Title: Conflict (standalone fic)
Author: Annuette
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: PG-13, gen
Pairing: none, though there is a brief implication of slash interest.
Warnings: Angst, implied mpreg, kidnapping.
Summary: Some things just aren't meant to happen, sometimes it's hard to draw the line between a mind game and truth. "Didn't think you had kids, struck me as the type to eat your young at first sight."

Thanks to m_natures_son for betaing for me

"What took you so long, where've you been?"

The almost shrill complaint from Rodney made John's head hurt. He still shook off the last remnants of sleep, a chemically induced sleep he had scant memory of.

"Not now, Rodney." He winced, eyes opening and half closing almost immediately as light assaulted them, distorting his sight. He could feel cold metal beneath him as he lay stretched out on his back and unrestrained. He couldn‘t shake off the worry that twisted in his gut. "What the hell happened?" The words were barely from his lips when his hazy vision sharpened, the images around becoming clearer, and a lot more distressing.

Even before the green hands touched him and paying no heed to the caution with which the Wraith approached, something which should have caused no end of panic and worry, John threw himself off the side of the trolley he lay on, aiming to roll and duck before letting himself be touched. Except, it didn't quite happen that way. He wasn't restrained or bound to the bed, but the moment he moved, John felt a feeling of headiness come over his body; a deep, cold, disorientating weakness which sapped him of his strength and made what should have been a dramatic and startling lunge, a rather pathetic flop onto his side.

"Well that's just great."

John didn't miss the mutter no matter how quietly Rodney made it, but he lacked the energy to do more then look in the direction of the disgruntled man's voice. It wasn't all that surprising that Rodney sounded annoyed. Hell, the man often sounded that way when merely chatting. He certainly had a way about him, one that often annoyed John to no end, and yet made Rodney no less of a friend; one that was almost condescending at the best of times which this certainly wasn't.

At least this time Rodney had a reason to sound aggrieved; the man was trussed up, body bound by the odd fleshy confinement that covered the booth he was propped in, with only his head and mouth (which John was only slightly regretful for, not enough to make him feel guilty though) free. Well, I guess this proves things could be worse, or they can get worse, he amended the thought as the unexpectedly warm hands touched him, rolling him onto his back once more. Great, now what? He internalised the question, feeling the mugginess slowly fading as his strength re-gathered. He kept still, not wanting to waste energy in what he knew was another futile attempt. Clenching his fists, he schooled his face in a calm neutral expression not wanting to give away the hostility and fear he felt. For all their disturbing behaviours and instincts, the Wraith were extremely predictable in some aspects, and John had no doubt he was being saved for nothing more then an interesting meal; something he had no intention of being again. That pain was something he wouldn't forget for a long time, and something he was in no hurry to repeat. The urge to lash out at the Wraith who hovered over him was almost overwhelming. It touched his face, shining light into his already sore eyes, almost overwhelming but John kept his body still and face impassive. So long as we're not dead, there's the chance of escape. Trained as he was, his body still didn 't feel his own. It seemed heavy leaden in places, which was the excuse John comforted himself with as a gnarly hand reached out causing him to flinch as he anticipated the thump to the chest and the blinding pain which would follow.

"This is'disturbing." The words were meant for Rodney and murmured from the corner of John's mouth as the Wraith pulled back his hand uttering noises that John could only identify as scolding before it slipped it into beneath his T-shirt, pushing it up to his ribs. "Hey!" … Embarrassed and uncomfortable by the idea of being stripped and probed and God knows what else by an over eager Wraith; not to mention the added humiliation at his bodies natural response to the cold air that caught his chest.
John struck up at the Wraith, his hand connecting with its arm. Still weakened, the punch was laughable in comparison to the Wraith's strength. Rather than stun him, the Wraith nodded at another outside of John's vision. Anger and a good dose of fear overwhelmed John as hands grasped firmly at his arms and head, pinning his body to the bed.

