“Lose this?”

Max turned around to see that Evan was in the doorway holding something. Curious, and seeing that it looked familiar, she stepped towards him and saw that it was the Doctor’s sonic. “Where’d you get it?” she asked, slowly holding out a hand for it.

“Found it on the floor. What is it?” Lorne asked, giving it to her.

“It’s a sonic screwdriver.”

He pulled a face while asking, “Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks ‘ooo, this could be a little more sonic!’?”

Max smiled faintly, “Exactly.”

Lorne looked past Piper and noticed for the first time since arriving that the room was empty. “Where’d your...box go?”

“That’s what I’d like to know.” Max replied, moving out of the room and down the hallway. She was still trying to figure out why the Doctor had left without her; he had sworn that he wouldn’t do it again, yet here she found herself stranded once more.

But right now there were bigger things to worry about; like how they were going to get rid of the Dalek’s sitting at their front step. A glance through a window as she continued down the hallway told her that the shield was still holding and the ships were still continuing their barrage on it; how much longer it would last she had no idea but knew that when it failed the entire city would be destroyed.

Lorne followed Piper and tried to figure out the puzzle that she was. He’d never seen her before she showed up on Atlantis but at the same time he felt like he knew her; there was something in the back of his mind that kept tugging at him but he had no idea what it was. It had first shown up when they were trapped, then again during the night the three of them spent in the cave, and finally when they realized that Jack and the others weren’t who they said they were.

He had tried to figure it out, put it down to adrenaline or some other cause but those didn’t make sense. Evan had tried to get an answer to the question but she had just brushed him off. However, he was determined to figure it out before they left Atlantis for good.

Max rounded a corner, trying to figure out her way down to the auxiliary control room, when she stopped short and quickly retreated back; pushing Lorne back as she moved.

“What the-” he started to ask but she shushed him and drew him into a small alcove. There was just enough room for the both of them and no sooner than they had entered it Evan could hear the faint sound of gears turning. Realizing that it was a Dalek, his eyes went wide and he could feel his heart pounding. Swallowing the fear that was gathering in his throat, Evan hoped that the thing wouldn’t see them.

“Are you sure?” the Doctor asked, although he knew Jack wouldn’t say it unless it were true.

“I am.” Jack said, he’d remember the walls just like he’d remember the Game Station and the Valiant. However that didn’t distract him from the fact that the TARDIS had brought them here. Moving past the Doctor he walked down the hallway, footsteps echoing around him. Walking, Jack wondered why the TARDIS had brought them here, and where Max was; last he had checked she had been behind him so she should have reached the ship no far behind the rest of them.

Something caught Jack’s eye and he paused; looking at it and recognized what it was. It was one of the rooms him, Lorne, and Max had found while down here. Hesitating, he looked inside, seeing that the lights were on and that it looked like it had when they were first here. However, there was one thing that was different; there was no chamber in the room.

The Doctor peered over Jack’s shoulder and looked into the room. He then gently pushed past Jack and walked inside. The room was mostly filled with consoles all facing away from the door, facing some kind of platform. Putting on his glasses, he moved towards one of them and wrinkled his nose at the layer of dust of everything; it looked like no one had been here for a very long time.

Brushing away the grime and dirt the Doctor studied the panel for a few minutes before pressing a sequence of buttons. The rest of the panel as well as the rest of the consoles lit up.

Jack slowly entered behind the Doctor, Martha behind him, and watched as the Doctor got to work at one of the panels. “What are you looking for?” he asked.

“The reason all of this started.” The Doctor replied, not taking his eyes away from the screen.

Max’s heart felt like it was threatening to escape from her chest. Gripping the sonic in her hand she tried to make herself as small as possible.

The whine of gears grew louder until she knew that the Dalek was right on top of them...and then the sound stopped. Not knowing what to think, Max wanted to catch a look and see what was happening but knew that if she did then she might very well die; so she stayed put. Closing her eyes, she could feel her muscles tense up; waiting for something to happen.

The seconds seemed to stretch forever, then the sound started up again and trailed off.

Max let out the breath she hadn’t been aware she’d been holding in a rush and relaxed, they had dodged that bullet. Opening her eyes, Max saw that she had moved closer to Evan and he had wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. Feeling her face heat up, she quickly moved into the hallway and tried to put as much distance between her and Lorne as possible.

