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fenchurch42Author: Me
Length: This bit is about 3500 words. There are four chapters all together.
Warnings: This is DISNEY! Expect to recognise lines from both the Disney cartoon and also from all seasons of Stargate Atlantis!
Pairings: John Sheppard and Rodney McKay.
Dramatis Personae: Beau - John Sheppard
Beast - Rodney McKay
Enchantress - Chaya
John's stepmother - Elizabeth Weir
Gaston - Kolya
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters either from the Disney film, the original French story ,or the brilliant Stargate Atlantis series - not through lack of wishing though...
Thanks and praise: Goddess47 beta'd and laughed at me. Rieval tried to persuade me to use the original French story instead, so I dedicate this to both of them! I did include one scene from the original story - see if you can spot it! Anything else schmoopy, badly spelled, toe-curlingly awful etc. is all my own work!
Le Beau et La Bête – Chapter 1
Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining, floating castle. Although the Prince was a genius and had all the scientific equipment his heart could desire, he was petty, rude and bad with people.
But then, one winter's night, a priestess asked for shelter from the Wraith. Repulsed by her distinctly female appearance, the Prince sneered at the priestess and accused her of being an Ancient. She warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found within and when he dismissed her again, the woman’s solid appearance melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress, who was, actually, also an Ancient.
The Prince crowed that he had been right and she was angry. When he saw that he might have gone a little too far, possibly, he tried to apologize, but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart, and as punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast, and placed a powerful… well… ‘spell’ on the castle, draining most of the power from the ZedPM, darkening the once beautiful city and transforming all the Prince’s servants and scientists who lived there at the same time.
Ashamed of his monstrous form, The Beast concealed himself inside his castle, with just a few of his favourite laptops, several satellites, a few MALPs, deep space sensors, lots of coffee and chocolate and the Stargate as his only window to the outside world. Chaya, the priestess and Ancient, told the Prince that if he could learn to love another, and earn that person’s love in return, then the spell would be broken, the ZedPM would be recharged and all would go back to how it was. If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time. As the years passed, he fell into despair, and lost all hope, for who could ever learn to love a beast?
~
Elizabeth allowed herself a moment to sigh, before making a run for the gate. It had been her first trading outing in years, but she hadn’t really come for the stalls, the shows, the trading and the gossip. Elizabeth had really come to meet up with Daniel Jack’s son. In fact, the Market had been closing already when she left Daniel’s house and then, as she made her way through the departing crowd, they had all heard the whine of the first Dart.
Already she could see the beams that were scooping up the victims of the Wraith and bringing misery to families around the galaxy. The Gates were a boon and a curse in one, and Elizabeth swore as she tripped over a tree root and landed in a tangled bush.
This mishap probably saved her life, as the white beam swept up the two people she had been following, but passed her by. Elizabeth was as safe sitting here in this prickly bush as anywhere, so she settled her pack, sent a prayer to the Ancestors that Sumner had made it home safely, and then, with her notes on the City of the Ancestors out on her lap, prepared to wait.
It was raining hard when Elizabeth awoke with a start and the day was clearly over. She stretched and pulled herself up to her feet, then listened out for some clues to what was going on. The Darts had gone and people were merely picking up the pieces and getting on with their lives. The Wraith hadn’t culled this planet to extinction, but then they rarely did. It was a trading planet and so all they had to do was wait for one of their so-called ‘worshippers’ to tell them it was Market Day, and come and help themselves.
Elizabeth sighed and made sure that all her papers were together before setting off. She had spent far too many years researching the City to allow any of her notes to escape her. Daniel Jack’s son, the scholar whose own notes rivaled her own, had given her much to think about and losing these papers would have been a tragedy. She hoped that he was safe.
Back at the Gate, she hesitated. She could just punch in the code for home and check on her stepsons, or she could try out the address with the extra symbol that Daniel had suggested. It had been the reason she had been summoned.
Could she? Could she just try it? See what happened?
What if it was an orbital Gate? Or an underwater one? Or that world where people said there were vicious monsters the size of trees? Ancestors! She didn’t want to meet up with Kolya any time soon either! She was close to drowning in this rain, so could it harm? She sneezed.
Sam the Carter’s daughter, Daniel’s brilliant friend, had come up with a machine to check planets before going through Gates. Elizabeth didn’t have one of those, but she did have a special code that was supposed to lift any shields for long enough to let a person through. She pulled the blue glowing globe out of her pack and held it over the DHD. Making her decision, she punched in the code and then approached the Gate with the globe held out in front.
As the Gate whooshed into life, she took a deep breath and then stepped through.
~
It had to be the City of the Ancestors! She had never before stepped through a Gate to find herself inside a palace! There was a wide hall with a high staircase that swept up to a balcony with glass partitions and blinking lights. Elizabeth had never seen anything like it! She looked all around the semicircular hall and then sneezed.
The place was deserted… and yet it didn’t feel empty. She felt eyes watching her every move.
“Hello?”
Nothing. She looked all around again, but still nothing moved.
“Hello? I… I’m sorry to intrude… I… I was at the Market… I… Hello?”
She twirled around as she heard… whispering. But there was no one there.
“Hello?”
“No.” She distinctly heard a voice whisper.
“Hello? I mean no harm I… I… I… h… atchoo!“
“Och Kavanagh! Have a heart! She’s soaked t’the bone!”
Elizabeth twirled around again and this time she almost screamed as a transparent blue, shimmering ghost with dark, curly hair and bright, merry blue eyes appeared in front of her.
