Picking his way down several corridors, Sheppard made good progress even without Rodney's help, ducking into niches and behind architectural protuberances to conceal himself from discovery. The Ancients had thankfully expressed a preference for sculptural designs in their buildings, and though he'd often thought them somewhat over elaborate for their needs, he had to admit they were proving pretty useful right about now.

Unfortunately, his luck ran out when he turned down the next corridor and saw Lorne and a team of marines heading his way. He turned and sprinted back the way he'd come, hearing them order him to stop and feeling the air prickle as a stunner blast missed him by inches and fizzled across the surface of the wall beside him. The lighting cells in that area sputtered and died, casting him in shadow, and allowing him to stick to the wall and slide away beyond a doorway, and not a moment too soon. The bulkhead door shut only a fraction of a second later placing a barrier between him and his pursuers.

Steadying his breath, Sheppard tapped his earpiece. 'I take it I have you to thank for closing the doors, McKay?'

'Yes. I'm in position in the chair room. Where are you?'

'Outside the botany labs.'

There was a slight delay, then McKay piped up, 'Found you. There are four life signs on the other side of the door ahead of you.'

'Yeah, I know...your timing is impeccable,' the colonel told him.

'You need to double back. I can get doors open to get you around to the other end of that corridor without you having to encounter anyone else.'

'Okay, sounds good.' Sheppard headed away from the doors, each new set yielding to him on his approach. His head was buzzing, more alert than he'd ever felt it. It wasn't exactly a problem, but was disconcerting all the same. He'd always been sharp in combat – able to judge situations, change plans, ignore orders – whenever he felt what he'd been told to do wasn't in everyone's best interest. Now, he felt like he could truly feel the menace around him, the danger lurking behind each door and wall, the anger of the tiny units desperately trying to avenge the acts of the Ancients and now of humans, too. He supposed, when you rationalised it, their behaviour wasn't entirely without foundation, but he didn't want to get too philosophical about it right now. At this moment, they were the enemy, and they were trying to kill everyone in the city; that was all he needed to know.

'You can take the transporter in the next corridor on your left to get you up to the jumper bay floor,' Rodney said in his ear.

'Understood. You start accessing the jumper controls from the chair, that way, if I need to tell you to get things moving we won't lose any time.'

'Okay...hang on...oh no, no, no. I...I can't lock this one out!'

Sheppard stopped in his tracks, frozen by the fear apparent in Rodney's words. 'What is it, McKay?'

'Someone's on the move...it looks like they're following your life signature and the doors don't seem to be a problem for them. Whoever it is, they're just overriding the controls and walking on through. It's like they have some kind of in-depth knowledge of how our codings work.'

That suggested it might be one of the scientists. Rodney had mentioned Zelenka was under nanite influence; perhaps he was planning to check out what he'd done in Jumper One. Sheppard picked up the pace. 'That isn't what I want to hear, Rodney. Where are they?'

'Approaching a transporter. It'll bring them onto the jumper level about the same time you get there, but they have to walk further. If you're quick, you should be able to set the disrupter off before they get there.'

'Understood.'

Sheppard now gave it everything he'd got, tucking his head down and running into the transporter so hard he couldn't stop without slamming his shoulder into the back wall. He told it where to go and rolled his shoulder to ease the pain, not that it would slow him.

As the doors opened just outside the jumper bay he asked Rodney for an update.

'Whoever it is will be at the transporter any time. You need to work fast.'

Jumper One was on the upper level, so John ran to the first set of steps and began to mount them, three at a time. His body felt faster than ever, his heart pumping and his mind racing through what he had to do. He had to open the rear hatch and get that weapon activated before whoever was on his tail stopped him. In seconds, he made it across the metal gantry to the second set of steps and started up them.

'Sheppard. Are you there yet because –'

A shot rang out, hitting the step just behind him. Crap. He kept going, but another shot zinging past his ear and grazing it knocked him off balance. He fell down the set of stairs he was climbing and lay at the bottom of them, stunned into inactivity. The view of the jumpers swam around him, tauntingly close, but just out of reach.

