"Jenny!" Giles breathed out, almost in shock but his voice turning the single word into a prayer. She was upon him in seconds, the kiss between them almost instantaneous as they both embraced tightly.
"Ahem... well," Wesley frowned, looking up from the book he was reading about sorcerers and evocations of power and then quickly looking away from the show of public affection.
"Ms Calendar!" Willow was the next one to jump up, her exclamation breaking the moment that Jenny and Giles had been sharing and they pulled apart sheepishly. "You're alive, is Xander here, did he fix you? Can he fix this, fix Oz, all of it?" Willow broke off, pausing at the look that both Giles and Ms Calendar were giving her.
"Ahem, what do you mean, fix this?" Wesley spoke up, drawing all attention to himself as he stood up while the rest of the room fell quiet.
"Who's this?" Jenny asked, eying the man suspiciously.
"Wesley Wyndam-Price, the third," Wesley introduced himself as he walked over towards Jenny. "Now, who is this Xander, and why does Miss Rosenberg think he can fix everything?" His glare left little room to manoeuvre as Giles took off his glasses and started polishing them thoroughly.
"That's about it sir," Carter said with a groan as she dropped the last of the boxes carefully in the back of the shuttle they had found, they'd left enough room to manoeuvre in the small craft, while still taking as much of the Ancient technology as they could.
"Right, stow it tight," Jack paused, eying the back area of the shuttle where he could see there was little space now for people, especially if the ride got rough. "Second thoughts, get up here, we'll all ride in the front and try and lock the doors, might be a little cramped, but it's better than seeing one of you get smooched if this ride gets a little rocky."
"Sir," Carter nodded, taking a last look around to make sure they really had got everything. Most of the technology they had found in the cave had been stripped bare, the circuitry and crystals taken out, more than likely used by Apophis in his latest ship, though they had found a few gems, the ZMP being one of them, or two of them as the one Faith had found registered around seventy percent, while the other one they had found registered at around ninety percent full.
"Yo, we ready or what?" Faith yelled back from the front of the craft, clearly ready to get as far away from this planet as possible in as short a time as possible.
"Ready," Buffy called back, moving a crate from one side of the shuttle to another so she could get past easier, she had to admit, there had been some amazing things in the cave, nothing that could compare to a Power Ring, though there had been some fancy technology that looked like it had come straight out of Star Trek.
"Ready," Carter nodded back, smiling when she felt the hum of the craft ignition as Jack turned the engines on. They'd given it a short test flight, just through the cave system, and slowly, though Jack had managed to scratch the outside hull a few times, the shuttle was now poised at the entrance to the cave system ready for full takeoff.
"Alright, I'll take us out of here, you ok to take care of the cave?" Jack asked, turning back so he could see Buffy stood at the back of the craft.
"More than ready," Buffy grinned, lifting her hand up so Jack could see the green ring sat on her finger.
"You sure B? This is pretty heavy duty, you know, blowing up a mountain." Faith grinned, truthfully she wanted to be the one to blow up the cave full of fancy toys, but doing that would mean giving up the comfy seat, and if this was going to be a long ride then she definitely wanted somewhere comfy to crash until they got back home.
"I got it," Buffy responded with a smile. "I always wanted to cut loose with this thing, I was just worried about, you know..." She trailed off, leaving Jack and Sam wondering exactly what she was thinking.
"Yeah," Faith agreed sombrely, remembering the Jaffa that she had killed back in the forest with a knife construct, there was no chance of that happening to Buffy though, the caves and surrounding area were deserted, they'd figured that much out while moving the shuttle thing.
"'K, strap in campers, let's rock," Jack grinned as he pushed the thrusters forward, accelerating the small craft away from the caves and upwards, slowly at first and then building speed until he was a good half mile away. "This good?" He shouted back, raising his voice so it would carry above the wind that was now ripping through the craft due to the open hatch at the back.
