John and Elizabeth were still a rather interesting shade of red when they reluctantly returned to the Infirmary, as they had promised.
"And just what did you learn from your little talk?" Carson asked, almost glaring at them as they sat side by side on one of the Infirmary beds.
"I remember more than Elizabeth," John answered, not thinking it might be strange to be referring to her by her first name.
She stared at the floor for a moment, "…I remember everything about…Nikomedes…but I don’t remember a lot else. I remember most of being with him. Little else."
"…And you can both just access these memories at will?"
"Not at will," she replied.
"But you both remember being these people? You don’t see yourselves, you see through their…your…eyes?" the Doctor pressed.
"I am Amarante, Carson. I don’t remember being her. I remember being me," Elizabeth insisted.
John was about to add something when the Infirmary comm system activated;
"Unscheduled ‘Gate activation!"
Both were gone from the Infirmary, running, before they had a chance to hear Carson’s exasperated exclamation.
"Bloody hell!!"
-
She ran through the command centre, "IDC?" she questioned, pausing to catch her breath. Getting no instant reply, she ran from there to the top of the stairs.
"Its Robins’ team!"
Elizabeth hovered on the top step leading toward the ‘Gate, "Lower the shield!"
"There’ll be incoming fire!"
"Just do it!" she snapped. She had to duck almost instantly to avoid being hit by an energy blast as they followed orders. She nearly fell down the stairs, trying to regain her balance, only just managing not to fall the whole way, stumbling a few steps down.
"Mara!" John swiped a P-90 off one of the military personnel running to aid those already around the ‘Gate. When he got to the top of the stairs, he grabbed her wrist and yanked her back up the steps, standing in front of her, barely noticing as she fell to the floor.
"What are you-" she began, angry at his behaviour, not wanting to be seen as incapable, when suddenly she really didn’t care.
-
"…Amarante?"
Her eyes flickered open, looking this way and that before they rested on Nikomedes. The pain was gone but she felt shaken to her very core. She reached for his hand, "…What happened to me?"
"I don’t know," he answered honestly, "You fainted after seeing that woman."
"Who was she?" Amarante slowly sat up, blinking.
"I don’t know that either," he seemed very concerned at his lack of definite answers, "When they spoke of Atlantis, they always said nobody stayed behind. Not one of us. I don’t understand why she’s in that stasis chamber."
"…Stasis…chamber?" she frowned.
Nikomedes reached out to circle his arms around her waist and set her on the floor, "It’s supposed to keep a person from ageing, time supposedly stands still. Except it doesn’t, it just moves at a mere fraction of the rate that it would."
"Maybe they lied," she ran a hand through her dark hair, too ready to assume secrecy and betrayal on the part of his people, too influenced by his opinions, "Maybe they left somebody behind to guard the city."
He shook his head, "Everybody left. They had to have done. Otherwise there was the risk the enemy could capture one of us and learn everything."
"Weren’t you there? Wouldn’t you know?" Amarante questioned.
He smiled slightly, "I’m not that old," he joked. Draping an arm around her shoulders, they began to walk slowly from the Infirmary, "I was born on your world. I think all of us must have been born there by now. Some of those who lived in this galaxy used stasis chambers in rotation to retain the original knowledge as long as possible. Apparently they even found a way to transfer all memory to a descendant," he snorted, "Hence a lot of stuck up people going around believing they lived here. Thinking they’re the ‘originals’ of our race, not us lower down born on Earth."
Amarante paused in thought, blushing as she considered something, "…Have any of your people ever…had children…with my people? I assumed not due to the behaviour on both sides when they learnt of our attachment…"
"They have," he nodded, "Some in secret, others making formal families, but it was one way or the other. They made them abandon everything of our race, live as one of your people. They even forced them to leave when the time came. But yes, there are children, entire generations with our blood in their veins. It has been thousands of years, after all."
She looked up at him, shy, "…So we could have…."
Nikomedes smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead, "Yes, we could have children if you wanted."
Her smile mirrored his as she nodded and remained silent.
He halted outside a room, touching her arm and pulling her back as she tried to go inside, "She’s in there," he stated.
"I don’t understand how I fainted just from seeing a woman I’ve never seen in my life," Amarante frowned.
"…Neither do I…" he answered, "Stay here for a moment, I’m going to try and restore some power. Maybe find out who she is."
"But-"
"I don’t want you getting hurt again."
She sighed and nodded, leaning back against the wall of the corridor.
Nikomedes headed inside the relatively small room, pausing to stand before the stasis chamber. The woman inside had shoulder length dark hair, wavy, unkempt, beginning to fade to grey. He didn’t recognise her. Even from historical records. How long had she been in there to have aged so much? Unless she went in that old. Had she been there since they abandoned Atlantis? Maybe they had left one behind, with their longer life-span, to facilitate the reawakening of the city? Somebody who knew everything they did. He studied her; even in the stasis induced sleep, she didn’t look peaceful. She looked worried. Some even slept with smiles on their faces, she didn’t…maybe even looked afraid. Had she been forced to remain behind?
"She looks unhappy," Amarante’s voice was quiet, behind him.
Nikomedes whirled round, "Mara-"
"I’m okay," she insisted, one hand pressed to her head, pain refusing to leave.
"No, you’re not."
"Let me be," she said, as his arms encircled her waist. Amarante continued to gaze up at the solitary figure, "…Has she been here…since your people abandoned this city?"
"I don’t know…" he said softly.
She exhaled slowly, "…I don’t think I could cope with being alone for so long…"
-
Three of the four expected team members practically fell through the ‘Gate, two still firing. Waiting for the order to raise the shield, the personnel of the command centre did so anyway when they got no such demand from Weir.
"…We lost Vaness…" one of the survivors uttered, voice hoarse as he lowered his weapon.
"…God, they got her…I…those bastards got her…" another began.
"I should’ve been looking out for her…"
John took no notice of the scene before him, just hauled Elizabeth to her feet, dropping the P-90 and dragging her along behind him, back to the command centre. She was fighting, but not physically, demanding answers to a string of questions that seemed to have no relevance to the situation.
"What were you doing, running out there like that!?" he shouted.
"Trying to see-" she paused, "Trying to…" she frowned, deeply concerned, "…make sure…my people were okay?"
"Your people?" John questioned.
"I don’t know…" she uttered. Elizabeth looked around, "…Who are all these people?" she dropped her voice to a whisper.
He realised that a great deal of people were staring at them, "…Temporal distortion…?" he tried.
"…Where are we?"
"…Atlantis."
"Major? Doctor?" somebody called out to them.
They didn’t respond.
Carson was rather concerned when he was asked to remove ‘Amarante’ and ‘Nikomedes’ from the command centre…