He felt numb and yet in pain. Sleep was a rare commodity for him these days. Still, he stubbornly kept his eyes opened. The horrors behind his lids, should he dare to close them, were far too vivid. He knew he was in the infirmary, wrists and ankles secured to the bed with leather bindings. For the first time since the Wraith had fled Atlantis he didn't feel restless. But sleep still would not grace him.
He would have given anything, even half of his impressive IQ, for an hour of deep, deep sleep. Sleep would allow him to rest and forget. Forget about he had tried to strangle Sheppard, driven by fury and despair; forget about wrestling the Marines who had finally pulled him off the Air Force Major. Then the medical team had arrived and Carson had tried to sedate him, but the sedatives wouldn't work. He figured there was too much Wraith enzyme in his bloodstream for any drugs to bring him down. So they had taken, him kicking and screaming, to the infirmary, strapped him to a bed and tended to his wounds.
He had screamed himself hoarse within the first hours, and his throat still felt raw and aching. They had moved him, bed and all, to the separate alcove where Eve had been set up long ago, and left him alone to yell at the walls. A nurse would check on him every once in a while, change the I.V. bag; make sure he hadn't injured himself more.
As he slowly started to regain control over himself he settled. Coming down from the enzyme was pure hell. And he couldn't sleep! He was drenched in his own sweat, the acid smell threatening to choke him. The skin on his back itched. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her. He could almost feel her soft hair on his skin and it made him sick. Most of all he saw her green eyes, cold and dead, looking into his as he came inside her. He hadn't realized it then, he was too far gone, but now... Now she was not in his mind making him feel right about it. His stomach churned painfully and goosebumps rose all over his body as he shivered. So he started fighting his eyelids. He lay there, on his back, staring into nothing, tears staining his pillow.
Carson was the first to come in and apologize for not catching on to Eve's game sooner. Rodney didn't respond. His mind reeled. He hated himself for becoming a mind slave to the Wraith so easily. He also resented all the others in Atlantis for not seeing it. And it hurt.
Apparently, despite his brilliance and all the times he had saved the city and everyone in it, so few people actually paid attention to him that no one had noticed he had been overcome by a Wraith. He hadn't really changed his behavior, the only hint was his attitude towards Eve herself, and nobody had questioned it. And nobody had missed him when he started spending all his spare time in the Wraith's company, and that had hurt more than anything.
He didn't say a word to Elizabeth's apology, either.
He felt tired: tired of looking at the ceiling, tired of hurting inside and out. When Major Sheppard showed up to check on him and tell him everything would be all right, he cracked.
"You shot me!" It came out as a hoarse whisper. He didn't mean it as an accusation, though, and somehow Sheppard caught on.
"Yeah, I did. And you're welcome." The soldier said, smiling.
Rodney smiled back weakly. Then he bit his lip to keep from telling Sheppard he wished he'd aimed for his head instead of his thigh.
"Hey you spoke!" Sheppard said, surprised. "Hey, Doc! I think he's feeling better."
Then Carson and his nurses were all over him, examining, poking and prodding. They took off the restraints. He was helped up and made to stand on shaky legs that seemed to forget how to hold his body up.
"Rodney, lad, how are ye feeling?"
"Hungry, I guess. I miss real food."
"We'll get you some, but you should take it easy. Let your body get used to it again."
Everybody seemed so glad he had recovered. They were happy to see him finally snap out of that motionless state he'd been slipping further and further into each day since the first attack of hysteria had passed. Now they could stop worrying about him.
After a few more days of observation and some sessions of physical therapy to help him get used to moving again, he was declared good as new and sent back to his quarters. Beckett only insisted he'd see Heightmeyer for a while.
The mind probing sessions with the psychiatrist felt like a complete waste of time to Rodney. She tried her damnedest to convince him it wasn't his fault he'd succumbed to an alien's mind games and manipulations. He was only human, after all, and he'd no training in the area of psychological resistance. And the recurrent feelings he still had for Eve were just a mix of gratitude and anger. Everything would fade in time.
