Chapter 14: Back on Arastica.

By the time they reached the jumper bay in Arastica fifteen minutes later, his head was beginning to pound and John felt fine tremors running through his entire body. He desperately wanted another hit of the enzyme and even though he knew that was a bad idea, he would do anything to complete the mission and make sure Arastica was safe. Luckily, he had one Todd onboard the jumper and there was no question that he was going to ask Todd to be on his team to track down the queen.

He looked around the jumper to see what the others were doing and was relieved to find that no one was staring at him. In fact, they were ignoring him, which left him feeling more than a little agitated. It seemed as if they were planning the rest of the mission without him, so he had to wonder whether he'd zoned out for a minute or two. He certainly remembered landing the jumper, but how long ago was that?

A soft lilting voice interrupted his contemplations, and his immediate reaction was to shout, "What?!"

The look on Carson's face was one of shock and he immediately regretted shouting at his friend, "sorry doc, what's up?"

"I was going to suggest that you stay with the jumper and let the others go after the queen?"

Again, he felt angry, no way was that ever going to happen, "I don't think so doc," he said trying to keep his anger at bay.

Before Carson had a chance to say another word he turned to the others, "okay guys, let's get in and get this done? We'll divide into two teams, Ronon, Todd, Torren you're with me we're going to go after the queen. Teyla, Rodney, Carson, Dave you're going to try and find Johan and deliver Nickel's message. It is imperative that you find him and deliver that message." He looked around the jumper at his friends before continuing, "does everyone understand what they are supposed to be doing?"

When they all nodded, he continued, "okay we'll all take a com unit and when the queen has been destroyed, I want Torren, Dave, and Rodney to start working on those calculations, so that we can open the anomaly. I will then head to the chair room to open it."

Carson whispered in his ear before he had a chance to say anything else, "are you sure you're alright to complete this mission?"

He turned to his friend and despite the urge to yell at him, he tried to remain calm, "listen doc, I know that I may need to suffer through withdrawal when this is over, but right now I feel fine, so the quicker we finish this mission, the quicker you can get me into your infirmary. That's if Arastica or Atlantis can't heal me first."

"Are you in any pain, do you need any pain meds?" Carson asked and as usual, he seemed to be going into mother hen mode.

There was cold anger in his voice as he spoke and although he was trying to remain calm, he was struggling to do so, "Look Carson I said I'm fine, so back off!"

Thankfully the Doctor didn't say anything more, so John turned around and looked at the others, "alright enough of this standing around, we've got a mission to complete, so let's get going!"

He could see the worry in his friends' eyes, but now wasn't the time for compassion because they had a mission to complete, so he went to the back hatch and opened it. They had done a sweep of the jumper bay on arrival and the bay was empty. Taking one last look at his friends inside the jumper he exited and hoped that the rest of his team was following him.

oOo

Teyla watched as John left the jumper and she knew without a doubt that he would be asking Todd for some more of the enzyme before the mission was over. That had her worried because she had seen the result of the withdrawal from the last wraith feeding, he had been subjected to and it had been almost too much to bare having to witness the pain that he had been in. They had just admitted their feelings for one another and in a moment of rage and anger – caused by the withdrawal – he had stated that he hated her. Although she knew that he hadn't meant it, the words had still cut deeply at the time. She also knew that John Sheppard would do anything to protect the people of this galaxy – even if it meant sacrificing his life – and by protecting Arastica he would be doing that.

Turning to the others who were waiting patiently, she sighed, "I suggest we head to the control room first to see if anyone knows where Johan is. I guess I do not need to tell you to be on full alert since I am sure that there are still wraith in the city – not to mention that the queen is still out there."

When they all nodded, she went to open the back hatch that Ronon had closed on his way out. A hand on her shoulder caught her attention, so she turned around to find Torren looking at her and the look in his eyes could only be described as worry and concern, with a hint of sadness mixed in. She had grown to know Torren's mannerisms well over the four weeks she'd known him – the adult version of him anyway.

Standing up straight and putting on her best smile, she looked her son in the eye, "Is there a problem Torren?"

"Don't worry about Dad, Mom, I'm positive that he will be alright?"

A hand on her arm distracted her, so she turned around and saw Dave on her other side looking down at her, "Yeah, he's John Sheppard and he's one of the strongest people I've ever met, and I should know because a John Sheppard was my father."

"Yes, yes, as lovely as this conversation is, can we please get this mission underway," Rodney ranted in a high pitched tone."

"Aye I'd have to agree with Rodney," Carson interjected, "because as soon as we get on with this mission the sooner it will be over, and we can get Colonel Sheppard home."

