Okay, here, after much delay, is part two. It's been a long time in coming because my computer is being repaired (grr) and because I lost half a week covering a conference in the South of France that meant that I stayed up late a lot and drank a lot of alcohol, which meant that my muse was tipsy and giggling half the time, which made for some interesting, if odd, plot ideas that I have mercilessly crushed.

Thanks to Wendy for betaing the story and thanks also to Sepharih for jigging up a really amazing picture of Jedi Xander and Padawan Oz using photoshop. Looks great!

One last thing – a lot of people have been asking about a Jedi Xander vs Darth Xander match up. Well, I do have one planned, but not just yet.... (evil laugh)

Anyway, enjoy and R&R!


Despite himself Jack was quite impressed by the sheer speed in which things happened at that point. Finn pulled out a small radio and snapped some kind of short codeword into it, before running over to the big table with the two Brits and flipping it over onto its side, making as little noise as possible. They then dragged it around to form a barrier that Finn promptly crouched down behind with the Ethan guy. Giles had dashed some big cupboard and pulled out a pair of those blaster-things and something smaller, although Jack could see that the cupboard also held what looking like a dust-covered katana and assorted battleaxes. Tossing one of the blasters over to Ethan they both joined Finn. The geeks and the girls had vanished off behind the bookshelves, presumably where one of the former initiative guys were covering their line of retreat, while the other one, whatisname, Forrest, came in quickly through the main doors, hurdled the book counter and took up a firing position.

The - Jack's mind almost rebelled about using the word, but there was no getting around it really – vampire with the hair gel took up another firing position to the right of the main doors, along with the kid. As for Maybourne, Giles threw the smaller something or other, which looked like a handgun version of the blaster, over to him and the NID colonel limped quickly over to a buttress, still holding his glowy rock thing. They all had clear fields of fire. Not bad.

Which just left SG1. Still bound. Still sitting on the floor. Still unarmed. "I don't want to worry anyone or anything," he said sarcastically, "But hello? A little help here please for the guys sitting in the middle of what might be a firefight?"

"Ah," said Giles. "Oh dear. Colonel Maybourne can we trust them with firearms?"

Maybourne raised his eyebrows and directed a rather sly and sardonic smile at Jack. Oh, that guy was just loving this, damn him. He'd be treasuring the memory of vouching for them for years, the little runt.

"I think so, Mr Giles," he replied in a voice that made Jack want to throttle the bastard.

There was a quick pause. "Very well," said Giles and raised his hand in an odd gesture. The green energy bonds around SG1's hands flared briefly and then vanished. Carter was opening her mouth, obviously to ask what kind of technology they were using, when Jack grabbed Daniel by the scruff of his neck, and went for cover like a raccoon caught in a thunderstorm. "Move, people," he barked and SG1 followed his lead, taking up positions behind overturned chairs and boxes along the wall and facing the doors. Which just left the little matter of firearms. Which they didn't have.

He was about to open his own mouth to point out that discrepancy when Finn grabbed their guns, which had been bundled together and scooted them across the floor at them. Carter, who was the nearest to them, grabbed them with a wince at such an unsafe delivery – luckily the safeties were all on – and passed them on to the others before looking around again.

"Where are the zats?" she called.

"The what?" replied Giles.

"The curved hand weapons?" snapped Jack as he checked the magazine for damage, reloaded it, flipped the safety off, chambered a round and took aim at the doors.

"Oh, those things," mumbled Finn, looking around. Grabbing the Zatni'kels he sent them over as well. This time Teal'c was nearest and by the way that the big guy grabbed them both and activated them the former First Prime of Apophis was quite glad to return to more familiar things. His eyebrows must have twitched upwards a whole eighth of an inch as he laid them down to each side and pulled out his automatic. The guy hated the thing, but it was best to rely on more conventional weapons until they knew what they were up against. Zats would be an ace in the hole.

Jack sighed and scrunched the butt of the gun a little more comfortably into his shoulder. "Nuts. How do we always end up in screwed-up situations?"

They waited for several moments in a tense silence when something moved past the doors. There was a light on in the corridor outside and they clearly saw a dark shape briefly darken the lighter line where the doors met. Then another. And another. Finn squinted, raised a hand and flashed three fingers to the left and then five to the right. More movement at the sides of the doors, which was accompanied by ominous little noises that sounded as if something was being placed against them.

Giles hissed: "Take cover and prepare to fire!" and it was at that moment that all hell broke loose. There was an odd sounding hiss, sparks flew out of the hinges of the doors and then they were blown inwards with a sharp crack. Seeing that none of the wooden debris was going to hit anywhere near him Jack raised and aimed his gun and then fired a three-round burst at the chest of the black-clad figure that had appeared through the smoke. The figure staggered slightly and then opened fire with a blaster in his general direction; obliterating half a wooden rail and leaving smoking scorch marks on the walls.

"Nuts," he said again and opened fire at the doorway on full automatic, emptying his magazine at the figure, which staggered again but kept moving forward, letting off another barrage of red bolts. One, no, two figures had joined it and there were others in the smoke, hanging back and laying down covering fire. Carter and Daniel were also hosing down the entrance, supported by Teal'c with his automatic, and none of them were putting so much as a scratch on the guys in black. They were wearing some kind of masks that seemed to be part of their black helmets, masks that came down to protect their throats without impeding movement. Every part of their body was covered in the same kind of material, leaving no bare skin – and it seemed to be bulletproof.

"Who the hell are these guys?" he muttered as he ejected the empty magazine, grabbed for another and ducked as a shower of burning plaster came down from the wall above him. "Apart from being rotten shots..."

Then he heard more shots, but this time outgoing and not incoming as the three men behind the table, having shaken off the pieces of smoking wood from the doors, opened fire with a volley of blaster shots, to be joined by the others on the flanks. The armour it seemed could deflect some glancing blows from the blasters, but not direct hits – the lead figure took one to the chest and fell to the ground with a hole smouldering nastily, while the one next to him was also hit, first in the leg and then in the head, sending him sprawling bonelessly.

The remaining figure laid down suppressing fire that blew chunks out of the table and gestured sharply, bringing his support up. Suddenly there were six black-clad intruders at the door, firing at anything that moved.

