I'm sorry for not updating ! It's no excuse, but school and my social life have been nuts... I'll shut up now. Here's the next chapter. I hope you like it! Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter out before a week has gone by -_- Apologies for any spelling/grammar errors
The next day, Ronon, Teyla, Katerina and Sheppard were sitting at a table in the mess, eating sandwiches and blue Jell-O, talking about what would happen to the Selanian now that she had gone through the last part of testing (firing range, and she had passed with flying colours).
"So… what now?" Katerina asked Sheppard.
"Well, after a bit more training and some boring protocol lectures, you'll probably get assigned to a team, and start going on off-world missions. I know Johnson is looking to fill a slot in his team."
Katerina swept her long hair into a loose high ponytail with a rubber band she had gotten from Weir, glancing over to the table that Sheppard had gestured to, where Johnson and his team were sitting.
Johnson was an extremely tall man, about 6 feet 5 inches, had close-cut brown hair and laughing green eyes. He seemed nice, but there was a definite edge of menace in the way he held himself, not like he would start a fight out of the blue, but just looking at him, Katerina got the impression there wasn't much the man was afraid of.
"Besides Johnson, there's Sergeant Ramsey," A blonde, wide shouldered man who seemed extremely interested in the food on his tray. "Captain Bellows," Fairly short, black hair, scraggily beard, and ears that stuck comically out to the side. "And Lieutenant Hathmoore" The only woman. She had blonde hair that hit her at shoulder level, and seemed to be laughing at some joke that Johnson had told.
Katerina nodded. "They seem like a good group of people." She observed, taking another bite out of her ham and cheese sandwich.
~~~
A little less than two weeks later, Kat was, indeed, put onto Johnson's team, and was formally introduced to them three days after Sheppard had pointed them out to her in the mess.
"Thank the lord! I was sick of being the only girl on this team!" Exclaimed Lieutenant Hathmoore, giving Katerina a tight hug after the raven haired woman had been announced as their new team member.
"Pleasure to have you on the team." Said Sergeant Ramsey, smiling at her.
"Alright, you miserable louts. We've got our first mission with Katerina leaving in an hour. Suit up!" Hollered Johnson. "Briefing in ten minutes!"
"Already?" Katerina asked Hathmoore, a little nervous. Hathmoore nodded, grinning at the new recruit.
"It's an easy one, no problem."
"So remind me again WHY we care that a Genii safe house got taken over by a Wraith cruiser?" Asked Captain Bellows, scowling at Johnson's back.
"Let's see, one, they're our allies, two, wraith equals bad, and three, Weir told us to."
"How the heck do you move in these things? They're so constricting." Snarled Katerina, trying, and failing, to reach an itchy spot on her back. She was wearing the uniform that Weir had given her, a dark camo vest with lots of pouches over a black shirt with black pants. She was used to loose fitting pants and light tops, easy to move in. She also had a P90 strapped to her chest. She liked the P90. Judging by her practice on the firing range on Atlantis it did a lot of damage, but it was a lot easier to use her claws and teeth.
The planet they were on was lush with evergreen trees, but had minimal undergrowth, which made walking easier. But she'd be damned if there was a more restricting way of moving than in the clothes she was in.
"You'll get used to it." Said Lt. Hathmoore.
"Hmm." Katerina grunted, then the world exploded.
~~~
"IT'S JOHNSON! WE'RE COMING IN HOT!" came the crackling transmision through to the radio on Atlantis. "HAVE A MEDICAL TEAM READY, HATHMOORE IS INJURED!"
"Medical team to the gate room." Weir said into her earpiece. "Lower the shield." She told Bates. Through their still open radio link, they heard blasts from Wraith weapons, punctuated by loud P90 bursts. Security teams aimed guns at the stargate, and just as the shield lowered, a blast from a wraith dart got through, quickly followed by Hathmoore being carried by Bellows and Ramsey. Right after Hathmoore was taken away by the medical team, Johnson and Katerina thundered through the gate, the later in cat form, with bits of shredded uniform clinging to her fur. Another blast made its way through the gate, hitting the wall and leaving an impressive scorch mark. Katerina's normally blue eyes were blazing yellow/gold, with a narrow ring of blue around the outside, and she let out a huge roar that shook Atlantis to its stardrives.
Ten minutes later, after the gate room had been cleared, she was still agitated, huge paws padding along the floor of the gate room, growls and snarls echoing in the enclosed space.
"Maybe you should talk to her." Said Sheppard to Ronon.
"Why me?" The Satedan looked confused.
"Because she knows you! And I'd say she trusts you more than anyone else here."
The cats ears had flicked towards their conversation, and her head followed, the predatory golden eyes seeming to bore through the two men sitting in the control room with Weir, Bates, and Teyla.
