It's only just beginning: chapter 15
Title: It's only just beginning
Author: Betty (sarah_jones on lj)
Fandoms: Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, Primeval, JAG, Doctor Who/Torchwood, Animorphs & Angel
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters or fandoms. I wish I did… *g* I don’t make any money with this! I’m just writing the story for fun and hope someone else will enjoy it, too.
Summary: The story starts after the Stargate Atlantis season finale. There will be new enemies and new adventures, as well as new characters from other fandoms. Old enemies and older characters will return as well.
Here we go with the next chapter. I hope you'll like it. ;-)
chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8, chapter 9, chapter 10, chapter 11, chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter 14, timeline
chapter 15:
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Day 9 - SG-3’s mission:
Rachel’s eyes widened as she realized what was happening. These people's lives weren’t just old fashioned. They acted that way, too. And they did it in a very bad way.
Stephen couldn’t believe what was happening. He had tried to rescue the woman, but noone was listening to him. They all thought he was the one who attacked her. And they obviously never heard of ‘innocent until proven guilty”.
“Let go of me,” Rachel shouted angrily. When the villagers had come back with Stephen they had taken her and Jason’s weapons. Several men were guarding them now. All she could do was watch as the villagers got ready for an execution. A guy with a huge ax appeared. And there was a tree stump, which looked as if it had dried blood on it.
Seeing the man with the ax arrive Jason tried once more to get free. He elbowed one of the men and kicked another. Next to him Rachel followed his example. But they didn’t stand a chance. There were just too many of them.
Stephen looked over to Jason and Rachel who tried to get away. But just like him they were guarded too heavily. Eventually they stopped struggling. Stephen’s eyes then locked with Rachel’s.
“I didn’t do it,” he called. Somehow it was important to him that she at least believed him.
Rachel was about to tell him that she knew when Colonel Sheppard showed up.
“What's going on?” John called. He had just reached the old city, which looked like it was ancient, when Becker radioed him that there was a problem with Stephen. Apparently his new team member had gotten himself into serious trouble.
The villagers quickly surrounded John and took his weapons.
Frowning he turned to the village leader. “What happened?” he wanted to know.
“Your friend attacked my daughter,” a man answered him. The village leader looked shocked and angry at the man's words.
“If that is true he has to die.”
“What?” John snapped. He really had a bad feeling about this.
“Attacking a woman is a serious crime. I’m sorry, but your friend brought this on himself.”
“How do you even know it was him?” John asked.
“We all saw it.”
Oh crap. This really wasn’t good. John frowned and looked over to Stephen, who was tied up and surrounded by several armed men. This just had to be some kind of misunderstanding. He didn’t know Stephen well so far, but the man was a hero. He practically sacrificed himself for his friend and others. He couldn’t imagine he’d just attack anyone, especially a woman.
“Did you attack her?” John called.
“No. Someone else did. He ran off when …”
“Liar! Kill him!”
Shouting started and the angry villagers all demanded justice.
“This isn’t justice. You can’t just kill someone without at least a trial,” John called.
“He’s guilty. He dies - now!”
While the men were shouting and arguing Rachel managed to slip away. She knew Stephen was innocent. She didn’t know him for long, but she was sure of it. She had to stop this and quickly. Unfortunately she didn’t have any weapons. She could look for the woman who had been attacked. Someone said earlier that she was alive but unconscious. Once she woke up she’d be able to clear this up. But Rachel doubted these people would wait that long. They were out of their minds. There was only one thing she could do. It meant risking to expose herself to her new friends and Colonel Sheppard. But there was no other way.
Rachel didn’t hesitate and rushed off to hide behind a barn. Then she started to concentrate. She hadn’t morphed in a while. It was too risky and always reminded her of her home. But even though she hadn’t morphed recently the changes still started immediately. There were crunching noises and Rachel felt her inner organs start to rearrange. Her body grew and her clothes ripped apart. Her skin turned grey and her nose got longer and longer until it was a trunk. In a matter of moments Rachel was a huge elephant. As soon as the change was complete Rachel felt better. The elephant didn’t know fear the way a human did. It was confident and Rachel started to feel the same way. These people had no idea what they were in for!
Let’s do it, Rachel told herself and rushed off.
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John couldn’t believe it. These people weren’t listening to him. They didn’t even want to wait for the attacked woman to wake up and tell them all what really happened.
