A/N: Meant to post this last night but my back hurt so bad I literally had to stop. I almost started crying. My back has been killing me for a weak now and nothing makes it stop. On the bright side, Critias and Hermos should be making their premier in either the next chapter or the one after that. ^_^
Side note: The scientist Jinto notices near the end is Dr. Radek Zelenka. He'll be appearing more often in later chapters, but yeah. He's took adorkable not to appear. Bless him.
Reply to Bob's anon reviews: Hello. Because you reviewed as an anon, I couldn't reply to your reviews via PM. So I'll reply here. There're several reasons why Dr. Weir and her people don't trust Timaeus or think he's an Ancient yet. First, the Ancients were advanced and swords are... well, not. Not in their minds anyway. Secondly, Timaeus appeared at the same time and place the Erebus shadow entity did. That's Strike Two. Then Timaeus refers to the Lanteans as a separate people from theirselves/their people. Three Strikes. Definitely not Ancient and maybe shouldn't be trusted 100% yet.
As for your surprise that Kaiba/Critias isn't the main character of this fic... Well, we're only 4 chapters in. What makes you think he won't be? You know Kaiba/Critias is my favorite character and my biggest weakness. He'll appear and when he does, it'll be in typical Kaiba/Critias style: dramatic.
Chapter summary: In which Dr. Elizabeth Weir learns some things and realizes she missed others, Timaeus has a sharp tongue, and Jinto learns even the dark fears fire.
4: Fear the Dark
Timaeus was eager to help. The moment his restraints were removed, he slipped off the bed and began looking around the room. His height, or lack thereof, took Elizabeth by surprise. The man held himself with a regal aire and his words held the calm intelligence of an adult, but he was only a head taller than Jinto. That brought another group of questions Elizabeth wasn't sure she was ready to ask.
When Timaeus noticed his sheathed sword lying on a table nearby, he immediately made his way towards it. Before Elizabeth could voice her disapproval, Maj. Sheppard was there. The major snatched the weapon away from Timaeus grasp and stepped back so he stood between Timaeus and the two Athosians.
"What is the meaning of this?" Timaeus said, his lone eye shifting between Elizabeth and Maj. Sheppard.
"I'm sorry," Elizabeth said. She took the sword from Sheppard's hands and sent him to help Dr. Beckett with retrieving Lt. Ford and Sgt. Stackhouse. "But I'm afraid I can't trust you with this."
Timaeus frowned, his hands clenching with his desire to have his sword in his grasp. Yet he never actively reached for his sword.
"We can work without it," he said slowly, his gaze drifting back to his sword, "but it will not be easy."
"I understand. But I'm responsible for everyone in this city," Elizabeth said, adjusting her grip on the sword's scabbard. "I don't know you. I can't trust someone I know nothing about with a weapon near civilians."
Violet flashed to Maj. Sheppard rushing quickly out of the room with Dr. Beckett hot on his heels, then moved back to Jinto and his father Halling now still sitting nearby. His expression softened and his shoulders drooped with a sigh.
"We see," he murmured. "Very well. We are at your command."
That was easier than she expected. But Elizabeth wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Right now, she had work to do.
"Good," she said. "Come with me."
She waited to be sure Timaeus joined her before moving. She noticed how he chose to stand to her right so she wasn't in his blind spot. It said a lot about the man's attentiveness and history. Curious, she opened her mouth to speak when Timaeus unexpectedly beat her to it.
"Are you truly not Lantean?" he asked, turning to look at her. "You look like them. Minus your clothes, we suppose." He hesitated. "But then," he added softly, "a lot can change in… 10,000 years."
Elizabeth smiled as she led the way briskly to the newly discovered transporter. "We aren't. As far as we know, the Ancients have been extinct for thousands of years now. We're explorers. We came to learn."
"And yet you carry weapons," Timaeus observed, careful to keep his tone even and unaccusing.
"Let's just say we've made some enemies," Elizabeth hedged.
"The Wraith. Yes, we remember them." Timaeus sighed and returned his gaze to the path ahead. "We never had direct contact with them, but we were aware of them and their growing threat to the Lanteans, err Ancients," he corrected, his eye flickered to her briefly. "The… Ancients wished to learn of Ascension as quickly as possible as a means to escape the Wraith threat." His expression fell. "We wonder how that turned out."
It wasn't a question and Elizabeth couldn't bring herself to answer it. She kept her silence as she led the way to the transporter. Timaeus also said nothing, following her lead without complaint and maintaining a careful distance between himself and her.
