Author's Note: I received a very helpful critique recently and decided to rearrange a few things so I could more easily clarify certain situations and dilemmas so to not confuse the delicate minds of avid fans. Thank you SO much for all the story alerts, author alerts, and more importantly reviews! You have no idea how much it meant to me to see 5 reviews on my first chapter. I'm not sure if that means a lot on here but to me, it meant that five people liked my story enough to leave a review. And that's astronomical to me.

Again, I'm still searching for a beta reader and am still uncertain as to how to go about locating one. Please email me or message me if you have information in that regard.

I also edited the first chapter slightly by editing a couple details. They did not change the basic storyline but cleared up a few things I thought were left a little hazy.

(I'm taking requests as well for pairings or other fan-fiction ideas if anyone is interested. If you do not have an account, please feel free to email me).

Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: Atlantis concepts, ideas, characters, settings, alien names and blah blah blah...I'm just borrowing them and will return them in mint condition...I promise.

"So you're saying that you, me and a doctor are going to approach Lieutenant Ford, a man so far gone that he probably can't even remember his full name?"

The tone and attitude was way out of line, and he could have easily identified it as disrespect and insubordination. But that wasn't his style. Besides, he could easily emphasize with her anger. Only, he had to have a united front with Dr. Weir.

"Hey, have you ever seen Carson in hand to hand combat? He's better than Bruce Lee. I think we're more than well off in this mission," he quipped with a sly grin.

She glared at him, obviously not appreciating his weak attempt at humoring the situation. "Why me?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" he replied with a furrowed brow, shifting his weight to his other leg and keeping a casual stance.

Thompson smiled ironically. "You know what I mean. You don't know who I am. This morning's sparring match was our first real conversation."

"So, you've been keeping track?" He grinned widely, but his boisterous attitude was immediately dampened by the unimpressed look that crossed her face. Clearly his throat, he finally relented on the serious talk. "I wanted you because you're the only jar-head I've met on this base who I know wouldn't be completely trigger-happy. You've got common sense and, if you don't mind me saying, that's something you don't often see in marines."

"I'm touched," she replied with a sour look. She was completely out of line but against his better, judgment, he let it go.

Stalking around him, the Lieutenant continued cleaning her quarters. He had walked in at a bad time, and she felt embarrassed having her commanding officer see her residence in such a state.

"Look," he sighed. "I know it seems…somewhat insane and between you and me, I'm not too happy about it either but suck it up and get ready. We have one hour."

Stopping in her tracks she turned to face him. Her eyes were wild with restrained but fiery anger. He was beginning to second guess himself but he knew that's exactly what she wanted.

"Is that an order, Colonel?" she demanded, approaching him with the most intimidating expression she could muster.

"Consider it…a very strong friendly suggestion," he smiled tightly, undaunted.

She mock saluted and turned back around. He almost decided to write her up for clear acts of disrespect towards her superior officer but something made him decide against it. Perhaps it was the fact that he would feel like a blatant hypocrite. He wasn't always the most charming soldier to his superiors but he knew himself that he was a damned good officer. Sheppard settled on allowing her to prove herself before he ended her career as she knew it. However, he would try to make more of a firm stand to show that he wasn't just some blowhard she could kick around.

"One hour, Lieutenant Thompson," he said firmly before stalking out of her quarters. "Bring a P-90 and a smile."

xXx

The Lieutenant smiled to herself as Carson Beckett approached both her and the Colonel with a sour look on his face. Both she and Sheppard were dressed in combat gear, equipped with vests and P-90s. Dr. Beckett also had the mandatory vest but it hung loosely and rebelliously over him. He was also holding tightly to a medical kit rather than a defensive weapon.

It was no secret how the Scot felt about missions such as these – "bloody suicide" was something she often heard him name them – and she could help but sympathize as they expedited their way towards another one, something even less cautious and careful than before, and hardly even planned.

Sheppard nodded to the control room, and the gate began dialing immediately, the sliding sounds scraping against her ear drum as the coordinates from the transmission were slowly locked in.

They stood a good deal back but she still heard the loud clangs quite clearly.

Once nothing remained but the tranquil lake-like appearance in the middle of the gate, John shouted his usual orders – "Alright, let's move out".

Not needing to be told twice, the other two rushed towards the Stargate, eager to get in and get out as fast as possible.

Once they were through, Colonel Sheppard was mumbling small orders about keeping their weapons up and a sharp eye out.

Carson muttered in only hearing distance of the other two, "What's the use? We're all gonna die out here anyway!"

