Steph7085 – I'm glad you like the story, here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy it and thanks for the review.

Sparklyshimmer2010 – Thanks for the review, I'm glad you liked Lorne's line in the last chapter; it actually made me laugh when I was writing it. Glad you like my stories and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Kuroima – Sorry for shocking you and yeah, it was a tossup between Lorne and Laura but in the end I went with Lorne. Lorne's line made me laugh as well, which is why I kept it in there. This chapter marks the end of The Return but it's nowhere near the end of the story. Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

- - -

Chapter 8

"Okay, that should do it, it's all over but the crying," Rodney announced as he planted the last of his C4 on the shield emitter. He and John had taken care of all the generators on their 'to do' list. They had yet to run into a single replicator which was both concerning and potentially a problem. A loud sound came from somewhere in the city and the two men turned around to the holographic screen behind them.

"No wonder they weren't coming after us," Rodney said "They've been busy repairing the city."

There were more sounds coming from the city, the humming sounded like some kind of device or machine activating. "What is that?" John asked.

"They brought ZPM's to power the star drive," Rodney stated in realisation.

"So that sound is...?" John trailed off questioningly, looking at Rodney for him to confirm the rest of it.

"The city about to take off," Rodney finished for him as he looked from John to the holographic screen behind him. John walked away from him for a moment, probably about to start pacing. "It's time to start crying."

"They'll have to activate the shield to take off won't they?" John questioned as he walked back towards Rodney. "We got most of their emitters."

"Yeah, most ain't gonna cut it," Rodney replied, reigning in his annoyance athow much of their plan was going wrong, they weren't even on plan A, they were on C or something like that. "For this plan to work it is all or nothing."

"What do they wanna fly around for?" John questioned.

"Well, they probably wanna fly back to their home world," Rodney answered even though the question really didn't help their current situation.

"Or take on the Deadalus," John added as he continued pacing. "Well, how are we gonna stop em?"

For once Rodney really had no answer and think as he might, he couldn't come up with one. John made a gesture that had Rodney thinking for a moment that he was going to click his fingers the way Rodney did when he got an idea. Instead he pointed at him with 'I have an idea' written all over his face. "Drones, they fired drones at us. That means the chair is active and powered."

"You wanna fire drones at the city?" Rodney asked incredulously. "Who are near the chair?"

"Teyla and Beckett are," John informed him reaching for his radio and contacting their team mates. "Teyla, Beckett, come in."

There was a moment of static before Carson's voice replied "What is it Colonel?"

"Carson, I need you to go to the chair room and use the drones to take out the star drive," he told the doctor and once again there was only static for a moment.

"You want me to do what?" Carson asked both surprised and worried.

"Just do what I say," John told him.

"Alright, I'll give it a try, but no apologies if I happen to destroy the entire bloody city," the disembodied Scottish accent told him.

"Star drive Carson, concentrate on the star drive," John instructed him "And Teyla, you might have to fight your way in."

"I am ready, Colonel," Teyla's voice replied, far more assured and calm than Carson's.

"Use your ARG's sparingly or they may build up an immunity, we may have to go to plan...B," John told them thoughtfully.

"Okay," Carson responded "Which one's that again?"

John looked at Rodney for a moment before replying "Never mind just go," he said before putting the radio in his tack vest and looking at back at Rodney. "Alright, go and meet up with Ronon and Lorne."

"Are you sure you can do this?" Rodney asked and John only nodded as he moved toward the door. "Are you sure you wanna do this?"

John stopped and looked back at Rodney who pretended not to be as concerned as he actually was. "Just make sure the city doesn't go anywhere. I'll make sure the replicators don't figure out what we're really up to."

Rodney could only stand and watch as John left the room and he stared after him for a moment before heading to where he was to meet Ronon and Major Lorne.

- - -

Teyla approached the chair room with Carson only a few steps behind her, she heard voices inside and something made her stop and listen. "Did they ever locate the human female in the city?" one of the replicators asked and Teyla knew they had to be talking about Elizabeth.

"What is it?" Carson whispered beside her and she held up her hand in a silent gesture for him to stay quiet. She had to get him into that room but if a few more seconds meant finding out what had happened to Elizabeth, then she was going to take them.

"No, we believe she escaped on that Jumper with a few of the Ancients," another voice replied. Teyla smiled slightly, so Elizabeth had escaped the Replicators. Once this was over they'd have to track down the Jumper but at least that meant she was alive.

She took Carson's ARG and walked into the room, firing both weapons and taking out two of the four replicators at once before turning her attention to the other two. "Clear," she called stepping to the side and Carson ran into the room and sat down on the chair. It activated as soon as he sat down and he leaned back with his eyes closed in concentration. After several long moments the city shook with what was probably the impact of the drones, she just hoped they'd hit the star drive.

Several replicators walked down the corridor and she was about to fire when she thought better of it. They'd done what they needed to; they'd taken care of their emitters and from the sound of it, had stopped the star drive too. There was no sense in risking them building up immunity to the ARG's now.

- - -

After playing question and answer with the replicators for several minutes which had gotten them nowhere but hopefully bought his team enough time to finish their job, the blonde haired replicator got down to business. He'd volunteered to be tone one to get caught and feed misinformation to the replicators. After leaving Rodney he'd gone in search of the Replicators and it had taken him a few minutes to get himself caught without looking like he was trying to get caught.

John winced even before the hand touched his head and then bit back a cry of pain as it did. It only lasted a second before he found himself standing in the Atlantis gate room; it was empty except for him and the replicator. The only light was coming from the active stargate and John looked around, it was kind of eerie to see this room empty, it hadn't even been like this when he'd first got here. There had already been several members of the expedition here by the time he'd stepped through the gate.

