Thanks to all my lovely reviewers as always. I'm glad you liked the double cliffie. Here goes then! And bear with me – it's becoming complicated.

He hadn't really been sure how to do what he needed to next, all his energy and guile having been expended on the attainment of this one goal: to reach the city and become as 'invisible' as possible. And, it had worked. His little ruse, the idea which had come like an arrow from the gods from a rather drunken group of Genii, had worked to perfection and he thanked said gods for his connections within the fleet which allowed the seemingly impossible to happen. According to The Genii, there had been another occasion when one of their own had infiltrated the city and they were more than happy to 'help out' given his reasons for the subterfuge and the disdain that most of them still held for a certain Colonel John Sheppard. It would appear that, despite all so-called truces and agreements, personal animosity could not be overcome and the killing of an almost iconic General, as well as the murder of over fifty Genii soldiers, would not soon be forgotten. So, they had helped him to this point, even 'taking out' the man he replaced, an engineer who had come with impeccable credentials.

For the first few days it had been odd being called by a different name and it had taken a while to become accustomed to it. Thankfully, it was easy to explain away his non-recognition of the strange name by nervousness at a new promotion or being in a new galaxy and the man he'd replaced was not high enough in rank for anyone to really take any notice of or care about in any case. So he blended in, quietly doing his job and surreptitiously sabotaging minor systems in the city. Although he had been just a bar manager on the planet, before then he'd had the kind of training that many Travellers went through: mending, repairing and maintaining an aging ship's engines. And with the information from The Genii, he'd been able to plot carefully where and how to do the most damage without, he hoped, being noticed. And this had been made all the easier by an amazing discovery. He had heard that some from The Galaxy might be descended from The Ancestors themselves, carrying the blood line through the generations, and that these people could control Ancient technology but never in his wildest dreams had he believed that he could be one of them, until that first night when the lights in his room came on with a mere thought and he heard, no felt, the city breathing beneath his feet.

He'd caught sight of her a few times and his resolve nearly disappeared. Even now he loved her, but that passion was often tinged with such hatred and jealousy that he felt it almost physically overcome him. Not long after her 'rescue' from him, he'd decided to set out to find her and woo her back again, fighting against his fear of the outside world, and, despite what he knew now, that she was happily married to the city's military commander, he was still determined to win her love. And, if she wouldn't come with him willingly, he would just have to make her, so that she could learn to see where she really did belong. What bothered him most was how to ensure that she was away from the destruction that he knew would certainly happen.

And then, he heard through the Atlantis rumour mill that they were heading off for a 'second honeymoon' on the mainland, a much talked about event among some of the lower echelons in the city who satisfied their longing for all things 'celebrity' by giving the couple a status which they neither wanted nor warranted. This was his chance to place the final links in the chain and, on a sunny summer's day, he finalised the last pieces of his sabotage and stowed away on the jumper, hidden in one of the escape pods, praying that there wouldn't be any last minute security checks. It had been painful listening to the couple laughing and whispering to each other, and even more so when it took them several hours to exit the ship, unable to keep their hands from each other at the joy of being alone. But eventually they left, leaving the hatch open while they unpacked their camping equipment, and he was able to make his escape.

He hid out and bided his time. His chance would come to get her back again and, this time, he wouldn't fail. He'd tried hard not to watch or listen too closely to the interactions between the couple, but what he did hear had only served to stiffen his resolve. She was his, damn it, and he should be lying next to her, touching her, kissing her, making love to her. She would see that he was the better man, the only one for her. It was clear to him that she'd been drawn in by the superficial good looks and easy manner of the other man, but he knew he could make her much happier. And, when he saw the flurry of activity and heard the anxious note in their voices, he knew that something had happened back in Atlantis and he hoped it was everything he'd planned. Not that he really cared how little or how much damage he'd done: that wasn't his affair any more: it had simply been a means to an end. At first, when he'd heard that they would be off world together he'd panicked that his plan wouldn't work, but panic had quickly turned to opportunity as he saw how he could use the situation to achieve his goal. Others could take advantage of the city's temporary weakness and at this moment probably were.

