Disclaimer: Not mine. Wish it was, but its not. Except for the stuff you don't recognize, i.e. the plot and the original characters which I won't name because there's just so many and you haven't even met all of them yet. But that's not the point. The point is that I do not own Stargate Atlantis, its places, people, or things.

A/N: Oh my god. You guys I am so incredibly sorry that this took so long. Please don't hurt me. I had meant to have it up within a week of the last one. But I had my insanely hard history project tot work on, my chemistry project, my Spanish project and then I got sick. So I'm really really really sorry (offers you all cookies in apology) and hopefully since I have the rest of this ready to go it should be done within the next two weeks. (bows in apology) Sorry again…

Okay, this chapter. Ahh. The continuation of what I believe is my first cliffhanger. You don't have to worry. There won't be many of them. Probably. Except in the sense that you only get bit by bit, which actually wasn't my original intention. I had intended to post it all at once but… I only have about half of it typed and its already… 40 pages on Word so… yeah. Too long for one post and this way it is easier on my beta, I don't have to finish typing to get parts up, and you lovely readers don't have to spend hours upon hours doing nothing but scrolling down the screen. But you do have to wait on updates, which I'm sure even at this point you probably aren't happy with me, but I do the best I can and who knows, maybe I find time more than once every three weeks. Right so. I think that's a long enough not for this one. glances back over it I ramble. Sorry.

Thank you: To Bann and Chibi and all my other friends who read the little parts of this just so I would leave them alone. Also to my reviewers. In particular, AkimaDoll, lemons and wraith oh my, and Electric Spyro. You make my day. Really, you do. As I write this I'm in the hell known as mid-season breaks. All my shows. Every last one, nothing new until January at least, and word on the street, my favorite two won't be back until March. March. How the heck am I supposed to survive until March? Back on topic, I also want to thank my dearest friends who, as I believe I've mentioned to at least one of them, the original characters of this story are amalgams of, meaning a little from one person and a little from another. And before you guys ask, no I don't remember who got what from whom. All I know is that these characters wouldn't be half what they are without you so… thanks.

And now on with the story.

Revelations

We could tell the radios were still working because we could hear shouting in the background.

"Caleb? Caleb?"

"Caleb can you hear us?" Only silence answered Rayne and Del as they continued their efforts. Finally, he answered.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm here. Sorry"

"What just happened?"

"The doors slammed shut. They aren't opening. Dad's on the other side and he's trying but—" his voice cut off again. This time, however, we didn't need to ask why. We could all hear very clearly the reason for his silence: the quarantine alarms.

"Oh, this is just great. Now the doors definitely won't open." Del groaned irritably. I was only half-listening. Something Caleb had said had jogged my memory.

"Caleb? When the lights were flickering, did you hear any strange voices?"

"No. Why?"

"At any point today?"

"Not unless you count what was coming over internal comms. Again, why?"

"The computers, you said they started scrolling the text or whatever it is at the same time the comms cut off?"

"Yes. Or there about, at least. What's going on?"

"Alright. I'm gonna switch my radio back to the city wide broadcast frequency. If you want to know what I think is going on, do the same." I pulled my earpiece out and fiddled with it for a minute, trying to get it back on par with the rest of the city personnel.

"Ashlei, what is going on?" Rayne asks in confusion.

"I have a theory."

"It's the apocalypse. We're all gonna die." I glared at Del as she spoke, but deigned not to answer. I got the radio to what I was pretty sure was the right channel.

"Testing, testing. Anybody hear me?" Okay so it wasn't the most original way to test it, give me a break.

"Ashlei? Honey, what are you doing? Where are you?" Oh, good. Mom got to me first. I started toward the storage room. I have a habit of having to be moving when I hold conversations over the radios, and so I fully intended to examine the contents of Dad's team's storage room more closely than I was usually permitted to do so. Rayne and Del followed.

"Hey, Mom." Was all I said by way of a response. It was really a good thing she had answered first and all, it gave my dad time to calm down slightly and she knew it so I was grateful. But Dad and Rodney were the two I needed to talk to.

"Ashlei, where the hell are you? Why are you on the radio? We're in the middle of a crisis, this is no time for games." I winced slightly at his harsh tone. Nice to hear from you too dad. You alright? Not hurt? That's good. I guess he hadn't calmed down enough.