Two men dragged Stephen forward and made him kneel down. The guy with the ax stepped closer. The time for talking was definitely over. In a desperate try to get free John started elbowing and hitting people. Then he grabbed the gun from his boot, which these people luckily hadn’t found, and shot in the air once.
“Stop this now!” he yelled and pointed the gun at the executioner. Then he suddenly heard a loud trumpeting noise.
“What the hell?” John muttered as an elephant rushed towards them and started to pick people off the ground and toss them around.
Rachel ignored the screaming people and the knives that were thrown at her. All that mattered was getting to Stephen. She pushed one more person away and then reached for the executioner. She pulled him up foot-first and shook him through before throwing him away. Then she headed for the people that stood guard.
'Run,' she then called to Stephen, Jason and Colonel Sheppard in thought-speech, aiming it directly at them, so noone else would be able to hear her.
Stephen’s head snapped around when he heard Rachel. He couldn’t see her anywhere, but she had told him to run, hadn’t she?
“To the gate,” John called. He had no idea what was going on. An elephant on another planet? How was that possible? He however decided that he didn’t care right now. They had an opportunity to leave and he’d be damned if they didn’t take it.
“Where’s Rachel?” Jason called.
John looked around quickly, but couldn’t see her anywhere.
“Go and dial the gate!”
“We can’t leave without her,” Stephen objected.
“Go now! I’ll find her!”
Rachel heard them and sighed, or she would have sighed, if she was human.
'Go now. I’m right behind you,' she told them in private thought-speech.
All three of them looked around.
“Berenson, where the hell are you?” John asked and tapped his radio. She must have spoken to them over the radio, right? It somehow sounded like her voice was directly in his head, but that was nonsense, wasn't it?
'Meet me at the gate!' she told them. She had to get rid of the villagers that were coming at her with knives and axes. And then she needed to morph back, preferably without being seen.
“You heard her, let’s go,” John ordered. Or had they? Somehow this felt weird. But what was he supposed to do? Stay around and wait because of an odd feeling, and get Stephen killed after all?
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Rachel watched as the three of them rushed towards the gate. She trumpeted one more time to draw attention away from her team. Then she ran for the woods. She could have taken down several villagers, but they were human. They weren’t from earth, but that didn’t matter. They might be stupid, old-fashioned, misguided and willing to kill, but they weren’t really evil. She couldn’t just kill them. Cassie would never approve of that. She probably would never see her best friend again, but it somehow made it even more important to remember what she used to think. It felt a little as if she had to honor her. And besides, it wasn’t like Rachel simply liked to kill. Sure, she didn’t mind killing the enemy and knew that sacrifices had to be made for the greater good. But she wasn’t as heartless as her friends often thought she was. She did care a lot. She did what she had to do, but if there was another way she wouldn’t kill.
Apart from that there were a lot of villagers with knives, swords, axes and whatever else they could find to defend themselves with. Rachel was a tough elephant, but she was bleeding a lot already. She had to demorph to heal herself. She definitely wasn’t going to die on some stupid alien planet in elephant morph!
Once inside the forest Rachel ran until she was sure that noone could see her, then began to demorph. After a few moments she was human again. Glancing around she tried to remember which way the gate was. Then she heard shouting. The villagers were coming closer. She couldn’t risk that they found her. She had to morph again. She concentrated and the changes started. She shrank, her arms became feathers, her nose became hard and her feet turned into talons. Soon she was completely bird, a bald eagle.
Flapping her wings Rachel took off slowly and headed for the edge of the forest. Once she was out of the woods it was easier to catch an updraft. If she had been human Rachel would have grinned. She had forgotten just how much fun it was to fly.
'Woohooo. Yaheee,' she shouted to herself. Then her sharp eyes saw Stephen, Jason and Colonel Sheppard infront of the gate.
“Dial the gate,” John called.
“But Rachel isn’t here yet,” Stephen objected.
“We can’t leave without her,” Jason agreed.
“Just dial the damn gate,” John barked while holding the gun and shooting when one of the villagers came too close, trying to scare them off. “I want that wormhole established when Berenson gets here. We’re leaving the second she shows up. Understood?” John told them. He wasn’t going to leave her behind either. He didn’t know her well so far, but she was part of his team and noone got left behind if he could help it. If they really had to leave her behind they’d be back with more people as quickly as possible - and definitely without Stephen!
He then glanced around. Where the hell was Rachel?
