Disclaimer: Not mine

Note: I know I should apologise for not updating but I won't because I've was busy with final exams and coursework during the last year and they come first. I passed them all by the way and will be going to Uni next year

A week Later

Ronon had been true to his word. He was up and ready to go help with the search. John had convinced Carson to release the two of them from the infirmary and Carson, knowing that they were the only two people who knew Elizabeth well enough to know how she thought, agreed but on the condition that if they felt in pain, they return back to Atlantis.

Ronon, John, Teyla, Rodney and the escort security team were ready to disembark to the planet on which Elizabeth had originally escaped to. Rodney had finally worked out a redial devise although he did say that he wasn't a hundred percent sure that it would take them to the right planet but John had told him that a chance was better then nothing.

Lorne and Bates walked down to steps to where the team were standing and John turned to him.

"Are you sure you don't want us to go along Sir?"

John nodded and looked round at the team.

"You need to be here to hold down the fort. If something goes wrong...Atlantis will need the two of you"

Bates and Lorne nodded slowly knowing that John was worried about what Selkhet would do to them if she was there.

"Best of luck, bring her home"

John nodded and turned to his team as Bates and Lorne made their way up to Chuck and ordered him to dial the 'Gate

Commian

Ronon, John and the team stepped though the Stargate. The looked around, the planet had lush green plants and trees all around. The team found a path and started to walk around it, John ordering them to be on their guard. They made their way up a steep hill, as they reached the top of the hill and walked into a clearing Rodney sighed and shook his head, something was out of place and he knew what it was. John turned to him for a second.

"Is that..."

"...A Goa'uld mothership? Yes"

The team looked up at the big pyramid shaped ship that overlooked a small village. John took out a pair of binoculars and looked through them. He could see two Jaffa standing guard at the doorway not to mention the other Jaffa who were positioned around the perimeter of the ship as well as the guards in the village.

John sighed and turned to the team.

"Okay, this is what we'll do. Anderson, you and your security team secure the Stargate, if we need to escape, we'll need the Stargate. Ronon, Teyla, the two of you are with me. We'll go down there, talk to the local's, see if they know any way of getting into that thing"

John turned to Rodney and sighed

"Rodney...you don't have to come with..."

"I'm coming. I'm not leaving her there"

John smiled slightly and nodded, he knew how much Rodney loved and cared for Elizabeth. She was like a sister to him. She'd said it herself, that Rodney reminded her of an older brother.

"Let's go then"

The two teams split up, Anderson's team walked back down the hill towards the Stargate and John's team made their way down to the village.

Despite being ruled by an evil Goa'uld the villagers didn't seem to be fearing for their lives, instead they looked quite happy.

The team made their way carefully around the village trying not to be spotted by the guards. They walked around for a couple of minutes trying to get the feel of the village before they were approached by a oldish man with grey hair.

"Greetings strangers, may I request your names?"

John smiled at the man.

"Hey, I'm Colonel Sheppard. This is Ronon, Teyla and Dr McKay"

"I am Locke. Can I ask why you are visiting our village?"

John nodded and took out a picture of Elizabeth from his pocket. He looked at it briefly for a moment before turning it around and showing Locke.

"Have you seen this woman?"

Locke smiled happily.

"Yes, that is our Goddess Selkhet. She came to us 7 suns ago with her protectors and blessed us with the fruits of life, she made us reborn, she made us her children"

John nodded slowly and Locke excused himself as a woman came to him. John turned to the team and sighed

"Is it me or did he seem whacked?"

Ronon and Teyla shared a glance not knowing what John had meant to say but Rodney just shrugged.

"She might of not given them any reason to fear her yet. She's only been here a week after all"

John nodded and was about to continue when Teyla and Ronon pointed their guns at him. John was about to ask what the hell was going on but Teyla nodded behind him. John turned round and saw who Teyla and Ronon were really pointing their guns at and it wasn't him. It was a group of Jaffa who had their own weapons pointed at them. The Jaffa all had symbols tattooed on their foreheads but one Jaffa had a gold one. The symbol represented that of a Scorpio curled round in a ball. This one walked towards John and stared him down.

