With Rodney absent from the cell, John had been forced to ask Lieutenant Ford, as one of the few military personnel who remained loyal to him, in charge of watching them despite the exhaustion that was written all over his face. To some extent, his presence did break the tension slightly as he made small talk with John about baseball, and as she watched them conversing, Elizabeth had a sneaking suspicion that rather than being uncomfortable, John was proud that despite everything that had happened, he remained the loyal officer that he had known him as before he had allowed his forced addiction to get the better of him.

Being kept in the dark about what was going on was the worst part of waiting. Although Radek had mused the possibility that Rodney would go straight to Meredith to release him, Elizabeth was confident that he wouldn't let them down again; not when she had seen how truly sorry he was about doing it the first time. Still, she couldn't help but worry that somehow Rodney's true identity would be discovered and they be back to square one – worse even, because this plan certainly didn't have a chance of working a second time round. What would happen then was beyond her, although she had a sneaking suspicion that there wasn't much chance of them seeing their own version of Atlantis again. If and when they returned home, some very thorough discussions were needed about any future use of the device which had allowed them to dial here. Thankfully, for now that could wait, as Jonathan returned to the cell and grinned at their eager expressions.

'Nobody suspects a thing and you're free to go. I'm here to escort you to the gate.' Jonathan said.

At this, Elizabeth couldn't suppress her smile and when Jonathan opened the cell for them she immediately wrapped her arms around him for a brief moment before pulling back and mouthing 'thank you' at him. Even John, who had not held back in his disdain for his alternate self, managed a thankful nod in his direction.

It did cross her mind that somebody might notice that their Rodney was missing from the group being marched through the city, but it was late at night, and anybody still working would be in the gate room and by the time they reached the gate room, there was little chance that they could be prevented from leaving, especially with the force of Jonathan and Aiden behind them.

Metres away from the gate room, they were stopped in their tracks by a tremor that shook the whole city and was quickly followed by successive explosive tremors, each tremor becoming more intense and making it difficult to stand. Elizabeth looked to Jonathan who looked as confused as she did, and raised his weapon as he led them into the gate room where they were greeted a team of Scientists, including their very own Doctor McKay, crowding round and computer and arguing over one another.

'What's going on?' Jonathan asked.

Rodney looked up at them with a mixture of fear and disbelief, 'It's the Wraith.'

'How?' Jonathan demanded.

'I don't know, but we have seen these tactics before and I'm telling you, this city is already crawling with Wraith. They're beaming down from darts before making Kamikaze runs into the city.' Rodney shouted.'

'How many Wraith?' Jonathan demanded.

'By now? Somewhere in the region of a hundred. And that's not even the worst part; we're picking up a hive ship on the sensors.' Rodney said earnestly.

'How didn't we pick this up earlier?'

'Our sensors have been running at minimum to reduce the power requirements.' Chuck admitted.

'Raise the shield.' Jonathan barked.

Obediently, Chuck began tapping away at the control panel, but stopped as the screen bleeped that all-so-familiar sound and flashed red, and turned to look at Jonathan in disbelief.

'They've taken out the shield genera-' Chuck began.

'WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?' Meredith roared as he strode into the gate room.

Instinctively, Jonathan pointed his gun at Meredith who was looking as though he found it difficult to stand, probably the effects of the sedative. Behind Jonathan, John guided Elizabeth, Radek and Carson backwards and Elizabeth realised he was edging them towards the DHD, which she saw, from the corner of her eye, was already connected to the device.

'You're not the real McKay? Chuck asked in surprise.

'We're under attack from the Wraith.' Jonathan said, speaking over Chuck.

'And you're standing around making small talk with PRISONERS?' Meredith demanded.

Jonathan reached to his radio for his radio with a disdainful stare at Meredith and said, 'All military personnel on the base, report to the gate room now with as much ammunition as you can carry. This is not a drill.'

'No, no, no; you don't have time. You have to get everybody out of here now and set the self destruct.' Rodney said, continuing to frantically type at the laptop he was working at.

'No doubt so you can lute our city.' Meredith spat.

'If you could just take your head out of your ass for two-seconds you might realise that not only are you outnumbered, but the only way the Wraith can get to Earth is through this city.' Rodney said, standing up and glowering at Meredith.

'I am not leaving this city. We will stay and fight.' Meredith said resolutely.

The attention that was focussed on both McKay's was at this point broken by the sound of the Stargate dialling, and Elizabeth turned to see John hurriedly dialling the address of their own Atlantis. John looked up to see her questioning eyes, but continued dialling. When the wormhole had stabilised he looked over to Meredith.

'You don't stand a chance against the Wraith. Set the self-destruct and you can come with us.' John said.

'We're staying to fight.'

'If you stay here you are going to die!' Carson said, stepping forward.

'We'll take our chances.' Meredith stated, before turning to address the military personnel were starting to collect in the gate room. Jonathan turned to them, and took Elizabeth's hand.

'Just get through the gate. I'll get everyone out of here.'

Another explosion shook the city and Elizabeth nodded at Jonathan before running towards the gate with a worried look back at the disarray that was resulting under Meredith's orders.

'Rodney, get the hell out of here.' John shouted across the gate room.

'Just give me -' Rodney said through gritted teeth, still frantically tapping at the laptop in front of him.

'We have to get out of here NOW.' John said.

Rodney looked up at John with a sad realisation filling his eyes. He ran down the steps and shoved the laptop into Meredith's hand, barking an inaudible stream of instructions before running after the retreating backs of his team mates.

They kept running until they stumbled onto the floor of their own gate room and wormhole closed behind them. All five of them turned to look at the Stargate.

'I just hope we left them enough time.' Elizabeth said.