That measured distance between them remained even after they stepped into the small closet of a transporter room. Again, it was points in Timaeus' favor. It did make Elizabeth wonder, though, about how well Timaeus was taking the transition between times. It must have been a shock for him to wake up in the far future without anything familiar to fall back on. She wondered when the shock would wear off and the true realization of his situation would set in. This wasn't going to be easy.
When the doors opened once more, she gestured for Timaeus to go first. When he didn't move right away, she turned her head and got a good look at his face. His lone eye was wide and his face was paler than it had been. He swallowed thickly before stepping into the laboratory. Immediately, his gaze locked on the cylindrical containment device and he stilled, keeping his distance.
Perhaps the shock had already begun to fade.
"Dr. McKay?" she called, startling the mousy scientist from his in-depth study of the cylindrical device. She gestured to her guest. "This is Timaeus. Timaeus? This is Dr. Rodney McKay."
"Oh, you're shorter than I thought you were," McKay said by way of greeting.
The reaction was both instant and amusing. Timaeus blinked in surprise, then huffed and crossed his arms in a very childish pout.
McKay either didn't notice Timaeus' discomfort or chose to ignore it in favor of diving into his latest monologue. "Right, well, I'm assuming you're familiar with this device?"
"Unfortunately," Timaeus replied, reluctantly looking at the glowing cylinder. "We would appreciate if you turned it off, please."
"Hm? Why? I was just about to explain what-"
"We are aware of what it does, Doctor," Timaeus said sternly, his violet eye staring directly at McKay. "Which is why we are asking you to turn it off. Now."
Elizabeth lifted an eyebrow at the abrupt change in attitude but nodded for Rodney to power down the device. "Is there something we should know about this?" she asked. "We were under the impression it was used as lure and contain the shadow Erebus entity."
"It is," Timaeus confirmed, looking at Elizabeth. "But it was also used to contain us."
Oh. She hadn't thought…
"Not possible," Rodney said in a tone that would accept no disagreement. "It's only designed to capture and hold energy. It could capture you about as well as it could capture myself or Dr. Weir."
"You are wrong."
"Then please, enlighten me," McKay said, annoyance and sarcasm dripping from his voice.
Timaeus grimaced. "In order to calm the Erebus while it was under observation in the device, our presence was needed," he said. "Doing so requires close interaction, preferably physical contact with the Erebus itself. How do you think that was possible if we were separated by metal and subspace?"
Elizabeth felt her brow furrow as she tried to consider the possible answer. Apparently, Rodney was also struggling to come up with a solution.
"As we said before," Timaeus continued, "we were asked to help because of our people's affinity with energy and molecular manipulation. Our methodology is different from that used by the Erebus, but it is close enough that we could," he shrugged, "communicate after a fashion."
"What does that have to do with the device being on?" Rodney said.
"Would you appreciate standing in close proximity to the thing that held you prisoner for thousands of years without explanation or means of escape?" Timaeus countered.
Point.
"We were hoping to draw the Erebus here by turning off our power generators and leaving only this device on," Elizabeth said. "The plan was to have you stay here with McKay to keep the Erebus calm while McKay manually sets it to capture entity."
"Wait, what?" Rodney gasped, turning to her in horror. "Me? Why me?"
Elizabeth smiled. "Well, you have that personal shield," she said, pointing to the green Ancient device currently latched onto the scientist's chest. "It should protect you from anything the Erebus could do to you, right?"
The small device had been stuck in place since McKay had foolishly put it on earlier the previous day. Unfortunately, because he hadn't checked all of the fine print, he hadn't been able to deactivate the shield. Nothing could get through it, not even food or water much to Rodney's over-dramatic and yet very real horror.
Dr. Peter Grodin suggested the personal shield device, much like many other Ancient technology, likely had a mental component to it. If Rodney truly wanted it removed, it would turn off. But Elizabeth couldn't fault the scientist for being afraid, whether McKay admitted it or not.
She would fault him for the sudden deactivation of the device. She watched the green glow abruptly fade as the personal shield powered down, exactly as she suspected it would. McKay was brilliant, but he was still a coward and was not shy of announcing that fact.
"I figured," she said dryly, turning back to Timaeus. "Well, if McKay is too afraid to stay, then I'll ask Maj. Sheppard do it."
"We thought you said you were not Lantean," Timaeus said, staring at the deactivated Ancient technology in Rodney's hand in disbelief.
"We aren't," she insisted. "But some of us are descended from the Ancients. Not all of us have the gene needed to use Ancient technology, I certainly don't, but enough of us have it that we can inhabit the city."
"We… see," Timaeus said. Then something sparkled in his eye and he hummed. "A pity then that one such descendant is so afraid of the dark."