Teyla nodded and turned around and opened the back hatch, her gun at the ready for anything that may be waiting for them on the other side.

oOo

The corridor was dimly lit as John and his team walked down it and he had to wonder whether Arastica had already been infected with the virus. If that were the case, he was positive that he could probably try and eliminate it again, but the queen would still need to be taken out so that she didn't have the opportunity to do it again.

There were many dead bodies littering the halls – both Wraith and human – and it reminded him of some kind of Zombie horror movie. The sooner they achieved their objective the better he would feel – not that he felt that crash hot at the moment anyway. His nerve endings were on fire as tiny tremors continued to run through his body. His head was pounding and there was sweat dripping down his face. He knew that he needed another hit of the enzyme soon, or he was going to go into full withdrawal and that wouldn't be good for anyone.

Eventually, he realised that he had no idea where they were heading, and he chastised himself for not being at the top of his game. John you idiot, you should have realised by now that you really have no idea where you're going.

He stopped and turned around to look at Todd, who had been following closely behind him, "Do you have any idea where the queen would go to plant the virus?"

The big wraith smirked at him, "I thought that you knew where you were heading?"

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he tried not to shout at the Wraith, "No I do not, that is why I'm asking you."

"I believe that she would probably head to the chair room and persuade some poor ancient soul to help her do it."

He looked around the dimly lit corridor and for the first time he realised that Torren wasn't with them, "where's Torren?"

"I think he went with the other team," Ronon told him.

Taking another deep breath, he looked at Todd and Ronon, "I thought I told him to come with me? Did the two of you know that he was going to go with the other team!?" He was angry by the time he'd finished speaking and he made no effort to contain it.

"Torren suggested that by going with Teyla, he could make his way to the control room and get working on his calculations more quickly," Ronon explained succinctly, and John was surprised at how clearly, he spoke.

John reached up to massage his pounding head as he answered, "well I guess we'd better get to the control chair room then."

Turning around he continued down the corridor, surprised to find that he had been heading in the direction of the chair room all along.

oOo

As they approached the control room, Teyla was on high alert they hadn't encountered any wraith in their travels, but they had come across numerous dead bodies – wraith and human – and they had all been fed on. The scene had been depressing and one that she would never get used to seeing, but they had to find Johan to deliver their message, so she would deal with how she felt at another time.

In the end, Torren had decided to accompany her team and Carson had decided to stay in the jumper. When she had insisted that she didn't want him to stay there alone, Dave had offered to stay and protect the doctor. She knew that the chances that someone would attack the jumper were minimal, but she didn't want the doctor alone should that situation eventuate, and she knew that Dave was good with a gun, so he was the best person for the job.

She turned to look at Torren and smiled, "are you ready?"

"Yeah Mom, let's go and get this over with."

With her weapon at the ready, she slowly entered the control room and was surprised to see that the occupants seemed to be going about business as usual. There were a few dead wraith and humans in the room, but not as many as she had seen in the corridors. She walked up to one of the consoles where a man who looked the splitting image of Carson worked in silence.

"Excuse me, do you know where Johan is?"

The man looked at her with confusion on his face, "and who are you?"

"We are visitors from the future, and we are here to prevent the queen of the hive that crashed on your planet from infecting Arastica with a virus."

"Ah yes, Nickel told me about you. We are currently preparing to head back to Atlantis and then on to earth if you and your party would like to accompany us."

"No, we must find Johan," She told him with determination in her voice.

"I'm sorry but the last time we saw him, he was in the chair room. I suspect that he should be back soon if you'd like to wait?"

Before she had a chance to reply, Torren spoke up, "if you don't mind, I must create an anomaly to the future, so perhaps I can do that while we wait."

Carson's doppelganger nodded, "No go right ahead, but my offer for you to come back to earth with us stands."

Teyla smiled at the man, "thank you for your offer, but we will be heading back to our own time once our mission is complete."

Once the man had gone back to what he was doing and Torren was at work, she tapped her com as she needed to speak to John.

"Teyla to Sheppard come in please?"

oOo

By the time they reached the chair room, John knew that he couldn't wait any longer for another hit of the enzyme. Just as he was about to ask Todd for it, his com activated.

"Teyla to Sheppard come in please?"

"Go ahead Teyla," he said through gritted teeth as his nerve endings were on fire.

"Johan is not in the control room. Apparently, the last place he was seen was the chair room. Are you anywhere near there?"

"Yes, we're just about to head in there now. Todd suspects that the queen is torturing some poor soul into helping her plant the virus."

"Well, I had better let you get on with it then. Teyla out."

The com deactivated and the first thing he did was turn to Todd, "Hey Todd I'm going to need another hit of the enzyme before we enter."

"Yes, I believe you may be right Sheppard because if my queen is in there, she may want to feed on you herself, so I suggest whatever she asks you to do, try and make it look like you are cooperating with her."