"So this is how you get your kicks is it?" The words were half growled as the doctor-Wraith silently unbuttoned the top of his pants, grasping the material and pulling it down to John's hips. John‘s cheeks redden more in anger than in a blush. The Wraiths hands kept his body still but not his mouth as John threw every sarcastic comment and insult his mind could dredge up at the Wraith. It was a desperate attempt to try and distract them from whatever they had planned. As his eyes fell upon his exposed stomach and hips, the comments died on John's lips, horror rushing through him and showing obviously on his face as he paled visibly, eyes dilating as panic set in.

His body was still so heavy in places that he hadn't been aware- wouldn't have known without seeing it himself- of the surgery that had taken place. Not that John could even muster up a good guess at what kind of surgery, experimentation or game the once-predictable, now obviously conniving and impulsive, Wraith had come up with. None that could leave him with a six inch wound across his lower belly, a deep precise cut bound together with some kind of glue rather than stitch.

Hissing as pain licked through him as the Wraith ran hands over his belly, stopping shy of the cut but aggravating the visibly sensitive and enflamed skin around it. John bit down on his lip feeling a warm hand on his brow as the leaden feeling increased, the pain fading as it did.

"This is perverse, this is a travesty! What you-you're thinking of adding molestation to the indignity and harrowing trauma of being life sucked!"

And there was McKay, putting into words, what John himself could no longer say; his body once more numb. The feeling seemed oddly akin to anaesthesia. He could just about muster up the energy to gaze towards the man as gratitude warmed him. Unfortunately, fear felt he felt was unchanged. His mind was able to focus and take in every gruesome detail.

I won't crack. I won't give away anything about Atlantis. I'll just stay silent, focus on what else they do and hope Beckett can reverse it for me. I won 't crack. I won't crack.

Repeating the mantra in his mind, John was thankful his body was too weighted down to shudder as the Wraiths hands dipped lower, and for a moment hesitating over his crotch. It's going to be a cold day in hell when I find anything erotic after this. He couldn't actually feel anything but the image was burnt into his mind, making his control waver as he gritted his teeth. John resisted the urge to look away as the Wraith gripped his pants…and pulled them back up.

Relief washed through John at the anti-climactic ending to what he had believed would be yet another method of coercing information and exploiting humans; using physical, rather than the usual mental, rape they normally adopted.
This time, he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. His eyes locked with Rodney's, the expression on the man's face was almost comical to John. There was relief, thankfulness and a touch of confusion evident from the way his mouth hung open.

Rodney McKay- stunned into silence. Who would believe me? The thought surprised him given his distressing situation, but it was soon forgotten. He steadied his guard as he was lifted from the table and carried carefully to the alcove next to Rodney's. The groan that whistled past his lips was involuntary, prompting John to tighten them together, determined to make as little noise as possible.

"Sheppard?"

He kept his eyes trained on the Wraith as the fleshy substance moved over his body, binding him in place. John ignored Rodney's hesitant question, waiting until the doctor nodded in satisfaction and the guards left the room. The Wraith doctor busied himself, moving to the other end of the room, his focus no longer on the men but on whatever intrigues the computer terminal in front of him held.

"Sheppard!"

John winced as the noise hit his ears. He managed to turn his head and shoot a frown at Rodney. "Speak a little louder, McKay, I think there's some Wraith in the landing bay who didn't quite hear you." The words came out more sarcastic then he would have liked, but a frightened Rodney was a lot more volatile and prone to hysterics than an angry one.

"Humor. Well, that's just great. Here I am, watching them do terribly unspeakable things to my friend, and all he can do is bitch about my tone of voice! " The words were hissed but more muted now as Rodney scowled back at him, fear dispelled in annoyance.

That was the Rodney he knew and liked, indignant to a fault. "Will you quit whining?" John's eyes narrowed, his stomach twisting as he recalled Rodney's words.

"Unspeakable things? What unspeakable things?" He asked as his eyes widened and focused on Rodney. He felt the cold twist in his gut lessen as Rodney blushed, his words stumbling as he spoke.

"We'll it's not like I actually saw anything, but the point is that they have been doing something, why else would they cut into you like that. Shouldn't they be feeding on us or probing our minds?"

"Don't wish your life away." Probably the most apt and ironic words he'd uttered in a while. The moment he spoke them the Wraith doctor looked directly at them. No, not at them. John's eyes flicked to the rooms entrance hearing the boots moments before the Wraith strode into the room. The one Wraith that had him tensing even though the action was slight with his body so deadened.

