'Ronon! Quickly!' Teyla gasped as the control chair tipped forward and Sheppard began to slump. Without his conscious input, the seat had powered down, and now he was spilling forward into Ronon's arms. The Satedan lowered him gently to the floor and felt for a pulse. 'Nothin',' he barked at the others.

'What? But...but he was only talking to us a minute ago...' McKay squeaked, eyes bulging with panic as he stared down at the colonel's inanimate form.

'Medical team to the control chair...NOW!' Teyla ordered through her earpiece, before beginning CPR on the colonel. Carson had taught her how to do it soon after she'd joined Sheppard's team, but she had hoped never to have the need to use it. Tipping his head back to clear his airway, she listened for breath, but there was none. She tried inflating his lungs twice, but it didn't kick-start his own system into life. So, she knitted her fingers together, one hand on top of the back of the other and pumped his chest, just as the doctor had shown her. Thirty compressions then she stopped to breath into him twice, desperately hoping he would respond, but he remained still and pale before her. Struggling to maintain her calm, she asked Ronon to go and make sure the medical team was on its way while she continued to work. Her memory of what had happened was returning, and since most people aboard Atlantis had been under nanite influence as she had, she was worried they might have been too confused to understand her call. Then, to her huge relief, Dr Keller and her team emerged through the door with a gurney.

'Oh, my God. What happened?'

'He has been gravely injured. I cannot revive him,' Teyla explained, still pumping furiously on his chest.

'Okay. We'll take it from here. Marie, bag him.'

Keller took over chest compressions, while Marie ensured oxygen continued to reach his lungs. Teyla stood back, feeling the comforting presence of Ronon at her shoulder. Beyond Sheppard, Rodney sat on the base of the chair, gaping open-mouthed in disbelief.

'This is all my fault...this is all my fault!' he repeated over and over, clearly in shock.

'Let's get him to the infirmary,' Keller ordered her team.

They lifted the colonel with practiced ease, but the limpness apparent in his body terrified Teyla. Keller stepped up onto the side of the wheelbase so she could continue to pump his chest as they moved, and Marie ran alongside to maintain his artificial breathing.

Teyla, Ronon and Rodney all hurried along behind them, Rodney all the time babbling about how he couldn't lose yet another friend like this. Teyla filtered him out of her thoughts, concentrating on the site of Keller and her team furiously working to save John's life. They had to pull him through; she could not lose him either.

Just as they reached the infirmary Sheppard took an independent breath, but he remained unconscious, his skin sporting an unhealthy sheen along with its grey pallor as he mumbled incoherently, pain etched deeply into his features.

Keller cut open the colonel's T-shirt and pulled it aside to examine his injury. The oozing blood turned Teyla's stomach, but she found herself unable to look away, as if the very act of doing so might bring about his death. 'Okay, people. We have a gunshot wound. We need to roll him so I can check for an exit site,' Keller ordered.

The others in her team all took a hold of him at various points along his body and turned him on the count of three, keeping him as immobile as they could to minimise further injury while she examined his back. 'There's a clear exit wound, but I don't like the positioning. Let's run a scan and see what we're dealing with.'

They all stood back and allowed her to work, Rodney suddenly bursting into a bout of frantic gabbling. 'Oh, God. I have to go! When the city drops out of hyperspace it'll begin the landing procedure, and without Sheppard in the chair to control it we'll all be toast. I need to override the city's programming to stop it taking us down into the planet's atmosphere.' He scurried away, still wittering in his strangely panicked tones. 'Radek...Radek, I need you with me at the control chair now!'

'It'll be better without him here,' Ronon said, wrapping an arm around Teyla's shoulders. 'They'll be able to concentrate better without all the noise.'

Keller rubbed her temples as the scanner passed over John's inert form, squinting at the data it collected. 'Right, it looks like the bullet has caught his kidney on the way through and damaged his ureter. According to the scan we've got torn tissue and a blood clot, and significant bloodloss.'