It felt nice to know that they didn’t want to leave without her. Rachel headed for the edge of the forest that was closest to the gate to demorph when she heard gunfire. Colonel Sheppard was trying to hold a small group of villagers back. Then he ran out of bullets and the villagers rushed towards her team members.
Crap! She had to do something.
'Go,' she told them in thought-speech. The gate was spinning already. They had to leave as soon as the wormhole was established. She then could either fly through the gate with them or wait in the woods until they got back with reinforcements.
Unfortunately Stephen didn’t get to finish dialling earth. The villagers had reached them and they were starting to fight. It wasn’t really a fair fight, as the locals were the only ones with weapons. One attacked the Colonel, one Jason and two Stephen. Rachel had to do something, so she went into a dive, heading straight for one of Stephens attackers.
Stephen was trying to avoid the knives of his attackers when a large bird suddenly swept in screeching and dove for one of the villagers heads. The man started screaming and tried to fight the bird off. Stephen had no idea why animals were going nuts on this planet and luckily helped them, but he didn’t really have time to think about it.
John had just knocked his opponent down when he saw a large bird attack a villager. This was really strange. Were they actually getting help from animals? And why were animals from earth on this planet? Were both planets so similar? He quickly pushed the questions away and went to help Stephen.
Rachel was trying to hold the villager off long enough for one of her team members to knock him out. Usually she went for the eyes of her enemies when in bald eagle morph, but she didn’t really want to blind the guy. He was just a kid, barely older than she was when she became an Animorph. She didn’t really want to hurt him. He however didn’t seem to think the same and swung his knife.
Rachel felt as the knife got her, slicing through her feathers, almost severing her right wing completely. She flapped with her left wing, trying to get away, but didn’t manage. She fell to the ground a few inches before the guy. Pain rushed through her. Then the guy hit her with his foot.
So that was it, Rachel thought. She was dying in bald eagle morph, right here on this stupid planet. Then the guy infront of her suddenly fell to the ground and Jason stood over him. He probably didn’t do it for her, but he still saved her life.
Rachel looked up at her friend and could feel that she was slipping away. She had sharp eagle eyes, but her vision was kind of blurry now. Her mind was foggy and she felt so tired. She knew she was dying.
“The poor eagle,” Stephen said as he stepped next to Jason and looked down. It was hurt badly and all because it had helped him. Ore had it? Was it just a coincidence that the bird attacked his attacker?
Rachel heard Stephen's voice faintly as well as Colonel Sheppard shouting into his radio.
“Berenson, where the hell are you? We need to go. NOW!”
That’s me, Rachel thought. She was right here. Why didn’t he see her? Oh yes, she was in morph. She tried to get rid of the confusion and concentrate. There was something she had to do, something important. Right, morph. A part of her knew that it wouldn’t be a good idea. She would give away her biggest secret. But another part of her was too far gone to care. And besides, what other choice did she have? She didn’t want to die.
John cursed. There was no answer. Maybe it was best to go home now and come back with reinforcements? But he had heard Rachel just before the villagers attacked, hadn’t he?
He frowned and then turned to his two team members.
“We have to dial the gate and go,” he said as he stepped closer to Stephen and Becker. No matter how much he hated it, but if Rachel wasn’t there by the time the wormhole established they would have to go without her and come back later.
Then John’s eyes fell on the bird on the ground. It was moving. No, it was growing.
“What the hell?” he muttered and pointed his gun at the thing.
Rachel was morphing, and the dizziness and confusion started to disappear. With her changing eyes she saw a gun pointed at her.
Stephen stared at the bird that was changing somehow. He really thought he had seen the weirdest stuff by now, but obviously he was wrong.
Jason took a step back, his eyes fixed on the transforming thing.
'Don’t shoot,' Rachel called in thought-speech and really hoped the Colonel would listen to her. Seeing someone morph was completely and utterly disgusting, and horrifying. She couldn’t blame anyone for shooting first and asking questions later.
John frowned. There it was again. The voice that sounded like Rachel. But she was nowhere in sight. And it kind of sounded like the voice was in his head.
“You hear that, too?” he asked.
“Yes,” Becker answered glancing around briefly before fixing his eyes on the changing thing again. It really did look awful.
“Rachel?” Stephen called. The thing on the ground was weird, but he was more concerned about what happened to Rachel and why he was kind of hearing her voice in his head. Was he going crazy?
