Chapter 8
Disclaimer: Oh, I want to, but I don't own anything!
Author's note: Thanks for all the reviews and for sticking with me.
Carter smiled.
And that was the last thing O'Neill remembered before the pain hit him. A torrent of pain so fierce and overwhelming that he felt the wind knocked out of him, felt his legs slid from beneath him. Somewhere in the distance someone was calling his name, but it was too far away and the pain was deafening.
Never before had Jack felt pain like this.
Sure, a couple of times came close; His torture by Ba'al… the first time a Goa'uld tried to fry his brains with a hand device… when that human replicator stuck its hand through his head… No, they were all different, painful in their own ways but nothing compared with this.
The pain was unbearable, it overrode all his senses, not even allowing him to try and concentrate on something else. It felt like his veins were on fire, that his entire body was burning. Yet his head felt cold, as cold as ice. So cold and brittle that he felt that someone could just smash it into a million pieces.
He kinda wished they would.
John couldn't breathe. This wasn't right, it wasn't natural, how could anyone experience this much pain? This much torture?
It felt like someone had shoved a couple of nukes down his throat – without him swallowing – and they'd gone off. His body writhed, completely out of his control, as if doused in flames.
Memories began to swarm in on him.
Sitting in the Ancient's chair for the first time, stepping through the gate, actually being on Atlantis, the wraith, meeting Teyla…
They flashed before his eyes, but he felt nothing. None of the usual feelings he experienced when thinking about them. No awe at seeing Atantis, no fear of the wraith, no thrill from Teyla. It scared him even more than the pain did.
John opened his eyes and tried to focus on where he was. Atlantis? No, Earth, he was on Earth. And for some reason that filled him with grief. He was dying – or at least it felt like he was – and all he wanted to do was be in a city that was thousands of years old, was a galaxy away, was made by aliens and was home to the few people that he loved and cared about in this world. The few people he called family.
Again, I know its short but the next chappie is really, really (and I mean it!) long, so I had to cut it up a little bit. Hopefully I'll be able to post it in the next couple of days so there shouldn't be too long a wait! Thanks for reading, please r&r.