Sheppard groaned and moved his hand as if to clutch at his injury, but one of the medics swiftly restrained him. He still wasn't fully conscious, but obviously in considerable pain. 'Need to land the city...' he mumbled, sweat streaking down his face as the medics worked around him.

Teyla wanted to rush to his side and hold his hand to comfort him and lend him her support and strength. As if sensing her intentions, Ronon's grip on her tightened. 'Let them do their work.'

She nodded, covering her mouth as her worry tried to surface in a sob.

'His blood pressure's falling – heart rate 95 BPM,' Marie announced as she took Sheppard's stats. 'Temperature 102.'

'Okay, that's probable sepsis to add to his problems. We need to prep him for surgery, and I want five units of blood on standby, STAT.'

The infirmary suddenly burst into life. Ronon pulled Teyla aside as the medics began to do what was necessary, wheeling the gurney to a side bay where they could prepare the colonel for his operation in privacy. Keller approached them, giving Teyla a sympathetic smile. 'He's a strong man, Teyla. I'm going to do everything I can to save him.'

Again, all Teyla could do was nod. The medical team were doing their best, but if they felt half of the lingering effects of the nanites she still felt, she worried their best would not be enough.

oooOOOooo

Sheppard stood on pier of Atlantis, admiring the beautiful sunset. It was peaceful, and the sky was clear, and for the first time in days he didn't feel haunted by a terrible sense of foreboding.

He listened to the sound of the waves gently breaking against the city and felt its contentment. The risk was gone...but so was Elizabeth. He took solace from the fact he at least knew she was at peace this time.

It suddenly occurred to him that he might be experiencing another dream; the view looked like M35-117 and they had left that planet behind just before the darkness had engulfed him...

'That's right, son. This isn't real,' he heard a soft Scottish brogue call from behind him.

He turned to find Carson smiling at him. 'Carson. Am I dreaming again?'

'Sort of,' the doctor smiled. 'That's to say, yer unconscious and this is in yer imagination, but yer not exactly asleep.'

Sheppard looked around him. A fine mist was creeping in, gathering around his feet. 'If I'm not asleep, then what's happening?'

'You're in the balance,' Carson said cryptically, gazing out across the ocean. The view was obscured by the mounting haze, and the sound of the ocean was falling away from him. 'Yer halfway between life and death. Yeh have to make the choice,' the doctor explained. 'Yeh can either let the mist take yeh...or yeh can fight it.'

John looked down at the mist. It was knee-deep now, but despite the fact it was there to signify his death, he wasn't afraid. He felt calmer than he had for most of his life. 'So what's it like being dead?' he asked his friend.'

'To tell yeh the truth, it's a wee bit quiet for my liking...although the past few days have been pretty exciting.'

Sheppard nodded, noticing the mist was halfway up his thighs now. 'I'm not sure I'm ready for quiet just yet.'

'I'm not sure yeh are either, son. So, I guess that means yeh should fight.'

Sheppard gazed into Carson's blue eyes. 'I'm not all that experienced in the whole fighting mist thing. What do I need to do?'

'Just keep telling yerself to wake up. You'll be all right.'

'Should I click my heels, too?' Sheppard quipped, noticing the mist already beginning to recede as Carson became more transparent.

'If yeh like,' the doctor smiled. 'It won't do any harm.'

Suddenly intrigued, Sheppard asked, 'Carson...are you real, because you don't feel like the other people I've been seeing in my dreams?'

Carson shrugged. 'I suppose that all depends on yeh definition of real. I was real...once.'

Sheppard nodded, thinking he understood. 'Say hi to Elizabeth for me,' he said, watching the mists begin to move away from him and swirl up around the fading doctor.

'Aye, I will, laddie. Just as soon as I see her...' Carson agreed. 'Now wake up, son. Atlantis still needs you.'