Just as Stephen was about to suggest that he’d go look for her the thing on the ground was starting to look more and more human. What the hell?
“OMG, Rachel,” Stephen muttered as she finished the change.
“Hi guys,” Rachel said awkwardly as soon as her mouth worked properly.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” John exclaimed. His life was getting crazier and crazier by the day. As if the constant travel to other planets and meeting aliens wasn’t enough. No, he had to meet dinosaurs and future creatures as well, and now one of his team was able to change into animals???
“Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t tell you,” Rachel said as she got up. Then she started to sway slightly and groaned. She had forgotten how exhausting multiple morphing was.
Stephen and Jason instinctively stepped forward to steady her.
“Are you alright?” Stephen asked concerned. It was totally crazy that she just turned from a bird into a woman, but what wasn’t crazy in his life? Besides, he had more important things to worry about. The bird had been dying. What did that mean for Rachel?
Rachel looked up into Stephens eyes. She really hadn’t expected that. She had expected them all to freak out. But they didn’t. Stephen sounded concerned and held her so she wouldn’t fall. Then she glanced at Jason, who was standing at her other side. He had reached out to steady her as well.
“I’m okay,” she told them.
“Please tell me you’re not an alien,” John said looking at Rachel sceptically.
Rachel noticed that he was still holding the gun. Well, she couldn’t blame him.
“No, I’m totally human. Well, with some added animal DNA.”
John frowned.
“I’m still the same person that came here with you.”
John had his doubts about that. What if some shape-shifting alien was impersonating her? She wasn’t wearing the same clothes she had been wearing before either.
Rachel followed the Colonel’s gaze down to her clothes. She was wearing rather tight black hot pants and a very tight black top. Well, it was better than the gymnastics suit she used to morph in. After years of morphing they had been able to morph some other clothes, too, but she had chosen this outfit as her morphing outfit now because it fit under her military clothes. You always had to be prepared after all. She didn’t morph often, but when she had no other choice she preferred not to have to run around naked afterwards.
“I can’t morph something else,” she said defensively. “Now, can we go home and talk about this later?”
John was about to protest. He wasn’t 100% certain that this was really Rachel Berenson and he didn’t want to bring an alien back to earth. She however had turned into earth animals. How would an alien know what kind of animals they had on earth?
Then they heard screams and saw more villagers approach.
“Alright. Let’s not stay here,” John decided.
Stephen dialled the gate.
John waited until Berenson or whatever was impersonating her stepped through the gate before quickly warning Atlantis. It was better to be safe than sorry. Then he went through the gate as well.
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Day 9 - SG-4’s mission:
Fred grinned widely as she looked around curiously. She was on another planet! This was so amazing!
“I can’t believe I’m actually on an alien planet,” she said.
Lorne looked at her and smiled. Her happiness and excitement were adorable. He was really glad that Fred had been put on his team. This way he could spend even more time with her.
“So, which way?” Ronon asked glancing at Lorne and Fred. He had been anything but thrilled when he heard that the teams were split up. But it wasn’t that bad after all. He knew Major Lorne already and they got along well. Better than that however was that Amelia was on his team. He had been worried about her going off world without him. But that wasn’t the case now. He smiled and looked at his girlfriend who was walking over to Fred to check the energy reading detector with her.
“It’s picking something up,” Fred said.
“From that direction,” Amelia added holding out her hand.
“Alright, then that’s where we’re going,” Lorne decided and started to walk. Fred fell into step beside him.
“Thanks for helping me join a team,” she said. She was sure she wouldn’t have been allowed to join if he hadn’t put in a good word for her. She really was grateful for that. Without something to do she’d probably go crazy missing her friends and trying to find a way back home. She was still working on that of course. Atlantis had excellent resources and a lot of brilliant scientists that she loved working with. She definitely could have ended up in worse places. If it was possible to find a way for her to go back home she was sure that they would find it.
“You’re very welcome,” Lorne answered.
“What a coincidence that I ended up on your team,” Amelia said glancing at Ronon.
“Yes, it is. A nice one,” Ronon answered with a grin.
“Oh come on, I bet you had something to do with it,” she said teasingly. He had admitted that he was worried about her. This way he could try and keep her safe. Not that she minded. It showed how much he liked her.
“Me?” Ronon said and then smirked, trying to look innocent. He might have mentioned to Sheppard that he wished he could go off-world with Amelia. Maybe Sheppard told the General?