"Lower your weapons and you shall not be harmed. Disobey us and we have instructions to kill you"

John thought for a second. Elizabeth was giving them a chance not to be hurt and he knew it was going to be the only chance she gave.

Slowly John put down his weapon. The others followed suit. Ronon was last, he was reluctant to leave himself defenceless but Teyla shot him a look and he complied with the order of the Jaffa.

Their weapons were taken away from them and then the group were dragged through the village and into the Pyramid. They were dragged around the corridors and eventually dumped into a cell. It took a moment but they spotted them.

"Anderson, what the hell happened?"

Anderson and his team were sat on the floor, all of them looking pretty pissed.

"We were ambushed on the way back to the 'Gate. They were waiting for us"

John sighed and slid down to the floor.

"How long have you been here?"

Anderson shrugged

"Not long, one of the Jaffa said that 'the beautiful Goddess would speak to us soon'"

John could hear Anderson's tone turn into a mock when he imitated the Jaffa. John had heard how egocentric Goa'uld's could be, even if this time the beauty of their Goddess was true.

Four Hours later

Atlantis

The Stargate activated and Lorne walked over to Chuck.

"IDC?"

Chuck shook his head and turned back to his control panel

"No Sir but we have a visual and audio transmission"

Lorne nodded

"Patch it through"

Chuck did as he asked and a moment later a familiar face came onto the screen.

"Lieutenant Ford"

Ford smirked slightly

"Yeah, bit of a shock that I'm still alive, I know but here I am."

Lorne took a deep breath, he couldn't deal with any of Ford's tricks today

"What do you want Ford?"

Ford held up his hand in defence

"Hey, here I am, coming to give you valuable information and you're being all hostile. I'm not sure whether I should help you now"

Lorne took a moment to calm himself down before speaking again.

"What can I do for you Ford?"

Ford smirked, knowing he'd won.

"I heard about Weir, that's a tough break. She does look great though."

It took Lorne a minute to realise what Ford had said but when he realised he became very interested in what Ford had to say

"Have you seen her?"

Ford nodded.

"Came across her or Selkhet as it is now. I've heard some things which I think you'd like to hear"

Lorne thought for a second before tapping his radio.

"Security team two, suit up and get to the 'Gate in five minutes"

Lorne turned back to Ford.

"Okay, we'll let you onto Atlantis and we'll talk"

Ford shook his head

"Not good enough. I want that Wraith you killed in exchange for my information"

Lorne cursed silently. He knew how important the Wraith was to Carson's research but then again Carson had said that the Naquaada could have damaged the cells that he needed to prefect the virus.

"I'm sure we can come to a deal. A team will be there soon to escort you back to Atlantis"

Commian

Ronon lost track of how long they were stuck there before a Jaffa came, dragged him to his feet and dragged him off to a grandly decorated room. Not very long after he entered the room, he was forced to his knees as two Jaffa's entered the room. Followed by Elizabeth.

Ronon had to admit she looked beautiful. She was wearing a long black dress. It was lowcut at the front and back. It flared out at her waist but the top part clung to her tightly. She was covered in jewellery. Gold and silver hung from her.

Slowly she walked from behind the guards and towards Ronon. She signalled to her guards who hoisted him up. He stood up fully and looked down at Elizabeth. She stared into his eyes. They pierced through him and dug right down to his heart.

As he stared into her eyes he could tell she was still there. She was still in there, trying to communicate with him, trying to escape.

