Disclaimer: I own all of the random people and stuff in this story. Ronon, Teyla, Sheppard, and McKay belong to the creators of the show.

Ronon awoke to the sound of a cheering crowd. They were giving him a headache. Or at least, making the one he had worse. The pounding on the stands. Fans screaming as loud as they could. He would have loved to bring his hand up to ease the tension in his head, but unfortunately, he was chained to the ground. He looked around and saw that it was midday.

He was weak, underfed, and exhausted both mentally and physically. He sat in the corner of the cell that he had called his home for two months. Two entire months. It smelled of sweat and blood, but it was the only place he could go without anything bad happening.

How did he end up in an arena? Arim and his men left him to die.

It was about twelve days after they left Sheppard, Teyla, and McKay off at the Stargate on Monas. They looked for a new place to start their dealings. They moved to a different planet, Jermaz, and set up their trade there. And they were doing a pretty good job, not that Ronon was proud of what he was a part of.

Flashback

It was Ronon's turn to stand guard for the night and he was more than willing to oblige. He hated being around those men. Though he made a few companions on this team, they wouldn't become family like the Atlantis team. It wasn't the same. And it never would be. He was slowly beginning to accept that fact.

He was making his rounds, checking at every vulnerable area around the camp. He found a rather large rock and took a seat. It was late, but he needed to stay up. He decided to take the watch by himself. He wanted to be alone.

He closed his eyes and instantly saw the face of Teyla. Not a day went by that he didn't think about the Team. He wondered if they got back to Atlantis all right. If they were looking for him. Did they miss him? Did she miss him? Because he missed her.

His head jerked up when he heard the snap of a twig. He unsheathed his sword and made sure his gun was accessible. He stood up from the rock. "Ronon?" a soft voice asked.

A man no older than twenty stepped out of the camp. "Hort. What are you doing?" Ronon said dropping his sword.

Hort was one of the few people that Ronon would talk to and the only person who knew Ronon's real name. Hort was young, and Ronon felt he needed to keep an eye on him. Hort was actually the only reason that Ronon stayed. He had many reasons and opportunities to run, but he needed to protect him. He could still be saved.

Arim's men were training him to become one of them, but Hort was a reluctant learner. When Arim and his men got to the new planet, Jermaz, Hort was unwillingly taken out of his village, and brought to the camp. He was immediately drawn to Ronon. Hort followed him around because he knew that Ronon was different.

Hort took something out of his pack and held it out to Ronon. It was a piece of meat and some bread. "I thought you would like something to eat."

Ronon took it from him. "Thanks." He shoved the entire piece of bread in his mouth. After he swallowed it, he turned to Hort. "You shouldn't be out of the camp."

"Neither should you," Hort said, handing Ronon his water skin.

Ronon took a sip of his water. He heard something in the distance. "I'm keeping watch tonight."

"Alone. I could—"

"You need to get back into camp," Ronon said putting his sword away and taking out his gun.

"Ronon?"

Ronon pushed Hort behind him and pointed his gun out into the forest. A blue light flashed and Ronon fell to the ground. He was hit with a Wraith stunner, but he didn't fall unconscious. There has to be some long term brain damaging effects to getting shot by these stunners all the time, he thought.

Hort knelt down to help Ronon. "Go!" Ronon yelled as loud as he could, pushing him away.

"Man down!" Hort yelled, running into the camp.

Ronon heard the shriek of the warning siren blaze throughout the camp. Ronon struggled to stand up again. About twenty men stormed into the camp. A single man walked up to him pointing a stunner at his chest. "How are you still awake?"

"Why do you care?" Ronon said.

"You are strong. Just what I've been looking for."

The man swung the stunner across Ronon's face, leveling him. He shot Ronon once more in the chest to make sure that he was finally unconscious.

End Flashback

When he awoke, he was tied up in the back of a ship. He saw only two other people from the camp with him. They told him that most of the men got away. Arim didn't even fighting to try and save his men.

Ronon was shocked. It would have been understandable if it was just him, but these two men were with Arim for years. And Arim just left like the coward he was. The two men said that they probably fled to another planet and would eventually go back to Monas when they were sure that the Atlantis team was done searching there. The two men probably said some other things that Ronon would have heard if he didn't feel like he was going to throw up from being shot so many times with a stunner. That was two months ago.

