They had found Ronon pretty quickly. Stories of a wild man looking for his friends was heard by an Athosian, and the trail now hot found Teyla and Rodney coming upon Ronon in the back of pub in a small town. His surprise to see them was mingled with gratitude and guilt that he had no news about their friends.

Sitting down at his table, they were bothered by the fatigue and despair etched on his face.

"I couldn't find them." he murmured, swallowing the last of his ale.

Teyla nodded, "Then we will find them together." she stated, Rodney nodding in agreement.

Ronon stared at his teammates and friends for a moment then nodded gruffly in return; they're companionship and help would be welcome, he couldn't do this alone any longer.

So after an evening of charting out the planets Ronon already visited and ones yet searched, they began to plot their course; each of them hoping that the search would not end up being a recovery mission.

…

Carson?

Carson groaned and rolled over.

"Yes?"

Silence. He opened his eyes to find he was alone.

Turning, he looked out of a window in a room that wasn't his room at the setting sun as it gleamed against the city, against his home.

Images rushed through his head making him dizzy; a hand grasping his shoulder spinning him around.

The Sovereign's son stood there, in uniform an emblem reading "Atlantis", on its side.

He opened his mouth to say "M'lord" but instead gasped out –

"Colonel!" Carson sat up with a start, his heart racing, his eyes flicking around his room of the past few days. There were no stores of herbs or a sitting area in this room, no small bed that though not always comfortable, he had been happy to call his own.

An over-head light and a thin mattress laid out on a low stone platform against the wall were his only reprieve from having to sleep in the dark on the cold damp ground.

He closed his eyes taking a deep breath, then re-opened them and slowly pulled himself into a sitting position then he stood and began to pace; his limp becoming more pronounced as the days went by. He touched his forehead against one of the cool walls to ease the pounding in his head.

He was in trouble.

They had not come for him yet, but he was definitely in trouble.

Carson sighed, turning and sliding down to the ground, his back against the wall, his legs stretched out in front of him.

Uncertainty bombarded him. He didn't know who wrote him the note that beckoned him to the hill that night, but the days alone left him with more and more flashes of unknown familiar faces and the city…he couldn't have imagined the immensity of a city he supposedly had never seen; a regal crystal sitting atop a mighty ocean. His mind could never have made up that image.

So, it was real, he didn't know how…but it had to be...

And in that confusing truth came the understanding that if he wasn't who he thought he was, then there was a chance neither was Nahkhan.

Carson slowly shook his head.

He was in trouble…and if his maddening thoughts were true…

So was his only friend.

"Odalia, say what's on your mind."

Odalia sat across from Lucius in his sitting room watching as he poured himself another drink then leaned against the wall sipping it slowly.

"The healer," she started. She had heard the healer had done something horrible, but didn't know the details.

"Still in the cells, but he's been fed. We don't starve our criminals, old woman."

"And Nahkhan?" she hadn't seen him since the night the healer had been locked up.

"Taking time to meditate on this recent betrayal."

"Betrayal?"

Odalia had noticed Nahkhan's room was once again guarded, but was it by his choice or his father's?

Lucius' mind wandered to his son and their conversation they had several days before.

"Talk to me, Nahkhan." he had shut the door sequestering them in his son's room.

John sat on the edge of his bed leaning forward deep in thought, his chin resting on closed hands.

"Nahkhan."

John sighed and sat up staring at Lucius.

The past few nights had him bothered by nightmarish images of Arex shooting his father while he stood next to the healer cheering him on. Of his father dying by his own hand as the manor was invaded, the healer leading the charge laughing as they slaughtered everyone.

John stared at his hands, the image of them stained in his father's blood causing him to shiver.

He could never hurt his father. But, how could Arex want to? His friend seemed so loyal, why would he do that to him?

"You're still thinking about him as a friend, aren't you?" Lucius sighed, leaning against the door, arms crossed.

John stood and scowled at him.

"No."

The word came easy startling him for a moment, but his mind eased behind it and the thought that he should have chosen Sarek followed suit.