“Look, you canna stay for long. Rodney will be furious, but you canna go home like that! I’m a doctor and I can help ye.”
“No!” A second, pony-tailed ghost appeared with a sour expression. “You know what the Prince would say! He does not want guests! You, lady, need to go back home. How did you get past the shield anyway?”
This ghost waggled a finger at Elizabeth, who stepped backwards and nearly fell over when she found herself facing yet another ghost.
“Is not a good idea! One cup of tea, then she goes, yes?”
“You are not in charge, Radek.” The second ghost, Kavanagh, stated peevishly.
“I am Chief Scientist!”
“An’ I’m a doctor!” the first ghost with the strong accent interrupted. “I’ll tell Rodney if you like, but she needs to recover.” He floated over to Elizabeth and looked sad when he realized that he couldn’t actually touch her. “Come with me, Lass, and we’ll find ye a…”
All argument was interrupted when a sudden roar erupted from one of the corridors, and all three ghosts whirled around.
“Oh crap!” the doctor said and Radek and Kavanagh simply disappeared.
Elizabeth nearly screamed when a vast shadow that seemed to be all teeth and claws, swooped down on her and dragged her into the light.
“What are you doing here?” A voice roared at her.
“I’m… I’m sorry…” She answered, trembling.
“You are not welcome!”
“I didn’t mean…”
“Och, Rodney, have a heart!”
The ghost with the strange burr spoke softly and she felt drawn to his friendly voice.
“She came to laugh at me!” The monster growled and then turned its attention back onto Elizabeth. “Admit it! You came to stare at The Beast!”
“I… I came here from the Market. I was escaping the Culling!” She tried to remember her lessons in Diplomacy, a subject she had always been good at, but she didn’t feel confident of success.
“The Wraith!” The Beast roared and dragged Elizabeth with him.
“My Lord, this may not be good idea.” Elizabeth recognized the voice of the ghost called Radek.
“Go and make the cell available.”
“But Sir, she’s only…”
The Beast growled and the ghost winked out of sight.
~
Thankfully, The Beast left her alone once she had been flung into a cell. It was more like a cage than a real dungeon, and the floor was hard and smooth, but she was still trapped and very cold.
“Hey!”
She looked up and saw the two ghosts with the accents, the Doctor and Radek.
“Hey, lassie, what’s your name?”
“I’m Elizabeth. Who are you? Where am I?”
“I’m Carson and this is Radek. We live and work here in Atlantis.”
“The City of the Ancestors?”
“Aye! That’s the one!”
“But The Beast…?”
“That is Prince Rodney.” Radek told her ruefully. “He has a bit of a temper.”
“He’s a prince?”
“He is.” Radek replied again. “But I am scientist. Can you tell me your home address? I can send a message back for you.”
“The… the Beast will allow that?”
“No, but I will do this anyway.” Radek shrugged and grinned.
Elizabeth wrote the address down and then settled back to eat the food that Carson had brought her. Perhaps she would be able to find out if Sumner had arrived home safely? And maybe, one day, she would see her favorite stepson, John.
~
John looked up from where he was spreading straw for the horses and sighed.
“It’s not right that you should have to work like this, John.”
“Mora.” John sighed and tried to ignore her.
“You should be a lord with a hundred servants! You would never have to do this again!”
John said nothing. He had heard this all before and it just made life hard for him when he went home. His older brothers were jealous that Lady Mora, the niece of the Great Acastus Kolya of the Genii, should want to marry him and not them! The trouble was that he never seemed to see it coming. Neither of them seemed to realize that there was so much more John wanted out of life! If only Mora would take Sumner or Everett instead…
“You will be my husband and consort.” Mora told him crossly. “And you will rule at my side when I am Queen!”
A shadow of a tall soldierly man fell over John and he managed to keep his anger at bay. Commander Kolya had obviously joined them and John found the man creepy.
“Mora, my dear. And John.”
“Commander.” John grunted with a vague nod in the Commander’s direction. He then turned his back on both the unwanted visitors and strode off to place the fork back in its place.
“You know, my dear,” John heard the sinister soldier tell his niece. “You could have anyone! You don’t have to have this stable lad!”
“He’s the most handsome man in all the federation, Uncle, that means he’s the best. And don’t I deserve the best?” She shook her head of curls in a very princessly fashion and set off to the house that John called ‘home’.
John had plenty of chores to do. It wasn’t that he was badly treated, it was just that he was the only one in the house prepared to do the work. If he didn’t muck out the horses, clean the house, cook and keep the house, then it just wouldn’t be done.
Elizabeth was a fantastic cook, but she was a scholar first and he would do anything for his stepmother. Everett and Sumner just cared about wine and gambling and spoke of nothing but soldiering, while Father indulged his two older boys and hit John if things were left undone.
Sumner’s contribution to the household consisted of shopping, sometimes even buying food, while Everett’s was to criticize John and basically order him about.
Perhaps he should take up Mora’s offer of marriage, John mused, at least it would get him away from here, but he just couldn’t stomach having anything to do with the girl – princess or not. He didn’t mind girls as such, but he couldn’t marry one.
Besides, she came with ‘Uncle Acastus’ and the whole planet of the Genii and, frankly, John would rather marry a Wraith Queen.
He washed up and made his way to the kitchen to start cooking. Life had been so much easier when his father had been rich, before the three older men of the house had discovered the gaming tables and races, and they had lived in a large house with staff to do all the things that John did now. It wasn’t fair that his father and brothers seemed to blame him for their misfortune, but John just kept going, hoping against hope that some day things would improve.