Footsteps crossed the floor below and he knew he was in trouble. 'Rodney...you have a go.'

'What...what's happening?'

'Just do it!' he croaked.

John twisted his head round to see not Zelenka but Elizabeth approaching on the level beneath him. Even that simple movement caused immense pain in his neck, and he knew the sensible thing would be to stay still and hope Rodney fixed things from his end. But when had he ever done the sensible thing when lives were at stake?

He rolled onto his knees, getting to his feet just as Rodney confirmed the worst.

'Sheppard. I can't get the jumper up. Someone's disabled the remote link. God...I can't concentrate...I...I can't figure out how to fix it!'

'Rodney...Elizabeth's here,' Sheppard replied by way of an explanation and encouragement for his waning friend.

'Elizabeth? Oh God. Are you all right? Can you get to the jumper?'

'That's a negative,' Sheppard advised him, feeling a warm trickle running down the side of his neck from the slight wound she'd inflicted.

'All right. Leave it with me...I can do this...I can do this!'

Rodney's confusion didn't make sense. The colonel knew he'd been exposed to the nanites a number of hours before his friend, and he still wasn't feeling the effects. He seriously hoped it was just another case of Rodney panicking before performing the necessary miracle.

'I need you to come back down to my level, Colonel Sheppard,' Elizabeth said calmly, still aiming the 9mm she'd fired at him.

He swallowed hard and thought about complying, then figured he had nothing to lose. 'Why don't you come up here? I'll take you for a flight.'

'I suspect that would be very bad for me,' she smirked. 'Dr Zelenka closed down the link between the chair and the jumper, and I thought I should come along and investigate what Dr McKay was so intent on doing here. Funny, I thought you and he were still in the lab or I would have brought reinforcements. Maybe I should send them along to the chair room instead. I take it that's where they can find him.'

Hoping to deter her from doing that, Sheppard asked, 'What's the point? Rodney can't do anything without remote access.'

'I expect Dr McKay is working on that problem already since he's not fully under our control yet. So, what will I find when I get up there, Colonel?'

'I don't know. Why don't we head up there together and take a look together?' he suggested. He had to get into that jumper, no matter what the cost.

'You are not getting on that ship,' Elizabeth growled, fixing him with a piercing glare, and raising her gun so it was aimed at his head. 'Now, I will ask you once more, please come down to this level.'

'Colonel, I've checked out the remote access and I think I can fix the link, onus on the think, but I...I need five minutes. Can you give me that?'

'Affirmative,' he said softly, starting slowly down the steps to Elizabeth's level. He could feel the various knocks and scrapes his body had sustained in the fall as he gingerly dismounted and limped his way across to her. He stopped a good two arms' lengths away from her, watching her warily. 'I wondered when you'd make your move, Oberoth,' he said without a flicker of fear.

Surprise registered momentarily on Elizabeth's face, but was soon replaced by respect. 'Very clever, Colonel Sheppard. I take it you've been expecting us?'

'You could say that,' he replied, regarding his former friend frostily. 'I wasn't quite sure how or when you'd arrive, but I knew you wouldn't let us get away with stealing your ZPM like that.'

'We wanted you to understand true betrayal before you died, Colonel. You see, we discovered something very interesting about you from Dr Weir. You carry the strongest know genetic link to those the peoples of this galaxy call the Ancestors. The Lanteans wanted to destroy us when all we had done was try to please them. We did not deserve that treatment, just as I'm sure you don't feel you deserve this.'

Sheppard knew if he could keep the Asuran leader talking, Rodney would more than likely fix the problem slowing them down...as long as the nanites didn't kick in first. But what did you talk to a homicidal Replicator about? He decided to butter him up and get some more intel. 'I have to confess I'm impressed with how easily you found us. How'd you know where we jumped to?'

'Oh, Dr Weir wasn't as clever at hiding information from us as she thought she was. The nanites made sure of that.'

