Orpheus - Chapter 9
Chapter 9
“So you found Doctor Weir,” Major Lorne said dodging another low hanging branch.
“Yes, I did,” John said as he led the way to the ruins. “Did you doubt me, Major?”
“Would you blame me if I did?”
“I’d blame you for being faithless to your superiors. But you did have enough faith to let me go and find Elizabeth. So you’re forgiven. I guess." Lorne resisted the urge to roll his eyes at John. "So how were things while I was gone?”
“The same ol', same ol'," Lorne shrugged. "The docs going all crazy over some new symbols they found in the database, Ronon and Teyla kicking everyone’s ass during training. You know, the usual,”
“No close encounters of the Wraith kind?”
“Not since the last time we were here.”
John nodded and pursed his lips together. “Let’s hope we didn’t just jinx ourselves now.”
“Yes, sir.” Lorne glanced back at the other three members of his team who were steadily keeping up with them.
After ducking and dodging through the forest for fifteen more minutes, they arrived at the tomb entrance.
“Okay, that triangle hole wasn’t there the last time I was here,” Lorne commented.
“Well,” John unstrapped his backpack and knelt down to open it. “I was a busy bee once you guys left.”
“What is that?”
“Watch.” John pulled out the triangle keystone and placed it into the triangle slot.
Like before, the top immediately slid open revealing the staircase into the catacomb.
"Yeah," Lorne tried to peer down the dark entrance. "That stairway to oblivion wasn't there either."
John stood up wiping the dirt off his pants, picked up his weapon, and switched on the flashlight.
“All right, you guys can stay and wait for me here.”
“Sir?” Lorne and the other men looked at John skeptically.
“It’s a dead end. I couldn’t escape even if I wanted to.”
“With all due respect, I think at least one of us should go down and cover your six, sir.”
“No,” John said firmly. “You guys can cover my six here. It is not necessary for any of you to come down with me. There is nothing there other than a bunch of dead bodies. Unless you guys encounter some necromancer, I’ll be fine. If anything happens, contact me by radio. I’ll come right out.”
"But-"
John held up a finger to stop Lorne from finishing his sentence. “End of discussion. Now the sooner I go down there and figure out what the hell is going on, the sooner we can go home and call it a day.”
Before waiting for any affirmation from his men, John quickly dashed down the stairs into the tomb.
The tomb smelled damp and dusky from the rain a couple days earlier, but now was not the time for observations, and John started to jog straight towards the room where he had found Elizabeth.
When he entered the room, the orb had started to glow faintly. He did not remember that happening the first time he entered, but he was not paying attention to the orb the first time around. He shined the flashlight around the room to see what he could find, but he found nothing.
He looked back at the orb and saw it begin to glow brighter than before. John was sure that the orb was responding to something. Elizabeth had said she saw Mneme in here, so he tried calling for the Ancient the only way he knew how.
“I know you’re in here.” John’s voice echoed through the room and down the corridor. “Mneme? Elizabeth told me that you appeared to her. You explained to her what happened to us. She also told me that you said that this couldn’t be reversed. But I don’t believe that. If this was irreversible, then why help us at all?”
He walked around the room and waited for a reply.
Nothing.
“Hello? Mneme? The Keeper of the Forgotten Realm? Ghost of the Ancients? Whatever. I came back here, specifically, to speak to you.” John was getting impatient. Suddenly the orb in the room grew even brighter. John raised his arms to shield his eyes from the brightness. As soon as the light dimmed he lowered his arms to see a woman standing across from him.
“Mneme?”
“Yes," the woman nodded. "You are John. How is Elizabeth?”
“She’s doing better.”
“That is assuring to hear.” She gave John and slight nod.
“She is the reason why I’m back here," John said stating his business. "The effects of Lethe have not been reversed. I’m still the only person who remembers Elizabeth. Is there a way to reverse this?”
“You have proven to me that not all things can remain forgotten or lost.”
