Pain erupted through her head in an almost volcanic surge as Oberoth delved into her memories once again. Elizabeth blocked him as best she could, letting only tiny, ineffectual remembrances surface to appease or confuse him, depending on her mood. Right now she had pushed down her fear and was righteously pissed-off, and so threw him a particularly meatless bone of her falling off her bicycle as a child and scraping her knee. She was more than aware that the triviality of the material would infuriate him, but she didn't care. She knew she would not survive this imprisonment, and so was determined to take her memories of Atlantis and the people sheltered within its walls with her. Once Oberoth had tired of trying to attain information she would be killed or left to die alone in the cells, whichever satisfied his loathing of her most. Her fate was sealed whatever she did, so this was her last opportunity to do something for her friends – her final selfless act.

She wondered if the nanites inside her had changed her somehow, because that thought wasn't nearly as frightening as she knew it should be. Somehow, the thought of dying and all this being over left her calm and serene, giving her the strength to hold out despite the pain.

Oberoth withdrew his hand from her forehead and glared at her like a bad tempered Rottweiler. As the illusions he's fed her vaporised, she realised she was still in a cell just like the ones back on Atlantis, the thick bars and shielding impenetrable unless you knew the code to get out. 'You really should co-operate, Dr Weir,' Oberoth rumbled, his eyes narrowing to little more than burning slits in his broad and wrathful face. 'Tell us what we want to know about Atlantis, or we will torture you in ways you cannot even begin to imagine.'

'Your threats are pointless,' she spat back at him, raising her chin high. 'I've already sacrificed myself. I'm prepared to die for my people, so you can't do anything to me now that will make me talk.'

'We don't need you to talk, we only need you to stop blocking us. Those nanites you possess certainly make you strong, but they won't keep us out forever. Why not make the process easier on yourself and let us take what we need. We might even spare you – or perhaps build you a new body, one that will be far less fragile than the flesh and blood you are wrapped in now.'

'I don't think so,' she said, smiling fiercely at him. 'I'm happy with my body just the way it is, thank you, and considering you've made yourselves look like us, I think you're actually rather envious.'

Her confidence only added fuel to the already raging flames of his ire. 'It really would be better if you gave us the information we seek willingly, Dr Weir. We will be far more forgiving in our treatment of your friends if you assist us.'

A surge of panic lurched in her stomach at the mention of her friends back on Atlantis in his threats. But she didn't believe Oberoth would spare them any pain if she helped him; he was designed to be aggressive and he did it frighteningly well. 'You mean you'll kill them more quickly?' she asked. 'Well, I refuse to play any part in it. If I can hold the information from you, you'll never be able to find them anyway.'

'Of course, you are assuming Colonel Sheppard and Ronon Dex escaped...and I'm afraid that assumption is incorrect.'

She watched in horror as Sheppard and Ronon were dragged into the room outside the bars, struggling all the way against their impossibly strong captors. Neither man would submit to being forced to their knees, and when one of the replicator guards kicked the back of Sheppard's calf, Elizabeth was certain she heard more than just the sound of his boot hitting muscle. The throat-scraping scream forcing its way out through his clenched teeth as he buckled let her know she was right. Two Replicator guards held each man's arms pinning them firmly in their kneeling position. Ronon fought fiercely and almost mustered enough strength from his seeing his friend's pain to throw his oppressors clear, but when two more joined in the battle, he was quickly overcome.

Oberoth led Elizabeth out of the cell to make sure her view of the men was unimpeded. His grip on her arm made her wince, and the thought of how much worse the pain of John's injury would be sent her stomach into a spasm of somersaults.

'You see, your sacrifice wasn't completely successful, Dr Weir,' Oberoth stated, a faint smile curling his lips. 'Dr McKay was able to escape us with the ZPM you'd stolen, but these two were just a little too slow to make it back to their vessel. Now, do you really think you are strong enough to withhold information while your colleagues are tortured before your very eyes?'

