Million Miles from Yesterday
Chapter Six

Buffy held Giles's hand. He'd been hit with a spear during the attack on the RV. She'd run to stop this from happening. To keep her friends, her family, safe and here was Giles. Bleeding and there was nothing she could do.

Oh, she knew how to clean the odd scratch and deal with a bruise or two. At a pinch she could probably do something about a cut, but this was something serious. So serious if Buffy didn't try Giles could die.

She knew what he'd told her, but she wasn't ready to let him go. Buffy's mother had been taken, ripped, from her and her father couldn't even be bothered to call her back. She wasn't going to lose Giles.

Not now.

The door opened and in came Ben. It was a risk calling him, but they needed help and, simply, she could remember his number and not her Grandfather's. Besides, trying to explain the whole hiding in a disused gas station surrounded by medieval knights it was a lot easier to bluff a young doctor from Sunnydale than a career military guy.

Buffy watched helplessly as he gave Giles a once over. 'It's bad and deep.' He said, 'But it could be a lot worse. I'm going have to clean the wound, make sure nothing serous was caught and then stitch you up.'

Giles grunted. 'Get on with it then.'

'This will only be temporary. There's only so much I can do here and you've already lost a lot of blood…'

'Stitch me up and I won't lose too much more, will I.'

Ben opened his bag. 'I should have brought a local anaesthetic…'

'Bloody hell! Just do it or give me the blasted thread!'

Buffy caught Spike's smirk out of the corner of her eye. She decided to offset Giles's bad patient with some kindness. 'Thanks for coming.' Buffy offered a smile.

Glory awoke in a very grimy, not at all fabulous, place. It was not the sort of place she liked, covered in mortal debris and junk. Like so many other places on this waste of a world.

Even her so called home was barely habitable, but all that would change. Sooner than she had hoped. Before her were the Slayer, her pathetic group of mewing mortals and one very special little Key.

'Well What do you know, looks like little Ben did something right!' She gloated as they cowered before her.

'The Beast!' swore a figure tied to a pillar in the room. She recognised the insect. It was one of those pesky knights. This was better than she could have dreamed of, everything she wanted in one place.

'Hey look, it's Gregor.' Glory chuckled, remembering how his knights had swarmed her previous minions months earlier. She'd lost some of he most loyal, not to mention least smelly, servants that day. Picking up a disk next to her she threw it with a good amount of her strength behind it.

The disk was blunt, but with enough force anything was sharp enough. It embedded itself in his guts, killing the mortal. 'Now it's not!'

The Vampire and the Slayer tried to rush her, but this close Glory wasn't going let them stop her. Neither of them were a match for her strength she threw them both aside

As the humans gasped helplessly Glory moved, grabbing her Key and pulling it close. She could already feel Ben clawing at the cage she'd dumped him in. As much fun as it would be to kill the Slayer and her kin here and now she couldn't be sure how long she had before the cursed wards bottled her up again.

Last thing she wanted was that bleeding heart Ben feeling for the little snot-brat and letting them escape again.

'Buffy!' The Key howled for her sister, but the Slayer wasn't fast enough. Big surprise there.

Dragging the Key outside Glory came face to face with a horde of the Knights. At least that explained why Gregor was in there. Still it wasn't like they could stop her. Two steps outside the hovel she'd found her Key in was some sort of barrier. A shield, put up probably by that witch.

It didn't even slow her down. The only thing that did was the struggling prize. It would have been so easy just to break her. Snap her fragile little bones, like she did with the Knights. A blink of an eye is all to would take, only she couldn't.

She needed her precious Key and wasn't so sure if killing it would mean she would never get home.

Slaughtering her way through the hapless knights she ran, dragging her prize back to the bright lights of the town on the horizon.

It wouldn't be long now.

Jack was looking over Jacob's shoulder and out across the Californian Desert. He'd flown over these parts before, in an old F16, but there was something strange about doing it in a Cargo ship.

Nearly as strange as not being the pilot.

'Relax Jack. We'll get there in plenty of…' the Tok'Ra stopped mid-sentence. there was a flash of light off to one side. 'What was that?'

'What was what?' Jack asked as a heads up display activated. It showed a top down map of the desert. Ahead was the city but to the left an icon was flashing.

'Energy pulse, looks like a force field of some sort collapsed.' Jacob answered.

Jack didn't need to be told a force field in the middle of nowhere was suspicious. With a possible Jaffa attack force in the area it was more than that. 'Get us down there.'

'Jack, are you sure that's a good idea. I was reading a lot of lifeforms down there, but they seem to be vanishing.'

He pulled on his tactical vest, the rest of his team already following his lead. 'Just keep cloaked. I'll take SG1 and the doc for recon. Get this stuff to Hammond's contact at the hospital and they can start running tests.'

Doc Frasier looked at him for a second. 'Why you need me?'