"I'll do my best, although I can't promise anything. Now how about that enzyme."

"Can you hurry up because I can hear the queen interrogating someone in there and it sounds like she is winning, "Ronon growled from where he had his ear up against the door?

John pulled apart his shirt to allow Todd access to his bare chest and he was almost grateful when Todd slammed his feeding hand into his chest. Initially, it was agony, but then a feeling of exhilaration overcame him and when Todd finally pulled his hand away, he felt like begging for more. The wound on his chest was sticky with blood and he knew that there was a chance that he would suffer an infection in the near future, but right now he felt so good that he didn't care.

After doing up his shirt, he turned to the others and whispered, "how do you want to play this?"

"I think we should burst in and shoot the queen," Ronon said with enthusiasm.

"I believe that I should enter first and see how many wraith are in that room. You two can come in as my prisoners." Todd suggested.

"Yeah, great idea Todd," Ronon growled, "and remember how that worked out the last time you suggested it?"

"You are alive and not injured, so I'd say that it worked out fairly well," Todd replied.

"Gentlemen," John started, and he almost laughed at the thought of calling Todd a gentleman, "can we get this over with so that I can go home and get on with the rest of my life? And I agree with Todd's plan, so let's get going."

Ever since he'd been back on Arastica he could hear her gentle humming, so John thought open and the door in Infront of them opened. He was the first to walk through with Ronon and Todd following, and he wasn't happy with what he saw. Three guards were surrounding the chair and sitting in it was a man who was the splitting image of Nickel – he assumed that it must be Johan and Nickel had to be his brother. The queen was standing over in the corner with a twisted smile on her lips and he really had no idea what she was doing.

John watched as Todd walked up to the queen and bowed his head, "my queen I have captured a powerful ancient and his friend. I believe that he would be the best person to plant a virus in the city."

The queen turned to look at Ronon, "why has this man escaped my hive ship?"

"I do not know how he escaped, but I brought him to you in case you needed a snack."

"Take him away from me as I may need him later, in the meantime you may feed on this puny human in the chair," the queen hissed.

There was no way that John was ever going to let that happen, "stop!" John demanded, "why don't you let this man go to the control room and tell the others what your intention is for this city?"

He knew he should have kept his mouth shut because before he knew it, he was on his knees, and she was running her long slimy fingers down his cheek. "Have we met before human, because you seem familiar?"

"No, I just have one of those faces, that everyone recognises even if they haven't seen me before."

"Well, no mind, you will help me upload a virus into this city and seeing as you seem so fond of this other being I will let him go for now."

He knew that they had to do something about the queen and soon since there was no way he was going to do what she said, he also knew that they needed to get Johan to safety first.

Johan sat up and looked at him with pleading in his eyes, "you must be John and Ronon. Nickel told me about you. Please do whatever you can to protect this city?"

When he nodded Johan quickly left the room and the next thing John knew, Ronon and Todd were firing their weapons and all hell broke loose. Two of the guards went down to a beam of red light from Ronon's gun, he was about to fire on the third guard when the queen picked him up by the throat and began to strangle him. He watched as the third guard went down and he prayed that someone would do something about the queen soon. The queen continued to squeeze his throat and he was finding it increasingly hard to breathe, black spots were dancing in front of his eyes. Just when he thought he was going to pass out she threw him across the room, where his head connected with the wall – yet again. Finally, he could breathe again, but he was so dazed by his pounding head that he couldn't see what was going on with the queen and the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was a beam of red light hitting the queen.

oOo

It had to be about the hundredth time in an hour that Carson had checked out his medical supplies – that's what he always did when he was nervous. He had no idea whether his expertise would be needed or not but knowing John Sheppard he would be called upon very soon. Perhaps Rodney was right to call the man colonel Calamity or Colonel catastrophe, but then he knew that wasn't fair because all the Colonel ever did was his job and somehow, he always ended up getting injured for it.

Sighing he turned to look at Dave, who had taken up the pilot's seat at the front of the jumper and appeared to be working on some calculations. He wondered why Dave wasn't worried about John, but perhaps he didn't know Colonel Sheppard as well as he did. Even though a John Sheppard was his father, he was obviously different to the man he knew.

"Dave, what are you doing?"

Dave looked up at him with a blank look on his face, "huh?"

"I asked you what you are doing?"

"I'm just trying to formulate some equations for opening an anomaly. I know that Torren and Rodney are probably doing the same thing, but by the time the queen is eliminated I want to be able to get out of here and get home to see Maddie and Charlie."

Carson knew by the look on the young man's face, how important Maddie and Charlie were to him, "you must really miss them?"

"Yeah, I do, "Dave said softly, "Maddie and Torren looked after Charlie and me when my Dad died, so they are my family."

"Well lad, I hope you can get back to them soon."