Sarek was an idiot, but John wondered if he would be feeling this betrayal if Arex had been the one to die; if he hadn't been successful in pushing his false friendship to further his cause to try and end the Daravilus line.

Lucius moved away from the door and stood in front of John

"I spoke with him." said Lucius. He hemmed and hawed then finally chose to remove his mask and he laughed about it all. He laughed about you, son. How he used his herbs to drug you, to manipulate you into thinking you were someone from the city of the Ancestors."

John frowned, anger and confusion pulling at him.

"You said you found us together... on that planet."

"A happy circumstance on his part; falling down hurt next to a Daravilus. He and his friends must have been overjoyed at that luck."

John slowly exhaled, his mind a jumble of mixed emotions.

Lucius smiled putting his hands on John shoulders.

"Son. I wouldn't lie to you. I love you. But enough is enough. You need to take care of this; show him and his friends what we're made of."

Lucius shook him gently.

"Make me proud, son." he whispered.

Odalia sighed at Lucius' silent reverie.

"Can I at least see, Nahkhan?" she asked.

He stared at her.

"No, you cannot. Didn't you say recently that you wanted to go off-world to visit some friends?"

Odalia frowned, "No, I did not."

Lucius' eyes narrowed, then he smiled. "I grant you leave Odalia. Go visit some relatives, friends, strangers…I don't care. I just don't want you here right now. Go through the Ancestral ring and don't come back until you hear from me. Nahkhan had a mother once, he doesn't need another one anymore…he has me."

Odalia's mouth dropped open.

A forced smile making its way to her face as she stood.

"I will prepare my things."

Two guards appeared by the open doorway.

"They will accompany you, to the ring to keep you safe. Who knows if any of the healer's people are already in the city? I wouldn't want you to get hurt."

Odalia glanced back at Lucius, her heart sinking at the smirk on his face.

Oh Nahkhan…or whoever you are…

…Be safe.

Odalia nodded and slowly made her way to pack.

A half hour later as Lucius stood on his balcony sipping a drink there was a knock at the sitting room door.

"Come." he bellowed and turned to walk back into the room. A young woman came in closing the door quietly behind her.

She stood wringing her hands in front of him, her eyes to the ground.

"Sovereign, you called for me?"

Lucius smiled. "Yara, thank you for coming, would you like to sit?"

The woman shook her head. "No thank you…my…my family. I did as you said."

He moved to her, towering over her petite frame. He rubbed the back of his hand across her cheek, then reached forward, pulling the pin from her upturned hair; long blonde tresses cascaded down her back and around her neck.

"Indeed you did. The note under his door, the secret meeting by the hill. You were like a thief in the night, I should have you come and work for me."

Yara's eyes shot up. "Sovereign, my family and I just sell trinkets in the square. I only did as you asked, because of my brother." Her eyes were round and shiny with tears. "You said you would let him go."

Lucius smiled, "I am a man of my word. Tell your parents that their son will be returned to them and that their daughter served the Sovereign well."

"Thank you…thank you, Sovereign." Yara turned to leave but stopped, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"If I may…what was in the note I gave the healer, up by the hill?" she asked, facing the door, afraid to turn back around.

She felt Lucius' hand softly rest on her shoulder, his voice soft behind her dripping with pride.

"Something I came up with, your Sovereign can be very creative when he puts his mind to it."

When he caressed her shoulder, Yara yelped, opened the door a crack and squeezing through she ran down the hallway tears streaming down her face, the echo of Lucius' laughter in her wake.

Carson had thought that it would have been Lucius who would have tormented him, he hadn't considered that there was a worse kind of torment. The Sovereign's son stood outside his cell staring at him through the window in the door. The first two days he did this, the silence was painful, almost unbearable. The look of betrayal on his friend's face like a knife to his heart, making him turn away after a while.

I was tricked!

I would never betray you!

What if we aren't who we think we are?