She opened her mouth, but no words were forthcoming. She looked toward Sheppard, a cold sweat breaking out on his ashen face, and knew he was already in more pain than she wanted to think about. Oberoth was right; she wouldn't be able to keep the information he sought from him.

'Don't tell him anything,' she heard Sheppard rasp, his two captors either side of him twisting his arms awkwardly behind him.

That helped to steel her nerve, and she set her jaw, glaring back at the furious face of the psychotic Replicator. 'I won't tell you where they were heading. You can't make me forfeit the lives of everyone on the expedition to ease our passage.'

'Yeah...do your worst,' Ronon growled, his teeth bared like an angry dog preparing to fight.

Oberoth held his hand out before him, the nanite cells melting and morphing until they formed an alarmingly sharp and reflective blade.

'We'll, let's see if you feel so brave when I've cut out your tongue, Ronon Dex,' he charged, moving toward him.

Then, he stopped. A moment of stillness followed as Ronon continued to glower, but that the Replicator slowly turned toward Sheppard. The colonel seemed to sense the change in his intentions, and lifted his sagging head to look at him.

'I believe I will let Ronon Dex continue to rave since you are more important to Dr Weir, Colonel Sheppard.'

Elizabeth felt a prick of embarrassment, cursing herself for such a futile emotion. They were all about to die; it didn't matter if Sheppard learned the truth now. Oberoth put the blade under Sheppard's chin, lifting his head higher and slicing the outer layers of his skin in the process. A trickle of blood ran the length of the smooth blade, soaking into the simulated material of his sleeve. 'You appear so strong, and yet your bodies are so feeble and slow to mend.'

'Screw you,' Sheppard spat back, flinching as the blade cut just a little deeper.

Oberoth smirked at the colonel's feeble attempt at defiance. Elizabeth swallowed, her arid throat almost sticking shut in the process. She'd been in the position of withholding information as Sheppard was tortured once before; she didn't think she had the strength to hold out again, not with him right here in front of her. 'Please stop,' she heard herself whisper, without even consciously forming the thought.

'With pleasure...as soon as you give me the location of Atlantis.'

She looked to Sheppard again, his green eyes meeting hers and demanding that she not to speak. But she could see his agony and it tore into her soul. She couldn't be the co-perpetrator of his torment again.

'They –'

'Elizabeth...don't'

The colonel's firm instruction gave her strength once more. She clamped her mouth shut.

'Very well,' Oberoth said flatly, slicing into the biceps of Sheppard's left arm.

He groaned through his still clenched teeth, but refused to let out another scream.

The Replicator struck again and sliced across his left arm, then nodded to a guard who stepped forward and pushed his boot into Sheppard's back, forcing him forward as the others held onto his wrists. The additional pressure on his wounds opened them up, and Elizabeth could soon see a slick darkness oozing through the fabric of his shirtsleeves.

As if sensing her resolve wavering, Oberoth cut the colonel again across his exposed forearms, where the blood could run freely and drip to the polished floor. The guard behind pushed even harder, the strain making the blood flow increase.

'Stop this!' Elizabeth cried, desperately trying to think of some way of assuaging Oberoth's desire for revenge without anyone having to die. 'Stop, please. There has to be some way we can come to an agreement. We could fight the Wraith together...there really is no need for us to be enemies.'

'You tried to destroy our planet, Dr Weir. Hardly something that demonstrates a willingness to form a friendship.'

She'd known that act of aggression would come back to bite them, but no one had been willing to listen. Now they would pay the penalty.

Oberoth sliced again, this time into the colonel's shoulders. He shuddered against the pain and ground out a groan that told her how much this hurt him.

'Do something!' Ronon growled at her, pulling hard against those restraining him, so hard he actually momentarily unbalanced them. They soon re-established their footing.

'Don't listen to him,' Sheppard panted, rivulets of perspiration now running down his face. 'Think of Atlantis.' The foot in his back pressed harder and he whimpered despite his best efforts not to.