"Hold on!" Buffy shouted, bracing herself against the side of the shuttle whilst holding her ring straight, she was focusing every ounce of will she had through the ring and it showed as a bright green blast emanated from the ring, it seemed to make her entire fist glow for a few seconds as the entire back of the ship was bathed in the emerald glow. The blast then rocketed out from the ring, tearing through the space between the shuttle and the cave until it impacted clean on target, the entire mountain seemed the shake from the force of the blast as it tore into the cave, it wasn't long before the rumbling stopped and Buffy lowered her ring, waiting for the dust to clear to make sure she had done a thorough job.
"I think that should do it," Sam muttered from the doorway where she had been staring in awe at the power contained within a single ring. Now she no longer doubted the rings were the most powerful weapons she had ever come across, even the Goa'uld weapons paled in comparison to the things she had seen the power ring accomplish.
"Ya think?" Jack shouted back, the sarcasm evident in his voice as he twisted his neck round to stare out of the cockpit and back through the back of the shuttle to see the level of destruction that was behind them. "I said block the cave, not destroy the entire mountain." He muttered, staring at Buffy in a mixture of awe and amusement.
"I..." Buffy started, looking at her ring and then at the destruction she had caused behind her, the mountain had been almost reduced to rubble, the previously smooth surface above the cave that went up for hundreds of meters, was now rubble with boulders and various holes and pits in it. The forest at the bottom of the mountain was basically flattened; the rockslide from the devastation she caused was now covering a good half a mile or so from the cave.
"Nice one B," Faith grinned back at her. "Think we should label her a weapon of mass destruction?" Faith smirked as she looked over at Jack. "I could get her a T-shirt and everything." She laughed as Jack snorted at her while Buffy just glared back. "Seriously though, wicked cool work."
"It took a lot of effort," Buffy admitted, wiping her brow with the sleeve of her shirt.
"And a lot of power I'll bet," Sam interjected. "That sort of power must have exhausted the ring, if not very close to."
"Dunno," Buffy shrugged, lifting her ring up to take a closer look. "Uh, what's your current power reserve?" She asked, still feeling a bit foolish talking to an inanimate object.
"Current power reserves are at three percent of capacity." The ring's monotone voice rang back, causing everyone to startle a bit at the unfamiliar voice of the ring in the silent shuttle.
Jack finally broke the silence by whistling. "Jeeze, you blew up a mountain and it barely dented the charge. What does it take to drain those things?"
"I don't think... I mean, I didn't do it right." Buffy commented, actually thinking about it now. "I mean, a blast of power takes a lot of power right?" She paused as both Jack and Sam nodded at her. "So, I could have saved power by just creating a bomb or something, that wouldn't have taken as much energy and would have done the same thing, I just didn't think of it before."
"Wait," Jack muttered, clearing his head. "So you're saying those things could just create a pile of C4 or a nuke, and it'd be just as effective as the real thing?"
"Kinda," Faith nodded. "Knives and grenades worked, so I guess the rest will, we just have to focus and imagine it, the ring does the rest."
Jack just whistled again. "Wouldn't have looked as cool though." He grinned as Sam just shook her head at him. "So those things," He paused, nodding at the ring wrapped around Faith's finger. "They really can just create anything you want?"
"Yup," Faith grinned as she nodded. "I've seen Xan create a truck before, or something like a sword."
"He's done a crossbow, and a cage," Buffy frowned, remembering the cage that Xander had imprisoned Angel in before throwing him into hell.
"Well, we did see him create a lightsaber for the other kid," He frowned as he tried to remember the other teenager's name. "And you two can do all that as well?" Jack frowned as both Buffy and Faith nodded at him. It was pretty cool, knowing the earth was protected and all that, but these girls shouldn't be doing this, not in his mind any way. fighting wars was an ugly business, he knew that there was no way he'd get them to stand down and walk away from this sort of thing, especially since he'd seen what sort of things went on in Sunnydale at night, and for that he was more than thankful for the rings and the boost that they had given to the two girls. That just left him with a sinking feeling in his stomach, the fact was that the rings were the most powerful weapon he had ever come across, hell, they could be the most powerful weapon period, and here they were, in the hands of two teenage girls who were just trying to do their best. He shook his head as he silently moved back to the control of the shuttle and found the control to shut the back door, closing them in before he moved the shuttle away from the destruction behind them.
