The jumper banked to the left and swept down low above the ocean. Sheppard kept the coastline in sight the whole time, figuring he did he could bring the jumper in to land should something unexpected happen. His team sat tense in the cockpit with him, faces taut with worry.

'You picking anything up, Rodney?'

'Nothing,' the scientist called back to him. 'Are you sure you saw a city ship approaching the planet?'

'Absolutely!' Sheppard spat.

'Are you certain, John? You have been under considerable strain lately...perhaps you simply dreamt it,' Teyla said, sympathy burning bright in her eyes.

Sheppard didn't want her damned sympathy; he wanted her to trust him. Teyla had always trusted him...until now.

'I know what I saw,' he growled. 'They're here somewhere...we just have to find them.'

'Oh, God!' Rodney suddenly gasped from behind him.

Sheppard knew that sound. It meant he'd found something bad. 'What is it, McKay?'

'They're...they're under the water, they're right below us!'

'Let's get out of –'

He couldn't even finish the sentence as he felt himself ripped from the pilot seat by Ronon's strong arms. 'No point, Sheppard. They're coming. Stop fighting and let it happen.'

The Satedan threw him to the floor, Teyla joining in to pin him down.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Rodney jump into the pilot seat and try to regain control of the vessel. 'What the hell are you two doing? Let him up! We're gonna crash!'

Sheppard struggled against the hands holding him. 'Pull us up, Rodney!'

'I'm trying,' McKay yelled back. Then, more quietly, he breathed, 'Oh no!'

Sheppard now saw what had wrenched that final comment out of him. A tower just like the control tower of Atlantis was rising before them, shooting up at such speed there was no hope of the jumper pulling up in time.

He tensed, preparing for the impact...

'Yeh need to wake up, son. Atlantis is countin' on yeh.'

Sheppard woke with the weirdest sensation he'd had a heavy drinking session and was now suffering the freakiest hangover ever. The ceiling seemed to sag down toward him as if the city were melting. Then, it retracted as he tried to focus on it, and repeated the motion several more times like some huge diaphragm shifting as Atlantis drew in laboured breaths.

Some distance away he heard a voice say, 'Oh, thank God! You're awake!'

Someone caught hold of his arm, pulling him up, and he had to grab on tight to the bed to stop himself falling off it. It was Rodney, and he was right there with him, his face blurring in and out of view. Sheppard felt as if his eyes were rolling around in their sockets, and the room swayed and tilted disconcertingly as if in confirmation of that fact. When he looked at his friend again, he could see Carson standing just behind Rodney's shoulder.

'C...Carson?'

'What? No! It's me, McKay. Sheppard! Sheppard! I need you to listen to me, this is very important,' he heard Rodney's distant voice screech, as if passing through wads of cotton wool.

He looked at the scientist, his face morphing and changing into twisted versions of all the people he knew on Atlantis before his eyes. He threw his friend a goofy smile. 'How'd you 'spect me to concentrate when you keep pullin' faces like that?' he asked, chuckling into his chest. 'Who else d'you do?'

'Dammit! I knew I'd get the dose wrong. We are so screwed!'

Sheppard felt something warm and slightly clammy grab his cheeks and hold his head still. It didn't stop the room from tilting...or was it him listing? When he managed to smack his forehead into the constantly changing face in front of him, he realised which one it was.

'Owww...Sheppard, I gave you some amphetamines to wake you up, but I think I over did it. I need you to focus on what I'm saying, not what you're seeing. Can you do that?'

'Sure...but do you do requests?'

Rodney/Ronon/Keller sighed despondently, the scientist's real face finally coming back into sharp focus as Sheppard's confusion began to lift. 'Please, Sheppard. I really need your help. Atlantis is in BIG trouble and I can't save it without you.'

As the stimulants won the fight for control of Sheppard's mind, his concentration made a huge jump in the right direction. 'Whassup, Rodney?'

McKay almost collapsed with relief, his whole body sagging as he realised Sheppard was finally paying attention.

'You were right to be worried, Sheppard. People are acting weird, but they're not Asurans. Somehow, Elizabeth's nanites are spreading around the city, infecting everyone they come in contact with. They're still human, but once the nanites replicated to optimum numbers, they're falling under their control.'

That snapped him out of his daze, adrenalin now coursing through him and helping to counteract the effects of any sedative still lurking in his system. 'And Elizabeth?'

'I don't know. She was in the isolation room when I scanned Atlantis, but when I tried to check on her on my way here, she wasn't there. Someone let her out.'

