Saphiretwin369 – We finally get to see Elizabeth's point of view in this chapter so I hope you enjoy it, thanks for the review.

Sparklyshimmer2010 – In the episode, the C4 is just misinformation, they actually planted hidden charges on all of the generators that work like one giant ARG, so when the shield was raised a wave went through the city and took them all out in one. Elizabeth hasn't quite disappeared; you get to see her in this chapter. Thanks for the review.

Lantia4eva – Thanks for the review, it's not quite a party for Elizabeth and the ancients though lol. I hope you enjoy this chapter and that you had a great Christmas.

Steph7085 – I'm glad you liked the scene between John and Jack at the end. I see Jack and Liz's relationship as very brother and sister. Thanks for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Kuroima – Elizabeth's point of view is in this chapter so we get to see what's happened to her. I hope you enjoy the chapter and thanks for the review.

- - -

Chapter 9

Waking up to the unfamiliar sounds of a Jumper full of Ancients left Elizabeth feeling slightly disoriented. The last two days had been a rollercoaster with the Replicators attacking Atlantis and then being forced to abandon the city in a Jumper and fly through space in the hope they wouldn't get caught and would find a planet with a Stargate. Fortunately they had and they'd spent the last few hours going from planet to planet to find somewhere safe to stop.

Any planet with large populations was a definite no, not only would those people be in danger but they couldn't risk someone mentioning a bunch of Ancients whilst on a trade mission. The Ancients had told her they would only stop on a planet with few people if any on it, the search was becoming tedious but they weren't giving up. Of course Elizabeth had not been consulted on any of the decisions.

She'd barely managed to escape the city, the replicators had stormed Stargate operations during her transmission to earth and they'd been forced to abandon any plan of getting to the gate. Taros had been able to get them both out of the control room and to the Jumper bay where a few other Ancients were also gathering. Five of them had escaped, including her and the weapons fire that had followed them off the planet had been a cause for tension but they'd managed.

Thoughts of Atlantis flooded her mind, earth would have received her transmission and they'd know the city had fallen. The standing orders she had reluctantly agreed to would no doubt be carried out if they hadn't already and Atlantis would be gone. Her only connection to earth and the people she missed had been ripped away from her and now she was truly alone here.

"Dr Weir, how are you feeling?" Taros asked as he noticed she was awake and joined her in the back of the Jumper.

"Well my headache's gone so that must be a good sign right?" she questioned rhetorically as she sat up and Taros smiled slightly and nodded. "Where are we?"

"We believe we may have found a suitable planet for us to stay on," he told her "There is a small population and from what we can gather they are very isolated. They are mistrusting of outsiders and so do not use the gate very often. Malaine and Bren have managed to convince them to let us stay here, they said it did not take much when the villagers realised we were Ancients, or the ancestors, as they prefer to call us."

There was a small amount of humour in his voice which she had come to expect from him over the time she'd known him. "So is it safe to leave the Jumper?" she asked and Taros nodded and offered her his hand to help her up. She accepted it, stood up and left the Jumper with Taros beside her.

"It looked like every other planet in the Pegasus galaxy, trees everywhere and probably a good deal of distance between the gate and the settlement. "The village is a fifteen minute walk in that direction," Taros told her "And the gate is about five minutes that way," he finished pointing the opposite way.

They walked along the path slowly, not wanting to get too far from the Jumper but the need to walk more than a few feet at a time was too much to ignore. Jumpers were not meant for long distance travel.

"From what I am told these people are very simple, we will have to adjust to their standard of life but with the Replicators most likely searching for us, simple may be better," Taros explained to her and she nodded her head slowly. This was the second time in the last few months her life had been completely turned upside down.

They both stopped when they heard noises up ahead and relaxed when they realised it was only Malaine and Bren returning. "We would speak to everyone together," Malaine told them though it was directed more to Taros than Elizabeth.

The four of them returned to the Jumper where the other two members of their group were waiting for them. "The Krayle have agreed to let us stay with them. They are not a very advanced people but they do not use the Stargate unless they have no other choice. I do believe we will be safe here," Malaine informed them and she walked into the Jumper probably to grab the few supplies that had already been on the Jumper when they'd left Atlantis.

- - -

Knowing that they had left Atlantis in a Jumper helped to narrow the search area considerably, there were only a few planets anywhere near that had stargates on them. The Deadalus was flying around a search grid in case the Jumper had not made it to any of the planets. Search teams had been sent to each of the gate addresses but so far they had come up with nothing.

The Ancients and the replicators had been nice enough to leave them with three ZPMs, one of which had been sent back to earth to power the Stargate there much to Rodney's dismay. Consequently getting Atlantis's people back had been much easier and quicker than they'd been expecting.

They all arrived ready to do their part to re-establish themselves in the city and search for Elizabeth. John had divided people up to do both tasks, the scientists, medical staff and the majority of the civilians had been given the task of sorting the city out, leaving most of the military to help with the search.

John wasn't even sure which had become the higher priority, he knew which was his priority and earth wanted the city to be top. There seemed to be an equal amount of effort going into both though.

He stood in Elizabeth's office; it looked much the same as it always had, if a little more sparse. It had probably been blown up along with the rest of Stargate operations when they'd dropped the bomb in the gate room. It felt weird to be in here without Elizabeth, the furniture had already been brought in. It was one of the first rooms to be sorted out when they'd been giving the thumbs up to stay in the city. It was as though everyone had wanted this office to be ready when its occupant returned to Atlantis, which was looking less and less likely.