An electronic beeping was the first thing to register through the fog muffling his mind as Sheppard began to surface. His head throbbed, and voices in the dim distance nagged at him, too far away to hear easily, but close enough to rouse his curiosity. The pressure of an oxygen mask over his nose and mouth was the next thing he became aware of, that and the clinical smell of scrubs he despised so much.

He willed his eyes to open, but for a little while they proved reluctant to follow orders. Then, gradually, they blinked against the lights of the infirmary. For a moment he thought he saw Carson standing beside him, but the image soon vanished as he returned to full consciousness.

So, he was in the infirmary. When had they moved him there?

Rolling his head to the left, he spotted Ronon sleeping in a chair beside his bed. No one else was there. The city. I have to bring us in to land, he suddenly remembered.

He tried to sit up, pushing off the oxygen mask and about to pull the IV line from his arm until Dr Keller walked in. 'Er, I don't think so, Colonel,' she said, rushing forward and grabbing his hand to stop him. 'That stay's exactly where it is, if you don't mind.'

Ronon woke at the sound of her voice, immediately standing up and approaching the bed as he activated his earpiece. 'Teyla, McKay. He's awake.'

In a matter of minutes the others were at his bedside, while Dr Keller ran through a few checks. 'You had us worried for a moment there, Colonel. That bullet passed right through you and damaged your kidney. You were at serious risk of developing sepsis, but I think we've successfully managed the problem. Thankfully, we were able to repair the damage so we didn't have to remove the organ, and after surgery and a blood transfusion, we managed to get you stabilised. You're lucky the delay in treatment didn't kill you.'

'Sorry...I was a little busy,' he replied, forcing on a crooked smile.

'Oh, I think I can forgive you...just this once.'

Sheppard noticed a dull ache in the region of his injury now, and winced as she lifted his scrubs and checked his dressing. Then she adjusted the line feeding in his pain management.

'But what about the city? I have to bring it down to the planet.'

'All taken care of,' McKay said with a smug smile. 'I managed to override the automated landing procedure. We are currently in orbit of M47-938, awaiting a time when you're well enough to move us.'

At that news Sheppard relaxed, letting his head fall back against the pillows. 'So how long was I out?'

'Thirty-six hours,' Keller told him. 'And you're lucky it was only that long.'

'When can I get out of here?'

'Not for a few days yet at least,' Keller insisted, 'and I only say that because I know you won't agree to the full two weeks I'd like you to stay here. I don't think you understand how seriously you were injured. And you still have a slight fever, so I want that under control before you go anywhere.'

'Can you believe he told me it was a flesh wound?' Rodney scoffed. Ronon threw him a silencing glare, and the scientist changed the subject. 'So, how're you feeling, Sheppard?'

'Like I've been shot.'

'Well, I suppose that's normal, right?' McKay asked, his eyes darting the Keller.

She nodded. 'Perfectly normal.'

'What about Elizabeth? Where's...where's her body now?' Sheppard asked, pushing down the image of her lifeless eyes staring at him from the jumper bay floor. He didn't want to see that. It was even worse than the image that had haunted him after leaving her behind on Asuras. Then, there had been hope. Now, there was nothing to hold onto except the fact she was finally free of the nanites.

Everyone looked suddenly sombre, exchanging anxious glances with one another as if none of them wanted to discuss the matter with him. Eventually, Keller spoke up for them all.

'Don't worry, Colonel. Rodney was able to override your code. We recovered her body from the jumper bay and scanned her to be sure the nanites were completely shut down.'

'Good,' he said softly. 'I just didn't want her to still be lying where I left her.'

'She's being treated with the respect she deserves, John,' Teyla assured him, stepping closer to the bed and resting her hand gently on his shoulder. 'None of this was her fault; everyone here knows that and wishes things could have ended differently for her. You did what you had to do. I just wish we knew how the nanites managed to spread.'

John remembered Oberoth had said Teyla was the cause of that, but didn't think telling her would achieve anything so kept it to himself.

