Disclaimer: I don't own 'Stargate Atlantis' or any related concepts or characters; you know the drill by now. Also, the basic details of the plot were inspired by 'The Phantom of the Opera', although I have naturally put my own spin on things; hope it meets with your approval

Feedback: Always appreciated, trust me

The Phantom of Atlantis

As he slipped the silver Phantom-mask over his face- the lack of any trees or similar things that could provide him with makeshift weapons was something about the city that Jinto found disappointing, but it was a minor thing in exchange for safety from the Wraith-, Jinto smiled slightly as he hurried along the corridors of the city of the Ancestors, his eyes constantly on the alert for any sign of Wex.

The city of the Ancestors may be a confusing place to understand, but the amount of good hiding places within it- to say nothing of the Wraiths' current lack of knowledge of its existence- more than made up for that, as far as Jinto was concerned. All the numerous corridors and rooms… all the incredible machines and sights that could be seen… the amusing tales that Lieutenant Ford and some of the younger civilian scientists had to tell…

As far as Jinto was concerned- and, from what he could see, even the people of Earth felt at least some degree of that same awe he felt-, it was the most incredible thing he'd ever seen.

As he continued to hurry through the corridor, his eyes constantly on the alert for Wex in the Wraith-mask, he noticed a large sealed door in front of him that struck him as a likely hiding-place that Wex might have used. Walking over to the door, he touched the blue-and-grey rectangular shape on the left that opened the doors, but the other side of the door was revealed to be nothing more than a small room containing boxes from Earth…

Jinto froze.

He had heard something…

It sounded somewhat like the wind, but closer and stronger than any wind he had experienced back on Athos.

For a moment, Jinto felt a shiver of unease down his back.

Could it be that the Phantom was here…?

After another such sound occurred, Jinto didn't hesitate; he turned around and entered the room before him, the door swiftly closing behind him as he tried to remain silent in order to avoid attracting the attention of whatever was out there, before his eyes registered a faint glow behind him.

Turning to look in the direction of the glow, Jinto was surprised to see what looked like a map of the city of the Ancestors- based on the images he had seen on the walls of the main control room- on the wall behind him. Curious at its appearance, he reached up to touch it, and suddenly the door opened to reveal a totally different scene in front of him compared to the one that had been outside the door when he had entered this room mere seconds ago.

Confused but nevertheless eager to find out what had just taken place, Jinto cautiously stepped out of the small room to study his new location. It was a decent-sized room, about as large as the main hut in the village back on Athos, with two of the large rectangular things that Doctor Weir had called 'control consoles' immediately opposite the door he had just entered by. Apart from the consoles, the only other thing inside the room was a table off to the right of the door he had entered by, upon which stood a large, dark brown cylindrical device with glowing yellow lights around the middle and what looked like two stones on top of it, the lights glowing slightly even as Jinto stared at them.

Almost without knowing what he was doing, Jinto found himself walking slowly towards the device in question, one hand slowly reaching out to touch it as he drew closer to it. His hand was drawing closer… it had touched one of the stones…

No sooner had Jinto made contact than a thin black burst of what looked like smoke emerged from the device, swiftly spreading out until it went from being barely as thick as Jinto's arm to spreading out around the device he had just touched. Briefly the young Athosian attempted to touch it once again, but the second his arm made contact he was left with a sudden chill, causing him to yank his hand back as he stared in confusion and horror at the sight of the dark cloud before him, growing and spreading out of the machine before him, reminding him of the illusions generated by the Wraith if the Wraith were able to affect more senses than simply your eyes and ears…

Then, mere moments before the creature made contact with him once again, a hand reached out and grabbed his wrist, hauling him away from the creature before him before shoving him into a corner of the room.

The initial fear at what had just taken place wearing off, Jinto slowly turned his head slightly to see who had discovered him, only for his eyes to widen as he took in the sight of the figure standing before him, one hand holding his shoulder while the other hand was raised to his lips in a silencing gesture.

If he hadn't seen the man before him with his own eyes, Jinto would never have believed what was happening to him at that moment.

