So these last two chapters are the longest of the whole thing. Thanks for reading and as always, please do leave me a review.

Elizabeth's legs felt like jelly, her body trembling with exhaustion and horror. What she had seen was one of the most horrific things she'd ever experienced, and that included the times she negotiated in some of Earth's most war torn countries. The tight grip on her upper arms was all that was holding her up. In front of her, Shann lay on her back, thick lines of blood covering her arms and legs, the thread holding her skin apart removed, the wounds no longer pulled open, but not closed either. However, Elizabeth feared the damage was done. She'd lost more blood than she thought possible and still be alive, but somehow Shann was hanging on, too stubborn to give up. Her chest rising and falling slowly with each jagged breath she managed to take. The injuries Elizabeth had seen on the first few of the returned personnel had been recreated in Shann's skin, the demonstration all for her benefit, all to explain to her what it was the Ancient's had done to them.

"Why? She did nothing to you." Her voice was quiet, almost broken, tired of asking the same question time and again. The creature ignored her, wiping the blade of its knife on a cloth.

"Do you not remember this?" It hissed finally, pressing a clawed finger against its shoulder. Again it faced her, its white eyes boring holes into her. "Do you not remember the first time our kind met yours?"

"No. It wasn't us," Elizabeth sighed, her voice defeated. She wanted to scream it at the creature, to force it to understand but all her energy had gone, besides, the creature seemed not to care. It carried on watching her for a moment, before briefly looking at the two holding her. Within a moment she was lying back on the table she had been on before, her arms and legs strapped down. Elizabeth had no energy to fight them, the strength she'd had when they pulled her out of her cell had long since gone, along with any hope she'd managed to hold on too. Rolling her head to the side, she tried to see where the creature had gone, seeing nothing more than Lt. Shann.

She could nothing but watch the young woman. Her breathing had slowed down to the point Elizabeth was sure she'd stopped in between each breath. Her eyes were closed now, almost sunken into her face, her skin almost translucent. Elizabeth couldn't help the guilt that welled up in her chest. They'd chosen Shann as their demonstration because she'd shot one of them. The only reason she'd done that was because she'd been trying to protect her. "I'm so sorry Jen," she whispered, watching as her head rolled to face her, her eyes blinking open.

Weakly her mouth stretched into a smile, "It's been the best thing to serve on the experdition, ma'am."

Elizabeth took a deep breath, attempting to stop the sob that was building in her throat. "Don't talk like that. You're going to be fine." In her heart she knew it was a lie. All she received in answer was a slow nod.

Rolling her head around again, she spotted the other creature slowly approaching, a clean, curved knife in its grip. Elizabeth felt her heart rate pick up, pounding in her chest until she thought it might break her ribs. She watched as it grinned at her response, the needle sharp teeth pressing out at angles. Closing her eyes against the sight, she tried to take deep breaths, struggling to keep them even, acutely aware of her surroundings, of every clicking step it took. Opening her eyes again she saw the creature watching her closely, the tube it had used on Shann in its other hand. For a moment it narrowed its eyes before putting the tube down.

In sharp, rasping words it spoke again, "I want to hear you scream, as our kind did when you did this to them." Again she felt tears build in her eyes, slowly sliding down her cheeks. Coldness suddenly bit at her stomach as her shirt was pulled up. Focusing on a spot directly above her, Elizabeth braced herself for what was to come. The pain was instant. Sharp, slicing just below her ribs. The scream tore from her throat within a moment before she clamped down on it, unwilling to give her torture the satisfaction.


John sensed he was close, so close he could almost feel Elizabeth's presence. Her scream stopped both him and Ronon in his tracks. Sweat broke out along his spine, every muscle tensing in his body at the sound. He'd never heard her scream before, not in fear or in pain. Turing to Ronon, John could see the concern on his face. Glancing down at the life signs detector in his hand, he quickly counted the number of living beings on the screen, dismayed when he realised they were vastly outnumbered.

Looking ahead of him he compared the layout on the screen to what was in front of him. The room he was approaching could be no more than twenty feet he estimated. Crouching down, John turned the light on his weapon off, conscious of how close they now were. Behind him Ronon followed suit. With the lights off the shadows around them were complete, hiding them in darkness. Turning on the balls of his feet to face Ronon, he showed him the screen and together they began planning how they would attack.

