Sparklyshimmer2010 – Thanks for the review, you really would think they'd get better positions wouldn't you. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Lantia4eva – John Liz really are the best, I'm glad you're enjoying the story and thanks for the review.

Step7085 - I wanna hug John and Liz too, thanks for the review, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Stargatesomeone – Thanks for the review, replicators will be arriving soon and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Windlg – Thanks for the review.

- - -

Chapter 5

Elizabeth watched the screen in front of her as the small dot representing the jumper the Ancients sent approached the much larger Replicator ship. The Ancients had all seemed completely unbothered by the Replicators and though Elizabeth knew the Replicators were programmed not to harm the Ancients, she didn't feel all that comforted.

"Are you sure only sending one jumper is a good idea?" Elizabeth asked as only she and Helia paid any attention to the screen. The other Ancients were going about their business as usual only glancing at the screen occasionally.

"It is impossible for them to harm us," Helia told her with a small smile, she seemed almost amused by Elizabeth's worry.

"We have established communications commander," a voice informed them through the radio and Helia's amused expression became serious. "This is Commander Helia, the city you are approaching is once again under Lantian control, stand down and return to your planet immediately or you will be..." Helia began but was cut off when the dot on the screen that had once been the Jumper disappeared.

Elizabeth's eyes widened as she looked at the now blank spot on the screen, she heard Helia give the order to raise the shield but it came too late. The city shook with the impact of the Replicator's weapons and Elizabeth was forced to grab the console in front of her to steady herself. Helia walked away shouting orders about drones and shields but Elizabeth looked back at the screen, she had a horrible feeling she knew how the Replicators had been able to fire on the Ancients. She couldn't be sure though and that information would be no good now so she decided it would be best to keep her mouth shut.

The city shook once again with the force of another impact and then another, they weren't going to hold out long this way.

- - -

He hated planes.

There was never enough leg room; there was always some kid who kept running up and down the aisle making way too much noise. Some guy nearby who somehow managed to sleep through it yet his ridiculously loud snoring made it impossible for anyone else to attempt the same and all this was after the unexpected delay at the airport beforehand.

The plane finally landed in Colorado and the seat belt sign switched off. Rodney was one of the first passengers to be out of their seat collecting their things from the overhead storage and on his way down the aisle to the exit. He was more than relieved when he finally stepped off the plane and went in search of his luggage which he was sure would have been mixed up and ended up on another plane, it was probably in Switzerland now.

Fortunately that did not seem to be the case and his one luggage bag appeared on the terminal waiting for him to pick it up. He grabbed it and headed to where he hoped Carson would be waiting for him. He saw Carson waiting with a soda in his hand and a young blonde he prayed wasn't Cadman standing by his side. John had let it slip over the phone a few days ago that Carson was seeing Laura again and made Rodney swear under threat of slow torturous death to pretend he didn't know. On closer inspection the blonde was not Laura and Rodney sighed in relief just before Carson spotted him.

"Hello Rodney," Carson greeted as the young woman walked away to meet up with whoever she'd been waiting for.

"Carson," Rodney replied.

"How was the flight?" his friend asked taking the smaller bag Rodney had been carrying.

"Let's not talk about it," was Rodney's only answer, he was dreading the flight back. He'd always hated planes and memories of the more comfortable, shorter flights in the jumpers only made him hate them more.

"I have to get to work soon so I'll have to drop you off and leave I'm afraid," Carson informed him and Rodney couldn't really complain. Carson had taken his time to come and pick him up in the first place.

"That's fine, what time are we meeting at the restaurant?" he asked as they left the airport and made their way to Carson's car.

"About 7.30," Carson replied just as Rodney spotted the good doctor's car, did he have to park so far away?

- - -

The Ancients had all armed themselves within moments of the first reports that the Replicators were now in the city which had been a couple of hours ago. Elizabeth had to give these people credit, they weren't giving up. Helia had pushed a weapon into Elizabeth's hands and despite the fact that she hated the damn things she took it anyway. Fortunately John had made her learn to use weapons after the Genii stormed the city in their first year here. At the time she'd agreed simply to make him stop pestering her about it but now those lessons might actually save her life.

She silently thanked him for being so annoying and then focused her mind on the current situation. Weapons fire could be heard in the corridor outside the control room and Elizabeth moved toward it along with several other Ancients. Risking a look around the corner she saw the Asurans heading in their direction and was almost hit by stray weapons fore before she could duck back around the corner.

She felt someone grab her hand and pull her back into the control room, it took her surprised mind a moment to register that it was Taros who was currently dragging her along. "The city is lost Dr Weir," he stated still puling her even though she was now following him.

He stopped in front of the controls for the gate and began dialling what Elizabeth recognised as the address for earth. She watched the gate spinning in the large room in front of them as each chevron locked into place. The sounds of the fire fight were getting closer and she knew she didn't have long. She moved quickly over to the communications console and ducked down just in time to avoid the laser fire being sent her way. Moving to the side of the console she looked around the edge and fired at the Replicator that had made it into the control room. She stood back up and looked at the doorway where Helia's body was lying and she swallowed back the sadness and anger that swept through her.

She heard the gate engage and quickly opened a channel to earth "Stargate Command this is Dr Weir."

- - -

"You should see the size of the place, it's ridiculous," Rodney complained as he shovelled a fork full of food into his mouth. "It's like a giant chasm and everything I need is on opposite sides."

"You just don't like it because it's not Atlantis," Carson informed him and Rodney tried to look insulted.

"That is not true... much," he admitted after a moment.