It was him…


Hearing the sound of hurried footsteps outside her office, Elizabeth quickly slipped the shield device into her pocket as she stood up; until she had more to go on than suspicions and half-certainties, or until she discovered anything that at least had the potential to be dangerous to the expedition if left unrevealed, she wasn't going to report anything Phantom-related to Colonel Sumner or his team.

For a moment, as Ford hurried into her office, Elizabeth allowed herself a moment of relief- Ford, at least, was less likely to be automatically suspicious of her moving something around on her desk- before she noticed his anxious expression.

"Lieutenant?" she asked, looking anxiously at him as she stood up behind her desk. "What's wrong?"

"It's Jinto, ma'am," Ford replied. "He was just in this lab in an area we hadn't explored yet- from what we can gather he activated some kind of teleporter to get there-, and…"

For a moment, Ford was silent, as though uncertain how to say what he was about to say, before he finally seemed to come to a decision. "Well, he claims that someone he calls 'the Phantom' saved him from something that he was told is a kind of 'energy leech' that will drain our systems of power if we don't figure out a way to get rid of it."

Elizabeth had no idea what to react to first; the news that there might be some kind of creature active in the city, or the discovery that her earlier theory was right and that the Phantom actually was still on Atlantis.

"The Phantom?" she asked at last, deciding that her best bet at the moment was to feign confusion about the existence of the city's possible inhabitant unless she, for some reason, had reason to reveal what she'd discovered about him already. "Who is that?"

"Some kind of major hero for the Pegasus Galaxy who's supposed to have lived here and been fighting against the Wraith for the last decade or so; Jinto wasn't able to give me anything more specific than that, and Colonel Sumner has decided to focus on the creature for the moment," Ford responded quickly (Elizabeth had to admire the diplomatic way the young lieutenant had phrased his response; letting her know that he disapproved of her focus on the Phantom as opposed to the creature in her response to his information without actually being offensive about it). "Colonel Sumner's expressed some doubt about the creature's existence, but he's got Doctor McKay checking the lab that Jinto transported himself to just in case there's something in the story."

"Where's Jinto now?" Elizabeth asked, as she arrived in the control room where Sumner, Grodin and McKay were already waiting, each of them looking in her direction as though awaiting their next order.

"With his father," Sumner said briefly, before he turned his attention over to McKay. "Doctor McKay, you said that you'd found something about that… creature Jinto mentioned?"

"Well, it might not really be anything," McKay said- Elizabeth was relieved to see him do something that wasn't related to his potentially imminent death- as he turned to indicate one of the monitor screens nearby him, "but I've been noting some strange energy readings in some parts of the city-"

Mid-sentence, the lights around them suddenly dimmed with a low hum before returning to their normal intensity, leaving Elizabeth glancing over at Rodney for an explanation; she was fairly certain Ancient technology wasn't meant to just 'cut out' like that.

"Uh… given what we learned from Jinto, those seem to be connected to the creature," McKay said by way of explanation, although his face clearly showed his scepticism of Jinto's story; whether it was because it came from a child or because he didn't like the concept of the Phantom Elizabeth wasn't sure. "If it's what this… Phantom… guy told Jinto it was," (His hesitancy at that point answered Elizabeth's earlier question; it was the Phantom part of the equation he had trouble dealing with more than anything else) "this thing should apparently be capable of absorbing energy from our active systems as a source of sustenance; it can probably also cause minor power fluctuations in its immediate vicinity, but our main problem is, as I said, its need to take energy from the city's power supply in order to sustain itself."

"It absorbs energy from our power supply?" Elizabeth repeated, looking anxiously at McKay as the implications of that statement sunk in.

If this creature made it to the Zero Point Module chamber… containing their only working ZPM and hence their only working means of defending themselves if they were discovered…

"Don't worry, it's already sorted; I had my staff disconnect the ZedPM as soon as Jinto had told us his story," McKay said, holding up a reassuring hand as he spoke. "Just because I didn't totally believe Jinto's story doesn't mean I was going to be stupid; if this thing managed to drain our ZPM, we'd be in serious trouble if the Wraith ever manage to get here, and if it wasn't…"

He shrugged casually. "Well, if it turned out to be nothing more than a false alarm, we're not really using it at the moment, and plugging it back in would be easy enough; better safe than sorry, after all."