Dave just smiled at him and turned back to what he was doing. All Carson could think of now was his own adopted family since he would never be able to go home and see his family on earth. They thought he was dead and in a sense, he was because he was a clone, which made him doubly glad for his family on Atlantis because they never treated him any different to the original Carson.

oOo

Rodney sat with Torren as he worked on the equations to open an anomaly to the future and for some reason, it seemed much harder than working out the equations to the past. When he'd asked Torren about it, he had told him that there were many possible outcomes to future events, so he had to make sure that they ended up in the right reality, which made perfect sense – he just felt a little useless at the moment.

He looked over at Teyla and she seemed to be sitting quietly watching the ancients assemble in the gate room. The plan was that in two hours they would open a wormhole to Atlantis and then Arastica would be left on her own for ten thousand years. If he had any emotions, he was sure that his heart would break for the city.

A voice interrupted his thoughts and when he looked up he saw a man that looked exactly like Nickel talking to Teyla.

"Who are you?" He asked not caring whether he sounded rude or not.

"My name is Johan and John has told me that you have a message for me." Johan looked around the room before continuing, "where is Nickel, the last time I saw him he was going to help you?" He asked as a look of worry crossed his face.

Before Rodney had a chance to say anything Teyla spoke, "I am sorry Johan, but he did not make it."

"If you haven't guessed already, he was my twin brother and the only family that I have. I have no idea how I'm going to tell his wife and children."

All Rodney could do was watch as the heartbreaking scene played itself out in front of him, and when he spoke his voice was gentle, "he asked us to tell you to look out for his family on Earth."

"I would have done that anyway," Johan replied before wiping his eyes and continuing, "I must meet up with the others now as very soon it will be time for us to leave. But first I need to thank all of you for what you have done for Arastica, and I hope that one day my kind will walk through this city again."

"We will make sure that it happens," Teyla told him before bowing her head towards him.

Johan nodded his head and then left to join his people, leaving Teyla, Torren, and him alone in the control room. And he knew that ten thousand years in the future that John Sheppard would fulfil Johan's wish when a descendant of his walked the halls of Arastica once more.

oOo

A tapping on his cheek was the first thing that John noticed when he became aware again and it was annoying the hell out of him, "stop it!?" He yelled at the person who was annoying him.

A deep baritone voice invaded his senses, "Come on buddy, we need to get you into the chair?"

He was still feeling dazed and confused so he tried to focus on his buddy's voice, "what?"

"Let's get you to the chair Sheppard, maybe Arastica can heal you?"

All his muddled brain could come up with right now was; I need healing what the hell is wrong with me and why does my throat and head hurt so much? Maybe that's why I need healing.

He felt himself being lifted to his feet and when he finally managed to open his eyes there were two Ronon's and two Todds dragging him towards the control chair in the centre of the room.

"Hey, guys what's happening and why are there four of you?"

"You must have hit your head harder than we thought, now sit down, and connect with Arastica, to see if she can heal you? Because right now we need you firing on all cylinders," Ronon told him, and he could have sworn he saw a smirk on the two Ronons' faces.

Rather than argue any further, he lay back in the chair and was happy to give into Arastica's sweet embrace and it wasn't long until he found himself on his favourite balcony with the image of Elizabeth.

"Arastica can you heal me of my addiction to the enzyme."

Yes, John, I am fully whole again and I will heal you of all your injuries."

The image of Elizabeth held her hands out towards him, and he was enveloped in a warm blue light, which made him feel better than he had for a long time. He closed his eyes and wanted to enjoy every moment of the tingling sensation that was flooding his body because right now he felt completely content.

As suddenly as the warm blue light had enveloped him it stopped and when he opened his eyes he saw the image of Elizabeth standing in front of him with a huge smile on her face.

"Thank you, John Sheppard, for everything. For now, I am whole again and one day I hope that you will be able to arrange for me to communicate with Atlantis again.

"I will do everything in my power to make that happen, but first we are going to make sure that there are no Wraith left on this planet to harm you."

Arastica smiled and nodded at him again before she began to fade away and he felt himself falling into darkness once more….

The connection was broken and when he managed to sit up he felt a little disoriented, but this time it didn't take him long to get his bearings and he was happy to see that there was in fact only one Ronon there. He was a little surprised to see that two Todds were standing in the chair room though – obviously, the Todd from his time had decided to turn up again.

"How are you feeling Sheppard?" Ronon asked looking concerned.

"Better than I have for the last few days, so can we please get to the control room and see what's happening?"

Jumping out of the chair he smirked at his friend and the two Todds before rushing out of the room. It had been a productive day and for now, Arastica was safe, but he knew that they still needed to blow up the hive and make sure that there were no rogue wraith left on the planet before their mission was complete.

TBC…