The guard simply ignored Ethan's pleading as he walked past the shimmering blue force shield that was holding steady in the 'doorway' to the cell. He'd been on shift for nearly an hour now and was beginning to ponder if he could get away with opening the air lock and dropping the prisoner out at the earliest opportunity.
It wasn't the fact that he was annoying, it was far more than that, it was as if the man had absolutely no back bone whatsoever. So far he'd come up with three distinct excuses about what had happened and why he was not to blame, all of them even worse and more implausible than the first.
First it was the 'ring', which he had claimed someone else had taken, then he claimed it was the fear of a 'Hellmouth' that had driven him insane, then even more implausible, he had explained that it was technology created through magic, and it had been the spell that had driven him to cause the insane amounts of damage.
The guard just walked back to his post, nodding almost imperceptibly at the other guard who was simply stood there outside the force shield just watching, the second guard's eyes never moving from the man inside, his body language tight and coiled, ready for any escape attempt.
"How long we keeping him here for?" The guard asked, nodding at Ethan who was now just slumped in a corner of his cell pitifully.
"Until the brass says otherwise," The second guard replied, his eyes still trained on the man in the cell. "Guess the whole trip, there and back."
"Got a deck of cards?" The first guard asked jokingly, smiling when the other guard fished into his pocket and pulled out a pristine deck with a rubber band tied tightly around them. "Now we're talking." He grinned before pulling another chair over and settling down. "Three card brag, game to win."
As the second guard's attention drifted to the cards being dealt into his hand, he completely missed the smirk that took over Ethan's face as he looked up from behind the shield, his eyes now fully focused on the cards in play and his eyes glinting with the beginnings of a plan.
"I should go," Jenny said, breaking the awkward silence between Giles and Wesley, neither of them backing down from their positions. "There's... you know." She trailed off, not wanting to reveal her secret to the new member of their group before she figured out exactly where he stood.
"Indeed," Giles smiled over at her, putting his cloth away and returning his glasses to his face. "We should as well; there are various inhabitants of the Hellmouth that would relish an opportunity like this."
"You still have not revealed the location of Slayer Lehane and Slayer Summers," Wesley said, his pompous nature showing through as everyone could see that he honestly expected the entire world to answer his every question just because he was a watcher.
"I will," Giles said calmly as he turned back to the younger watcher. "In time, first we have to deal with the fallout from tonight's attack."
"Which the Slayer's should be taking care of," Wesley continued, oblivious to the looks of contempt he was receiving from both Jenny and Giles. "Watcher's are there to observe, train and record events, Slayer's slay vampires, watchers..."
"Watch?" Giles spat back at the man, half smiling at the fact that he had just responded in exactly the same was as Buffy had done when she had confronted him about his attitude when he had first arrived in Sunnydale.
"Exactly!" Wesley shouted in triumph.
"Not a bloody chance," Giles said firmly, striding over so he was directly in Wesley's face. "While you may be fresh out of the academy, top of your class no doubt."
"I was head boy," Wesley preened before catching sight of the look of disdain on Jenny's face.
"Indeed," Giles said, barely containing his own laughter. "These are the front lines," Giles paused, reaching out and spinning Wesley around to face the corner of the library. "That corner, just there is where the Hellmouth opened," He surprised his smile again as he felt Wesley automatically try and back up from where he was indicating. "Vampire's, demons, sorcerers, incubi, succubae, things you can't even imagine, they're all here, and we are the last line of defence."
Jenny just smiled before she started softly applauding. Her applause was quickly joined by Willow's, and then a third person joined in from behind them, causing them all to turn to the main doors of the library.
"Couldn't have said it better," Xander grinned as he walked in.
"Yes, well," Giles flustered, letting go of Wesley as he stepped away. "We are the last line, understand, if we fall, if the slayer falls here, if the Hellmouth opens, then..."
"Yes, well..." Wesley trailed off, trying to figure out exactly when his decidedly black and white world had been reduced to shades of grey.
"New watcher?" Xander asked as he moved over to sit next to Willow, then frowning as Willow slowly got up from her chair and moved away without even looking at him. He recognised Wesley from the park, but it was obvious from the man's face that he didn't recognise Xander, which meant his first true test of his costume and mask was a success.