John furrowed his brows. Why did Ancients alway insist on confusing the hell out of everyone? “But I’m not the first to remember someone after Lethe was touched, right?”
“Yes, but he did not seek to reverse the process. This place was his final resting place.” She gestures towards the dark corridor.
John did not like the sound of that. “Obviously, Elizabeth and I are a special case. So is there a way to bring Elizabeth’s existence back into the universe short of blowing this place up?”
“What do you think?” Mneme looked straight into John's eyes.
“I’m all for blowing this place up. It hasn't given me any fond memories. But I have a feeling there’s more to it than destroying the source.” John knitted his eyebrows together as a solution came to him.
“Please," she said patiently, "explain your thoughts to me.”
John pointed to Lethe’s twin. “Why have two? Unless one is the ‘on’ and the other is the ‘off’ button. I’m thinking the one up top is the ‘on’ switch, and this one has to be the ‘off’ switch. And the reason this has never been reversed is because no one knew it was here, or they knew, but had no reason to use it. It also doesn’t help that the entrance was sealed by a brick wall.”
“As I have told Elizabeth, it is my punishment to remain here and remember the forgotten. I am forbidden to interfere with matters here.”
“Yeah, I noticed that. You guys tend to screw up a lot and aren’t allowed to fix your messes without major consequences. Look, I’m not asking you to wave a magic wand and fix it. I’m asking you to help me.”
“You have already figured out the most vital information needed to accomplish this task. But I will tell you that this,” Mneme placed her hand on the orb, “is not Lethe, but it is called Mnemosyne.”
“Memory.” The words slipped out of John’s lips. “Thank you.”
“I have done nothing. I have only informed you of what it is you wish to know.”
“Again, thanks for helping me find Elizabeth.”
“That was not me either. It was the strong bond the two of you share that led you to her,” Mneme said with a smile.
“If you say so,” John said with an understanding smile. He put down his gun and rubbed his sweaty palms over his pants before wrapping his hands around the glowing orb. He slowly turned the orb until it dimmed and eventually went dark. At the same moment, John realized that the room was pitch-black except for the small flashlight attached to his P-90. Mneme had disappeared again.
“Okay…” He looked around wondering if it had worked. “How do I know if it worked this time?” he asked the darkness.
Then he noticed a small light emanate from Mnemosyne. The light slowly increased and continued to brighten until it was blinding. John stepped back and covered his eyes. The he felt the same familiar pulse erupt from the orb like the first time, forcefully knocking him over a second time.
Again, everything went black.
By the end of the day, Elizabeth was able to convince Carson to release her under the condition that she promised not to do any work and got some rest, which meant instead of resting in the infirmary, she was sent to rest in her quarters.
Her quarters? Didn’t John say that all traces of her and her things had disappeared in this world?
After changing into her blue buttoned down shirt, she picked up the thick book John had lent to her from the bed and flipped through the first few pages before realizing reading was the last thing she wanted to do at the moment. Instead, she looked around her room and found everything exactly the way she remembered. It occurred to her that this was odd for a ‘reality’ in which she supposedly did not exist, yet all her belongings were present. Then she thought back to John telling her that he could not find any trace of her existence other than his own memory of her.
Did this mean that John had successfully reversed the affects of Lethe? Or was this another bad dream and she was still in the catacombs? This would not have been the first time she experienced a false reality... She shuddered at the memories of her previous experiences of deceptive realities. At least this one did not feel like nightmare, not yet.
She tossed the book back onto the bed and decided she needed to do some reconnaissance and figure out what was happening to her.
“Elizabeth?” Rodney said with a surprised look on his face. “Didn’t Carson say you need to be resting?”
“Yes, he did. This may sound like a ridiculous question...” Elizabeth hesitated before continuing. “Who is the leader of the Atlantis Expedition?”
Rodney looked at her with a befuddled expression. “Is this a trick question?”
