A/N: I made a few changes late last night to chapters 10 and 11. If haven't seen the changes yet, you may want to go back and re-read them before you read this chapter.

P.S. - I made a major overhaul to the dialogue in several chapters in response to feedback that the infected people seem too coherent. Now they don't talk much any more. Thanks for the suggestion, Alpha Pegasi, because I thought so too.

Radek didn't like having to work with pushy military men, and he considered for a moment whether or not he should still consider Lt. Denton pushy or if now he had simply crossed the line to obnoxious. He was in a bad enough mood as it was, what with the anger and frustration that gripped his mind in a terrible fury, but he was sure that having to put up with someone like Denton would eventually drive him mad. Since the infection had spread to him now, too, the Lieutenant had constantly been making an uncontrollable nuisance of himself.

Zelenka himself would have liked nothing more than to simply curl up in a dry corner of the platform in that dark room and stay there, but Denton was bent on keeping moving and had dragged him along. He simply didn't feel safe if he stayed in one place for any length of time. So Radek was forcibly prodded by Denton from room to room, opening locked doors and sealed corridors for their passage to their next hiding place, as well as stalking careless members of search teams, of which they had only captured two. That was until Denton had managed to locate a cache of explosives that Dr. Weir had tried to hide from them.

Pocketing as much C4 as they could carry, he had dragged Radek along with him to find yet another safe haven from the search parties. But before they could find yet another empty room that was more to his liking, they halted with a growing sense of paranoia as the power was restored in the section they were wandering through, which wasn't far from the control room. Rodney had done his best to limit the city's power reserves, but it wasn't quite enough. If power was being re-routed, they could be running forever with every search party in Atlantis on their heels. That was when Denton had come up with the idea of invading the control room and disabling the life-sensors before the ones looking for them could track them down, and had dragged him back through the watery bowels of the city to solicit Rodney and Carson to his cause.

Denton was insistent, unwilling to give in. Radek wanted to stay behind, but was not permitted to.

Rodney had just returned with a 'new recruit' of his own. He reluctantly allowed himself to be dragged with Dr. Zelenka out the door, and they immediately leapt into a full sprint heading directly to the control room. The run was uneventful, testifying to the fact that the city's inhabitants were still concentrating their efforts on restoring power to the sensors. The door leading to the control room was locked, however. Denton ripped the panel off the side and began to shove his C4 into the opening, obviously intending to blow the locking mechanism into smithereens.

Rodney smacked his hands away from the panel, gasping for air breathlessly as he and Radek finally caught up to him at the door.

"Open it!" Denton demanded, giving Rodney a cold glare. He removed the C4 from the space in the door panel, and then moved to break open a different panel on the other side of the door. He shoved the C4 into it, loosened the latches on the inner panel to direct the blast into the control room, and then set the detonator for ten seconds. Making sure that Rodney and Radek had finished overriding the lock, he pressed the activator button to begin the countdown.

"Fire in the hole!" he shouted reflexively, pulling Rodney and Radek around the corner before they had a chance to complain.

The blast was deafening. When the smoke began to clear, Denton shoved the scientists back toward the entrance. Throwing all their weight against the doors, they slowly managed to force them apart.

As they rushed inside, three startled marines raised their weapons and opened fire from the top of the stairs that led up from the Stargate to the control consoles. Radek raised his arms protectively across his face, but soon realized that it was unnecessary. He could feel the impact of the bullets passing through his flesh. Some even ricocheted off his bones, but none caused him any pain. A strange tingling sensation passed through his body, and then the rage, red as blood, began to build behind his eyes.

He lashed out mercilessly at the nearest marine, sending him flying backward into the wall where he slumped over and did not move again. Some of the techs working the consoles joined in the foray. Rodney and Denton performed similar feats, and all three of them sent the victims of their rage into a painful encounter with a console or over the edge of the railing. When the screams and bullets subdued, seven techs and marines lay unconscious on the floor.

