Sparklyshimmer2010 - LOL, there's quite a few tags.

Shadows-of-Realm - Thank you. Yeah, I want to keep this story going, but with my muse bouncing around the way it is, it's hard to keep up. LOL. I have several Twilight stories out, most of which are one-shots. I'm working on multi-chapter fics, but with my muse bouncing around... I've got over a dozen ideas started and by the time I get a good start on a story, my muse changes...again. LOL.

Debbie418uk2 - LOL, sorry. I try to keep the tags near the time you post your chapters, so they're close together, but I think I forgot about a few. LOL. The talking computer. Yeah, I figured Rodney would find a way to be annoying. I do enjoy giving a different perspective for a story, it's fun to see 'another' side of it, you know?

Puddle-Jumper38 - Sounds like fun. I just used it as a way to make Rodney annoying. LOL. And I figured he'd get a kick out of it, too. The Gladiators belong to Debbie418uk2, a unique twist, hm?

Jasminesmommy - Perhaps, but if the stone grants one wish, any wish... Well, I still wouldn't fight Gladiators for it, but then, this was John doing it for Rodney.

Note: This one is probably going to be more straight forward and fast. Sorry, my muse for this chapter wasn't too strong and I struggled all the way through it. This is not one of my better chapters. :S

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(John's POV)

"Oh, Rodney? Drop it." Staring at him firmly, I raised an eyebrow and looked around. "We're in the middle of a desert. Where the hell are you getting readings of water at all, and why the hell would you think it's a fountain of youth?"

"Here." He held over a data pad with a screen filled with ancient scribbles.

"Wow, it...makes so much sense." I rolled my eyes and glared pointedly at Rodney. "How about in English for those of us that aren't fluent in Ancient?" Ok, so I was being a bit nasty, but this heat and dry weather were starting to get to me.

He pointed to a section that reshaped to form a map with two blinking spots. One was yellow. "That's us." Rodney pointed to it as if I didn't notice it blinking there. "And that's where the fabled Fountain of Youth is supposed to be." He pointed to a blue spot some distance away. "This planet was recorded to have people well into their hundreds of year old. The Ancients didn't understand it, because their physiology was so similar, and their days and years all the same length. Then it seems it was revealed to them. There's not a whole lot on it, of course."

"Of course." Ronon shook his head and sighed, brushing the sweat off his forehead.

Giving him a little smile, Teyla finished tying her hair back and continued on over another sand dune, leading us in the direction Rodney seemed to think this fountain was. She, out of all of us, was the most patient, despite the overwhelming heat.

"I still don't see why we had to come check it out." Groaning, I followed after her, keeping one ear on Rodney's explanation of the whole Fountain of Youth. "Is this another false lead, like the one to the bird planet?"

"Well, it seems that one of the younger people at the age of 59 had allowed themselves to revert to their natural selves. It was almost instantaneous, and the difference was remarkable. He'd turned and left the hut, and came back five minutes later with a skin of clear water from the well in the center of the village, and looking 25 again.

Frowning for a moment, I wondered how these people dealt with such long lives. "Wait, it never lasted?"

"Colonel?"

Turning, I paused and stared at Rodney. "What kind of Fountain of Youth makes it that you gotta keep drinking the water to stay young?" I groaned and rolled my eyes. "I'm fairly certain this is not gonna be worth the trip."

"We don't know that. Maybe this man had an incurable disease." Rodney scrolled through the information, walking ahead.

Following after him, I kept an eye on the distant village. "Yeah, it's called 'Aging', and we've all got it."

"Oh, ha, ha. Hum, looks like one of their scientists went missing on the mission, and even during a search, there was no sign of her." Rodney frowned and put the pad away. "They never found her."

"That's not exactly reassuring."

"Relax, remember that this was ten thousand years ago. Unless the fountain really does work..." Rodney trailed off as we finally made it into the village.

The buildings were old and wooden and looked pretty ragged. The hot wind blew dust across the ground, and a strange purple, round weed blew across the ground. One three eyed, two tailed cat ran through the empty square, but that was about it.

"Huh, kinda reminds me of an old western movie." I looked around and noticed a few skeletons lying on the ground, looking long decayed. They wore tattered remains of leather outfits that were dyed purple and black. "Uh, McKay? You might wanna check that Fountain of Youth theory of yours." I gestured to the bodies. "They're looking a little...old, to me."