Elizabeth raised her hand and slid it along his arm. She smiled slightly

"I can understand why she would chose you. You are very attractive, very strong. I can understand why she would trade in Sheppard for you. Obviously after power"

Ronon kept quiet not wanting to answer. Knowing that the minute he did, Selkhet would have him and he wouldn't be able to escape her. When he didn't answer her, Selkhet got very pissed and used Elizabeth's sharpened fingernails to scratch him down the face, drawing a considerable amount of blood, and causing him pain. This action caused him to fall to his knees, smacking his kneecaps against hard marble floor. He didn't let her know he was in pain though, he wouldn't let her.

"Don't you know how to speak? Because if you don't that doesn't matter, if I remember correctly, you can do other things with that mouth of yours"

Elizabeth bent down to his height and smoothed her fingers over his lips before kissing him. For the first time ever, Ronon pulled away from her. Elizabeth stiffened and stood up,

"No wonder she still lusts after Sheppard. No wonder she has to bite her lip to keep from moaning his name. You're useless"

Elizabeth walked up to her throne and sat down.

"Take him way, bring Sheppard"

Atlantis

Bates, his security team and Ford stepped through the Stargate and were met by Lorne who was waiting for them. Ford walked over to Lorne and smiled

"Was the security search necessary?"

Lorne nodded sharply

"You know it was. We couldn't take any risks"

Ford nodded, he understood, after all he knew all Atlantis procedure.

Lorne and Bates led Ford to the briefing room. The three of them sat down while some of the other Marines stood around the room, keeping their weapons at hand.

Commian

John walked into the room which Ronon had existed moments before. John didn't know what had happened. All he knew was the Ronon had come back pissed with a long scratch down his face. He hadn't spoken to anyone, he'd just slid down to the floor and sat in silence.

John saw Elizabeth straight away, his eyes almost popping out of his head. He'd never seen her look like that before.

John was pushed to his knees as Selkhet stared at him. After a moment she stood up and walked over to him.

"Is Ronon still off licking his wounds?"

"What did you say to him?"

Selket smiled deviously

"Something you'd be happy to hear. Like Elizabeth still having feelings for you, like Elizabeth thinking about you when she's with Ronon, wanting to scream you name."

She lifted John to his feet and touched his cheek. She pulled herself close to him, rubbing her body against his, running her hands over his chest.

"Pretend you don't want this"

John knew he should pull back from her, after all it wasn't Elizabeth, it was Selkhet. Quickly John pushed her back.

"You're not Elizabeth. She'd never do that to Ronon, she'd never hurt him. She's better than that"

Selkhet sighed and shook Elizabeth's head

"No wonder she left you, you're so pathetic."

John shook his head

"No more pathetic than you, you're a parasite who..."

John was cracked on the head from behind, causing him to fall to the floor. He looked up to see Selkhet looming over him.

"I'm pathetic? I'll tell you who is pathetic, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was a looser, a failure, utterly powerless. She enjoys the power I let her feel."

John shook his head, he was reluctant to believe that

"No, that's not true. You don't know Elizabeth"

Selkhet laughed slightly

"I don't know Elizabeth? I am Elizabeth, I think I know her"

John tried to stand up but was pushed back down but that didn't stop him from trying to reach her

"You're not Elizabeth"

Selkhet walked away from John and back to her throne as John was dragged out of the room and back down to the cell.

Unknown

It was cold and dark, Elizabeth didn't know where she was. She tried standing up but something forced her down. It was something strong and she couldn't fight against it, as hard as she tried.

She tried to speak, tried to call for Ronon, John, anyone, but the darkness captured her cry and turned it into dust.

As she struggled onto her knees she thought she heard something, footsteps, coming towards her. They were heavy, perhaps a man.

"Hello?"

Her voice was quiet and low, she thought that whoever or whatever it was wouldn't have heard her, but he did.

"Weir?"

Elizabeth knew the voice, but…she knew it wasn't possible. After all he'd been dead for over two years. She looked around. Not knowing where the voice was coming from but knowing it was close.

"Sumner?"