“No, I swear. It’s not,” she said suppressing a chuckle.
“Are you sure? Because you know trick questions are never fair to throw at a person at a random time- Are you sure you should be out of bed?”
“Rodney, just answer the question, please.”
“You are,” Rodney said matter-of-factly.
Elizabeth let out a relieved breath. “Thanks. Now how long have Sheppard and Lorne been gone?”
“Almost eight hours.”
“Have they radioed back to check in?”
“Yes," Rodney said, returning his attention to the laptop in front of him. "Lorne radioed in during the scheduled time reporting that Sheppard was down in the tomb searching for something and that it was going to take a while.”
“No," Elizabeth shook her head. "They should be back by now.”
“How do you know?”
“Because they already did what they were sent to do,” she said vaguely.
Now that her existence was replaced into the world, she wasn’t sure how this change affected everyone else. She remembered everything that had happened to her from the moment she awoke in the dark tomb to the present. But it seemed as though there had been no change for Rodney. He acted as though Elizabeth had been on Atlantis all along. However, his reaction to her now was quite different from their encounter earlier in the infirmary.
“And what exactly were they sent to do?” Rodney’s question brought Elizabeth back out from her thoughts.
“You don’t remember why they went?”
“I remember where they went. They went to go check out the ruins again. As to why, I haven’t a clue. We already did a complete data compilation of the ruins the last time we returned there.”
Elizabeth thought about a way to ask her next question without sounding crazy, but there was no other way of asking it. “Was I there?” she finally asked cautiously.
“Are you sure you should be up and about? Because these questions make it sound like you are having some memory lapses. Not getting enough rest is definitely-"
“Rodney,” she said with restrained irritation. “Please, was I there?”
“Yeah, you were. That’s how you broke you arm. The Wraith went WrestleMania on you and slammed you against the wall.”
“And then?”
“Then we came back and patched you back up. This morning Sheppard told you something and convinced you to let him go back to M5G-382 to... do something.”
“Thank you, Rodney." Sometimes getting answers from Rodney was like pulling teeth. "That is all I wanted to know. Right now, I want you to dial the gate and try to contact Colonel Sheppard or Major Lorne.”
Rodney was about to protest, but the seriousness in Elizabeth's expression made him quickly change his mind. “Okay,” he muttered to himself and dialed the address to M5G-382.
They watched as the lights around the Stargate chevrons lit up one by one, and the familiar kawoosh of the established wormhole echoed in the gateroom. Elizabeth waited for the chime of the communicator to come online before speaking.
“Colonel Sheppard, this is Weir. What is your status?” Elizabeth looked over at Rodney, whose expression seemed to say “I told you so.”
“Colonel Sheppard, please respond.”
“You said the first time that thing in the ruins disrupted your radio signals. Maybe the same thing is happening now.”
Elizabeth took Rodney's suggestion into consideration, but her gut feeling told her otherwise. She stepped out to the balcony over the gateroom, watched the ripples of the event horizon, and continued to try contacting John and his team.
“Major Lorne, this is Weir. Please respond.” She let out a sigh. Someone should have responded to her call by now. If John or Lorne were out of radio range, one of the lieutenants accompanying them should have responded. Sometime was wrong.
“Rodney,” she turned away from active Stargate. “Something is wrong. Get Stackhouse and his team up here, and I want Ronon and Teyla with them.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m sending a search party.”
Rodney called out to Elizabeth as she reached the bridge to her office. “And where are you going?”
“I’m going with them.”
“Elizabeth, your not even fully recovered yet,” Rodney said. “You’re handicapped!”
“I am fine, Rodney. Carson wouldn’t have released me if I wasn’t. Now get Stackhouse’s team ready,” she ordered.
“Fine,” he said grudgingly, and followed her order, while she went to her office to retrieve her uniform jacket.