"OK, so… based on what Jinto told us he learned from this 'Phantom', what do we know about this creature?" Elizabeth asked, turning to look at Sumner and McKay.

"Well…" Sumner said, clearly uncertain about relying on something that had been told to them by a boy from a source they knew nothing about- Elizabeth's knowledge of Sumner's character made it easy for her to determine that it was both of those factors rather than one over the other that was causing his problem with the situation at the moment-, but nevertheless lacking any other options at the present, "According to what Jinto learned from this 'Phantom', it was the result of an Ancient experiment while they were attempting to learn how to Ascend; we don't know anything more precise than that about its origins at the moment. When the Ancients realised what it was capable of, they trapped it until they could figure out something better to do with it. As Doctor McKay explained, it also appears to feed off energy sources, which would certainly account for the power fluctuations we've been experiencing; this creature's almost certainly going after our naquadah generators."

"Have we tried shutting the generators down?" Elizabeth asked McKay.

"I thought about it, but it wouldn't really work; you need to take into account that people give off energy too," McKay pointed out. "Granted, it's negligible compared to that of a naquadah generator, but… you take away this thing's only other source of food…"

Elizabeth could see his point; so long as this creature continued to focus on the generators, they might at least be able to work out a way of keeping it occupied without losing any of the expedition to it.

"OK, so we leave the power on," she said, nodding briefly at McKay before she turned back to Grodin. "Grodin, work on finding some way to track that creature and work out where it is; McKay, have you examined the lab where Jinto says he encountered the Ph- the creature?"

(Elizabeth could only hope that nobody had noticed her slip-up; the last thing she needed was for people to notice her ever-growing curiosity about the Phantom when Colonel Sumner's expression made it clear he disliked the concept of somebody operating in the city outside of his control.)

"I was just about to accompany Doctor McKay to the lab, actually," Sumner said, nodding briefly at Elizabeth before he glanced over at Grodin. "You heard the doctor; get to work."

"Yes, sir," Grodin said, unable to restrain a slightly sarcastic tone in his voice as he began to work (Not that Elizabeth could blame him for it; Sumner may be a good soldier, but his somewhat blunt manner towards the scientists and the Athosians took some while to get used to).

"Good," Sumner said in response, before he glanced over at Ford. "Lieutenant, get the men together in teams of two and begin a search of the city; if you discover the creature, report in but do not engage. Doctor McKay, let's go."

With that, Sumner turned and headed out of the control room, followed by McKay and Ford, the lieutenant swiftly heading towards the personnel quarters while Sumner and McKay headed in another direction that Elizabeth was fairly sure wouldn't lead them to where Jinto must have been playing; the Athosians' quarters were in another direction altogether.

"Is there any reason that Colonel Sumner is taking Doctor McKay in that direction?" she asked, glancing inquiringly over at Grodin; she didn't like feeling like she was being kept out of the loop when it came to matters in the city, even if Colonel Sumner was supposed to have final authority in the city when it came to military matters like their current situation.

"Oh, that leads to one of the teleporters that Jinto's discovered," Grodin replied, smiling slightly at her, only for the smile to fade as he took in the expression on Elizabeth's face. "He didn't mention them to you?"

"Well, Lieutenant Ford did mention something about teleporters, but at the time I was more focused on… other matters," Elizabeth admitted, already scolding herself for her inattentiveness; she'd been so focused on having the existence of the Phantom verified that she'd completely failed to pay attention to the less immediate matters than the existence of an energy-sucking creature in the city. "What do you know about them?"

"Well, based on what Jinto told us and the readings I was taking of the city at the time he accidentally released the creature, it would appear that there are multiple small teleportation 'booths'- for lack of a better term- located at various points around the city that allow the user to be instantaneously transported from one booth to the other when a location on a screen in the booth is activated," Grodin explained, an eager expression on his face at the implications of this discovery before another temporary dimming of the lights left him with a slightly more dejected expression on his face. "I'll just… get back to work now, shall I?"

