Chapter Nine

The Wraith's mind was cold and dark. It was claustrophobic and deceitful. It was indeed a frightful place to be in.

"Hello? Is there anyone here?" Elizabeth wasn't expecting anyone to reply, but she thought hearing at least another voice would calm her down.

"Elizabeth?" The voice was male but it wasn't Radek's - it sounded slightly more whiny.

"Rodney? Is that you?!"

The astrophysicist's form slowly started to appear just ahead of Elizabeth. He was running.

"Elizabeth! Where are we? I mean, that is you, isn't it, because I have had my fair share of illusions for this afternoon, I mean, do you know what it feels like to be chased after by lemons? Of course you don't because you're a part of this illusion; you'll change into a lemon yourself in a second..." McKay did not stop for a breath at all during the quick exchange.

"Rodney. It's me, okay?" Elizabeth gripped him by the arm and looked at him. "This is what it looks like in a Wraith's mind?"

"Wraith? What are you on about?"

"An alien called Frung has you and the others under some kind of mind-control."

"So why are you here?"

"Well..." She swallowed. How could she explain without giving her relationship with Radek away? "I'm linked to Radek in some way, well, I was, don't ask me how, but it has something to do with Frung and the Wraith." said Elizabeth.

Rodney stopped panicking now he had something specific to work on. "The alien must be using the enzyme they used to connect to Teyla. He obviously has no idea what he's doing, but why you and Radek?" Rodney replied.

"I think the original link to Radek was something else," she said quickly.

"Some kind of by-product of the original purpose of our capture. Radek said something about dreams being used for power." Rodney thought aloud.

"That could explain the lemons - fear is a powerful emotion, as is love…" Rodney was too wrapped up in his theory to notice Elizabeth wincing, "…and anger - that Frung alien must be inducing powerful dreams by tapping into the subconscious." he said.

"Something's gone wrong because Radek can communicate with me and me with him, whatever happens to him happens to me. I think he must have killed someone in his dream because according to Dr Beckett my heart stopped. The alien must be doing more experiments with the enzyme because this is the first time I've seen you," she said.

There was a sound in the shadows and a figure stalked towards them.

"What are you doing here in my mind? Is this another of your experiments?" it growled.

"We're not here to hurt you so you'd better do likewise and not hurt us," explained Elizabeth. "We want to get out of here as much as you do..."

"These are my thoughts, I can leave when I wish," growled the Wraith as it approached.

"Really? Then why don't you go and do that, then? We'll leave as soon as we can..." said Rodney. He slowly stepped in front of Elizabeth as if he was protecting her. The Wraith stopped in its tracks and growled once more.

Elizabeth stood away from Rodney and looked at the Wraith. "You can't, can you?"

The Wraith looked up at her and hissed. It then turned around and started to walk away.

"Where are you going? Maybe we could help each other to get out of here..."

"Elizabeth, the Wraith don't do helping, they do life-sucking. Now let's try to get out of here before slimy over there comes back." McKay started to walk away leaving Elizabeth on her own. Soon he was gone, vanishing into the darkness.

"Rodney?!" Elizabeth frantically looked around at the darkness but no movement could be seen...