Thank you for your reviews everyone! If you're confused, get used to it. –evil laugh- This story isn't going to be predictable.
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The corridor was dark. A scent resembling rotting mold hovered in the air. There was a fine mist of water spurting from the numerous cracked columns lining the corridor like giant sequoias. Those very columns once encased golden tinged water that flowed from the depths of the ocean beneath Atlantis upwards into the city to some unknown destination.
Voices carried from the end, where a faint light cast an eerie glow into the darkness. One was high-pitched, racing a mile a minute, while the other was struggling to remain calm and reassuring.
Ronon smirked. He'd found them.
As he neared the scene, however, his smirk faded into a frown. The light that was casting through the corridor was not from a P90 as he expected, but a shimmering wall of glowing threads stretching from ceiling to grimy floor. Standing before it in silhouette were Rodney and Teyla, facing the threads and arguing as they stared at something Ronon couldn't see.
"Elizabeth's been trying to contact you for half an hour. She sent out a team to look for you, but I knew I'd…." His voice died on his lips as he came to stand just behind his two teammates. They had quieted on his approach and turned slightly to look up at him, their faces grim. He didn't need to peer over their shoulders to see what they had been looking at, as he was at least a foot taller than either of them.
"What the hell is wrong with Sheppard?"
Sheppard was standing just a few feet away, on the other side of the glowing threads. He was faced away from his team, his hands at his sides. He didn't move, not even when Ronon called his name. The corridor beyond Sheppard was cloaked in darkness.
"He's been like that for at least twenty minutes." Rodney thrust a thumb in the colonel's direction with a crease of worry upon his brow.
"He will not respond to either of us." Teyla added.
All three turned back to stare through the translucent threads.
"Can he even hear us?" He asked, studying the threads. The threads themselves were millimeters thin, and seemingly in constant motion, organic in nature. They reminded Ronon of spider silk.
"No. At least, we don't think so. He hasn't even twitched in so much as a…wait a minute…how did you know where we were? And why hasn't anyone responded to our hails? One of us was just about to go up and find out what the problem was and get some help down here."
"I followed your tracks; pretty easy to do when there's a layer of scum on the floor. Elizabeth sent Lorne's team down here – they ran into some trouble of their own: the entire team got drenched when a section of flooring collapsed. They're all in the infirmary."
"Why is it that every time we attempt to explore more of the city, it backfires on us?" Rodney threw up his hands in exasperation.
Ronon took another step closer to the threads, his nose within inches of the stuff. It smelled like dirt and something faintly sweet.
"What is this stuff?"
"We are not sure. However, it seems that when we attempt to cross through, we receive a shock. It is rather unpleasant and I do not rec…."
Teyla's warning came a moment too late as Ronon dismissed her and took a step forward.
In a brilliant flash of bright white that lit the corridor in both directions, Ronon was sent hurtling backward. He landed harshly on his tailbone, sliding a few feet in the grime, hands and feet in the air. He lay in a heap for a moment, stunned. Growling, he picked himself up, wiping away the grime clinging to his clothes and skin and glared back at the threads and his two teammates.
"It stings, doesn't it?" Rodney cocked an eyebrow at the Satedan and turned back to stare at Sheppard's still form.
"I thought I saw something when you lit up the room like a Fireworks display. I can't say for sure…but there was definitely something moving down at the end of the corridor." Rodney raised his chin, trying to get a glimpse at what none of them could see. The darkness had returned as soon as Ronon had become airborne.
Whatever it had been, it had been seen in a mere second or less. Not much time to really discern truth from fiction when it came to the atmosphere of the situation playing tricks on the mind.
"What's the plan?" Ronon demanded as he wiped more of the grime off his arms and flicked it to the side.
"If we had a plan, don't you think we would be implementing it as we speak?" Rodney paused, and then snapped his fingers in rapid succession. "Wait! Yes…Zelenka…get Zelenka down here and tell him to bring my other laptop…mine doesn't seem to be working down here…better yet, you guys stay here, watch Captain Oblivious, and I'll be back."
Rodney turned and headed back the way Ronon had approached, muttering to himself, leaving the two staring at each other with raised eyebrows. Neither of them would ever fully understand the physicist. They turned their attention back to the colonel, the light from the threads casting a glow upon their faces.
"Something doesn't feel right." Teyla stated after a brief silence had fallen between the two. He knew what she was speaking of, as he too felt it, deep in the pit of his stomach.
As he opened his mouth to respond, he saw Teyla tilt her head and narrow her eyes. Ronon followed her line of sight.
There was a dark liquid beading at the tip of Sheppard's left pinkie. It released a moment later and landed upon the black grime at Sheppard's feet. It was hard to see, but with just enough light casting off the mysterious threads, both Teyla and Ronon could see the true color of that liquid. Red. They looked at each other in slight alarm.
Sheppard was bleeding.
--tbc--