"New watcher," Jenny responded with a smirk. "Buffy and Faith?" She asked, her face showing the hope that Xander had done the right thing and gone to get them to help with this.
"In a minute," Xander smiled, nodding at Giles. "Can I have a word?" He asked, nodding to the private office away from the new watcher's ears.
"Indeed," Giles said, smiling over at Xander before turning back to Wesley. "Retrieve some weapons from the cage; I'm sure you are at least proficient in crossbow use." Without waiting for a reply from Wesley he simply walked away, following Xander into the office area.
"This isn't right," Davis stated calmly as he walked around the bridge of the captured Goa'uld mother ship. The decoration's of the previous occupant had long since been removed, and was now filled with Earth technology, the drab greys and 21st century technology making a stark contrast to the remains of the gold and black Goa'uld technology. He was staring out of the window towards space, the other ship; almost a direct mirror image of the one he was commanding was now placed directly in front of him and the planet ahead. They'd pushed the hyper drive engines to breaking point, going so far as to pump extra juice into them from the two naquadah generator's they had on board, the end result had been worth it though, they'd managed to shave over half of the time of their journey, arriving in just over a day instead of the predicted three. "Any sign of hostile activity?"
"None," Came the response of the airman on control console to his left. "They're just sitting there; I'm reading a squad of death glider's circling the planet though, looks as though they are looking for something."
"Care to guess what?" Davis asked, almost rhetorically before he realised he'd like to know what the Goa'uld were searching for as well.
"Not a clue," The airman responded. "They appear to be leaving what appears to be a crater on the far side of the planet, scanners are picking up heavy amounts of radiation, I'm guessing something went boom down there, a big boom."
"SG1," Davis smiled, it was almost a foregone conclusion that they would be responsible here, wherever SG1 went there was trouble, and most of the time it ended up with large explosions. He'd got used to it, seeing the reports of SG1's activities before he took his extra strength antacid and meeting the review committee to discuss Stargate command's tactics and overview policies.
"I'd guess so," The airman responded, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. "Scanning for human life sign's now sir,"
"We want four," Davis said firmly, his brain flicking back to the briefing report he'd received from General Hammond regarding the two earthbound Green Lantern's. "Two of SG1 and two other friendlies."
"No human life signs," The airman reported, regret and sorrow tingeing his voice. "If they were here, they're long gone sir."
"Two?" Jack muttered as he pulled the shuttle to a stop just outside the atmosphere of the planet. "Ok, who taunted Murphy this time?" He asked as he turned round to face the other passenger's.
"Don't look at me," Faith held her hands up in surrender.
"Not guilty," Buffy said quickly, while Sam just glared over at her CO playfully.
"Oh hell, reading twenty, thirty, god knows how many dots here coming for us," Faith shouted, keeping an eye on the screen if front of her that was superimposed over the main windscreen of the shuttle.
"Death gliders," Jack muttered, his voice strangely calm.
"We should get out of here," Sam said, trying to figure out a way out of this mess.
"Where?" Jack asked, half rhetorically. There were two Goa'uld mother ships in front of him, a squadron of death glider's behind him, and they were in a shuttle that wasn't even the size of a Stargate. "It's not as if we have..."
"What the hell?" Faith interrupted O'Neill's rant as she watched the screen outside, seeing the alien ships like this, from another ship, really put their enormous size into comparison. It was like looking at two giant sky scrapers while you were trying to attack them on foot, they must have been well over seven hundred meters long, and half of that tall. The golden pyramid at the centre of the ships was glinting in the starlight, while the solid black outer segment seemed to just shimmer against the black of space. "Ok, who's on who's side?" Faith asked, watching as the ship furthest away from them launched a barrage of attacks on the first ship, the golden bolts of energy lighting up space as they impacted against the first ship's shields.
"Don't know," Jack answered as he turned back to face the battle occurring in front of them. "Don't care, but this looks like our time to back out." He grimaced as the first ship seemed to rotate in space slightly before launching an attack in return against the other Ha'tak. "Whoever they are, I doubt they have our interests at heart, so stow tight, I'll try and get around them."
