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Irresistible cont.
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They found Kai still working over her laptop, a couple of empty tea mugs sitting beside her. She had pulled down her scarf and her hair was messy. Her chin was resting on her hand as she scrolled through the database. It was clear by her appearance and posture she hadn't left the lab in a while.

"Please tell me you're not in love with Lucius," John said without preamble as he came through the door.

Kai looked up from her screen and swung her chair around to face John and Rodney. Both of them looked strangely defeated. "Ah no..." she said with a frown. "Why would I be in love with Lucius?" she asked arching a brow.

"Because everyone else is," Sheppard said sighing exhaustedly.

"What do you mean?" Kai asked.

"We left and everyone but Carson was acting normal, now everyone is in love with him..." John dragged off. He scowled and looked hard into her face. "Hey, how come you aren't in love with him?" John asked suspiciously.

"He's not really my type," Kai deadpanned and she ran her eyes obviously up and down Sheppard's body.

He squirmed a little and she bit back a smile. "I don't honestly know. I've been down here since you left," Kai said more seriously.

"You haven't seen anyone?" John asked.

"No," Kai said with a shrug. "I've been working nonstop to try and meet McKay's quota."

"Thank god," McKay huffed dropped onto a stool. "Not about the quota thing, but it's bad enough with Conan the Barbarian up there staring down anyone who dares to question perfect Lucius. Adding you to that mix would be a disaster."

Kai scowled. "I don't know that I understood any of that," she confessed, trying to decide if it had been an insult to her or not.

John took a step towards her. "You don't have to, all you have to know is that he brainwashed them or something into loving him and they are very protective. I think McKay was trying to nicely say he's glad you're still on our side."

"Yeah, yeah," McKay said waving his hand dismissively as his thoughts started to race. "You know, this reminds me of an old batman episode actually. Catwoman used a drug to put a spell on batman and made him fall in love with her," McKay said stepping up to another work station. He opened the laptop and signed in. "Ended up doing all sorts of evil things for her."

"Who's batman?" Kai asked with a frown. She felt like she was missing half of their conversations.

John looked at Kai who was clearly frustrated with their constant use of pop culture references. "One of earth's mightiest heroes," he said seriously. "Anyway, doesn't matter," John said. "What matters is that we get to the bottom of this. As far as we know it's just the three of us left, but I'm going to go and see if I can find anyone else before he puts his mojo on them too."

"Sounds good," McKay agreed. "We'll keep working here, maybe check surveillance footage."

John nodded and headed out of the room.

"Watch your back," Kai called after him. If this man could somehow turn their own people against them she didn't like the idea of John going alone.

John hesitated in the doorway and met her gaze across the room. "Be safe," he told her and he disappeared down the hallway. 

McKay and Kai started looking through the video footage from the time Lucius arrived. Kai scowled at his blatant disregard for any females space and constant disrespect. Even without sound his body language and the way he treated people was enraging.

"Hey hey," McKay called snapping excitedly. "I think I have something."

Kai stood and moved to his computer. She watched the screen as it showed Lucius drinking from a small glass vial in his guest quarters.

"That could be anything," Kai pointed out.

"Or it could be everything. We need to get our hands on that vial." McKay said decisively, then he turned and stared at Kai expectantly.

She blew out a sigh and nodded. "All right, I'll get it," she agreed, knowing there was no way McKay would risk himself.

"I'll disable the cameras in that area," McKay offered.

"That would nice," she agreed with an edge of sarcasm that went straight over McKay's head. She wrapped her scarf around her hair and headed for the door. She wasn't technically armed, although she had a number of knives hidden on her body so she wasn't totally defenseless if she encountered any trouble. Of course she hadn't considered the fact that it may be their own people trying to stop her.

She moved through the halls towards the guest quarters. The city was empty and quiet. She strained her senses but couldn't hear any movement anywhere. It was almost eerie. She glanced both ways when she reached the door to his quarters. There was no movement anywhere. She was actually glad McKay was going to disable the video feed, otherwise if anyone was up in the control room they would notice her immediately.

