The next morning, the stargate activated causing a soft reflection on the blast resistant glass of the observation window while General Hammond watched from the control room as the last team returned from their search for the missing Prometheus. The team's leader looked up into the control room and simply shook his head disappointedly telling the General that they had found nothing. "Very well. Go get some breakfast and rest." He ordered through the intercom.
"That's the last of them, Sir." Sgt. Walter Davis' tone was void of hope.
"Then whatever trouble they're in, let's hope they can get themselves out of it" Hammond tried to inspire everyone in earshot.
"Yes Sir."
Hammond, with Daniel and Teal'c in tow, left the control room and entered the conference room where Willow, Kennedy and Jack were already waiting.
From her seat, the redhead interpreted the expression on the men's faces. "No luck?"
"I'm afraid not. And since the Tok'ra have already finished their search without finding any sign of them ---."
"So what happens now?" Kennedy inquired.
"Nothing. That's it." Jack voiced despairingly as his teammates and the General took their seats.
At the girls' questioning looks, Hammond added. "I'm afraid Jack's right. Unless something breaks we've exhausted every method we have at locating them."
"So they're on their own." Kennedy surmised.
"It is unfortunate but there is nothing more to be done." Teal'c pointed out.
The Archeologist pleadingly looked to Willow in a last ditch attempt to hold on to hope.
"I'm sorry," Willow answered his silent plea. "I would if I could."
"We know you would." Hammond responded sympathetically trying to ease the witch's obvious guilt at not being able to help.
Jack chose that moment to speak up. "If we can continue with the meeting, we need to decide what we're going to do about the other problem at hand. The one we can do something about, namely, the wicked wizard of the west."
"Right." Hammond agreed straightening in his chair. "What is this baltine stuff?
"Bylatine." Willow corrected. "It's a type of mystical energy. "I've heard of people using it in weapons before but it's still kind 'a rare."
Jack leaned forward with concern. "Exactly how does this energy work and how much damage can it do?"
"Well simply put, it destroys anything in its path until the energy is used up. And it can be as powerful as you want, or can make it be." The redhead explained.
"You mean like a staff weapon?" Daniel assumed.
"Not exactly," The Wicca corrected. "The way I understand it, a staff weapon emits a burst of plasma that simply super heats a target causing it to burn. Bylatine doesn't generate heat so much as consume anything it comes in contact with."
"Oh, like pouring gasoline over Styrofoam." Jack smiled at his understanding.
"Yeah," The redhead agreed. "Just a lot faster and more potent. Plus you never need to reload."
"If these weapons were to fall into the hands of the drug cartels or any other Anti-American group for that matter ---" Hammond let the observation hang while everyone drew their own conclusions.
Several quiet seconds passed while everyone did just that.
"So we stop this deal from happening and destroy the weapons." Kennedy offered the obvious solution.
"Shouldn't be a problem since we have the time and place of the sale." Daniel supported.
"Woahhhh, hold up there." Jack interjected holding up his hands as if restraining an invisible object. "Destroy them? Why destroy them? If these guns are as powerful as you say, then we should use them ourselves?"
"You wan'na what!?" Willow sat up straight challenging the Colonel. "These weapons are made with dark magic. You can't ---."
"Why not? We use alien technology and weapons all the time what's the difference?"
"The difference is that there's always a price to pay for using dark magic."
"What kind of price?" Hammond cut in worriedly.
"Dark magic corrupts. Leaves a stain on your soul." The witch explained. Then quietly to herself added. "Believe me I know."
The room was silent as the S.G.C. personnel pondered that statement.
Finally Jack broke the silence "But will it physically hurt us?"
"Jack!" Daniel scolded. He was taking the woman's warning seriously.
"What? Daniel we need every advantage we can get. And if these guns are as powerful as she says they are then we should ---."
"Didn't you just hear her?" Kennedy cut in angrily. "These guns aren't an advantage. They're evil."
"What makes them any more evil than the guns we use everyday?" Hammond questioned with an even tone.
"Because they use magic to kill." Willow supplied as if that explained it all.
"You didn't have a problem using magic to kill that Ashrak." Jack pointed out.
"That was different. I was protecting a helpless victim."
"And what do you think we're doing. We're trying to protect an entire planet of helpless victims. If Anubus comes to Earth our entire population is doomed"
Willow considered that argument. "I'll think about it." She conceded.
"That's good enough for now." Hammond accepted ending the discussion.
"We must first acquire these weapons from the warlock." Teal'c reminded.
"He's right. We can decide what to do with them once we actually have them." Hammond agreed
"So, what's the plan?" Kennedy questioned.
"I think a covert insurgence would be the best strategy in this situation." Jack suggested. "Slip in quietly and take 'em down before they know what hit 'em."