"That would probably be for the best," Elizabeth admitted, nodding briefly at him before she turned back to her office. "Let me know if Colonel Sumner returns; I'll be in my office if I'm needed."

She may not have particularly liked the need to keep secrets- it was one reasons he'd left that message for Simon before she'd left for Atlantis; if she was going to go all the way to another galaxy she'd rather he didn't think she was just in Afghanistan or something like that-, but right now, with the Phantom's existence having been confirmed and Sumner's attitude towards that discovery making it clear that he disapproved of the idea, she didn't think it would be advisable to admit that she was returning to her office to pick up something that he'd apparently left for her.

It might not provide her with much protection, and she certainly wasn't going to use it just yet, but with an energy-draining creature at loose in the city, Elizabeth would definitely feel safer if she had that Ancient shield device on her…


A few minutes later, the device hidden away inside her inner jacket pocket, Elizabeth stood behind Grodin as he showed her an image of the city, blue dots with swirling outlines highlighting the naquadah generators as an indistinct pink shape drifted through the corridors.

"After I calibrated the city's internal sensors, pinpointing the creature was fairly easy," Grodin explained, smiling slightly as the creature advanced towards the nearest naquadah generator. "So far as I can tell, there's only one entity, making it relatively easy to keep track of. All I need to do is monitor its location and deactivate the generators whenever it comes too close to one, and we can keep it on the move while retaining our current power levels."

"Good," Elizabeth said, nodding in approval. "Keep at it until we come up with something more permanent."

She didn't voice her inner concern that they might be making the creature mad; with everything else she currently had to deal with, such as the growing likelihood that her own earlier interest in learning about the Phantom would come to Colonel Sumner's attention, the last thing she wanted was more problems to worry about…

"Doctor Weir," Colonel Sumner's voice said from over the radio, "Doctor McKay and I have identified the entity's origins; could you join us?"

"On my way," Elizabeth responded, nodding briefly over at a nearby marine before she departed; with this creature roaming the halls, regardless of how useless a P-90 might have been against it, she doubted Sumner would be happy if she started roaming the city without a bodyguard. Following the directions to the transporter that Grodin had provided her with earlier, she had soon used the device for the first time and was subsequently standing inside the lab that Jinto had been transported to earlier, Sumner standing behind McKay as the scientist tapped away at a laptop he'd brought down with him.

"Any luck?" she asked the scientist, noting the protective shield was still active; how much power could that thing hold?

"Well," McKay said, as he glanced up at her, "believe believe it or not. Jinto didn't touch anything of any consequence… other than that."

As he pointed at something behind her, he stood up and walked around towards what he had pointed at, leaving Elizabeth to turn and watch as the scientist walked up to a brown cylindrical device and pressed a switch that caused god lights to illuminate all over it.

"It has its own power source, like the Gateships," McKay explained, noting Elizabeth's slightly puzzled expression and apparently misinterpreting it.

"What is it?" she asked, looking critically at the man; the only reason she didn't criticise him for assuming she hadn't guessed about the power source was that she doubted he'd appreciate it given his current situation.

"Well," McKay replied, turning his attention back to the device, "from what I can tell, it served as some sort of containment vessel for the energy creature-"

"Until Jinto released it," Sumner commented.

"Well, it seems that way," McKay said, before he continued. "As I… well, as Jinto told us, the entity's what's been causing most of our technical problems. It was captured by the Ancients while they were researching Ascension, suggesting that the process may not have been the purely spiritual matter we assumed it was based on Doctor Jackson's experiences; there may actually have been evolutionary intervention to get there."

"Their own form of gene therapy?" Elizabeth asked.

"Well, I haven't read all the notes," McKay said dismissively before he continued, "but what I do know is that the entity is energy; it feeds on energy forces. Quite frankly, we need to take this thing out soon; the more it feeds the bigger it gets, and the bigger it gets and the more deadly it will be."

Elizabeth definitely didn't like the sound of that; this creature was proving difficult enough to handle at the moment. If it got too large, it could theoretically engulf buildings; they had to contain it now while it was still of a manageable size.

"Is it intelligent?" she asked, hoping a diplomatic solution might present itself.

