Story summary: Jinto stumbles upon a strange room while playing hide & seek with a friend in Atlantis at night. He inadvertently releases a dark entity that feeds on energy which escapes into the city and begins to wreak havoc. But the dark entity was not the only thing imprisoned in the Ancient device. The Ancients were scientists, but not all science is ethical. Especially not during wartime.

Chapter summary: In which Jinto plays hide and seek, and finds more than he ever dreamed of.

Dragons of Atlantis

1: Accidental Find

Jinto loved playing seek-and-find. Especially when he got be the Seeker. This time he not only got to be the Seeker, he got to be Maj. John Sheppard. Maj. Sheppard was Jinto's hero. The Atlanteans were all amazing and different but Maj. Sheppard was the best!

Which is why, when Jinto held the piece of dead wood in his hand like Sheppard held his loud weapon, he felt brave. He was Sheppard. He was a brave adventurer stalking the dark halls of Atlantis hunting the lone Wraith who'd managed to sneak past their defenses. He would find the Wraith, 'take it out' as Sheppard would say, and then win the game.

He rounded the corner and came face-to-face with… a door. The door was made of the odd metal all of Atlantis seemed to built from with colorful rectangles of glass and backlit by a dim, golden light. It looked like a lot of the other doors throughout the mysterious city Jinto and his fellow Athosians temporarily called 'home.'

But there was just something different about this door. Jinto couldn't think of what made it different, it was just… different. The golden backlight made the warm reds, oranges, and yellows of the glass feel welcoming and seemed to beckon Jinto towards it. There was an odd shadow in the center of the glass door that flickered just enough to draw Jinto's attention and ignite his imagination.

What would Sheppard do?

Investigate. Duh.

Smiling to himself, Jinto looked both ways to be sure the hallway running perpendicular to the one he just came from was clear. He didn't want to get caught. He loved his dad, but he didn't want to see the look of disappointment on his face. Jinto knew he wasn't really allowed to be out wandering Atlantis alone and definitely not at night. But Sheppard did and Sheppard was Jinto's hero. If Sheppard could do it, then Jinto would learn to do it.

So he stalked towards the door and waved his hand by the locking mechanism which glowed a soft white on the wall next to the door. The colorful glass slid aside revealing a small room. Strange. It was so small. Maybe three adults could fit in here, but it would be squishy. Still, Sheppard would investigate so Jinto had to investigate.

He stepped into the small room and checked it out, bracing his wooden weapon on his shoulder like Sheppard always did and aiming it all around the room just in case. It was full of Atlantean boxes and cases. This must be a storage closet. The glint of the light on the metallic cases must have been the flickering Jinto noticed earlier.

Allowing his weapon to dip a little bit, Jinto looked up at the screen that appeared in the center of the back wall. It looked like a map of Atlantis with several white spots scattered around the city. The spots were pulsing slightly.

One spot in particular was pulsing with a brighter ring of white around it. It looked like it was close to the center of the city. Was that… Was that where he was right now? Curious, Jinto reached out and tapped the spot. The spot flashed and a soft tinkling chime echoed in the small room right before the glass door slid closed behind him.

Oh no.

The first inkling of fear began to crawl up Jinto's spine when he turned around and saw the closed doors. It'll be alright. All he had to do was wave his hand over the door lock and… There was no door lock in here. Nothing. Just Jinto and the map of Atlantis. Now what?

Scream? Not yet. There was a little part of Jinto that wanted to call for his Dad, but if he did that then he would be in trouble. Not to mention, Sheppard would find out and Jinto didn't want his hero to think little of him.

So what would Sheppard do? Investigate. Hefting his wooden weapon, Jinto rolled his shoulders and turned back to the map. The dot that had been pulsing brighter before wasn't pulsing anymore. They were all pulsing dimly now. Nervously, Jinto licked his lips and took a deep breath. Investigate. He tapped one of white spots and blinked.

Weird. His body was tingling a little bit. Other than that, nothing happened. Oh, wait. The white dot he'd tapped was pulsing now. A hiss from behind him startled him badly enough that he jumped and may have- may have squeaked. A little bit.

The doors were open now. Jinto wasn't going to hesitate just in case the doors closed on him again. Not that he was afraid or anything. He just didn't like small, enclosed places. That's all.

Really.

Wait. When did the lights in the hallway go out? It had been bright, well brighter when Jinto left the hallway. Lifting his wooden weapon back to his shoulder, Jinto looked around the dark room. A few lights on the wall lit up, brightening up the room and Jinto realized he wasn't back in the hallway. He wasn't anywhere he recognized.

Where was he?

Daddy?

Swallowing back his fear, Jinto bit his lip and inched further into the room. There was absolutely nothing familiar. There were no windows or doors except for the one he just walked through. How did he get here? Where was here?

Investigate.

With a heavy gulp, Jinto ventured further into the unfamiliar room. His eyes were drawn to several pedestals in the middle of the room. They looked a lot like the pedestals with those clear crystal things the Atlanteans used to control the Stargate. The adults never allowed Jinto to touch them but he'd always been curious.

But the most interesting part of the room was the light source. It was coming from a large, cylindrical device set on a podium behind the control pedestals. The glowing orange cylinder was set on its side and bound in a coppery colored metal with sliding knobs on its sides. It also made a low humming sound that Jinto hadn't noticed before. But now that he was aware of it, he couldn't not notice it.