"Give it time, Rodney," Kate kept telling him. He wasn't fooled. It felt like he would never forget the green of her eyes or her sweet taste. He would never be free of the ache he felt every time he woke up in the middle of the night, breathless, sweating and with Eve on his mind. She would come to him in his dreams, languid and graceful in her movements. She would call his name in a soft voice, feed off him until nothing remained but an empty, dried out shell. Then he would wake up, a scream tangled in his throat. She had turned into a ghost that was constantly present at his side. And-horror of horrors!-he still loved her. He did. No matter how hard he tried to rationalize it, the feeling of longing wouldn't fade.
When Zelenka reported the hive ships had stopped advancing toward Atlantis he felt his heart sink. She'd stopped the attack just like she said she would. The Wraith fleet was still several hyperspace jumps away, which meant they would have had time to readjust their attack according to the intelligence she could have provided; they didn't have to stop to do that. But soon it was obvious: they hadn't just stopped, they were retreating. Rodney found himself looking at the dots on the screen, wondering which one was the ship that had her aboard. Then they were out of reach of the long-range sensors.
Soon after that Dr. Rodney McKay was cleared for off-world missions and retook his position on Sheppard's team. Everything was back to normal. Even Teyla had returned and was back on the team too.
And if he still dreamed of her sometimes, or half-expected to find her standing behind him in the lab, smiling and ready to walk him through some intricate reasoning he couldn't quite grasp, well, he wouldn't tell anyone about that. Everyone in Atlantis forgot about Eve. It was a closed case, an avoided crisis. Everyday life was challenging in the Pegasus Galaxy and no one seemed to dwell on the past much, too busy ensuring they had a future.
Rodney never forgot. Not any of it.
***
He felt the cold seep into his bones as soon as he stepped foot on M3X-979. It was supposed to be one of those friendly, boring first-contact missions that only held his interest long enough to find out if there was anything remotely like coffee to trade for. The natives, like those on many worlds in the Pegasus, were a bunch of farmers living in fear of the Wraith. With one small difference: they were all dead.
The village, not too far from the Gate, looked pristine in the early morning sun. Nothing would alert anyone at first sight about the massacre that no doubt took place soon after they ended the MALP transmission. Nothing was touched or disturbed inside or outside of the small houses. No sign of struggle anywhere. Just corpses.
It was eerie. Rodney felt like all the air had been suddenly vacuumed off the surface of the planet.
"What the hell...?"
"Looks like they just laid down and died, Sir," Ford supplied, looking around with wide eyes. They continued their careful inspection of the village in the hope that there were survivors. They found none.
"Can we go looking for the coffee now?" Rodney asked, losing patience as they made their way to the village square. Sheppard shot him a murderous glance at that. "It's not like they need it, Major. But we do."
"We're not scavengers, McKay. We check it out, go back to the Gate, report to Weir, wait for her orders. Besides, how do you know it wasn't the coffee that killed them, huh?"
"Poisoned coffee? That's rich... Fine. Waste my precious time on investigating a creepy dead village, got it!"
He just couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong—besides the poor dead villagers, obviously.
The second the first sound of gunfire broke the silence, he knew what that feeling was.
Wraith drones were coming at them from all over the place. They returned fire in a frenzy, running for the Gate. But when they got there they saw that the wormhole had already been opened; there was nowhere they could go.
"McKay! Disengage the wormhole and dial the Alpha site for us!"
Rodney holstered his gun and took cover by the DHD. He fumbled with the panel to get access to the crystals, then looked up as a familiar sensation fell over him.
A pair of emerald green eyes locked with his own.
Sheppard kept firing on the approaching drones, keeping an ear out to hear if the Gate shut down. "McKay, what's keeping you?" he called, not looking at the scientist. Then he heard the sound of the wormhole disengaging behind him. "Cool! Now dial us outta here, will ya?" There was no smart retort and Sheppard looked over his shoulder. There was no one there. "Shit! Teyla! Dial the Alpha site! Now!"
