stargateficrec | "The Color of Stone" by Sholio aka Friendshipper (no rating by the author, my guess: T)

Show: SGA
Rec Category: Team
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan
Pairings: none
Categories: gen
Warnings: none
Author on LJ:

sholio
Author's Website: City on the Ocean's Edge
Link: The Color of Stone by Sholio

Summary by the author:
An alien device turns the team members against each other in a desperate struggle to survive. Somewhat dark.

It's a running joke in fanon (and somewhat in canon as well) that Ronon and Teyla more or less regularly wipe the floor with John when they're sparring. Having their superior fighting skills turned against you in earnest is a frightening thought. In this story, they have to survive their attacks on each other until things are fixed and they have a chance to get back to normal.

The story captured me completely. I couldn't put it down until I knew that everything was back to normal and I got that desired feeling of relief, knowing that they would eventually be fine again.

In one hand, Ronon clutched a rock; with his other he gripped a ragged handful of Sheppard's shirt, holding the pilot's slumped body upright for the final blow.

"When Rodney fixes this --" Sheppard rasped. Blood tickled his throat and he had to stop to cough. "I hope to God you don't remember any of this. But if you do, remember --" Another cough. But Ronon hadn't hit him yet. "As your commanding officer, I'm telling you, Specialist Dex -- it's that device in there that's causing this, not you. This isn't your fucking fault and if you don't remember anything else, I want you to remember that."

Ronon didn't respond -- didn't move at all, in fact. Then he made a soft gargling sound in his throat, and very slowly keeled over to one side. His fingers relaxed on Sheppard's shirt. The grip had been the only thing holding John upright; he slumped back onto his elbows, and looked past Ronon's limp body to see a white-faced, shocked Rodney McKay, holding a slim silver syringe of clearly alien manufacture. He was just drawing it back from Ronon's upper arm.

Rodney's mouth opened and closed a few times. "You -- you -- ah --"

"Teyla," John croaked.

Rodney's forehead creased in a frown. "I was hoping you'd be able to tell me where she is. Your life signs were the first ones I found, and let me tell you, it would have been a lot less of a pain in the ass if you'd just told me where you were so I didn't have to look all over creation for --"

The thrown rock struck him in the side of the head, and he went down without a sound. The syringe, released from his limp fingers, rolled across the ground and came to a rest against Ronon's thigh.

I hate this fucking day, Sheppard thought.