'Disappearing lifesigns. If they're cloaked Carter can figure it out.'

'And if they're not you're going to need a doctor to do a field report.' She finished, picking up her own kit. She didn't have a weapon, but the doctor had remembered her field medical bag.

'How many lifesigns are we looking at Dad?' Carter asked, looking at the display.

'Hard to tell. More that twenty at first, but there's only a half dozen right now.' Jacob told them, 'Jack, I don't like this. If something is killing people down there shouldn't you have back up?'

'No time and you need to get to Hammond' Jack explained, checking his gun. 'It's Recon only.'

Despite Jacob's concerns he landed the the cargo ship half a click from the new target. Using the rings would have meant dropping the cloak, and stealth would go right out the window showing a big golden spaceship.

Stepping out of a cloaked ship was one of those things Jack would never get used to. One moment you're in a big gold room, something that Liberace would think was a little too much, next he was in the cool desert. The clear night sky above and what looked like an abandoned gas station the only things for miles.

Out of nowhere came Teal'c, followed by Daniel and Fraiser, with Carter bring up the rear. A moment later you could feel, if not see, the ship take off. Leaving them there.

Jack double checked his gun. The mag was full and safety on standby. You didn't want to be moving on uneven ground, in bad light, with a live weapon. One trip with your finger on the trigger and who knows what you'd hit. Speaking of Jack was more than surprised to notice Teal'c didn't have his staff, but instead was also carrying a P90. He'd brought the weapon with him, so something must have convinced the big Jaffa to go with something a little more automatic.

He wasn't going to complain, but it was an unspoken criticism of Jack's insistence on checking this out. Both Teal'c and Jacob were probably right, but this Sunnydale place was full of questions and Jack was going to be damned if he wasn't going to get an answer to at least one of them.

With a few sharp hand gestures Jack silently gave his team their orders. Only to receive blank looks from anyone without the rank of Major. He waved them closer before whispering; 'Look, you two go with T that way! Carter and Me go around and approach from the south and stay quiet.' He told them.

'Okay Jack.'

'Quiet!' Jack breathed and watched them leave. Between them the doc and Daniel could have made enough noise to wake the dead. You'd think after five years at least Jackson would have learnt how to move somewhat silently.

He deliberately ignored Carter's badly hidden smirk and slinked off in the opposite direction.

Turned out he was being overly paranoid for all the wrong reasons. There were a number of oil drums that had been used as braziers, which had to be one of the stupidest things you could do. Not only did it ruin your night-sight gazing at a blazing fire, but it also set out a beacon for anyone to see. Might as well light up a neon sign saying where you were, drawing attention.

From the looks of things they ha drawn the wrong kind. Around the fires were bodies. Several were dismembered, others lying in very uncomfortable ways. All of them very dead.

Jack rested his finger on the trigger of his weapon and edged closer to get a better look at the nearest corpse. They wore some sort of old style armour. It wasn't Jaffa, but the guy wearing it had a tattoo on their forehead. It wasn't like any other Jack had seen,, but looked suitably Jaffa-ish.

A quick glance to Carter told him she saw the same thing. He kept her covered as she checked the body. He wasn't the doctor, but the sword in the guy's chest was his guess for cause of death. She wasn't looking for that, she was checking for a pouch.

She did a pat down and shook her head.

That made no sense, a Jaffa without a snake in their gut? If it was a Jaffa. The sword wasn't exactly alien. Wasn't what you'd call a normal day either. Before he could come up with a decision about what to do next someone stepped out of the station.

They wore black, a long leather trench coat, but stood out because of their dyed white hair. They quickly pulled out a cigarette and lit up. Jack caught their features in the lighter. Pale, with strong cheekbones and, most importantly, no tattoo.

'Jaffa?' Carter whispered

Jack shook his head, but as he looked back something had changed. The guy was looking around, as if he heard the Major. Which should have been impossible, Jack barely could and he was right next to her.

'Spike, what you doing?' someone called out. A young man in a shirt and jeans followed the Billy Idol lookalike.

Billy hushed him and kept looking, throwing the cigarette off to one side. 'Someone's out there.' They said in a thick British accent.

Jack cursed silently before rising from his crouch. P90 up to his shoulder, but the barrel still pointing down. 'Alright, stand too. Both of you.' Carter followed him up.

'Oh sodding hell!' The brit swore while the kid raised his hands in surrender. They didn't look armed but he wasn't going to risk it in the half light.

'United States Airforce.' Jack told them. catching Teal'c and the others coming from the other direction. 'Identify yourselves.'

They looked at each other before shrugging. 'I'm Xander, Xander Harris and this is Spike.'

'You want to tell me what we've just walked into here, Harris?

'Early practice for halloween?' They said quickly.

'Want to try again.' Jack pressed, unimpressed with the lie if slightly surprised at how quickly they had come up with it.

The two looked at each other. 'It's a… long story.'