***
McKay didn't have time to do or say anything. He felt panic take over, then a prick in his neck, and after that just silence and darkness.
He woke to the sound of dripping water. At least that what he thought it was. It was a constant noise, somewhere not very far away. His surroundings came into focus slowly as the numbness retreated. He was laid on a suspended kind of hammock made of Wraith webbing. He thought he was like a fly in the spider's web, except this web was not sticky or wrapped around him. He chuckled humorlessly at that thought.Yeah, just a fly caught in a green-eyed spider's web. Wonder when she'll eat me...?
"Welcome to my home, Dr. Rodney McKay." He heard the familiar voice greet him as he sat up. "Did you miss me?" He could taste the sarcasm dripping from her tongue.
"Can't say I have," he brazened, though it was partially a lie. "How about you? Miss me?"
"I am glad to see you again." She said as she approached.
He slid off the hammock thing to stand in front of her.
"I have indeed missed you." Then her hand found its way under his shirt to splay open over his chest. Rodney fought to swallow the lump in his throat, but her feeding spikes only caressed him softly without even attempting to break the skin. Her hand moved over his skin and muscles and she smiled. His heart was making an honest attempt at shooting right through his ribs. It was time for all his nightmares to come true. She was already whispering soft, kind words in his ear. Next she would kiss him. Then, she would finally drain the life from his body and the last thing he would ever see would be he satisfied smile.
Only this was no dream and the fear was very real. Eve was very real. So he pulled himself together and, grabbing her wrist, he moved her hand away. She didn't resist.
"So, now what?" he asked while considering his chances at escape. "Where are we, anyway?"
"Now," she said silkily, "you help me. We are at my home. I call this the Green Moon of the Mekrane. The soil on this moon is rich in a mineral that makes it look green. The Lanteans called it Dark Moon, because the planet this moon orbits usually gets between it an the two suns we call Mekrane. I suppose that Dark Moon is befitting also."
"I really don't care what you call this place or why. And how did you get the idea I was going to help you anyway?"
Her simile only widened. "I know you. You dislike pain. You will help."
McKay's eyes widened. "Are we talking torture here? Because you're right. I really hate that."
Eve caressed his cheek lovingly, her long fingers following the curve of his face. She turned abruptly and moved away.
"Follow me," she called over her shoulder.
And so he did. The hallways she guided his through were tall and narrow. It would have been very difficult for two people to walk side by side. There was a warm yellow light coming from some large protuberances on the walls. The wall itself looked alive. It was then Rodney realized the building was an organic growth. He was walking inside a living thing! The thought made him nauseas. He took a couple of steadying breaths, trying to keep an eye out for any possibility of escape.
"Nice place you got here," he murmured. There was no answer.
They made it to a membrane door that parted at Eve's touch and let them through. On the other side the corridor continued, becoming wider and wider until it opened into a room with staircases on either side. At least they looked like staircases. She started climbing the one on their left and he followed.
"No elevators, huh?" he said into the silence, trying to stop himself from babbling, but too anxious to keep quiet. "I guess this helps keep you in shape." At the top of the stairs there was another membrane door. This time it opened into a small, enclosed space that looked much like the elevators Rodney had just complained were lacking. As soon as the membrane closed after them they were enveloped in the white light of a transportation beam. If this was the only way to get from one level to another, he was screwed. There was no way he could operate Wraith technology. The level Eve took them to was arranged like a huge lab. She walked over to a computer console and called up something on the screen that looked like schematics.
"This is the Fortress. It is built underground," she said, indicating a dotted line.
That's ground level, Rodney thought.
"What you see above ground are the transformers," the Wraith said. "Think of the Fortress as a plant. We are in its roots and above are only leaves. The surface of the planet is uninhabitable. The transformers collect the gases from the atmosphere and extract oxygen for us to breath down here. There are parts of this building that are not connected to the transformers. I suggest you don't wander off into those chambers unless you wish you suffocate to death."