It had been instinctual. They had been hiding from the enemy and he had been just trying to make them as small as a target as possible. There had been nothing behind the action, but apparently Max had read more into it. Evan went after her, they shouldn’t split up now; not with those things roaming around.

“Exterminate!”

Lorne’s blood ran cold at the word and he froze, slowing turning around to face the Dalek.

Staring, he wondered if this was it.

There was a flash of light and then Evan was staring at the ceiling. Blinking rapidly, he tried to figure out what had just happened; he was still alive. Then he realized that Piper was next to him and he turned his head to see if she was alright. He saw that she was unconscious but he didn’t have time to see if she had any kind of injuries because he heard the Dalek speak again.

Scrambling to his feet, Lorne saw that the Dalek was slowly advancing and there wasn’t enough time to grab Piper and try to escape. Automatically his fingers gripped his 9mm and aimed it at the machine. Pulling the trigger repeatedly, he tried to hit the damn thing but the bullets just bounced off of it. He knew how many bullets there were in the clip, once he ran out the Dalek would kill them both.

All of a sudden there was a blue flash and Lorne felt something hot knick his arm. Flinching he heard a metallic ‘ping’ and realized that a bullet must have bounced back and hit him. Taking a breath, Lorne moved to pull the trigger again but stopped as he saw blue sparks in front of him.

Pausing, he slowly lowered the gun and looked in front of him; there was nothing between him and the Dalek. Furrowing his eyebrows, Evan cautiously stretched his hand forwards and snatched it back when his fingers collided with something; there were blue sparks and a slight humming sound. Then the light bulb went on in his mind and Lorne realized that, somehow, a shield had activated between them and the Dalek.

As grateful as he was for the barrier, he had no idea how long it would last. Turning around he made his way back to Piper, who was still out, picked her up and started to put as much distance between them and the Dalek before the shield disappeared.

“That wasn’t there before.” Elizabeth heard Rodney say. Not liking the surprise in his voice, she moved to where he was working.

“What isn’t?”

“There’s a shield up inside the city.”

“What do you mean?”

“Right here.” Rodney said, pointing to an area by the Southwest Pier. “It came on all of a sudden. No warning at all.”

“Why?” Elizabeth asked, trying to figure out who was in that area while looking at the two life signs; the Dalek’s didn’t show up so it made tracking them even harder.

“No idea.”

“Can you turn it off?”

“I’ve already tried and it won’t. Seems that Atlantis is starting to help us.”

“How so?”

“It’s started to seal off areas that we don’t have any one in; like the city is trying to contain them in one area.”

Elizabeth looked at the screen and tried to figure out what the city was up to. Until now it hadn’t done anything to help Sheppard and the others fight the Dalek’s, it had only acted like a normal (well as normal as Atlantis was) city until a few minutes ago; until the power surge.

Rodney hadn’t been able to figure out where it had come from but a few seconds later he had gotten the comms back up so she had been focused on raising Sheppard. He had managed to make it back with one other pilot but there were still ships inside the shield; there had just been too many. Now they needed to focus on containing the ones inside of the city and preventing the other ships from getting through.

Tapping her headset, she said, “John?”

“Yes?”

“Be careful, the city’s started to seal off sections without warning.”

“Understood.”

Elizabeth continued to look at the screen, wondering what their next move should be or if they should wait to see what the city did next.

“- are you?”

Max opened her eyes and was greeted with a slight stab of pain in the back of her head as well as a look from Evan that she knew too well. “Sorry?” she asked as she rubbed the back of her head, hoping to massage the pain away.

“Back there...do you have some kind of death wish?” Lorne asked, trying to figure out why she was so intent on throwing herself in front of a bullet (or Dalek) for him.

Max had been so busy trying to get away from Lorne that she hadn’t been paying attention to see if there had been more than one Dalek out there, so when she saw one in the middle of the hallway it stopped her dead in her tracks. Hearing footsteps behind her, she realized that Lorne had followed her but before she could tell him to get out of the hallway the Dalek spoke and she knew that there was little time for her to act.

All that mattered to her was keeping Evan safe.

“It’s complicated.”

“You keep saying that yet you don’t explain.” Lorne sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Well at least you’ll have time to come up with something.”

“Sorry?”

“We’re locked in, can’t get back out.”