Elizabeth pressed her lips together and ducked her head to hide her grin.
"Is there a reason why you refer to yourself in the plural?" McKay asked, obviously not liking the fact his cowardice show without his deliberate intent and hoping to distract himself.
"Why are you so afraid?" Timaeus countered, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards in what Elizabeth believed to be a smirk.
"I'm not afraid," McKay snapped.
"No?"
"No. I'm just… concerned."
"Ah, we see," Timaeus said, nodding sagely. "Then perhaps you should be concerned elsewhere. The adults need to speak in private."
Elizabeth bit her lip to fight back her amusement. It wasn't easy when she saw the faint flush in McKay's face.
"Rodney," she said, halting any chance of the bickering to become an argument. "Why don't you go down to the medical hall. Let me know if Lt. Ford and Sgt. Stackhouse are there yet. If they are, send Maj. Sheppard up here."
Obviously not pleased with the situation, McKay left the lab in a huff, grumbling under his breath.
"He is most entertaining," Timaeus said, watching the scientist leave. "We can think of at least one person who would enjoy tormenting him and another who could likely match him for intelligence."
Interesting. "Friends of yours?" she asked.
"Close friends." The man's smile softened. "The only ones we have left, we think."
Left alive, that is. Right.
"Forgive us, but it will be easier if we had our blade when we deal the Erebus," Timaeus said, changing the subject as he turned his attention back to her. "It can offer us some protection from the detrimental effects of the entity."
Elizabeth considered her options. If Timaeus was telling the truth and the sword was more than just a simple sword, then Elizabeth wasn't sure if she felt comfortable arming someone she didn't entirely trust. But if it was a choice between that and continuing to allow her people to be haunted by the shadow entity, then she would consider it.
"If this plan doesn't work, you can have it," she said.
"We will hold you to your word then," Timaeus said, offering her a shallow bow of acceptance.
"Someone piss off McKay?" Maj. Sheppard asked the moment he stepped out of the transporter.
"We merely asked if he was afraid of the dark," Timaeus replied with an easy shrug of the shoulders.
The major huffed a laugh. "I take it the answer was yes."
"You noticed," Elizabeth teased.
Sheppard rolled his eyes. "Kind of hard not to when the guy wouldn't stop talking with his mouth full."
She chuckled, quickly attempting to recover when she noticed the confused smile on Timaeus' face. "I take it he explained the plan?" she asked, changing the subject.
"Got the gist of it," Sheppard replied, resting his wrists on the P-90 strapped to his bulletproof vest. "All I have to do is turn something on and off? I think I can do that."
"Good. And Lt. Ford?" she asked, hoping to stifle to mounting worry.
"Just a few minor burns," Sheppard said, glancing significantly at Timaeus who frowned. "Nothing serious. Dr. Beckett wants to keep him overnight for observation just in case."
"What happened?" Timaeus asked, his eye narrowed in calculation.
"Lieutenant Ford had a run-in with the Erebus entity," Elizabeth explained.
"Looked like you when we found you," the major said, meeting Timaeus' gaze warily. "Want to tell me what that was about?"
"Major," Elizabeth warned. She didn't want to alienate what little help they had.
Timaeus, however, appeared unaffected by the major's mistrust. He merely sighed and bowed his head in acknowledgement.
"The Erebus has been imprisoned for years," he said simply.
"As were you," Sheppard countered in the same, calm tone.
Timaeus nodded. "This is true. Our people and the Lanteans have not been on the best of terms for a long time. But when they asked us for our aid, we did not refuse. Besides," he continued, his shoulders drooping as he turned his gaze to the cylinder, "the Erebus was not at fault. It simply wished to live. We could not allow the Lanteans to observe it without knowing the creature would come to no harm."
The violet eye closed. "Have you ever been in subspace?" he asked. "It is cold and dark and lonely. Time has no meaning. A second could be an eternity or an eternity could be a second. We knew time was passing but only in the sense a dreamer is aware of time. For us, it was a form of stasis. For the Erebus, it was torture."
He winced. "We did not feel hunger or thirst because of the stasis. The Erebus did. We had developed a trust with the creature, but starvation can ruin even the closest of relationships. We cannot fault it for wanting to live. We too wish to live."
"Is it possible to reason with it?" Elizabeth asked hopefully. "I would rather avoid harm to either side if possible."
Timaeus considered the suggestion. "We will attempt to do so," he said. "But if it has indeed progressed beyond reasoning, then it would be best for all parties involved to either send it away from the city or, if all else fails, kill it." His eye closed. "Though we would prefer to avoid that outcome."