"That's gon'na be easier said than done." Kennedy warned.
"What do you mean?" Daniel asked worried about the answer.
"I mean that security will probably be pretty tight. Pretty hard to sneak past."
"She's right." Willow supported. "There might even be some mystical defenses as well."
"So what do you suggest?" Hammond asked.
"My advice is to overpower them. Hit'em first and hit'em hard." Kennedy offered.
"A frontal assault?" Jack incredulously asked obviously not liking that option.
"No. Nothing that blaze of glory--y." Willow hesitated while she thought about the last word and her eyebrows furrowed at the way it sounded. "We just need to take them all down before they can react."
"A coordinated assault." Jack caught on.
"Is that doable?"
"Yeah I think we can manage that." Hammond offered.
"And the security contingent? What should we expect there." Jack asked.
"Since Victoria is in charge of that, I suspect that we're looking at a predominately demon presence. Probably more Graplars" Willow suggested. "They seem to be her demon of choice."
"That's my territory." Kennedy piped in. "Me and Scarlet will be ready for'em this time." She had every confidence in her and the crossbow's abilities.
"And I assume that you'll handle Zorichov." Hammond asked Willow.
The woman nodded. "Yeah, leave him to me."
"The vampire we captured said that we had already wiped them out, but we know he also has a human team of mercenaries. The ones that attacked the transport" Daniel warned. "They might be there too." Daniel speculated.
"Sir, I suggest that we use sg-3 and 5. That should be enough manpower to handle this. We can be in place before they arrive and catch them in the act." Jack advised.
"Alright then." Hammond decided. "Colonel, put together a plan to intercept this shipment and make sure no one gets away. I want everybody. Willow and Kennedy can help with any details you need to handle any supernatural threat."
The girls both nodded their agreement.
Douglass entered the study to find his employer sitting at his desk reading an old leather-bound book. "I'm sorry to disturb you Sir; but there's something here I thought you should see right away." He held out a file as he approached the desk.
The older man stood up and accepted the file. "What is it?"
"The information you requested on the slayer and her friends. There's something you really need to see. Also, George and Franklin never returned from their errand last night."
"I see. Do we suspect the slayer is to blame for their disappearance?" Stefan opened the file curious to know what his employee was so anxious to show him and began skimming."
"It is possible."
The warlock never lifted his gaze from the file. "I'd say it was probable."
"They may have been coerced into talking about our plans." Douglass suggested.
"If that is the case then ---." He cut himself off a few pages into his reading, his eyes catching, then rereading what he saw and looked up at Douglass. "Are you certain?"
"It's been confirmed by three different sources."
"Well this is unexpected. Unexpected indeed."
"What do you want me to do about it?"
"Nothing. When the time comes I would like to deal with her personally. As for tonight, it's too late to change our plans. But Victoria should be advised that we may have uninvited company."
"Yes sir. I'll do that now." Douglass turned and left the room.
The warlock closed the folder and tossed it onto his desk. A few of the papers inside slid out revealing a black and white photo, obviously taken with a telephoto lens, of Willow coming out of a convenience store with a large fountain drink. Her face circled in red.
A blueprint diagram of several buildings on a large open lot bordered by a fence was projected on the wall behind Colonel O'Neill who stood behind a podium in a small auditorium. "We know the guns are going to be here by midnight; but that still leaves ten square acres to cover and since we don't know exactly where the targets will be until they actually arrive; we will need to be flexible." He addressed his audience made up of the marines that were sg-3 and 5. "That means we will divide into four teams. Team one will consist of sg-1 and Willow. Once everyone arrives we will position ourselves to go after the main players. Team two will be seven sg-3 members of Colonel Reynolds' choosing and Kennedy. Your job is to locate and secure the weapons, which will probably be close to the bad guys. Team 3 will make up the remainder of sg-3 and sweep the grounds to clear out any remaining security forces. Team 4 will be sg-5. I want you to secure the perimeter and make sure no one gets past us. Now Willow will tell you how to handle the demon threat."
The Colonel stepped aside while the Wicca stepped in his place. Nervously she looked over the crowd of Marines that made up the combat unit; this was worse than giving an oral report at school. But she handled teaching Ms. Calandar's computer class that time and that was what she was really doing now wasn't it? She caught sight of Kennedy's smile of encouragement to her from the front row. O.K. Teacher it was.
"O.K. for starters," she triggered the slide machine to display a rather detailed sketch. "This is the Graplar demon."
"Are you sure that thing's a demon? It looks more like my mother-in-law" one man a few seats down from the slayer cracked earning several amused snickers from others in the audience and a nasty glare from the brunette slayer.