Rodney's jaw dropped and he pressed a few buttons on the hand-held Ancient scanner he'd pulled out of his pocket. "I don't understand this... Wait, I'm picking up a signal" He looked around. "I'm trying to pinpoint it, but there's some sort of interference."

Looking around, I walked over to a large, once extravagant fountain in the town's square, and looked down it. "Well, if this well was full once, it's sure not anymore." The well was bone dry. At least, as far as I could see. Shining my P90 light down, I frowned and winced. "Hey, Rodney, were you serious about people drinking from this well??"

"Yeah, what do you think?" He was still looking at his scanner, every now and then tweaking something.

"Oh, nasty." I looked over the bottom of the well and frowned as something hit me. "I think I found the remains of the ancient woman who disappeared."

He stopped his tweaking and stared at me as I looked up. Then he hesitantly walked over. "What makes you think...oh my god!"

There were several skeletons at the bottom of the well. Some were wearing similar leather outfits to the skeletons on the ground around town, and some were wearing cloth variations. But near the top of the pile was one with long silver hair on parts of it's head, and long white robes. "Well, the fact that those robes look familiar..." I left off, leaving Rodney staring in shock at the sight before him. "Maybe we should head back."

"Wait, wait!" Rodney pulled away from the well and held up his scanner. "What about that signal? Maybe someone's still here and can tell us what happened."

"Or maybe it's a trap, or maybe we don't wanna know what happened." Sighing, I looked at Teyla. "Do you sense anything?" Don't ask me why, but this all reeked of Wraith presence.

Frowning for a moment, Teyla's eyes narrowed and she looked around. After a moment, she shook her head and focused back on us. "There is something. It is very faint, and somehow different from the Wraith, but I do sense a presence of some sort."

"Ok, it's official. I don't like this." Standing with my back to the well, I raised my P90. "Where's that reading coming from, Rodney?"

He frowned and tweaked the scanner again before looking up and pointing. "It's coming from over there." He was pointing to a small alleyway.

"Ok, Ronon, you're with me. Teyla, stay here with Rodney." Taking a few steps forward, I kept my P90 up as I began heading towards the alley. "We're just gonna check it out."

The trip to the alley took longer than I would have liked, and it made me painfully aware of how far we were from any sort of cover, if we came under fire. Once we made it to the alley, I paused and looked around. There were a few crates, and a few barrels. Behind one of the barrels...

"Um, hello?"

A young woman was bending over a fairly fresh looking skeleton with a frown. She wore a long, loose-fitting leather skirt, and a long-sleeved leather top that covered all but a fair amount of cleavage and her midsection. She had long blonde hair and when she turned to us, striking black eyes.

"Who are you?!" Her voice was husky and I struggled not to shiver at the sound of it. "I thought everyone was dead."

Frowning for a moment, I realized she was talking about the other bodies. "Uh, well, we're not from around here." I looked at the skeleton. "What were you doing?" The skeleton was definitely newer, looking more like a mummy than anything else, and it wore similar leathers to the woman, but was more obviously male.

Hesitating for a moment, she slowly stood up. "He was....my brother. Everyone in the village has been falling sick of late, and we have no idea what it is."

"Maybe because your well dried up?" I mused out loud.

"How do you know of our well?"

"Records, where we come from, state your well had....healing properties of sorts."

"So you came... To use our water? Heal your sick, perhaps?" She didn't seem to happy, but also didn't appear too threatened. "I'm sorry to say that, as you have stated, the water has dried up."

Nodding a little, I lowered my P90. "We just came to explore. You say your people have been dying of a sickness? Uh...you don't look sick." She looked anything but.

Smiling, albeit sadly, she looked down at the skeleton. "I am. It's only a matter of time before I end up like this, too."

"Maybe not." I looked to Ronon and gestured for him to head back to the others. "We have...people, where I come from, who may be able to help you."

"I sincerely doubt that." She watched as Ronon hesitantly left the alley. Once we were alone, she walked forward a little ways. "I think I'm the only one left."

I nodded and lowered my P90 all together. "You might be, I saw a lot of bodies. I can't say for sure. Let's head back to the others, then we can talk about this more."

With a deep frown, she looked to the skeleton. "He's been like that for six hours. This....disease takes action every ten. It will not be long-"

"Then we should hurry."

She sat down on a nearby crate and shook her head. "There is nothing you can do. This is us, our people."

"It's a sickness."

"No. We have dealt with this for thousands of years."