'Dammit!' Sheppard looked down at the bed beneath him, seeing the cuffs and straps now lying empty and idle. They'd pinned him down because they knew he was onto something. They'd realised he would try to stop them, so they'd shut him up and tried to undermine him until his nanites took over and meant he would do what they wanted. Well, they weren't going to get the better of him. He could still stop them...somehow.

'Wha's the plan?' he asked, his voice sounding louder to him now, but still decidedly slurred.

The scientist's face brightened at the question. 'You're gonna love it!' he grinned nervously, checking all around him. 'My program to find a new frequency for the ARG worked...right after I scanned the city and found out the place is riddled with nanites. What're the chances, huh?'

'Apparently, a lot slimmer than you'd think...' Sheppard mused, the nagging pain of his concussion just beginning to kick in behind his eyes again, although it seemed somewhat cushioned this time. Whatever Rodney had dosed him up with was making him feel pretty good now the weird initial effects had worn off. Right now, he was beginning to feel like he could take on the Asurans single-handed.

'Huh! I suppose so,' Rodney replied, looking surprised by the acuteness of his answer. 'Anyway, I reprogrammed the ARG crystal, but I couldn't get it to the control room because the place is swarming with infected personnel. So, thinking on my feet, I realised the jumpers are pretty central to this city, and at just about the highest point. So, I replaced one of our jumper's shield crystals and connected up a naquadah generator to give the power a boost. I've programmed it so it'll generate a disruption field big enough to sweep through and encompass the entire city. I was going to run a simulation to check I'd got the calculations right when Radek interrupted me. He didn't seem overly concerned with what I was doing, but he said he needed my help with the shields and I didn't dare refuse. I didn't want him hanging around the jumper and finding out what I'd been up to. So I said I would go to the control room with him, then I pretended to have a headache and came looking for you. I figured the two of us working together would have a better chance of pulling this off, right?'

Sheppard nodded. 'As long as Radek didn't double back and pull the jumper apart.'

Rodney's face froze in an expression of abject terror. 'Oh, God! I hadn't thought of that.'

'Forget I said it,' Sheppard ordered, realising his mistake now while Rodney slipped into shock in front of his eyes. 'Hopefully they have no clue what you plan was.' Way to go, John!

'But I never even thought of that. I should have brought the crystal with me. Why didn't I? It's so obvious!'

'Because you're panicking, Rodney. Now get a grip!' The scientist quivered in front of him, nodding but quiet at least. 'Chances are that crystal is still exactly where you left it, and that's what we're gonna assume. We can still do this.'

Though Sheppard knew it was mostly down to the amphetamines, he suddenly felt like he could run for hours, kick both Ronon and Teyla's asses at the same time, and figure out how to get the jumper fired up without any help from his present company. Thankfully, he remained rational enough to understand he needed to temper his responses because this was most likely their only shot at stopping the Replicators taking over and destroying the city.

He rubbed at his reddened wrists, remembering again how the infirmary staff had secured him to the bed on the premise of protecting him from himself. Clearly they'd all been acting under the influence of the nanites, but there had been a change of staff since then. So, where were those staff now?

'Rodney, where'd the medics go?'

'It's skeleton staff because it's night hours, so I took a chance and wheeled the EM pulse generator along here. The nanites haven't reached high enough quantities to be completely cohesive in some people yet, so the pulse is still able to disrupt them for a while. There's a few medics out there feeling a bit confused right now, but the nanites will soon reset themselves so we have to get moving. Oh, and I managed to sneak the amphetamines I gave you from the supply cupboard pretty easily. You know, they really should fit a better lock on that thing.'

Sheppard arched an eyebrow. 'I'll be sure to bring it up...if we survive this. But now we should haul our asses out of here before people start waking up. C'mon.' He leapt off the bed, and crumpled straight to the floor, his legs not quite in on the plan. He peered up at Rodney, who looked completely horrified. 'Er...a little help here?'

'Oh...sure!' McKay helped to pick him up, then wrapped Sheppard's arm around his shoulders. 'Ready?'

'Ready,' Sheppard assured him, feeling more confident now he was vertical.

They didn't get far. They'd only taken a few steps when a young male medic appeared, blocking their path. 'Where'd you think you're taking him, Dr McKay? You know he's not fit to leave the infirmary. I'm going to have to insist you stay, Colonel Sheppard.'

'And I'm going to have to insist you step aside,' Sheppard growled. There was no way they were strapping him down to that bed again, not while he had any say in the matter.

'You really can't leave,' the medic insisted.

Sheppard pushed himself up from Rodney and stood alone, swaying slightly, but certain he could stay upright. He hoped his belief was accurate and not another amphetamine fuelled misconception. 'Get out of the way or I'll move you myself,' he rumbled, sounding as menacing as his slightly shaky vocal chords would allow.