"Michael." Odd how a name could have so much meaning and send him to a completely new level of fear as the man himself strode closer.

"Michael? But we thought…the planet was nuked!" Rodney just didn't know when to keep his mouth shut but Michael merely smiled. The man was still caught between Wraith and human, the double dose of retrovirus definitely having an effect on the reversal.

"I expect you thought me dead." Michael was still smiling, speaking with such a smug confidence that, despite their predicament and the closeness of the Wraith, grated on John's nerves.

"Not really. More hoped." His words were flippant and evoked a flash of anger across Michael's face. The Wraith curled his fingers in John's hair, and grasped hard-too hard. John gritted his teeth, eye twitching at the pressure as Michael spoke.

"Outspoken to the end as always, Sheppard." The pressure eased as Michael loosened his grip, his face uncomfortably close to John's.

"You know me." John's replied nonchalantly, his mouth had become even dryer than it had been a few moments before.

Rodney was blessedly silent now, but John kept his eyes on Michael in case the scientist took it as a cue to speak; something that could only make a bad situation all the worse.

"You are strong Sheppard, stronger than most." Michael's words were almost a purr and John shivered in repulsion as his fingers starting stroking his hair, almost playing.

"That's comforting?" He wasn't sure what to say to that, or how to respond to the soft stroking glides of Michael's fingers through his hair.

"For now."

Those words had him tensing, face pensive as he waited for the blow he could see Michael preparing to deliver. The man's face was just short of satisfied, barely able to hide his pleasure.

"You've upset a lot of people, both of you." Michael glanced to Rodney but ignored the man's muttered,

"I'm so ashamed."

"Violated some, myself included and there are those of us who would be unsatisfied by a quick death for the two of you."

"Would that include you too? I'm sorry, did we upset you by trying to prevent you from feeding on us?" John smiled as he said the words, though the coldness was spreading from his stomach and up his spine, making it churn as Michael just returned the smile.

"Oh yes. But instead we decided that the punishment should fit the crime." Michael's words wrung of resolution, pushing Rodney to speak. He seemed several steps ahead of John though in the completely wrong direction.

"So what we turned you human then you make us Wraith?" McKay interrupted.

Had Michael been anyone else, John would have felt sympathy for the exasperated look that crossed the Wraith's face but at the moment he felt anything but. Obviously, McKay was spoiling the build up to Michael's diabolical plans. He half expected Michael to move threateningly close to Rodney since, outwardly at least, the man was a bundle of nerves in comparison to the calm facade John had going. Instead, he was taken back and confused. Michael only sighed and turned back to John, ignoring Rodney's question to announce almost conversationally,

"We have a new queen now."

"Great, more of you to deal with." John rolled his eyes, wondering what Michael was playing at and what the man truly wanted. Mind games weren't normally the Wraith's style, yet he did have a rather bitter grudge towards them, such as their attempt to help the violation.

Michael was smiling as though he knew something that would be more than unpleasant for John and Rodney, "Oh I don't think you'll be killing this one Sheppard, she's not yet born."

Great. That changed things. As much as John was trained to kill, trained to fight, and prepared for the horrors that had to be committed in order to win a War, he wasn't on board with the idea of killing babies. Even forsaking the nature versus nurture argument, in which Elia had demonstrated Wraith children didn‘t have to feed and were safe to be among humans.

"That does change things a tad." Rodney's words were a quiet echo of John's thoughts. John kept quiet, and continued looking at Michael, keeping his gaze steady as he waited for the blow that was sure to come.

"She'll enjoy culling your entire race."

John had no idea why they were telling them such things. Why did he think this would be of interest to them? If …when the Daedalus arrived, and Ronan and Teyla rescued them, they wouldn‘t hesitate at firing upon the hive ships, babies on board or not. Michael was too gleeful, enjoying their confusion and annoyance, and taking an almost sadistic pleasure in taunting them with information that was baffling. He needs to be knocked off his lofty perch.

"Didn't think you had kids, struck me as the type to eat your young at first sight."

The hand that gripped and tightened around his throat was unnecessary in letting John know he'd hit a sorer spot with his barb than intended, Michael's eyes were cold and angry, burning into John's for a long moment before the fingers relaxed and he stepped away.