She opened the panel and rearranged a few crystals, quickly opened the door and strode into his room. Luckily the room was empty. She dug through his bag until she found the small glass vial from the video. It didn't look suspicious. She pulled the stopper on it and sniffed. With her enhanced senses chances were good she would be able to detect anything nefarious long before McKay could. She coughed twice and sneezed. The overpowering herbal scent reminded her of the first time she met him. It was sort of musty and sour all at once. She coughed again and replaced the stopper. She slid it into her pocket and slipped back out the door. She was halfway back to the lab when she heard footsteps coming up behind her.

"Kai," Radek said coming around the corner. "I've been looking for you."

Kai frowned at the strange comment. "Did you try radioing me?" She asked.

Radek smiled but shook his head at the same time in a confusing combination of gestures. "No, Lucius said I should come see if I could find you."

Kai nodded. It was like Radek was brainwashed into somehow following Lucius's order to the letter.

"Where were you going?" Radek asked with a frown. "What are you doing down here?" He asked, as though he had suddenly realized where they were. He didn't seem to be tracking very well.

"She's working for me," McKay snapped impatiently from behind them. "We are working on...my quota," he said swaggering towards them importantly as though it were any other day.

"That is what I am doing Rodney. I am going to show Lucius the space gates," Zelenka snapped defensively as though he were a student vying for a teachers recognition.

McKay stiffened as he realized how far gone Zelenka was. "I-" He started to say, trying desperately to come up with an excuse to keep Kai away from the others, but Radek interrupted.

"Kai is my assistant and I need her help," Radek snapped defensively.

Kai turned back to face Rodney. There was no way to get out of this without causing a major scene and the vial was the most important thing. She reached for McKay's hand as though she were consoling him. If Radek was this far gone, chances were good he wouldn't notice any slightly off behaviors. Kai closed her hand around McKay's. "It's okay Rodney, I should help Lucius," she said and she winked as she slid the glass vial out of her hand into his.

Rodney startled but closed his fingers around it. "Right, well if Lucius needs you, you should for sure be there. Hurry back," he said briskly and he turned and hustled back to the lab, the vial gripped tightly in his hand.

Kai exhaled and turned to Radek. "Lead the way," she said with a forced smile. "Let's go see Lucius."

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John returned to the lab half an hour later. "What do we got McKay?" He asked tightly. He scrubbed a hand through his hair in frustration. Lucius has been thorough, there was no one left on the base who wasn't somehow under his mojo.

"You couldn't find anyone else?" McKay asked looking behind Sheppard.

John shook his head. "It seems every single person in the city has nothing but good things to say about our guest. All of the women and about half the men would marry him if he asked."

McKay screwed his face up in disgust before turning back to his computer. "Okay so...here is a little surveillance footage from his quarters," McKay said pulling it up.

Sheppard watched as he pulled a small glass vial out of his bag and drank from it.

"I had Kai search his room," McKay said holding up the vial triumphantly.

"You sent Kai?" John asked sharply. Listening to all the women gush over Lucius had made this all a little too real for John he didn't want Kai anywhere near the man. So far she had been immune to whatever mojo he was using, but she also hadn't spent much time around him.

"Yeah, well I wasn't going to go."

John shot him a disgruntled look but Rodney waved him off casually. Clearly not at all worried about Kai.

"She was fine. Look," McKay said quickly, drawing Sheppard's focus to the issue at hand. "There's some residual liquid still in the vial. It'll take some time to break it down. I could have used Carson's help on this but..." he dragged off.

"He's off picking daffodils with his new best friend. Hey, where is Kai anyway?" John asked looking around the lab.

McKay shrugged. "Zelenka called her up to help him with something. I think it was about the space gates."

John sighed. "All right, I'm going to make sure she's okay. We need to stay away from everyone else until we figure this out. We don't know how this thing spreads."

"You don't have to tell me twice. I don't need to become another of his wives."

Sheppard snorted and headed to the control room. There was only one reason Zelenka would have called Kai, and it was if his new best buddy had told him to.

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Zelenka motioned for Kai to pull up the coordinates on the computer screen for Lucius and Elizabeth. The two of them were hovering over her expectantly. Kai exhaled tightly, but there was really no way for her to slip away without seeming suspicious and she needed to buy McKay as much time as possible to figure out what was happening. She turned to her computer and pulled up what Zelenka asked.

"Wow, this is brilliant," Lucius said as the image of a space gate came up on the overhead screen.