It was void of any of her belongings; hopefully there hadn't been anything of hers in here when the bomb had gone off. He knew Helia had taken over the office but the thought that any of her things had been destroyed in the explosion was nagging away at him.

He heard the sound of the Stargate activating and returned to the control room to be informed they were receiving Major Lorne's IDC. Irrationally he felt hope run through him, it was only the Majors scheduled check in but every time the gate activated his mind held onto the hope that it was Elizabeth coming back, whether he wanted it to or not.

"Report," John requested when Major Lorne's voice greeted him over the radio.

"Still no sign sir, we've spoken to the locals but it seems they haven't seen Dr Weir or the Ancients," Lorne informed him and John sighed as he felt the tiny spark of hope disappear.

"Alright Major, keep looking," he instructed him. Whatever Lorne said before the gate shut down was lost on John as his mind already started running over what could have happened to Elizabeth. He forced his train of thought back to reality as he left the control room. He was due to take his team to the last of the planets on the search list in less than an hour. Radek would keep an eye on things here until he or Major Lorne returned, preferably with Elizabeth in tow.

- - -

The village was actually more like a small town, it was huge and she was informed that over two thousand people lived there. The buildings were made of wood and stone and it seemed as if the people here were happy with their simple way of life, Elizabeth was not. Less than a day had passed since she'd walked into the village and she was already struggling to get used to the way things were here.

She was used to being able to jump in a hot shower whenever she wanted to but here she had to spend an hour heating up enough water to be able to take a bath which was only mildly warm by the time she could get into it anyway. They had this weird smelling stuff which was there version of shampoo, thankfully the smell didn't linger long after she'd washed the stuff out of her hair.

There had been an empty house, she didn't want to know why it was empty, toward the centre of the village and she and the Ancients were staying there. Thankfully there were enough rooms for them all, though the shared bathroom was already becoming an issue. She'd placed her clothes in the laundry and was now donning some of the local attire. Thankfully there were trousers involved, she would have gone crazy in one of the long, figure hugging dresses she'd seen many of the women here wearing.

She left her room and headed toward the living area; she could hear the Ancients talking and stopped outside to listen.

"We don't have a choice Malar; if the replicators are looking for us then we need to be as isolated as possible. This was the only planet that suits those needs, the locals here won't give us away because they don't have anyone to give us away too. They remain on their planet and turn most outsiders away," she heard Malaine explaining.

"These people are far too primitive," he began to protest.

"The humans on other planets were not much different from this," Bren told him and she heard Malar say something about primitive humans spreading all over the galaxy.

"We were gone for a long time Malar," Taros began "The galaxy is not the way it used to be."

Elizabeth chose this moment to walk into the room and they all fell silent, they looked at her as though she was an intruder who shouldn't be there until Taros stood up. "Dr Weir, would you like to help me discover what kind of food these people eat? I was informed they that they had provided us with some."

She smiled to him and nodded her head, following him through to the 'kitchen' where Taros turned to her. "They are struggling to adapt, give it time," he told her.

The wooden door to the side of the kitchen led into a store room. Dried food was lined up across the shelves on one side and there was some type of meet on the other. Taros grabbed random things from the shelf and seemed to inspect them all curiously. Elizabeth did the same as well as picking up some type of vegetable from another shelf and followed Taros back to the kitchen. "I think this is where we cook it," she told him as he looked around the room slightly lost.

"Ah of course, I think it's some type of stove. Why don't you light the fire and I will try to figure out how to prepare this," he suggested, holding up what looked like a cucumber but obviously wasn't.

Elizabeth smiled as he looked at it in confusion and then placed it on a nearby surface; he picked up a knife, inspecting it before starting to chop whatever it was. If she had to be stuck here with a bunch of Ancients then she was glad that Taros was among them. He was probably one of the only older Ancients that had been in the city and he was probably the only one to have ever given her the time of day when they didn't have to. At least she had one ally here.

- - -

"Yes, a group of people did come here, it was a couple of days ago now but I remember them. They didn't seem to like us very much; they barely spoke a few sentences before they left," the young man told them sounding very offended by the whole thing.

"What did they say to you?" John asked and the man looked thoughtful for a moment.

"They asked about the size of our settlement, how many people were here and whether or not we used the ring of the Ancestors often. They thanked me for my time and then left again," he replied.

"Do you know how they got here?" Ronon questioned and the man shook his head.

"I didn't ask, I assume they came through the ring of the ancestors."

"How many were there?" John continued to ask and the man seemed to be getting irritated with all the questions but he politely answered them anyway.

"Five of them," John nodded his head and reached into his pocket, pulling out the picture of Elizabeth and showing it to the man.

"Was she with them?" he questioned hopefully and the man only looked at the picture for a second before answering.

"Yes, yes, she was," he answered "She was very quiet, I don't think she spoke a single word while she was here but yes, she was definitely one of them."

"Do you know where they went?" Teyla asked, hope in her voice but once again the man shook his head.

"No I'm sorry, they never said anything," he replied and John thanked him, unsure if this was a good thing. On the one hand, he knew for sure now that Elizabeth had escaped Atlantis and was alive somewhere but he was no closer to finding where.

As they left the settlement Teyla ran to catch up with John, speaking in that knowing voice that only she could manage "We know that she is out here somewhere, we will find her John."

"I hope so Teyla," he replied.

TBC