"Good luck," Faith muttered, inwardly bracing herself to be shot out of the sky, neither her or Buffy's ring's had enough juice left in them to deal with two alien mother ships, let alone the squadron of smaller ships that was still approaching from the planet behind them. they were slayer's, get them on board the ship and they could do some serious damage, but from out here, with shields and plasma weapons facing them, they might as well be trying to punch a hole in a mountain for all the good it could do.
"Sir, four human life signs found," The airman on the sensor platform almost shouted, his voice carrying clean through the bridge as everyone was staring at the ship in front of them. "A small craft, just leaving the planet's atmosphere. I'm picking up four humans and four strange energy signatures."
"SG1?" Davis asked, inwardly hoping that this would be the team he was looking for.
"Unsure sir, best guess though, I'm not picking up any radio transmissions from the craft, but it's not Goa'uld in origin sir, doesn't match any known craft in the database either." The airman responded, reading down the scanners and picking out all the pertinent information for his CO.
"Has to be them," Davis muttered as he stood up and stared out of the main view screen. "They were on this planet, no Stargate, no other ships. They're not on that ship," He motioned to the other mother ship that was still just hovering in orbit.
"Sir?" Another airman asked, "Awaiting orders."
Davis paused for a second before turning back to the airman on the scanner system. "Any sign that the other ship has discovered them?"
"No sir," The airman responded. "But it won't be long; the death gliders will be in range of the craft in less than five minutes."
"Then all hell breaks loose," Davis muttered as he sat back down. "Target the mother ship; let's see if we can create a distraction until we can figure out who's on that craft."
"Aye sir," Airman MacLeod answered as he worked on the weapons controls. "Weapons hot sir, ready when you are."
"Fire," Davis said, his voice carrying a previously unheard air of command as it travelled the bridge, everyone braced themselves as they watched the streaks of golden plasma rocket out from their ship towards the other mother ship.
"We should have stuck together," Willow said simply as they walked down the deserted streets of Sunnydale towards the medical compound, the air force helicopters were now out in force above the town and military air ambulances and fire trucks were a common sight as they surveyed the damage in the small town.
"No," Giles said simply. "Jenny can take care of herself and Wesley, Xander went to fetch Buffy and Faith, I don't want to involve Wesley in our other lives if at all possible."
"But..." Willow tried to interrupt.
"We have enough problems Willow, Jenny is more than capable of defending herself against anything they come across, without drawing attention to herself in the process." Giles explained as he gripped the crossbow tightly. "Now, I want to know why you believe Xander should go against all the rules of nature, all his own rules, and bring Oz back?"
Willow just stopped in the street dead, her feet refusing to move as all the thoughts about Oz, about seeing his death, all of it came crushing back. So far she'd been operating almost in shock, on autopilot; Xander's refusal to do what was right was something she just couldn't understand. If he died and she had the power to bring him back, she would, it was that simple, so why couldn't he do the same for her.
"Willow, I understand it's hard to accept, but bringing someone back to life isn't that simple, even if it is within Xander's power." Giles tried to explain as he stopped next to her. "Life must move on, Oz has moved on..."
"He's dead," Willow said numbly. "He hasn't 'moved on' or anything, he just dead, why can't Xander just do the right thing?" She whispered.
"He is," Giles explained quietly. "For all we know, Oz could be in heaven, on another plane of existence, would you want to tear his soul back from that, thrust him back into the fight?" He asked, watching as Willow started to back down.
"But..." She paused, wiping the tears from her cheek as they begun to roll down her face. "Giles, I miss him, I love him so much..."
"Shhh..." Giles smiled softly as he embraced the young girl and held her close. "I know, it's the burden we carry, the ones who survive..."
Whatever Giles was about to say was lost as a shadowed figure barrelled into them, snarling and growling as it tackled the two to the ground. Giles' crossbow almost forgotten as it skittered across the asphalt before coming to a rest against the curb.
"Willow!" Giles shouted out, regaining his balance first as he pushed himself off the ground onto his knees to see the shadow now bent over the petite redhead, the sounds of snarling and growling echoing through the silent road, making the sounds seem even more intimidating than they would have already been. "Get the hell off of her!" He shouted, glancing around for his crossbow before inwardly cursing as he noticed it nearly fifteen feet away.