Radek felt no remorse at all for what he'd just done. He thought that perhaps it felt a bit strange, but chose not to reminisce on the feeling. A small movement caught his attention in the corner of his peripheral vision, and he strode over to the other side of the room, which was closer to the Stargate, to find out what it was. One last tech was cowering in the corner behind a console, futilely attempting to hide the unconscious form of Dr. Weir. Blood-smeared cuts and contusions graced the left side of her face and head, as well as the torn left shoulder of her uniform where fragments of the explosion had hit her.

Something stirred weakly inside Radek at the sight of Dr. Weir lying unconscious on the floor, and it confused him. Denton, however, had no such reaction. He pulled the tech out from behind the console and began to strangle him, grinning with perverse pleasure. Rodney and Radek were spellbound. Without a flicker of emotion passing between them, they watched as the man was murdered before their very eyes.

As Ronon approached the door that led to the control room, he took a moment to inspect the charred hole in the wall not far away. He peered through, observing no one on the other side. Lorne and the rest of his team stopped behind him, dutifully waiting for the word to rush inside through the partially open doors. None of them wanted to go first.

Stepping back from the hole, Ronon slipped through the crack in the doors, ready to stun anyone within range the moment he caught sight of them. But as his eyes scanned the large room, he saw only an unconscious marine at the foot of the steps. The gaping hole in the wall on the inside of the room was still smoking a bit, which meant chances were good that the perpetrators of the explosion were still in the room.

While checking on the health of the unconscious marines, they secured the room and slowly climbed the steps up to the control center of the city, Ronon still leading the way. The sound of a body hitting the floor off to his right startled him, and he spun around to point his gun toward the sound. He was just in time to see an angry Lt. Denton look up from the body of a tech. Dr. Zelenka and Dr. McKay stood nearby, also looking up at him.

As they began to rush toward him, Ronon fired his stunner, sending Denton sliding backward on the floor. Another shot sent Rodney to the floor, rolling over to the railing overlooking the Stargate. But Radek was still running, and Ronon was forced to raise his arms to deflect the hands that grasped for his neck. He struggled against the scientist, who was now much stronger than he used to be, and it was all he could do not to allow himself to be thrown back-first onto the stairs.

Major Lorne was the first to attempt to pry Radek off of Ronon, and when he found him difficult to handle, the rest of his team joined in on the effort. Slipping the vial from his pocket, Lorne jammed its tip into the furious Czech's shoulder, injecting its contents into him. The team managed to hold him still for a few moments until Radek's grip on Ronon finally went slack.

Breathing heavily, Ronon extricated himself from the awkward position and raised his weapon protectively, but the danger was over for the moment. Lorne took a deep breath, looking up to make sure Ronon was okay, then stood and went to drag Lt. Denton back toward the stairs. There was only one vial of serum left, and Lorne suddenly wasn't sure he wanted to be in the position of having to choose which one of the two other infected men to use it on.

"Which one of them should I use this on?" he asked Ronon expectantly.

"This one," Ronon said after pondering the question for a moment, indicating Denton with his foot. "I think he's more dangerous."

Poor Rodney, Lorne thought to himself. He'll just have to go without it until Dr. Biro finishes the next batch.

"Hold on, Carson," John gasped with exertion. "We're almost there."

They had been slowly making their way to the infirmary, and with Teyla's help, carrying Carson had been that much less of a burden for him. Luckily for them, one of the marines that Carson had attacked had managed to wake up on his own and was carrying the other on his shoulders.

As they approached the entrance to the main part of the infirmary, a nurse caught sight of them and came out to help. She escorted them to a secluded corner where she helped them lay Carson and the unconscious marine onto gurneys, then strode off into the laboratory section to find Dr. Biro.

John looked down at Carson in his weakened condition, thinking that he was probably having the most restful sleep that he'd likely had in days. The recovery from the virus hadn't been easy for John either, and it certainly wouldn't be for Carson. He had been infected the longest of anyone.

Dr. Biro pushed her way past them to Carson's side to check his vital signs. The look on her face remained grim as she finished her examination and set up an IV drip for him. She turned back to them and shook her head.

"He's suffering from extensive blood loss and severe dehydrated," she informed them. "I don't suppose Carson felt much, but he's very lucky that you found him when you did. If it had been any longer…"

John's expression hardened as her words trailed off into silence.