating blue light. Tendrils of energy spiked from the squares and the writing shone a brilliant white as the platform blazed even brighter.
Elizabeth winced and stepped back but Ariadne seemed unaffected. The ancient was the epitome of serenity and grace as she coolly regarded the pulsating platform.
With a final burst of energy the light that the platform was exuding flickered and died. When Elizabeth's vision cleared she could see that Ariadne was holding something which on closer inspection appeared to be the octagonal object from the fresco.
"This is what you seek."
Ariadne sounded so sure that Elizabeth almost hesitated in questioning her. "What is it? How do you know what I'm looking for?"
The ancient gave her a look, "You are searching for the "guide to the stars" are you not? That is the only reason anyone would seek to enter the labyrinth."
Elizabeth looked from the object to Ariadne's face and then back again in surprise, "Well, we were hoping to find a navigational device, yes."
Ariadne smiled enigmatically, "Besides, I know much about you Elizabeth Weir. I know that though you live in a city full of people you feel alone. I know that you push yourself and work so hard so that you can keep the nightmares at bay. I know you have been hurt and betrayed, and I know that this device is not the only thing you are searching for."
Elizabeth looked at her for a long moment before something clicked in her brain, "You were in my tent last night!"
Ariadne inclined her head, "That is true."
Elizabeth was hit by a second revelation, "And the dream, that was you too wasn't it?"
The beautiful ancient nodded, her silver eyes boring into Elizabeth's green ones, "I was trying to send you a message."
Elizabeth was incredulous, "And you had to do that by giving me a nightmare!"
Ariadne shrugged, not looking the least bit sorry, "I did what I had to do to get my point across."
Elizabeth frowned and shook her head, "But I didn't even understand what you were trying to say."
The ancient seemed to look through her as she smiled, "In time you will understand."
Elizabeth bit her lip in frustration and crossed her arms, "Do you think you could be any more cryptic?"
Ariadne didn't even bat an eyelash, "Yes."
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows, An ancient with a sense of humor; interesting.
She huffed out a breath in exasperation, "Okay, so why did you put the device in here and not in some technologically advanced lockbox?"
The corner of the other woman's mouth twitched, "Like you, I am fascinated by other cultures. I spent much of my time with the original inhabitants of this world, wishing to learn how they lived."
Elizabeth stared in astonishment, "Original inhabitants?"
"Yes, they called this planet Hellas, and themselves the Hellenes."
"The Greeks," Elizabeth whispered to herself in wonder.
"They were great masters of stone, able to do things I would never have thought possible with such a rough material," Ariadne continued, "I quickly befriended them and because I admired their work so, they built this place for me when I needed it."
The ancient took a deep breath and laid a hand on the cool stone, "I found this design to be more suited to my tastes than anything of Lantean design." She turned and gave Elizabeth a sharp look, "And such a place would not be expected to hold something of such great power. When you do something that the enemy does not expect, it gives you the upper hand. There is no way anyone would be able to find this device using Lantean technology, something that would be possible in Atlantis."
"I don't understand; why would you need to hide this device? What does it do that makes it worth taking such measures?" Elizabeth furrowed her brow.
Ariadne waved her hand over the octagonal object and it unfolded until it was no longer spherical, but flat. A split second later it glowed with the same golden hue as the ancient herself and projected what appeared to be a map of the galaxy. Elizabeth had seen such a map once before, in the hologram room on Atlantis.
"Ex animo ad astra," the ancient's words resonated with power, and the device responded. All across the map, in a pattern that was apparently random, some of the tiny dots representing planets began to shine more fiercely than the rest. They became hot pinpoints of radiance, attaining a blue tinge. Then, one by one, those lights dimmed to their original luster until only three remained, three out of nearly a hundred.
The light in Ariadne's eyes seemed to fade a little more with the loss of each subsequent planet. She bowed her head, "I am sorry, even though I knew of the destruction of our cities, it hurts so much more when faced with a visual representation."
Elizabeth found herself in shock once again, "Those are Ancient cities? Like Atlantis?"
Ariadne nodded.
"But who would you need to hide their existence from? The other ancients would already know, wouldn't they?"
Ariadne half smiled, half sneered, "Not all of them. There was one…man among us who betrayed all we stood for. He would have sold everything everything, all of our technology, our information, our cities, to the highest bidder. The thing was, he didn't know where all of the Lantean cities were. That was why we…I hid the device." She paused and sighed, "But he discovered this place. I wasn't able to find another planet to hide the device on due to the arrival of the Wraith, so I did the only thing I could think of. I fortified this place using an experimental technology that only allowed certain people to enter, people who would hopefully be pure of heart, people who would understand me and what I had to do. Just for good measure, I had the Hellenes capture a legendary beast who roamed the hills behind their village, an immortal creature who was supposed to guard this place against all intruders."
"Your minotaur attacked me," Elizabeth pointed out, "And I was able to get in here using your technology."
Ariadne actually looked sheepish, "Indeed, and for that I am sorry. I originally enabled the device that transported you in here to leave a sort of an…afterglow of sorts, a technological marker that kept the minotaur from attacking. Unfortunately, I hadn't counted on the destructive forces of time. The device, as you have seen, still works, but the marker does not."
Elizabeth snorted, "Why didn't you stop it from attacking me? You knew it was going to kill me, but you did nothing!"
The ancient grimaced, "Unfortunately as one of the ascended I was unable to help you."
"But you're here now, giving me this device," Elizabeth countered, "How is this any different?"
Ariadne simply shrugged, "For some reason, this I was allowed to do. The others have not tried to stop me."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "That is so like the ancients."
Ariadne fixed her with a bemused look, "You sound so very much like your Colonel, you know."
Elizabeth glanced at her in surprise, "Joh…I mean, Colonel Sheppard?"
Ariadne grinned, "Yes, your John."
Elizabeth raised her hand in an attempt to counter the other woman "Oh no, no, he's not…"
Ariadne waved her protests away, "Please Elizabeth." She looked away for a brief moment and when she glanced back in Elizabeth's direction, she had tears in her eyes, "I know what you have gone through. The man I mentioned before, Theseus, the one who betrayed the rest of the Lanteans…"
Elizabeth's eyes widened, "Theseus? The Theseus of ancient mythology? The hero of Greece?" She gasped, "This…this is the origin of the legend?"
Ariadne glared at her, "He was no hero, and he was certainly no legend."
All of a sudden, Elizabeth understood, "You loved him."
"He was only interested in me because I had the device. When he realized I wouldn't give him the location of the other cities, he left me for my sister." Ariadne smiled wryly.
Elizabeth grimaced, her heart aching for the beautiful ancient. Ariadne glanced over at her, "Do not worry about me Elizabeth, and do not mourn for the one who left you. I can promise that there is another who you will cling to more tightly than the first, one who you love more than life itself and who loves you just as fiercely."
Elizabeth smiled, but her smile abruptly turned into a frown, "Wait, you said love and loves, as in the present tense…"
Ariadne laughed, "As I told you Elizabeth Weir, you will know in time."
She handed Elizabeth the navigational device, "Anyone with what you call the "ancient gene" will be able to use this." The ancient gave Elizabeth a warm squeeze on the shoulder, "Your friends are still outside, but we must act quickly to get you out of here. Your Colonel is about to do something…rather rash."
"But he's not my…" Elizabeth's protest was cut off as Ariadne suddenly transported them both out of the room.
It wasn't until she was no longer in the ancient's presence that she realized her weakness and exhaustion had all but disappeared and her pain had lessened while she was with Ariadne. It was a relief that faded as soon as the other woman left her, and one she dearly wished she could get back.
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