"If I go in and go to the right, you take the left. With luck this will be a science lab. There shouldn't be any weapons." Receiving a grunt of agreement, John rose to his feet, levelling his weapon ahead of him but keeping the light off. The subtle glow of Ronon's pistol the only illumination in the corridor. They were about ten feet away when Rodney's voice chirped in his ear, loud enough to make him jump.

"Colonel Sheppard, we've got Dr. Marshall and are heading back to the entry room. It turns out that we needed to turn on our transmitters to be able to move those switches," he concluded with cheer.

Tapping his coms off again, John stepped back towards the wall, lowering his weapon. "That gives me an idea." Reaching up to his own transmitter he turned it on, watching as Ronon did the same.

"What's the plan?"

"Remember when we activated these back on Atlantis, Rodney couldn't see me. If it works the same here we could neutralise the enemy before they even know we're there. If it doesn't we just go with plan A." John saw as Ronon grinned, his teeth flashing in the dark before he moved over to the other side of the corridor. Together they moved forward, almost in synch until they reached the door.

Carefully John peered around, squinting at the amount of light. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust. Everything in the room was still, frozen mid movement. Quickly he took in the layout of the room. The line of beds along the centre were all unoccupied, all but two. Lt. Shann was lying on one, the other was surrounded by the creatures. Glancing across to Ronon, he quickly nodded, watching as the Satedan fired off the first shot, the bolt of energy burning through the air and impacting on its target, the bright flash stopping when it hit, time moving too slowly for the creature to fall. Following his lead John fired off several shots, confused when the bullets slowed in the air, moving like they'd been shot into water, apparently the bullets were slower than the energy from Ronon's gun. Across the room Ronon had lowered his weapon, looking at the bullets slow trajectory. For a moment John waited, watching as each bullet hit its target, black stains appearing on each creature. Nodding over to Ronon, John turned off his transmitter. The moment he did, the creatures dropped, some falling to the floor others onto each other.


Through the pain, Elizabeth was sure she could feel John, could almost feel his warmth in the cold room, could just about sense his presence at the back of her mind. The creature stood above her paused, examining its work, the bloodied knife raised up, finally away from her skin. Despite the cold she felt like she was burning and there was a distinctly uncomfortable warmth pooling along her stomach and running down her sides. The creature was watching her again, its white eyes intense as it looked at her. For a moment she thought it was going to carry on, could already see the blade lowering back down to her stomach. Tensing her muscles, she prepared for the next wave of pain, fearing what it was going to do to her.

The crack came out of nowhere, followed by another, and then another. Around her the creatures dropped to the floor, black blood splattering onto the surfaces around her. Elizabeth tried to lift her head to look around but found she couldn't, her energy all but gone. Suddenly there were hands on her ankles, pulling away the strapping and then again at her wrists.

"Elizabeth." John's face was the most welcome sight she had seen in days. Instantly she wrapped her arms around his neck, not caring who else might see. His hands were gentle and he lifted her slightly, stopping when she whimpered in pain.


The moment he could see Elizabeth strapped to the table he rushed over, forgetting everything else. As he began undoing the straps he saw her try to lift her head, his heart breaking when she couldn't. The moment she was free he stepped into her line of sight, green eyes full of relief at the sight of him. Despite her injuries she immediately wrapped her arms around him, clinging tightly to the back of his neck and shirt, as though he was only one who was keeping her safe. He wanted so much to hug her back, to hold her and never let her go but the moment he did she moaned in pain.

Quickly easing her back down to the bed he looked at the wound that had been inflicted. Not that he could see much of it, there was too much blood. Wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible he began pulling bandages out of his pack, noticing as Ronon did the same for Lt. Shann.

Looking at Elizabeth again he could see the pain and fear reflected in her green eyes, her face streaked where the tears had run. "This is going to hurt a little." He waited until she had nodded before he lifted her into a sitting position, instantly wincing as she cried out, murmuring a constant "I know, I'm sorry," in to her hair as he held her against him and wound the bandages around her. By the time he'd finished pulling the bandages tight she was panting against him, her eyes closed against the pain. Again he wrapped his arms around her, just holding her while she got her breath back, his nose pressed against her hair.

