x_erikah_x | FIC: Devil Inside

DEVIL INSIDE By ErikaHK

Title: Devil Inside - Ch. 5/14

Word count: 1.200
Rating: PG
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Elizabeth Weir, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex, Carson Beckett
Genre: Drama, Angst, H/C, Suspense, Gen
Disclaimer: Stargate and all related characters are the property of MGM Television Entertainment. Not done for profit, just for fun.

Summary: A mysterious entity takes over the bodies of the members of the Atlantis Expedition. Season 3 pre-Sunday. No spoilers.

Special thanks to my beta lauriel01 !

Chapter 5

John, Teyla and Ronon talked to people for a couple of hours only to find out nothing out of the ordinary was seen in the doctor during the past night, except for the fact that he was supposed to be on duty and decided to take a walk instead. Carson had gone to the mess hall at the usual time and ate the usual breakfast. Didn’t talk much with anyone and smiled a lot, he was even heard giggling with no one knowing why.

John went to the city sensors to track him down, and after some time following random dots he finally discovered which one he was. Backtracking him, the pilot discovered that Carson wandered around the city for hours before going to the mess hall. He had visited some suspicious places that were usually out of limits, and there really isn’t much a doctor needs to do in the ZPM room. He contacted Rodney to let him know and the team was now headed that way to check if the Zero Point Module had been tampered with.

“What did he intend to do here, anyway? Perform a surgery on the power supply?” Rodney only complained since John interrupted his decryption work.

“It wasn’t him that came here, Rodney.” John leaned against the console of the room they just entered.

“Are you sure there was something inside the doctor?” Teyla asked the Colonel.

“There is some kind of feeling just present, you know?” He tried to find the words, but failed. It was something that only one who had carried the being inside them knew.

“And you feel that way too, Rodney?” She looked at the busy doctor looking for clues to know if he really listened to her.

“Oh yes, yes.” He answered after a beat lifting his head and then went back to work. “It’s like feeling violated or something, I don’t know.”

“If that’s true, how do we find it?” Ronon was leaning on the wall.

John just shrugged. There wasn’t much to do. The only clues he noticed was unusual grins and smiles, but anyone was susceptible to that on a good day. A sillier mood could have an explanation as simple as being in love. Holding and questioning everyone that giggled wasn’t practical, and the entity could pass to another person before they could notice anything wrong.

“Did you notice anything different about Elizabeth after the entity came out from Carson? Smiles, giggling, silly mood?” John asked.

“No, nothing. Why?” Rodney looked at him.

“That’s how the behavior of the people affected is often described.”

“Well, it seems that certain proximity is required for the transfer, and if Elizabeth was being herself, you are being yourself, and I am myself, then that leaves…”

“The nurse.” John finished.

…

They tracked down the nurse back to her quarters and stood outside her door. John looked at the Satedan on his left and the Athosian on his right. If the creature was really inside her they would better not act like they suspected otherwise it could simply jump to someone else. He reminded his two companions that they should keep their distance and all of them took a step back when the door opened and revealed the young woman. She was still on her uniform and looked very disconcerted.

“Colonel Sheppard!” She sounded surprise. “I was just on my way to the infirmary. It seems that I had a blackout too.”

John eyed her closely but still kept a couple of steps away from her. He tried to sound unsuspicious. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“It was right after my shift ended, and then… I was here.” Her eyes narrowed as she tried to remember the events in between, but the slight negative nod gave away that she wasn’t successful.

She looked pretty much normal considering the circumstances. John decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. “Were you with someone when you came back to yourself?”

“Actually, I was with my boyfriend. He was saying good morning before going to work.” She tilted her head puzzled with John’s interest in her.

Her response felt genuine and that same little voice inside him was telling him that she was clear. That left the boyfriend to be tracked down. “Who’s your boyfriend?”

“Uhmm… he’s Dr. Chan from the Astronomy lab.” Her gaze turned briefly to the two aliens beside him.

She looked uneasy being interrogated by him, but he didn’t have any other choice. She was obviously uncomforted by the whole situation and he sympathized with the feeling; he felt the same way when it happened to him.

“You should have Beckett examine you.”

She only nodded and turned to walk way. John looked at Teyla. “Go with her, make sure she gets there. We’ll track down the boyfriend.”

They left their separate ways, Teyla and Ana to the infirmary and John and Ronon to the Astronomy lab in silence.

This was feeling like a cat and mouse game. First track Carson’s path, then the nurse, and now Dr. Chan. He was not sure what to do once he located the creature. He didn’t even know its intentions. All he had was a gut feeling to follow. Something that didn’t speak to him, simply buzzed. Like a red alert that went off whenever something was wrong was screaming in a louder tone the closer it got. He wasn’t sure what it was, what it meant or why it happened, but his training made him trust all of his instincts, and he did. The curious part was that this feeling got more tuned the longer it lasted instead of simply dying after a period.

They got to the observation lab and only two scientists were working, none of which was Chinese. One of them lifted an eyebrow and tilted his head at the sight of the two men at the entrance.

“Where is Dr. Chan?” John asked.

“He still hasn’t arrived.” One of the men aswered.

“Have you seen him?”

“No, maybe he’s got something else to do before work.” He looked at the other scientist.

“I don’t know. All I know is that we were supposed to analyze the findings from last week at breakfast, but he didn’t show up, which is starting to get preeeetty common.” The other man sounded somewhat annoyed at the colleague’s attitude. “That damn girlfriend of his.”

“Right. Tell me if you see him, but don’t let him know we came looking for him, ok?”

If it kept going like this he would need help. He tapped his headset. “Lieutenant Brown this is Sheppard.” He waited for the response.

“Yes Sir, this is Brown.”

“I want two teams of marines with stunners to meet me in front of Dr. Weir’s office ASAP.”

“Yes Sir! Right away!”

He hurried his pace towards the neared transporter. He thought that only two teams of marines were too few to search for the scientist, but he didn’t want to sound any alarms just yet. There was no reason to believe that the entity knew that they were aware of its presence in the city and he wanted to hold on to this advantage.

…

TBC...

( Chapter 1 ) | ( Chapter 2 ) | ( Chapter 3 ) | ( Chapter 4 ) | ( Chapter 6 )