"Well, according to the research it is sentient…" McKay admitted, before shaking his head resolutely. "However, I wouldn't recommend trying to talk to it; you'd have more luck with a great white shark. This thing is going to suck the power out of our generators- maybe even the ZPM if things get bad enough- and then it will kill us all."

Sighing slightly, Elizabeth shook off her dejection and turned her attention back to the matter at hand.

"All right," she asked, turning back to look at McKay, "what do we do about it?"

"Well, the energy's been trapped in here since before the ancients abandoned the city; it seems like that it's pretty mad," McKay explained, as he looked intently at the machine. "On a more encouraging note, it's also going to be hungry, which means that it might not be thinking that clearly about everything. Given that this device was designed to attract it, capture it and hold it for observation, there's still a chance we may be able to get it back inside; I'm just going to need a little more time to figure out how."

"'A little more time'?" Sumner repeated, looking intently at McKay. "You told me you had it already."

"Doctor?" Elizabeth stated, her tone making it clear that, if what Sumner had just said was indeed the case, McKay had better explain himself as soon as possible.

"Look, I just need to make sure that everything works the way I think it'll work; I've pretty much confirmed what it is already," McKay replied. "Essentially, it's a mouse trap; if I've understood the instructions, this button here causes the device to emit an energy signature that attracts the creature, while this one shuts it in."

With that said, McKay turned to look at the two of them, a slightly uncomfortable expression on his face. "The only downside is… someone's actually gonna have to be here to press the buttons."

Before Sumner could say anything to that, Elizabeth smiled slightly as an idea occurred to her that might solve at least one problem.

"Well, Rodney," she said, as she turned to face him directly, "you're still wearing the shield. Is there a chance that, if something went wrong, that would protect you?"

No sooner had the words left her mouth, the shield device on McKay's chest dimmed and fell off his chest, McKay instinctively catching it in his hand. For a moment he simply stared at it for a few seconds, but then, as though remembering what he'd been complaining about earlier, he pulled a protein bar he'd picked up earlier out of his pocket and began to chew on it with a look of supreme satisfaction on his face.

"I had a feeling," Elizabeth said, half to herself and half to Sumner, as she began to turn back to look at the device.

"What do you mean?" McKay's voice suddenly said indignantly from behind her. "Had a feeling about what? You think I wanted it to come off just now?"

As McKay walked over to stand in front of her, Elizabeth was only just able to stop herself from smiling at his outraged expression, even as the effect was slightly ruined by the mouthful of protein bar. "You think I'm scared? I'm not scared! I'll stay; I'll do this!"

"No need, Doctor; I'll handle this," Sumner said, a faint smile on his face (Much to Elizabeth's surprise; she wouldn't have expected Sumner to be the type to ever smile).

"Well, it-it's just not working any more!" Rodney yelled, placing the shield device on Sumner's chest for a few seconds before pulling it back, still deactivated. "See; it doesn't work on you either!"

"I just meant that it wasn't going to let you die," Elizabeth interjected, once again only just managing to stop herself from smiling; there was something rather amusing about seeing a scientist of McKay's alleged intelligence acting like a child.

"Well, it is just a coincidence that it happened to stop working now!" McKay continued, before he sighed in frustration. "God, I need a drink…"

"Go," Sumner said briefly, indicating the door beyond McKay. The scientist needed no further encouragement; he swiftly turned around and headed out of the room, leaving Elizabeth and Sumner to look briefly at each other before Elizabeth sighed and nodded.

"Well, Colonel, it looks like it's up to you," she said. "I'll get back to the control room and order the rest of the city to be powered down while you activate this machine; once the creature gets in close enough, it sounds like all you need to do is activate the machine and you're sorted."

"Affirmative, ma'am," Sumner said, nodding briefly at Elizabeth in response.


As he crouched in one of the many small passages that allowed him to travel through the city, he allowed himself a slight smile as he saw the Athosians lighting candles to keep the creature at bay; even as he doubted it would actually do anything to the thing, he could appreciate the need for some form of comfort, even if it didn't exist.

After all, wasn't that what he did every day? Maintain an illusion so he wouldn't have to face the reality of what he had become so many years ago…?