General Hammond, who stood near the door, was about to reprimand them when Willow answered back. "Can your mother-in-law snap you in half with her bare hands and use your intestines as a jump rope?"
The room suddenly fell silent at that description.
"Now." The redhead continued with a serious air since she had everyone's undivided attention. "These guys may be ugly, but they average six and a half feet tall and four hundred and fifty pounds of muscle. That's about two meters and two hundred kilograms if you guys prefer to use the metric system. Which is why they're commonly used for this kind of stuff. On the bright side they aren't. Bright I mean. They are sentient, but fairly dimwitted. They normally fight barehanded or use simple weaponry. So you'll have the advantage. Just stay out of arms reach. Compared to some other demons, they aren't too difficult to kill, in fact, the kill zones are the same as humans but they are tougher so it may take several shots to do the trick. My advice is to keep shooting until they're down and make sure they stay down."
She triggered another slide showing a headshot cropped from a surveillance photo. "This is the warlock, Stefan Zorichov. Pretty much just a male, evil version of me. Stay out of his way!" She warned sternly. "You don't even want to know how many ways he can kill you, --- Or Worse. I'll deal with him myself.
Several of the men assembled looked at each other wondering what 'Or Worse' meant. One of them in the back row raised a hand. "Excuse me ma'm, what's worse?"
"If you have to ask; you really don't want to know." The Wicca answered pointedly. When the same soldier opened his mouth to say something else Willow cut him off. "Just stay away from him and you won't have to find out."
"O.K. first, I'll get Scarlet and a few other things while you get what you need so ---." Kennedy began as she and Willow entered their home from the rear garage entrance.
"Whoa, What's the hurry?" Willow followed the slayer through the dining room. "We got time. Midnight is still a little ways off ya know."
Kennedy stopped and turned to the Wicca releasing a sigh. "Yeah, but I'm ready for this to be over." She admitted.
"I know how you feel this whole thing has distracted us a bit from … Why is Andrew here?"
"Huh?"
"Behind you."
Kennedy turned to look through the imaginary boundary separating the dining and living areas and saw the man in question sitting in the leather swivel recliner with his arms folded and an accusatory stare. "There you are. What have you got to say for yourselves?"
"We don't have to say anything and how did you get in here?" The slayer questioned with a hint of a threat in voice.
"Former Evil mastermind here remember. One locked door is nothing to me."
Angrily Kennedy stepped toward the unwelcome guest until Willow caught her by the shoulder. A satisfied smirk crossed her face as the geek flinched in fear.
"Why?" Willow asked.
Andrew stood up gripping his lapels in an effort to project an air of confidence and authority. "Because we need to talk about what you've been doing lately."
"And what have we been doing?" Kennedy challenged.
"You moved here without saying anything to the council and when I get here I find out that you're involved with the Air Force. Then you wouldn't let me in on the interrogation. Mr. Giles is very concerned. He wants to know why you would do that."
"Well Giles should have talked to us himself instead of sending you to do it. OOHH! I get it now." Realization dawned on the redhead. "That's why he sent you here. To check up on us." Willow guessed.
"Yes." He answered projecting more courage than he felt. "And he's not the only one. We're all concerned that maybe you're being coerced or manipulated in some way."
"We're not being controlled." Kennedy spat.
"Then what's going on?"
"Listen Andrew?" Willow said calmly, trying to lower the tension. "There's more happening here than you realize and ---."
"Then tell me. If this is something important, we should all be aware of ---."
"We can't do that."
"Oh why not?" He whined.
"Because we promised we wouldn't."
"UUUUHHHHNNNN!!!" Andrew stomped his foot unhappily.
"Look Andrew we don't have time for one of your temper tantrums right now. So why don't you just run along and let us get ready." Kennedy sternly suggested.
"Ready for what?"
"We're going after Zorichov." At Andrew's excited look she continued before he could even ask. "No you can't come."
"Why not?"
"Because we already have all the people we need. Why don't you go back to your hotel and we'll talk about this later. O.K." Willow suggested placatively.
"Yeah, sit back, relax; order something on pay-per- view. Just let us handle this." Kennedy backed up.
Realizing he wasn't going to get his way, Andrew huffed. "Fine. But we will talk later." He promised then walked to and out the front door while the two women watched.
Turning to each other Willow spoke first. "This could be a problem."
"Yeah but one problem at a time. We'll deal with Andrew later. Right now we have a warlock to deal with."
Thirty minutes later both girls exited the front door each carrying a bag; Kennedy's was obviously Scarlet's case. They walked to the street where their car was waiting and climbed in. Soon they pulled away from the curb and drove off.
Half a block away, Andrew started his own engine, "Sorry girls. But Andrew don't give up that easily." He pulled out from behind an extended cab pick up and followed them.