"Teal'c!" Jack yelled, dropping his rifle in disgust, having emptied it yet again with no result, "Break out the zats god damn it!" Turning his head he watched as the Jaffa tossed the device towards him and picked up the other one.

"Okay, try this!" He fired a blue spiraling bolt at the nearest bad guy. As it hit the figure shuddered hard but stayed upright and kept firing. "Damn it!" He fired again and this time the guy went down hard. "Yes!" he exulted and fired at the others. Another was hit, this time by both Teal'c and the vampire, before he got another a split second before the kid hit him, while two more went down to the converging fire from the other blasters in the library. Which left one man standing, who seemed rather unfazed by the fact. He ducked a zat blast from Jack and sent off three blaster bolts before Maybourne got him with a shot to the head.

Silence fell, broken only by the faint crackle of flames from the hits to the odd armour and the panting of stressed fighters.

"Clear my side!" shouted Forrest, peering through the smoke. "Clear here!" replied Jack as he peered around the other side. Nothing was moving in the entrance or the corridor outside. It looked like they'd come in dumb. Then he looked back at the armour. Well, maybe not so dumb after all. Looking around he checked for friendly casualties. Ethan and Giles seemed fine, Finn had a cut on his forehead, probably from the door splinters, Forrest seemed okay, the vampire was busy pulling a chunk of wood from his shoulder and the student was unharmed. Then he looked over at his people. Teal'c was okay, Carter was ejecting a magazine and staring in bafflement at the dead bodies and Daniel...

"Oh for crying out loud! Daniel, how the hell do you do this to yourself?" he asked as he crouched over the archaeologist, who was clutching his shoulder and grimacing in pain at the smoking hole in his uniform.

"Practice, Jack, practice. Ow."

There was a weary sigh to one side and the Ethan guy walked over clutching another glowing stone thingy. "Okay, put this close to the wound and keep it there until I say otherwise," came the stern and sarcastic instruction.

Daniel looked at the stone and wrinkled his forehead in doubt.

"I recommend that you do as he says, Dr Jackson," called Maybourne as he stepped out from cover and stuffed the blaster into his belt. He looked, well, a lot better than he had when he had entered the building. "I know it's a leap of faith to trust the unknown, but believe me on this one."

Reaching out Daniel took the stone and held it close to the wound.

"Closer, almost touching the wound," urged Ethan.

Daniel obeyed and then gasped in what looked like relief. "God, that feels better," he breathed as the blackened flesh that was just visible beneath the uniform started to pinken and flow back to a more normal state. "Jack, we need to get some of these things. Might be useful on missions."

Jack snorted. "Yeah, Spacemonkey, like Hammond would approve a shaman on the base." He looked at the wound incredulously. It was almost healed. How the hell was that possible?

The Brit must have caught his look, because he sighed again and stared at the ceiling. "Magic, Colonel, magic. Believe or not, but it does work."

Carter opened her mouth again, caught Jacks' warning look and subsided with just the one muttered comment that there had to be some more rational explanation. Then she glanced over to the bodies, which were ceasing to smoulder. "Sir, we hit them at almost point-blank range. Body armour like that should be thicker, certainly bulkier."

"I know, major. Check it out. While you're there grab some of those blaster things, willya? I hate not being able to punch our weight and the zats need backup."

She nodded and walked cautiously over to the bodies, making sure that they were as dead as they appeared to be and picking up one of the blasters to check on it. "Fascinating," she breathed.

He groaned. "Not now, Carter!"

"Um... sir?"

Jack hated it when Carter used that tone of voice. It just screamed either 'I've got really bad news' or 'the Tok'Ra just turned up', not that there was mush of a difference between the two. Turning he looked down at his second in command, who had been pulling off the masks of the dead men and muttering something about synthetic polymers and chemical bonding.

"Yes, Carter?"

She pointed at the face of the dead man at her feet. He looked remarkably peaceful and strangely Irish.

"Dead body, Major, see 'em all the time. Well, sorta. What's your point?"

Carter raised an eyebrow and cleared her throat. "Sir," she said hesitantly, "Look at the others."

He sighed and looked at the next corpse, which had been hit in the right temple by Maybourne and which was still wearing the remains of its mask. Frowning he pushed the plastic - or whatever the hell it was - to one side. Hum. Kinda familiar. "Twins?" he guessed. Then he caught Carter's eye and looked over the next body. Right. The next? Okay. "Quadruplets?" he said, knowing that he sounded rather lame.

"Try octuplets, sir," she replied.

He gazed at her levelly. "Carter, please don't tell me what I think you're about to tell me."

"They've been cloned sir,"

"Lalala, I'm not listening! Things are weird enough as it is here, we have even more weirdness on the way, there is no way on God's green earth that Hammond is going to believe me when I come to this part of my mission report, and now we have clones?"

"Sir, I know it's hard to believe, and frankly I don't understand how anyone could have constructed the relevant technology but-" She picked up a blown off piece of armour and looked at it. "I mean this stuff looks like plastic, but it just shrugged off our bullets. I have no idea what it's made of, but it's far in advance of anything we have. We have a major problem here, sir."

There was a rumble behind them and then Teal'c was doing his looming act over them. "Clones?" he said in tones of deep and pained disgust. "Such an thing is not right O'Neil. The growing of people is as bad as-" He caught himself and looked around at the others in the library, raising an eyebrow as he did so. "The people I once served," he said in a slightly lower voice. "Such a thing is abhorrent. We should render assistance to these people and assess the severity of the situation."

"Yeah, well, bad guys firing at us is normally a bad thing, and that tends to irritate me," he replied. Hefting the blaster Jack inspected it closely and then weighed it. "Nuts," he muttered after a moment. "How does this thing work?"

The teenager, who had been peering grimly down the corridor with Finn, walked over. "Safety," he pointed out shortly and pointing at various studs, "Firing stud, power cell, stun/kill setting."

"Stun?" asked Jack, raising his eyebrows for what felt like the umpteenth time that day. "This thing can stun bad guys?"

"Yes," said the teenager and then walked off to join Finn again.

"Sweet," he said, musingly. "Okay lets run with the pack for time being. If we have to get involved, we will. But I have a hunch that anyone who sends eight armoured clones armed with guns out of Star Wars is going to follow up at some point, and that here is going to be a bad place to be. Saddle up folks." Turning around he stooped and picked up three more blasters from their former owners. "And get your ray guns here. Damn, I knew this place was bad news the minute I saw how dumb the name was. Lets go."