At the moment, his greatest sorrow was that his beloved stepmother was missing.
Elizabeth owned the house they lived in now and had married Father as a favor to Jack O’Neill, the leader of the planet Terra. She didn’t put up with her husband’s rudeness and could even make John’s brothers behave civilly, but she had gone to talk with Dr Daniel and the news of the culling was spreading. For all he knew, Elizabeth could be in a hive ship, dead or waiting for death.
Ever since he had seen his first Wraith Dart, John had wished to fly. He had visions of flying in space to, first, rescue the people culled and then, second, destroy the Wraith ships once and for all. He read all stories of the Ancestors avidly, dreaming of the ships they were supposed to have flown and planning what he would do with such technology.
As far as he knew, the Genii were the only people to have the ability to make space ships, but they were too busy building weapons that would destroy more than just the Wraith. They seemed to want to conquer the universe! Marriage with Mora would give him access to the ships, but at what cost?
He just hoped that one day Elizabeth and her friends would find the Ancestors and negotiate with them to persuade them come back and destroy the Wraith… or else give him the ships to do it himself.
When Elizabeth had left, on the fateful morning, she had asked each one of her boys what they wanted her to bring back from the Great Market. Everett had demanded a gold trimmed waistcoat, Sumner had wanted a new gold watch and Father had told her to get him some proper boots as his two pairs were seriously old-fashioned.
John hadn’t been able to think of anything he desired, so he had told her that he just wanted her to come back safely. She had smiled warmly and allowed him to accompany her to the Gate, where she hugged him, then stepped through the Puddle (as John called it) and that was the last time he saw her.
Father was now upstairs with Kolya, planning. It made John sick that he was so eagerly grasping the money and assets that really belonged to Elizabeth, assuming that his wife was dead, or at least as good as. Who knew what Kolya was offering him now that he was rich again? John moodily banged the oven door closed on the chicken he was roasting for their dinner and cursed, just as he heard footsteps on the stairs down to the kitchen.
“JOHN!”
crap! “Yes Father?”
“What’s this I hear about you refusing to marry Lady Mora?”
Double crap! “I don’t love her, Father.”
It was fairly inevitable that he would be knocked to the ground. He picked himself up and found himself being hauled across the kitchen and pushed up against the wall.
“You will marry her! She’s rich and a princess and one day she will rule the Genii!”
“I don’t want to have anything to do with her or the Genii!”
His head rang with the blow.
“You will marry her!”
“No!”
Father shoved John to the floor again and put his hands on his hips in exasperation.
“I don’t understand how any son of mine can be so bloody stupid! She’s got ships! She’s got men and gold! They even have weapons! Isn’t that what you are always going on about?”
“No Father. I will not marry her.”
“You will marry her. She will bring us riches and power and I will personally force you to the temple where you will be gagged and bound until it is time for you to…”
Just as his father was moving towards him, probably for more violence, Sumner came running down the stairs, shouting.
“Father! Father! The Gate just activated!”
Father whirled around, temporarily forgetting his quarrel with his youngest son.
“Wraith?”
“No… I don’t think so. I haven’t heard the whine.”
“You!” Father pointed at John. “Up and see what it is! NOW!”
John was only too glad to obey this command!
~
The Gate wasn’t far from the town John and his brothers had moved to five years before. Most towns grew up fairly near the Gate on most planets, since it was the only way to get off the planet and therefore the only way the population could trade with others.
John jogged to the Gate to find that it actually was not the Wraith. There was a crowd gathered around the object that had appeared and the people parted, when John was spotted, to allow him through.
“It’s addressed to Lord Patrick, John.” Halling told him. Halling had once worked for the Sheppard family, but now he only spoke to John.
“How can it be ‘addressed’?” John asked, but it soon became obvious. The thing that had trundled through the Gate was a machine on wheels, a bit like a trolley. Attached to the trolley was a folded piece of paper and on the outside Lord Patrick Sheppard’s name was written.
John snatched the paper and opened it up, gasping at its contents.
“It’s from my Stepmother!” He told the audience gleefully. “She’s alive!”
In the end, John had to run away.
The weird machine that had appeared through the Stargate had brought the information that they needed to launch a rescue for Elizabeth, but neither of his brothers, nor his father were prepared to risk going into the lair of this Beast.
The message had been quite clear, even if it had been sent by such a strange method. Elizabeth was being held, in Atlantis Castle (the seven symbol address was written out) that was ruled by a Beast, and anyone who came to rescue her had to realize that it wouldn’t be easy.
John gave it a lot of thought. He weighed up the pros and cons and then flipped a coin. It didn’t really make much difference, as he had already made up his mind that he would be going to Atlantis. So what if his father beat him to a bloody pulp afterwards? So what if his brothers helped? He had wanted a way of getting off this planet and this was it! Besides, anything was better than being forcibly married to Lady Mora.
So John packed a bag and slipped away that same night, running for the Stargate and punching in the symbols for this castle. As the gate shimmered into action and the mass of bubbles whooshed out and back in again, John tried to ready himself for adventure.
He had nothing but his bag of spare clothes, some bread, a big book and himself (he would have taken his guitar, but thought it might get in the way if he had to do any fighting), but he had to find his stepmother and bring her back, after all, she was probably the only person in the universe who really cared about him.
~
“You can’t let him in!”
“He will be splat against shield if I do not!”
“You can’t! The Prince will kill us!”
“I am letting him in.” Radek nodded at Peter, who mentally pressed the correct buttons and lowered the shield.
