Chapter 13: Aftermaths

"Buffy!" cried Dawn. She took off running away from the relative safety of the camp site. It was only relatively safe up there, because some of the spiders had gotten that far. She, Giles and Xander had killed a few of them. Giles and Xander called for Dawn to come back but she ignored them and kept running. Only the thought of what might happen to Willow, if some of the spiders got to her, kept them from following Dawn.

O'Neill, and his people moved in around Buffy, keeping the smaller spiders away from her. There were a lot fewer of them now than there had seemed to be only a few minutes ago. Dawn saw Sam lower her gun, and crouch beside Buffy to feel at her neck.

"Pulse is strong!" said Sam.

Daniel stopped shooting, and started to swap his magazine. "This is my last one," he said.

"Save it," said Jack. "We might need the bullets later. Use your zat." He switched weapons himself.

Daniel nodded, and finished reloading before he pulled out his zat and started zapping bugs with it.

Dawn reached Buffy and crouched beside her. "Buffy! Can you hear me?"

Buffy made a sound like a groan, but didn't give any intelligible response. Sam had moved on to examining the burn on the back of Buffy's calf. She recognised it as the result of a staff blast, and looked up at Teal'c. "What happened?"

"One of the spiders was biting Buffy Summers' leg," said Teal'c. "I shot it. My aim was not as precise as it should have been."

"It might be a good thing that you hit her too," said Sam as she removed Buffy's belt. She wrapped it around her leg, above the burn, and pulled it tight to act as a tourniquet. "The burn may have partially cauterised the bite, keeping most of the poison out of her system, or at least slowed it down." Sam looked around. The ground was littered with the remains of the little spiders, and farther away she could still see dozens of live ones. "Let's get her moved up to the camp." She looked at Dawn. "Help me carry her."

"I will carry her," said Teal'c. He handed his staff to Sam, and then easily rolled over Buffy's slight body, and picked her up into a fireman's carry.

Dawn grabbed the Scythe, and they all moved up to the camp, with Jack and Daniel continuing to keep watch for spiders.

Teal'c carried Buffy into the lab tent, which was starting to look like a hospital tent now. Willow and Jerry had both been placed on cots in it. Teal'c laid Buffy down on one of the work tables, and rolled her over onto her stomach. Sam moved in to take another look at the burn on her calf. The third degree burn itself was bad enough, and she began the first aid treatment for that. She didn't know what to do about the poison.

Dawn went to Willow, and gently shook her shoulder. "Willow! Wake up!"

"G'way K'ndy," muttered Willow. "Le'me sleep."

Dawn shook her harder. "Willow! You have to wake up! Buffy needs you!"

"Huh? Wha'?" Willow suddenly sat up, and then dropped her head down into her hands. "Oh, goddess, what a nightmare!"

"Willow! Buffy got bit by one of the spiders!"

"What?" Willow's head snapped back up. "Oh no, it wasn't a nightmare, was it? The giant spiders are real?"

"Uh…yeah." Dawn didn't think that this was the right time to tell Willow that the 'giant' spiders had been reclassified. "One of them bit Buffy. Can you help her?"

"I can try." Willow started to get up off the cot, but she nearly collapsed before Dawn caught her.

"Are you sure you're up for this?" asked Dawn.

"I have to try," said Willow. "Just get me to her."

"Okay." Dawn pulled Willow's arm around her shoulder, and helped support her as they moved across the tent to where Sam was finishing bandaging Buffy's leg.

Willow looked at the bandage. "That's where she was bit?"

"Yes," said Sam. "She's also got a third degree burn there."

"How'd that happen?"

"Teal'c used his staff to burn the spider off her," said Dawn. "We're hoping that helped to slow down the poison."

Willow closed her eyes, and passed her hand over Buffy's leg. "It did…a bit." She staggered, and nearly fell. Dawn caught her again.

"Willow, are you alright?"

Willow rubbed her head. "Yeah…fine…I just have to get this marching band in my head to keep quiet."

"Can you do anything for Buffy?"

