I've been here before…

A.T. R.T. 15:40

John, now feeling a little useless and very frustrated at his inability to do anything, was watching the bombardment of the shield. Each shot made it flash brightly and he was certain the air was getting warmer beneath it.

Rodney came out from the control room and looked up at the shield.

"How long?" John asked.

''Not long. We'll start getting holes soon and if they've got the shields, I'm willing to bet they've got the transporters as well. We can probably expect beam-ins any time now."

"I'd better get the teams together." John yawned; the Chair seemed to have sapped all his energy.

Right on cue, they were summoned to the control room.

"We have a hole in the shield." Elizabeth said by way of a greeting. "We have already detected teams in the east pier."

"Right, I'll get a team out there right away." John made to go, obviously intending to lead it himself.

"John, you need to rest for a while. You're exhausted." Elizabeth began.

He just looked at her, in one glance conveying complete disagreement with everything she had said.

As she saw there was no way he was going to change his mind, she settled with saying, "Be safe, John."

He nodded absently and then jogged off to catch up with his team.

Once he had managed to catch up with them, he led the team towards the east pier. All the lights were out as the power was being diverted to support the failing shield. These areas were a maze as it was, and, in the dark, only the life-signs detectors allowed them to find the invaders.

They met the Genii troops in one of the empty storerooms the new Atlantians had no use for. It was a cavernous room, with a scattering of rubble and old packing cases providing the only cover.

The ensuing fire fight rapidly became a stalemate. The Genii kept trying to circle around, but the life-signs detectors stopped them getting anywhere unseen. However the Atlantians didn't have the numbers to do any more than hold off the larger Genii force.

A loud crash overhead heralded another bolt hitting the shield above them. Ahead of them, John could see the Genii wearing a command uniform talking into a communications device.

Behind the Atlantians, a bright flash deposited a second Genii team. John, seeing he had no route to victory, decided to go for a desperate, last-ditch manoeuvre.

With a roar, he ran out at the smaller group. The remnants of his team followed him in a ragged charge. Their desperate momentum caught the Genii by surprise and John's team dropped three quarters of their enemy before they realised what had happened. However, once they had got themselves together, they easily cut down the Atlantians.

The group, augmented by a third team, then made their way to the gate room.

A.T. R.T. 16:15

Rodney, overseeing the internal sensors, had already seen the falling of John's team, and was now watching the progress of the Genii teams. A second had beamed into the west pier, and both groups were heading towards the gate room.

He was doing his best to make their journey as hard as possible. He kept closing doors as soon as they approached and was directing them on the longest route possible.

Unfortunately, they appeared to be becoming annoyed with the constant diversions and seemed to have explosives with them. That was more than likely to be the C4 they had been given. Therefore, a particularly perverse feeling Rodney activated the fire-control systems and that appeared to slow their progress. In his own way, Rodney was getting his revenge.

Despite Rodney's best efforts, the teams were still converging on the gate room fairly quickly. The team who had faced John arrived first and the gate room defence teams were soon occupied with holding them off.

Contrary to John's orders, Teyla had been left with Rodney, and so together they watched the second Genii group approach on the internal sensors. When they arrived, they would surround the already hard pushed defence team.

Without a word, Rodney locked down the controls and grabbed the gun he had laid on the side. Both were armed with pistols as the defence teams had taken all the automatic weapons.

Teyla handed Rodney what he first thought was a standard issue knife. However, as soon as he took it, he noticed a significant difference. He looked at it questioningly.

"It was my father's. He always said it kept him safe from the Wraith. I hope it will keep you safe as well."

With that, Teyla moved off to the second entrance and Rodney followed, slightly stunned by the gesture.

They met the Genii team just outside the gate room. By some miracle they managed to drop the majority of the troops with their guns and a well aimed grenade Rodney had acquired from somewhere. Now they were only outnumbered three to one, but they also had no ammunition left.

When the shots from the Atlantians fell quiet and there had been a few moments of silence, the remaining Genii cautiously moved forwards. At the door to the gate room, both Teyla and Rodney lay sprawled, blood spreading across their chest from what appeared to be Genii gun wounds.

One of the soldiers roughly kicked Rodney in the side and he rolled over, half on top of Teyla. When neither so much as twitched, the team moved on into the gate room.

Two men dropped as they crossed the bodies, or where they had been. Two more turned to face Rodney, and were cut down from behind by Teyla, and received a hard boot kick to the head.

The remaining men held them off with their guns. As one tried to disarm them, Rodney dropped him with a lucky punch that a boxer would have been proud of. His knife skittered across the floor.

In response, the last man caught him on the side of his head with his gun and Rodney dropped like a stone. Thinking he was dead, Teyla dived at the man with her knife, but he responded faster and she sank to the floor next to Rodney with a real gun wound on her chest.

Rodney, eyes closed and breath held, could feel her blood soaking into his shirt, but remained still until the trooper walked off. He appeared to be the only one left, but Rodney was in no condition to stand, let alone fight.

He listened as hard as he could to what was going on around him.

"I have secured the city. There are no more defence troops, but I require reinforcements. It appears Dr Weir has barricaded herself in her office, and we have no explosives left to get in." Said the soldier, presumably on a communications device.

"What do you mean I?" Answered someone.

"I am the last of our troops who can fight. The Atlantians put up a good defence." He added grudgingly.

"Very well. The General wants to deal with Weir himself. Ensure she stays in her office."

"Aye sir." Rodney heard the trooper move off, presumably to stand guard.

A bright flash penetrated Rodney's closed eyelid, and he heard more people moving around. Someone moved towards him.

"What shall we do with the bodies?" He asked.

"Remove our fallen friends. Move the rest to where Weir can see them. We'll deal with them later."

Rodney felt himself being dragged across the floor and dropped irreverently next to a still slightly warm body.

From Elizabeth's office, he heard a crash as the Genii finally broke down her barricade. He risked a glance at the room and saw the self-destruct screen reflecting in the window. Two minutes. He didn't even know it had been started.

"You will deactivate the self-destruct or join your friends down by the gate."

"I will never surrender this city to you." Replied Elizabeth coldly.

Suddenly, a gun shot, a human gun, echoed around the room, quickly followed by three more. Then in the ensuing silence, a single Genii gun discharged. Rodney heard a crash from the window and a dull thump on the floor.

"No, leave them. They shouldn't have been stupid enough to let her get a gun. Shut that self-destruct off."

The tone that signalled 30 seconds left sounded.

"I can't. She's destroyed the computer."

Rodney smiled. Elizabeth had definitely gone down in style.

"Get everyone out of here."

"This part of the Shield's still intact enough to block us beaming out."

Beep. Five seconds. Beep. Four. Beep. Beep. Be...

The last second stretched into an eternity. He was suddenly engulfed in a bright light and he could no longer hear the sounds of the troops running to escape. A sense of extremely fast movement did nothing for his head, which had just begun to clear, and he blacked out.

…ep.

The nuclear bomb that was the Atlantian self-destruct mechanism detonated. Combined with the fuel in the generators still powering the city, the explosion vaporised the entire city and most of the water it lay upon. A quirk of the shield, before it finally collapsed, directed the last of the energy straight up at the cruiser. In its final moments, the city took out its last enemy.