“You will take full responsibility!” Kavanagh declared. “The Prince will know exactly who went against his orders!”
“Good. Fine. Go away!”
The argument was halted when they caught sight of exactly who was stepping through the Gate. Even though he preferred women, even Radek could see that this man was beautiful. His messy hair and stubbled chin merely added to the attraction, and he moved into the Gateroom gracefully, although he was ready to fight.
John’s senses were on full alert, but he was confused. First of all, he was trying to conquer his fear, facing the unknown and really not sure what or who he would have to fight. Then there was the weird tugging in his mind… like a message of… of welcome! It was as though the city was… talking to him! It was telling him that he had been missed, that the city was his… that he was home!
The room he had stepped into was a culture shock in and of itself! There were blinking lights all over the place, the floor was weirdly smooth and there was a flight of stairs that led up to balconies and more passageways. John had never been in a castle before, but he had been expecting something more… well… old.
Where was the throne? Where were the guards in ceremonial dress? The courtiers? The treasures? Actually… where was everyone?
“Hello?”
Okay, perhaps calling attention to yourself when you were breaking into a castle was not the wisest course of action, but it seemed to have little effect anyway.
“Hello?”
“It’s reacting to him!”
He spun around on hearing the fierce whisper – but there was no one there; no one by the deck of flashing lights and screens and no one in the corridors leading away from this huge entrance hall.
“Hello? I’ve come for my Stepmother… Elizabeth Weir. I got the note… Hello?”
“It’s him! It has to be! He’s the one!”
“Shut up!”
John twisted about, but there was no one around. Nothing moved and nothing breathed. It was just… weird.
There was that bizarre tugging feeling again, as though something was pulling him, by the brain cells, towards the corridor. It was something that promised him light and pleasure and he felt compelled to follow.
As he walked along the corridors, lights came on and the building seemed to hum with something that felt akin to excitement. It was confusing and John was fairly sure that he ought to be scared, but somehow he couldn’t feel anything but curious and, weirdly… safe.
At last he reached a room that held a strange kind of cage, one that was surrounded by beams that were lit up, and inside the cell, was…
“Elizabeth!”
“John? John? Is that you?” Elizabeth came to the side and John could see that she was exhausted and cold.
“Elizabeth! Who did this to you?”
“John, listen to me. You must go away from here! It’s not safe!”
“I’m not leaving without you!”
“You don’t understand, John…”
But it was too late. There was a loud roar of rage behind him and John twirled around to find himself face to face with a monster made up of claws and teeth.
“Oh crap!”
~
With Elizabeth’s marriage to his father, John had been educated to a much higher degree than his two brothers. Everett and Sumner were deemed ‘old enough’ to cope on their own in the adult world, while John was, at that time, still school-aged. Elizabeth had helped him in his study of languages and literature and she had brought teachers from other planets to help him with his mathematical studies, which he loved so much.
Elizabeth had also taught John about negotiation and diplomacy. He wasn’t brilliant at it, but then it soon became clear that the Beast was completely useless at it. The Beast was far too blunt and honest, and it wasn’t long before Elizabeth was being dragged out of the cell while John was thrown in, after offering himself to take her place.
The Beast, however, didn’t give John a chance to speak to his Stepmother, as he dragged her straight to the Gate and almost threw her onto her own planet.
John was left alone in the cell, wondering what the hell he had got himself into. At least Elizabeth was safe and she would go and sort everything out at home. Mora would have to find someone else to obsess over and John would have to just wait and see what would happen next.
~
Prince Meredith Rodney McKay of Canada had really not given any thought to what he would do with the prisoner in his cell. He had just wanted to get rid of her and then get on with his research. If only the scientists were better, quicker, approaching his own level of intelligence, he might finally get something done! He might even find a way to reverse the ‘spell’, or even get the city up and running again. All he needed was more information about the Zed PMs and time. As it was, he only felt confidence in Radek… Oh, what he could do to Kavanagh if he were back home with the royal dungeons at his disposal!
Now, though, there was a new prisoner in his cell. A beautiful man who had placed himself in danger for the sake of his mother… or was it mother-in-law? Ye Gods the man was gorgeous! And then there was the way the city was calling to him. She was drooling over him, all but rolling over and baring her stomach… the floozy!
“Your highness?”
“What?” He snapped at Radek, the ghost that was supposed to be in charge of the laboratories.
“Have you thought… maybe he is the one?”
“Of course I have. I’m a genius!”
“Yes Sir.”
“But that means that I also know that it’s stupid to even think about it! He’s supposed to fall in love with me, and we both know that isn’t going to happen!”
“But, maybe… if you were nice to him…? Perhaps you could offer him a better accommodation?”
Rodney’s only answer was a roar and a snap of sharp teeth.
“Then again, maybe not!” Radek flinched and winked out of existence.
~
Radek was annoying, Rodney knew this, but occasionally he had ideas… ideas that Rodney could listen to and improve on.
The Beast bounded directly back to the cell and opened it.
“Follow me!” He commanded.
“What?” John asked, surprised.
“You want to stay here?”
“Not really.”
“Then follow me.”
John stood and followed the huge creature, watching how the monster’s fur moved under the artificial light. Already John was revising his opinion of the threat this Beast imposed. He obviously had sharp claws and teeth, he had animal instincts and the strength of a creature that big, but there was something… sweet… John almost coughed at this thought. Yeah, right! Sweet! That thing!