"Alright. If I'm not back in five minutes, assume the worst." Ronon said, elbowing Sheppard in the ribs before standing up and heading down the stairs to the gate room.
"Hey there." A growl "You're in a good mood." She turned her back on him and kept pacing. "Want to talk about it?" No response. "There was nothing you could have done." This brought another snarl from the cat, her massive teeth glimmering in the light of the gate room as she pulled her lips back.
Katerina pictured the events of her first off-world mission in her head again. The three cruisers had come out of nowhere. They had seemed to be laughing at the pitiful bullets that bounced off their hulls, while their energy blasts had made small craters in the ground. If she had been wearing her lighter clothes, she could have changed forms quicker, taken the cruisers out of the air. But the heavy camo pants and vest hadn't torn easily enough, and she hadn't been fast enough, even though she had started shifting when she realized the bullets weren't doing anything. Now Hathmoore had horrible burns on the left side of her body. It was ALL HER FAULT.
She roared loudly and swiped at the floor in frustration, leaving slight indents with her claws.
"There. Was. Nothing. You. Could. Have. Done." Repeated Ronon.
She turned on him, exposing canines as long as his forearm in an open-mouthed snarl.
Ronon leaned back slightly, slight fear showing in his eyes, but otherwise showed no other sign of terror.
"You're not normally like this," He observed. "Maybe it was something you ate?" Katerina sat down with a fwump that shook the gate room, her eyes cooling to blue, but a little gold staying in the middle. She lowered her head to Ronon's level and peered at him with her bright blue eyes.
Inside those bright eyes, he saw unbearable pain, and regret. He reached out, and ran a hand through the soft fur on her face, which seemed to calm her, she closed her eyes and leaned into his hand, purring loudly. Where his fingers touched the skin hiding under her thick fur, bursts of static electricity traveled into his arm. Eventually, Katerina opened her eyes; they were almost entirely blue, the amount of gold the same as when she was a human. Ronon realized he knew too much about Kat's eyes.
She hung her head in shame and pulled away from Ronon. She walked towards the doorway before realizing there was no way for her to fit through. Her clothes were in her room, and they wouldn't magically appear on her body, like she sometimes wished they would.
In the control room, Weir opened the jumper doors above her head, and Katerina nodded her thanks before launching herself into the air and pulling her large body into the hanger. This wasn't as hard as one would imagine, giving that normal tigers could leap 4 metres into the air. Katerina was big, so was her jumping power. Teyla had slipped out of the control room and had left a pile of clothes just inside the hanger doors.
~~~
"I'm sorry," Was the first thing out of Katerina's mouth when she saw Weir. "I know I could have helped more if I had been able to change forms sooner. All my anger was aimed at myself. I'm sorry." Her head was hanging in shame.
Weir put her hand on Kat's shoulder. "It's okay. You got stressed. Johnson told me that if it wasn't for you, Hathmoore's injuries would have been worse. She'll be back on duty within a month."
"That's great!" Katerina brightened.
"You did a good job," Smiled Weir, patting Kat on the shoulder before continuing on her way.
"No more uniforms. I'll keep the gun, because they're better for long range killing, but I'll wear my own clothes that are easy to get out of if I'm in a hurry." Weir nodded.
"Fair enough."
Ronon and Katerina had taken to sparring almost every day, because the two were both very skilled, and challenged each other's abilities as fighters. Sometimes they would fight bare handed, sometimes with wooden sparring sticks, or with actual knives. A couple of days after Katerina's off-world incident, the first time they had sparred since, halfway through their practice while they were getting a drink from their water bottles, Katerina glanced at Ronon.
"I really appreciate what you did for me in the gate room, but next time my eyes turn yellow-gold like that, stay as far away as possible." Ronon took a swig from his water bottle.
"Why?"
"Because on my planet, every now and then, a shapeshifter is born a berserker. They, I should say we, lose complete control over our cat when we're overtaken by a strong negative emotion. The cat is ruled by instinct, and it will do whatever it feels in necessary to remove the cause of the emotion."
He regarded her from across the room, setting down the water bottle.
"How will I know if you've lost control?"
Kat breathed out a sigh of relief. If he was asking questions, then he would probably agree to what she was about to ask him.
"My eyes will turn yellow-gold, completely, so not even whites or pupil remain. The general destruction and anger I'll be displaying will be a pretty good indicator, too. When I shift, there will always be a bit of gold, even to the point that the only blue left is a ring on the outside of my eye, like the other day. But if my eyes turn completely gold... Ronon. I need to ask something of you. If I EVER lose control like that, no one will be safe around me, not even my friends. If I ever lose complete control, I need to know that I can count on you to... stop me," He didn't respond. "I need to know that you're willing to take me down if I pose a threat to any human being, Ronon."
He turned away from her and looked out the window in the training room wall, and slowly nodded.
"Good."
Please review! Like I said, hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter out by next Thursday/Friday