A/N Ok so this is a new fandom for me. I just want to say that I'm loving Atlantis so far!

Oh and I don't own any of the characters (I just get to play with them for a while!)

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

(William Ernest Henley)

Prologue

The sun beat relentlessly down on him as he staggered onwards, every tortured step drawing him closer to home. The cuts had stopped bleeding a while ago – around about the same time he had stopped sweating – and he wondered fuzzily if that was something he should worry about. Stopping for a minute to try to get his bearings, he ran his tongue over his cracked and bleeding lips, desperately trying to get some moisture to them, before wrapping his arms more tightly about himself to shield his already damaged ribs from any more harm and setting off again with a gait that was half limp and half stagger. He no longer knew how long he had been walking since he had escaped – it might have been days – but one thought dominated his confused mind – the need to get home. So barefoot, bleeding and wearing clothes that might better be called rags he dragged himself on towards his goal.

By the time he reached the woods, his vision was once again greying at the edges, but he forced himself to continue, knowing that if he stopped he might not start again. There was no one to rescue him this time, no concerned friend to pull him back to safety – he had only himself to rely on. At least the woods were cooler and as he stumbled down a bank he realised there was a stream at the bottom. Falling to his knees, he lapped desperately at the clear water, slurping greedily. After days of no food and little water, what he managed to consume sat nauseatingly heavily on his empty stomach and it was all he could do not to be sick as his vision greyed even more.

Forcing himself to his feet, he stumbled on, dragging his left leg painfully, and trying to simply focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Catching his foot on a root he crashed to the ground again. By now he had lost count of the number of times he had fallen but, even as he longed to stay lying on the cool earth, a thought flashed through his mind – get up or die. He had come too far to fail so close to Atlantis so he pushed up from the ground again and with one last supreme effort turned his weary body towards home.

It was dark by the time he reached the city and very few people were out on the streets. His mind had shut down to the point where he could only think of getting back to the safety of the house and he scarcely registered what was going on around him, blissfully unaware of the shocked gasps from those people that saw his ragged and battered appearance. Finally the house was in front of him and he dragged himself up the stairs. A wave of dizziness hit him and he braced himself on the door frame before forcing his arm up to paw at the door – too hurt and exhausted even to knock. The door opened and he caught the warm and comforting smells of home and saw the shocked face of one of his friends before his knees finally gave way and darkness claimed him for its own at last.