As soon as she said the name it was like an explosion. A fire set alight in a circle around her and standing there, right in front of her, was Colonel Marshall Sumner.

Atlantis

"Are you saying that team have been caught?"

Ford nodded smugly

"That's what I'm saying. Weir has them locked up in some cell. I thought you want to know"

Lorne shot a look at Bates who left the room quickly, it was obvious to Ford that he was going to call all security personal to rescue.

"Marcus should relax more often. He's getting premature wrinkles, tell him that, he'll thank me"

Lorne chose to ignore the comment, but instead turned back round to Ford.

"Do you know anything else, anything that could help us?"

Ford smiled smugly

"I may know the address to where there is a cell of Tok'ra in this galaxy, who could save Elizabeth"

Lorne sat forward slightly

"Ford, tell me your not screwing with me, please"

Ford just continued to smile before taking a drink of water and answering.

"You know I'm not. I know the planet, but the planet is vast. There's no telling where they may be, but I can tell you that the address I have is the planet where they are"

Lorne shook his head for a moment, something about this wasn't right.

"Why are you helping us?"

It took Ford a moment to answer, he'd actually been a little crushed by the question. It was obvious that these people didn't trust him anymore.

"It's Dr Weir, I'm helping her not you"

Unknown

Elizabeth stared at Sumner as he offered her his hand. Elizabeth faltered for a moment before before placing her small trembling hand in his. Sumner pulled her to her feet and walked her over to the fire. The heat was intense and it made Elizabeth want back the coldness she had dealt with before.

"You can't leave here. See"

He placed her hand into the fire. The flames and heat caused Elizabeth to scream out it pain, but it didn't make Sumner pull her hand back. She tugged against him as her screams filled the air but he kept her hand firmly in the fire.

A few moments later he let go of her hand and allowed her to pull it back.

Elizabeth cradled her hand which was now burnt so badly she could see bone. Tears of pain ran down her face as she looked at Sumner. When he tried to touch her again she pushed him back with her other hand.

"Stay away from me you son-of-a-bitch"

Sumner didn't though, smoothly he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer to him. He then took the burnt hand in his. Tears still streamed down Elizabeth's face but slowly by slowly, the pain lessened and eventually it stopped hurting altogether. Sumner released her hand and Elizabeth looked at it, shocked to see that all the damage had been repaired. Her hand was back to normal, there was no charred skin, no blood, no bones. Nothing.

Elizabeth looked up at him, her face was still red from crying as Sumner took her hand and led her back into the middle of the circle.

"You can't leave here. The fire will kill you and I won't be around to save you."

Elizabeth voice was cracked but she still showed her authority

"Where am I? What's happened?"

Sumner rubbed the knuckles of her hand.

"You're a long way from home. You've been invaded, you're body has been taken over and as hard as you try to fight it you can't. Now we'll try and help you though this, but it'll be left to those on the other side to save you. I'm dead, there's nothing I can do to help you on that side, but on this side I can keep you safe."

Elizabeth didn't understand, she knew Sumner was dead, but did that mean she was dead?

"Am I dead?"

Sumner shook his head

"No, you're in a state of limbo and you'll be here...could be a few hours, it could be a few years but you stay here until they save you"

Sumner walked towards the fire and placed his arm in, he didn't cry out in pain, he didn't falter. Sumner saw the horrified confused look on Elizabeth face and pulled his arm out.

His arm was still in perfect condition.

"The fire can't harm the dead."

Sumner took a moment before staring back at Elizabeth.

"We'll be here to help you, so you don't go through this alone but..."

Sumner stopped mid sentence and sighed

"I have to go"

He walked over to Elizabeth and took her face in his hands.

"You'll be visited by someone else, he'll try and deceive you, try and get you to walk though the fire, but if you do that, it'll kill you. Don't let him.

He then walked away from her quickly, through the fire before the lights went out again. Elizabeth was suddenly again in the dark, cold room as she felt herself being pushed back to her knees.