Within twenty minutes, Ronon, Teyla, Elizabeth, Stackhouse and his team, were waiting for the gate to establish a connection.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Ronon asked looking at Elizabeth’s slung arm. “I don’t think Sheppard would approve.”
“Colonel Sheppard would most likely not approve, but I don’t need his approval for my decisions.”
“If you say so-”
Teyla's elbow nudged Ronon's side for him to stop talking. "Why do you think Doctor Weir has requested us to join her?"
"Because Sheppard would approve of that," Ronon said.
"Most definitely," Elizabeth agreed.
When the wormhole was finally connected, Ronon and Teyla took point as everyone followed quickly through the gate.
As soon as they arrived on M5G-381, the teams started to search the vicinity for any signs of danger.
“Ma’am!” Stackhouse called out to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth’s hand grazed over her thigh to make sure her side arm was secure and made here way to Stackhouse, who was kneeling next to a downed lieutenant.
“Lieutenant Krauss? What happened to him?”
“I have a pulse," Stackhouse reported. "He’s breathing normally, no visible external wounds.”
Lieutenant Krauss finally regained consciousness and groggily brought his hands to his head.
“Lieutenant?” Elizabeth knelt down on one knee to talk to Krauss. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“I’m not sure, ma’am. I was here with Reed securing the Stargate, when we suddenly felt some strong force hit us. Must have knocked us out.”
“What about Colonel Sheppard and Major Lorne?”
“The last I heard was from Major Lorne. He said that the Colonel had gone into the tomb by himself. It was a while after that we were knocked out... I think,” Krauss recounted with concentration.
“Thank you, lieutenant.” Elizabeth stood back up. “Teyla, can you and Lieutenant Kirkland keep an eye on Krauss and Reed?”
Teyla nodded. "Yes, of course."
"All right, Ronon and Sergeant," she pointed to Ronon and Stackhouse, “let's proceed.”
Ronon automatically took point and led them towards the cemetery ruins. Every now and then he would slow down to make sure Elizabeth and Stackhouse were keeping up with him.
When they reached the tomb entrance, Ronon was already kneeling over Major Lorne’s unconscious body.
“He seems to be okay,” Ronon said checking Lorne’s pulse.
Elizabeth looked over to Stackhouse who was checking the status of the marines that accompanied Lorne.
“All right, you guys stay with them.” She took the flashlight she had been carrying and switched it on as she headed towards the stairs leading down into the dark tomb.
“Where are you going?” Ronon asked.
“I’m going to find the Colonel,” she said and started down the stairs. She reached the bottom of the stairs, and shined the light into the dark corridor. Her memories of the days she spent alone in this tomb came rushing back to her.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and gripped the flashlight in her hands tighter as she moved forward. She kept her focus on the straight path and tried not to look over into the slots where the dead laid. She continued to remind herself that John was at the end of this tunnel and it was her turn to find him.
She quickened her pace as her need to find John increased. Finally, she reached the room that was her prison for several days. She noticed the orb glowed faintly like it did when they first encountered its twin in the surface, but her examination of the light was put aside when she saw John slumped against a wall, unconscious.
“John!” She hastened to his side. She laid the flashlight on the ground so she could free her hand to gently cup John’s face in her hand. “John?” she said softly. “John, can you hear me?” Her hand trailed down to his neck to check his pulse. Under her fingers, she felt the warmth of his skin and the light throbbing of his pulse. She brought her hand back up to John’s face. “John, please open your eyes,” she pleaded.
Suddenly a hand came up and grabbed her hand, startling her. John's eyes snapped open.
“John?” she said again when her alarm passed.
When his eyes focused, John realized it was Elizabeth who sat next to him. He freed her hand and let her bring her it to his face again.
"Shouldn't you be resting in bed?"
"According to Doctor Beckett, yes." She gave him a relieved smile. "Are you all right?"
The soft touch of Elizabeth’s hand was tender. It made him forget where he was for a moment, until he saw another light bob into the room, followed by his Satedan teammate.