'We've got time.' Jack pressed.

'Is there anyone else inside?' Daniel asked, 'We have a doctor with us if someone's injured.' Jack tried to give his friend a warning look. Trying to make friends with natives on P3X-whatever was one thing, but this was California for crying out loud.

'Really?' The boy, Harris, asked and Fraiser showed her medical supplies. He half turned to the station. 'Guys! we've got people out here! They've got a doctor with them!' He dropped his arms. 'We've got five more people inside, some need help. Please.'

The Brit didn't look happy about it but stepped away from the door. 'Teal'c, Carter; stay out here. Check the bodies. I want a head count. We're going inside.'

The inside looked much like Jack expected. Run down and abandoned. What he hadn't expected was the kids. All but one of the people there were the same age as Harris. They were on the defensive the moment he came in. None of them looked armed. at best they were a bunch of college kids in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most of them girls. 'Alright, lets start again.' He lowered his weapon. 'My name's Jack O'Neill. Colonel, United States Airforce. This is Daniel and the lady is Doctor Fraiser. You want to tell us what your doing here, or what happened out there?'

'The army?' a girl asked. She had brown hair and was helping an older man with greying hair stand.

'Airforce.' he corrected

'Whats the difference?' she asked, sounding confused.

'Airforce don't spend twenty minutes trying to tie their shoelaces.' Harris quipped before Jack could come up with something more polite.

'Airforce?' the eldest asked in another English accent. Not quite as thick, but certainly from the UK. 'You wouldn't happen to work for a General Hammond would you.'

'He's my CO.' Jack confirmed, 'How do you know him?'

While the limy could keep his poker face the kids weren't half as good at it. The all looked at another girl off to one side. She was sat there, a blank expression on her face, staring at thin air.

Fraiser saw the same thing he did and headed over to her. The doc quickly shone a pen light in their eye. 'I'm getting a cortical response, but she's otherwise catatonic.'

'Think it's what we're here for?' Jack asked doubtful. There was something eerily familiar about that look he couldn't place right away.

'Possible, but it doesn't fit the symptoms. Could be a new development. Could be something else entirely.

Leaving her to do her job Jack turned to the civilians again. 'Right kids, time for real answers, what happened and how does she know…' He stopped, a sudden thought coming to him. 'That's Buffy Summers isn't it.'

'The General's Granddaughter?' hissed Fraiser.

'You're going to tell me now, what the hell happened to her. Why you people were running and just what happened out there!' Jack ordered.

The civilians looked at each other, guiltily as his patience wore down. He was a heartbeat away from calling for a truck load of Military police and slapping them all in handcuffs when Billy Idol swore. 'Bugger it! We might as well tell them. The grandpa deserves to know!' he looked at Jack. 'And we're going to need all the help we can get!'

Sam finished off with the last body. She had eight, Teal'c seven, that made fifteen. Fifteen humans, with Jaffa like tattoos dead in the middle of nowhere. Not just dead but killed. Brutally. Blunt force trauma was the main cause of death. With stabbing a close second.

'Teal'c, do you recognise the symbol?'

'I do not. It is not Goa'uld.'

'You think it's one of these people the General saw and mistook them?' she asked, half knowing the answer.

'Indeed, however I do think our presence here is necessary.' he rumbled, looking around with a grim expression.

Sam frowned. 'Why you say that?'

'I only see these people. Not who killed them. If those inside are not the threat who did this?'

Sam looked again. Good question. Before she could think of an answer the Colonel stormed out of the station. He looked furious. 'Sir?'

'What we got Carter?'

'Fifteen humans, killed where they stood. Fast brutal and nasty. she reported. 'What's the situation in there?'

'Civilians trying to get out of Sunnydale, you can listen in while I make a report.' he scowled again before pulling out his radio. 'O'Neill here, Jacob you hear me?'

'I read you Jack.' Sam's dad answered.

'You met up with Hammond yet?'

There was a moment before the General's voice came back. 'Just now, Jacob said you encountered something strange?'

'Small group of civilians, they were trying to flee Sunnydale. They were being chased by, and I quote, a crazy woman that thinks she's a god.'

Sam felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise. That sounded goa'uld like.

'They got jumped by some jokers in medieval armour and took shelter. The snakehead caught up with them and grabbed one. Said something about a sacrifice. They were taking care of their injured when we arrived.'

Another pause. 'Understood Jack. Are you confirming a foothold scenario?' General Hammond asked

'Yes sir, from what I've been told I am.' he stopped and looked at Sam. 'There's more, sir. The civilians. They include your granddaughters.'

Sam gasped. 'Buffy, Dawn?' Hammond asked quickly. 'Were either of them hurt?'

'Buffy Summers is catatonic sir, we think she's been infected by whatever happening around here. The gould took Dawn. Best guess, back to Sunnydale. Sorry Sir.'

End Chapter Six