"Aren't you going to kill me anyway? I mean I won't help you with whatever evil plan—"
"You will help," Eve said with chilling certainty. "I'll show you." She tapped a few keys and the wall opened to reveal a Zero-Point Energy Module! It seemed like this was the day Rodney's best dreams and worst nightmares came true all at once.
"How...wow! Where did that come from?"
"You found it for me," Eve said, and her smile was cruel. "Allina didn't want to give it to me, either. But I was more...persistent than you were."
Rodney didn't want details. He always thought Eve had been jealous of Allina and just hiding it well, but she had just kept telling him she didn't care about what happened with him and some insignificant human. Nothing had happened with Allina, and now McKay wondered if it wasn't because of Eve and her influence on him that he hadn't responded to Allina's flirting. It was moot now anyway. Allina was probably dead.
McKay decided he wasn't going to think about that. "So, what do you want me for?"
"I have regained my status as Queen of the Mekrane's clan," Eve said. "In order to keep this position, I must provide nourishment."
"You think an entire clan can be satisfied with only me?"
She smiled at his comment.
"No. You are not to be fed upon. You must help me install this module of energy so that the ring of Lanteans can dial to another galaxy. We will take a ship to the planet where the ring is. You will make the adjustments. I know the ring needs these energy modules to establish passageways to worlds far outside of the Pegasus Galaxy. I wish to reach that far. I know you can do this."
***
"Off world unscheduled activation! It's Major Sheppard's IDC."
"Lower the shield."
Elizabeth felt her heart skip a beat, the way it always did when a team returned sooner than they were supposed to. Her gut feeling had always been reliable-that was what made her a good negotiator. It also made her breath catch way too often since the expedition had came to Atlantis.
Teyla stepped through the event horizon, dragging a stun-paralyzed John Sheppard. Behind her came Lieutenant Ford, limping badly. The medical team rushed forward, taking the Major and Lieutenant away on stretchers. Teyla waved Carson away.
"What happened? Where's Dr. McKay?"
"We found all the villagers dead when we arrived," Teyla explained. She was panting from carrying Sheppard. "Then we were attacked by Wraith. I believe they took Dr. McKay. Major Sheppard and Lieutenant Ford were hit by stun blasts. Major Sheppard thinks it was Eve."
"Eve? Do you think Wraith killed the villagers?"
"I do not know. Nobody in the village looked fed upon. It is very unusual for Wraith to kill so many without feeding."
"We'll speak again when John and Aiden get some feeling back into their bodies. We'll decide what to do then."
It didn't take long for Sheppard to regain a little power of speech, and he insistently asked to talk to Weir. She came to his bedside, trying to calm him down.
"No. I will not hwaith till I heel betther!" Sheppard ground out through clenched teeth, his jaw muscles not yet cooperating in full. "Hyou need to shend a team outh tere to het the cryshtal. Te only way we can find McKay..."
"Major, Teyla reported that M3X-979 is swarming with drones, and you barely got away as it was. I'm not sending a team into that sort of situation. We are unable to mount an immediate rescue for Dr. McKay. If we can rescue him, you of all people should know I'll do anything in my power to make that happen. All we can do now is wait. We'll send a MALP through first thing tomorrow and if the coast is clear, we'll have a team down there to retrieve gate addresses. You can go too, but only if you settle down now."
Sheppard glared at her. "Fhine."
Elizabeth nodded.
"When you can unclench your jaw all the way, I'll expect to hear why you think Eve's behind this. In detail. Now rest, Major."
He just closed his eyes in response. He knew she was right, but that didn't mean he didn't want to barrel through the gate and shoot anything that moved and looked greenish. It would still be up to ten hours until he would be able to drag a foot behind him, though, and much longer before he regained full mobility. That made him angry. He would have loved to disobey Weir's direct orders to wait till morning, if only he could convince his muscles to behave and obey him.
Soon a nurse came and injected something into the I.V. line they had set up for him. It must have been a sedative, because sleep washed over him just before the tightness in his muscles could become painful.
