Rodney frowned at the display in front of him. He was looking at a chemical substance, one he could probably make, given enough time. Of course, the first course of action would be obtaining the actual chemicals necessary to make it. From there he'd need some equipment, a demolitions expert, and a side kick.

He already had both. Laura Cadman and Radek Zelenka were looking over his shoulder at the laptop model of the molecule. He grinned at his own genius, pushing them away as he turned around, surveying the shelves around him.

"Cadman... your job is to try and figure out how to make this into a wide array weapon, preferably so we can walked through the gate with gas masks." Rodney was all business.

Laura of course wasn't going to go about stealing the supplies from the armory without making sure Rodney knew a thing or two about chemical warfare. "For me to do that Rodney... I need the chemical to be heavier than air. It also needs to be compressible."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Rodney snapped. "To make this into a viable grenade... OF COURSE WE DO." He turned back to the laptop. "The actual particle density should be just heavier than air, thus it will displace the air. It is also transparent and completely harmless... or at least it should be."

"Chemical warfare was banned for reason Rodney." Radek said, his Czech accent present as always.

"Do you two want Colonel Sheppard back or not?" Rodney stood up. "I for one don't want Caldwell or any other snot nosed military punk running this expedition. I want Sheppard."

"I should be able to take apart a couple of detonators from the C4 stash..." Laura began. "... and make a casing for it... I'll also need to get permission to do this. Do we have Doctor Weir's approval?"

"Not at the moment. And I wouldn't ask her." At Radek and Laura's expressions he sighed. "Elizabeth would never approve the use of a chemical weapon. That, and Earth has already given her orders by now that Sheppard is MIA and we're not going to stage a rescue attempt. I'm not going to accept that, are you?" Rodney had to force himself to breath... his face red from his little speech.

"I'm game." Laura said, crossing her arms.

"If getting Sheppard back means no stupid military..." Radek launched into a flurry of Czech, "... then I help."

"Okay... Cadman... who would you need to convince?"

"Major Lorne." She replied, with a smug grin. "But that is easy. I'll have those parts by tonight... give me a few hours to assemble them... but I'd prefer to have the finished chemical before I go about this."

"Radek?" Rodney said, looking at the Czech with a raised eyebrow.

"Tomorrow at earliest." Radek said quickly.

"Two hours." Rodney countered.

"Tonight... no earlier!"

"Deal. We'll have it ready by..." Rodney looked at his watch. "2100 hours tonight."

Laura nodded, still grinning, and then left.

"You are absolute madman!" Radek said, throwing his hands into the air in frustration.

"Why thank you Radek." Rodney replied, smiling from his own inflated ego. "Now let's get working."

XXX

Teyla shook her head, the infirmary came into focus. Bright lights momentarily blinded her, but only momentarily. Her head didn't hurt, but John's thoughts kept intruding on her own. She took a moment to collect herself, letting John become one with her.

"Teyla... you're awake!" Carson said, startled and a bit flustered. He checked her IV line. "Do you have any pains?"

"No." Teyla replied, being completely honest. "I believe I am some how telepathically connected to Colonel Sheppard."

Carson's eyes widened. "I know you have basic telepathic abilities... but you've never been able to read one of our minds."

"No, but I can hear... and speak to Colonel Sheppard."

Carson glanced down at her EKG and brain wave patterns. Both were normal. "Teyla... we nearly lost you a short time ago."

"What do you mean?" Teyla asked, bewildered.

"Your heart stopped lass. You're sure your not feeling any pain?"

"Yes Carson. I am fine." Teyla replied, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice. "I believe some of my symptoms were a result of what Colonel Sheppard is going through."

"What do you mean?" Carson asked.

"Colonel Sheppard is a prisoner of a group of people from the Telvass Empire." Teyla recited, telling Carson everything John was saying in her head. "They are torturing him for information. They have ripped open his mind and are using it against him."

Carson stared in shock. "You're sure?"

"Positive."

Carson activated his radio. "Doctor Weir, do you have a moment?

"Yes Carson... what is it?" Elizabeth responded... her voice muffled for some reason.

"Elizabeth... what's wrong?" Carson had a suspicion whatever it was it was going to be bad.

"Nothing." Elizabeth denied, her voice becoming clear. "What is it?"

"Teyla's awake... and I she's claiming to be connected telepathically to Colonel Sheppard. I mean... its theoretically possible..."

"I'll be down in a minute." Elizabeth replied, cutting off Carson's long winded explanation.

Carson turned back to Teyla. "How can yah torture someone with their mind?"

"Imagine seeing the ones you care about... Lieutenant Cadman for example... imagine watching them die over and over again. Could you cope with that?" Teyla's voice became frantic.

