Shivers

New A/N: Okay, uh... I posted this, then I was reading the fic again, and saw some MAJOR inconsistances, so I quick took it off and changed it a little bit, then reposted it. Whew! Sorry if anyone saw them, when I wrote this I didn't have internet connection, so I couldn't see what had happened in the previous chapter.

A/N: Well, this is the last chapter. I worked on this chapter for like, a week, even though it's pretty short. Please review! I really want some critiques; I know I'm not an excellent writer, so anything that may improve the read-ability of my stories is helpful to me.

Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate: Atlantis. I think MGM does.

Chapter Three: Blanket of Silence

Two ghostly figures floated down a dark hallway. One, seemingly male, was pale with deep, sunken eyes. His arms were behind his back, and his shoulders were ever so slightly hunched over, as if he were carrying the weight of the world on his back. The other seemed lighter, happier, as if she (for it was female,) were excited. Although she too was pale, she looked almost flushed, as it below her white skin there was a pinkish glow.

"But Anias," she said excitedly, "The results are completely different than we predicted!"

"Mhm," the male, Anias, murmured thoughtfully.

"I mean, you saw the brain wave patterns! The response to the hallucinogen and the boost of adrenaline, it was completely unexpected! This is possibly the breakthrough we've been looking for!"

"Most likely not," Anias said calmly.

"What?!" The female looked at him in shock. "But wasn't our mission to-"

"Laira, do you understand that this very well could have been a mistake, a fluke that very well may never happen again? I have been studying the human brain for nearly seven hundred years, and have seen many so called 'breakthroughs' go up in smoke." Anias' shoulders drooped just a bit more, as if he was remembering one of his own failed breakthroughs.

"But I have seen the records, Anias, and there is nothing like this. Never before has there been a response remotely similar to this one!"

"Which is why I do not believe it is a breakthrough. Inconsistencies rarely help out search."

"Well, you'll just have to meet him. He's completely different from any other test subject we've had before."

"You like him, don't you?" Anias eyed his co-worker questioningly.

"No, it's just… the curiosity in his eyes, Anias, even in this strange situation… You'll see," Laira said.

But as they arrived at the laboratory, Laira felt something was wrong. As they passed through the doors, a loud beeping greeted them. Laira felt her heart plummet and her stomach churn. She hurried over to the table where her test subject lay. She bent over him and found he wasn't breathing; when she tried to find a pulse, she found his skin cold. He was dead. He was dead, and there was nothing she could do.

She cursed loudly, and pounded the table in frustration. They had been so close! Strangely enough, she felt tears spring to her eyes, and she wiped them away angrily with the back of her hand, taking deep breaths to calm herself.

"He's dead," she announced flatly.

"Mhm," Anias mumbled, going over to the computer. "That's frustrating."

"You're telling me!" Laira sniffled a little bit. "We have to start all over again, pick a new test subject, everything! I'm pretty sure there isn't going to be another one like him in the three we've got left."

"Mhm, the preliminary brain scans did show he had a certain… potential."

"Potential?! He was a… genius! Even in stasis, he was always thinking. Something up there never got turned off like all the others did."

"Yes, well, the human mind is, and probably will remain, a mystery."

"I hope not."

"I almost hope so…" Anias' eyes glazed over, and he was obviously deep in thought. "I mean… shouldn't some things remain hidden? Should all the mysteries be solved? What might the consequences be? How many like him, promising, promising men, will die in the pursuit of answers? Hundreds? Thousands? Are answers worth a life? How much is a life, even a human one, worth?"

"All questions for philosophers, Anias, not scientists."

"Are they? If no one but the philosophers ask these questions, where will morals come form? They are not instinct for anyone, but individual answers to questions that have no answers. And if we have no morals, what kind of animals will we be, for morals make the man."

"But we are not men," Laira reminded the scientist gently.

"Yet are we all not ruled by the same philosophies? Hm," Anias seemed to come back from his place of deep thought. "Ah well. Let's get rid of this body, hm?"

Gently, the two scientists placed their test subject, Subject no. 903, into a bad to be disposed of. The man in whose brain lay all they answers to their questions was dead. He was dead, and they had never gotten a chance to fully get those answers.

They knew, however, that whatever he had to offer, who he was, or what he did, or hadn't gotten to do, the universe had lost someone special.

They were right, for the man who died, the man who was lost to the universe forever, was Dr. Rodney McKay.

The End.

A/N: Did you like it? I hope so… if you didn't what do you think could be changed so it would be better? If you liked it, what about it did you like? Please tell me so I can work on my writing! Thanks, by the way, to everyone who reviewed in the first place! You really give me confidence to continue!