Author's Note: Thank you to everyone for the wonderful reviews! I love reading what you are speculating and looking forward to. :-)
Ronon was pissed.
The fact that he had been separated from his team was bad enough, but the Genii soldiers guarding him had taunted him by saying that Sheppard was dead.
"Kolya threw him over the cliff himself," one of the men laughed. "We all saw it. We saw the body, too."
Ronon raged at them, roaring wordlessly, and they continued to laugh, knowing he could not escape.
When the door to the small room had suddenly opened and the roar of a P90 racketed around the space, Ronon knew it was Sheppard. What he wasn't prepared for was a man launching a full out assault, drenched in blood, eyes full of fire and ice all at once.
The entire right side of Sheppard's face and head was bruised, cut, and covered in blood, and Ronon could see through the darkness of Sheppard's jacket that his right shoulder was soaked in blood as well. A fine spray of red flecks covered all remaining surfaces of Sheppard's skin, which Ronon recognized from a fatal blow — one that Sheppard must have dealt up close and in person. His hands were caked with blood and dirt but the P90 in his hands gleamed.
"Hey, Ronon," Sheppard grinned, his teeth flashing unnaturally white behind the blood-soaked face.
"Get me out of this," Ronon demanded, impatient to get out of the chair he had been tied in.
Sheppard pulled out his knife and began sawing.
"How long have you been here?" he asked.
"Not sure," Ronon replied. "A day. Maybe two."
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sheppard's face blanch.
"Two days?"
"Yeah. What happened to you?"
Sheppard kept sawing. "Woke up halfway down a cliff last night. Can't remember how I got there."
The ropes fell away and Ronon stood.
"Kolya has McKay and Teyla on the bridge. We need to break them out," Sheppard continued. "I took care of the guards outside but the ones inside seem to be better trained."
Ronon searched the room and found his blaster on one of the fallen guards. "Yeah, looks like there's an elite force working with the regular guys. I almost escaped once and they took me out pretty quick. Not sure why they've been keeping me separated, though."
"Leverage, maybe? Has Kolya said what he wants?"
Ronon shook his head. "I haven't seen McKay and Teyla since we were ambushed. Haven't seen Kolya either."
"Ok, well, we need to make a plan. I'm pretty sure they've barricaded the bridge, so we'll need to figure out another way to lure them out or get the doors open. Atlantis is a no-go. Kolya disabled the 'gate."
Ronon twirled his blaster, not surprised. "So it's you and me. What's your plan?"
Sheppard took a shuddering sigh, and Ronon tried to ignore the pain that he saw creasing the man's face. "We need to find the engine room. Sabotage the ship. I'm sure Kolya wants McKay to get it running so they can take off." He looked around the room at the dead guards, then said, "Let's gather up the guns. We can use the gunpowder, maybe. Last resort if we can't figure out how to shut down the engines or cause any other damage."
They searched the room, stuffing guns in their belts. Ronon found one in particular that looked different from the rest.
"Hey." He tossed it in Sheppard's direction but the Colonel didn't seem to see it coming and startled when the gun flew past his face. It clattered loudly to the floor. Ronon frowned. "You ok?"
Leaning down with a grunt to collect the gun, Sheppard shook his head. "Blind in my right eye."
Ronon walked over, not caring about personal space as he grabbed Sheppard's chin, looking into his right eye. The eye looked undamaged, but the right side of Sheppard's head was a wreck.
"Think it's from the concussion," Sheppard said, jerking his head away with a wince and looking down at the gun. "Sometimes there's swelling that might cause something like this. It might go away and my vision'll come back."
"Is that all from the fall?" Ronon gestured at Sheppard's face.
"I don't know. Can't remember."
"You gonna be ok?"
Sheppard flashed him a fierce look. "Yes. Let's go."
"I need you to work faster, Doctor McKay," Kolya hissed. "This ship needs to be airborne. Now."
"I'm working as fast as I can!" McKay protested, his heart hammering. "It's just very difficult when you keep threatening my friends and my life. Very distracting, you know. Plus the fact that this ship hasn't been flightworthy in centuries, if not thousands of years."
Kolya peered out the window into the darkness beyond then pulled his knife from his belt and strode over to Teyla.
"I told you the last time that I would hurt her if I didn't see progress," he snarled. "You need incentive."
"As if Ronon's life wasn't enough? And Sheppard's?" McKay snapped. "You keep killing off my team and there's no chance in hell I'll even try to get this ship running. As it is you should have kept Sheppard alive anyway. This ship isn't responding to my gene."
Kolya lightly pressed the blade against Teyla's bare forearm, drawing blood. "I don't need to kill her."
McKay paled as he looked at Teyla. She glared at him, her fiery eyes telling him everything. But he knew he couldn't watch Kolya slice into her the way he had with himself all those years ago on Atlantis.
He had stalled as long as he could, hoping for a rescue from Atlantis. He had sealed the control room which was located just below the bridge. Kolya didn't even know about it and didn't seem to know much in general about Ancient technology except for the fact that he needed someone with the ATA gene to run the ship. Without Sheppard that left only McKay.
"I've got life support up," McKay said quickly. "The engines are just taking longer. They seem to have been damaged when the ship crashed. You know it's thousands of years old. It's amazing it's in any working order in the first place."
"Show me," Kolya said, striding back over to McKay.
Slowly, McKay started punching buttons and gesturing. "This one is for life support. It's going to take a few minutes to close the ship up and get it working at full strength."
"Do it."
"Seal the ship?"
"Yes. Now. I want to be ready to fly as soon as you have the engines working."
"You need to let me down there so I can look at the engines. It's been over 24 hours and we haven't left the bridge."
"You don't need to see the engines, Doctor," Kolya replied. "My men are there to do any of the work you need for you. You are staying here. We need to get this ship airborne."
"What's the big hurry?"
Kolya didn't answer him. He just folded his arms, tapping his knife.
McKay swallowed. He needed to give Sheppard — if it was indeed Sheppard — more time.