Rating:PG-13
Chapter 21 - Puzzle pieces-part 3
Jack fired at the vampire running towards him but the bullets leaving the barrel of his weapon weren't able to stop the approaching demon. The vampire moved so fast only few shots hit him and as soon as he reached Jack, he kicked the P-90 out of his hands. Jack tried to draw his knife and stab his opponent, however he was too slow and the vampire grabbed his hand and pressed it so hard Jack dropped his last weapon. The man pulled the struggling Colonel closer and lowered his head to Jack's neck. Jack felt the sharp teeth sink into his skin and his will to resist was quickly leaving his mind. The feeling of danger and necessity to defend himself was replaced by a sensation of enjoyment and satisfaction. Deep in his mind Jack still knew he was supposed to fight back, but a connection between a vampire and his victim is too strong to withstand, even for a trained soldier. Jack was almost angry when the pleasurable feeling abruptly disappeared.
The vampire drinking Jack's blood forgot to pay attention to what was happening around him and he screamed in pain as a blast from Teal'c's staff hit his back exactly in the height of his heart. The vampire's body began to smoke immediately and caught fire a second later. Before Jack realized what happened, there was only a pile of dust left on the floor behind him. Jack carefully touched his neck, still not sure, if what just happened was real. The drops of the crimson liquid on his finger tips made him snap out of the rapture and concentrate on the current situation.
"I thought you might require my assistance O'Neill." Teal'c helped Jack stand up. "Considering the description the slayers gave us, that creature was a vampire."
"Where is Roberts?" Jack asked, when he saw Teal'c came alone.
"I asked Daniel Jackson and Major Carter to get him while I ran to help you." Teal'c explained.
Jack noticed a figure moving noiselessly behind Teal'c. In any other situation Jack would think it was a Goa'uld, as soon as he saw the yellow eyes, but this time he knew better. Before the vampire had a chance to attack, Jack grabbed Teal'c's staff and fired, aiming at the heart. The figure flared up the same way as the first vampire and illuminated the corridor for a few seconds. Jack saw another two figures run to him from the west hallway and almost fired again, but then he recognized, the two were the rest of his own team.
"Roberts is gone." Daniel and Sam informed the others while they rushed to the corridor. "He closed himself in the central room. The story about opening all doors simultaneously was a lie to split us up and give him a better chance to escape."
"I knew it!" Jack hit the wall to his right with his fist. "Well, I'm curious how he'll get out of a pyramid full of vampires by himself." Jack took out his transmitter and called Jacob, who stayed in a hall near the entrance to study the ancient writings on the walls, hoping he would find out why was Anubis looking for the staff. "Jacob. We're leaving."
"That's what I was about to suggest." Jacob whispered quietly, hidden behind a column close to the entrance, while several vampires ran inside the pyramid. Looking up to the sky, he watched a Ha'tak descend through the clouds and launch a wing of death gliders which immediately attacked the village where Apophis's Jaffa were stationed. In the dim moonlight Jacob couldn't see much from the fight, he only recognized Apophis's soldiers tried to hold back the attackers, but they were seriously outnumbered and Jacob knew that after the gliders destroy the village, they probably start guarding the temple, which meant he and SG-1 had to hurry.
When Jack's team reached the exit, each of them picked up a staff weapon from the guards they killed few minutes sooner and Teal'c gave a staff to Jacob as well.
"Vampires." Jack explained shortly. "Aim at the heart."
"Sir, are you really sure, the creatures were vampires?" Carter questioned Jack's opinion about their enemies.
"My neck is sure enough to persuade Janet to quarantine me for the rest of the week." Jack replied sulkily, observing the descending Ha'tak. "Let me guess, Anubis came for the staff."
The five of them started running towards the stargate, hoping the trees will give them enough cover to remain unnoticed by the gliders. Instead of following the path, they slipped through the forest to avoid any Jaffa patrols or other groups of vampires on the way. In the beginning, Jack was ruminating about how the demons got into the temple, considering the slayers controlled the stargate on their planet, but when his team reached the gate and stopped to find out if there are any guards, Jack saw a group of ten Jaffa talk to several vampires, which meant they worked together for Anubis. Jack signed to his team to stay in cover and thought about possible ways to get rid of the guards. Sneaking and using a knife or a stake was pointless. Jack already had the opportunity to find out how keen senses, speed and strength a vampire possessed and he knew a hand-to-hand combat was too risky. On the other hand using staff weapons would definitely alert the gliders and Jack mentally kicked himself for leaving both M24s in the temple. In the end he decided to attack from distance and took out a hand-grenade from his bag, while the others prepared to take care of anyone who survives the explosion.
