Chapter 2: The Darkest Night (I'm Comin' Home...)

By: SGElite23

John lowers his weapon keeping his attention locked on the person standing in front of him, his mind just kept playing that moment when he had first left Atlantis, his mind telling him the lieutenant couldn't be helped but the Colonel wasn't one to give up, even if it went against his better judgment.

"Why are you here?" Sheppard asked keeping his serious tone.

"I need your help, Colonel." Ford just smiled a little seemingly having lost his colder side due to the wraith enzyme, he almost seemed like the Aiden Ford from before his accident, even his eye and the area surrounding it had begun to heal. "I found her!"

"Who?" Sheppard would have been lieing if he said he wasn't intrigued, who was 'She'?

"Dr. Weir! Listen I know what happened to her when she was supposedly captured by the Human-form Replicators, Maj...I mean Colonel, she is Alive!" The Lieutenant turns his attention to Dr. McKay. "Hey, man. I also wanted to extend an apology to you aswell, sorry I tried to well; kill you all those times, I really wasn't myself."

McKay nods and then sorta just turns and leaves the room followed by Dr. Zelenka, John on the other hand wanted to hear what the lieutenant had to say. "I'm waiting Lieutenant, where did you find her?"

"I happened to stumble across a planet, I named it Planet Rainbow because it had an unusual planetary ring which looked like a Rainbow, there were these machine like creatures there...I think I overheard something about Replicators, ever heard of em'?" Ford was clearly a bit confused.

"I..." Sheppard went to answer the lieutenant before the incoming gate alarm sounded.

"Sheppard!" McKay called over the Colonels headset. "We have an incoming connection, I'm bringing up the gates shield."

Sheppard and Ford turn to see the gate shield activate just before the wormhole engages behind it, Sheppard looks back toward the control room. "IDC?"

"Yeah, hold on a second...Dropping the shield! We are getting a signal, it's Colonel Carter!" McKay hits the button dropping the shield and a second later, Samantha Carter steps out of the wormhole with it disengaging behind her.

"To what do we owe this visit, Colonel?" John asked just as the gate shield reactivates on the gate and all 9 chevrons begin lighting up. "MCKAY! Don't tell me this is happening again!"

"I'm sorry Sheppard, this is beyond my control." Rodney looks over at Zelenka. "When the connection engages get to the ZedPm room, I have an idea."

Radek nods before packing up his laptop and rushing out of the control room, McKay takes a deep breath watching as the gate engaged causing the energy readings to spike, they nearly went off the screen of the computer before stabilizing.

"Believe it or not, thats why I am here." Sam looks at the gate wondering just where it was coming from, she'd be lieing if she said it wasn't very interesting. "This happened yesterday at the SGC, if it hadn't deactivated our gate would have very possibly overloaded."

"McKay, get down here and fill Colonel Carter in about what happened here aswell." John spoke into the headset.

"What happened?" McKay asked before realizing what John was talking about, of course that wasn't in time to stop Sheppard from responding.

"The gate McKay, you know the strange connection, the one that you said you couldn't figure out. We were all there, you, me, Radek, how are you the only one that forgot?" Sheppard noticed the smile on Sam's face, he just shakes his head calming himself down. "Ok, please, fill Colonel Carter in."

McKay keeps his eyes locked on the computer as his headset beeps signaling he had an incoming communication, he taps the communicator. "This is Dr. McKay."

"Rodney, this is bad, very very bad." Radek sounded very concerned.

"Oh no, what now?" Rodney asked half not wanting to hear the answer. "Whats wrong?"

"Whats going on?" Sheppard asked as he, Colonel Carter and Lieutenant Ford walked into the control room.

"That connection is drawing twice the power of anything I have ever seen before, the gate is absorbing the energy like a superconductor which it is designed to do." You could hear Radek take a long drawn out breath, he was certainly worried deeply. "I believe that this connection is indeed coming from the Destiny, but something is preventing them from coming through the gate, each time the gate reactivates..."

"It takes up more power, building and building in order to power the long distance connection from Destiny to here or Earth, THATS IT!" Rodney begins typing on the laptop in front of him.

"Whats it?" John asked but he was being ignored at the moment as McKay was to busy to even realize they were there.

"The gate keeps re-dialing random gates using them to keep the connection open, however it can't stay in one network too long or that gate would explode, that is why the SGC Gate got to the point of almost certain overload...It couldn't handle the stress caused by the connection." McKay smiled a little believing he had solved the puzzle. "If I'm right...Watch the gate!"