Shaking his head to force his attention back on track, he quickly went over everything he'd gathered about the current plan to eliminate that energy creature (He knew he should have dumped that thing when he had the chance, but it had just seemed too much effort to drag that thing all the way to the gateroom when all he had to do was not touch it to keep it from ever being a problem). In theory, the plan worked, but it failed to acknowledge one crucial detail; this energy creature was a non-corporeal Wraith, and he had never yet met a single Wraith, whether an individual or a group, that would fall for the same trick twice.

Hell, if the Wraith had been that stupid, he'd have taken out a hell of a lot more than just five hive-ships over the last fifteen years; as it was he kept on needing to change his attack strategies to accommodate whatever modifications they'd made to their hive-ships to protect the vulnerable areas he'd taken out the last time around.

No, this creature wasn't going to get stuck back in that old set-up again…

Which means, he reflected to himself, his fists clenched as he went over the only other alternative in his mind, that I'm going to need to break the whole 'secrecy' thing I promised myself I'd create a bit sooner than I expected.

He didn't like it, of course- he'd probably have the entire city virtually breathing down his neck trying to find him, unless he was very much mistaken in his assessment of Colonel Sumner's character-, but if it was a choice between being hunted and being driven out of the only home he'd had for the last couple of decades, he'd take being hunted; at least he knew the territory well enough to stay out of everybody's way in that scenario.

Glancing back at the control room to make sure Elizabeth was there- she was currently talking with that Doctor Grodin guy about something; she'd be safe enough there while he took care of things elsewhere-, he turned around and headed deeper into the tunnels, making for one of the nearest located naquadah generators.

He just hoped that he'd manage to time everything right; even if he had to confirm beyond all doubt that there was actually someone else apart from the expedition members inside the city, he didn't want to be captured just yet…


Even as she stood in the control room preparing to terminate the power throughout the city, Elizabeth couldn't help but wonder about what Grodin had just told her regarding the shield device (Why she was focusing on such a trivial detail, Elizabeth wasn't sure; maybe it was because she couldn't do anything else right now and so found it easier to focus on her own personal mystery).

If the shield devices 'imprinted' on the first person to activate them, how could she use that one that… someone (The Phantom?) had left in her office? Had McKay missed something in the files he'd discovered with the device, was something wrong with her device, or was there some other explanation she couldn't think of right now?

It may not have been an important question, but it was one that Elizabeth wished she knew the answer to…

"You ready?" McKay's voice said from behind her, his mouth once again apparently full as he sat down in a seat beside Grodin.

"You do realize that when we shut everything down, we're going to lose the sensors?" Grodin said, glancing up at Elizabeth as he spoke. "We're not going to be able to track it…"

"We have security personnel posted round the living quarters; at least we'll have some warning," Elizabeth replied, smiling slightly at Grodin before she leaned over to light a nearby candle. Noting McKay's quizzical expression, Elizabeth turned to look at him. "Teyla told the Athosian children that lighting a candle would help protect them."

"And you're doing it because…?" McKay asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's going to get dark in here," Elizabeth replied simply.

McKay moved to turn on a flashlight that he'd acquired from somewhere, but Elizabeth shook her head. "Don't do that; the light may not generate much energy, but it would still be stronger than candles, and the last thing we want is to give this thing another target."

Sulking slightly, McKay simply placed the flashlight down on the floor beside him, slumping down into a nearby chair as Elizabeth activated her radio.

"OK, Colonel, go ahead," she said, crossing her fingers inside her coat as she hoped that this latest attempt would work. After giving Sumner a moment to activate the machine, she nodded over at Grodin, who swiftly keyed in the commands that would shut down all power in the city.

For a moment, all was silent in the control room, the entire expedition seemingly holding their breath as they waited for Sumner to let them known that the creature had been contained, until the silence was finally broken with the news that they were safe at last…

A chevron on the Stargate suddenly lit up.

"What?" Elizabeth said, turning to look in the direction of the bright blue light that indicated an active Stargate in this galaxy. "What's happening?"

