Stargate Atlantis A/U Fic: Untamed, Ch. 26
Category: Suspense/Supernatural/Alternate Universe
Characters: John, and well, everybody
Length: In progress, will probably hit 80k, easily
Rating: R (for language, violence, and future torture)
Diclaimer: Don't own them, not for profit, blah blah blah copyright cakes
Summary: Project Atlantis is a top secret think tank located off the coast of British Columbia. Acastus Kolya, the project's second in command and head of security, has been following his own agenda for the past year, and now he's eager to play with his latest specimen: John Sheppard.
Now, it's Kolya's turn....
Chapter 26
The wonderful smell of earth and organic fertilizer and growing things filled John’s nose as he charged down the stone path. He barely had time to register the enormity of the place - hell, there were full grown trees here, for Christ’s sake - before he darted to the side and cut through carefully tended beds with barely a mark to show his passing. He was in his element now, the lighting was dim and provided ample shadows, and he was still riding the high from his berserk state. Pain wasn’t registering, yet, but he knew it was going to be there with a vengeance when it did. He had to resort to a four legged gait due to the gunshot wound in his leg, but it wasn’t slowing him down. He cut down another path for a ways, then was winding through plants again. The place reminded him of fancy botanical park it was so lush and organized, but a few quick glances up showed suspended walkways and balconies and what must be hydroponic units heavy with vines and other plants. He decided he needed a good vantage point to watch for anyone entering and headed for a tree. He scrambled up the trunk without any problem and was soon blending in with the shadows in the upper branches.
And he was in time to see Kolya enter. The man was studying the floor, no doubt following the trail of blood John was surely leaving behind. He glanced down. His leg wasn’t bleeding too heavily, but he could feel the damp and matted fur on his back from that graze. Crap.
“You can’t hide from me,” Kolya yelled. “I will find you.” He had his gun drawn and he stepped off the path. “You’re bleeding quite heavily, you know. Easy to track.”
John shifted his position around the trunk and climbed up a few more feet. His head cleared a particularly large branch and he heard a clatter, and when he looked up he froze. There was a hole in the main trunk, and plastered up against the bark next to it was a pixie woman. She had her back pressed against the trunk, and her dragonfly wings gave another quick nervous twitch.
Oh, crap, don’t dust me in the eyes, John thought as his own eyes widened in alarm. That shit burned worse than pepper spray. She was so close, and her eyes grew so wide he could tell they were the color of new leaves. He slowly held his finger up to his lips in a shush gesture. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he whispered. She edged a little further away from him but stayed quiet.
“You should have stayed in the plants,” Kolya said as he found the path again.
John glanced down. If only it were darker…. He looked back at the woman, his whiskers coming forward in a relaxed manner and practically brushing her. “Do you know where the light switches are?” he barely breathed. She nodded once, slowly. “Could you turn them off by yourself?” Understanding came to her face. She glanced down at Kolya, too, and when she lifted her head her face was lit by a fierce grin. She nodded again, then shot off in a clatter of dragonfly wings and managed to keep her iridescent dust trail down to nothing. She was really scared if she could do that.
Kolya must have heard her, because he looked up a second later. Then he spotted John’s eyes reflecting in the dim light and fired.
John dropped from the tree and landed, hard. That finally woke up his pain, and it took a few seconds for him to get moving. When he did, a shot just missed him and hit the trunk. Then he was scrambling through the undergrowth, but he was still quieter than Kolya.
The lights went out.
John sent a silent thanks to the pixie and started moving slower, quieter. It was easy to keep track of Kolya as the man blundered his way through plants. But then he got quieter, too, and John could hear his boots scrape on stone a second later. Between his sense of smell and the soft light of the full moon on the glass of the greenhouse, John had no problem whatsoever finding his way; Kolya, however, was probably all but blind until his eyes adjusted. John smiled in the dark and maneuvered to a position where he could see the colonel as he stalked through the undergrowth.
Kolya stood frozen in place, and he was slowing pivoting and listening as hard as he could. “I know you’re close,” he said, still full of confidence and swagger. “I imagine you’re in quite a bit of pain right now. And weak - I saw the blood. You’ve been hit, at least twice, maybe more.”