"I'm nearly tapped out Dawnie…I don't think I can, unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Can I borrow some of your power?"

"Anything," said Dawn, without hesitation. "What do I do?"

"Just let me hold your hand."

Dawn held out her right hand, and she felt a slight tingle as Willow closed her hand around it. Willow suddenly straightened up. "Whoa!"

"What's happening?" asked Sam.

"Oh…nothing," said Willow. "I've just never drawn power from Dawn before, and wasn't quite ready for it. She's…well, let's just say she's got a lot of it."

Willow passed her hand over Buffy's leg again, and the golden glow emanated from her hand. Sam saw something that looked like smoke start to rise away from the bandages covering Buffy's wound, and condensing in the air between them and Willow's hand, once again forming a small globule of purple liquid that suddenly flared, and vanished. Willow moved her hand up, along Buffy's leg, and over the rest of her body, letting the glow sweep across her.

The glow vanished, and Willow started to breathe again. "That's it. I've done all I can."

"Will she be alright?" asked Dawn.

Willow smiled at her. "Yeah, Dawn. She'll be awake and Slaying in no time."

"How about Jerry?" asked Sam. "He's still unconscious."

Willow frowned. "How long was I out?"

"About an hour," said Sam.

"That's not good." Willow moved over to the cot on which Jerry was lying. She knelt beside him and held her open palm over his head. She closed her eyes again, and just knelt there, not seeming to do anything for several seconds.

She suddenly dropped her hand, and sat back on her heels. She shook her head, and opened her eyes. "I can't do any more for him."

"What do you mean?" asked Sam.

"I mean, it's up to him now," said Willow. "I've removed all the poison, but there was so much of it. It did a lot of damage. I think he'll recover, given proper care, but there's nothing more I can do now."

Sam turned to Dr. Hawley, who had been hovering around them. "What's the ETA on that medevac?"

"Forty-five minutes."


Xander's axe chopped another spider in half. "Ha! Take that, you arachnid!"

"Why do you use such a primitive weapon, Xander Harris?" asked Teal'c.

Xander held up his axe, and looked at it. "There is much to be said for a good axe. For one thing, you never have to reload it." He glanced to his left, where he saw Daniel zapping another spider. "Now, if I could get my hands on one of those bug zappers of yours…how long do the batteries in those things last?"

Teal'c gave Xander one of his rare smiles. "A long time."

"A staff like yours would be nice to have too…as long as I had lots of room, but half the time I'm stuck down in some sewer where I wouldn't have the room to turn the thing around."

"The firearms of the Tau'ri are compact," said Teal'c.

Xander filed that 'Tau'ri' away in his mind to ask Giles or Willow about later. "But there are also a lot of things out there that bullets only tend to make angry."

Teal'c's smile turned into a frown, and Xander decided that this guy could really frown. "I have found that the projectile weapons of the Tau'ri are surprisingly effective."

'Okay,' thought Xander. 'Definitely not Initiative.' Anyone with the Initiative would be able to name half a dozen demon species that laughed at bullets…and if Teal'c was some sort of demon himself, he'd know that too. The 'from another planet' theory was starting to look better to him. That would explain why the Air Force was involved.

Xander saw Dawn come out of the lab tent, carrying the Scythe. "Oh, hey Dawn, how're Buffy and Willow?"

"Willow's awake. She pulled the poison out of Buffy, and says she's going to be fine." Dawn held up the Scythe, and Xander saw that it was coated with blue spider goo. "I'm just going to wash this off. She'll be so mad if it gets stained."

"I'll come with you," said Xander. "She'll be even madder if I let you get bit now."

They made their way to the stream that ran near the camp, the one that they had been getting their water from, and Xander and Teal'c kept watch while Dawn dipped the Scythe into the fast flowing water. The blood and guts from the spiders was washed away in seconds, and Dawn pulled the pristine Scythe from the water.

"May I examine that?" asked Teal'c.

Dawn hesitated for a moment. "Alright. I'll trade you for your staff." She'd noticed that he treated it almost as an object of religious worship.