There was a heaviness to his words that Elizabeth recognized from listening to veterans speak of lost comrades. As a diplomat, she had traveled all over Earth and interacted with many people who had lost someone. The heaviness wasn't always as pronounced from person to person, but it was always present. She wondered if Maj. Sheppard noticed it as well.
"I would prefer no loss of life as well," she said, looking directly at the major. He returned her gaze with a flat look and she smirked. "Play nice, you two."
"If we have to," she heard Sheppard mutter under his breath.
It wasn't until she was finally alone in the transporter that she realized something. Timaeus had expertly avoided explaining why he referred to himself in the plural. She hadn't noticed the avoidance. Not until now.
This could quickly turn into an interesting can of worms.
Jinto lay in his bed, unable to sleep. It was all his fault. Lieutenant Ford may have told him it wasn't, but it was. If Jinto hadn't wondered off in the middle of the night to play seek-and-find with his best friend Wex, he never would have gotten lost. If he hadn't gotten lost, he never would have found the laboratory of the Ancestors and released the shadow. But he had and now the shadow had hurt someone.
"You should listen to the lieutenant," his father said from his place on the bed next to Jinto.
"'Stuff happens,'" Jinto quoted, repeating the words the young soldier had told him.
"He is correct."
Startled by the new voice, Jinto sat up to see Teyla standing in the doorway smiling gently at him. The Athosian leader looked to Halling for permission to enter, stepping into the room only when she received it.
"You should know no one in the city blames you for what happened," Teyla said, moving to stand by Jinto and Halling's shared bed. "No one except you. I doubt even Timaeus blames you."
That's right. Timaeus hadn't appeared until Jinto released the shadow. Had the man been imprisoned with the shadow too? Jinto shuddered at the thought and prayed to the Ancestors that that wasn't the case. He would be having nightmares for a while after this night.
"You should rest," Teyla said, pulling out her small igniter and lighting the nearby candle. "The shadow will come here tonight."
Wary and so terribly tired, Jinto looked up at his father first, then Teyla. "How do you know?" he asked.
The woman smiled and sat on the side of the bed. "Because it is afraid of fire," she replied.
Jinto tilted his head in confusion. "It is? But it's a shadow. Why would it be afraid of fire? Why would it be afraid of anything?"
Teyla's smiled faded slightly. "Everything is afraid of something," she said seriously. "Keep the candle lit and no harm will come to you."
She left soon after but Jinto still couldn't sleep. The candle's comforting light flickered in the dark room, casting dancing shadows on the walls and ceiling. He thought about Teyla's words as he listened to his father's breathing slowly even out as sleep overcame him. The shadows reminded him too much of the living shadow and the sigh before Timaeus collapsed on the floor in the lab.
The swirling blackness that Jinto could feel and breathe. Every time he closed his eyes, he was back in the lab surrounded by impenetrable darkness that weighed on his body. He felt heavy and not in the comfortable, mind-slipping-into-deep-sleep kind of way. He felt crushed.
The shadows on the walls and ceiling jumped and skipped. They didn't swirl and flow like the living shadow. These shadows weren't alive, they were created by the candle. He was too far from the tiny flame to feel its physical warmth, but he could see it.
The flame wasn't alive either. But it was lit by a friend and his father was sleeping soundly next to him. His fellow Athosians were scattered throughout the central tower of Atlantis huddled around their own candles. The Atlanteans stalked the hallways with their advanced weapons, ready to defend both their people and Jinto's.
He rolled his head to the side to get a good look at the Atlantean warrior moving down the hall past the door. He recognized the warrior's face but he didn't know their name. A scientist trailing behind the warrior was also a new face. The scientist's brown hair was thinning and stuck out every which way. Those odd metal and glass things sat on the scientist's nose as he spoke faster than Jinto could in a language Jinto had never heard before.
These people were so naïve to the dangers of Jinto's home galaxy, but they were trying. They were just as displaced as the Athosians. The Atlanteans may not have lost their planet in the same way Jinto's people had, but they were lost. They were afraid but they chose to stay and fight rather than run and hide.
They were brave. Major Sheppard was brave. Timaeus was brave.
Timaeus had looked so afraid when Dr. Weir spoke to him. Jinto would have too if he'd woken up 10,000 years after his father died. Jinto looked at his father's sleeping face and then back up at the ceiling. Even though he'd been afraid, Timaeus had chosen to help.
Jinto wanted to be like that one day. He would be like that one day. He would find a place for his people to live safely. He would.
Even if it was only in his dreams.