'We're holding her body in cold storage and, once we're able to contact Earth, we'll arrange to send her home to her mother for burial,' Keller added. 'And, for your information, the nanites that spread through the rest of the crew are already breaking down and being reabsorbed into our systems. That's the beauty of having secondaries infect us and not the original nanites Elizabeth was exposed to. It seems she needed all the original nanites herself and the ones she passed to the crew were ones her body replicated as the programming changed. That means they're made entirely of organic substances that the body can utilise again.'

Though he was pleased to hear the last of the original nanites had died with Elizabeth, something about what Keller had said troubled him. 'What d'you mean, once we're able to contact Earth? Can't we reach them?'

McKay stepped in to give him an explanation. 'Well, for some reason, probably due to changes in the local solar systems, we're unable to establish a wormhole to the SGC.'

'Changes in the local solar systems?'

'Yes,' he said, somewhat more sheepishly. 'We've ended up close to the system that was home to Doranda, and it appears the explosion I caused may have taken out one of the key coordinates in the connection back to Earth.'

'Oh, the little mistake that took out five sixths of a solar system, right?' Sheppard said, mustering up the best glare he could manage with his current lack of energy. He'd thought what Rodney had done was bad enough at the time. Now it had come back to bite them on the butt again. 'Great, so we can't stay here then?'

'Well, not for long, no,' Rodney admitted. 'Beside the fact we can't get through to the SGC, it also seems this place can get pretty cold. We've calculated that it's the summer season now, and it's only 40 degrees outside. In winter, we think the ocean could freeze, so –'

'So, not good for Atlantis,' Sheppard finished.

'No, not really, which means moving the city again, so it's a good thing you pulled through considering the concentration and control the chair requires. I'm not sure any of the rest of us could manage it safely. Anyway, if we can't find anything else soon, we may be forced to travel back to M35-117 when we can be sure it's safe there.'

'And how exactly are we going to do that?'

'Well, thankfully, the trip through the gate back to M35-117 doesn't include any of the planets I wiped out, so Major Lorne is planning to take a jumper through to scope things out. If the Replicator city ship has moved on and there's no sign of it on any long range scans, it should be safe to move us back there.'

'Should be?' Sheppard repeated, throwing him a dubious look.

'Yes...well...I never said the plan was perfect. Well, I guess I should get back to searching for a better location so we don't have to rely on my apparently flawed back-up plan. Glad you're feeling better.'

He shuffled quickly out of the room, head down and no doubt already running through possible relocation sites in his mind to stop himself from thinking about anything more depressing.

'Don't remember saying I did,' Sheppard grunted after him, trying to push himself up into a sitting position. Ronon helped to hold him forward while Teyla and Dr Keller adjusted his pillows. He leaned back, releasing the breath he'd been holding as the pain of moving subsided. 'Thanks.'

'Well, I should get back to my rounds,' Keller told him, giving his forearm a squeeze. 'Now, you take it easy, understand? You still have a lot of healing to do. Let me know if you need anything.'

'I will, Doc,' he promised, as she gave him a warm smile and went about her duties.

'I feel I must apologise, John,' Teyla said softly as he turned to look at her. 'Although my memories of recent events are still quite fractured, I believe I remember hurting you.'

'You have nothing to apologise for. You couldn't help it,' he told her.

'And I'm sorry for shooting you,' Ronon added, although the slight smirk twitching at the corners of his mouth suggested otherwise.

'Yeah...well...you haven't done it for a while, so I figure it was overdue,' Sheppard joked, trying to put them both at ease.

Despite his efforts, Teyla's eyes remained full of unspeakable sadness. 'I'm sorry things had to end the way they did, John. I know how much Elizabeth meant to you...to all of us in fact. Do you think she was also aware of what was happening?'

Sheppard had been fighting off the memories of Elizabeth's last moments ever since he'd woken, her glazed and empty eyes forever burned into his mind. 'Yeah...yeah, she was. But without her fighting those nanites, we wouldn't be having this conversation now, so I guess we should be glad.'

Ronon frowned. 'What d'you mean?'

