Chapter 6: Rescue

When the gate dialed and the technician announced, white-faced, that it was a live transmission from Kolya, Elizabeth felt her heart drop. But she summoned Sheppard's team to the gate room, steeling herself for what they were about to witness.

Ronon had never left the gate room, and she could see him, tense and ready to fight, watching the screen with desperate eyes as the camera turned on Sheppard.

At first, Elizabeth wasn't sure if he was alive. He was bound to a chair and gagged, dark head hanging limply. After a few seconds, though, she saw him take a deep breath and raise his head to stare at the screen. A metal halo had been placed around his head. Dark bruises colored both eyes, and blood had dried in ghastly streaks down his face. Every exposed area of his skin was mottled with bruises and blood and he held himself stiffly. Elizabeth was sure he was in great pain but to his credit, he did not make a sound when Kolya grabbed a fistful of his hair, twisting cruelly to make sure he was still looking at the camera.

"This is what you are holding out for, Dr. Weir," Kolya said. "My doctor tells me he is dying. Internal injuries and such. He has a matter of days, if not hours at this point. As you refuse to send me Ladon, I will send Colonel Sheppard's corpse back to you when I am finally finished with him. For now, you can witness this."

Kolya stepped back, releasing Sheppard, whose head lolled, but then somehow managed to find the strength to bring his eyes back to the camera, blinking angrily.

"Kolya, let him go," Elizabeth commanded, knowing her threat was weak. "We can't get Ladon for you, even if we wanted to. He's disappeared."

Kolya moved closer to the camera, a device in his hand, completely ignoring her.

"You've witnessed Wraith and Genii techniques when it comes to persuasion. This is one that we discovered in one of our conquests of a neighboring world. It's a rather ingenious device. I'm told it convinces the brain that the nerves are on fire. Or at least it feels that way. Some say it's the most painful thing they have ever experienced. I even killed a man using it once. Granted, it was one of the first times we used it and we've learned a lot about it since then. But I could kill him with it today. In fact, it might be a mercy." He turned to Sheppard. "What do you think? Are you ready to die, Colonel?"

Sheppard glared at him, dark eyes glittering, blinking fiercely. Kolya smiled, knowing that the man couldn't answer.

Weir was certain that the look in Kolya's eyes was of utter glee when he pressed the button on the device. Behind him, Sheppard's body was thrown into convulsions, eyes rolling as the chair rattled, his hands curling and neck straining in a soundless scream. It was horrifyingly reminiscent of when the Wraith had begun to drain him of life only weeks beforehand.

"Kolya! Stop!" Weir cried.

Again, the man ignored her, but after a moment, Kolya pressed the button again, and the convulsions gradually subsided, leaving Sheppard shaking and sweating in the chair.

"Did I hear you say something, Dr. Weir?" Kolya questioned casually.

Elizabeth was steaming. "You heard me. We can't get Ladon. He's disappeared. He won't answer our calls. We've tried to find him. He knows you want him."

Kolya shrugged. "Then I guess it won't matter if I leave this on."

He pressed the button again, throwing Sheppard into convulsions once more, then turned back to the camera.

"Say goodbye to Colonel Sheppard. You won't see him again."

The monitor went dark and the Stargate closed, leaving Atlantis silent in shock.

"I have it!" McKay's exclamation was so sudden that it abruptly broke the tension of the room.

"What?" Elizabeth rounded on him.

"It's an old POW trick," he said excitedly. "Did you notice Sheppard blinking? It was Morse code. He kept saying 'same place.' Kolya never left. He's still in the bunker."

"Oh my God," Elizabeth breathed.

"It makes total sense now," McKay stammered. "I can't believe I didn't realize it. I couldn't track his ship because it never left!"

Ronon was already moving with Teyla in his wake. "Get me a team," he ordered. "We need to go — now!"

And suddenly, the gate room was a flurry of motion. The strike force was put together in record time. Less than ten minutes after the transmission from Kolya ended, they had dialed back to the planet where it had all started, and where they believed it had ended weeks ago.

He felt like he was floating.

The halo had initially felt like it was tearing his skin apart, turning it inside out to expose every nerve under the surface. It took everything in him to keep from screaming in agony, to beg for Kolya to stop.

He faintly heard Elizabeth's voice cutting through the fog, but then his body couldn't take anymore and sent him back, high above the room. Floating. Because that was all he could do. His body wouldn't respond to his commands, and he felt like he was losing his mind. All coherent thought was leaving him and oppressing him only with pain, pain, pain.

He felt fingers in his hair, the gag being ripped off, the restraints being removed, but could do nothing. Hands pulling and grasping at his body and he could do nothing. Feet dragging, head limp, eyes unseeing as he shook in their grip.

