[identity profile] teh-bug.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] sga_flashfic
 Title: reset
Author: [profile] teh_bug
Rating: PG
Words: 911
Category: Gen with some strong friendship/debatably slashy elements
Summary: If at first you don't succeed, start over and try again.



It starts with the sound of screams and blue eyes and no, no, no, oh God, oh God, this wasn't supposed to happen.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

reset 

"Zelenka!"

"Yes, Rodney, I know,"  Radek sighs.  "I know what happened to the mice, I know what was supposed to happen, and I know you think it's a waste of time.  However, I still think we are making significant progess towards a better version of the gene therapy."

Hold on....

"You're a doctor?"

Radek rolls his eyes, mutters something in Czech, realizes that he isn't joking and stares.  "Yes....and so are you."

"No, no, no.  Not a Ph.D doctor, but one of those doctors that do the poking with the needles and the drawing blood and never take me seriously when I tell them about my citrus allergy."

"You aren't allergic to citrus," Radek answers automatically.  "But yes, I am....and you know this.  You've known this since we met and you accused me of being Russian and performing inhumane medical experiments on you instead of the mice."

This wasn't supposed to happen.....

Radek frowns.  "Are you feeling okay, Rodney?"

He shakes his head.  "I must've...."

reset

Radek blinks slowly, slumped against a wall."Oh, you're still alive." 

Why wouldn't....

The feeding mark stands out above the other scars like a beacon on his chest. 

Oh God.

Radek blinks again, drained, exhausted, hollow. "What are you doing here?" 

reset


"This isn't right!"

"What isn't right, Rodney?" Radek's eyes are sympathetic blue and his smile is soft and sincere.

"All of it," he gestures around them. "This...this room. You. Me. It-it..."

Radek nods and jots something down on the notepad in front of him. "Can you pinpoint what it is that makes you feel that it isn't right?" 

He watches the words form behind Radek's pen. "Yes." 

"And is there anything you can do about it?"

reset

"Don't send me back, don't send me back, please, don't send me back." Radek sobs breathlessly. His hair is matted and clothes are rags and reeking. He reaches for him with dirty, skeleton fingers and frantic desperation. "Please," he begs, in Ancient, "Don't send me back." 

"I'm sorry," He says, "I'm so sorry."

reset

Radek's eyes are golden. 

reset


"Visser Three!" Radek starts out desperately. "I can explain! It-it was a power fluctuation, a-a minor malfuction. I-I...it won't happen again! We-we've taken care of the prob-" 

reset

Radek grins lazily, and sprawls like he's twenty. "Or we could do it right here, out in the open, on a lab table, where anyone could walk in and see us. That would work too."

He quirks his head to the side and frowns questioningly. "This seems familiar... We haven't done this before, have we?" 

reset

The pigeon (dove? fat swallow? seriously?) on Radek's shoulder coos and Radek strokes it absentmindedly.

"Rodney?" He frowns. "What's going on? What are you doing?" 

"Don't worry about it."

reset

"Fingers in the universe, tearin' all the seams," Radek sing-songs and traces patterns in the air. "Fingers in the universe, makin' all new dreams." He tilts his head to the side and pauses. "We're not watercolors, you know."

"What?" This is wrong, wrong, so wrong..... 

His blue eyes twirl sickly. "We're not watercolors, Rodney, we're not supposed to blur together." Radek bites his lip and tilts his head to the other side. "Or maybe we are. I don't remember." 

reset

"I don't get it...you shouldn't..."

Radek laughs bitterly and takes another drag off his cigarette. "Did you really think there wouldn't be any consequences when you started screwing with time and space, McKay?" He drums on the table and the gears whir inside his mechanical arm. 

"You're not supposed to remember..."

reset

"You're not supposed to remember!"

"I don't remember, Rodney! That's why I asked you!" Radek snaps. He sighs, takes off his glasses and rubs the bridge of his nose. "I just know something's wrong. There's more than just you in the world, you know.  I have a whole base of people to be concerned with." 

He's wearing commander red.

"I'm sorry, I have to fix this..."

reset 

There's a snarl of something gutteral and not Czech and that's his only warning before he's bodyslammed against the wall.

"The hell do you think you're doing, McKay?!" The accent (Russian? German? Slovak?) harshes Radek's words. There's a flash of military insignia and no, no, no, oh please work, no.... 

reset

"I'm fixing it it!  I'm cleaning up my mistakes!" He shouts.  This is wrong too.  It doesn't matter.  "Isn't that what you always want me to do?  I'm taking responsibility for my actions!"

"You're running!"  Radek shoots back.  He's missing his accent and his glasses.  "You messed up and now you're trying go back and do it over again!  That's not taking responsibility, it's pretending it never happened!  What's done is done, McKay, you can't change it!"

"Yes, I can!  Yes, I can! I can fix this!  Trust me!"

reset

"Please, Rodney, stop this," Radek pleads. He has a rosary wrapped around his hand (priest? pastor? just pious?) and those blue, blue eyes are tired. "You can't fix this."  His eyes flash with understanding and unwanted compassion.  "Rodney," He says softly, kindly.  "You can't fix the whole world by yourself."