"Don't worry Rodney, you're not the only one," John stated "I think we all miss it."

"What's your new team like?" Rodney questioned sounding slightly hopeful that John wouldn't like them.

"They're great," was all John could say "They're not SGA-1 but they're great." What else could he say, they got themselves into accidents that made Rodney look co-ordinated and they felt like a bunch of strangers to him even after six weeks on the same team.

"Rodney, I do have a confession to make," Carson said changing the subject for which John was grateful. He knew what the doctor was about to say and just hoped Rodney didn't give him away. "I'm seeing Laura again."

To his credit, Rodney did a great job of looking shocked and dismayed as he lowered his fork to his plate. Mentions of Cadman tended to make him lose his appetite. "Oh why would you do that?" Rodney questioned in dismay and John had to resist the urge to laugh.

"Because she's a very nice woman and..." Carson began to explain but Rodney held his hand up to stop him.

"No I don't mean date her though that was my next question. I mean why would you tell me that while I'm eating, I was enjoying this meal," he stated.

Before Carson could respond John's phone which he'd set on the table beside him started to ring and he picked it up to answer it "Sheppard."

A moment later Rodney's phone rung as well and John watched him answer as a voice told him he was to come into the SGC immediately. "What's going on?" Carson questioned as John hung up.

"So much for dinner," he stated as Rodney put his phone away. They quickly paid for their meals and headed out to their separate cars. John couldn't help but wonder what could be going on that had them both him and Rodney being called into the SGC, Rodney didn't even work there.

He pulled up in the car park and got out of his car watching Rodney and Carson as their cars parked close by. His two friends got out of their vehicles and the three of them entered the first elevators into Cheyenne Mountain. They spent the entire ride in silence until they switched elevators into the SGC.

"Why would they be calling Rodney in here?" Carson questioned and at the slightly offended look Rodney gave him he added "You work at area 51 Rodney, not here."

"I imagine they have some problem that they need my expertise for," Rodney stated airily and John tried not to roll his eyes. The elevator doors opened and they headed through to the control room where they were immediately sent up the stairs to the briefing room. General Landry was already waiting for them.

"Take a seat Gentlemen," he began immediately and they did as they were told without question, clearly he was going to get straight to the point. "We got this data burst about twenty minutes ago," he told them pointing his remote at the large screen at the end of the briefing table. The screen flickered to a distorted image of the Atlantis control, static clearly interfering with the transmission. John watched as Elizabeth moved into view looking slightly shook up.

"Atlantis is under attack from Replicators," she told them and John felt his entire body tense up "Somehow they figured out how to override their programming, the Ancients were taken off guard and we've lost most of the city already." There was a pause as Elizabeth turned her head at the sound of gunfire before she looked back at the camera "Request immediate evacuation."

"They're coming," someone called from off screen and Elizabeth turned to look at him and then toward the control room door.

There were more gunshots and they all watched as Elizabeth raised her own weapon to fire at something off screen. Streaks of light were hurled back in her direction and Elizabeth moved off camera to avoid them just before the camera itself was hit and the screen went black. Landry switched it off and then tuned to look at the group.

"She never made it to the gate," he informed them and John was suddenly glad Carson was there because he was sure his heart had actually stopped beating for a second. "I was informed they had a law written into their base code that made it impossible for them to harm the Ancients. How the hell did this happen?" he asked and John unconsciously looked at Rodney.

"It is remotely possible that in trying to rewrite Niam's base code that I... er we may have opened the door for them to make other changes," Rodney stated and John once again found himself trying not to roll his eyes, trust Rodney to share his achievements when they'd caused a disaster.

"You did this?" Landry asked sounding slightly angry and John had been serving under him long enough to know he was way more than slightly angry.

"At the time it had been the only possible way to save the city," John jumped in to defend him when Rodney seemed at a loss for words "How it happened doesn't matter, they may have changed it on their own. The question is, how do we fix it?"

"That's why I called you in," Landry stated a little more calmly and John didn't like whatever undertone he was picking up from the General's voice. "I have my orders, the Deadalus is already on the way, now what I need from you is..." he said turning back to the screen behind him and bringing up a plan of Atlantis. "What's the best way to get a nuke passed the shield?"

There were several moments of silence in the room s they all tried to figure out if they'd actually heard what they thought they'd heard. "Well I have no idea," Carson finally broke the silence.

"I didn't call you in doctor," Landry stated and Carson quickly shut up again.

"You want to blow up Atlantis?" John questioned in shock.

"It's the gate way to earth," Landry reminded them.

"And we have an iris," Rodney tried to argue gesturing out of the large windows to where the earth stargate stood.

"Yes we do," Landry replied getting more impatient with them "But thanks to your intergalactic gate bridge all they'd have to do is rewrite your macro and they can come out anywhere in the Milky Way."

"But those Macros are very complicated," Rodney continued to try and protest but it did him no good.

"They are very complicated Dr McKay, they just rewrote their own damn base code, I think they can handle it," Landry stated his impatience was obvious now as he began to raise his voice.

"Sir," John ventured knowing this was probably going to get him yelled at as well but he had to try "Dr Weir may still be alive. I know the city like the back of my hand, just give me sixty marines and some of Colonel Carter's new erm..." he trailed off trying to remember the name for the damn things.

"Anti- Replicator weapons," Rodney filled in quickly for him.

"Yeah, those things," he finished

"I'm sorry Colonel but I have my standing orders, Dr Weir agreed with these orders as a condition of her remaining in Atlantis. The deadalus will be there in a little under four days. Now how do I get a nuke passed their shield?"

TBC