It was strange but its glow was warm like cook fires back on Athos. Jinto missed Athos. This device didn't give off any warmth, but its glow was comforting. He sniffed and lowered his stick. He missed his home. He missed his mother. He wanted his Father.

Tears prickled the corners of his eyes and slipped down his cheeks. He allowed himself a few moments to sniffle quietly before pulling himself together. Father taught him crying was wise, but to never let it control him. Crying allowed the body to relieve itself of pent up stress. But his pent up energy should be funneled to solving the problem, not worrying about it.

He would get out of this. He would. Just… after a let himself sniffle a bit more. Leaning forward, he let the tip of his stick brush the metal floor and his forehead to rest against the cylinder.

The light went out and the hum fell silent. Instantly, the room become pitch black dark and the air became thick and oily. Terrified, Jinto dropped to his knees and pressed himself to the podium the cylinder rested on. He clutched his stick to his chest and stared at the dark room around him.

The eerie silence was broken by a low hiss followed by a sigh and the sound of a body falling to the ground. Jinto hated that sound. Running from the Wraith all his life had made that sound something he was intimately familiar with and utterly terrified of. That sound meant someone had been hit by a Wraith stunner and would be left behind. Never to be seen again. Fall and you were dead. That was the life Jinto knew.

He still couldn't resist looking. It was too dark to make out any clear details but the body looked vaguely human. The darkness swirled and Jinto squinted to see through…

The darkness swirled. It was moving!

Freezing in place, Jinto actually looked at the darkness around him. It really was moving. It swirled and had an odd appearance, like looking at smudged ash on rocks around a fire pit. Then the darkness moved across the room, away from Jinto and the body on the floor, to the far wall.

After a few tense seconds when Jinto could hear his heartbeat pound in his ears, the lights flickered back on in the room. Releasing the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, Jinto gasped and pulled his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his shins, and whimpering.

There was no sound. The silence was a loud roar in his ears after the low hum from the cylinder and his heartbeat from moments before. Actually, there was another sound. Breathing. And it wasn't Jinto's.

Frowning, Jinto risked a wary glance at the body still sprawled on the floor just out of his immediate reach. Now that the lights were back on, Jinto could see the person more clearly. They did look human but their clothes were strange. They weren't the earthy tones the Athosians wore or the dark grays, blacks, and greens the Atlanteans preferred. They were a pale blue, like the strange green-blue sheen the metal of the Atlantis sometimes had when the light hit it just right. A cape of dark green-blue lay draped over the fallen form further disguising the person's appearance.

The person was sprawled on their right side. Their short inky black hair fell every which way over his shoulder and the floor from the fall. A flash of white sparked Jinto's curiosity which eventually overpowered his fear. Pushing himself to his hands and feet, Jinto crawled across the floor to the person's side to get a better look. The white was actually part of the person's hair. Thick bands of the snowy white framed their face while other strands streaked through the black further back the person's head.

Jinto reached out to push the white bangs aside when his knee bumped something. Cautiously, he looked down and gulped. Jinto's people used some energy weapons to fight, but their society was mainly agrarian. Knives and staves were the Athosian weapons of choice. But Jinto knew a sword when he saw one.

The pommel was made of a sturdy, dark bluish metal with a thick crossguard. The blade itself was hidden inside the dark scabbard which was sturdy enough to be metal but felt like leather. Leather covered metal perhaps?

Jinto licked his lips, sincerely wishing the person didn't wake up and attack him. Glancing back at the person's still face, slack from unconsciousness, Jinto noticed something he'd missed before. Frowning, he pressed himself close to the floor to get a better look at the person's face. They looked young. Older than Jinto but not as old as Maj. Sheppard. Yet whoever it was had seen violence.

Their right eye was slashed clean through. The thin, brown scar sliced down the pale skin of the person's eyelid from the eyebrow to the cheek. Jinto wasn't a healer, but he'd seen wounds like that before. He knew that eye would never be usable again. He winced sympathetically.

Actually, the scar wasn't the only wound on the person's body. Now that Jinto got a good look at the young stranger, there were several minor burns on the pale face and some of their clothes were singed. What could have caused that?

Did the moving darkness do that? Gulping back his mounting fear, Jinto began to think. He was trapped in this strange room with a strange, wounded person. They both needed to get out of here. Jinto wanted to see his Dad again and this stranger needed help from the nice Atlantean doctor with the funny accent.

That meant Jinto had to admit he'd made a mistake and call for help. This was going to be embarrassing. But Maj. Sheppard made mistakes too sometimes and he owned up to them. This stranger needed a hero like Jinto had needed a hero. Sheppard wasn't here, but Jinto was. Jinto would be this person's hero.

Now, he thought, getting to his feet and looking around, how did he call for help? The warm glow from the cylinder was gone and, based on what happened last time Jinto touched it, he wasn't going to risk touching it again. Those control pedestals though…

He approached the first one and stared at the rectangular crystals that glowed with a pure, white light from inside the pedestal. There were symbols in the Ancestors' language etched on the crystals and the metal the pedestals were made of. He couldn't read them and he didn't want to do something bad by accident, but they needed help.

With a deep breath, Jinto reached out and started touching things.