There was a noise behind them and they turned. Finn was staring at the bodies. "Christ," he muttered. Then: "Forrest! Graham!" There was a pause and the two newly rogue NID men appeared, looking cautious. Then they caught Finn's gaze and looked down. Both recoiled slightly.

"Hell."

"Damn."

"Looks like we know what happened to Michaels."

Jack cleared his throat. "Michaels being...?"

"Master Sergeant Thomas Michaels. Went missing eight months ago in rather odd circumstances. HST ambushed him, we were told, but no blood trauma was found at the time." Finn shook his head. "I thought it was odd at the time. But now... I wonder when Harris started this thing. Started his plan. Whatever he did..."

Getting into the back of the school was easy. However, getting back to their own van was more tricky. There was no room for them in the collection of vehicles that Giles and his whackos had assembled there, which consisted of an ancient Citroen, a just as venerable VW Beetle and a camper van that looked as if someone had shot rocks at it. For one thing it had a roughly patched hole in the right hand side, just above the rear wheel arch.

"Stop sign," said the teenager enigmatically and then glanced at the back of the van, where the three geeks were looking nervous and guarding their precious books and computers. "No way we're going to get everyone in there, Giles."

The Brit strode up frowning. "True," he grudgingly conceded. "Do you have any transport, Colonel?"

"Van, but it's parked out the front."

"Right," he said. "Oz, can you guide them? Angel has driven your van in the past and we daren't take the one that we used to rescue Colonel Maybourne, I imagine that the police are looking for it by now."

Oz, (did these people all have wacky names?) thought it over a moment and then gave a short sharp nod. He looked as unsmiling as ever. "Sure, Giles." Then he turned to Jack. "Lead on."

Four of them walked - or rather skulked - over to the van. Jack didn't. Instead he strode over to the tree by the main entrance and looked at the dark shape that he had seen earlier. It more than looked like a skeleton. It was a skeleton. Turning on his flashlight he ran it up and down the shining yellow bones, noted the furrowed forehead, the elongated canines, the general look of the thing. "Damn," he breathed. "Nothing like more hard evidence. On top of more of the stuff." He stared at it. Creepy.

"Sir?" called Carter from the van.

He turned and walked away from the body of the Master.


The gear stick was a little sticky, but it finally got into fourth with a little effort. Giles glanced into the rearview mirror and sighed slightly. He could see Jenny's Beetle behind them, her face occasionally showing white in the light of the streetlights.

Jenny. His mind recoiled from the thought of losing her. From... He looked over at the young girl next to him, who was still looking rather stunned at the way that her day was going. "Miss Chase."

Starting slightly she looked at him. "What?"

"You said that... things were different in your world. I need you to tell me everything you know. Everything."

The cheerleader started to talk.


Sunnydale didn't look like the mouth to hell, but then it was quite late at night and perhaps he was missing something demonic, thought Jack as he drove down the silent streets, being directed by the almost monosyllabic Oz. The kid was what, 18 or 19, and he looked strained.

"So, what tipped you off to all this weird stuff?"

Oz looked out of the window. "I'm a werewolf. Got bitten by my cousin a few years ago. Bit of a shock."

Jack stared at him for a moment and then forced his attention back to the road at Daniel's quiet murmur of: "Road, Jack, road!"

"You're a what?"

"Werewolf."

"As in hair, teeth..."

"Messy eating habits, yes."

Jack stared up at the full moon hanging above the road. "Uh, doesn't that thing have any effect? Or is it just a folk tale?"

Something twitched in the corner of the kid's mouth that might almost have been a smile. "Oh yes, it does. I keep it at bay. Wouldn't want to hurt people. Or get hunted down and skinned. You just need..." he paused. "Focus."

Jack's skin crawled as he looked at him. Then he turned back to the road ahead. "Focus?"

"The force, to be precise."

There was a pause as Jack counted down in his head quietly. Then, on cue, Carter said: "The force? I know what was said back there in the library, but there has to be a more... rational explanation."

Oz said nothing at first but Jack could see a small smile. Then the teenager tilted his head and looked at Carter. "Got a pen?"

"What?" said Carter, raising both eyebrows.

"A pen. Have you got one?"

Carter looked around for something and then paused as Teal'c pulled a pen out of his pocket and handed it over to her.

"Put it on the palm of your hand."

Jack was busy driving but when heard Carter's squawk of astonishment he risked a quick look over his shoulder. Okay. The pen was hovering just above Carter's hand and was slowly spinning. He was quite impressed by the fact that he returned to driving with only a small swerve on the road.

"A minor trick," said Oz, "But there you go. I'm not powerful. I'm not Harris. I'm not a Jedi either. I can just sense things. Move small things." He paused and looked very grim. "I'm just someone who has the ability. I'll never become a real Jedi because there's no one who can train me. Well, apart from Harris. But not without me turning. That's one of the reasons why I fight Harris. I use the light side of the force, he uses the dark side. He's a Sith, I'm not a Jedi. Call me an un-Jedi."

"An un-Jedi. Right. And your other reasons ?"

"He killed my girlfriend. She was his best friend as well. Not that it mattered to him."

There was another horrible moment of silence. Then Jack said: "Who was she?"

"Her name was Willow Rosenberg. She and Harris grew up together. He called her his 'bestest bud.' Then he killed her when she found out that he was a Sith. Nasty time in my life. It was before he showed his true colours. Took a while before we knew how she died, but when he walked away from his family and his friends and started to..." He choked off. "Seems to have made him a bit... insane. Guilt. Shame. Who knows what. The vampire population went down so hard that some were running from Sunnydale. He slaughtered even the good demons. It was bad. He was recruited by the Mayor, who ended up dead a few months later. Someone dropped him into a nest of starving vampires. We even think he killed Lucas."

This got Daniel up. "George Lucas? I thought he died from a heart attack?"

"No heart attack. Murdered by Harris. Guess he thought that he'd take some revenge for the loss of the Empire and the fact that Vader went good in the end. In the films, anyway."

Jack looked down the road. He had a really bad feeling about this.