'Oberoth was controlling her through the nanites, but for a few moments in the jumper bay she was able to regain control of her body and slow him down. It gave Rodney the time he needed to get the disruptor field fired up and break the bonds between the nanites.'

'Then she knew what she was doing would cost her her life,' Teyla breathed, her brow crumpling as she tried to fathom just what that would be like.

'Yeah...she knew.'

The Athosian rolled her eyes away from him, hugging her arms around herself for comfort. Even Ronon looked pained by the thought of the sacrifice Elizabeth had made for them.

'You look tired, Teyla. You should get some rest,' Sheppard told her, wincing and pushing back against his pillows as an ache throbbed through his kidney. He hoped this level of pain was a short-term thing; much as feeling it reminded him he was alive, he wasn't a fan of almost continuous nauseous aches. Hopefully the meds Keller had adjusted would kick in soon.

'I do not mind staying a while longer,' she told him. 'I would prefer to know that you are well before I retire.'

'I can make it an order,' he insisted, seeing the weariness clearly carved into her face.

She looked concerned, but then conceded a smile. 'Very well. I could certainly benefit from a few more hours of rest. Take care, John.'

Sheppard watched her go, then allowed his eyes to drift up to the big Satedan still standing beside his bed. 'The same goes for you, buddy. Go get some sleep.'

'You gonna be okay?'

Ronon's eyes burned into him in the unflinching way only he could manage without feeling self-conscious. It felt like the man could see right through to his soul, and Sheppard didn't think it would be fair to lie to him.

'I told Elizabeth we'd get her through this. I let her down.'

Ronon continued to gaze at him, then gave him a grim smile and a shrug. 'You and McKay did everything you could. I'm betting she knew that.'

Sheppard nodded, but didn't feel any better about breaking his promise to her. 'Yeah. I just wish we could have worked out what was going on sooner.'

'Who's to say that would have made any difference?' the Satedan asked.

Giving that some thought, Sheppard realised his friend was probably right. If McKay had unlocked the microdot of information any sooner, Oberoth would certainly have known and had no doubt thought of a plan that covered that eventuality, too. They never stood a chance of saving Elizabeth. The Replicator leader had used her to ensnare them, hoping their compassion would be their fatal flaw. He'd been wrong about that, though.

'Elizabeth told me I always did what was best for people,' he said, recalling her words to him in their first conversation after her return.

'And she was right. Not many people could do what you did, Sheppard. It takes a special kind of man to do the right thing...even if it means taking the life of a friend.'

Sheppard wasn't sure 'special' was the right word to describe a man who could do what he'd done. Cold, calculating, heartless – one of those might be more appropriate, although he was fairly certain losing yet another friend shouldn't hurt this much if he was any of those things.

'She died knowing Atlantis was safe in your hands – I'm pretty sure that will have been the most important thing to her,' Ronon told him, folding his thick arms over his chest. 'I'm gonna let you rest now. You need anything – just let me know.'

'I will,' Sheppard assured him, laying his head back and closing his eyes again as the big man left. As soon as he did, the memory of Elizabeth's death stare surfaced and his throat burned with the effort of holding back his tears. 'I'm sorry,' he whispered, hoping sleep would soon claim him from his waking nightmares.

On another planet in the Pegasus Galaxy, a small group of Replicators worked independently of the others, their minds able to withstand the call to arms against the Wraith their kind now felt compelled to obey. They had a greater purpose, and nothing would sway them from it.

They sat in a laboratory much like the one in Atlantis, studying the readings their computers fed back to them. A female raised her eyes briefly from her computer screen to address the others gathered there. 'The construction of the city is finally complete. Atlantis has been fully and accurately simulated.'

'And Dr Weir? Were you able to capture the entirety of her consciousness? a male asked her.

'Yes, it is here. Because she was connected to the collective at the moment of her death, I was able to capture all her mind contained at that point in time. I believe she is completely intact.'

'And Oberoth remains unaware of our plans?