***

The initial explosion had rocked the control room with such force that it blew out much of the glass from the windows, the floor now a jigsaw of yellow and green fragments which would have been beautiful had some not also caused some more serious injuries. Rodney had half flung and half thrown himself onto the ground, arms wrapped around the back of his head and, as he gingerly moved, he could feel blood beginning to seep from wounds to his hands. The scene that greeted him was horribly familiar, reminding him of another time and another explosion when an old friend had been lost. Bodies were scattered around the space, some now attempting to move, and muted groaning seemed to fill the air, mixing with the settling dust. To his left he could see the prone form of Richard Woolsey, frighteningly still with one arm bent horribly out of shape. To his right, the large figure of Ronon was already helping up Teyla and, to Rodney's relief they both looked alright apart from a few superficial cuts and bruises. Mind you, what was okay to them would probably mean several days in hospital for the average mortal.

He reached up to his ear and gratefully felt the familiar shape of his ear piece, clicking it twice. 'Major Lorne? Are you there? Doctor Keller?' Then with a sudden panic: 'Katie? Can you hear me? Are you alright?' Static greeted him. 'Damn it, communications must be down.' He turned to the nearest computer and punched a few buttons, frowning at the readings on the screen in front of him and muttering to himself.

A shadow loomed over his left shoulder. 'McKay? What just happened?' resounded Ronon's familiar booming voice.

Rodney took a breath and swallowed the temptation to throw back a sarcastic comment: this wasn't the time. 'I don't know. We've been noticing glitches in several minor systems for several days now, but nothing major.' As ever, Dr Rodney Mckay couldn't quite bring himself to mention that it was Zelenka who'd uncovered the technical problems. 'It seems like someone has been indulging in some very clever sabotage, causing a major overload of the systems right under our noses. But as for why...' Rodney stopped in mid-sentence.

'What? McKay?' warned Ronon. 'What is it?'

Rodney expected the usual announcement from Chuck but the poor man was still struggling to consciousness.

'The gate's activating. Someone's dialling in, there's no IDC and there's nothing I can do to block it. Shields are down. Ronon?' The request was enough. Ronon and Teyla ran down the gate room stairs and took position just as the familiar blue blast of watery light flashed from the gate.

***

'What the hell?' exclaimed John. As the dust settled, she could see how close they were to being mashed by the creature. 'Are you alright?'

Cat nodded, shaken by the experience but no more and watched as he raised himself onto his haunches, replaced his aviators and cocked his gun, poised and ready to deal with any threat to her. This was how he worked best, she knew: protecting people he cared for. 'Stay here,' he said quietly, 'I'll check it out. There may be others about and I'd like to know what poleaxed it so dramatically.' Cautiously, he crept over to the stricken animal, alert to all possible dangers around them and rather tentatively put a hand against its flank. 'Well, it's dead then,' he dead-panned, 'and it didn't fall down of its own accord.' He stood up and showed her a bloodied hand. 'Someone shot it. We're not alone.'

He scanned the horizon, now glimmering with the early dawn light, distant shapes becoming clearer as the suns rose. To his left was the expanse they'd walked across the day before, hard ground and low scrubland as far as the eye could see. The little bit of so-called safety they had found was in fact the beginning of what appeared to be a much more densely overgrown area and he could see the edge of some kind of forest in the distance. If he remembered the map of the planet correctly, then this woodland went on for some miles and worryingly they knew very little about what lived in its darkness, the scanners unable to penetrate into the murky green depths. Not for the first time, he wished that he'd been content with landing the jumper on the nearer coastline to Atlantis, though the surf was flat there and he had enjoyed a rare sense of freedom cutting through the waves. More worryingly though was the thought that there was someone else out there, even if that someone had just saved their asses. In his experience, anyone who wasn't prepared to introduce themselves was either painfully shy or just plain dangerous and he would err towards the latter for the moment. Another worry was Cat: he knew that she struggled to walk long distances these days, even though she would never admit it. Mostly, her injuries at the hands of the renegade Asgard didn't affect her, but this was different. She was already carrying too much weight in her back-pack, he knew, and had taken as much as he possibly could from her.