Hoth Base turned out to be three old caravans parked in a U-shape in a nearby forest. Giles could tell at a glance that the four US Airforce people were not impressed. Well hard cheese, needs must when the devil drove, and other mixed metaphors. He got out of the car and watched as the three geeks started to carry their computers out to get them set up inside the biggest caravan.

Colonel O'Neill walked up, frowning. "You know," said the US officer, "If you're planning on breaking into an NID base you're going to need a lot more firepower. Why not let me contact my superiors?"

"Do you trust them?"

"Yes. Well, my immediate superior anyway."

"Do you trust everyone who might be involved in an assault?"

"Ah. Take your point. The NID has people under rocks sometimes."

"Precisely. Colonel, you may not be too impressed by my people and our setup here, but I can rely on them all."

"And us?"

"Don't give me a reason to distrust you," he said and walked off.


The clone trooper snapped to attention as he walked past, his blaster at the correct angle and his equipment arranged perfectly. Yes, he thought, the second batch was turning out to be far better than the first, although he'd had his doubts about the original template. He turned the corner and walked down the corridor, his boots echoing along the hallways. Turning another corner he caught sight of the bodies lying in front of the doorway, with the captain bending over them. As he approached, the white-clad figure straightened up and snapped to attention.

"Report."

"My lord, the building is secured but the targets are not here. From the evidence it seems that the Hunters attempted an assault on the library but were repulsed by massed blaster fire," said the captain, his voice sounding rather tinny from the comlink. "All were killed. We found bloodstains in the library, so we know that at least one of the targets was slightly wounded."

All the Hunters gone. Damn. Well, that the last of the first batch, anyway. The Sith growled slightly. This was turning into a really rotten day. Then he caught sight of the captain again, who was waiting patiently.

"Anything else, Captain?"

"Three things my lord. Some of the Hunter's armour is missing. Secondly we found a great deal of these." Holding out his hand his fist unclenched to reveal a metallic cartridge case. "They were concentrated on one side of the library. From the positions and quantity, there were at least three people firing."

"Fascinating," he muttered, picking up the case. "How very... useless. And the other thing?"

The captain gestured at one of the bodies. "Hunter Six has no obvious cause of death, my lord. He was killed by an unknown weapon."

Frowning, he looked down at the body. Then he reached out with the Force probingly, looking for what he half-expected. There it was, a residual smear of alien energy. "Not unknown, captain. A zat'ni'katel, a Goa'uld hand weapon." Looking around the library he smiled slightly. Well, this was interesting. Who had access to one of those? More NID? A Goa'uld agent in Sunnydale? Or a team from the SGC? Turning his back on the library he walked away, gesturing to the captain as he did so. "Remove the bodies. Get a cleanup crew in here at once. Tell that idiot Flutie in the morning that he had better keep this quiet. And double security at the Initiative. Tell Walsh that we might have visitors in the near future and that I want nothing to go wrong."

Saluting crisply the captain hurried off as he walked away. He had a great deal to do. TIE fighters didn't build themselves and he wanted to make sure that the technicians had sufficient motivation to start construction efficiently. Their initial incredularity at building something 'from a film' had been interestingly brief.


"What are you doing still up, Rupert?"

He turned to see Jenny standing there, wrapped in his coat. Her hair was mussed, she was blinking sleepily and she looked utterly adorable. She came over and kissed him, before laying her head on his shoulder and looking up at the stars with him. "Penny for your thoughts, O Great Leader."

A smile surfaced and he sighed. "Just thinking about tomorrow night. What needs to be done. The possible cost. And an option that seems... extreme, to say the least."

Jenny looked at him worriedly. Not that he blamed her. "Rupert, don't worry so much. The Goddess holds us in her hands, so there's no point worry about things you can't change. Now come back to bed before you get a crick in your neck."

Giving her a more whole-hearted smile, he nodded. "In a bit."

"Okay," she said as she walked off back to their caravan. He looked at her retreating form, dropping the smile. Extreme. What a word to use. Completely insane, more like. He took a deep shuddering breath. When he thought about it, it made him shiver deep inside. To save the world by changing it. Who would have thought that the presence of one blonde slayer would have had such an effect on his life? From what Cordelia had told him, life in that other reality was very different. No Initiative - or rather they didn't know about it. Angel turned into Angelus and then went to hell. So many people alive. Harris was firmly on the side of light. And... Jenny was dead. His mind kept reeling from that thought. No Jenny.

He sat there for a moment, looking up at the stars, endless permutations of the plan flickering through his head. But it all kept coming down to two options. The raid they had planned. And the summoning ceremony that he was going perform. But the cost... the potential cost...

Something ran down his cheek and he brushed at it with one finger, blinking in surprise at the wetness. A tear. How strange. It had been a long time since he had last cried, and he wasn't about to start now. Wiping his eye dry he walked back to the caravan. For all he knew the next day or so might be the last time he ever saw Jenny again.


Riley Finn stared down at the computer screen, which was still displaying a complicated schematic of the layout of the Initiative base. Symbols were marked in red, others in green, along with a pulsing yellow line that marked their route in. It then split up into three separate threads leading to different areas. It looked very impressive. And very worrying, he had to admit.

"Once the diversion has taken place the main forces of the Initiative should be drawn off to the main entrance. Each team must lay their explosives by the places marked in red. We only have one shot at this, we cannot fail. Once the generators have been destroyed, that will just leave the backup generators, and they just don't have the capacity to cope with the energy demands of this place. Plus, the destruction of the generators also means that there should be a pulse surge from them that should destroy anything that they're linked to - including the clone machines. To be certain, however, they will need to be destroyed as well." Giles put his hands on the table and looked around the crowded room. "Any questions?"

Colonel O'Neill raised a hand. "Are you guys sure that this secret entrance is really, well, secret? I mean, if you guys know about it then what're the chances that the others do? And will be, well, waiting for us with big guns and nasty thoughts?"

Riley smiled. The Colonel's reputation as a special forces operative was literally incredible. His attitude was all the better for his sense of humour. He cleared his throat. "Colonel, I was there when the base was being built, under Major Maddox. The entrance was put in at the last minute and does not appear on the original plans. It did appear on the amended plans, which mysteriously vanished at the same that I did. I thought that I might need to find a secret way back in at some point - and handed the plans over to Mr Giles. The construction personnel are all gone, Major Maddox is on Okinawa and the only other person who knew was a sergeant who was killed by vampires when he went on a supply run. All the way killed, not turned."