“I see you found him,” Ronon commented when he entered the room.
When Ronon spoke, startled, Elizabeth jerked her hand away from John’s face, embarrassed. She had been too occupied with finding John that she had not heard Ronon enter.
“Y-- Yes, I did,” Elizabeth replied. “How are the others?” she asked Ronon.
“Same story as Krauss. They were knocked out by some strong force, but they're fine. How’s Sheppard?”
“He’s all right,” Elizabeth said with a smile. “Can you get up?” she asked John.
“Yeah, I think so.” He tried to push himself up, but staggered a little. He reached his hand out and used the wall to support himself.
“Here.” Elizabeth was about to move and help give him support when Ronon cut in.
"Maybe I should do that,” Ronon said.
“It's all right, Ronon. I've got him.” Her eyes glanced up at the towering man.
“Elizabeth, I think you should let Ronon handle it.”
“John, I broke my arm. I’m not handicapped. Besides, Ronon has to carry a few other people back.”
Ronon shrugged and picked up the flashlight Elizabeth had left on the ground. He handed it to John and headed back down the corridor towards the exit.
"Now put your arms around my shoulders," Elizabeth commanded.
John could not help but smile at her order. "You sound like you are instructing me how to dance."
Elizabeth looked at John like he was mad. "Apparently, I'm instructing you to walk. Now put your arms around my shoulders." He shook his head and complied with her command.
“So, did it work?” he asked as they made their way through the long corridor.
“What do you think?” Elizabeth said with a smile.
“I’m guessing it did. Caldwell would never have let you come out on a mission to find me, especially in your condition.” He looked at her broken arm. “How’s the arm?”
“Still broken. I won’t be doing any heavy lifting for a while, aside from letting you use me as a crutch," she said. "You'll owe me for this.”
John smiled. “You know, you didn’t have to come and get me yourself. Ronon can carry three guys at once, one in each arm and another around his neck.”
“I don’t doubt that," she smiled, "but I wanted to come.”
“Why?” he pursued.
“Because you found me when no one else could.”
“Elizabeth," he stopped walking and looked into her green eyes. "I will always find you.”
Elizabeth drew here eyes away demurely from John’s gaze and whispered. “And I will always find you too.”
John used hand and turned her face to look at him. “And you did,” he said, his voice soft.
He held her gaze a moment longer, then his gaze traveled down along her straight nose and down to her lips. Her eyes closed as his head leaned closer to her.
“Are you guys sure you don’t need my help?” Ronon’s voice erupted down the corridor.
John reluctantly pulled his head away and squinted into the direction of Ronon’s voice. “We’re fine,” he yelled back and looked back at Elizabeth.
“Come on, let’s get you home,” she said, as if nothing had nearly happened between them.
“Yeah,” his reply came out hoarsely.
“The medical team is on their way,” Ronon added before he headed back outside.
Several minutes later, John and Elizabeth emerged from the dark underworld back to the surface to find medical personnel checking on Major Lorne and his teammates. A medical member immediately came over to relieve John’s weight from Elizabeth and proceeded to check him out.
“Look, guys, I’m fine. I was just knocked off my feet,” John said looking at Elizabeth helplessly.
“That’s what I tried to tell them, sir,” Lorne chimed in. “But I learned you don’t question the doc, with the giant needles in her hands,” he said then glanced at the female doctor next to him.
“Well, gentlemen, it’s all for the best. I’m just glad that you guys are all safe,” Elizabeth smiled.
“And everything is back to normal,” John added.
“Yes,” Elizabeth said with a relieved smile. “As normal as our life could ever be.”
“Normal?” Lorne looked at John and Elizabeth in befuddlement. However, from the looks his superiors were sharing with each other, he decided to let the inquiry slide and look the other way. Things were definitely back to normal.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 10
Fanfiction.net version: Chapter 9