Commian

John was pushed back into the cell. He landed on the ground with a thump, causing Teyla and Rodney to rush towards him. Each grabbed one of his arms and pulled him to his feet.

"Are you okay Colonel?"

John nodded slowly, rubbing his head

"Yeah, no big damage"

John looked briefly at Ronon and wondered if what Selkhet had said to him was the same. She was trying to upset them, play with them. John sighed and leant against the wall.

"She's...I couldn't reach her. Selkhet as complete control."

Teyla closed her eyes and sighed. She rubbed her hands over her forehead.

"Ronon?"

Ronon didn't answer, causing Teyla to turn to him

"Ronon?"

Ronon was broke out of his thoughts and looked up at Teyla.

"What?"

Teyla walked over to him and bent down so she was at his level.

"Were you able to reach Elizabeth?"

Ronon stood up, remembering that he couldn't sit around moping, he had a job to do.

"No...Sheppard's right, Selkhet's in complete control and she'll say anything to undermined your trust in Elizabeth"

Teyla and Rodney nodded slowly, knowing it was possible that they would be next.

Unknown

Elizabeth sat in the cold and dark for what seemed like hours to her. She tried to move but couldn't. It was as if the darkness was stopping her from trying to escape the fire. Eventually the fire started up again, filling the room with light and heat. This time there was no one there. Elizabeth looked round, but still no one appeared. Elizabeth slowly stood up and found no force pulling her back down. She walked towards the fire, remembering Sumner's warning. Someone else would come and try and trick her. She held up her palm and brushed it across the fire, but not letting the flames touch her hand.

"That's it, you need to go through the fire"

Elizabeth turned round at the familiar voice, but...but this person wouldn't want to kill her.

"Peter?"

Peter stepped forward to her smiling. He took one of her hands.

"Dr Weir, it's so good to see you again."

The English technician pulled her away from the fire slightly.

"I'm guessing Sumner's been to see you."

Elizabeth nodded slightly and Peter sighed

"He told you not to go through the fire right, that it would kill you. He told you to wait for Sheppard and the team to save you?"

Elizabeth nodded again, still slightly shocked that she was seeing Peter. After the siege was over and Elizabeth could finally have some time to herself, she'd gone to her quarters and cried for what had seemed like hours. When she'd shut her eyes she saw him, saw him being killed by the blast. Even though Rodney had never talked about it to her, she suspected he'd talked to Heightmeyer though, she could tell how much seeing it had hurt him.

"You're dead Peter"

Peter nodded slowly

"Yes, I'm sorry to say I didn't get away. It was quick though, I'm grateful for that."

Peter placed a hand on Elizabeth's shoulder.

"Sheppard and the team can't save you and Sumner knows that. Elizabeth you have to fight against what's happening to you and the only way to do that is stepping through the fire."

Elizabeth shook her head

"It'll kill me. It burnt my hand"

Pete removed his hand and took a long deep breath.

"Is that what Sumner told you? He's trying to trick you, he manipulated your mind into believing that the fire burnt you, the truth is, the only way out of here is though that fire, and you know that. This is me, what would I have to gain from harming you. Sumner was the one who never liked you. He has everything to gain from letting this place kill you."

Elizabeth shook her head

"What would he gain though?"

Peter smiled slightly in a way which scared Elizabeth ever so sightly

"His revenge. He blames you for his death, Think about it, if you hadn't have asked Sheppard to come on the expedition, nobody would have been there to kill him. Things would have been completely different."

"He might have still died at the hands of the Wraith"

Peter nodded in agreement

"Maybe, but he'll never know and he blames you for that"

Peter placed his hand on her back and walked her over to the fire.

"It's so easy and it won't hurt."

Peter walked into the flames and held out his hand.

"Come on. You know I wouldn't mislead you"

Elizabeth placed her hand, slowly into his.

TBC...