Hidden behind a large granite stone, Jack threw the grenade, aiming at the middle of the group of enemies. He soon realized, he slightly overestimated his strength, because the grenade didn't reach it's target and exploded a few meters in front of the Jaffa. Fortunately the strength of the blast was enough to kill half of them and sent the rest flying towards the gate. In contrast to the injured Jaffa, who needed some time to regain their footing, the five vampires stood up in an instant and it took them less then a second to locate the one who attacked them. Jack expected this and pretended he was trying to escape to lure them to the others. The vamps swallowed the bait and charged at Jack, which led them right into SG-1's line of fire. When the staff blast began to strike them down, they tried to fall back, but it was too late and they all ended as a burned pile of dust.
Jack threw away the staff weapon he carried, picked up his P-90 and fired at the Jaffa, who survived the explosion of the grenade. He couldn't risk they call reinforcements. Jack ordered Daniel to enter the address of Earth, while the others watched the night sky, ready to give him cover in case a glider would appear, but it seemed all crafts were above the temple. Jack wasn't surprised Anubis didn't bother to send more forces to stop them - he had what he came for. Jack looked at the landing Ha'tak for the last time and followed the rest of his team and Jacob into the wormhole.
----
John was walking through the halls of the manor and looking for Dawn. The previous day Buffy used a polite excuse to kick him out of the infirmary and later Willow and Xander didn't allow him to talk to Dawn either. He hoped to get a chance to explain to Dawn why he lied to her and he wondered if she already knew about it. He stopped in front of the wooden double-wing door leading to her room, summoned all courage he had left and knocked.
Dawn partially opened the door and curiously peeped into the hall. The smile gracing her face faded away as soon as she saw John and she slammed the door shut with such force it almost left it's hinges.
'Well, this answers the question if she already knows about it', John thought. "Dawn I need to talk to you. I need to explain."
"What a bad luck. Right now, I don't want to listen." Dawn snapped.
"Just give me one minute.", John beseeched. "Then you can curse me and avoid me for the rest of your life if you want."
Dawn slowly opened one door leaf with a grim expression, trying to control her temper."You have three minutes to persuade me you're not an idiot. The stage is yours, make me cry. Perhaps you want to start with a story about a rough childhood."
"Ok. I deserved that. But what I did ... lying to you ... was necessary. I know Hammond and SGC and you have to believe me I'd never agree to take a sender to your planet if I thought they'd use it to attack. We needed to know the location of your planet to start the negotiations and this was the fastest way to find out."
"A great plan." Dawn paused for a moment before continuing on bitterly." The idea to ... let's say ... ask me, ever crossed your mind?"
"And say what exactly?",John disagreed."Something like: Hey, I know our organizations fight against each other and all, but can you please take me with you? And by the way what's the stargate address of your homeworld?" John gave a slight sigh. "Dawn even if SGC didn't want me to go, I would try to help you with Bauer and NID, but you wouldn't take me with you if SG-1 didn't pretend to chase us and I just asked you."
"You know what the worst part is?" Dawn replied sadly. "I would." She turned away from John and left quickly to the main hall. John wanted to follow her, but was stopped by a strong arm on his shoulder.
"I have to go." John tried to get rid of the arm holding him.
"If you really miss the infirmary so much and want to spend there the next week, then go and talk to her now, but if I were you I'd give her time to calm down." Xander remarked.
"I screwed up." John watched the curve of the corridor where Dawn disappeared. "She'll never forgive me."
"Of course she will." Xander assured him. "Let me give you a little introduction to Summers Women 101. There are three simple rules to follow. The most important one is: A Summers is too good-natured to stay angry for a longer period of time, however approaching her during this time is extremely dangerous. The second is: When she tells you you're an idiot, you agree, look down and at least try to pretend you feel terribly sorry for whatever you've done."
"And the third?"
"Oh that's: Never say she's short." Xander grinned." Holds true only for Buffy. Don't underestimate this rule, there are many demons rotting in the ground who thought she's an easy prey because of her height."
"Definitely won't forget that one." John nodded and wanted to leave, but was stopped by Xander once more.
"One more thing." Xander added. "In her short life, Dawn experienced more pain and grief then most people and what she certainly doesn't need is another disappointment. I hope you're old enough to understand that if you hurt her again, the slayers will be your least problem."
"You have never caused pain to someone, even though you had the best intentions?"
"I did." Xander remembered his unfinished wedding. "Her name was Anya, we wanted to get married and I got scared and canceled the wedding. If I had known at that moment how little time she had left..." Xander closed his eye for a few seconds and let the images of him and Anya appear in his mind. "Make sure this won't happen to you John. The only really useful advise I can give you is: It's always worth trying.", he added. "I think we should go. They're probably waiting for us."
Xander and John left to the main hall together, where they saw Buffy, Willow, Faith, Dawn and Giles together with Angel and Riley discussing something.