Well, there wasn't an option other than to go on. Fear pecked at the back of his brain: for his daughter, for his friends, for his home. There had been other times when Atlantis had been in danger but he'd always managed to be there, to be useful and, above all, John Sheppard hated to feel as though he couldn't 'do' anything. He turned back towards Cat and smiled. As ever, she was the practical one, quietly packing away the few things they'd unpacked the night before, tidying the area where they'd 'slept', though he honestly hadn't managed more than a few caught moments of rest, and watching her activity gave him back his resolve. With a sigh, he walked towards her, placing a hand on her bent back. 'It's time we moved on. We should stop for something to eat and drink when we have a little more shelter: we don't want to be out in the sun for too long.'

Cat pulled the zip closed on her back-pack and stood up to face her husband. She couldn't see the expression behind the sunglasses but sensed his tension and concern. Seeking to reassure him yet again, she said, 'Well, I'm ready. Shall we go?' and smiled confidently at him. He didn't move for a moment and seemed uncertain what to do next and then he drew her to him in a tight embrace. No words were spoken as he held her, but she could feel a quivering in his neck muscles as she pressed her head into his shoulders. She felt his fears, his worries, his buried panic and shared them. Neither spoke of how they felt. Both knew that they had no option but to go on, to try to reach the city. As she raised her head, she thought she saw a movement in the bushes behind him, a glimmer of something bright, but then it was gone. Oh well, she thought, not the time to worry him about it.

***

He hadn't intended to shoot the creature. There it was, hurtling towards his nemesis and he could see the fruits of all his efforts right there at that moment. But then, the beast had veered to one side and he saw the shape of his beloved, being protected by her husband, and he knew that they would both be killed in the next few seconds. So, he'd stood up from his hiding place and fired a single shot into the animal's body, felling it instantly. He watched the tender moment as the two hugged each other for comfort and bit his bottom lip. 'Next time,' he muttered under his breath, 'you won't be so lucky.'

***

On the edges of the forest, the light only just managing to reach the ground in tiny patches through the canopy, John and Cat paused for breath. They hadn't spoken as they crossed the scrubland which verged the edge of the wood and there really didn't seem anything to say now, both mentally and physically fatigued. They sat uncomfortably on a rock, taking a few meagre sips of water and sharing a power bar. From behind, a strange cacophony of birds and other creatures crept towards them from verdant depths, both a warning and an invitation at the same time.

Cat glanced across at John. He was sitting slouched on a rock next to her, long legs stretched out in mock relaxation, but a deep frown etching his handsome face. The companionable silence had shifted into something more uncomfortable, becoming a barrier that was difficult to break down, neither able to make small talk or allow themselves to speak about their deepest fears and there didn't seem to be anything in between. There had been moments like this between them at other times, but this was the most awkward it had ever been. Despite all the good things about her husband, his bravery, his kindness, his loyalty, the depth of his passion, he could also cut himself off completely from those around him, a habit born of self-protection, and was capable of a taciturnity which could irritate to the extreme. She looked across at him again. Yes, he was pouting too, concentrating on something else other than the worry that she knew he must be feeling. The irony was that, despite her growing irritation and impatience with the silence, he also looked at his most attractive when slightly rugged and scruffy as he was now and she had to squash other feelings which were not appropriate to the moment, though the thought of sex in the dark undergrowth with him did something to ease her growing tension and she drifted back into somewhat more pleasant thoughts.

Her reverie was broken by John standing abruptly to attention next to her, his keen instinct for danger (what he'd often call his 'spidey' sense) alerted by something she'd clearly missed.

'What...' she tried to ask, but was instantly cut off by a raised hand. Without speaking, he pointed into a clump of bushes about fifty metres away and put his finger to his lips. Cat peered towards the undergrowth, nothing visible to the naked eye. With a flick of his wrist, he pointed to her back-pack and to her back and she nodded in agreement, quickly returning the heavy weight to her shoulders then he leant down and swung his own into place over one shoulder, gun still pointing towards the bushes. Grabbing her arm, he steered her backwards towards the trees and into the darkness, away from whatever trouble was out there waiting for them, but towards the dangers of the forest.