He was taken to a planet, which he didn't know the name, where an arena owner bought him for eight hundred Rowbons. Eight hundred Rowbons? That is all he was worth to these people. And now he was in a cell, chained down, and treated like an animal.

"Satedan!" someone yelled.

Here no one knew his name, but they knew his race. Everyone new his race. And he liked it that way. Because if they knew his name, it meant he had gotten the chance to know them and he respected them. And he couldn't form any bonds here. He wouldn't, because here he would eventually have to kill them or watch them die.

He would usually respond to the call of his race. But he didn't respond to these types of calls. Never did he think he would hate the name of his own race, but now when it was called, it meant that someone was going to die.

He heard the sound of his cell open. Ronon heard the echoing jingle of the cell watcher's endless amount of keys. "Satedan. Did you not hear your call?"

"I was sleeping," Ronon lied.

"Well, it's time."

"Oh, how fun," Ronon flatly replied. His forehead creased in confusion. "Wait. What's happening?"

"You are fighting today."

"No. I'm not fighting today. I'm fighting in three days."

"You are fighting today, and in three days. The owner said so."

"I thought that the Wise Man was fighting today?"

"I guess you didn't hear."

"What happened?"

"He committed suicide last night. We found him hanging from his cell at dawn."

Suicide. That was the third one this month. Ronon would never consider doing it himself, but it was an easy way out of this hell. Too easy. And Ronon never liked things coming to him easy. Killing himself was a thought that never crossed him mind, and he wouldn't disgrace his name that way. Killing himself wasn't an honorable way to die, and that would ensure him a place far from the heavens.

He had seen so much death in this arena. And why? Because people on this planet need to be entertained, and people pay when they are entertained. Even at the expense of other people's lives. "So you expect me to fight today and again in three days?"

"Yes."

"The owner really has it out for me doesn't he?" Ronon asked.

"You bring in a lot of watchers. Not many have seen a Satedan, so you will probably be the only one they will see in their lifetimes. So you must fight."

"And if I don't?"

"You don't have a choice."

I've had a lot of my choices made for me or taken away from me, Ronon thought.

"Defiance. The sign of a strong willed person. So what are you hiding?" the guard asked.

"Don't mistake my strength for anything else but strength."

"You should be broken by now. Everyone else in this arena has been. And you have been here longer than a lot of them."

"It would take a lot more to break me than this hell," Ronon said. But it is getting to be too much.

"So are you going to fight?"

"Fine. I will," Ronon said in defeat. "Like you said, I don't have a choice."

The guard walked over to Ronon and unlocked the chains on his wrists and ankles. He rubbed his chaffed wrists and was helped by the guard to his feet. Ronon groaned since it was the first time he had stood up in five days.

It was his punishment for hitting a guard after one of his fights. But he had a good reason to hit him. The guard had insulted the Satedan culture, and Ronon wasn't going to stand for it. After the fight, on his way back to his cell, he saw the man. He punched him in the face, easily breaking his nose.

He wiped the blood from the man's nose on his shirt, and the next thing he felt was a blinding pain. A few hours later, he woke up chained to the ground in his cell. It wasn't the first time that he had been punished, but each time he rebelled against the people who ran the arena, his punishment got more severe.

Ronon passed that same guard as he walked to the entrance of the arena. He smirked when he saw the man with a bandage over his nose. If that guard was ready to start something, Ronon was going to finish it. And he didn't care what his punishment was.

The broken nosed guard strolled over to Ronon, but the guard that was escorting him got in the middle of the two. The guard grabbed Ronon by his arm and dragged him to the entrance of the arena. The guard let Ronon go to stand on his own behind the door. He wavered slightly until he got full use of his legs back. "You know the drill," the guard said.

"Unfortunately." Ronon said. He inhaled deeply. "It smells like rain."

"Something must be wrong with you, because it is sunny out."

"It's going to rain."

The crowd cheered louder as Ronon's opponent was announced. The announcer revealed that Ronon was going to be fighting instead of the Wise Man, and decibel level of the crowd rose even more. He closed his eyes when he heard them start to chant his race. The door in front of him rolled up. Ronon opened his eyes. And they were a darker shade than before. He stepped out, the clouds rolled in front of the sun, and it began to drizzle.

"Satedan! Satedan! Satedan!"

Thanks for reading. And don't worry there will be a part in the story with what you asked for, the whole when they wake up and realize that Ronon isn't there. I have a question, how old does Ronon seem to you guys in the show? Please review. Lil-Rock