Everyone in the gate room looked down at the gate staring in excitement as McKay lowers the shield leaving the horizon open for someone to come through, after about 5 minutes John looks back at McKay.

"What exactly are we waiting for, and don't ignore my question, ok?" John asked slowly.

"Watch and learn..." Was all McKay said.

John hadn't no more than looked back at the gate as a lone person flys out of the wormhole with it disengaging behind them, the person stands up brushing his uniform off his back turned to everyone else, he was clearly wearing a Stargate Command Uniform however.

Sam runs down the stairs stopping right behind the person she could tell he was a Colonel. "Everett?"

Colonel Young turns around smiling at her. "I told you I'd make it back, and you thought it couldn't be done."

Without speaking Sam just embraces him almost catching him off guard, Colonel Young couldn't help but be happy to see his cousin again. "So, this is the so called lost city of the ancients? Atlantis, it seems to have just saved my life."

"About that Everett, where is the rest of your team? How in the world did you even dial here in the first place, let alone Earth? I thought the destiny gate was deemed to be incapable of dialing outside the Destiny's range?" Samantha had so many questions even though she knew Everett had just gotten back.

"Alright..." Colonel Young smiles. "The way we dialed Earth is that General O'Neill and the people of Stargate Command figured out a way to send us a ZPM, coated in a highly conductive material and ionized by a top secret research project codenamed Prometheus, the reason the gates kept dialing like that is because we had to keep disconnecting. We couldn't hold the dialed gate open to long or it would stress to much, causing both gates to collapse and certainly explode."

"How did you know about that?" Carter asked as she stepped back a questioning look in her eyes. "I didn't tell you the gates kept dialing..."

"I just figured they did given the fact we kept dialing both here and Earth, sorry if I got a little ahead of myself." Young smirks a little. "How about you give your cousin a tour of the city, you did serve here as it's CO for awhile didn't you?"

Samantha looks up toward the control room everyone seemed to be telling her to be careful as though they didn't fully trust Colonel Young, and who could blame them? Sam knew to keep an eye out on everything and everyone, no matter how close that person may be, replicators could look like anyone in the world including her cousin.

-Top Secret- Area 51 Test Site -(Underground Bunker)-

"This will put an end to our problem, the culmination of almost 75 years of hard work and research! Earth's very own Stargate, one of our own design!" Dr. Danielle Kirkland looks back as the U.S President, Leon Ramsey nods in approval. "I give you, Project: Prometheus! No longer do we have to rely on the ancients Stargate, Prometheus will make them obsolete!"

"Is it ready to be tested, Doctor?" Leon asked in a slow almost demonic voice, however he had this cool about him that put anyone around hims spine in a twinge, Albert Wesker was a person that came to mind when thinking of President Ramsey.

"Possibly, we have determined that our last trial run of this gate sent a massive energy spike through the legacy gate network L.G.N for short, that is the reason Colonel Everett Young was able to return to Atlantis from the Destiny...Luckily we found this out in time to present a cover story, he believes he was talking to General O'Neill." Dr. Kirkland blinks her eyes just before they glow gold right in front of the President, showing that she played host to a Goa'uld Symbiote. "Our plans need to be accelerated!"

"I agree, Doctor." Leon takes his dark sunglasses off keeping his attention locked on Kirkland. "With the system lords gone and Ba'al defeated the galaxy is ours, lucky for us we slipped under the radar of everyone in the galaxy, and what better place to destroy the Tau'ri then from inside out? Yes, this shall be remembered by their history books as the Year Of Blood!"

"Yes, my lord. Their blood shall spill soon enough, but I am tired of playing this charade...I want victory now!" Kirkland turns her back to Ramsey shaking her head. "Once the Prometheus Gate is finished we can go anywhere in the universe, no more restrictions because we don't have enough power, this gate will see the end of our dependence on the petty Ancient Stargate Network. Those fools think we build this for them, when really it is in spite of them, this will be the beacon that sees their destruction."

Leon nods before walking over to the gate controls beginning to input a gate address into the computer, he then watches as the gate begins to power up. "I want to visit Stargate Command, it is time we execute phase II!"

"As you wish, my lord." Danielle smirks an evil hate filled smirk before watching the gate begin to dial, this being the darkest night!

To Be Continued: The Darkest Night, Part 2