'Sheppard!' he heard McKay hiss behind him. 'You're in no fit state –'

He thrust up a silencing hand and Rodney amazingly stopped speaking. That had never worked before...at least not instantly.

The medic smirked. 'You can't get past me. Look at you, you can barely stand.'

'Barely's all I need,' Sheppard told him, then launched his full body weight into the man, knocking him to the ground.

He landed a few punches before the guy started fighting back, frustrating him with the speed with which the bruises and grazes he inflicted began to repair themselves. The colonel felt a primal urge to hurt this man for what he represented, nothing more, but he couldn't do that effectively if he couldn't even leave a lasting mark. The medic managed to flip Sheppard off him and throw him to the ground, sitting on top of him and raining down a few punches of his own...until Rodney set off an EM pulse that rendered his nanites temporarily inert again. Sheppard swung a right hook at the confused man that put his lights out and he toppled right off him.

McKay dragged Sheppard up from the floor and hurriedly supported him through the door and out toward the nearest transporter. Dabbing at his bloodied lip with the back of his hand, he allowed the scientist to steer him from the room. 'Shouldn't we bring the generator?' he suggested, as the doors closed behind them.

'We could, but it'll slow us down, and it'll be useless against anyone with a high level of nanites anyway.'

Realising Rodney had a point, Sheppard decided leaving it behind was probably best. Steadying himself against his friend, he tried to pick up the pace. 'Okay. Let's get out of here before anyone else sees us.'

'Where are we going?' McKay asked, hurrying after him

'Your lab. I need you to tell me everything you know and kit us out with whatever we need to see this through.'

Sheppard allowed Rodney to guide him to the transporter, then insisted on standing on his own feet while Rodney ordered it to take them to the correct location. The fight had left him a little shaky again, but he was already regaining his strength.

The transporter doors opened and McKay stuck his head out to scout around. He pulled back sharply, shutting the door, but not sending the transporter elsewhere.

'Dr Biro's out there,' he explained. 'Hopefully she'll pass right by.'

She didn't. The doors pulled back and Biro gaped at them, surprised to find anyone lurking inside. Sheppard acted instantly, punching her hard in the face. She folded to the floor, completely unconscious.

'Well, I guess she's not infected – not badly, anyway,' Sheppard said, matter-of-fact.

'You knocked her out!' Rodney gasped, helping the wobbly but thankfully more stable colonel to drag her into the transporter and close the door on her. 'You couldn't think of another way of testing her?'

'Not off the top of my head, no. Besides, I'm sure she'd understand...under the circumstances,' Sheppard pointed out. 'I'll apologise later...if we make it through this.'

Feeling stronger all the time, Sheppard managed to jog into the lab in front of Rodney, ordering him to lock the door to stop anyone getting in to them.

'Now, bring me up to speed,' he ordered.

Rodney brought up the date he'd unlocked from Elizabeth's nanites so Sheppard could see the extent of the problem. 'When I was studying the nanites from Elizabeth I found what looked like a minor anomaly in the coding, so minute I almost missed it. When I tried to delete and re-enter it, it turned out to be a microdot...you know...masses of compressed information. I didn't have time to read it all, but it was clearly Asuran in origin. I'm thinking they wrote it into her code when they took her prisoner.'

'But she said they didn't do anything to her...that they just asked her questions.'

'She probably has no memory of it now. Like I said, the data was compressed...and she did say they knocked her out for a while.'

John felt bitterness rising inside him. He wished Oberoth himself was here so he could let him know just what he thought of how he'd used Elizabeth to trick them. He would gladly punch his ugly metal face until he couldn't repair himself anymore. Realising that was more than likely the drugs talking, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind and tried to concentrate on what needed to be done.

'It's like the Greeks and the Trojans,' Rodney sighed.

Sheppard gave him a puzzled look. 'How so?'

'Well, the Greeks tried to get over or through the walls of Troy for ten years. Realising they couldn't, they decided to trick the Trojans into thinking they were giving up and got their finest artists to sculpt a horse to leave behind as a gift for a battle well fought. What the Trojans didn't know was that the Greeks hid thirty men inside the horse, who snuck out once everyone had gone to bed and opened the city gates to let the Greeks in.' He stopped, his jaw slackening as he realised what he'd just said. 'That's what this is about. They want someone here who will open the 'gate to allow them to get through.'

'And that's why we have to stop the spread of nanites here,' Sheppard said decisively. 'Please tell me you put the crystal and generator in the jumper with remote capabilities.'