He seemed to be having a staring competition with the replicator for almost a full minute before he decided to speak. "Find what you're looking for yet?" he asked as he subtly protected certain secrets and made it look as though he was protecting others.

"You have quite a remarkable ability to resist," he stated with a smile.

"Yeah, well, I like my privacy," John told him and the replicator smirked in amusement before apparently finding what he was looking for.

"There we are," he said and abruptly the gate room dissolved and the pain returned. He could actually feel the hand slide out of his head and knew he was going to have the mother of all headaches later. He just hoped he'd done enough. "We need to get to the shield emitter stations, remove the C4 explosives you find there."

The replicators left the room without so much as a glance at him and he was locked in the cell alone. He sighed and sat down on the metal bench that had been left there. Had that always been there? There was nothing more he could do now; he just had to hope his team were able to get all of the emitters. This was the first chance he'd had to stop and think since they'd got here and inevitably his thoughts went to Elizabeth.

No one had seen her in their travels around the city but that didn't mean she wasn't here somewhere. She could be hiding somewhere in the city, maybe in one of the damaged sections where the sensors weren't yet functioning. This shouldn't have happened to her, it was him that was supposed to get in trouble not her. He'd left her here; he'd left her in Atlantis thinking that she'd be safe, that with the Ancients here and a city that had never failed them, she'd be protected even though he wasn't here to do it anymore.

He couldn't get much further that those guilt ridden thoughts before the doors opened once more and Teyla and Carson were tossed unceremoniously into the room. Teyla landed near him and John grabbed her arm to help her up from the floor. She thanked him and the sat on the bench beside him as Carson stood up and the cell was locked again.

"Nice job on the star drive doc," John told Carson who nodded "Did you get all of the..." he trailed off.

"We completed our task," Teyla replied "John..." she began and the sudden shift in her tone caught him off guard. "When we were entering the chair room I heard the Replicators talking about..." she was cut off as the door to the cell opened once again and this time it was Rodney, Lorne and a rather annoyed looking Ronon that were thrown into the cell. Ronon hit the floor with a thud and then glared at the Replicators as he stood back up.

"Did you really think your plan would succeed?" the blonde replicator asked and John stood up and nodded as he took a few steps toward him.

"Sure we did," he replied.

"The C4 has been removed from the shield emitters, you have failed," the replicator told him rather smugly and John gave him a sarcastic smile and his best 'defeated' look. He hoped that behind him, the rest of his team were giving their best performances as well. A voice over the radio informed them all that the Deadalus had arrived and the replicator gave him another smug smile. "As expected, activate the shield."

Seconds later a wave of distortion passed through the room and the smug replicator, along with his friends, were nothing more than piles of dust on the floor. "It worked," Rodney exclaimed pointing at what used to be a replicator. "I can't believe it worked."

"Good job Rodney," Lorne said patting Rodney on the back.

"Well, it was a group effort," the scientist replied, sharing the achievement in an uncharacteristic moment.

"Good old plan D, works every time," John stated as he tossed the bag of C4 explosives to Rodney and he and Ronon left the room to make sure it was all clear. The corridor was empty save for a few piles of replicator dust and John sent Ronon back for the others.

He made his way to the control room to be joined by the rest of the team only moments later. He quickly sent a message to the Deadalus which from the look of the sensor readings was about to drop into orbit.

Caldwell's voice filled the room after several tense seconds "Colonel, I'd like to believe this is you."

"Well, it is, authentication code Alpha, Delta, Charlie, Niner Six," he replied, probably wouldn't work but it was worth a try.

"That code is no longer valid, Colonel" Caldwell's voice informed him and John looked to the rest of his team for any suggestions. Elizabeth would have had him convinced but then she had a way with words.

"We're lowering the city's shields," John told him; somehow he figured that's what Elizabeth would have done, a show of good faith or whatever. "You can send a team to come and check us out, we'll explain everything."

- - -

Colonel Caldwell and his team had determined that they weren't under the influence of replicators and Carson had checked to make sure nobody had any little robots floating around their blood streams. Now they all stood in the control room watching as the stargate dialled earth.

"John," Teyla began as she stepped closer to him and John remembered that she had been trying to tell him something earlier. "The replicators I heard talking earlier were talking about Elizabeth... they said that they think she escaped the city in a Jumper along with several of the Ancients."

John's mind was frozen for a moment, as if someone had pushed a pause button on his thoughts and it took him a moment to put it in gear again.

"That's great," he heard Rodney exclaim from somewhere behind him "We'll just need to track down the Jumper and..."

"Easier said than done Rodney," Lorne stated "The Jumper could be anywhere by now."

Silence fell across the gate room until Rodney informed them that he was opening a channel to earth and the next thing they knew they were staring at General O'Neill's face. "Colonel Sheppard, mind explaining to me why you're in the wrong galaxy."

There were several smart ass answers that came to mind but John figured that even with O'Neill he should reign in his usual sense of humour. "Sir, Dr Weir was still in Atlantis and we knew if there was any chance of rescuing her then we had to do it before the Deadalus arrived."

"So you disobeyed a direct order, assaulted two of your colleagues, stole a Jumper and left the galaxy," O'Neill summed up and John nodded slowly. "Well my official position on this is, you should know better than to disobey a direct order, especially when it comes from my standing order. However, my unofficial position is, well done."

"Thank you sir," John said cautiously.

"Have you found Dr Weir?" he asked hopefully and John glanced at Teyla before replying.

"No sir, but we have reason to believe she escaped the city in a Jumper with some of the Ancients," he told him and watched as mixed emotions played across the General's face.

"I've already spoken to the IOA, you'll be allowed to remain in Atlantis and the rest of the expedition team will be returning to you as well," O'Neill informed them and John felt only a small amount of the relief he knew he should feel. "Find her Colonel."

"I intend to."

TBC