"This is actually how we found your planet," Zelenka said proudly.

Elizabeth was staring up into Lucius's face in adoration, barely seeming to track the conversation. She was too caught up in waiting for his response.

"So you just fly to a planet, you take the gate and fly away?" Lucius asked.

"Well, we try to take star gates that are in a fixed orbit around a planet," Elizabeth explained quickly. "And then only if the planet is uninhabited. Obviously it wouldn't be right to take a gate from a world that depended on it for trade."

"Wait a minute," Lucius said as though the thought had just struck him. "I've heard of this planet," he said looking at the next planet's coordinates that flashed on the screen.

"You have?" Elizabeth asked excitedly.

"Yeah I have. And I've heard that this planet is completely uninhabited," he shrugged a little too casually. "That's what I've heard. I don't know about you guys, but I've got a good feeling about this planet," he said tapping the screen.

"Well then we could retrofit the gate for space deployment," Elizabeth said excitedly.

Lucius smiled warmly and reached out to touch Elizabeth's face. "Beautiful and brilliant, the two B's," he said.

Elizabeth blushed and giggled. "Well Kai has been doing a lot of the work," Elizabeth said.

Kai stared at Elizabeth in disgust as Lucius turned his attention to her. He reached towards her and she pulled back just out of reach. Instead of touching her skin his fingers grazed the end of her scarf.

He rubbed it between two of his fingers thoughtfully. "You're such a pretty girl, it's a shame you hide yourself in this way," he commented and took another step towards Kai. "I mean I understand your people prefer it, but there's no reason to hide such a beautiful body beneath so many layers. What would be the point of that? Am I right?"

Kai swallowed back the response that was on the tip of her tongue, but she was trapped against the console, her exit blocked by Lucius and Radek, who uncharacteristically didn't seem to have any problems with Lucius's actions.

John came up behind them just in time to hear the last comment. Lucius was practically pinning Kai to the terminal. He forced himself to lock down his muscles and casually lean against one of the terminals before he punched Lucius for touching her. Every instinct in his head was screaming at him to get Kai as far away from this man as possible.

"Doctor Weir," John said, tapping his fingers against the terminal.

Everyone turned to face Sheppard. Relief flashed in Kai's eyes and came with such intensity John felt a tightness in his chest. He frowned, knowing it somehow came from Kai. It made it that much harder to ignore. He cleared his throat and tightened his jaw.

"Oh hi John," Elizabeth said still smiling as though there was nothing wrong with what was happening.

Over their shoulder however Kai's face was a mask of barely contained rage. Her anger helped him. If she had been afraid he wasn't sure he would have been able to keep it together.

Weir was completely oblivious. "We were just discussing the gate harvesting program."

"Yeah I heard," John said tightly. He let his gaze flicker over Kai's, just so she would know he wasn't going to leave her, but he kept his focus on Lucius. He may come across as a bumbling fool, but there was something cunning behind his eyes.

"-And Lucius knows of an excellent planet we should investigate," Elizabeth said turning back to face Lucius, a smitten smile on her face.

"I heard that too," John said tightly. Not only did he have to save everyone from Lucius, but it seemed he was going to have to save them from themselves as well. "We got intel that the Wraith recently set up a major outpost there. An alliance of three hives."

Lucius turned to John in shock. "No, really?" he gasped dramatically.

"Well," Elizabeth hedged in disbelief. "Has your intel been verified?"

"We haven't put boots on the ground, no," John replied "but our contacts are trustworthy."

The other's faces clearly showed they didn't think that was good enough.

John bristled, not keeping as tight of a hold on his temper as he should have. "I'm not going to send a team down there, not when there are plenty more gates to Scout."

"John," Elizabeth scolded gently. "You are way behind on Rodney's quota."

"Forget Rodney's quota," John snapped impatiently. "I am not sending a team into harm's way."

Before Elizabeth could speak up and argue Lucius stepped forward. "You know what, Colonel Sheppard's right. I mean don't get me wrong, with all of your advanced technology, you could easily dispose of one tiny Wraith outpost, if there even is an outpost. But ultimately, is it worth the risk, no matter how small the risk may be? I mean sure, people may label you a coward-"

John couldn't believe Elizabeth was actually listening to this guy. "Would you knock it off?" He snapped at Lucius.