Rodney blinked at him, baffled by the question. 'I put them in the jumper with remote capabilities. Why, are you heading to the chair? I haven't even had a chance to test the system yet!'

'No, I'm heading for the jumper. You're heading for the chair. We're launching a two pronged attack, that way, if I don't make it to the jumper, you still have a chance to set off the disrupter field.'

'But...but if you don't make it that would probably mean you were —'

'Dead, Rodney. Yeah, I know. Don't go all mushy on me now. I need you to stay focused.'

'Okay. I'm focused,' he nodded, visibly shaking at the prospect of what they were up against.

'I want you to get to the chair room and then trigger Atlantis' lockdown protocol. Then, I want you to open doors for me so I can get to the jumper bay meeting as little resistance as possible.'

'Okay...that sounds doable! Most people are in their quarters now anyway.'

'Good. But first, we need to do this.' Sheppard pulled out his penknife and took off his overshirt. 'Do you have some tweezers?'

'Sure.' McKay pulled a set from a drawer in his workstation and passed them to Sheppard, looking decidedly bemused. As he lay his forearm on Rodney's desktop, the inside facing upward, Sheppard heard the scientist squeak, 'What're you doing?'

'When that medic wakes up, his nanites are going to communicate to everyone receptive to his messages that we're up to something. So, when they want to find us, what's the easiest way to identify us in this city?'

'Our subcutaneous transmitters,' McKay replied, a kind of resignation now tempering his tone.

Sheppard winced as he sliced through the outer layers of his skin where he knew the transmitter to be, finding an edge and then using Rodney's tweezers to tug it out. He set the tiny chip down carefully on the workstation so he didn't damage it, then wiped the blade of his knife on his trousers and passed it to Rodney, handle first.

McKay grimaced, and Sheppard could feel his patience wearing thin. 'This is no time to get squeamish about infection, Rodney. Just do it!'

'It...it's not infection that bothers me...' he said quietly, and John realised it was the thought of inflicting pain on himself that was turning his stomach.

Sheppard grabbed his arm and swiftly slit the skin where the faint scar from the device's implantation still showed. He pulled out the transmitter, placing it next to his, then made them both makeshift bandages from his shirt. 'No point in leaving a trail of breadcrumbs, right?'

Rodney shook his head, still clearly hurting more than he could deal with.

'C'mon, Rodney. Grab what you need, and let's get moving before they find us here,' Sheppard grunted, urging him into action.

Nodding and pressing his left arm to his chest to ease the pain, Rodney grabbed his laptop and tucked it under his other arm. Then he stopped, his face suddenly ashen. 'Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!'

Sheppard halted. 'What. What is it?'

'I'm already infected. Teyla touched my hand the last time she was here in the lab. I got so carried away with everything else that I completely forgot –'

'How long ago?'

'I don't know...maybe an hour or so!'

'Well, I –'

'Oh my God. We're screwed!'

'Rodney!'

'No – we are. We're screwed! Any minutes now I could turn into one of them.'

Sheppard grabbed his upper arms and squeezed tight to snap him out of his ramblings. 'Snap out of it, McKay. I was pinned down by a whole bunch of infected staff hours ago, and I'm still fine. It takes time for them to replicate enough to take over the host, right?'

McKay nodded, giving a slight whimper.

'Then there's still a chance and we're against the clock, so you need to stop panicking, and start moving.'

'Yes...yes your right. Although, my head is aching now –'

Imagining that was more down to Rodney's hypochondria than anything else, Sheppard urged him on. 'C'mon, Rodney. Stay positive.'

He led the way to the door. As they left, Rodney entered a locking code in the door controls. 'That should hold them for a while so they won't know it's just our implants in there. Once I'm in the chair I can control the doors and other things from there.'

'Good thinking. Now, you just do your best to give me a clear run at the jumper bay, and I'll do the rest,' Sheppard promised.

As he was about to go, Rodney spoke again. 'I'm sorry I couldn't fix Elizabeth's nanites, Sheppard. I really thought I was doing the best thing when I activated them...now...now I realise I was wrong.'

Sheppard paused, giving him a grim smile. 'I guess sometimes things are too broken to be fixed. We just have to learn to accept that.'

'I guess so,' Rodney agreed, for once humble in his response.

Regrets expressed, they left the lab behind and headed out in different directions. Sheppard took it cautiously, hoping Rodney was doing the same. Neither of them had any defence against the nanite-infected crew, not that any Earth weapons could do much to slow them anyway. They had to survive on their wits alone. Hopefully, the nanites wouldn't take hold before they could see this through.