"I-I don't know…" Grodin said, as he turned to look at the Stargate, which was continuing to dial with no apparent external stimulus. "We don't have any teams off-world, but there's no power currently being sent to the Stargate; somebody dialling in would seem to be the only explanation…"

"Well, block it!" McKay yelled, standing up as he looked in frustration at Grodin. "Do you even realise what this could do to our plan? If this creature has a choice between the thing that it might recognise as having imprisoned it for the last few thousand years and an active Stargate, what makes you think that it'll stick with the thing that kept it trapped for several millennia?"

"I'm trying!" Grodin protested, as he reached over to turn the power back on. "If you can do any better, I'd- what the hell?"

"Excuse me?" Elizabeth asked, turning to look at Grodin in confusion; so far the man had struck her as being fairly professional- apart from when he punched McKay-, and now he was vocally swearing? "What's wrong?"

"The creature's heading this way!"

"Well, of course it is; the power's back on-" McKay began.

"No, you don't understand," Grodin explained, as he loked up at McKay and Elizabeth with an incredulous expression on his face. "There's another active naquadah generator heading this way; that's what the creature's following!"

Elizabeth blinked.

"Excuse me; the generator's heading this way?" she asked, looking at Grodin in confusion. "As in, it's actually moving?"

"Precisely!" Grodin said, indicating his screen in confusion; Elizabeth barely even registered the sound of the Stargate activating behind them in light of this latest revelation. "I can't explain it, but we clearly have an active naquadah generator heading towards us, and the creature's following it rather than going after Colonel Sumner!"

"Does this have anything to do with the Stargate dialling like that?" Elizabeth asked, indicating the device in question (She was beginning to doubt that it had ever been an incoming wormhole; if somebody had been attempting to dial Atlantis they would surely have come through by now).

"Well… it's possible that the entity could have caused the 'gate to dial by distorting the power systems; proximity to that large an energy source would cause Ancient technology to go haywire…" McKay admitted, pausing for a moment before he shook his head. "No, it can't be that; the odds of it dialling a specific address are-"

"Doctor Weir!" one of the other technicians in the control room said, pointing into the main 'gate area. "Look!"

As Elizabeth and the rest of the people in the room turned to look at the main area, more than one pair of eyes widened at the sight before them; a tall figure was standing in the middle of the gateroom, clutching an active naquadah generator and dressed in a long dark cloak of some kind. With the lights in the control room already dimmed apart from the candles, the only thing Elizabeth could make out about the figure's appearance- apart from the fact that it was fairly obviously a man- was a faint green glow from his chest, the glow slightly illuminating the silver mask he wore that seemed to cover his face.

"Oh my God…" Elizabeth whispered, recognising the basic details of the mask from all the times she had seen Jinto wearing it while playing. "It's the Phantom…"

"What?!" McKay said, spinning around to look at her. "You mean… that's the guy Jinto told us told him about this thing? What the hell is he-?"

Before McKay could finish that sentence, the room suddenly seemed to grow even darker as what Elizabeth could only assume was the entity that had been causing them so much trouble appeared from the corridor that the man- the Phantom- had just run down. As the staff watched the sight before them, nobody certain what they should do or even if they should do anything, the Phantom slowly edged towards the Stargate, the naquadah generator in his hands as the entity approached him, the creature apparently cautious but nevertheless eager to absorb the energy of the generator before it. For a moment, the scene seemed frozen, the figure of the Phantom standing in front of the Stargate as the dark energy of the creature surrounded the wormhole and the figure standing before it, until it finally completely surrounded the 'gate, concealing the black-clad figure of the Phantom from view.

For a moment, Elizabeth wasn't sure how to feel about what she was seeing; after she'd spent the last week or so since learning about the Phantom's existence curious to learn more about him, seeing him- it could only be him; who else would have worn a mask like that?- apparently sacrifice himself for nothing seemed like such a waste, but she'd still barely even had a chance to get to know him…

Then the dark 'cloud' began to travel through the Stargate, finally vanishing to reveal that the naquadah generator and the figure of the Phantom had also vanished. For a moment, the Stargate remained active, its blue glow illuminating the control room, until it finally vanished, leaving no sign that the creature had ever been present.

After a brief silence, Elizabeth glanced over at Grodin.