O'Neill shuddered slightly. He seemed to be taking the whole vampire situation quite well. "You people seem to take that whole fangy thing so casually," he said, raising his eyebrows. "Okay, three teams. Secret entrance. Big explosives. Déjà vu on just sooo many levels. Right, who goes where?"

"Colonel Maybourne will take Graham, Angel, and Jenny to the first generator room. Colonel, I'd like you to lead the second team with, um, Murray, and Ethan and Riley attached, while Major Carter and Dr Jackson go after the third generator with Forrest and Oz." Giles took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I will not be going, for reasons that Ethan has already described as being 'completely insane.' Instead I will be attempting to summon the vengeance demon Anyanka. If we are to be at all successful we must explore every option. And frankly we are reduced to just the two options, neither of them particularly palatable."

"Whoa!" said Colonel O'Neill. "We put our collective asses on the line and you're off chanting mumbo-jumbo and trying to conjure up the tooth fairy? I understand that the three amigos over there can't make it, because they have no combat skills, as well the cheerleader. But why not you?" He looked around at the others and stared at the very pale Jenny Calendar and Ethan Rayne. "What?"

"Colonel," said the chaos mage, "A vengeance demon of her power is not easily - or willingly - summoned. And when they arrive they tend to be deeply pissed off and welcome the chance to take out their... frustrations... on the nearest human. Ripper is therefore putting his life on the line. Frankly I'd rather take my chances in the Initiative."

Colonel O'Neill looked deeply unconvinced. "Yeah, whatever." Then he started slightly and stared at Major Carter who, unless Riley was mistaken, had just nudged him hard in the ribs with her elbows. "What?" he said.

"Nothing sir."

"Okay, well let's get prepped and ready. Wouldn't want to keep Darth Harris waiting, would we?"


Waiting until they were out of the caravan, Jack finally turned on Carter and rubbed his ribs as they walked to their own caravan. "Can I remind you, Carter, that striking a superior officer is a court-martial offence? What was that little nudge for?"

"Sir, can I remind you of what Oz said last night? About this being a different reality due to the actions of this demon?"

"Carter... you know that alternate dimensions give me a headache."

"And did you talk to Cordelia Chase?"

"She gave me a headache as well."

"Sir, in her reality Jenny is dead. If Rupert Giles summons this vengeance demon and manages to quell her or whatever he'll do, reality will be restored, we'll never have been here and Jenny Calendar will be dead."

Jack stood there, feeling sick. "Damn," he said after a while. "Well that sucks." Turning around he watched Jenny and Giles walk out of the caravan. They were holding hands, but both were pale. With what looked like infinite tenderness the Brit caressed her cheek as she smiled at him tremulously. Oh she knew. She knew. Possible death in the caverns of the Initiative or non-existence in an alternate reality.

"I really hate this place," said Jack as he walked off to get kitted up.


Life on guard was dull and exciting. Dull 99 of the time and exciting 1. Although something had been going on recently. Rumour had it that a prisoner had escaped. The Mayor had not been pleased. He paused. Something had rumbled not too far away.

Captain Thomas Jiminez looked up from his schedule as he heard the growing roar of an engine in front of the main entrance to the Initiative. Odd, there wasn't a supply shipment due that night. Then he blinked. Light was coming in from the headlights of a truck up ahead. A truck that wasn't slowing down much. "Shit! Take cover!" he bellowed as he opened up with his blaster on the main cab and the wheels. Not that he had much luck with the latter, as something seemed to deflect his blasts to one side. With a roar and a shriek the truck smashed through the camouflage netting at the entrance, bounced off the concrete wall to one side and hurtled past him to plough into the main loading bay, scattering boxes and supplies all over the place before stopping with terrible force against the main doors.

Jiminez picked himself up and ran down the ramp, shouting orders as he did. "Clear the rear! Get the flanks! Check for infiltrators! Hogan, Sutton, eyes front in case this is a diversion! Secure the main entrance! Van Der Vat, tell control what's happening!"

He slowed as he approached the truck, looking into the side mirror as he did. Okay, no sign of anyone sitting in the cab so far... no-one upright that is. But there might be someone crouching in the cab. He looked over at Corporal Claus and nodded sharply. "On three. One... two... three!"

Twisting the handle of the door he pulled it out and himself up to confront... no one. It was empty. He looked the cab over and then froze. In the middle of the steering wheel was a metal shape. A metal shape with a display in the middle that had red numerals counting down. It was at 15. Now 14. Now 13. "Run!!!" he screamed as he jumped from the cab and pelted up the ramp and away from the death trap that was about to be the main entrance. "RUUUUNNN!!!"


The repulsorlift was working efficiently and he smiled thinly. Good. Creating anything from scratch the way that he had been over the past months wasn't easy, but it had all come together recently. Walsh was a massive asset and the fact that he had so many of Vader's memories meant that he was able to call up all kinds of information. The first TIE fighter would be ready in a week. More than good.

Then there was a movement to one side and he felt the presence of the clone captain to one side. "My lord," he said, "There has been an incident at the main entrance. A vehicle has crashed into it."

The ground shuddered suddenly and a loud boom rumbled across the room. "It has exploded, my lord." said the captain with little if any inflexion in his voice. Off to one side a red light started to flash and a dull siren started to sound.

The man who had once been Xander Harris sighed slightly and cracked his knuckles. "We have guests. Prepare to meet them. All units to guard the entrances. Stay sharp." He reached out with the force to send his lightsabre up into his hand. Then he triggered it and the red beam leapt upward to cleave the air with its deadly buzz. "May the force be with us. The dark side, anyway."


It was a dark corner of a dark corridor. Dust was all over the place, next to a very dusty chewing gum wrapper. Something groaned in the shadows slowly and some of the dust blew across the corridor lazily. A dark line appeared in the wall, a line that widened slowly and then suddenly open up quickly. Riley Finn's head appeared, checked the corridor out and then turned down to address an unseen companion. "Clear."

The entrance opened fully to reveal a hard knot of hard-faced people all clutching blasters.