Sheppard felt weird listening to those words coming from Elizabeth's mouth. She was Dr Weir, and the fact this Asuran monster was controlling her mind and using her to destroy the very place she loved so much made him mad enough to tear the bastard limb from limb...not that it would do any good.

'I take it a lot more happened in those missing days than she remembers. Have fun tampering with her mind, did you?'

'Dr Weir proved a most formidable adversary in her time with us. She was always able to enforce a certain amount of will on her nanites, no matter what we tried to do with them. I would never have imagined a human mind could be so strong. We even threatened to remove the nanites if she did not comply, but that thought apparently held no fear for her. She views us as...inferior in some way.' She laughed, or rather he did, setting Sheppard's follicles to rigid attention.

'What's so funny?' he demanded.

'The thought that you 'humans' are in any way a match for us. You are weak minded and foolishly compassionate. Your inability to do what is necessary without over analysing the consequences and ramifications will be the end of you...at least in this galaxy. Perhaps, in time, we will succeed in wiping your scourge from the whole universe, and then we will know the Lanteans can never return.'

'The Lanteans are long gone, Oberoth. Elizabeth doesn't deserve this. She doesn't have Lantean genes, she didn't agree with the military strike on your planet, and she didn't come up with the idea of stealing your ZPM.'

'Yet she helped to carry out the plan. She sealed her fate the moment she stepped onto Asuras, Colonel. She gave herself up to save you, and now I intend to make certain she regrets that decision.'

A surge of nausea welled in Sheppard's guts as he realised what that meant. 'Is she...aware of what's happening?'

'Oh yes, Colonel Sheppard. I assure you Dr Weir's mind remains very much intact. The only way we could exert any hold over her was to open up a subspace channel and feed my own consciousness into the nanites replacing her injured brain tissue. I now have control of this body, and all the other nanites replicating their way through the crew of Atlantis, but she is also here.'

'How did you infect everyone?' Sheppard demanded, trying to keep the flourishing anger inside him in check. Anger was his enemy right now; he had to keep a clear head.

'That was courtesy of your friend, Teyla. She underestimated us...as you all did. You believed we could only be transferred by direct physical contact, but we found another means. I'm sure you would appreciate a more detailed explanation, but since I realise you are only trying to provide time for Dr McKay to repair the remote connection to the Jumper One, I find myself even more intrigued to know what is so special about it.'

As Elizabeth tried to side step him, Sheppard put a restraining hand on her shoulder. Though he didn't relish the thought of fighting her, he would do so if necessary. 'I won't let you go up there.'

Oberoth stared out at him through Elizabeth's intelligent green eyes, and, very slowly, a cruel smirk spread across her mouth. 'What makes you think you are any more capable of stopping me than anyone else in this city?'

'I'm not under your influence yet,' Sheppard pointed out.

'Aren't you?' she asked. 'Are you certain...or is it just that I have chosen to allow you to keep your free will for a time because I wished you to witness the destruction I plan to wreak?'

Those words sent a cold chill through the colonel's entire body. He hadn't even considered that prospect. He'd assumed he'd been infected since the spread was so wide, but had hoped the numbers of nanites inside him weren't high enough to take control yet. This was an entirely unexpected possibility. Hoping it was nothing more than a bluff, Sheppard left his hand exactly where it was.

'I won't let you go up there,' he repeated.

Elizabeth grasped his hand in a crushing grip, reminding him of the strength the nanites loaned to their host. 'Then allow me to take the decision away from you.'

An odd tingling passed through his body, and Sheppard realised he couldn't move. He struggled to will himself into action, sweat breaking out on his forehead from the sheer effort of trying to break the nanites' hold over him.

'You see, Colonel, as the strongest link to the Lanteans we wanted you to see what it was like to witness everything you'd strived for obliterated. But we infected you to be sure you could not stop us if you found out the truth of our plans. Your nanites will hold you still until I'm finished.'

Elizabeth began to walk away toward the steps leading up to Jumper One, and all he could do was scream after her. 'Elizabeth...I know you're still in there. Please, stop him!'