Giles could only watch as Willow's struggles became more and more desperate against the larger shadowed creature that was attacking them, his fact was still hidden by shadows but he could easily make out the torn and burnt clothing that was stuck to the creatures skin, the skin underneath the rags of clothing was brown and raw from what looked like years of constant torture.
"I said," Giles commanded, finding the object in his pocket that he was looking for as he stood up. "Let her go!" He shouted finally as he found he footing, standing up as he slipped the golden ring onto his middle finger before pointing it towards the shadowed creature. The ring immediately lighting up the area in a sickly yellow glow as the creature stopped its attack and snarled as it faced him.
"Angel?!?" Willow almost screamed as she tried to scramble away while Angel was distracted by Giles.
"We've got incoming," Airman MacLeod shouted as he braced himself against the rounded pillars of the Goa'uld weapons console in the centre of the bridge. "And the death gliders have changed course, they're heading straight for us."
"Shields," Davis shouted as he braced himself on the captain's chair.
"Already up," Another airman responded sharply.
"What about the other craft?" Davis asked, turning to the airman on the sensor platform.
"Looks like they're trying to sneak around," The airman responded, bracing himself as the ship shook from a barrage of attacks from the other Goa'uld vessel. "The Goa'uld are ignoring them, focusing their attention on us for the moment."
"Let's try and keep it that way," Davis responded sharply before returning his gaze to the weapons platform. "Fire again, try and keep their attention for as long as possible, as soon as SG1 is out of range, I want to jump out of here."
"Aye sir," Came the response from both Airman MacLeod on the weapons platform and Captain Mitchell on the engine controls.
"Incoming sir, it's from the Goa'uld," The airman on the sensor desk informed Davis as he swung round in his chair.
"On screen," Davis said calmly, sitting back in the captain's chair comfortably before the main view screen shimmered and the face of Apophis revealed itself.
"You shall die for this attack," Apophis shouted, the distortion in his voice from the Goa'uld echoed through the bridge from the speakers. "Cease your attack and I will hear your pleas for mercy."
"I don't think so," Davis responded. "This is Captain Davis of the Tau'ri ship Excalibur, leave this system now or I'll be forced to respond."
"You have no chance," Apophis sneered back. "You dare to challenge your God," Apophis rose from his seat, holding his right arm up and causing Davis to do a double take as it looked like the man's arm was completely cybernetic. "I shall crush you, then retake your planet and destroy the one you call Ion."
"Fire again," Davis shouted, turning from the view screen and making a cutting motion to the sensor desk. Half a conversation with a psychopathic Goa'uld was enough for anyone, especially one who had every intention of enslaving earth. "Get that ship out of my sky."
He was responded by another barrage of plasma blasts rocketing out from his ship towards the Goa'uld, each finding their target dead on and impacting against the other ship's shields. "Again, keep them occupied." Davis shouted. "Continuous fire," He paused, turning to one of the airman stood by the main door to the bridge. "Get to engineering; see if they can hook up the naquadah generators to the shields, we're going to need all the power we've got."
"Aye sir." The airman responded before dashing out of the bridge doors towards the elevator's leading down to the engineering deck.
"Looks like a hell of a fight," Faith whispered as Jack continued to pilot the small craft away from the main fire fight going on between the two Goa'uld mother ships. "The death gliders have changed course," Faith shouted, getting Jack's attention. "They're heading to intercept the other mother ship, away from us."
"Great," Jack groused, barely even flicking his eyes towards the sensor readout's to confirm Faith's comment. "Now we just have to find another Stargate and get the hell out of here."
"So, how long have you known about the Slayer's?" Wesley asked as he made his way through the deserted streets of Sunnydale next to Jenny.
"A year, maybe a bit more," Jenny responded honestly. Rupert had expressed his wishes for her to keep her secret, and Xander's, as long as possible, but aside from that he said that honesty was probably the best policy when it came to people like Wesley, or he would just be relentless in trying to figure out everything about her.
"And Mr Giles allows you to participate in the training of the slayers?" Wesley asked, his pompous nature shining through and he gripped his crossbow and swept it around the area due to some leaves rustling that had startled him.