Teal'c nodded and held out his staff to her. Dawn took it as she handed him the Scythe.

Teal'c swung the Scythe through the air experimentally, but it didn't make the singing sound he had heard when Buffy Summers wielded it. Its balance felt perfect though. He could swing it as an axe, hold the grip near the blade and use it to slash, or stab with the spear end, and it felt like a natural extension of his arm, no matter what he did.

He stopped swinging the Scythe, and took a closer look at its blade. Despite having seen it used against something that neither armour piercing bullets, nor blasts from his staff weapon could penetrate, he could see no blemish in its edge. He brought his thumb up against the edge to test it.

"Careful," said Dawn. "It's sharp."

Teal'c pulled his thumb away, and saw the string of red beads of blood along it. He hadn't even felt it cut him. "Indeed."

Dawn saw a spider moving across the rocks on the other side of the stream. She pointed the staff at it. "So, how does this work?"

Teal'c carefully placed the Scythe on a rock and stepped up behind her. He reached around her, placing his hands on hers, and adjusted her grip slightly. "You hold it like this, and squeeze with your right hand to fire."

Dawn squeezed her hand, and the spider was vapourised by the blast from the head of the staff. "Cool!"

"Indeed!" said Teal'c. He picked up the Scythe again, and held it out to her. Dawn took it while handing his staff back to him. They started back toward the camp.

Xander spotted another spider, and got it with his axe. "How long till the medevac gets here?"

"Thirty minutes," said Teal'c.

"I say, when they get here, we all take off, and nuke the island from orbit," said Xander. "It's the only way to be sure."

Teal'c stopped, and looked at him. "Is not the use of a nuclear weapon…" He seemed to be searching for the right word. "…overkill?"

"Have you seen any movies other than Star Wars?" asked Xander, but privately he was wondering about the seriousness of Teal'c's expression. Could these guys call in a nuclear strike?


"Sir, I think you should dispatch SG-3 here, right away," said Jack, "We seem to have taken care of the main threat, but we don't have the manpower necessary to mop up. We're going to have to sweep this entire island from end to end to kill all these spiders."

"I can't just send a company of Marines into the territory of a friendly nation, Colonel," said General Hammond. "That's not a 'friendly' thing to do. I placed a call to the Pentagon, to start proceedings on getting authorization, as soon as we got Dr. Hawley's request for a medevac, but I doubt if we'll get it. I was told that someone else would handle it."

"Who?"

"They wouldn't say exactly, but I was told that there is a special unit that handles 'situations like this' that is covered as an international counter-terrorism team. They have already deployed to Scotland; someone already informed them that there was something going on there."

"This unit wouldn't be called 'the Initiative' or something like that, would it, Sir?" asked Jack.

"I have never heard of a unit with that designation, Colonel. Why do you ask?"

"Summers and her people kept asking us if we were part of something called 'the Initiative.' They seem to have had some exposure to a military unit that deals with 'situations like this.' And here I thought that 'situations like this' were our job."

"So did I, Colonel," said General Hammond. "So did I."


Jack was surprised by just how easy it was to convince the civilians to leave in the medevac helicopter. With Buffy still unconscious, and Willow looking like she was about to fall over again at any second, it was no problem convincing them that his people could handle things until their reinforcements arrived. In fact the only way he could have kept Dawn off the helicopter with Buffy would have been to zat her.

Two more unmarked Blackhawk helicopters came in to land as the medevac chopper was taking off. They started to disgorge troops in black uniforms, devoid of any sort of nationality markings. Jack couldn't help noticing that they had brought a lot of firepower along with them.

The one officer among them who was wearing Air Force blue really stood out. Jack walked up to him. "Major Davis, welcome to my little island getaway. Care to introduce me to your friends?"

"Yes, Sir. Colonel Jack O'Neill…" Major Davis gestured toward a man with sandy hair, and a face that Jack would have called 'boyish' if it weren't for a rather nasty looking scar that ran across it. "…Major Riley Finn."