Max looked around and for the first time saw that they were in a kind of storage room, filled with containers and shelves. Standing, she made her way towards the windows and saw that a door opened out onto a small balcony; glancing outside told her that they were high above the pier. Looking up she could see the faint glow of the shield as it reflected the lights of the city as well as the bursts of fire from the ships.

Stepping back inside she was silent for a few seconds, then asked, “How do you know?”

“Came in here for a few minutes to wait out those things and when I tried to open the door it wouldn’t budge; even tried the screwdriver but the thing’s busted.”

“That’s because it doesn’t know you.” Max said, a faint smile appearing. Walking over to Evan, she took the sonic out of his hands and moved towards the door. “But don’t worry; it hardly works for anyone other than the Doctor.” As she spoke, Max raised the screwdriver to the panel and mentally crossed her fingers, hoping that it would work for her; it buzzed to life and the tip glowed blue for a few seconds before cutting out.

Smiling Max pressed the panel but nothing happened. The smile slowly fading, she tried again but still nothing happened.

“Told you.”

Shooting him an exasperated look, Max kept on trying but the result was the same and eventually she accepted that they weren’t going anywhere for the time being.

Jack watched the Doctor as he stared at the screen with a look of deep concentration and inwardly sighed; wondering, not for the first time, why the TARDIS had brought them here. He could understand the Doctor, the Time Lord had been here before and could understand ‘Lantian technology, but as for himself and Martha he was simply at a loss.

He wondered what was happening on Atlantis and if Max was all right. The look of determination on her face worried him, that she was going to do something foolish in order to protect the time-line. Jack got the feeling that something wasn’t right with the way things were going, the fact that the Dalek’s were involved aside. Now that he had time to slow down and think, Jack realized that he had never once heard or read about the Expedition coming up against them and he was slightly confident that wasn’t a good sign; he of all people knew what changing the timeline could do to a person’s history.

“Aha!”

The exclamation from the Doctor drew Jack out of his thoughts and he looked to where the Time Lord was standing, with the rare look of glee on his face. “What’d you find?” Jack asked as he stood and made his way towards the man.

“Something brilliant.” The Doctor said as he turned back and pointed to a second screen on the right. “See? That’s us and,” he continued while pointing to another on the left. “that’s Atlantis.” Narrowing his eyes a little as he focused on the Atlantis readout, he wondered what it all meant. Hazarding a guess the Doctor figured that the panel was some type of safeguard; he knew that the Lantians wouldn’t have built this place without some kind of back up plan if the Dalek’s had gotten out of hand.

But what it exactly did he had no clue, there weren’t a whole lot of symbols on the controls and what was there he couldn’t read because his Lantian as more than a little rusty; and it seemed that the TARDIS wasn’t in the mood to translate everything for him.

“How are the power levels?” Jack asked as he took a step towards the controls.

“Steady for now, but I have no idea how long they’ll stay that way.” The Doctor knew that they also had a limited amount of power; the ZedPM’s hadn’t been activated in millennia, who knew how much longer they’d keep everything going.

“Anything I can do to help?”

“If there is I’ll let you know.” The Doctor absently replied as he ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up even more. Wracking his brain, he knew that what was in front of him was somehow connected to the Dalek’s and just might be the key to ending this before the city was destroyed.

It would take time to figure everything out but that was one thing they didn’t have.

Lorne hadn’t been aware that he’d started to drift off until the acidic sent made him sit up and open his eyes. Looking to where the smell was coming from he saw that the door to balcony was open. Standing, Evan couldn’t help but notice how the Ancients seemed to like looking out at the ocean as there were balconies and large windows that gave a view of the outside almost everywhere. It was almost like they were trying to create private moments between themselves and the elements.

Stepping out, he silently moved towards the railing while looking up and seeing the shield shimmer as the bombardment continued against it. His watch had broken earlier so it was impossible to tell how long the whole battle had been going on but if Lorne had to hazard a guess he’d say all day at most, hours at least.

Max glanced over when she heard movement and saw Evan join her at the railing. Not saying anything she turned away from him and took a drag from her cigarette. She had stepped out for some fresh air and had come across the pack, and lighter underneath it, purely by accident; someone else must have left it there by design or for fear of getting caught. Whatever the case, Max didn’t care because she found herself picking it up and lighting one.

“Smoke often?” Evan said casually, to break the silence more than anything.

“Only when I’m stressed.” Max replied as casually, like they were discussing the weather. “Almost chain smoked my way through Grad school.”