To his amazement, she came to a faltering stop. She was fighting. He felt the pressure that had built inside his own body suddenly melt away and he rushed forward, placing himself in front of her. When she looked at him, he could see tears in her eyes. 'Elizabeth...keep fighting him...we just need a little more time.'

'I'm sorry,' she whispered, pain registering in her face as she tried to maintain control. 'I don't know if I can.'

'Yes...yes you can, Elizabeth,' he told her. 'You're the strongest person I know. Rodney and I need your help. Atlantis needs your help!' Fully aware he was asking her to sacrifice herself for the sake of the city and everyone in it, the thing he had wanted to stop her doing in the first place when forced to leave her on Asuras, it took every iota of strength he had to make the request. He'd promised her she would get through this. Now he, too, was guilty of making a promise he couldn't keep.

She nodded, biting her bottom lip. 'If he manages to fix things, tell Rodney he did good,' she said quietly, pain scoring across her brow as the nanites in her head fought to reassert their control. 'And, John...'

He swallowed down a knot of emotion blocking his throat. 'Yeah.'

'You did good, too.'

As those words faded, he saw her eyes harden, and he knew she was gone. He hadn't even managed to say goodbye. That moment of regret distracted him as the blow came flying, and the butt of the 9mm made sharp contact with his temple, stunning him. He dropped to his knees, his world spinning.

'You will not defeat us!' he heard Elizabeth's voice tell him, the tone now much harsher and seething with pure hatred – Oberoth's hatred for anything and anyone of Lantean origin.

Sheppard felt the pressure building inside him again, weighing down his limbs and leaving him physically submissive while completely conscious of what was going on. He forced himself to concentrate on moving, to focus on what letting Oberoth take control of him meant. It meant the end of everything Elizabeth had dreamed of finding, fought to hold onto, and strived to nurture. She'd loved the place from the start, a love they'd all grown to understand and share. Everyone he considered his family was at risk. He wouldn't let Oberoth use her this way...even if it meant losing her. She deserved to be remembered for something more than destroying Atlantis.

He could hear the city humming around him, calling out for help as if it knew it was about to die, and he knew he had to save it. Though the agony of movement was almost unbearable, he set himself into motion, and once the nanite hold was interrupted, he felt instant relief. It was as if he had been set in concrete and someone had struck it with a sledgehammer to break him free. Oberoth had said Elizabeth wielded some control over her nanites. Well, if she could fight them, so could he.

Sprinting for the stairs he was soon behind her, grabbing her ankle to stop her progress. Again, her strength prevented him from halting her completely. Regaining her balance, she turned and fired at him, just missing his shoulder as he anticipated the shot and ducked away. He continued to hold her leg refusing to let go. C'mon, Rodney, he thought. I can't stall her much longer!

'Elizabeth!' he called, appealing to the friend he knew still resided in there somewhere. 'Don't let him do this!'

She turned to look over her shoulder at him, for a moment a flicker of emotion lighting them up with a familiar anxiety, the same fear he'd seen when Ronon had dragged him away on Asuras. Hope flooded through him; she was still battling. Then, she kicked him back. Sheppard slipped, precariously balanced on a step and hanging on by only one hand. Determined not to let her get the ARG crystal, he swung himself back towards the stairs, hearing a crack ring out just as his fingers tried to grasp and missed the rail.

In an instant his strength abandoned him. His limbs now useless rather than immobilised, the grip he had maintained slackened and he fell back.

His impact with the floor shook through every inch of him, and for a moment nothing registered other than the fact he was staring up at the retractable roof. What had caused him to fall? Had he lost his footing? Had Oberoth made the nanites somehow weaken him? Only after a few more seconds passed did he feel the burning sensation in his side. He clutched at it, feeling a warm, sticky dampness he found worryingly familiar beneath his hand. Lifting his head as much as he dared, he saw the blood now staining his fingers. His head fell back against the floor as his body protested at the effort required to keep it raised. He'd been shot. But Rodney still needed more time; he had to find the strength to move again, even if it was just to distract her long enough to shoot him again.