The Beast stopped in an open area that was brightly lit, and actually quite cheerful looking. John looked around with some surprise, as the Prince turned to what looked like just another bit of wall. He waved his paw around in front of a lit panel and the wall opened up.
“Your room.” The Beast growled.
It was a strange shape and there was a large window with a gauzy curtain draped around it. The bed looked short and narrow to John, but it was better than the cell. There was other furniture – a sofa, some chests and so on, and it seemed rather pleasant to John.
“I thought I was supposed to be a prisoner.”
“That can be arranged.” Rodney grumbled. “Look, if you want anything, my servants will arrange it for you. You can go anywhere you want, although be careful because parts of the city aren’t safe. The Chair Room and the connecting rooms are forbidden.”
“What’s in the…?”
“THEY’RE FORBIDDEN!” Rodney roared and snapped his teeth, causing John to step back involuntarily.
“Otherwise the castle is yours. You will join me for meals.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I said you will take your meals with me.”
”I’d rather not.”
“Fine, then you can go ahead and starve! When you pass out from lack of food, then we’ll see!”
The Beast stomped out of the room and found his scientists and servants all gathered around, watching.
“My Lord, I could be wrong, but I think this is not the good way to win his heart,” Radek suggested timorously.
“What?”
“You could, at least, attempt to be a gentleman,” A lady with copper hair that glinted ethereally stepped forward and spoke reasonably.
“Yes, thank you for that Teyla!” Rodney answered sarcastically.
“It can not harm.”
Rodney huffed, but he drew himself up. Teyla and Carson drifted closer. The secret to dealing with the Prince was to find an in. Once you had his attention, then all you had to do was abide the sarcastic barbs and do your best to slip in your ideas and hope he listened.
“Fine. What do I do?”
“Keep your voice calm,” Carson told him.
“Don’t be sarcastic!” Radek suggested.
“And be polite!” All three of them said together.
“Polite!” Rodney snorted. He knew he was rude, but he was a Prince, and a genius, so why the hell not? “Fine!” He knocked on the door.
“Go away!” They all heard from the other side of the door. Rodney pointed at the source of the noise and looked at his servants.
“Attempt to be polite.” Teyla managed to keep her equanimity.
“Right, fine, polite,” Rodney huffed. “John, it would give me great pleasure if you would join me for dinner.”
“Rodney!” Carson insisted.
“Right… please!” Rodney added.
“NO!”
Rodney roared! “THEN YOU SHALL STARVE! You hear? He eats with me, or not at all!”
With a flash of ragged lab-coat, the Beast leaped out of the corridor and disappeared.
“Not quite what I was hoping for,” Radek commented.
“No. And he said ‘please’!” Carson agreed.
“We have much work to do,” Teyla sighed. “I will talk to the Prince. Radek, will you monitor John’s room? If he comes out, then we shall do our best to make him welcome.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Kavanagh spoke up, appearing suddenly.
“He said we were to serve him. That includes feeding him and seeing that he is comfortable,” Teyla insisted and then turned back to Radek. “Let me know and Ronon and I will take care of him.”
~
Of course Ronon would not stay away. As soon as Teyla told him about the new guest, he materialized inside John’s room.
“Hey!”
“What the F…!” John cried out as Ronon appeared. There is nothing so terrifying as a slightly transparent giant with wild dreadlocks apparating behind you with absolutely no warning. “But.. but you’re a… you’re a…”
“Ghost? Yeah. Not dead though. We all are.”
“What… who are you?”
“Ronon, and you?”
“J…John.”
“You fight?”
“Fight?”
“I’ll take you to the practice room after dinner and we’ll spar.” Then he disappeared!
Once John had got over the shock of a nearly see-through giant challenging him to a fight, he remembered that ‘Ronon’ had mentioned food, and he decided to go and explore.
Once again there was that strange tug in his mind, and he followed it, passing through several corridors that really all looked the same to him, until he was completely lost. In fact, without that helpful signposting in his head, he would probably have got so lost in the city that they would never have found him again.
As it was, he found himself in a large open space littered with chairs and tables, and a meeting of ghosts who spun around and made excited noises around him.
“Wait! Wait!” John broke into the chatter and they all stopped. “What are you? Who are you?”
“I am Radek Zelenka.” Radek drifted closer and nodded in greeting. “I am Chief of Scientists. This is Teyla, who looks after the Prince, this is Carson, our physician and this is Peter who runs Gateroom.”
“I’m the chef here…” A short fat man in white drifted closer to him. “Do you like Lemon Chicken?”
“Sergeant!” A few voices accused.
“What? I know he’s allergic to it, but it’s my best dish! I want to make it for someone!”
“I… yeah… I like Lemon Chicken. But…”
Suddenly John was no longer surrounded by curious ghosts. Instead they were bustling around and preparing, what seemed to be a huge feast!
There was music and tablecloths, candlelight, plates being floated over by insubstantial hands and John felt like he was in the middle of a grand production!
The Lemon Chicken, when it came, was superb and there was a feeling of excitement all around him, even from the city herself… and when did he start thinking of the castle as a ‘she’?
~
Sparring with Ronon and Teyla was surreal. Neither of them had substance with which to hold the sticks they favored, and yet they were able to maneuver them with horrible accuracy. John had always considered himself a good fighter, able to hold his own against his two older and stockier brothers and confident enough to cope with most situations, but suddenly he found himself being soundly thrashed by a couple of ghosts – and one of them was female and a lot smaller than him!
Over the next few days, John found himself a routine. He would eat in the hall with Rodney. He couldn’t get out of it and Rodney seemed to be there every time he appeared, at whatever time he appeared! John suspected that Peter was spying on him and forcing Rodney to be there at the right time.