Evan chuckled as did Max and both could feel the tension that had been building between them break. More relaxed he nodded to the pack which was in her hand, “Can I steal one?”

“I didn’t take you as the type.” Max replied as she tossed the box to him and lighter to him.

“Like you said, only when I’m stressed.” Evan replied as he lit it. “Although if I get married it might become a daily habit.”

“Oh really?” Max said, raising an eyebrow at the comment. Crushing what remained of the cigarette under the heel of her shoe she playfully asked, “Would your wife drive you to it; all that nagging?”

“Nah. I’m sure it’ll be worry over staying alive to get back to her and the kids. I want a big family like my parents had; complete chaos but loving every moment of it.”

“Really? Because you told me that you wanted a small-” Max blurted out before she realized what she was saying. Cutting off as soon as she did, Max could tell from Evan’s confused expression that the damage had already been done. Mentally kicking herself for letting her guard down, Max knew she had to change the subject. Not sure what else to do she fled inside to try opening the door again.

“Hey, hold it.” Evan called out as Piper all but ran inside after that confusing remark. Starting after her, he stopped after realizing that he still had the cigarette in his hands. Sighing with frustration, he threw it to the ground (Weir would have a fit if she found that semi-contraband was floating about) then went after Piper. Striding towards her, he asked, “What was that all about?”

Max tried to keep her breath even as she ignored his questions and tried to steady her shaking hands as they handled the wires in the control panel. But no amount of her fiddling was solving the problem of unlocking the doors. Frustrated Max slammed a hand against the wall, “Damn it to hell!”

Suddenly the doors slid open with a fain ‘hiss’ and both Max and Evan stared at the doorway for several seconds trying to comprehend what had just happened. Then Max saw the opportunity to get away from Lorne and try to find something that would give them an edge against the Dalek’s.

Not saying anything Max exited the room and started walking, picking a direction at random and hoping that she’d run into someone other than Evan.

“Hey!” Lorne called out when Piper took off like a bat out of hell. “Wait up.” Lorne then cast a look over his shoulder to make sure that there weren’t any Dalek’s in the area and after seeing that they were alone, took after her. She didn’t think that he’d let her go without an explanation to the remark she just made, did she?

Catching up to her by a lift, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I’m trying to find something that might help us.” Max said as she struggled to loosen his grip on her. “And to get away from you.” She added in her head.

“Let go of me.”

“No. Not until you explain what you said back there.” Lorne firmly replied, pulling her closer to him as he talked. “Hell not until you explain how you’ve acted around me the entire time you’ve been here.”

Max sighed, “We don’t have time for this or have you forgotten that the city is being attacked?”

“Really? ‘cause I thought that the shield was up for kicks.”

Max just made a face as she still tried to loosen Lorne’s grip on her. As they struggled, she must have bumped up against the panel controlling the lift doors because suddenly they opened. Both of them pausing, they stared at the lift; surprised that it had activated so suddenly.

“I thought that the lifts weren’t working.” Max said slowly as she glanced at Lorne.

“McKay’s team must have got them working again.” Evan said, the surprise in his voice clearly evident. “Chalk one up for the squint squad.”

They continued to stare at the empty lift, not sure what to do. “So...do we go in?” Max asked hesitantly, breaking the silence that had followed Evan’s comment. “I mean, it’s better than taking the stairs right?”

“Defiantly. We should go to the auxiliary control room and see what Eliz-Doctor Weir wants us to do.” Evan replied as he stepped into the lift.

Max hesitated for a second and then joined him. The doors closed and then a bright light filled her eyes, fading away as soon as it had appeared; the doors opening as well. Stepping out, she slowly made her way down the hallway while looking for the hatchway.

Something didn’t feel right, but what it was exactly she wasn’t sure.

Lorne drew his sidearm and moved in front of Piper; she was unarmed and he didn’t want her to get hurt again. Slowly moving down the hallway Evan got the feeling that they were the only two down here...it was too quite and besides, if this was the auxiliary room he was pretty sure they’d hear McKay going on about how there wasn’t enough time to pull the miracle Weir wanted him to do or something like that.

Halfway down the hall he spotted a door and Lorne signaled a stop with his hand. He stood still for a few moments, trying to figure out if there was anyone in there but Lorne couldn’t tell; he had to go in to be sure. Moving cautiously, he pressed the panel and then as it slid open was ready to pull the trigger.