"Sweet," said Jack O'Neill as he swept out, checked his six and peered down the corridor. "Okay, coast is clear. Everyone out for another fun-packed ride. Harry, you take your team off. Carter, stay with us until the correct intersection. Fast and loose, people, let's go."

They darted off down the corridors, with Daniel suppressing an inconvenient sneeze. It looked like this area wasn't used much and Jack cursed under his breath. They were leaving a really great trail of footprints in the dust behind. Ah well, life was a bitch sometimes. Halfway down the corridor Carter peeled her group off, disappearing while Daniel blew his nose as silently as possible.

Now for the tricky part. They'd chosen a route that ran along the side of the base that Finn had said wasn't used that much, but in Jack's opinion there was a chance that some poor nosy technician might be wandering around with a wrench looking for some damn system that might have been on the blink a week ago. Finding a quiet area of the SGC was next to impossible. Coming to another intersection he risked a quick look around the corner, followed by a longer one once he realised that it was empty. Dating across the entrance he motioned the others to follow him quickly. As they did he called up the memory of where to go next. Let's see... Ahead, left, right, up a flight of spiral stairs, right, take care of the guards. Sweet. And... he snatched a quick glimpse of his watch, the diversion should be starting any second now, if this magic doodat thing than Rayne had created worked as it should, along with his little surprise.

As if in answer to his thoughts he heard a dull crash of a muffled explosion and suddenly every light was flashing, while the alarms had started up. They sounded oddly familiar though and it was a moment before he realised where he had heard them before – in A New Hope, when the Death Star was under attack from the Rebels. His mouth quirked into a slight smile. This was getting weirder by the minute. There was no way that Hammond was going to believe any of this with concluding that they had all been on very heavy drugs. He quelled the thought. Now was not the moment to lose focus. He turned the next corner quickly, checked it out and rushed on down the corridor holding his zat. If they did bump into anyone he wanted them taken out with the minimum of noise and fuss.

They were able to get to the generator room undetected. Or rather to a corner just ten yards away, as the doorway was being guarded by two men in good old-fashioned fatigues and not so old-fashioned blasters. They looked like the kind of men with good reflexes, no imagination and excellent bladder control, making them great guards.

Hum. What kind of paranoid nutcase went to the trouble of posting guards on generators? Obviously someone who had far too much evil brooding time on his hands.

He slowly pulled his tiny periscope back around the corner and drew his zat. "Teal'c, there are two guards. I'll get the one on the left, you get the one on the right. Ready? Go." The two men stood up and then simultaneously leant around the corner, aimed and fired, so that the slithering sound of unconscious men hitting first the wall and then the floor merged into one.

They shot into the room as fast as they could. The generator itself was a great hulking piece of machinery against one end of the wall. Somewhat ominously there were a number of tape markers on the floors with tags attached. More equipment was obviously going to be installed in the near future.

Jack sighed and pulled out a block of C-4 with a grin. Time to demolish. This was the fun part sometimes. Blowing things up was fun. Dealing with the effects was something else.

A few minutes later he was busy crawling underneath something massive and wondering what the hell he was doing again. After a few more minutes he heard a short click on his radio. "O'Neill."

"Carter, sir. We're set here."

"Good, we are too, just about. Any word on Maybourne?"

"No sir."

He placed the block of explosives in place carefully, set the timer and backed out. "Okay, we're done. Prepare to move."

"Yes sir."

There was another click and he toggled the radio carefully. "O'Neill."

"Jack, we're done here."

"Okay, Harry, we're looking good here. Proceed to phase two."

"Roger."

Jack looked at his radio for a moment. In his experience things were going well. Rather too well. Call him Mr Suspicious, but he had a sneaking feeling that life was never that easy. Phase two was going to be the point that things fell apart, he could just tell.


Cordelia looked at the dribbly candles, the chalk diagram and the small vial of what Giles had told her was mouse blood, although he had also mumbled something about three small pieces of wood and a ritual with a very odd name indeed if he needed to summon death. Hopefully she had misheard.

Giles walked back into the room looking about as grim as she had ever seen him. "Right," he said, "Everyone out now. This going to be extremely dangerous and I have enough blood on my hands as it is. Please move away from here. I don't know what's going to happen, but I'd rather not involve you all."

There was a strained looked about his eyes but he smiled at them all. Cordelia looked at the three geeks and nodded slowly. In her experience Giles might be a boring Watcher guy, but he was a caring boring Watcher guy.

"Let's go, guys," she said.

That Jonathan guy was looking at Giles with a lot of seriousness. Then he nodded slowly. "Okay," he said. "Pull out, people."

When Cordelia looked back at Giles she saw something in his face that made her shiver. A look of determination. A look of dread. A look of loss. She shuddered and walked away.


The captain walked into the room and came to attention again. "My lord, we have secured the main entrance. A great deal of damage was inflicted, but normal deliveries should be resumed in a short time. Casualties were minimal and no incursion has been reported. The reason behind the attack is unknown."

Darth Mortalis sighed bitterly and stretched out with the force. A diversion. How blindingly original. He could feel.... Something. More than something. Then he smiled grimly. "Well, well. Osbourne is here, the force is with him. And... others. Sound the alarm. Stay alert, stay focused. Leave them to me."


The room had a small service hatchway in one corner that allowed access. Teal'c had almost gotten jammed a few times, but with Finn pushing and him pulling, they'd kept him moving. Frankly it was scarier than anything that Jack had ever seen. Rows after rows of cylinders, with steamed up fronts. He brushed the frost away from one of them. A pale face with highly defined cheekbones and short blond hair was on the other side. "Eep. Very... Nordic." Looking around he counted the cylinders. "Damn. How long until these guys are done?"

Teal'c prodded a dial. "Two days according to this dial, O'Neill. More clones for this Harris."

He shuddered. "Okay, T, plant C4 everywhere you can. Look for a junction box or something. If we can unplug these damn things in one fell swoop then we take all his goodies away. Finn, Rayne, guard the door."

Moving between the cylinders his eye fell on a large box with cables running to a large automated console on one side of the room and he paused. "Looks promising." He set his blaster down and inspected the back of the box, which had a pattern of green lights that just happened to match the pattern of cylinders. Jackpot. Pulling out his last block of C4 he placed it carefully where it would do the most damage, set the timer and stood up, clutching his blaster. It would go off in ten minutes or if he pressed a button on the main remote, which would make life very interesting for anyone on the vicinity.

