Siren finished her preparations and set the stage for her playing. Once all was ready to her impatient standards, she withdrew far enough away that the man and his companions wouldn't feel her presence. Caressing him one last time, she loosened her hold on their minds…
John Sheppard stepped out of the shimmering Stargate, took a single, deliberate step further and quickly raised a shaking hand to cover his eyes. The hot, glowing sun sat low over the forest directly before the 'gate, sending blinding light into his face. With a sharp intake of breath he scanned the horizon, squinting into the glare, and turned with an agitated jerk at the splut of sound behind him. Rodney McKay emerged, fiddling with his hand scanner and muttering.
Siren giggled and cloaked her hunter from the scanning device with a single thought.
"OK, so there's no time loop, but I'm 100 sure, now, there's a bad guy here messing with us. Is there any way to scan for other kinds of life forms?" John pounced on the startled scientist, his voice tight with desperate control.
"What are you on about Sheppard? We just got here." Shrugging off John's stunned expression, Rodney moved to wander further from the shimmering portal, still waving his instrument. In the intervening seconds, Teyla and Ronon also stepped out of the 'gate, raising their own hands against the sun, to take their usual position on either side of their confused commander.
Swallowing hard, and hoping McKay's memory would be jolted by the usual déjà vu soon, John turned to Ronon instead. "There's no point in chasing the sniper down again. I felt something else the last time, and I'm pretty sure there's more going on here than…pissed off…villagers…" John's voice trailed off at Ronon's puzzled look. The warrior had tensed and brought his weapon higher at John's urgency, but he flicked his eyes at Teyla, the question in their depths clear.
"We just got here, Sheppard. You've spotted trouble already?"
John took a deep breath, trying to calm a growing sense of panic. John's recollection of dying, again, alone on the path in the forest was crystal clear. It felt like it had happened only moments ago, and yet at the same time, every memory he had of any time before the last handful of minutes felt surreal and dream-like. Nightmarish, was perhaps more accurate.
Siren hummed to herself, pleased by the panic her extra effort was triggering.
John suddenly shuddered, a full-body, chilled-to-the-spine shiver of dread. The last loop, for lack of a better term to use, had affected him more deeply than he feared he could handle. He'd felt utterly alone, abandoned. If dying in the arms of his friends had seemed horrible, he now knew that the kind of alone he'd experienced at the hands of the unseen presence was far more horrible than he'd ever imagined – and he had a creative imagination…
I wonder what it feels like to go bat-shit insane, he thought, his internal voice sounding a bit hysterical, even to himself. A handful of equally hysterical courses of action flashed through his mind, only to be discarded willfully. He was growing desperate to stop the loops, to stop the death and pain. But he was also a man with deep reserves of strength, and a profound thirst for life. Pulling himself together with effort, he turned to Teyla.
"Do you remember yet?" he asked through gritted teeth. Perhaps it was just going to take them a bit longer to remember this time…
Teyla's look of growing concern was almost too much for John, "Do I remember what, yet?"
"It doesn't matter," John snapped, jamming his sunglasses over his eyes. "We're leaving! McKay, dial the 'gate."
In typical Rodney fashion, he made no move to comply, but stood engrossed in his scanner as Teyla and Ronon stood equally frozen, exchanging alarmed expressions. "Why? There's nothing strange on the scanner, it's as quiet as anywhere we've been in the last 6 months. In fact, something about this place seems almost familiar somehow…" he trailed off, spinning on his heel to scan something behind them in idle curiosity.
"Yes! I know, Rodney. Something familiar. That poignant sense of Déjà vu on steroids. Come ON! Remember already and DIAL THE DAMN 'GATE HOME!" John's voice rose to a near shout, startling McKay away from his interesting readings. Seeing the near panic on John's face, he hastily began moving towards the DHD.
"Ok. Sheppard's 'Danger Will Robinson' alarm is going off, and we're all supposed to hut-hut to attention and run away fast."
John glared from his spot by the Stargate, alternating between fury at McKay's dawdling, and terror at his friends' continued ignorance. He realized how much he had depended on having Rodney to help him puzzle out the solution; on how much he was depending on Ronon and Teyla to help him do whatever had to be done to get the hell home…alive. At least satisfied that Mckay was moving the right direction, John gripped his P-90 tightly in his hands and began to warily scan the forest border, fighting the urge to hide behind Ronon's protective bulk.
McKay was still grousing as he tromped to the DHD, " Elizabeth will be so pleased to see us. 'Hi, back so soon?' Yes, Sheppard got a case of the willies and scrubbed the mission. Oh hey!" With that and a wide smile, McKay snapped his fingers and pointed roughly in Sheppard's direction. "I remember why this planet seems so familiar. It feels just like Proculus. You know: Perfect weather, perfectly blue sky, perfectly cute meadows of flowers. I'll bet the village we aren't going to explore is equally charming. You could be passing up another high priestess encounter..."
Rodney grinned, pleased with his little taunt as he started poking in symbols. "Look. One of the keys is damaged. Good thing we don't need that one…"
A small explosion went off in John's head… an Ancient? Here? Some sicko ascended being was toying with them?
Even as John was gasping with the revelation, he felt a powerful surge of insane jealousy sweep through the meadow like a December wind. The sound of a distant gunshot heralded the descent of utter chaos.