But the room was as empty as the rest of the place, save the equipment. The lights flickered on as soon as the hardware sensed the ATA gene and blinking against the stark contrast of the darkened hallway. Once his eyes adjusted, however, Lorne saw that the room was like any other in Atlantis; Ancient hardware with dust piled on top of it as the result of millennia of neglect, shards of glass littering the floor with the wind blowing into the room from a broken window. Lowering his gun, Evan still walked in with his guard up; you never knew what you were getting into when the Ancients were involved.

Max was just behind Evan and as they walked deeper into the room wondered aloud, “How the hell did we get here? I thought you took us to the auxiliary room.”

“So did I.” Evan replied as he circled the room, trying to figure out what purpose it had originally served.

Max went around the opposite way, hoping to get any kind of clue as to where they were, but came up empty. For all she knew the room could have been just another spare incase something went wrong while fighting the Wraith. But that guess seemed wrong, the panels and area in general seemed older; like it had been one of the first rooms built in the city.

Stopping by one control cluster, she pondered that thought when suddenly something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Pausing, Max waited until she saw it again to move towards the screen. Reaching it, she wondered why it was active while the rest seemed to be off. Eyebrows knitting together Max reached out to brush some of the dust off of the panel in order to get a better look but hesitated, knowing that she shouldn’t touch because you never knew what might happen. “Ev-Major.” She called out, looking towards his general direction. “You might want to check this out.”

“What?” Lorne asked as he walked over to Piper and stood beside her.

“It just started blinking.”

“Hmm.” Evan wondered if they should get McKay up here to deal with it. But they had no idea where Rodney was and even if they did he was busy trying to keep the city from being destroyed. Deciding to take a chance, Lorne nodded to Piper that she could touch it and helped get rid of the grit and grime.

Max touched the panel and pulled her hand back sharply while hissing in pain.

“What happened?” Evan asked, pausing quickly when he saw Piper react to something.

Max rubbed the area of her finger that had been stung and shook her head, “Just got stung...nothing epic.”

“You sure?” It was always better to be safe than sorry when the Ancients were involved.

“Yeah.” She held the finger up to prove her point. “See? No worry.”

“If you say so...” They worked in silence; the only sound was the humming of the controls coming to life when they sensed the ATA gene. Soon most of the room was running but Lorne still had no idea what it was for. Staring at the writing he mused out loud, “What’s it say?”

“That the room was built as a last line of de...” Max trailed off when she realized that suddenly she could understand it.

Evan raised an eyebrow, “I thought you said that you couldn’t read Ancient.”

“I did...and now I can...” Max said as she walked towards another panel and started pressing controls. Pausing only long enough to tie her hair back into a loose ponytail, she continued on working almost frantically.

Lorne stared at her, watching her work, not quite sure what to think. Obviously her sudden knowledge of Ancient technology and the prick on her finger was no coincidence; what to what extent?

“...that’s not good.”

Elizabeth looked towards Rodney to see a look of surprise and worry on his face as he started at his tablet. “What?” she asked slowly, almost dreading the answer to the question. Things had been stable until now and whatever had happened, Elizabeth knew that it didn’t bode well for them and the city.

“There was a sudden power drain; cut the shield strength almost to nothing.” He said as he worked frantically trying to shut off all non-essential systems and re-routing power to the shield in order to keep them from collapsing.

“What about time?”

Rodney was silent for a few seconds, concentrating on the screen in front of him before he said, “Minutes.”

“Rodney.” Weir said in a calm voice, realizing that they had finally reached the point of no return. They needed to set the self-destruct and get everyone through the ‘gate before it activated. He paused for a second and after seeing the look on her face knew what she wasn’t saying. Nodding, he continued to work; now trying to by them as much time as he could possibly squeeze out.

Elizabeth activated her headset to make the announcement but before she could speak the room suddenly went dark. “Rodney we need-”

“It wasn’t me.” He replied, the glow from his tablet the only source of illumination against the darkness.

“Then what was it?”

“I have no idea.” McKay tapped in a few commands and knitted his eyebrows together. “What the-it kicked me out! The database kicked me out!”

Weir then heard a loud ‘thunk’ and looked towards where the doors were. Although she couldn’t see anything, she knew that it had just closed.

It seemed that Atlantis had finally decided to do something and they were stuck until it was over.