Then he would spar with Ronon and Teyla. After showering and seeing Carson for band-aids, John would explore for a while. He was desperate to find this famous ‘Chair Room’, which was apparently forbidden, but so far the city wasn’t co-operating. The transporters were truly cool and the piers were awesome!
The first time John stumbled on Rodney’s laboratory, he was completely astounded.
In the middle of it all Rodney would be seated at one of the machines they all referred to as ‘Computers’ or ‘Laptops’. There were screens all around showing maps, stars, ships, diagrams and other drawings that John didn’t understand.
The ghosts would all be doing research of their own and he gathered that there were many others in other laboratories – or ‘labs’ – studying all branches of science. (“Although I refuse to recognize the wishy washy crap the anthropologists think is a science!” Rodney grumbled.)
There was always a small team of scientists, wearing some kind of uniform in spite of being insubstantial, gathered around Rodney. It seemed that, quite apart from Rodney’s own deep research into… whatever it was… he was also obsessed with the up-keep of the castle and the fight against the Wraith,
“The Ancestors… as you probably call them… just abandoned the city when the Wraith became too strong.” Rodney explained. “They were a bunch of cowards who just upped and left us all to get on with it on our own!”
John was surprised at this judgment. He was used to hearing the Ancestors venerated as Gods, but he found himself agreeing with the Beast on this one.
“The city was dying and we gave her life. Certain people have the gene… a certain strain of… well, it’s a bit like blood and breeding. You know? If you want a really good horse, you get two really good horses and their off-spring will be excellent too.”
“Dumb this down any more and I may have to hit you.” John retorted.
There was a stunned reaction from all around, including Rodney, but then the Beast burst into laughter and the ghosts relaxed. No one… except for perhaps Radek and possibly Carson, had ever been rude back to Rodney!
“Anyway, some people have the gene and most don’t. I didn’t. At least, I did but it was dormant. Carson discovered how to… wake it up and now I can use the Ancients’ technology.”
John loved turning up and watching the scientists working. Rodney himself was fascinating. He was clearly in charge and extremely competent. John was a little surprised to discover this, as Rodney had a habit of telling everyone how great he was, and in John’s experience, this usually meant the opposite. You only had to look at Kavanagh…
Rodney was the genuine article, however. Radek was obviously pretty close and the two of them seemed to speak in half-sentences, knowing where the thoughts of the other were going before anyone else had even worked out what they were talking about! Rodney thought fast, moved fast and spoke fast and his paws flew around in excitement, making dexterous patterns, in spite of the claws.
The way he treated his staff was astonishing to John. He berated them, shouted at them, belittled them and called them all idiots with clockwork regularity. He could make almost anyone cry with just his voice and a lot of sarcasm, and yet John saw their delighted faces when he praised them. Very few of the ghosts really seemed resent their treatment and most of them were clearly fiercely loyal to their Beast.
One time John appeared in the labs to discover that a large group of them were just gathered around a large board. The board was covered in mathematical equations and they were all staring at them as though hoping that the answer would jump out at them.
Rodney was pacing around on the other side of his favorite lab, every now and again coming back to stare at the board and then shaking his head, muttering and heading back to his laptop.
John wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but he had a strong feeling that Rodney knew what was wrong. He looked at the equations. John had no idea what they meant in terms of Physics, or whatever they were, but he could see that one of the equations couldn’t balance, because they had managed to incorporate a negative stroke into the second column that was actually left over from a previous set of workings.
John watched for a while until he could take no more and he quietly moved forward to join the ghosts. They were all muttering to themselves and fingering their own chins, crossing and re-crossing their arms and drifting around in thought, but John looked at Rodney.
“Of course,” He spoke suddenly, breaking into the low-level muttering. “This is just an old mark.” He rubbed it out. “That might help you.”
He turned around to find that Rodney had broken into peels of laughter.
“Have you ever studied Physics?” He asked his prisoner.
“Nope.”
“But you’ve studied Math right?”
“Yeah.”
Rodney patted him on the shoulder. “You bunch of morons should be ashamed of yourselves! Get lost the lot of you and make sure that every single board in this castle is completely clean!”
They were gone in seconds. Rodney grinned at John.
“You’re not stupid.”
“Nope.” John agreed smugly.
Rodney laughed again and set some equations for John to do.
After that John got quite used to being asked to ‘just check over this Math’ and ‘see if this balances, would you?’ It made him feel as though he belonged, even with these boffins. Gradually he started to get to know them, and even to call some of them friends.
~
It took John a little time to feel that he could expect answers to his main questions, but eventually he decided that he could wait no longer and he chose a time when Rodney was elsewhere to approach the Chief of Science.
“Radek?”
Radek looked up from the computer he was fiddling with.
‘”Yes John?”
“What happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“How did Rodney become… you know…”
“The Beast? It is a dark tale and I am not sure that I should tell you.”
“He won’t!”
“Ah! Yes, well, Dr McKay can be difficult when he is hurting. He will be silent and brooding.”
“So you are the only one who can explain… unless you want me to go to Kavanagh.” John smirked at the shudder that ran through the scientist.
“Kavanagh would tell you the tale all wrong,” Radek sighed and stretched his back muscles.
The scientist led the guest to a bench on one of the balconies off the lab, and then began to explain.
“The Prince comes from…”
“Why do you call him that?”
Radek looked puzzled and shrugged.
“He’s our prince. He’s The Prince.”