She did what he asked. She thought of the people she knew there, of all the lives depending on her silence, then Ronon shouted, 'They're killing him!' and shattered those images out of existence. All she could see was the suffering of the man in front of her...and it was all down to her.

'Enough.' The guard stepped back and Sheppard immediately looked more comfortable despite his obvious injuries. Oberoth walked toward Elizabeth and she let out the breath she'd been holding, thinking it was over at last. 'You clearly have no intention of telling us what we wish to know. It's time to finish this.'

Without warning, he extended his arm sharply in Sheppard's direction, the nanites reforming into a lancing spear that penetrated just beneath Sheppard's breastbone and exited through his back, spreading out into a grappling hook shape which he used to drag the shocked and failing colonel toward him. Sheppard's body fell limp, only Oberoth's mutated limb stopping him from collapsing.

Elizabeth wanted to scream, but nothing would come. She watched as Sheppard's eyes glazed before her, the last embers of his life extinguished by her refusal to comply. She had brought him to this by her supposed act of selflessness. Then she saw it, a flicker in the image, a fault, and suddenly the coding generating the whole illusion became clear to her. John, Ronon, the guards, everything except Oberoth was a Replicator generated image, and with that realisation, the scene broke down into its separate pixels and fell away from around them.

Though still shocked, the fact he had needed to fake that scene told Elizabeth what she desperately wanted to know. The rest of her team had escaped; John was safe.

'Seems I'm not as easy to fool as you thought,' she announced, her tone sounding far more confident than she actually felt. 'I won't tell you where they are, Oberoth – not ever.'

Unexpectedly, the Replicator's face cracked into an unnerving smile, then he gave a full, throaty laugh. 'You are but one, Dr Weir, and we are many. You have no hope of succeeding.'

Annoyed by his continued air of superiority even in the face of this defeat, Elizabeth just folded her arms across her chest and said, 'We'll see.'

Elizabeth's eyes opened to the lined, graphite grey walls of the isolation room. The clash with Oberoth had been nothing more than a nightmare replay of her imprisonment, and relief flushed the adrenalin from her veins and helped her to relax as she remembered she was now safe and among friends. She had never imagined she would see Atlantis again when the Asurans had abandoned her on the uninhabited planet Radek had found her on. After two days of isolation and barely surviving the arid landscape and the freezing night time temperatures, she'd come to terms with the fact she would die alone there. But then the jumper had come and things had changed.

She'd considered hiding at first. She didn't know if it was the jumper Oberoth's soldiers had dropped her off in or one of Atlantis' own, but either way she felt the best thing would be if she concealed herself from whoever had come and just died there. Even with the nanites desperately fighting to keep her alive, there was only so long her organic components would last without food and water. But she'd realised how pointless concealing herself would be. Whoever they were, and whichever side they were on, they each had ways of tracking her that were beyond her control. So she'd held her ground and hoped for the best.

It was with a small amount of relief she first spotted the hazmat suits. It was her own people, not Oberoth back to see if two days on the planet had weakened her resolve. The military team had obviously come looking for her, as there was no sign of surprise in their expressions when they found her, merely concern for her wellbeing, and perhaps for themselves, too. It was good to see Radek among them; another civilian with her made her feel less intimidated by the P-90s the marines held trained on her. Still, it came as a great relief to know that Atlantis had survived the flight through hyperspace and landed safely with no further loss of life. She might not be in control of the place anymore, but that didn't mean she cared any less about it or its inhabitants. Yet, much as she was glad they'd come to rescue her and she could now return to what she considered her home, some deep-rooted fearful corner of her subconscious knew it would have been better all round if they had never found her.

She couldn't help but smile now as she recalled the elation she'd felt in discovering the ZPM she'd helped secure had saved Atlantis. It felt wonderful to know her friends and colleagues were still alive, and even with all the restrictions she faced due to her condition, she felt safer now than she had in days. But there was one person she really wanted to talk to, the first person who had rushed to the jumper as it had come to rest in the gate room.