I stared at her a moment, not really sure what to say or do. Part of me knew I shouldn't get too close. Teyla had said she picked up a presence, even if it was different from the Wraith, this girl could be a threat. Then again, she seemed so sad... Giving in to the urge, I walked over and sat beside her. "What do you mean you've been dealing with it for thousands of years..? Your people had this for a long time...?"

"No, I, along with the others have dealt with this for thousands of years."

Whoa! Waitaminute! Blinking at her a moment, I felt my eyes narrow. "You can't be that old!"

She smiled at me and laughed a little, a light blush staining her cheeks. "I am over seven thousand years old."

I gaped, not really sure what to say. There were a lot of things that came to mind, and 'aging well' was one of them, but then I remembered the well. "Wait, but I thought you needed to regularly drink from the well to stay young."

Now she laughed out right, but it was a bitter laugh. "The well? No, the well had little to do with it, besides to save the lives of a few people."

"But then....how are you able to stay young...?" I began to get a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach and tightened my grip on the handle of my P90.

Looking to me, I noticed her face was beginning to pale, and her hair had lost some of the luster it had. Her eyes had turned old and tired, and she sighed. "You really don't want to know, please believe me."

I shook my head. "No, you believe me, I do wanna know."

She stared into my eyes, and I felt that cold feeling grow. Her expression ranged from fearful, to regretful, to pained and desperate, and back, as if she couldn't decide how to feel. Her hair was turning grey, right before my eyes, and her skin loosening and wrinkling. Even as she stared at me, her eyes narrowed and turned determined and I felt something behind me. Before I could move, I felt a hand tightening on the back of my head, and she lunged forward, crushing her lips to mine.

(With the others, Normal POV)

"Careful!" Rodney stared down the opening of the well as Ronon dug through the remains of the bodies.

Glaring up at him, the huge Satedan sighed. "Why am I doing this, again?"

"I'm certain there's something in the water, and the only way to find out why it's not running is the source. I wasn't about to go down there with those...those..." He gestured to the bodies and grimaced.

"Fine." Ronon got back to digging, having found a gated entrance point. Looking through it, he frowned and used a pen light to peer into the darkness. "There's a little water back here, but it's not high enough to get over this block..." He pointed to a metal dam of sorts. Pulling out the water skin Rodney had given him, Ronon reached carefully past the bars and dipped it in, holding it under long enough to fill it. Then he carefully pulled his arm back out and capped the bottle.

In doing so, he caught sight of his arm and froze. "You might be right about the water, McKay." He stared at the smooth skin and ran his fingers over where he'd cut himself on a jagged stone. The area was completely healed.

Rodney held on to the rope which was securely tied to a stone pillar across the top of the well, as Ronon climbed back up. Frowning for a minute, he stared at the part that acted like a fountain which seemed to run into this well. Same water source, probably. He didn't give it too much thought.

As Ronon pulled himself over the edge, he looked around and his eyes narrowed. "Where's Sheppard?"

Everyone turned to the alley, knowing that John should have rejoined them by now. It had been over half an hour since Ronon had left him in the alley with the girl.

Tapping his radio, Rodney rolled his eyes. "Hey Casanova, are you about done flirting? We've got a sample of the water, and we're about ready to head back if you are."

Instead of a comeback, like he'd been expecting, Rodney got nothing but silence and frowned as he exchanged a look with the others.

"Colonel?"

When they still received no answer, they grabbed their weapons and ran to the alley that he'd last been seen in. As they rushed into the cramped space, they noticed two bodies on the ground, and no sign of the said woman that Ronon had explained to them, earlier. One was a skeleton in leathers, the same one Ronon had seen earlier. The other...

"J....John?!" Teyla's eyes had gone wide.

Rodney's jaw dropped in horror as he took in the second unmoving figure. "It-It-It can't be!" Taking a step forward, he watched as the said figure moved weakly and he dropped to his knees beside it. "Sheppard..?"

John's hair was white as snow, as was his wrinkled face. His eyes were barely open, and he was wheezing harshly for breath. He still wore his uniform, his hands clutching tightly to his P90, but clearly not having the strength to do anything else. What was a forty-two year old man was now obviously in his eighties or nineties.

"Oh, this is not good!" Rodney looked around wildly before pulling out his scanner. "I'm not picking up that other signal."

Teyla frowned. "I did not sense a Wraith presence."

Opening his eyes a little more, John's one hand weakly reached up towards her. "No....Not a....Wraith..." He coughed and winced in pain, his other hand dropping his P90 to reach to his chest.