Two things happened at that point. The first was that he heard a distant sound of blaster fire and groaned. The second was that the doors on the other end of the room opened with a startling suddenness and three people walked in and then froze. The first was some kind of technician. The other two appeared to be actual Imperial Stormtroopers, from the white armour to the blasters. More white-clad figures were in the doorway, obviously staring in the direction from the sound of firing was coming from.

Finn and Rayne fired straight away, getting one of the guards and the technician at once, but the other guard had just enough time to get off a shot that smashed into the Jaffa's chest and hurled him to the ground before Jack blew the Stormtrooper away.

"Hell!" he barked, but was unable to check on his friend because suddenly the doorway was filled with shapes and the air was filled with vicious red bolts of energy. Pulling out his zat he used both weapons to fire at the perfect target filling the entrance, as Finn pulled back to get a better field of fire and Rayne tossed a glowing ball of energy into the guards and huddled back along the wall. Something exploded with a great crack of power in the corridor outside and suddenly the place was a lot quieter.

Rayne, with a cut on his forehead from flying debris leaving runnels of blood on his face, snatched a quick look out and then grinned. "Useful," he said and stood up again. Then he made an agonised choking noise that was part scream and part curse. Jack, who had been halfway to checking on Teal'c, span to see about a foot's worth of glowing red beam projecting from Rayne's side, having apparently come straight through the wall.

The beam vanished abruptly, leaving Rayne to slump down clutching at the monstrous wound in his body, and a black-clad figure was stepping up at the doorway holding a humming red lightsabre.

This had to be Harris. He looked like a kid at first glance until you looked at his eyes, which were deep-set and had black shadows around them. He looked grim, angry and ready to kill. His gaze swept the room and then he gestured nonchalantly, sending a stunned Finn flying off to one side, where he hit the wall and fell over, unconscious.

Jack swore desperately and raised the blaster to snap off three quick shots, but the lightsabre blurred and actually deflected them to impact uselessly against the wall. He was raising the zat when Harris gestured again and it flew from his grip to vanish over the Sith's shoulder in the billowing smoke that filled the corridor. He fired again with the blaster, but this time the figure just held up one hand and deflected the bolt with a wave.

Harris paused and actually deactivated the lightsabre. "Ah. I should have known. The infamous Colonel Jack O'Neill. The NID has files on you that make great reading, Colonel. You're right up there on their Christmas card list, if they could combine a card with a grenade that is." He smiled crookedly. "I see that my idiot soldiers didn't cause too much damage in here. When I saw them firing into the room I was going to kill them all myself, but that mage Rayne got them instead. Oh dear, I seem to have broken him. What a pity."

He walked forward slowly, not sparing a glance for the huddled figure to one side. "Impressed? Takes a lot of work to get a Spaarti cloning setup going. I had to make all kinds of things to persuade the Pentagon to fund this place. You might have been using some of them soon if you hadn't come in here meddling that it. I'm going to have much larger teams with better weapons when I'm in command of the SGC."

"Dream on, the jobs already taken. You must be the Darth Vader-like guy running this place," said Jack with a sneer. An irritated bad guy was, from his experience, rather inclined to do stupid things. Get him mad, get him to either talk through his evil plot or just provide him with an opening.

Harris tilted his head and stared at him as if he was a very small bug. The smile flickered again. "Don't you think that the Earth would be safer if it had better guns? Better weapons systems? Better spacecraft? Staffweapons are large and bulky, blasters are far better to use. Your X302's are nowhere near adequate to take on deathgliders properly and the reverse engineering you've done has been pitiful so far. I have designs in my head for better craft... TIE fighters, TIE bombers, TIE Defenders, the more advanced models... Shuttles, lifting gear, and all the things needed to get into the asteroid belt and get the raw materials for bigger spacecraft. Goa'uld ships are almost as pitiful as yours. One Star Destroyer could take on four Ha'Taks and turn them into so much vacuum-floating scrap without getting that white paint job so much as scratched.

"No, colonel, I think that I'm in a far better position to defend Earth than you. I can advance Earth's defences so far that in a year the Goa'uld will be the ones running for their lives, defending their Stargates and wondering how the hell to stop me."

Jack smiled grimly. "What, exchange one set of would-be masters for a Lord of the Sith? No thanks, I'd rather take my chances with our pitiful weapons." He waggled his blaster. "These things are rather cool though, so once we've finished here we'll take 'em home and Carter will play with them."

"Hardly. Once you're dead I can go off and deal with the rest of your rabble, which my people seem to be having trouble taking care of. Ah well, at least I get to find Osbourne and break his mind to accept a position as my apprentice. Not a bad day, really."

Oh hell. Jack fingered the control in his pocket. Time to see what their luck was really like. Having no choice, he pressed the button.

The next few moments were rather packed. The box blew up at the same time as he heard a dull thump from far overhead and then a mad whine as the power output to everything spiked upwards and then died abruptly. Everything seemed to explode around him, which was good, but also hit him, which was bad.

Jack felt something crack in his leg as he went flying backwards to land against a console and then bounce off onto the floor. Hell, he thought, trying to keep the pain away, the Doc's going to bawl me out for that. Heh. If he ever saw her again. He looked up, shaking his head. Something was very wrong with his leg, there were bits of glass fragments in his side and there was the coppery taste of blood in his mouth. In short, he hurt a lot. Then he heard footfalls ahead of him and saw a pair of black boots to his front.

Harris looked rather pissed, not that he could blame him. Sparks were still flowing down from the shattered equipment behind him and the lights kept flickering madly as the backup generators struggled to keep up with demand. Not that it mattered anymore.

There was a thrum as the lightsabre extended, casting a ghastly red light. "You have no concept of what you've done, have you?" the Sith hissed. "No idea of the work you've ruined, the things you have destroyed."

The red beam was waved before Jack's face and he grinned impishly in response. "Yup, just call us Earth's great spanners in the works. And you're screwed, O Vader-wannabe." Something cracked in Harris's free hand as he flexed it. "Not as screwed as you will be when I'm finished with you," he replied and then the red blade came up and then down and... stopped.