'Sheppard...Sheppard! I...I think I've done it...at least I hope so. Is it safe to fire up the jumper?'

Rodney's voice drifted through the haze of his pain and bloodloss and pulled Sheppard back from the shadows he was sinking into.

'Do it,' he croaked, craning his neck to see where Elizabeth was. She was only metres away from the jumper. 'Do it now!'

He heard the engines fire up and, a moment later, a gut wrenching cry. Elizabeth buckled and clutched the rail, and for a moment, their eyes met once more. In that exchange he knew it was his friend looking at him, and he hoped she understood how sorry he was for what she had come to. Then, as the effects of the disrupter field rippled through the city, the work the nanites had done to repair her began to unravel. Her hair fell away, falling gently like feathers to his level, and as blood dripped down from her opening wounds, her eyes clouded and she pitched forward, falling over the barrier and crashing to the floor just beyond his reach.

Her eyes, the pupils now fixed and dilated, stared at him. Lifeless. Hollow.

She was gone.

The jumper bay fell terrifyingly silent as an unnatural coldness crept through Sheppard's body. His head spun, probably a combined effect of the nanites suddenly shutting down and the various blows he'd taken to his head. Though he was tempted to just lie there and let the darkness take him, he knew he couldn't. The Asurans knew where they were. They had to move the city again.

Looking back at Elizabeth, he whispered, 'I'm sorry,' then rolled onto his knees and started to crawl toward the jumper bay door, activating his earpiece as he went. 'Rodney...Rodney! Are you there?'

His question met with another resounding silence, and for a horrible moment he thought something bad had happened to the scientist. 'Rodney!'

'I'm here...just gimme a minute to...wow...this feels so weird.'

'Yeah...I know what you mean,' Sheppard agreed, trying to keep the groan from his voice as a pain speared through his side. 'Your plan worked. Elizabeth's nanites have been neutralised...that's why you feel strange...I think.'

'Is she...' McKay's voice faltered, unable to even finish the question.

'She's dead, Rodney. And so are we if we don't get the city moving again. The Asurans know where we are, and they know we've stopped their plan. Please tell me the hyperdrive is functioning.'

There was a pause. 'No...repaired but deactivated. I can get it up and running pretty soon, though.'

'Then do it, Rodney. And cancel the lockdown. I'll make my way to you.' He moaned slightly as he tried to move, hoping Rodney hadn't noticed.

Unfortunately, he had. 'Are you...hurt, Sheppard?'

'Just a flesh wound,' he lied, clutching his side as a wave of pain doubled him over. 'Now get the doors open.'

'On it.'

Crawling to the doorway, Sheppard pulled himself up on the frame. Glancing back one more time, he closed the jumper bay door behind him and put in his authority code to lock it. There was no way he would let just anyone stumble across Elizabeth looking that way.

Swaying toward to the transporter, using the wall for occasional support and leaving a trail of bloody handprints in his wake, he quickly got himself on the right level for the control chair. All around him confused crewmembers staggered out of doorways, leaned against walls, or sat wherever the dizziness of the sudden nanite shutdown had hit them.

Sheppard wasted no time checking on them. Their confusion would eventually pass, but if he didn't get Atlantis into hyperspace, wooziness would be the least of their worries.

Outside the chair room he found several dazed members of the crew, including Teyla and Ronon. Apparently Oberoth hadn't been joking about sending his acolytes to stop Rodney. As she looked up, his condition seemed to snap Teyla out of her daze. 'Colonel, you're wounded!' she gasped, jumping to her feet to offer him her support.

Ronon was soon on hand to hold him on the other side. 'What the hell just happened?'

'Long story, and believe me, we don't have time for it right now. Just get me to the chair.'

They did as he asked, supporting him until he was standing in front of Rodney, who still occupied the chair and worked furiously on his laptop. 'It's taking a little longer than I thought, but I should have the hyperdrive on-line in –' he glanced up, 'Jesus, Sheppard. You said it was a flesh wound!'