Amelia chuckled. “Well, it’s definitely nice to be on the same team.” She knew it would be only temporary, but it was better than nothing.
They then heard a scream.
Fred frowned. “Where did that come from?”
“That way,” Ronon said and started to head in the direction.
“Alright, let’s check it out,” Lorne decided. He didn’t really want to get his team into trouble on Fred and Amelia’s first mission, but they couldn’t just ignore a scream. Someone probably was in trouble.
Ronon was in the lead as the group rushed up a small hill. Then they saw who had been screaming. A man was lying on the ground, probably unconscious or even dead. Next to him were two of their new enemies. Ronon remembered them well. One had almost choked him to death on that other Daedalus.
“It’s them,” he stated.
“Who?” Fred wanted to know.
“The guys that attacked us on the Daedalus and the ones who blew up the gate on earth.” He sounded angry and was already stepping closer.
“What are you going to do?” Amelia asked placing a hand on his arm.
“Kill ‘em.”
“Ronon, wait,” Lorne said. “We should capture them alive.”
“Why?” Ronon asked with a frown. They were killers. They had killed a lot of good people and they attacked Atlantis. They were the enemy! As far as he was concerned they started a war, and you didn’t have to make prisoners in war.
“We know almost nothing about them,” Lorne stated.
“He’s right. It would be good to be able to ask them some questions,” Amelia added.
“Interrogate them, you mean?”
“If that’s what you want to call it…,” Amelia said with a shrug.
“Fine. Let’s get them,” Ronon stated and set his gun to stun.
Lorne pulled out a Zat gun.
“They are pretty strong. We might need to shoot them more than once."
“Great,” Lorne muttered sarcastically. A Zat gun killed with the second shot. They didn’t want them dead. If one shot wasn’t enough he’d have a problem.
Fred followed Lorne closely. She had pulled a Zat gun as well. When Lorne showed her the weapons this morning she had decided to take one of them rather than a gun or a p-90. With one of those she didn’t have to kill, which sounded good to her. Besides that it kind of looked cooler than a normal gun.
They all hid behind a rather large bush. Once they stepped away their enemy would be able to see them.
Ronon glanced at Fred. “Can you fight?” he asked in a whisper.
Fred grimaced. “Not really,” she answered silently.
“Okay, if they don’t go down when we shoot them you stay as far away from them as possible. The three of us can try and take them down.”
Lorne nodded. He didn’t mind that Ronon was taking command on this one, since he knew the enemy already. Besides that he wanted Fred to stay safe as well.
Amelia nodded. It definitely felt good that Ronon included her in their fight plan and didn’t tell her to stay away as well.
“Alright. If they take you down I’ll shoot them,” Fred stated with a grin. But she didn’t feel that confident.
Lorne smirked at Fred. Then he glanced at their enemy. They seemed to be talking. He gave a few signs to the others. Then they rushed out from behind the bush shooting.
Ronon hit one of them with his stun blaster, but the guy didn’t go down. Instead he quickly grabbed a gun and started shooting as well. Ronon dived and hit the ground while still firing. The guy however was rather fast and Ronon’s shots missed.
Lorne was luckier. The Zat gun hit it’s target. The alien started shaking violently and then collapsed. It looked like the Zat gun had even more of an effect on the guy than on humans. He definitely was glad that he took one along today after showing them to Fred.
Lorne then turned to the other one who was advancing on Ronon. It had lost it’s weapon, but was advancing on his team member fast. Amelia was by Ronon’s side, ready to fight.
Ronon shot the alien one more time, but it still didn’t go down. He was about to run towards it and fight when Major Lorne shot it. Ronon watched as it shook and collapsed. Then he glanced at Lorne who was shrugging and holding his Zat gun up with a smirk.
Fred came out from behind the bush and joined them.
“That went well,” she said. “But how do we get them back to earth?”
“Jumper,” Ronon suggested. He definitely didn’t want to carry them. Who knew when they woke up.
He then went over to the man on the ground and checked for a pulse. There was none. He shook his head and got up again.
“Alright. Fred and I go back to the gate and get a jumper. You two wait here and take this,” Lorne stated and threw the Zat gun to Ronon. Fred still had one in case there were more of them on the planet.
Ronon nodded and sat down, holding the Zat gun towards the enemy.
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poster / book cover for this chapter:
chapter 16