Chapter 5: Revelation

The ground underneath him was passing by too fast. Earthy, damp, wooden smells surrounded him. Harsh stone grabbed at his knees and the toes of his boots. Hands dug into his armpits and torso hauling him forward. He felt sick and gagged, weakly fighting the hands that had him.

"Dammit, he's awake," someone said.

The room spun and his ears were ringing, but he saw he was in a corridor that looked familiar. There was a wall next to him that he had seen before.

Then a fist slammed into the side of his head, and the next thing he knew he was back in his cell, retching, tears streaming from his eyes at the pain in his ribs and torso as his body rebelled against him. He barely made it to the depression in the floor that had served as his toilet, and when he was done, he collapsed on the floor. He gasped for breath and fought through what was definitely sharp stabbing pain from several broken ribs.

The longer he lay there, fighting the spinning in the room, the more he realized all of the other injuries that were beginning to make themselves known. And there was one in particular he knew he needed to take care of.

Taking his time, he pushed himself to a sitting position, leaning against the wall and gingerly feeling his left shoulder. He couldn't move it at all without gasping in pain, and every breath was agony with broken ribs. Pulling the neck of his torn shirt down, he could see massive bruising and swelling around the joint. Definitely a dislocated shoulder.

Gritting his teeth, he carefully lifted the dislocated arm up straight in front of him with his right hand and slowly pulled. It took a few seconds, but he felt the shoulder joint slide back into place. Gasping from the effort, he leaned back against the wall, his head spinning and feeling sick once again.

Swallowing, he managed to get his stomach under control and tried to assess his other injuries. His bruises had bruises, and his body was covered in them. His wrists were raw and bloody from the rope, and he was sure that his right wrist was broken. In addition to the broken ribs, he also suspected that his right lower leg was broken, and possibly his left. The bandage on his right thigh had been re-wrapped, but otherwise it looked as though his injuries had not been treated. Standing up was not in the realm of possibility at the moment.

But he had no doubt that in-between the beating and finding himself back in his cell he had seen something. He knew where he was. And he had to find a way to let his team know about it.

Because he was sure that Kolya was on the verge of not holding back.

Kolya watched Sheppard in his cell on the screen. The man had lain unconscious for several hours after his men had deposited him back inside the room, but then he stirred, vomiting and then carefully setting his injured shoulder.

He made no attempt to get up after that, and it was obvious that the little that he had done already had sapped his strength. He leaned heavily against the wall, pressed into the corner as though the walls could give him strength. His dark hair glistened with blood, face covered in shadow and red. Every visible part of his skin was covered in black, blue and red.

If it weren't for the doctor's reassurances, Kolya would have believed that Sheppard was close to death. As it was, the doctor said that at the very least he might suffer from a few long term effects if they left his wounds and broken bones untreated. He wanted to do a scan to see what internal injuries the man might have, but Kolya forbade him. The doctor was also quite concerned that Sheppard be treated within the day to avoid surgery later. But Kolya wasn't interested in the long term.

Watching the beating had given Kolya intense pleasure, although he was careful not to show it outwardly to the men in the room and the camera in the ceiling. Although he had told Sheppard he would have settled for Dr. McKay, he was pleased that they had managed to capture Sheppard instead.

This man had taken so many of his men's lives, cleverly outwitting him at every turn. The chance to have his revenge while at the same time possibly convince Dr. Weir to hand over his other enemy, Ladon Radim, made Kolya quite possibly the most happy he had been in a very long time, in spite of the fact that it seemed that Atlantis was as unbreakable as Sheppard with their stubborn resilience. There had still been no offer from Dr. Weir to even find Ladon, and Kolya was feeling angrier as the days passed.

At the same time, he felt troubled. Sheppard was a worthy adversary, but every man had his limits. No matter what Kolya had done, Sheppard remained unbroken. There was still a flash of defiance in his eyes every time he saw Kolya. Even in the solitary confinement of his cell, Sheppard stayed belligerent. Although his body was broken, it was clear that his mind was not. Sitting in that dark corner, Kolya could see Sheppard's eyes glittering under his blood-soaked brow, still glaring at the camera.

Even when he had been held captive with the Wraith, the man had somehow managed to wrangle a deal with the creature. He had managed to convince the blood thirsty alien to help him escape the first time, and then somehow manage to regain back the years that the Wraith had taken. His negotiating skills and charm were traits that Kolya admired and hated at the same time. Sheppard did not seem to ever give up, even when the odds were stacked against him.

The Wraith, Kolya had been told, had completely disappeared. It had probably slipped through the Stargate at its first opportunity, back to its own vile kind. It was a shame to lose such a weapon, but it was nothing Kolya could concern himself with at the moment. It might have given him more pleasure to use the Wraith against Sheppard one last time and imagine the look on Dr. Elizabeth Weir's face as she watched the life being drained from the Colonel once again. It would have been quite a bonus to have completely drained Sheppard's life two times. Who had ever thought that it was possible for the Wraith to give life back, as well as to take it?

Kolya pondered what to do next in persuading Dr. Weir to give in, watching the man on the screen in front of him.