"What makes you say that, Doc?" Lieutenant Thompson jumped in before Beckett received the annoyed response from her superior, who was busy checking out the perimeter.

"What doesn't?" Beckett went on. "It's just a bloody doctor and two armed soldiers. We're dead men."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Carson," Thompson smirked. "Besides, I hear you have amazing combat skills…" she turned to Sheppard when she remembered his crack at humor in her quarters an hour ago. He didn't turn to face her – but she hardly expected him to. He was still busy surveying the area, checking the life signs detector for any hint as to where Lieutenant Ford might be. They were already into the forest, several meters away from the gate but there were no signs of Ford or any other human life, for that matter.

"Oh, aye, if you're talking about a virus," The doctor droned on, seemingly oblivious to the joke or the focus the other two officers were putting into the mission, "but put me in crossfire and I'm just as useful as Rodney."

Lieutenant Thompson chortled but maintained her position steadily. She wasn't too fond of Dr. McKay either, and a little harmless poking fun helped lighten the situation.

Suddenly, a loud noise rang out and a bright blue beam zipped above their heads, almost touching Colonel Sheppard's already on-edge hair.

"Wraith stunners!" John shouted. "Get down!"

Before he even finished the word "Wraith" both she and Carson were down on the ground. "Head back to the gate," she told the Beckett, positioning her gun on the ground to aim in the direction the weapons fire was coming from. "Tell Atlantis." They weren't due for another six hours – which could possibly be too late for them.

Beckett was gone immediately. She could only hope that the gate wasn't already guarded by whoever was firing on them.

Crawling up to be even with the Colonel, she began firing in the area he was, both shielded by a slight uphill.

The mild battle went on for about two minutes. Just as John was figuring it was going to be a tedious stalemate, he felt the chilling sensation of hard metal against the back of his head. He turned slightly to the right to see that Lieutenant Thompson was mirroring the surprised look that was most likely on his face as well.

"Drop your weapons," a low voice commanded, the metal pressing harder against the base of his skull. He did as he was told and lifted his hands up slowly, away from his body. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw that Thompson had done the same.

"Now stand up."

Creaking slowly to their full height, the two also turned around to see the faces of their opponents.

They did not look familiar in saying that they did not wear any uniforms and had no distinctive cultural markers. They simply looked like humans - dirty, tough humans who held stolen Wraith stunners in their hands.

"Who are you?" Sheppard finally asked after what seemed like hours with guns in their faces and their hearts pounding. "Where's Ford?"

"I am Jagrin," said the man whose weapon was pointed towards him, "of the Genii. And you're friend whom you are referring to is dead. We found his unsent transmission a while ago and decided it would be of use to us."

"The Genii?" Thompson repeated. "Ladon's –

A hard blow was delivered swiftly to the side of the Lieutenant's head, knocking her to the ground. The operative who had hit her, the other Genii, spat on her face. "Never speak of that traitor's name!"

"Hey," Sheppard stepped in front of her, still keeping his hands up, and trying to keep his voice calm, "there's no need for violence, I promise you. Maybe we can work this out."

Lieutenant Thompson merely brought her hand to a bleeding cut on the side of her face, and glared up at the man.

Jagrin chuckled. "Colonel Sheppard. Kolya always told me you would attempt diplomacy, but I never imagined it would be quite so pathetic."

John's glance shifted to the Jagrin, whose blonde hair covered his beady green eyes, making it hard to detect any hints of falsehood. "Kolya?" he repeated in question, and an involuntary shiver ran down his spine as the name left his lips. "Kolya is dead." The last statement was merely for confirmation. The old Genii commander had an irritating knack for rising from the grave on multiple occasions. The last he'd seen of him however, he was almost certain he was dead.

Jagrin nodded, grinning cruelly, as he still held the gun steadily towards Sheppard. "That may be, but his mission still lives on in me and my men."

For some reason, the verification of Kolya's death didn't bring him the relief it should have. "And what was his mission exactly?" Something told the Colonel he didn't want to know, but he knew that this rogue Genii would tell him sooner or later, and he'd rather know his plans now as to be able to formulate an escape plan more quickly.

There was a silent exchange between Jagrin and the other guard. The other shot Lieutenant Thompson, stunning her.

Knowing that it was only a stun, John was infuriated only slightly as he looked to Jagrin for an explanation.

"His mission was to make you suffer and then kill you." The blonde explained simply, his face an unmerciful expression of brutality and evil.

The last image he saw before the blackness was the Genii rogue raising the stunner, and pointing it at him.