John let out a low, burbling growl that ended in a distinctive jaguar cough. Kolya whirled toward the sound and fired, but he was way off mark - human ears weren’t that accurate at pinpointing sound. John silently crept around, belly low to the ground. “You’re right, you know,” he said while still moving, his voice more growl than anything else. Another shot came his way, but he was already long gone from the spot as he circled.
Kolya smirked in the dark. He circled, too, but his movement was slower than John’s. “You shouldn’t admit to weakness. Not a very noble trait.”
“Who said I was weak?” Another shot rang out and John was alarmed that it was actually a yard away but still high. And he was afraid to admit he was getting weak - pain sang through him as the adrenaline wore off and forced him to move even slower. Then he heard a clatter and rustle in the distance, and Kolya faced away from him. A second later Kolya let out a strangled cry and swatted at something in the darkness. John saw the sparkles in the moonlight - the pixie was distracting Kolya for him. Hopefully, she pixed him right in the fucking eyes.
But then the doors opened and light spilled briefly from the hall. John froze but wasn’t in any danger of being spotted since the light barely made it into the greenhouse proper. It did make Kolya turn back around, however. “Lieutenant, find the lights,” Kolya yelled. Silence answered him. Then he was buzzed again, and spun back around.
John took the opening. He burst from the undergrowth and charged, and Kolya spun and fired blindly just as he leapt. John felt two impacts before he was on Kolya and took him down, hard. He caught the colonel’s gun hand in his left and squeezed as he pushed away. Bones snapped loudly and Kolya fired one more time before he dropped the gun from his crushed hand. The claws and fingers of John’s other hand were buried up to the second joint in Kolya’s stomach, and he squeezed and twisted with that one as well. Kolya let out one short strangled cry as the pain hit full on and he stiffened and choked in shock.
John was lying on top of the colonel, his own breath coming in gasps. He leaned forward and got his muzzle right up next to Kolya’s ear. “My ancestors were once worshipped as gods,” he breathed. Kolya took in a shuddering breath and made little gagging sounds deep in his throat as John twisted his right hand again. John slid a little to the side and braced his left arm against the ground. “And this was their sacrifice.” He tore his hand free from Kolya’s stomach, then with every bit of strength he had left plunged his hand through the wound, up past his diaphragm, sunk his claws into Kolya’s heart, and yanked.
When the lights came back on a second later John roared and held the heart in front of Kolya’s staring eyes before he dropped it. He slowly got his arms underneath him and crawled down the stone path to be away from the monster. The blood was roaring in his ears now, and he made maybe a dozen feet before he completely lost all strength and collapsed onto his side. As his blood slowly pooled on the stone he watched his fur retreat sluggishly into his arm and chuffed ruefully. He’d always wondered what form he’d be in when he died. “Looks … like … human,” he muttered and then laughed weakly. “That’ll … piss off … the old man.” His eyelids were too heavy to keep open any longer, and he closed them on the sight of abused tan flesh and smiled. Then he was spiraling away, and for a brief moment he felt like he was back behind the controls of an F-16 and there was nothing but wide open sky all around.
In his mind’s eye he threw his head back and just bellowed in pure joy.
-oOo-
Lorne heard the gunshots and thought fuck all finding the lights. He ordered Rodney to turn them back on. Now. They came up a second later and a deep roar came from somewhere ahead of them. But the first thing he and Ronon saw were the bloody hand and paw prints on the ground. They saw the marks John left in the hall where he slid, and these just made him even more worried. “Sheppard! Where are you?” Lorne yelled as loud as he could. Silence greeted him. “Go,” he said to Ronon. The big man nodded, but just as he turned to follow the tracks he drew up short as a pixie flew up in his face.
“What the fuck?” Ronon yelled as he ducked his head and brought the zat up in a heartbeat.
The little pixie didn’t seem threatened at all. Instead she bade him to follow. “Quickly. He needs help,” she said, her voice high and clear but not cartoonish in the least bit. Then she shot off again. Ronon glanced wildly at Lorne then followed the trail of glowing dust at a run. He could barely keep up with her.
Lorne tapped his earpiece. “Rodney - get a med team down to the greenhouse, immediately.”
“Already on its way,” Rodney replied instantly.
“Good.” Lorne limped after Ronon, but he decided to follow the stone path instead. When he came around a twist in the path and saw Kolya, he sat down, hard.