"I am in the Jumper bay where you left me. I'm on the radio because I need to talk to you and you're likely on the other side of the city. As for the whole crisis thing, I think I noticed. The quarantine alarms were a dead give-a-way." I let my gaze slide around the room I was in. Walking over to an odd looking little device that I was sure I hadn't ever seen anywhere before, I let my tone to my father grow completely sarcastic. I notice Rayne and Del follow me in out of the corner of my eye, but rather than joining in the exploration, they just lean against the door frame and watch. For the time being he let it slide though as he momentarily turned his attention to Rodney.

"Yeah, speaking of those alarms. McKay, why are they going off?"

"I haven't the faintest, Colonel. It's a complete false alarm."

"Can you make them shut up?"

"Maybe if I was in the control room, but since I'm miles away on the other side of the city and currently am having slight difficulty even getting in to the power room, no I cannot make them shut up."

"Well, will someone who is in the control room please do something to make it stop. They're giving me a headache."

"I've got it, Colonel. Just a minute." I vaguely recognized the voice of the main technician. His name is Chuck Simons. He also happens to be from Canada. As I turned my attention to one of Rodney's little analyzer device things, Chuck managed to turn the alarms off. Rayne and Del give looks of relief at the silence.

"My ears are ringing now." I hear Del mutter irritably. Rayne nods her agreement but says nothing.

"Alright, the alarms are off, but I can't override the protocols." Chuck informs my father.

"It's alright, at least it's quiet now."

"Yes, small mercies." I mumble dryly. Luckily Dad doesn't hear me or likely I wouldn't have hearing in my right ear any longer. I reach out to touch the little analyzer device, but Del walks over from the doorway to smack my hand away. Pulling the offended appendage back to my chest I try to both glare at her and question her at the same time. If the amused look on her face as she points at the device and shakes her head to signal 'don't touch' are any indication, I failed miserably in the attempt.

With the quarantine alarms silenced, attention fell back to me. "Why do you need to talk to me?"

"I have this theory." I tell him. Even to myself I sound rather bored, and I have to admit I am. I walk over to a set of shelves and peer closely at some of the stranger looking weaponry they've discovered and acquired over the years. It's rather interesting to look at, but I'm careful to only touch the ones that I can clearly tell how they work.

"You have a theory?" My father repeats dubiously. I make a noise to the affirmative.

"Dear God." Rodney gasps, and I'm not sure whether the horror in his voice is real or not.

"That's what I said." Del's voice echoes strangely as I hear it both from behind me and over the radio in my ear. On the radio ten different people start talking at once.

"Alright. Everybody just shut up for a minute." Unsurprisingly, they did. "Ashlei, I told you to either stay in the Jumper bay or go back to the tower."

"I'm in the Jumper bay." I sigh; my exasperation cuts through my calm. He's driving me crazy. Hadn't I already told him I was still in the Jumper bay? "Del and Rayne and I stayed here, and Jet and Alan and Aaron went back to the tower."

"So tell me then, if you haven't left the Jumper bay, how is it you know enough about what's going on to form a theory?" If his voice was anything to judge by, then he was getting far madder by the minute. I wasn't too worried though as he was currently on the other side of the city, and if I was right I had a feeling he wouldn't be mad. If I was wrong well… I'd probably go into hiding for a month or so.

"A little birdie told me." It was childish and it was stupid, but I wasn't getting Caleb in trouble after he'd helped us. Carefully I picked up one of the weapons I knew to be a stunner from the shelf I was examining. What exactly this one's name was, I'm not sure. I looked it over more closely, intrigued by the designs on the sides.

"Ashlei." I flinched. Good grief, I didn't think it was possible for any human being to growl like that, with the notable exception of Ronon.

"I told her, Colonel." Caleb confessed. I blinked in surprise. Why would he do that? He knows he'll get in trouble. Caleb's confession caught me so off guard that my fingers slipped on the stunner and activated it, sending a blast of bright green energy bouncing off the wall. I let out a small yelp as I dodged out of the way, and it soared out into the Jumper bay and pinged about a bit before losing its momentum and fizzling out of existence. I quickly put the stunner down and shot apologetic looks and my two friends. Rayne seemed amused but Del just glared. Unfortunately, Mom had heard the yelp.