"Research mainly," Jenny replied. "I can read and speak four languages now, including Romany; I'm also the school computer teacher, so that makes using the equipment much easier to explain."
"Mr Giles doesn't have his own equipment then?" Wesley asked, a bit confused now.
"Well, he has weapons and books, you know, the usual watcher stuff, but aside from that..."
"No, I mean computers, the database created by the Council on demons and their weaknesses, the Slayer handbook and all the other equipment." Wesley continued.
"Giles? With computers?" Jenny stifled a laugh as she tried to picture her lover using the latest build of Linux.
"It is standard Watcher training," Wesley huffed. "To keep in contact with the council and send in weekly reports, accessing the database if a known Armageddon class demon had been destroyed the basics."
"Well, yeah, but I mean, I've just never seen..." Jenny stuttered out, she'd never seen Giles use a computer, in fact he seemed to abhor the idea of using them at all, she just figured it was part of the Watcher in him, refusing modern methods over ancient tried and tested means.
"I will have to have my equipment transferred then," Wesley continued as they turned a street corner. "I believed Mr Giles' equipment would be more than suitable for both of us, but it seems I was mistaken."
"So was I..." Jenny whispered as thoughts started running through her brain, if using computers was part of watcher training, why did Giles abhor the use of them, if he was trained in the use of their database, and it could be used to help the slayers, why didn't he use it?
"General?" Xander smiled as he appeared in the main office of Stargate command, his telltale emerald flash announcing his arrival as General Hammond nearly jumped out of his chair in surprise.
"Xander," General Hammond breathed out a sigh of relief. "I do wish you would call before arriving, it could cause problems if I were in a meeting with some people who would like access to you and your powers."
"Yeah, gotcha, call first," Xander grinned. "Thanks' for the help back at Sunnydale, the place is a mess."
"I saw, I received the first hand reports a few hours ago, I must say, I believe you handled the situation exceptionally well, especially as you haven't been trained for this sort of thing." Hammond smiled as he watched Xander blush under the praise.
"Hardly," Xander frowned. "I should have been able to stop him before it got this far, one death is enough, god knows how many more died that I don't know about."
"You protected the people you could," Hammond explained as he stood up from his chair and walked around to stand next to Xander. "You saved lives; if you hadn't been there then the death toll could have been astronomical."
"It's because of me that Ethan went there," Xander said calmly, he knew it was his fault, Ethan had said it himself. He was targeting Xander and had used the destruction in Sunnydale to draw him out. He'd done all he could to limit the damage and death toll, but in the end, many people had still suffered and died because of Ethan, because he had come after him.
"You can't blame yourself for other men's evils," Hammond explained, laying a hand on Xander's shoulder as he talked. "Some men just want to cause pain and suffering, other's, like you, want to prevent it, to make the world a better place."
"You think I can?" Xander asked, hope shining in his eyes as he seriously thought about going public with all of this, ever since he had seen the reaction on the faces of the people he had rescued from the hospital, going public was a thought that was never far from his mind. He'd seen how they had accepted him, how they had welcomed his help and support. If the entire world could accept him like that, accept him, Buffy and Faith, and then there was so much more he could be doing.
"Maybe son," Hammond smiled, knowing exactly what he was thinking. "But I don't think the world is ready quite yet," He watched as Xander visibly deflated at those words. "The security tapes from the hospital have been destroyed; witness accounts have been altered, though the police and emergency services in Sunnydale seem to be a bit..." General Hammond paused as he tried to find the right word. "Inept when it comes to dealing with things like this."
"Don't I know it," Xander whispered, causing a strange glance from General Hammond. "I think they're just heavily into the denial side of the Hellmouth," Xander explained. "There's no way that anyone who wasn't in denial could be working in Sunnydale at night and not have questions."
"But, you did what was right; you saved lives, maybe hundreds. The security footage from the hospital was most revealing, even if it wasn't as subtle as we would have liked." General Hammond smiled as Xander visibly winced at the memory of having to act outright like that in public view.
"Maybe," Xander paused. "I just tried to do what I could, maybe... I could have done more, saved more people."
"You can't save everyone son," General Hammond smiled as he looked directly into Xander's eyes. "You're not Superman."