Major Finn held out his hand, and smiled. "Glad to finally meet you, Sir. I've heard a lot about you."

Jack shook his hand carefully. "That's more than I can say about you, Major." He let go of Finn's hand and looked at Major Davis again. "Care to fill me in on what's going on?"

"Major Finn's team are trained and equipped to handle creatures like the ones you have found on this island, Colonel. They have extensive experience with this sort of thing."

"Let me guess: they're that 'Initiative' thing that Summers and her people kept asking about."

Major Finn's smile faded. "The Initiative no longer exists, but several members of my team are survivors of it, thanks to Buffy." He looked around. "Uh…where is Buffy? I was kinda expecting to see her here."

"She was just medevaced out," said Jack. "Her people all went with her."

"She was hurt? How?"

"She got bit by one of the spiders."

"Is she going to be okay?" Jack could hear real concern in Finn's voice.

"According to Miss Rosenberg, she's going to be fine," said Jack. "So, you know her?"

One of Finn's people smirked. "He used to date her."

Finn turned and frowned at the man. "Get your men deployed, Captain Miller, and make sure they all know that one bite from one of these things was enough to incapacitate the Slayer."

"The Slayer?" asked Jack.

"I'm sorry Sir, but you don't need to know about that," said Major Davis.

Jack smiled at Major Finn. "Excuse us, for a second." He took hold of Davis's arm and pulled him a little bit away. "What do you mean I don't need to know?" he whispered. "I've got an island crawling with alien bugs, and you bring in this special ops team that seems to know all about 'situations like this' but no one in the SGC knows anything about them? I thought 'situations like this' were exactly what we were supposed to deal with!"

"I'm sorry Jack," said Major Davis. "If it makes you feel any better, Major Finn, and most of his people don't know anything about the SGC either."

"Most of them?"

"He's got a couple of men who were transferred from the SGC," said Major Davis. "We put them onto his team, just in case they ever do encounter something that you do need to know about."

"Let me guess," said Jack. "We've got a few people in the SGC who were transferred from Finn's outfit."

"One or two," said Major Davis.

Jack didn't like hearing any of this. "Are they NID?"

"No," said Major Davis. "The Initiative was an NID operation, but they are no longer directly involved. Finn's outfit is purely military."

"So they are indirectly involved, how?"

"I expect that some of these spiders will find their way into an NID lab for study, but Finn doesn't report to them," said Major Davis. "Now, I would suggest, Sir, that it is time to brief Finn on what his men are facing here…and it would be best if you didn't mention aliens."


Buffy awoke to a feeling of motion, and a very loud noise. She tried to move, but discovered that there were straps holding her down. She started to struggle against them.

"Whoa, Buffy! Stop!" came Dawn's voice.

Buffy opened her eyes, and saw that she was in a cramped metal compartment. She saw Dawn leaning over her. "Why am I tied down? Where are we?"

"They're just safety straps, like seatbelts!" said Dawn, nearly yelling to be heard. "We're in a helicopter, and the ride gets a little bumpy sometimes!"

Buffy looked down, and saw that the straps holding her down did have seatbelt type releases, and her right arm was free to move, so she could get herself loose if she wanted too. She started to reach for one of the releases when the helicopter suddenly lurched. She decided that maybe it was a good thing that she was tied down. She also noticed that her left arm was immobilized, and had an IV tube stuck in it. "What's that?" she asked suspiciously.

"It's okay, Willow checked it, before she passed out again." Dawn nodded her head toward where Willow strapped down in another bed. Jerry was in a third, with a couple of IVs stuck in his arms, and someone who looked like a medic watching over him. "It's just a saline solution, with some pain killers."

"What about the spiders?"

"Jack's people seem to be handling the little ones just fine, and they were expecting some sort of reinforcements to arrive just after we left. They should be fine."

"What if another big one shows up?" asked Buffy.

"You aren't exactly in shape to do that again," said Dawn. "If it happens, and they can't handle it, they know where to find us."

"So where are we going?"

"Home," said Dawn.