The bullet slammed into Rodney's thigh, and he screamed, clutching his leg to collapse in a huddled heap in the grass. Teyla cried, "Rodney!" and darted to his side even as Ronon and John fired in useless cover and moved to flank the wounded scientist. John was panting, barely able to control his shaking hands enough to keep his weapon steady. They had to get out of here. Their only hope was to dial home.
"Teyla, dial the 'gate!" John hissed.
"But…"
"Do it! There's no time to fix him up here." Teyla shakily nodded, patted Rodney on the shoulder lightly, then stood to complete the code he had started.
John continued to Ronon, "The sniper is in the trees. Don't ask me how he does it, but he's got the range and the accuracy to take all of us out. We need to defend the DHD." Ronon nodded, and he and Sheppard stepped shoulder to shoulder between Teyla and the sniper, simply hoping that she could get the 'gate open before the sniper did get them all. At their feet, Rodney was moaning slightly and whining something about mini-vans and keyless remote controls.
Teyla rapidly punched in 3 more of the 7 symbols when another bullet sliced through John's middle, spinning him to the ground nearly on top of McKay. The scream of agony that escaped his lips was more frustration than pain and he snarled at Teyla as she again paused in her dialing to kneel beside him. "Dial, the damn 'gate. It's the only way…" Again she hesitated, but John's desperate eyes held hers and she turned back.
Gulping, he looked up for Ronon, making sure he was still standing at Teyla's back. He was nowhere to be seen. Growling deep in his throat, and wrapping his arms tightly around his stomach he pushed himself to his knees and, squinting into the continuing glare, spotted Ronon at last, pelting across the meadow with all the power and speed of a locomotive. The Satedan's weapon was out and firing blindly into the forest's edges. Goddam idiot! We have to leave, we have to get out of here… John struggled to get to his feet, trying to move himself behind Teyla's unprotected back.
The next shot rent John's heart in two. Teyla's cry of surprise and pain echoed in his mind and fury welled into his eyes as hot tears. Just barely quick enough, John clumsily caught her falling form to gently lower her into the grass. She lay still in rigid tension. Rodney, snapped out of his own pain enough to crawl closer and was reaching for Teyla's neck even as he was digging in his first-aid pocket. John grunted with approval, then fought his way to his feet again. His own arm was sticky and slick with blood. He didn't know if it was his or hers.
Turning to lean heavily on the DHD, he cringed at a fourth snap of gunfire. The distant sound of Ronon's weapon ceased abruptly. John's whole body was shaking and his teeth were chattering. He was going into shock, but the physical pain was only secondary to the anguish of watching his friends suffer, helpless to do anything but push every ounce of his will towards dialing home. Somehow everything would work out if he could just…dial…home…
John's trembling hand pressed one key, then another. The last two symbols were engaged and he reached for the glowing bulb at the center of the device that would activate the Stargate and establish a connection to Atlantis.
A final bullet slammed into his back, shattering the vertebrae and driving bone and lead deep into his heart. John fell against the console and slid to the ground, already dead, already doomed, yet still reaching for the globe.
"Sheppard?" Rodney's voice was terrified and thick with pain.
"John?" John almost smiled at Teyla's hoarse plea. She was alive.
He landed with a flop on his back, his death-locked eyes fixed before him. He could only see blue sky and white clouds, and even that was growing dim. An Ascended being? He thought lazily, feeling the utter peacefulness of his body and allowed himself the selfish hope that he would stay dead this time. But he suddenly knew what he had to do. It wouldn't save him, but he just thought he might be able to save the others.
The dim sky faded to utter black and John's mind whimpered.
He was afraid.
Siren raged as she held the man's life over the edge of death. Winds and storms pummeled her planet with the expression of her fury and her villagers huddled in their huts, praying to their insane God and begging in equal parts to either stop her fury or to let them die in it.
She had miscalculated. She had underestimated the man's sense of duty to his friends. Instead of suffering with them, the man had thrown his whole effort into saving them and had nearly managed to dial the Portal. It was not how she wished to play, for the taste of self-sacrifice and desperate resolve was bitter with the spice of her own, unrecognized, shame.
She was not, technically, supposed to prevent mortals from leaving her planet and she shuddered at her punishment were she to actually interfere directly with the Portal or its dialing device. However, she used her power over nature and the villagers to easily prevent most captives from even considering escape. Of those who did, none had before come so close to freedom. But these mortals were infuriatingly tenacious.
She flung another Tsunami from her ocean into the shore of the continent, thousands of miles from the meadow.
At long last, she grew weary from her tantrum and with the effort of repairing all four of the human mortals. The storms settled into brooding fogs and drizzles, and she brooded over the meadow with the man's life in her hands. He healed slowly.
With growing regret, Siren decided that she would have to let him go. He was too strong, and yet, it was that strength that inexplicably excited her. He had pleased her, and now his reward would be granted.
Taking special care for her last game, she reset the stage. Caressing the man one last time, she sighed and dwelt with surprise on the feeling of sorrow she felt for him, even as her anticipation began to grow. He suffered so beautifully, this one…
He would suffer for her once more, and she would make it last for a time worthy of his strength. And then, if he pleased her – if his pain was sweet and delicious – she would honor him.
She would allow him to die.