"Ashlei, what are you doing?" She asks, concern filling her voice.

"Currently? Trying not to accidentally shoot myself with stunners."

"What?"

"Rayne, are you alright?" Teyla asks calmly, though even I can hear the faint concern. She may be worried for her daughter's safety, but she trusts us to call for help when we need it.

"Del?" A new voice floats over the comm system. I recognize it instantly. This is Marissa McKay, Del's mother. A lovely lady for the most part, but resilient enough to put up with Rodney. Daddy sometimes says that Rodney used a love potion to get Marissa to marry him, and that she's just too honorable to back out. Anyone who looks can see that she loves him though. It's really very sweet.

"We're fine." Rayne answers for both of them.

"Ashlei's in here messing around with the stunners and things because she's curious and wants to know what they do." Del smirks at me as I glare at her.

"So she thought it would be a good idea to nearly stun herself?" Rodney demands.

"I wasn't trying to." I protested.

"Like that makes it better." Rodney snorts.

"McKay." Dad says warningly. "Now Ashlei, I vaguely remember you saying you had a theory?" Oh, yeah. Whoops.

It's obvious that the quarantine lockdown has shutdown both his movements, and those of everyone else, otherwise he'd be doing just about anything except listening to me. Not that I blame him or anything. I mean really, I'm only seventeen, what the heck do I know about crises. Except, the thing is, being born and raised in Atlantis, I've lived through quite a lot. I was even a hostage once. But that's a story for a different time.

"Rodney, am I right in saying that there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with any of the systems? According to the diagnostics I mean." I picked up another weapons on the shelf. This one was smaller. I couldn't quite tell what it did. It was, however, an interesting shade of purple that I just had to examine more closely.

"Yes. Yes. That's what they diagnostics say. Obviously they're wrong." Rodney snapped.

"No. I don't think so."

"I wasn't aware you thought." Del sniped. I glared and pointed what I thought was the business end of the weapon at her. Del rolled her eyes and made a 'turn-it-around' motion with her hands after pointing at it. Okay, I was wrong. So what. I put it back where I'd gotten it from and left that shelf alone. Not the safest of things to be examining if you don't know how they work.

"Well, what do you think?" Rodney demanded in his sarcastic tone of voice that said he either a) didn't care or b) didn't care and was sure you were wrong. I took a breath and stole myself for the reactions I was sure to get.

"I think the city's trying to talk to us." I said, or tried to say. It came out more as 'Ithinthecitrytalkus'.

"Ummmm…. What was that Ashlei?" Daddy asks carefully, as if afraid I may have gone insane and not wanting to test his theory. I took another deep breath. I wasn't so much worried about what they were going to think as I was worried about what they'd do to me. Like lock me up.

"I think the city is trying to talk to us." I repeated, deliberately talking slower than normal so that if I did try to rush it out it would still be discernable. Only silence met my theory. And more silence, and more silence, oh and listen more silence. "Rodney?" I called worriedly, afraid he may have fain- passed out.

"Dad?"

"It is alright, Delilah." Del flinched; Teyla always used her full name, no matter how much Del asked her not to. "I believe he is in shock."

"Oh." I relaxed. "Well, that's fine. Just let me know when he recovers." Del shakes her head and looks up in exasperation at me. I just grin. I move across the room to a peculiar set of empty shelves that I am almost positive hadn't been there before. Putting my hand over the mouthpiece I turn towards Rayne. "Have these always been here?"

"I've never noticed one way or the other." She answers. She is watching me dubiously, not sure if my fiddling around in here is good or not. Del, on the other hand, is back to standing as far away from me as she possibly can while still being in the room. She appears to just me doing it to irk me, however, so I'm reassured that whatever it is that I'm currently messing with isn't deadly.

"Huh." It was as I was poking gently at an odd sort of crest thing (in the shape of what I'm pretty sure was an over view of the city) engraved into the middle shelf that Rodney recovered from his moment of shock and probably horror at how seemingly dumb my idea was.

"Are you insane? Sheppard I think you may need to lock you're daughter up and I don't mean in her room. This is ridiculous. We've been here for over twenty years now. We know a lot more than we did when we first got here but still. The city? Talking? Please. I thought you were smarter than that, Ashlei." He snorted in disapproval. Well thanks, Rodney. Nice to know you look at things with an open mind. I know it's out there but…

"Well, fine then. Tell me, Rodney," I snap angrily. "If the city isn't trying to talk to us, to me, then why was there a voice imploring my help when this happened this morning."