'His city ship has now returned to Asuras, and all battle ships are engaging the Wraith. He intends to begin attacking human populated planets to cut off their food supply...but I'm sure finding Atlantis remains important to him.'

'That is unfortunate for them, but at least it distracts him from our work. So, we can begin to construct her new body and revive her consciousness?'

'There seems no reason to delay,' she agreed.

'And did we gather enough information from the others who were infected to construct plausible facsimiles?'

She nodded. 'We believe so. From the information we gathered from Dr Weir's connection to the collective, Colonel Sheppard and his team during their imprisonment, and the nanites that spread through Atlantis, we should be able to reconstruct or impersonate enough of Atlantis' crew to convince her of the reality of her surroundings. That way, we should be able to discover all she knows of ascension without encountering resistance.'

'Hopefully we will one day be able to realise Niam's dream, and those who destroyed him will be the ones to help us succeed. Set the process in motion.'

The female did as instructed, and then the small group crossed to the pod where the construction of Elizabeth's new body had already begun. Starting with the very basic cell-by-cell construction, the body rapidly formed organs, bones and layers of skin. She was rebuilt, right down to the details of the uniform she'd been wearing when Oberoth had abducted her.

'The body is ready,' the female announced. 'It only awaits the transference of her consciousness.'

'We will construct the bodies of her closest friends first, and transfer the data we hold for them at the same time. If we awaken her before they are ready, she will become suspicious.'

The female reprogrammed the next pod and another body was constructed. Within moments, a perfect copy of Ronon lay waiting for them to activate him. Eventually, the whole of Colonel Sheppard's team lay enclosed in their booths awaiting their consciousnesses.

The male walked to the pod containing the lifeless copy of the colonel and examined him. 'It is a pity Oberoth didn't capture this one. I believe his mind holds many secrets, but he was able to keep much from us when he was probed.'

Another female spoke now, one with a datafile from which she read the colonel's physical information. 'His original genetic structure makes him much more closely related to the ascended Lanteans than any other human we have ever encountered, and we have been unable to reconstruct that as accurately as we'd hoped. The original Sheppard needs to be preserved as a source of valuable information on the physical attributes of the Lanteans. We have to be sure Oberoth's attempts to rid the galaxy of the Wraith's food source do not result in his death.'

'Dr Weir's consciousness holds memories of an occasion he spent time with a group of humans also working toward ascension. It seems he was able to assist them to attain their goal,' the first female added.

The male nodded, understanding the importance of this particular human. 'Indeed. We will begin our studies with these copies. But when we are able to find Atlantis again, we will make it a priority to acquire this Colonel Sheppard and study him. I believe he knows much more about the process of ascension than he shared with us when we searched his mind. He is strong, and it will take time, but every human mind has its limit. Let us begin the first simulation.'

One replicator took charge of each pod, moving them out of the lab to take them to the newly replicated quarters of the people they resembled. There they would awake with no recollection of anything beyond their escape from the replicators when they had tricked Niam into helping them.

The replicator guiding the copy of Sheppard melted and reformed into Dr Keller as she walked, steering the pod toward Sheppard's room. Inside, everything was replicated from his memories, even his personal possessions and exactly where he positioned them. They'd even copied the minute details of the slight crumples in his Johnny Cash poster made when he'd brought it aboard.

Retracting the lid of the pod, her strength meant she easily lifted the lifeless vessel from its casing and lay it on the bed. Its pale complexion lacked the lustre of life, but that would shortly be remedied. Soon, it would be a living, breathing human being, just as the other four would, and they might provide them with useful information in their search for a way to ascend. But she doubted their experiments would be successful. Still, they would be able to practice on these copies until they were able to acquire the one true link they had encountered to their Lantean creators.

Only then did she believe they would truly stand a chance of attaining their goal.

The End...?

A/N Thanks to everyone who followed this story and left their reviews, they're much appreciated. Please, if you have enjoyed the story enough to read this far, click on that review button and let me know your thoughts!