John.

She'd still been in shock as he'd come into view in the jumper; John Sheppard, now Leader of Atlantis, uncomfortable with power, but taking up the reins as was expected of him none-the-less. It was just like him to be the first one in there rather than delegate the responsibility to someone else. The man was his own worst enemy, never cutting himself any slack or taking the easy option. Poor John. Having command of the military aspects of Atlantis didn't faze him – that was his comfort zone – but she knew having overall command was something he'd never wanted, though he'd never voiced that fact out loud. Not once in their years of working together had she sensed any desire in him to usurp her position. He was her friend, and she suspected all the added pressure of losing and then finding her again on top of everything else he'd taken on board had pushed him hard. But he would cope...he always did. That was what John Sheppard was all about. When everyone else around was losing their heads, Sheppard could be counted upon to think of or do something to save the day.

She looked up to the observation window hoping to see him there, but no one was watching her. She sighed, wondering how long it would be before anyone joined her.

As if in answer to her unspoken question, the door to her room opened. Dr Keller, complete with orange hazmat suit, entered with a tray bearing breakfast for her.

'Good morning, Elizabeth,' Keller chimed from behind her visor, giving her a warm smile. 'How're you feeling today?'

'Good,' Elizabeth said, although she sounded a little uncertain, even to herself. 'Is that for me?'

'Well, I wouldn't be so cruel as to bring my own breakfast in here and eat it in front of you,' the doctor chuckled. 'There's some toast and yoghurt, and a strong cup of coffee for you. Teyla told me that's how you like to start the day.'

'Wonderful. Just what I need.'

'Is it okay if I just run a few routine tests and scans before you begin?' Keller asked apologetically.

'Of course. Do whatever you need to do.'

Keller set the tray aside on the table beside the bed so she could begin her work. 'Okay. Could you lie down for me so I can get a clear picture from the scanner?'

Elizabeth lay out straight and Keller passed a portable scanner over her, taking readings she could examine later. Then, she took her temperature and blood pressure, and finally another small vial of her blood. 'I'm sure you'll be relieved when we can stop poking you full of holes,' the doctor joked, giving her another of her broad smiles. 'I'll try to make sure we don't turn you into a sieve before then.'

'Well, whatever you do, it won't be as bad as what the Asurans did to me,' she assured the young medic, sitting up again.

Keller's smile faltered at that, and she looked as if she didn't quite know how to respond. 'Er, yeah. I imagine not. I've got a feeling a few people might want to ask you some questions about that later if you're feeling up to it.'

'I wouldn't expect anything less,' Elizabeth smirked, reaching for a piece of toast from the tray Keller had now placed beside her. 'Has Colonel Sheppard been to check up on me today?'

The way Dr Keller's eyes flicked briefly up to the camera in the corner of the room told her John would already be aware of her question. She wasn't surprised; if the roles were reversed she would be keeping an eye on him, too. She wondered if he'd been watching her since she'd woken, then realised he probably had, and more than likely for a while before that if she knew him as well as she thought she did.

'Er, I don't think I've seen him this morning. Is there any particular reason you want to see him?' Keller asked.

'There are some things he and I should talk about, that's all...in private.'

'Oh,' Keller said, again glancing toward the camera and looking a little awkward.

Elizabeth realised the doctor had misinterpreted her meaning. 'Oh, no. When I say in private I'm not suggesting it's anything...you know...intimate. It's just that the colonel doesn't really like to talk openly, and I need him to understand he's in no way to blame for what happened to me.'

'Oh, I see,' Keller giggled. 'Sorry. Well, I'll go see if I can find him and let him know you want a chat. I'll make sure you get some privacy.'

'Thank you, Jennifer,' Elizabeth called after her as she left.