Then cold, hard metal and the taste of iron in his mouth as he was thrown to the floor. He shook, hands curling in, body wracked with pain, and pressed his face to the coolness of the floor as he waited for death to come and take him.

Ronon found Sheppard first. He was lying on his side in a cell, unconscious, tremors wracking his body. Ronon dropped to his knees at his side, ripped off the halo from around his head and rolled him over, gently checking for other injuries.

Ronon was never a man who cried, but he felt tears burning in his eyes at the sight of his commanding officer.

Kolya had put him through hell. The fact that Sheppard was still alive only spoke further to the man's resilience.

He was covered in blood and bruises, gasping in small breaths for air even in unconsciousness in a way that Ronon knew all too well. They had broken his ribs, and the bruising under his shirt on his torso probably meant things were more than broken inside. His skin was burning with fever.

"Carson!" he screamed. "In here!"

There was a rush of footsteps, and Carson, McKay, and Teyla burst through the door, all coming up short at the sight of Sheppard, broken, bloody, and trembling uncontrollably in Ronon's arms.

"He's hurt bad, Doc," Ronon said desperately, trying to keep his voice from cracking.

"Oh my God." Carson dropped to his knees next to Sheppard. "What did they do to you, lad?"

"I took that thing off," Ronon nodded at the discarded halo.

"We take it with us," Carson said grimly. "I'm hoping it didn't do any neurological damage but we can't be too certain."

He ran expert hands over Sheppard's body, then called for a gurney. Two men rushed in and they gently moved Sheppard from Ronon's arms onto the stretcher.

Telya, Ronon, Carson, and McKay never left his side while the strike force fanned out, ready to defend Sheppard to the end as they moved from the bunker to the Stargate.

They had encountered no resistance when they had exited the Stargate and then entered the building, and any Genii who had been there had obviously left in a hurry. McKay thought he saw a ship lifting off in the forest beyond the bunker, and they all knew that once again, Kolya had gotten away.

Elizabeth had been waiting, feeling like she had been holding her breath when they finally emerged through the 'gate. Through the strike team pressing in around the gurney all she saw was a bruised, blood-covered hand until the team parted as they came further into the room. She bit back a sob when she saw John's broken body on the gurney, limbs trembling uncontrollably and skin covered in blood and bruises.

Carson rushed him to the infirmary, and Elizabeth knew that they had to let him do his work. She turned to Sheppard's team.

"What happened?"

"Kolya has evaded capture once again," Teyla responded. "It appears he has many places to escape from within the bunker and we were unable to find him in time."

"I saw a ship lifting off on our way back to the Stargate," Rodney added. "It's unlikely anyone will be on the planet if we go back unless the ship isn't space worthy."

"Let me go back," Ronon demanded. "I want to kill him."

"Nothing would give me greater pleasure," Elizabeth replied. "But we have John back. I think we need to concentrate on helping him now. You can assemble your team and head back once we're sure Kolya won't have the upper hand or try to ambush us again."

"We scanned the immediate area," Rodney said. "Even if we went back I'm pretty sure Kolya's long gone by now. He wouldn't make the same mistake twice. Although it was pretty clever to hide right under our noses."

"How was he?" Elizabeth asked, indicating towards the infirmary.

"Unconscious," Telya replied. "I am unsure as to the true state of his health — physically and mentally. He did not wake."

"It was bad." Ronon's eyes held murder. "They almost killed him."

Rodney looked at the halo that he had grabbed from the floor of the cell. "I'm going to go see what this thing is. Carson might need it." He pointedly said nothing about the dried blood on the thin metal band, feeling sick as he knew what Sheppard must have suffered in the past weeks.

"Keep me updated," Elizabeth nodded.

Ronon was a coiled snake, ready to strike. Teyla put her hand on his arm, steadying him.

"Ronon, we can do nothing now. You must have patience. Kolya's time will come. Let us go to the infirmary so we will be there for John when he awakes. He needs us."

The Satedan paused for a moment, seething, then melted and nodded, following Teyla to the infirmary.

Elizabeth took a deep breath, grateful to Teyla and not knowing what she might have done with a rogue Ronon on her hands as well as waiting for Carson's prognosis.

Countless times Sheppard and his team had returned through the Stargate fine and whole. Countless times they had stumbled back torn and bleeding.

This was always the worst part. The waiting.

But she had him. She got John back. Even if he had done the work for them by telling them where he was.

He was back. And hopefully their rescue had not come too late.

Author's Note: One more chapter to go to wrap things up and provide a little comfort to all the hurt. Thank you so much to the all of the readers so far (glad there are still some Atlantis fans out there after all this time!). I would love and appreciate your reviews!