Across from him, Ronon was trying his best to wrap Lt. Shann's injuries, eventually running out of bandages. Looking up he saw Sheppard watching him.

"We need to go." John nodded, looking towards the lieutenant. He wasn't even sure she was alive.

Against him he felt Elizabeth turn to look at the young woman and even from the back of her head he could see the guilt and worry on her face. "How is she?" she asked, her voice no louder than a whisper.

Ronon shook his head slightly, "she's alive, but not for long."

"Can you carry her?" John asked, even as he did Ronon was already sliding his arms under her knees and shoulders, more gently than John could have though possible, lifting her up from the bed, her body limp in his arms, her head tilted back at an uncomfortable angle. "Get going, I've got Elizabeth." Within moments Ronon was gone, his heavy footfalls disappearing down the hall.

Turing his attention back to Elizabeth he looked at her properly for the first time since he found her. Blood was streaking her hands and arms, dried onto her cold skin. Her eyes held an exhausted quality, haunted by something that he had no idea about. He wanted nothing more to hold her and never let her go but first he had to get her out of here. "Can you walk?" As much as he wanted to just scoop her up and get them out of there, being on his own put him at a tactical disadvantage and he didn't know if he'd need to use his weapon.

Finally, Elizabeth nodded at him, whispering "help me up." Slowly she shuffled forward, towards the edge of the bed, carefully lowering her legs down until her boots hit the floor with a light thud. Taking a moment to catch her breath she tried to stand, unhappy to find her legs uncooperative in the attempt, the hold she'd had on John's arm turning into a death grip as she began to fall. Instantly his grip tightened, the loose hold he'd had on her shoulders tightening until his arms were around her back, holding her up against him, her forehead pressed against his chest, her body leaning completely against his.

"Take a minute." Feeling her nod against his chest, John exhaled, relieved to finally be holding her, to have finally found her, he just wished he'd been quicker. After a minute she nodded again, his arms letting up on the hold he had on her, easing one of her arms over his left shoulder, bracing her weight against his side. "It's not far, I promise."

Walking took more effort than Elizabeth could have ever imagined, every step feeling like a mile. Pain was ripping through her stomach and it was all she could do not scream with every step, her free arm wrapped around her belly. Beside her, John was acutely aware of how much pain she was in, even more aware of how unable he was to do anything to help her.

As the exited the room and entered the corridor Elizabeth stumbled, a scream tearing from her lips. Instantly John stopped, leaning her against the wall, frowning as she slid down to the floor, her arms wrapped tightly around her middle, her head resting against her knees, breathing hard. Kneeling by her side, John looked at her, gently taking her head in his hands, making her look at him. Her eyes were half shut, struggling to focus on him, her breaths coming in short, sharp gasps.

"Come on Elizabeth," he breathed, "fight this. I know it hurts but you've got to fight." When she didn't respond he tried again, his heart breaking a little more with each painful breath she took. He was all ready to scoop her up as Ronon had with Lt. Shann when footsteps began approaching from down the corridor. They were light and fast, each one making his heart pound more than the last. Raising his weapon, her kept the light off, wanting to keep their location hidden as long as possible. Carefully he sighted the corner, finger on the trigger, ready for the moment whatever it was rounded the corner.

"Don't shoot." Teyla said as she rounded the corner and skidded to a stop, her eyes darting around for his location. Instantly John dropped his weapon flicking the light on as he did.

"How'd you know we were here?"

"I saw you both on the life signs detector. Ronon and Rodney have returned to Atlantis. I said I would wait for you and Dr. Weir however, when I saw you stop I began to worry," she finished, kneeling beside him. Gently she placed the palm of her hand against Elizabeth's cheek, earning a quiet moan in response.

"No, it's good you're here. I'm going to have to carry her. Can you cover me?"

"Yes," her response was quick and sure, raising her weapon and checking both the way John had come and the way ahead. Carefully John eased his hands under Elizabeth, feeling as she fell against his chest, her head rolling onto his shoulder. Even in the dim light of Teyla's torch, John could see where the blood had seeped through the bandages he'd wrapped around Elizabeth's stomach. Quickly nodding to Teyla he set off at a half jog, her by his side.

Finding the room with the fluctuation was a bigger relief to John than he could ever have thought possible. With Teyla on his heels, John climbed the stairs two at a time, straight back to Atlantis.