"Do… do we know what went through the Stargate before it shut down?" she asked, her fingers crossed inside her coat pocket; for some reason, she strongly didn't want to learn that the Phantom had travelled through the Stargate with that… creature… before she'd even had a chance to meet him (God, what was wrong with her; she was acting like some schoolgirl with a crush on a movie star!).

"Well…" Grodin said, studying his laptop briefly before he glanced back up at her, "according to all available readings, apart from a large 'mass' that I'm presuming was the energy creature, the only thing that went through the Stargate was a small object that would appear to be the naquadah generator; if that figure was the 'Phantom' that Jinto told us about, it would appear that he left the room some other way while the entity was travelling through the Stargate."

"In other words, he's still here somewhere?" McKay asked, placing a hand on his forehead and groaning. "Great… that's all we need; another thing about this city that we don't get."

"Excuse me?" Elizabeth asked, turning to look at McKay inquiringly. "Correct me if I'm wrong, Doctor McKay, but that 'thing' happens to be the man who just saved this city-"

"For reasons that we don't know about and can't be sure will continue to benefit us," a voice said from behind her.

"Colonel Sumner?" Elizabeth said, turning to look at the military head of Atlantis in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Sergeant Stackhouse contacted me when the creature began heading this way; with the power having been restored to the tower, I felt that my time would be best served getting back here," Sumner explained briefly, before his expression became more resolute. "As to the presence of this 'Phantom', Doctor Weir, now that we have multiple witnesses of his presence here, I'll be issuing orders to the expedition to alert the security teams to any signs of him, and for him to be captured alive if possible."

"'If possible'?" Elizabeth repeated, staring at Sumner as she tried to conceal her shock. "Colonel, you're talking about the man who potentially just saved our lives-"

"He's a rogue factor in this city, Doctor Weir; just because he helped us out now is no guarantee that he'll continue to help us out in the future," Sumner interjected, his expression clearly resolved on the matter. "If we're going to effectively co-ordinate any kind of offensive action against the Wraith, we can't afford to have a rogue element active; even if this 'Phantom' genuinely does mean well, by staying independent there's always the possibility that he'll jeopardise our own plans of attack by trying to carry out one of his own. I'll make it clear that he's to be taken alive if possible- judging by his actions he clearly knows a great deal about the city that could be of benefit to us-, but beyond that I make no promises if he is discovered."

Clearly noting the uncomfortable expression on Elizabeth's face, Sumner shook his head at her. "Believe me, Doctor Weir, I'm grateful for his assistance in this matter, but the fact remains that we cannot have a rogue element like this 'Phantom' active in this city; the situation is difficult enough without adding in an unknown variable like that."

After staring silently back at Sumner for a few moments, Elizabeth finally nodded.

"Make it clear that they are not to hurt the Phantom unless they have to," she said finally. "He saved us all right now; we owe him that much, at least."

"Understood," Sumner replied, nodding briefly back at her before he turned around and headed out of the control room, leaving Elizabeth to turn back and study the control room, unconcerned about the mass of people returning to work behind her.

She understood Sumner's actions, of course- as an independent operative, the Phantom could be a problem in their new long-term mission to try and figure out a strategy to oppose the Wraith- but that didn't mean she had to like it.

He'd just managed to save them all, and now they were going to hunt him down like he was an enemy?

She definitely didn't like this new situation…

And she had no real idea why she objected so strongly to it; she didn't even know the man she was so desperately wanting to protect!

What is wrong with me…?


AN: C'mon, you didn't think I was going to make it easy for the Phantom to operate, did you? Just to clarify, I'm not out to portray Sumner as the Atlantis Harry Maybourne, doing what he wants even if it means people get prosecuted simply for trying to do the right thing; I see him as a man who just adheres strongly to the importance of the chain of command and resents somebody who might go against it at a moment's provocation, as opposed to Jack, John and Mitchell, who all acknowledge that there are times when you have to give the chain of command the big middle-digit-up and do what you know is right rather than what you're told if anyone's going to get out of there alive.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the next chapter, as we explore a bit more of Elizabeth's feelings in the aftermath of this situation, and the events of this timeline's 'Thirty-Eight Minutes'…