SGA story for SGA flashfiction 'Must Be Dreaming' Challenge   

Title: Promises to keep
Author: Bluetoads
Word count: 1,962

Rating: PG-13
Pairing: None
Spoilers: 4x20 Last Man
Notes: Ronon, Team, gen. Not beta’d.

Summary: The whispers follow him as he races through the halls

I

The day is warm with just enough of a breeze to keep you from getting too hot. The sky is a crystal clear blue without a cloud in it. The sun is a bright yellow globe shining down on us. It’s what Sheppard calls beach weather. Sheppard had decided it was a prefect day for team building and had rounded us all up and dragged us to the North pier for swimming, sunning and barbeque. The water is warm and I enjoy the warmth and salty tang while I swim off the pier. I‘ve been in the water about an hour now. Sheppard and Teyla joined me for a bit but they retreated to the pier a while ago. Teyla to lay in the sun and Sheppard to start the food. I stop swimming when my arms start to ache and just lay back into warmth of the water with my eyes closed. My back is to the others and I smile as I listen into my teammates talk. McKay is bitching about the sun and how much radiation we’re all getting and for god’s sake Sheppard put your shirt back on, do you want to die from cancer, here put this on I made it myself it’s SPF 100. Teyla asks if Sheppard needs any help with the food. Sheppard drawls for Rodney to relax and enjoy the sun, it’s good for you and if Teyla could pull out the plates that would be great. I hear Col Carter ask if anyone has a preference for music before something with a lot of drums starts up. Sheppard calls out to me to come on back, foods ready. I enjoy listening to my teammates bicker and play. We don’t have time to relax very often anymore and with the Athosians gone there are no more trips to the mainland. I know Sheppard misses the beaches. We haven’t made it to this planets mainland yet.

II

Then all sound stops. I hear nothing from behind me, not even the music. The water around me gets much warmer and feels thicker somehow and the salt tang is suddenly much stronger. It’s the smell that registers first. Once smelt, you never forget it. It lingers on the back of your tongue making you gag. I open my eyes and the sky overhead is no long blue but gray, solid gray and over cast. I look down into the water and it’s no longer blue. It’s deep red, the red of deep venous blood. The ocean has turned to blood. It clings to me in a way water can’t. I flip around and look to the pier. I see my team on the ground, unmoving. I quickly stroke to the pier and pull myself out of the ocean of blood leaving bloody hand prints and foot prints behind me on the metal of the pier. I reach Teyla first. She is laying on her blanket but is unmoving. As I reach her I see she has been fed on by a Wraith. All that is left is wrinkled skin and bone. I gentle bend down and touch her face. Her eyes pop open and she stares at me accusingly. Her lips move. I bend closer so my ear is almost touching her lips. She whispers, “You didn’t come, you left me and my baby to die. I trusted you, you failed me!” Then her body disintegrated into dust and blows away leaving me with dust in my eyes and the taste of ashes on my lips.

III

I stand and see Col Carter next. She is standing facing away from me looking toward the doors that lead inside. As I take a step towards her she turn to me. She reaches a hand out to me and says, “We trusted you, John trusted you. You failed us. You left Teyla, you left John. You gave up on us, why did you do that?”  Then she bursts into flames. Her whole body a tower of flame, then she explodes in a blaze of light. I turn away and shield my eyes. When I turn back there is nothing left but a scorch mark on the metal of the pier where she had been standing a moment before and the redness on my skin from the heat..

IV

I turn toward where McKay had been sitting. He’s laying face down on the ground now, his arms and legs at odd angles. I rush to him and gentle turn him over. He’s a mess of cuts and slashes and blood, blood everywhere. He’s broken and bloody. His throat is slashed open and I know he’ll bleed out any minute now. I try to stop the blood from bubbling out of him with my hands but there’s too much. His eyes snap open and he stares at me accusingly. His lips move. I can’t figure out how he can speak at all. I barely hear him say, “You left me; you left us, look what happened! You promised Sheppard you’d keep us safe but you left us. Now look at us! You broke your promise, how could you do that to him? He trusted you.”  Then the light fades from his eyes and he is gone, his body just fades away till it too is gone. All that is left is the blood on my hands. I back away, looking franticly around. McKay, Teyla, Carter. No Sheppard. Where the hell was Sheppard! I turn back to the water and its still blood. I turn back to the city and it’s floating in an ocean of blood. There are black birds circling the central tower. I race into the city and everywhere I look there are bones. Dried, yellowing bones. Everyone in the city is dead. The whispers follow me as I race through the halls trying to find Sheppard, trying to find anyone alive in a city that just that morning had hundreds of people in it.  “You left us! You left us to die! How could you, you promised to protect us” Protect us and you promised seem to echo off the walls.