Too many emotions clawed at him, locking him down into his silence once more and at the sound of the window closing, he would curl up on his bed, facing the wall and yank at his hair, tears forming at his eyes as he prayed to wake up from the nightmare he had found himself in.

A few days had passed and John's team was sitting at a table in the corner of a busy pub.

"I'm not giving up." stated Rodney annoyed at the silence of the other team members.

"Who said anything about giving up?" Ronon gruffly replied.

"Why are we sitting here, then?" argued Rodney, his voice rising as he got to his feet." When our friends are out there waiting for us to save them!"

People at some of the other tables bristled at the loud foreigner, but a look from the larger man of the group had them quickly minding their own business.

"Rodney, sit down." ordered Teyla.

Rodney inhaled ready to continue his rant, but the look Teyla and Ronon gave him took the air out of it and he sat back down crossing his arms, frustration etched on his face; he was smarter than this, he should have found his friends months ago!

Teyla smiled sadly. The planet they were on was near the bottom of their list; they were running out of places to look.

"I'll never stop searching." Ronon growled softly as he stared into his untouched stein of ale.

Teyla nodded, looking at her two teammates.

"Tomorrow, we will move onto the next planet on our list." she said. "Our friends are counting on us."

It was the following afternoon on the planet Ezara and Odalia was slowly sipping her tea in the open-air meal establishment. She closed her eyes and lifted her face, the warmth of the tea and the afternoon sun calming her spirit.

The town she was in was known for their hospitality and teas that is why she chose to go there. She had no family and anyone she considered a friend was on the planet she was forced to leave.

Opening her eyes, she sighed and looked down at her half empty cup. She felt guilty leaving Nahkhan behind; but wasn't sure how she felt about the healer. He had seemed like a nice man, but he must have done something bad for Lucius to jail him. She hoped he wouldn't kill him though; for the sake of Nahkhan.

Lucius could be a violent man, but she still loved him. He had been kind, keeping her on after Nahkhan and his brother had grown way beyond the need of a wet nurse. But now…

"You're alone in the world, Odalia." she murmured to herself and took another sip of tea.

She glanced up as three people entered the room, one of them brushing past her table near the entrance. They looked like they were on a mission, especially the tallest of the three, a mountain of man. He almost reminded her of Lucius and she feared for those who got in that man's way.

She listened closely as they talked to the establishment's owner, then she heard them mention they were looking for two of their friends who had been missing for months and if they'd been seen there.

Her curiosity got the best of her and she slowly rose, shuffling past the group just as one of the men placed two pictures on the counter for the owner to see.

Odalia caught a glimpse as she passed, her heart beating in her frail frame as she headed for the exit.

It was just a glimpse, but they looked like…

Could it have all been true?

She had to say something, but if she interfered and Lucius found out, this time for sure he would drag her back to the manor and throw her into the room, and Odalia didn't think her heart could take it.

But…she cared for Nahkhan, whether he was the real one or not…so she would help him, but she needed to be sure.

The woman and two men left a few minutes after her and she watched by a store front as they walked by her in frustration.

"We will continue to look." the woman said.

"I know," said the shorter of the men. "I know…we'll continue to look…but…we're running out of places…" his lips tightened and he lowered his head as they walked on.

Odalia followed closely behind them as fast as her old legs could carry her. A few moments later near the end of the road, she heard the tall man say, "We got company." and the three stopped and turned to face her.

When they motioned to step toward her, she scurried behind a nearby building and poked her head out beckoning them away from prying eyes.

Moving to her, the woman in the group smiled gently.

"Hello, I am Teyla Emmagan and these are my companions. We are looking for our friends."

Rodney held out the pictures of John and Carson to her.

"Have you seen them?" Teyla asked.

Odalia's eyes widened.

It was them!

Nahkhan had been telling the truth!

"You're from Atlantis." Said Odalia, in wonder.

"Have we met before?" asked Teyla surprised at the look of recognition on the older woman's face.

Odalia shook her head.

"But, I believe I know where your friends are." she replied.

-tbc-