Sheppard looked down at the blood oozing out through his fingers and shrugged. 'It's all relative, I guess.'

'So Einstein said!' Rodney snorted. 'But I think even he'd struggle to apply the theory in this case!'

'Is the hyperdrive up and running?' Sheppard demanded, leaning heavily on the chair.

'I just need two more minutes.'

'Maybe you should let the colonel sit, Rodney. That way he can take command of the chair as soon as the hyperdrive is enabled.'

'Wha...oh, yeah. Sure.'

Sheppard slumped into the vacated seat, the chair tipping back and lighting up as he did so. 'I'm gonna get us moving while you finish up,' he told the scientist, firing up the Atlantis' engines. A shudder shook through the city.

'Where are we going?' Teyla asked.

'The second most viable planet Radek identified the last time we needed to jump,' Sheppard grunted, grimacing as the pain in his gut redoubled with the effort of powering up the city's engines.

'Colonel Sheppard? Is that you?'

Chuck's strained voice broke through on Sheppard's earpiece. 'This is Sheppard,' he replied. 'We're moving the city. Alert all personnel.'

'Sir, a Lantean class city ship has just emerged from hyperspace and is approaching our position. They're firing drones.'

Damn it! 'Rodney?'

'Almost there,' the scientist snapped.

'The shield'll protect us, right?' Ronon grunted.

The city shook with the impact of two drones hitting one after the other. 'I'll take that as a no,' Sheppard replied grimly.

'Dammit. Radek wasn't kidding about the shield being down. I have to reactivate it before we can make the jump,' Rodney told them.

'Anytime now would be good, McKay,' Sheppard growled. The city began to lift, but the sheer effort seemed to drain him and he lost concentration, the engines faltering.

'You are in no condition to do this, John,' Teyla gasped, gripping his arm.

'So tell me who else can since half the crew don't even know what day of the week it is?' he barked back at her, his voice betraying how scared he was. He bit it back. 'I can do this. McKay, you just get me shields before they take out the engines.'

He turned the city, the force of the movement throwing everyone off balance.

'How am I supposed to work when you do things like that?' McKay demanded, glaring at him from his position on the pedestal.

'I'm trying to keep us alive, Rodney. Do we have shields?'

Another impact told him the answer.

'Almost there,' McKay promised. 'You just keep us moving.'

Everything around them vibrated violently as the city continued to climb. Sheppard wasn't sure if it was just the chair shaking or if he was shaking independently of it. The wound in his side throbbed with a growing intensity, the blood flowing out quicker with his increased heartbeat and breathing. An unhealthy chill had him in its grip, making him feel like he had ice water in his veins rather than blood. He had to stay conscious to get them through hyperspace. As he concentrated, he sensed the shields rise, and the next impact sounded like nothing more than a distant thud.

Confident they could now rise safely out of the atmosphere, Sheppard took the city higher, knowing he had to gain altitude before they could make the jump. 'The hyperdrive's on-line. Just a few hundred feet more and you can activate it. All you have to do is set us off and the city will take us there,' Rodney told him.

Sheppard screwed his eyes shut and willed the city to move faster. He could feel the pull of oblivion tugging at the edges of his consciousness, the twin gremlins of bloodloss and exhaustion waiting to claim him. All the time Teyla's reassuring grip remained on his arm. She had always been his rock – his constant in a universe that insisted on almost constantly throwing him curveballs. Elizabeth might be gone, but the rest of his 'family' were still here, along with many more people he considered his friends. They were depending on him, and he wouldn't let them down.

Rodney announced when they reached the optimum altitude for the jump, but Sheppard already knew. The city had sensed it and fed the information to him through the chair. He thought about their destination, and ordered the ship to jump.

As he felt the motion of the city change, and a contented hum thrummed through him, Sheppard finally lost his hold on consciousness, slipping into the blackness.

No! Not safe yet...