“Where does he come from?”
“Canada. His parents are King and Queen, but they did not want him, so they sent him here, to Atlantis.”
“Didn’t want him?”
“Do you want to hear the story or not?” Radek demanded and made to stand up, but John caught hold of the man’s flying arms – or at least he tried to – in fact his hands just slid through the insubstantial body of the ghost. Radek, however, allowed himself to be mollified and merely pouted.
“Please, Radek, don’t stop. I’m just curious… I want to know why he is the way he is.”
Radek scowled, but he settled back on the bench, his ethereal form seeming to find the hard seat uncomfortable.
“The King was a very hard man. He always wanted everyone to work as hard as they could and to the best of their abilities. He was hardest of all on Dr McKay. The Prince really is a genius and the kingdom would probably be destroyed several times over if not for his brilliance! But don’t tell him I said that! The Prince could never please his father enough. The Princess had no problems. She is a genius too, but she is also better with people and anyway, she is a girl. When she married Prince Kaleb, the king made her heir and sent Dr McKay here to work.”
“That seems a harsh way to treat a prince.”
“Yes, but it is also what The Prince wanted. He gathered together the best people he could find and so, here we are. Major Lorne commands the guard, Teyla is his Chamberlain, Ronon is his bodyguard and I am Chief of the scientists and we work to make the weapons that will defeat the Wraith and to make scientific discoveries.”
“I always thought that the City of the Ancestors would be more beautiful.”
“It was beautiful. It was glorious… until the enchantress came.”
“Enchantress?” John didn’t quite manage to keep the skepticism out of his voice.
“Yes, enchantress… priestess…”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“What happened?” Radek seemed perturbed by something and he stopped talking. This did not stop John from asking questions however. “Did she make him change? Did she make you… ghosts? Does it have anything to do with the Chair Room?”
Radek pursed his lips and shook his head.
“John, I have already told you too much. The Chair Room is forbidden and you can not go there.”
“But what if I…”
“No John.”
And with that, Radek faded away and John was left alone.
~
A bored John is a dangerous John. He had played the computer game where he could build a country his own way. He had been beaten up by Ronon, who could even manage to beat him when mind-controlling sticks! He had even gone down to the kitchen and helped them with the cooking, so now he decided that it was time to do some more exploration.
He didn’t care if it was dangerous; John just wanted to see what secrets were being held in the fabulous city.
At first, he found nothing but labs, corridors, dead plants and strange rooms with tanks filled with bubbles, but eventually he found rooms with beautiful glass windows, corridors that seemed to be much more colorful and wider, until he finally came out into a large room where he saw the Stargate.
There were machines all over the place with big screens and flashing lights. There were boxes and John felt drawn towards a door. It was emitting a low hum and seemed to be almost vibrating, calling to him, so he stepped closer, one hand extended, creeping nearer and nearer until he could finally touch it.
It opened into, what seemed to be, another lab, but there were boxes such as the kind of crates that appeared at markets around the galaxy. In the middle was the console that was humming and he knew that he had to touch it.
His rational mind told him that it had been a mistake as soon as he made contact. A huge black cloud seemed to emerge from it and… John knew no more.
~
“Well, look who’s back! How’re you feelin’?”
“Huh?”
John looked up and all around. He was lying on a high bed and was surrounded by machines that were beeping. There was a dark curly-haired ghost looking down at him, wearing a cheeky smile and speaking in a weird accent.
“Welcome to the infirmary.” he said. “I’m Dr Beckett, but you can call me Carson.”
“Doctor? Where am I? What happened?”
“You seem to have activated an entity.”
“A what?” John tried to sit up, but the doctor leaned into him and he found himself settling back.
“A big black malevolent cloud. You’ve got people running around all over the city, Rodney’s furious.”
John was impressed at Carson’s cheerful attitude. “You called him Rodney!”
“Aye, well, I’ve known him a long time! Your sucking cloud has already attacked Ford and Miko and Rodney’s in the Control Room shouting blue murder.”
“Right! You realize that you have caused total havoc!”
Suddenly, before John had a chance to express his dismay at the mayhem he had evidently caused, there was The Beast, growling and baring teeth.
“Oh shush!” Carson admonished. “You know John didn’t intend this to happen.”
“You’re just thrilled that you get to practice your black arts for once!” Rodney growled. “And get out!”
Carson opened his mouth, but then thought better of it, and abandoned John by dissolving away.
“I didn’t mean it,” John offered.
“No, but you disobeyed! You were specifically told not to go near the Chair Room! Now you know why! There are dangerous things around this city that even I only half understand! You need to stick to your rooms and don’t go poking about!” The final comment was made to the accompaniment of teeth and growls.
“What is it?”
“It’s an energy creature that has been here since the Ancients were here.”
“Ancients?”
“The Ancestors. They weren’t gods, they were just semi-clever scientists and they captured that creature and put it in a containment field, where it stayed until you let it out! And now we are all going to die!”
“What? Why?” Suddenly it wasn’t funny anymore. Rodney was really pissed. He was pacing around the room and his voice kept switching to that horrible, booming roar that came accompanied by a perfect view of sharp teeth.
“Because it sucks energy! The ZedPM is barely charged enough for our normal lives and the naquadah generators, while pretty damned brilliant, thank you very much, are not enough to run everything. We’ve got the damned thing contained, more or less, but it will move on when it has drained the generators! We’ll be without power and any kind of life support and WE WILL DIE!”
Rodney stopped pacing and turned to point at John.
“Do you see now what you have done?”