***

The figures that stepped out of the gate and into the control room were disturbingly familiar, their green uniforms and peaked hats clearly denoting them as Genii. Ronon and Teyla managed to fell the first few who came through, but it was much like Canute trying to hold back the tide and within seconds they were overrun, flattened to the floor, arms tied behind them roughly. Rodney had watched with horror the proceedings before making a very deliberate decision, one that he hoped wouldn't be seen as cowardice later; using Cat's old route out of the upper balcony, he had fallen to the ground and crawled away, memories of Sheppard's bravery against the last Genii who had attempted to take Atlantis still fresh in his memory. The Rodney McKay of a few years ago would never have been so courageous, but he had learnt a few things in the years he'd been in the city and in any case he now had a family, apart of course from his adopted one, to defend.

Behind him he could hear sounds of gun fire and fighting and he tried not to imagine what was happening or think too hard about the injured already up there, desperately in need of medical care. Woolsey was out of it completely and without radio contact he had no way of finding Lorne. So, in the absence of both he now had to assume some kind of command. The first thing he needed to do was to find Katie and the girls and get them to safety.

As he ran, he became aware of the chaos in the city's corridors. Every few metres he came across signs of smaller explosions, dust and debris scattering the floor, sometimes in larger chunks which he had to traverse and sometimes in nasty sharp shards which would have cut through his boots if he'd stood on them. There were injured at every corner, some worse than others and he wondered if he should find Jennifer Keller first. No, he needed to know that his girls were alright.

As he rounded the corner to his quarters, he was horrified to see the door hanging open, almost off its hinges. From inside, he could hear the sound of a child crying and he ran towards it with trepidation. Their main room was a mess of upturned furniture, dust filling the air. In the corner, he could see a little huddle of figures, covered by what looked like a bed sheet.

'Katie? Is that you? Are you alright? Are the girls alright?'

The huddle shifted into three figures, the two smaller ones huddling into their mother. 'We're alright, Rodney, just a little shaken up,' she replied as he took them in his arms with a relieved and heart -felt hug. 'What...what happened, Rodney?'

'It's so not good. Some of Sheppard's 'big bads' have taken the control room. It's the damn Genii again.' Releasing her from his arms, he continued, 'and I have to go now. There are things I must do, but we need to get you and the girls to safety. There's a little room that Cat found several years ago. You need the gene to open the door from the outside, so it'll be safe from The Genii and I put in some provisions some time ago so if it takes a while you'll be alright. I'll try to get the radios back on line as soon as possible, so take this,' he said, handing her an ear piece. He leant over and gave her a kiss. 'And, if you don't hear from me within 24 hours then you'll need to decide whether to come out or not. I'm going to try to find Lorne and some 'proper soldiers' then see if Zelenka's alright. I think I know how to solve the technical problems but need Radek's help and I can't do the fighting all by myself.'

Once he'd taken his wife and daughters to the sanctuary of the secret room, he headed off for the labs. Already, the sound of gunfire was getting closer, The Genii clearly intent upon not repeating past mistakes where complacency and over confidence led to their downfall. He breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of an intact door on the lab and an even bigger sigh when he waved his hand over the door lock with little hope of success and the door whooshed open.

'Well, it is about time you got here, Rodney, 'said Zelenka in his strongest Czech accent.

***

The forest was dark and dismal, the sound of water dripping from the highest branches and landing still way above his head. He shivered, unprepared for the cold and damp that pervaded here. Ahead he could hear rather than see his prey. Two dark shadows creeping through the undergrowth, battling through the wet ground and the creepers that appeared to weave around legs with octopus -like ease. He had a plan and he was determined to carry it out. This time he wouldn't fail. When, ahead of him, he saw one of the figures stumble, just enough to halt their progress, he took his chance and aimed his weapon. With one shot he hit the other figure, felling it like a tree as it collapsed stiffly into the ground.

TBC

Please R & R if you want to know what happens next! I need encouragement to continue weaving this story.