Panic shot through the mental link connecting her to John. Teyla forced herself to concentrate, John's defenses must have faltered. She could sense... anger... malice... hate enough to stop the wraith. Teyla allowed herself to fall back from the real world... only for second. Just long enough to grasp John's hand. "Do not allow yourself to fear." She said, absorbing his pain, making it her own, a sharing of senses.

"No..." Carson said after a pause. "I couldn't deal with that."

"Colonel Sheppard taught me to deal with physical torture." Teyla said. "It involves distancing oneself from it. Your mind is always yours." She took a breath. "But John does not even have that."

"Doesn't have what?" Elizabeth asked, practically running into the infirmary.

"He cannot distance himself from pain if his mind has already been taken."

"Teyla?" Elizabeth asked, looking to Carson.

"From what Teyla has told me..." Carson said quietly. "... John Sheppard is being tortured mentally. Not physically."

"Why would anyone do something like that?" Elizabeth asked.

"I couldn't guess." Carson replied.

"We must rescue him." Teyla said, determination written across her brow like before.

"I just received a message from Earth during our regular transmission. Colonel Sheppard has been classified as MIA. Colonel Caldwell has been given command of the military assets of the expedition. There won't be..." Elizabeth turned away. "... a rescue mission."

Teyla closed her eyes, falling back from the real world again.

John glanced at her. "I know. This is what I expected."

"I will not accept it!" Teyla replied. "I will not."

"I knew this when I volunteered to stay behind Teyla." John replied. "I knew this even when you told me you'd come rescue me. You won't get help from the military."

"Nothing shall stop me."

"And I doubt nothing could. If you're gonna do this... get going!"

Teyla opened her eyes again. "May I go to my own quarters?" She had no intention of doing that, but it would get her out of the infirmary.

Carson glanced at Elizabeth for a second, then turned to Teyla. "I want to keep you here for a few more hours at least. Then I'll let you go."

Teyla nodded. It was a compromise. One she'd accept. For now.

XXX

"This is insanity!" Radek said from just behind Rodney.

"Come on Radek... how hard can it be?" Rodney replied, annoyed. "All you need to do is wander into the back room and grab what we need."

"Beckett is voodoo doctor... he sees everything."

"Radek... as much as I believe that his practice is full of voodoo magic... Carson himself has nothing to do with voodoo. He's not telepathic or anything."

"What are you guys up to?" Laura said, throwing them a skeptical glance from just beyond the door. She held up a hand to stop them from saying anything. "I'll distract Carson. Radek... you get the stuff you guys need and Rodney..."
"Yes?"

"Go see Teyla... she's getting antsy."

Rodney nodded, who better than to distract Carson... though he didn't want to know how than Laura Cadman. Either way... he should see Teyla... and he should probably tell Ronon about the plan. He knew he was down in the gym... probably beating up on poor marines to take out his frustration. Rodney didn't pity them.

Laura went in first, followed by Rodney. Carson was in his office, and the nurses were on break, which was half the reason they had chosen this time to 'borrow' some of Carson medical substances. Rodney glanced back and saw Radek waiting till Laura had entered the office.

He smiled woefully at realizing what a friend Radek was, he wouldn't know what to do if Radek ever ended up like John. Hell... he'd never admit it but Radek was just as brilliant... if not more than he was. Not that Rodney would ever tell him that. Rodney parted the curtain that kept Teyla isolated from the rest of the infirmary.

"Rodney." Teyla nodded, acknowledging his persence.

"Okay... Cadman told me you were getting antsy." Rodney put on his best bedside manner, which wasn't all that comforting.

"Ansty?" Teyla replied... a puzzled expression crossing her face for a good couple of seconds. Then she nodded in approval. "Ahh... yes... I am anxious to get out of the infirmary."

"Radek, Cadman, and I are working on a plan to back to the planet where we left Sheppard." Rodney held up a hand to stop her from saying anything. He lowered his voice. "But to get there we're gonna have to break a lot of rules... the best thing you can do is regain your strength. When we're ready... we'll make sure we spring you."

"I can locate him."

"What?" Rodney said, confused by Teyla's statement.

"Once we reach the planet we will have to find Colonel Sheppard... I can do that. He is connected telepathically to me."

"Creepy... but it works."

"Hurry up McKay..." Radek said in a whisper, peering inside the curtain. "I think voodoo doctor is getting suspicious of the activities Cadman has in mind for this afternoon."

"We've gotta run... if you can... tell him to hang on. We're coming for him." Rodney turned around and darted out of the infirmary with Radek... passing a window to Carson's office on the way... except they couldn't see through the window cause there was a lab coat pushed against it. Rodney tried not to imagine what Laura was up too. He failed... miserably.