With that The Beast turned and stormed out of the Infirmary.
“Sorry.” John breathed quietly, guilt eating at him.
John, however, was not the type of person who could allow other people to pay for his mistakes, so he pulled himself up, dragged the clothes that were lying on a stool by the bed and began to dress himself.
“What the Hell do you think you’re doing?”
John ignored the cross Scottish voice and carried on dressing.
“John! You’re not ready!” Carson shimmered back into view.
“Look Carson, I caused this, so I’m going to fix it!”
Ignoring the spluttering doctor, John ran out of the Infirmary and headed for the transporter. Within seconds he was back in the Control room where the ghosts and Rodney were fighting a dark black cloud. They were each carrying a machine with a handle that glowed blue and everyone was shouting. Slowly it was backing away back into the corridors, but there was despair on the faces around them.
“What’s happening?” John asked the ghost he knew as Lorne.
“He tried putting it back in its box, but it didn’t want to go.”
“So now what?”
“The gate!” Teyla cried out. “Dr McKay, send it through the gate!”
“Get a generator” Rodney snapped to one of his ghost minions and then he turned back to Radek “and a MALP! We’ll try to get the thing to follow the generator through the gate.”
“Why not just carry the generator over there, sir?” Lorne asked.
“Are you mad? That thing has grown! It’ll kill anyone who gets near it! Fetch the MALP!”
“It is here! It is here!” Radek cried and then there was fast, organized chaos as the ghosts attached the glowing generator to the strange trolley thing that, John realized, was very like the one that had drawn him into this mess in the first place.
The ‘thing’… the MALP trundled slowly towards the gate and the cloud came back, attracted by the energy being expelled.
“It’s coming!” Teyla shouted from the balcony.
“It’s working!” Rodney shouted gleefully. “Open the gate – M4X 337 – it’s barren wasteland!”
The shadow followed the MALP up the slope and there were cheers all around, but then, suddenly, the machine stopped.
“The cloud is not following!” Rodney cried, dismayed.
“Did the MALP go through?” Radek asked.
“It looks like it’s stopped.” Lorne observed.
“The entity could have drained the battery.” Peter suggested.
“Oh crap! It could be feeding off the Stargate itself!” Rodney shouted, pushing the controls again and again, trying to make them work.
“There must be something we can do!” John wasn’t aware that he had spoken. This was all his fault.
“Maybe the entity will go through once it has depleted the energy in the generator?” Peter was suggesting, as John decided to act.
There was only one thing he could do, so he started to move towards the cloud, intending to push the thing through himself.
“JOHN! NOOOOOOO!”
Before he knew what was going on, John found himself pushed out of the way. He fell to the floor, able only to watch as The Beast turned to look at him, with his startling blue eyes. It looked, to John in that moment, as though Rodney was trying to commit John to memory. The eyes were no longer filled with anger or arrogance, but with care and satisfaction that John would live on.
Then Rodney turned away and pounced into the cloud.
They all heard the roar and the kawoosh of the gate, The Beast disappeared to shouts of ‘Dr McKay!’ and ‘Rodney!’, then suddenly it was all over. The shadow was sucked through the gate and all that was left was The Beast, looking bedraggled and worn. He looked one more time at John, then his eyes rolled and Rodney fainted.
~
John did a lot of thinking, when he got back to his room.
In the Infirmary he had found the whole team, Ronon, Teyla, Radek and Peter watching nervously as Carson attended to Rodney.
Rodney had been growling and snapping, making even his friend Carson nervous and unable to manipulate the cloth he was using.
“Hold still!” Carson pleaded.
“There’s nothing wrong with me!”
“Ye fainted man!”
“I did not faint! I passed out!”
John grinned and decided to intervene. “Yes, Rodney, but passing out is a serious business. Now let the doctor help you.”
John stepped forward and took the cloth from the doctor’s insubstantial hands. There was a quiet gasp from the audience as Rodney submitted to John’s ministrations, and then had listened while John apologized for causing so much trouble. After which, John thanked him, for saving his life.
Rodney had been brave and had really saved his life. John had been ready to sacrifice himself, but Rodney had stopped him and done the deed himself. According to Radek, this was the first time Rodney had ever really put his own life on the line for anyone, and that made John think quite deeply about his captor.
John was aware that he was still a prisoner, but he also felt that he seemed to be slotting in quite nicely. The ghosts were friendly and helpful and Rodney…
It seemed to John that The Beast was different. He wasn’t as violent as he had seemed. He wasn’t so angry all the time, and he had showed real bravery. Rodney had had no way of knowing that his larger size would protect him, or at least that his increased energy gave him more time in the cloud than a simple human would have had– time enough for him to push the generator through the Stargate.
At least, that was Rodney’s theory, which, as The Beast told everyone, meant that it was probably the truth.
His servants really seemed to love him. John had always known that you could tell how good a man or a woman really was by the way they treated their servants. You only had to look at the way Kolya treated his men, to see the truth of that! Rodney, though, was rude and arrogant, intolerant and belittling, and yet his people seemed to really enjoy working for him. Of course, they rolled their eyes at his bragging, they flinched when he was angry and they even cried if Rodney was horrid enough, and yet if he praised them, they floated around on a cloud of pleasure!
He had already observed that Katie, the biologist, and Miko, the little physicist, were both in love with The Beast, but only now could he gain a clearer picture of what they saw in him.
Teyla had told John that her lord wasn’t so bad once you got to know him, but John hadn’t wanted to believe her. Now he wondered if it was true.