Eventually, Sheppard's body gave in, and he collapsed to the floor, unable to sit up any longer. He lay still for hours. Kolya would check the camera again and again, and still Sheppard had not moved.

Whether he lived or died in the next days was not Kolya's concern. If it came down to it, he would send Sheppard's cold, dead body back to Atlantis as another warning to Dr. Weir. It would be her fault that Lieutenant-Colonel John Sheppard had died at his hands. And he would make sure that she had seen everything that he had done to the man.

Because he knew that she would break.

Elizabeth had sent several messages to Ladon, each unanswered. She hated to be the desperate one, but it was clear that with each message she sent him, her desperation was becoming more and more visible. Before he had left Atlantis, he promised he would do his best to find Kolya and his men and that he would contact her. Now, she was wondering if he was avoiding her in order to stay alive. She was sure that he suspected they might turn him over to Kolya in order to save Sheppard. And sadly, she knew that his instincts were right.

When McKay finally stepped into her office, jittery from caffeine and haggard from lack of sleep, she finally broke down.

"I want to turn Ladon over to Kolya," she told him, her voice cracking.

McKay blinked. "You want to do what?"

"Protocol be damned. We have to get him back. That last transmission …" She lifted her chin stubbornly, not wanting to finish her thought. "I want you to find Ladon. Put everything you have into it. I will give you anything you want. I want Ladon."

"Elizabeth —"

"You heard me, Rodney." The harshness in her voice scared even herself. "This has gone on long enough. John isn't going to last much longer. We don't know when Kolya made that recording. We don't know how much longer he has. He might even be dead now."

Her voice cracked on the word dead. It was impossible to think of him as dead. John Sheppard, full of life, action, movement. Alive.

McKay sighed, wiping his face with his hand, eyes squeezed shut against what was surely a migraine. When he spoke, it was quiet, but honest.

"He's going to hate you."

Weir said nothing.

"You'll lose your command."

Again, she said nothing, steepling her hands and looking straight at him.

"I know," she said softly. "He's worth it."

Amidst a haze of pain and blurry, fever induced images, Sheppard felt himself being shaken. His injured left shoulder made itself known and he heard a wounded gasp from far away. Was it himself making that noise or something else?

Hands grasped him, digging into both shoulders and jerking him upright, making the pain of the left shoulder oh so much more sharp and demanding and he snapped his eyes open, desperately grasping at consciousness and finding himself propped up against the wall, Kolya's hands on his shoulders holding him in place.

"Finally awake," the Genii said. "Doctor."

Another man Sheppard felt he had seen before in dreams crouched down with what appeared to be a small scanner in his hands.

"No better," the man murmured. "He's developed a fever. Internal bleeding. Possibly has a ruptured liver and spleen. Might have a few days if I don't do surgery. Longer if I do."

Kolya stared at Sheppard, taking in the unfocused, bruised eyes and blood covered face looking through him.

"What say you, Colonel," he said, softly. "Do you want to live?"

For a long moment, Sheppard said nothing, his breathing labored, but his throat working as though he were trying to produce enough saliva to speak. He finally managed to turn his eyes to Kolya's, the defiance still there.

"Go to hell, Kolya," he finally whispered.

Kolya's face hardened. Pushing himself to his feet, he turned to the doctor.

"Prep him. No surgery. I will have one last session with him before he meets the grave." He paused, then added, "It's a shame we never found the Wraith. It would have been fitting to bring this full circle."

Turning and leaving the cell, Sheppard was left with the doctor and two of Kolya's guards. The guards leaned forward, gripping his arms to hold him still as the doctor produced a thin halo of metal which he pressed over Sheppard's head, completely encircling his brow.

"I'm very sorry about this," the doctor said. "Hopefully it will be quick."

Sheppard struggled, but was shocked at how weak he was as the men easily held him in place. Everything hurt, and every move only made things feel worse.

The doctor pressed something and a thin whine pierced his skull, driving deep and spreading from his sinuses along every nerve in his body, intensifying until Sheppard was thrown into an involuntary convulsion. His head smacked into the wall behind him, eyes rolled back, and the hands on his arms holding him tight dug deeper until the whine ceased and the spasms subsided. He was left gasping in agony, gritting his teeth to keep from screaming. He blinked, his vision blurring and beginning to flatten and go grey.

There was a shift of movement through a haze of pain and the hands left him. He felt a pinprick in his neck, and the world tilted sideways into night.

When he woke again, he was in the chair, wrists and ankles secured and a tight, thick strap around his chest, the gag over his mouth. He was pretty sure that he wouldn't have been able to get out of the chair even without the restraints.

But this time, as he blinked off the sedative, he saw the camera and monitor in front of him.

He couldn't imagine what he might look like to the team on Atlantis, and he cringed inside, trying to straighten and show them that he was still there. He was still fighting. And with or without a gag, he knew he could still send them the message that he was sure they needed.

Author's Note: My apologies on the delay in uploading. I was traveling and airport wifi isn't always the greatest. I also realized one of my chapters was quite long, so I split it up, and now the story has 7 chapters. I love reading your thoughts on how you are enjoying the story so far, so please read and review!