"The stargate is fake, as well as the documents about Watchers Council using it." Buffy informed the others. "The position of the Earth was different, there were obviously nine planets in our solar system before the spell was cast, the same planets Tauri has. But the strangest fact is, the Tok'ra maps don't show our solar system at all. Add it up and what do you get? We're not supposed to be here."
"I have other disturbing news.", Angel announced thoughtfully. "I called a friend, who knows a seer, who used to have the contact to PTB and he told me the seer lost his powers, in the same time as Lorne. Also the chamber where we found Whislter used to be protected by magic, but now anyone can enter the passage. It's like the PTB lost their powers."
"Can we wake Whistler up?" Dawn suggested. "I bet he knows what caused this mess."
"The crystal he is holding in his hand is keeping him alive and it's also regenerating his body." Willow described Whistler's condition. "I used magic to speed up the process, but I think it takes at least a week before he wakes up."
"And in the meantime we'll just sit on our asses and do nothing?" Dawn frowned. "What about the demons? Did you find anything?"
"I sent five teams to various locations where large groups of demons were spotted the last time before they disappeared." Riley shook his head, confused by the complicated situation. "There are no traces of the residual magical energy that usually remains after opening a portal, which means..."
"...most of them didn't escape to another dimension." Dawn finished the idea. "So the one-million dollar question is: Where are they?"
----
Two vampires dragged the unconscious Roberts to the control room of Anubis's mothership, while the third was carrying Apophis's staff. The three bowed before the Goa'uld and gave him the artifact he desired. The staff itself had the shape of a small cobra with golden skin and opened mouth, baring it's sharp white teeth.
"Master. This man was accompanying SG-1." one of the vampires informed Anubis. "We found him in the temple. Do you want us to kill him?"
"No, I have a better use for him." Anubis leisurely waved his hand and the Jaffa standing next to his throne picked Roberts up and took him to the ship's laboratory. "Till now all our attempts to combine a vampire and a symbiont have failed. However my scientists succeeded in modifying one symbiont to surpass the natural resistance of a vampire, which was preventing an infestation and I think we've just found a volunteer. You may go now.", he added.
The three vampires stood up and walked out of the room. Anubis watched them leave and turned to the brown haired man standing on his left. "The demons and vampires you delivered are really effective as soldiers. In the last years, the plans of many Goa'uld were thwarted by SG-1 and Tauri defeated a lot of their warriors. I'm pleased the vampires were able to secure the staff."
"The employees of Wolfram and Hart always do anything to satisfy their clients." Lindsey smirked. "Our senior partners are interested a lot in this alliance. Now all we need is the last artifact and the set is complete."
"Yes." Anubis nodded. "The most powerful part, the one that started everything."
Anubis took the staff and picked up Cronus's ring and Ra's eye, which he connected two weeks before. The two items were already stained with Dawn's and Buffy's blood. He carefully attached the ring and the eye to the snake's mouth and then took a vial filled with blood and let a few drops fall on the staff. When the drops landed on the artifact, it began to glow with soft green light and the edges of the three items merged.
----
Dawn was in the main hall and talking to Buffy about the possible reasons why all seers lost the contact with the PTB when she suddenly noticed a familiar feeling of power flowing into her body. Dawn remembered the first time she felt the same way. It was during her fight with Vi two weeks before and now the sensation was back and much stronger then the last time. Dawn tried to concentrate and control the energy passing through her body, but she soon realized, she won't be able to keep it inside. She felt like vomiting within the next seconds and went down to her knees, clenching her fists and breathing heavily, drops of cold sweat running down her forehead.
"Dawn, what's wrong?" Buffy desperately watched her sister, not sure what she was supposed to do. "Is something hurting you?"
Dawn outstretched her fingers and small green bolts began to flicker between them. "I need to release..." she clasped her hands and then quickly stretched out her arms. A wave of energy emerged from her fingers and spread through the whole building and it's surroundings. Everyone except Buffy, who seemed to be unaffected by the impulse, was thrown to the ground. The entire system of safety-fuses was immediately fried as well as the circuits in most activated electronic devices. All bulbs and the older cathode-ray tubes blew up, pieces of glass flying in all directions. The fire alarm went mad and within the next minutes the main hall and other rooms were turned into swimming-pools. The impulse shut down all security systems and Willow felt the passing energy crush the magical defences she had set up around the house and other buildings.
Dawn felt the power inside her disappear and slowly stood up, watching the results of her new abilities. Meanwhile, tens of angry and completely soaked slayers and watchers burst into the hall, looking for a potential threat, however they soon realized, there was no enemy to fight, only a lot of destroyed equipment to clean up.
"Whoops." Dawn smiled nervously at Buffy. "You won't ask me to clean all this, will you?"
End chapter.
Please review.