"In this case it's more likely to be the other way around." Michael was amused again now, which was more unsettling then the fury. As though he knew a joke that wouldn't be amusing to either of them.

"So it's universal, kids'll drain the life right out of you." John didn't know if it was the quip that came to his lips that increased Michael's smile or Rodney's muttered remark,

"Didn't think that started till they reached teenage years."

Clasping his hands behind his back, Michael stifled what could have been a laugh well disguised as a cough, "In this case quite possibly Sheppard but then that's why we chose you to bear our new queen, since your strength did impress our last time so very much."

There was no real way to pinpoint and describe the emotion that spread through John at that comment. There were so many melded into one; disbelief, shock, confusion and denial. Unable to settle with just one or to believe the words he was hearing, John let out a short snort, which quickly gave way to a longer laugh almost chocking him in the process.

"You can't be serious."

The words came out in a shocked hush. John turned his head, swallowing back the laughter to look at his friend. The laughter that quickly died on his lips at the expression of sheer horror on Rodney's face.

"Relax McKay it's fine, I'm a guy remember? Even if they attempted to put anything inside me my immune system would destroy it. Foreign objects and antibody responses, High school biology." John really wished he could raise his arm and rub away the headache that was forming as he continued talking. "Not built for that sort of thing anyway, not got the right plumbing or space-" The words trailed off as he realised Rodney's expression hadn't changed, and nor had Michael's smug one.

"They may have been asleep for hundred of years, but these are the Wraith, Sheppard. Hello, bad guys who beat down the Ancients even with all their superior technology." John could see the frustration on his face as he spoke. If they'd been free Rodney would have been waving his arms in agitation. "They don't exactly sit idle, someone has to work on the ships, keep things running and what about that Scientist who experimented on Teyla's people generations ago. Judging from that they are years ahead of us in genetics alone!"

"There were more of them." John refused to consider or dwell on the small nagging voice at the back of his mind, the ones agitated and awakened by McKay' s near panic.

"How's it going to come out?"

"Out?" John echoed Rodney's word, focusing on convincing himself such a thing was a lie. Unless Beckett showed him something to the contrary, he wasn't about to believe Michael. The man seemed to be enjoying this perverse mind fuck too much, moving closer to John again his amusement obvious.

"You can't be buying this Rodney." He shook his head in disbelief, his breath hitching slightly as Rodney refused to look at him- to look him in the eyes.

He only ever does that if it's something I don't want to hear, can't hear.
Crap.

Falling silent, John was unable to process what he was hearing or ask anything, though Rodney certainly made up for that. All John caught were words that had him focusing on what he knew to be true and wanted to be true.

The Daedalus is on its way.

"Internal organ trauma, everything shifts up and the pelvis can't support that type of growth!"

Ronan and Teyla will rescue us.

"Any kind of growth more than the size of a kidney and his spleen could burst, not to mention the added strain on his other organs!"

Once Ronan frees us, I'll spend at least five minutes beating on Michael and making sure those damn fingers don't touch me again.

"He'll die, don't you get that. Even if you have come up with a way to sustain a viable fetus, he'll die before it hits a survivable age!"

"Which is why we have you, Rodney, as backup." John was barely aware that he was staring into space as Michael's fingers absently stroked over his face, "Should Sheppard not prove strong enough, we'll make another attempt with you."

The splutters and murmurs from Rodney were almost distracting, the man rendered speechless for the second time within so many hours. John could only focus on one thing at a time. His mind was barely coping and ignoring the possible truth, yet the words still slipped out; his mouth overruling his mind.

"How's it gonna stay in?"

The gentle strokes were almost comforting now, the one soothing thing to his inner turmoil and trauma and with a shudder John jerked his head away. His movement restricted, Michael ignored the attempt and continued stroking, despite John's obvious revile of the Wraith.

"They'll find us." It was what John kept telling himself, what he couldn't stop hoping, the last vestige of control he had and could verbalise.

Instead of smirking or laughing or even rolling his eyes, Michael was nodding, acceptance written all over his face, his words sending a chill through John. "We're counting on it."