"The girl!" Ronon raised his blaster and spun down both sides of the alley, looking for any signs of movement.

"How can that be?" Teyla held her P90 and carefully kept an eye out before turning back to John with a worried frown.

"I don't get it myself." Rodney watched as John's face screwed up in pain and his hand tightened over his heart. "Oh, god! I think he's having a heart attack!" Looking around frantically, Rodney snapped his fingers. "Someone's gotta go back to the gate and get Carson, now!"

Ronon watched as John weakly curled up into a ball, his breathing coming in pained gasps and clutching at his chest. Suddenly, something hit him. "McKay, the water!"

Rodney looked up dumbly, not sure what he was getting at. Looking at the water skin, he pulled it from where it was hanging at his side, and held it up to Ronon. "You can't tell me you're thirsty, now!"

Shaking his head, Ronon grabbed the bottle and unscrewed the cap. Bending down, he carefully took the back of John's head and tilted it back a little. As John opened his mouth to gasp, Ronon waited until the right second and poured the contents into his mouth, wincing as John spluttered and coughed.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Rodney screamed, leaning forward and making as if to grab Ronon's arm.

Laying John's head back down, Ronon shot Rodney one of his usual glares, and almost blinked in surprise when Rodney ignored him, grabbing the water skin and trying to tug it from his hands. "McKay..." He growled, pushing Rodney off him like he was a fly. "I'm trying to help."

"By drowning him?!"

Shaking his head, Ronon carefully poured more of the water down John's throat.

The team stared quietly as John's pain seemed to fade, as did his gasping. Rodney was about to scream at Ronon for drowning their friend, when John lunged into a sitting position with a powerful gasp, his sharp green eyes unfocused and wide. Right before everyone's eyes, his hair darkened to it's usual pitch black, and his skin darkened and smoothed. The wrinkles faded and slowly disappeared, and right before them, he turned back to his forty-two year old self.

"What...the...hell...?!" Rodney stared in shock as John closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

(Atlantis, Infirmary, Normal POV)

Sitting up on the gurney, John sighed loudly and pointedly as Carson pulled the stethoscope from his chest with a confused frown. "I told you, doc, I'm fine. I don't know what happened, or what was in that water, but I'm me again."

"There was still a small sample left in the skin and I analyzed it. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it, at all. I don't get how you were rapidly aged through a 'kiss', and then returned to your normal age through a drink of water."

"I don't get it, either, but re-examining me six times a day isn't gonna show up any new results." With a frown, John pulled down his shirt and raised an eyebrow. "What about Rodney? Any news on the girl or if he got more of the water?"

Shaking his head, Carson put the stethoscope around his neck. "No. Unfortunately, it appears that the gate won't connect for some reason. No one knows why. We can't get back to find her, or to get more of the water."

Standing up quickly, the only thing that stopped John from racing to the control room was the arm Carson put out in front of him to stop him.

"They've re-rerouted the Daedalus to check it out, but if what she said about this...disease acting every ten hours is true, it's already far too late for her, lad." Carson frowned. "I find it hard to believe the Ancients never found out that these people were basically vampires, living off the youth of others, or what was truly the use of the water."

"Well, that could explain Teyla's sensing her presence. If she was anything like Teyla, and was experimented on, or had her people experimented on, this could have been a by-product. Kind of a power, but a bad one, I guess." John looked down at the gurney sadly, knowing that she hadn't meant to hurt him. He remembered the look of regret on her face as she stared at the corpse she named to be her brother, and the look of pain on her face when it came time to 'feed' again. She didn't like it, but she couldn't fight it. "She could have killed me."

"Aye, lad, that she could've. You're lucky she didn't." Carson patted his shoulder softly before pointing for him to get back up on the gurney.

Doing so, John found himself unable to help but wonder what happened to the girl and the gate.

(Somewhere else)

Laying next to the decimated remains of the stargate, was a single female mummified figure, in leather. Next to it was a leather bag and a strange contraption which seemed to be linked to fragments around the gate remains. As a single three eyed cat roamed by, a whisper was heard on the wind.

I'm sorry...

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Hm, I'm not too sure how this one turned out. I realized I said fountain and well both, so I tried to explain that there was a main fountain with a well attached to it, where the water seemed to run to. It was on the same source. Blah, sorry if it didn't turn out too well.

Hope you like it

Written November 1, 2008

R+R please

Thank you,

Tenshi