V

I round a corner near the control room and find the Wraith Sheppard called Todd standing in the middle of my path. He’s smiling. I ask, what are you smiling about? He, it laughs and says, “Sheppard trusted you. You made a promise to him and then you broke it.”

“It wasn’t like that!” I yell at the creature. He just shakes his head

“I made a promise to him too but I kept my promise as he did his to me. You don’t find it funny that I, his enemy, could keep my promise to him but you, his trusted friend and team mate, broke yours almost as soon as he turned his back? Who was more trust worthy humm?”  Then the creature starts laughing and doesn’t stop. I pull my gun and blast the bastard away. He finally stops laughing as his body hits the floor dead and does not move again. His laughter still rings in my head.

I skirt the body and continue to the gate room. I find him there. He’s standing before the Ancestors ring, his back to me. He’s a slim black figure against the blue of the active ring. His hair is sticking up all over even worse than usual. He doesn’t move as I approach him. I say his name “Sheppard?” He turns at my voice. There’s something wrong but I can’t quite figure out what it is. He’s all in black with a long black duster and his black sunglasses. That must be it. I’ve never seen him in anything that long. He cocks his head at me and I see his left eyebrow wing up over the sunglasses. He drawls “Ronon”

“They’re all dead” I say.

“Whose fault is that Ronon?” he asks me. “You promised me you’d look after them but you left and now they’re all dead.” He shakes his head “You broke your promise Ronon.” He turns away from me back to the ring and takes a step forward.

I raise my hand to him and shout, “wait!” He stops and halfway turns back to me with another head tilt and eyebrow raise but doesn’t say anything. “You died Sheppard, you left first. I tried but I can do more out there.”

 “I’m not dead Ronon. I didn’t leave.” He shrugs “I’m still here. You left me. You all left me.”

I shake my head no “No, you never came back. We looked but no one had any information on what happened to you. We thought you’d been taken but we never found anything. Then they said you had been lost in the ring and were dead.”

“I’m still here Ronon, you just aren’t looking in the right place.” He replies to me.

“How do I find you?” I see him give his trademark smirk toward me and then he says “you already know” Then he turns back to the ring and the lights start to go out. I hear the city shutting down around us with a sigh till there are no more lights and the only sounds heard is the ring and us. The only light left is the blue from the ring. It’s dark outside the stained glass windows behind the ring. I try one more time “wait” He half turns to me again and gives me a last head tilt and smirk. He brings his left hand up and pulls his sunglasses down a bit so he’s looking at me over the rim. I suck in a sharp breath at what I see and take an involuntary step back. His eyes are glowing green. Bright green, like new leaves. “It’s too late for that Ronon, much too late” He turns away then, letting his arm drop back to his side. As I watch his long black coat seems to part and it’s not a coat at all. It turns out to be large black wings. They spread and flex then with a powerful down stroke he shoots up in to the air. The jumper bay doors are open and I watch him fly out and away. Glowing eyes and black wings till it’s just me and the ring. I look back to the ring and see something on the floor before it. I bend down and pick it up. It’s a black feather and is about two feet long. I look up once more but there is nothing to see. He’s gone, the city is dead. I look around one more time then clutching the feather in my fist I step into the ring.

VI

I awake with a shout and tumble out of my cot on to the damp ground. My heart races and my breath is harsh panting. The tent flap opens and Direl my lieutenant sticks his head in and looks at me on the ground “You Ok?” he asks looking concerned. I can see dawn is just lightening the sky over his shoulder. It was a dream, just a dream and it’s time to get up anyways. “Yeah, bad dream” He nods at me not needing to say anything and withdraws letting the tent flap fall back into place. I start to push myself back up and stand when I feel my fingers brush something soft. I look down and there on the ground is a huge, glossy, black feather about the length of my forearm.

Went back to the park this afternoon and did the 1 mile trail around the lake. I almost didn't go but after getting back from the campus bookstore I sat for a bit and then guilted myself into going. I wasn't sure about it at first as it started to rain as soon as I go out the door. But I decided to stick it out as I was out there already and the sky had light spots so I was hoping the sun would come out pretty quick. After about 10 minutes it did and then it was a nice walk. I figured out I walk a little over 2 miles totals from leaving my door to getting back. It took me 10 minutes to walk to the park and the start of the lake trail in the park then I timed myself at each marked quarter mile and found I was doing a nice pace of 4 minute quarter miles so I finished the trail in just under 20 minutes and walked home for another 10 minutes. Not bad. I need to do 2 miles at least 3 days a week so this works out perfect. Only problem I had was on the way out of the park my left ankle started giving me a hard time. When I got home I dug out my ankle brace and put it on and it feels fine now. I haven't had to wear the brace for almost 2 years so I wasn't happy but it's not bad.