The doctor gave her one last smile and departed, leaving her to enjoy her breakfast in solitude.

oooOOOooo

Sheppard heard Keller approaching the office, but didn't turn to acknowledge her, preferring to keep up his watch over Elizabeth via the image relay. She ate quickly, and he found himself wondering if the nanites affected her appetite along with everything else they were doing to help her ailing body. He hated the fact he was looking for trivial differences like that. They weren't important changes, but made him feel just a little more comfortable around her.

'She's one strong woman,' he heard the doctor sigh as she sat down opposite him.

'Yes, she is,' he agreed.

'I take it you heard what she said?'

He nodded.

'So you'll go and talk to her?'

'Yeah...later. I have a few other things I have to do first.'

He knew she was nodding without looking at her, but he could also tell she had more she wanted to say. He waited for her to continue.

'Did you get some sleep last night, Colonel?' Keller asked.

He glanced at her before returning his attention to the screen. 'Some.'

'You still look tired.'

Sheppard didn't want to go into detail about the kind of night he'd had. Though, when he pieced it all together, he had probably managed a total of four hours, his sleep had been so regularly interrupted by Replicator fuelled nightmares that he doubted he'd managed to get any real rest at all. Three strong cups of coffee swiftly thrown back in the mess hall were all that were keeping him vertical right now. Not that she needed to know that. He wanted Keller to focus on the woman in the isolation room and no one else today.

'You do know we'll update you the minute there's any significant change in Elizabeth's condition, don't you?' the doctor added, still trying to draw him into some form of verbal communication.

'I'll take another rest later,' he assured her. 'So, how's she doing?'

'Well, physically she's in great shape, and she seems surprisingly calm considering what she's been through...not that I know exactly what she's been through yet...but you know what I mean.'

'What about the nanites?' he asked, refusing to comment on that side of things just yet.

Keller called up the latest data she'd taken from Elizabeth just a few minutes ago, and brought the scan images up on a screen for him to see. 'The nanites appear to be functioning just as Dr McKay and I intended them to do. As you can see, the strongest concentration of them are in her brain, repairing the damage inflicted when the Asuran beam struck the city, and there are a few of them around in other places like her ribs and lung,' she circled an area on Elizabeth's torso with her index finger, 'which also suffered fairly extensive damage during the blast. But they're not showing any signs of acting beyond the initial instruction given to them. Of course, I don't know what else the little buggers are up to beyond what I can see, so if you want to check they're not sending out any kind of call to the other Replicators, Dr McKay's your man.'

Biting back his annoyance at her somewhat flippant tone, Sheppard nodded. If she and McKay hadn't been so reckless, they wouldn't be in this mess now. But he knew that wasn't the real him talking; it was the stress, the pressure, the nightmares, the sleep deprivation. The real him was glad to have his friend back no matter what her condition. He just wished he didn't feel so distrustful of her.

'I suppose I should go and speak with her,' he sighed. 'The other stuff can wait.'

'I think she'd appreciate that,' Keller said softly, reaching over the desk and giving his arm a gentle squeeze. 'I'll get you a hazmat suit.'

He shook his head. 'No. I don't want to go in there hidden under layers of crap. If I'm going in, I want to talk to her face to face.'

'But you know we haven't fully assessed the risk of the nanites –'

'They can't pass to me without physical contact, right?'

'I...I don't think so. I think it has to be a conscious decision to infect someone because the bond between some of the cells has to be broken to allow them to pass.'

'Well, I'll be sure not to touch her, okay?

Though she looked worried, Dr Keller seemed to know there was little point in arguing with him. 'Just be sure she understands the rules, too. If you come in contact with her at all, I'll have to put you in isolation until we can be sure you're not infected. You do understand that?'

'Of course. But you have nothing to worry about. Both Elizabeth and I are fully aware of what those nanites can do.'

'Okay. I'll make sure no one interrupts you or comes into the gallery until you let me know you've finished talking. It's going to be okay, Colonel. We'll get her through this. She'll be out of that room in no time.'

He tried to smile, but couldn't quite manage it, wishing instead that people wouldn't make promises they had no way of knowing they could keep.