XXX

John took a moment to collect himself, twirling the staves experimentally. Orin seemed to have given up his usual methods... focusing on trying to get into John's mind another way. Not that John would let him in. Normally in this situation... his opponent would be Teyla... and he wouldn't be fighting for his mind.

Orin attacked, his form strikingly similar to Teyla's. As disconcerting as it was, it worked to John's advantage. He parried, taking a step back to let Orin swing at air. The air of the gym was static, John knew that it was normally a distraction, a break from the day, today it wasn't.

Instead of the usual give and take that Teyla practiced, Orin mercilessly attack. His form felt familiar, yet wrong. It was Teyla's form, but it was too aggressive, almost Ronon like in nature. John lost his footing and found himself on the floor, he rolled, coming to his feet and taking a quick swipe at Orin.

As usual John's attempt at physical injury to Orin resulted in nothing. John's only weapon was his wit. "This would be infinitely harder if you actually had to worry about being hurt." John mocked.

Orin shrugged. "Its much easier to focus without pain."

"You have no idea, do you?" John said, catching Orin off-guard.

"My job requires effectiveness, you have been a most interesting case." Orin attacked.

John parried, shoving Orin's sticks away. "Because I haven't lost it yet. I'm stronger than you."

"We'll see."

Mind numbing pain exploded in John's skull. He had a moment of consciousness. Even with spots of color on his vision he could recognize the chair he'd been strapped to.

"He'll be broke." Orin replied vehemently to someone John couldn't see.

"He'd better." A voice responded. John couldn't put a face on it, he'd never heard it before. But it was a woman's, and she didn't sound like the type he'd want to meet.

The mind numbing pain returned and John gritted his teeth to remain conscious. He failed, falling back into the abyss that was his mind.

XXX

Teyla shifted uncomfortably, feeling the John's pain and desperately trying to hang onto their fragile connection. The heart monitor next to her increased the tempo of its beeping. She had to calm herself, yet her body was responding as if the pain was hers, pouring adrenaline into her veins.

When the adrenaline began to run, her blood ran hot. She wanted to strangle the life out of whoever was doing this to John. It was contrary to her personality, but revenge was something she wholly accepted as a natural fact of life. There would be only that justice for this crime.

As she entered John's mind she didn't expect to be in the position she was. She was pressed up against the wall of the gym, with a stranger bearing down on her in John's place. She remembered in perfect clarity as to what happened that day.

They'd both put it behind them, preferring to not deal with it because it raised questions neither of them were ready to ask. Sometimes she thought John was ready, but she always reminded herself, she wasn't. Not yet.

Teyla saw out of the corner of her eye John, looking like he was trying to ignore it. The stranger pressed himself against her and Teyla felt violated, even though the events were the same of that day. For a moment she couldn't act, then as his foreign lips touched hers she found the will to act.

Using her smaller size to her advantage, she slipped out of his grasp and grabbed the discarded stave on the floor at her feet. She whirled, ramming it into the stranger's stomach. The blow connected, and the stave snapped in two from the force of the impact.

She was shocked as John crossed the room, wrapping his arm around the stranger's throat. "Doesn't feel so good when your toys fight back... does it?" John threw the stranger to the ground, then proceeded to rain blows from his fists into his face.

Teyla had no idea how to respond... she stood back. Already she knew that any normal person would've been dead from the blows John was inflicting. She placed a hand to his shoulder.

John stopped, his body visibly shaking from the adrenaline. "Teyla?"

"John." She replied, drawing him away from the bleeding face of Orin.

"He's the one." John said, looking down at his bloodied and bruised knuckles. "The one that's made this a living hell."

"I thought you could not hurt him."

"I can't." John replied. "This has to be some sort of trick."

Teyla looked up, trying to comprehend what she'd witnessed. Only to see a women with ice blue hair, matching blue eyes, and icy complexion, and an air of arrogance that astounded Teyla. She didn't seem to notice her though. Teyla wondered why.

"I'm not sure what kind of stupid pranks Orin's been pulling until now." She said. "But they'll be, merciful compared to me." The woman straightened her back and snapped her fingers. Orin's bloodied corpse vanished. "I suppose I must thank you though. Its rare I get to enjoy the company of my subjects. I'm your worst nightmare."

John stood, not making an mention of Teyla's presence. "If Orin's the best you've got... good luck."

"I won't need it." The woman smiled, revealing white teeth far too white for someone who reeked of malice and hate. "But the sentiment is appreciated."

Suddenly Teyla awoke... and could no longer find John's presence in her mind.