"Well, I suppose—Wait…What do you mean this happened to you this morning?!" Rodney yelled. Across the city everyone with earpieces winced in pain at the volume and tone.

"I mean that it sort of happened this morning, twice actually. Could you maybe not yell? I like my hearing."

"Why didn't you say something?" Dad demanded, and whether he did it on purpose or not I was grateful because he managed to keep Rodney from tearing into me.

I looked underneath the empty shelves to see if there was something there that might hint to their purpose as I answered calmly, "Because it's happened before and nothing has ever come of it." At this point my ears were assaulted by many yelling voices. I suppose that it probably hadn't been the best time to reveal that little bit of information, but he had asked. It didn't appear that there was anything on the bottom of the shelves and nothing on the tops unless you count the emblem thingy. Oddly enough while the top and bottom of the three were sturdily supported, the middle seemed to have no visible support. Strange.

"Okay, so let's assume that the city can talk to us. What does it want?" Rodney had apparently regained some amount of control because he wasn't screaming, he wasn't yelling, and his language wasn't something that you wouldn't want a young child to hear.

"I have a feeling that that is what the scrolling language on the computers is."

"Oh, that's wonderful. How do you plan on getting to a computer? The city is in quarantine lockdown and the doors were hard to open even before then." I frowned, Rodney had a point. I started to back away from the shelf to go see I could possibly get the doors to open. My ATA gene is the strongest in the city, stronger even than my dad's. Carson figures this has something to do with the strength of my dad's gene and the fact that I was born here and was exposed to Atlantean technology from the moment of conception. To his credit, all the children who were born here seem to have stronger ATA genes than their parents and even some of the children whose parents don't possess the gene have managed to have it themselves, so he's probably right on that count. He usually is about things like this.

My foot hit something and I stumbled backwards. Realizing that I was about to fall into the weapons I twisted and tried to control my fall. I managed to hit the wall. I thought I was good but then the whole room shook and I fell forward. I landed on the empty shelves, the majority of my weight going on the odd middle shelf. I expected the shelf to jab into my ribs and was all set for the pain, but it never came.

The shelf gave under my weight and fell as if on hinges flush against the wall. A faint whirring sound filled the room, and then a portion of the wall, the size of a normal door, slid back a few inches and then sideways into the wall. Behind it lay a hallway, branching off in several places. Del, Rayne and I stared in amazement. Not wanting to give away this newfound secret to the adults just yet, I quickly returned my attention to Rodney.

"Well," I told him, "I'm sure we'll figure something out. Talk to you later. Bye." I said the last part very fast and deactivated my radio. Rayne and Del followed suit, and the three of us then turned our attention to the hallway.

"Ashlei, did you… um… did you know the city had secret passages?" Rayne managed.

"No, no I didn't. Did you?"

"No."

"Del?" we asked in unison.

"I might have had some idea of the sort, but nothing solid, and I'd never have expected to find one in one of the storage rooms."

"Well, there don't appear to be any doors working in the city, so likely this is the best and possibly only way to get where we're going."

"And where, may I ask, is that?"

"Your lab, of course. Where else?" Suddenly, I got a gut instinct. "Hey, can we keep this a secret? Just between the three of us? We don't tell the adults, we don't tell my brothers, we don't tell your siblings, no one."

"What?! Why?" Del demands.

"Del, if they found out they'd use it. Everyone would be using them. I have a feeling, just a gut feeling that these passageways weren't meant to be public knowledge. I know it sounds crazy, but… just please, Del."

"Alright, alright. I can keep a secret."

"As can I." Rayne agrees.

"Excellent. That's the deal then. No one ever learns of this unless the three of us agree." Rayne nodded in agreement, and Del copied her reluctantly. "So let's go then."

A/N: Hi again. See? Not so much of a cliffhanger. And nothing bad happened to anyone…yet. Hehe. Maybe something will in the next chapter. Maybe it won't. I'm not telling. Read and find out. Oh and review. Please. It makes me so happy to see what you think. So push the little purple button. It's just so much fun.

Again, I'm very sorry for the long wait. It was entirely unintentional.

Nimeria OUT!!