Elizabeth and Zelenka looked at him in shock, behind them a smirk pulled at the corner of Kai's lips.

"Colonel," Elizabeth admonished. "I think this is worth investigating."

John's jaw tightened. "No, I won't allow it."

"John, are you questioning my authority?" Elizabeth challenged.

"Well, when it comes to the security of this base you're damn right I am," he snapped stalking into Elizabeth's space. He didn't care what was happening to them, he wouldn't let this craziness endanger anyone else. "From now on, no one goes through the gate without my authorization. Zian, you're with me," he ordered sharply.

John spun away and stalked off before he punched Lucius in his chubby face. Kai eagerly took the excuse to escape, just as she was walking away she heard the last snippets of their conversation.

"This isn't like him Lucius," Elizabeth quickly assured him. "I apologize."

"He makes me uncomfortable."

"He's really a good man," Elizabeth assured him quickly.

"I don't see it," Lucius said with a shake of his head. "If he doesn't come around you're going to have to do something."

Kai stumbled a step and John turned back to check on her. He caught her arm and looking around, quickly directed her down an empty service hallway. She looked pale.

"Are you okay?" John asked. He wanted to reach out and touch her, but with everything happening he wasn't sure if it was a good idea.He tightened his grip on her arm for a moment before releasing her.

Kai let out a shuddering breath. The underlying danger felt like it was growing with every passing moment. It hadn't been overt, but she had heard the hint of the threat against John, and in her current state Elizabeth wouldn't fight Lucius on it. Kai lifted her eyes to meet John's gravely. "We need to figure this out, fast. He just threatened you," she told him.

John blew out a sigh. "And I'm normally so likable," he said ironically.

Kai snorted humorlessly but a pounding had started behind her left eye and she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Let's get back to the lab before anything else goes wrong," John said.

Kai nodded and followed him down a service hallway towards the labs. She frowned as a weird feeling went over her. She shook her head and forced herself to keep up with John and stay focused.

John stormed into the lab ahead of Kai. He needed to solve this problem now.

"Bad news?" McKay asked without looking up from his microscope.

"Elizabeth wants to send a team to check out a gate at a suspected Wraith outpost!" John exclaimed throwing his hands in the air.

McKay frowned. "What is she nuts?"

"Everybody's nuts McKay, haven't you noticed?"

"Right," Rodney agreed with a sigh.

"We need to figure out why without drawing too much attention to ourselves,"
John said.

"I'm working on it, but there's not enough liquid to work with, I need more."

John blew out a breath and nodded, glad he had something to do. "You two stay here and hold down the fort. I'll go back to Lucius's village. I'm sure he keeps a stash there, I'll just grab some."

"Wait, you're leaving? With all of this going on?" McKay asked pitifully. His eyes flew to Kai who was standing off to the side looking a little distracted.

"Well you said you needed the liquid," John pointed out. He frowned and followed McKay's gaze to Kai. She hadn't done anything out of the ordinary so John wasn't sure what had distracted McKay.

"Yeah, but this place is turning into a nuthouse," McKay whined.

"Just keep away from the nuts," John soothed. "And you've got to disable the DHD as soon as I'm gone to prevent anybody else from dialing out. Understand?" He asked looking between the two of them.

Kai's expression was passive. She nodded and flashed him an uncharacteristic smile.

John scowled as a bad feeling went over him. "Just, look out for each other okay?" McKay nodded but Kai didn't respond. "Kai?" He prompted.

Kai blinked and it felt like she was breaking from a trance. She shook her head and nodded reassuringly. "Of course Colonel," she said in a soft voice.

Still slightly unsettled, John headed back towards the gate room. It wasn't until he had crossed the event horizon that he was able to pinpoint what exactly about the interaction had bothered him. Kai never referred to him by his rank unless they were off world, or surrounded by enemies. She also had agreed far too easily to be left behind on Atlantis with McKay.

John hurried towards the center of town. He needed to get back to Atlantis. Fast.

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I hope you enjoyed the update! I'm sorry it took so long to get one out. Real life happened and I got super busy with work. Hope you are all doing well! Thank you as always for your support and encouragement!