He snorts a laugh.  "I'm not trying to."

Behind him, John gasps into a mask and claws at his restraints.

reset

(no subject)

Date: 2008-03-02 05:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] americanleaguer.livejournal.com
Sorry, I got to the part where Radek calls him Visser Three and then my brain exploded because holy shit blast from the fuckin' past! I think I flashed back to a solid third of my childhood right there. Not something I expected to see in a SGA fic!

A++, would freak out again.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-03-02 08:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ceitie.livejournal.com
Neat fic, I love all the little snippets.

Wow

Date: 2008-03-02 08:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] linziday.livejournal.com
Really cool! Excellent.

*chuckle* Radek's eyes are golden. :)

(no subject)

Date: 2008-03-02 01:06 pm (UTC)
leesa_perrie: two cheetahs facing camera and cuddling (Sexy Czech)
From: [personal profile] leesa_perrie
Lovely, and chilling. You can feel Rodney's desperation loud and clear.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-03-02 01:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] agdrgn.livejournal.com
Oh my gosh poor Rodney (and everyone else) - he's so screwed and it's all despair. Chillingly fine.

--silverthreads

(no subject)

Date: 2008-03-03 04:48 am (UTC)
sholio: sun on winter trees (Rodney Katie cactus)
From: [personal profile] sholio
Chilling and painful, but fascinating. I loved seeing all the variations on Radek -- he doesn't get nearly enough fic-love! :D

(no subject)

Date: 2008-03-03 03:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hotels-inthesea.livejournal.com
i LOVE the cigarette-and-mechanical-arm!Radek.

this fic is really original and i reckon the number of comments it has recieved is disproportionate to its greatness. I love it! I'm not sure i understand all of it though...or for that matter, any of it! NOT that this is a bad thing. Still..mind giving a little explanation re John at the end?

(no subject)

Date: 2008-03-04 01:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hotels-inthesea.livejournal.com
oh awesome! well my initial response when i read the ending actually WAS "ohh he's not trying to save the world! he's screwing up the universe in an attempt to save JOHN!" So i guess initially i had the right idea. But then i re-read it and the ending confused me because um, I couldn't tell if John was a)recovering from some near-death experience or b)in restraints because he was dangerous.
also i got a bit confused about the role of Radek - is he trying to help Rodney or prevent him from doing something stupid, and if it's all for John, then why is Zelenka popping up everywhere, and why is it that he sometimes sounds a little evil...is he actually trying to keep John dead? And at the very end, has john been saved or is it simply revealed that he is Rodney's motive?

lol. I think i actually figured it out after writing all of that. Huh. Neat! Now i feel really, really, really bad for Rodney.

Also, i would marry Mechanical arm!Radek, he's a dream boat. *siigh*

(no subject)

Date: 2008-03-03 05:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dana-carter-sgx.livejournal.com
Just... WOW! I loved it! So complex and misterious and... well, I think at the moment my brain is so overloaded that I can't think of more words to describe your wonderful fic.

Probably you didn't have it in mind, but I would love to see this turning into a series of fics... ^^

(And thank you for using Radek! He's a so underused character, despite his greatness! T_T)

Edit: Oh! And I must say I was especially stuned by this bit:

"Don't send me back, don't send me back, please, don't send me back." Radek sobs breathlessly. His hair is matted and clothes are rags and reeking. He reaches for him with dirty, skeleton fingers and frantic desperation. "Please," he begs, in Ancient, "Don't send me back."

"I'm sorry," He says, "I'm so sorry."

I'm not totally sure of what to make of it, but it's one of the most intriguing things I've read in a while!


(no subject)

Date: 2008-03-04 05:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dana-carter-sgx.livejournal.com
That's *exactly* what I meant, thank you!

So glad the idea has crossed your mind! I hope you find the inspiration/time/want to do, at least, some of them!
My favourite ones would be the Radek in rags that doesn't want to 'come back' (creeepy!), golden-eyed!Radek (O_o), crazy!Radek (that *so* reminded me of 'the Moon Man', the character David Nykl played in a 'Coldsquad' episode... if you're curious, you can find his scenes on Youtube), and priest!Radek. Well, Radek as comander of the base, doctor or psychologist is good, too, and obviously the one with the pidgeons is terribly cute (and canon!), and...

Well, obviously, I like all of them ^^U

(no subject)

Date: 2008-03-04 12:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] trystings.livejournal.com
Awesome! And the more I read it, the more awesome it gets. Great fic.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-03-06 03:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cesperanza.livejournal.com
I thought this was great and I TOTALLY got the end!! It was right there! Gene therapy, John, claws, I'm THERE.

(no subject)

Date: 2009-03-08 06:34 am (UTC)
ext_19377: (Default)
From: [identity profile] tieleen.livejournal.com
Oh, poor Radek -- and poor Rodney, but it's only right that Radek gets more sympathy. I really liked this. And the one with Rodney apologizing was a lot more spine-chilliness than I would have expected from context-less three lines.

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