Jack looked up astonished, to see a massive, bloodstained, hand wrapped around Harris's. Then suddenly the hand wrenched the lightsabre away and then smashed it down on the floor, so hard that the blade flickered briefly and then finally went out.

Teal'c was standing there, covered in blood, shaking on his feet and looking as if he was about to pass out. How the hell he was even alive, given the blackened mark on his chest from the earlier blaster bolt, was amazing. The huge Jaffa smiled grimly. "You will not kill my friends," he said, and then hammered his heel down on the lightsabre, hard. The device shattered into pieces, what looked like a ruby rolling away into a corner.

"Bad move," growled Harris and gestured, sending Teal'c flying away to hit the console beside Jack, which disintegrated as the huge man smashed into it. "Now I'm really bloody furious!" screamed Harris. Then he calmed himself with a visible shudder. A twisted smile came over his face and Jack winced. It looked like Harris's grip on sanity was starting to not just ebb but riptide away.

The Sith looked down at Jack and Teal'c, who was lying ominously still, blood running out of one corner of his mouth. Then Harris's smile intensified further. "By the time I've finished with you, they're going to be mopping blood off the ceiling for months to come. Did you really think that I can't build another lightsabre in a few days? Even hours? Um?" He frowned slightly. "Oh dear, don't start dying on me now. Let's jump start that heart with a little squeeze..."

Something rippled in the Jaffa's chest and suddenly he was taking a huge, hurt breath of air that looked as if he was in immense agony. Then he started shaking slightly as he went into shock.

"Leave him alone!" screamed Jack, drawing himself up on the knee of his good leg, ignoring as hard as his earlier victims. the white-hot pain from the other one.

"Or... what?" asked Harris, sarcastically. "You're going to bleed on me?"

"New rules," said a shaking British voice behind them and suddenly there was a great flare of light as a ball of blue energy impacted on the Sith's back, throwing him across the room just as his earlier victims had been. He hit the wall hard, banging his head and then sliding down the surface of the wall.

Jack turned and stared at the doorway. Ethan Rayne was standing there, shaking as much as Teal'c had, one eye closed and blood running down his face, panting as if he had run a marathon. "Sorry I'm late," he said, holding up a faintly glowing stone and then letting it clatter to the ground. "Just enough there to keep me going for a little while longer." The great wound in his side was still there, but it looked less angry and bloody than it had.

"Don't you ever stay dead?" growled Harris, and Jack looked over to see that the Sith had got back to his feet, a bruise starting to swell on his forehead. "Well, at least I get to kill you as well. Again."

The Brit smirked that extremely irritating smirk. "Hardly." A crackling noise started up as he raised his hand, another blue sphere of energy gathering around his hand, which spitted and sparked. "Like I said, new rules."

Harris laughed mockingly and gestured. There was the sound of protesting metal and part of the air conditioning came loose with a shriek and hurtled towards the chaos mage, who raised his free hand. As he turned his open palm towards the flying debris a bolt of gold light flashed out and vaporized it.

The Sith's smile faded and he gestured again at one of the shattered cloning cylinders, lifting it in the air with a 'pock' noise as the cables beneath it parted under extreme stress, before sending the whole thing swooping at Rayne, who moved his hand in a hooking gesture that sent the cylinder spinning backwards to just miss the groggy Finn.

Growling with fury the Sith drew himself up and sent a white and jagged bolt of energy straight at his opponent, only to see it spatter and die against some kind of energy field surrounding him. By now the Brit was very pale as whatever the hell he was doing sapped his strength. His face was covered in his own blood now and he was breathing as if he had run a marathon. "I'm... going to... put... you... back... in your... box..." he said wheezingly, looking down at the glowing blue energy, which seemed to be reached some kind of charged limit, because it wasn't flashing any more. A grin appeared suddenly. "Showtime."

Harris frowned and then smirked, reaching out with a hand to grasp empty air. "Let me test your lack of faith..." Rayne swallowed convulsively as Harris did the whole throat-clutching thing, but never took his eyes off the Sith. If anything the grin got bigger. Then his hand flashed back and then forward, releasing the globe, which floated towards Harris.

The Sith snorted with contempt. "Magic? Useless against me! Not with the force!" He raised a hand to brush the globe away.

And then his hand met the globe... and passed straight through it. "What?"

The blue globe drifted on, going straight towards the Sith's head. His hand went up to bat uselessly through it again... and again... and again... "No!" he screamed, "No!"

It kept going, straight for his head and then brushed against it, almost gently, but the very touch of it made Harris flinch wildly. "Nooooooo!!!!"

"I revised... one of my... spells," smirked Rayne, suddenly able to breathe again.

Slowly - too slowly - the globe worked its way into the Sith's skull, accompanied by his manic screaming.

"Nooooooo!" he bellowed, clawing at his face, prying vainly at his skull... but by now it was too late. Far too late.

"I brought you... into this world," said Rayne with a grim smile, "And I'm going... to take you... out of it." His hand gestured and the globe completed its journey into Harris's head. He screamed again, a long hideous echoing noise that ended when he suddenly jerked convulsively, went rigid and then collapsed bonelessly.

Rayne stared at the body dully and then fell to his knees, shaking with reaction. "I did it," he said hollowly, "He's dead." His smiles seemed be immensely painful. Then he keeled slowly over onto his unwounded side with a great sigh.

Jack looked at the devastation and then looked over at Teal'c. The big guy was ominously still as Jack dragged himself over, gritting his teeth at the pain from his very broken leg. "Doc's... going... to... kill... me... heh... metaphorically, anyway."

As he reached his friend his heart sank. Teal'c was breathing, but his colour was lousy and he was trembling in a way that was not at all healthy. "T," he said gently, checking his body and wincing at the number of wounds. This was not good. "Teal'c! Can you hear me? You okay?"

The breathing slowed slightly and then picked up as the big Jaffa opened his eyes slowly. He coughed and then looked over at Jack with infinite slowness. "O'Neill."

"You okay there, big guy? You hit that console pretty hard."

"Were we successful?"

"Yeah. Rayne did a Daniel and came back from the dead to pull our chestnuts out of the fire. Harris is dead, his clones are toast and this place is blowing itself apart. Pretty standard mission. Sorta."

A slow smile spread over his friend's face. "Not... quite, O'Neill. I am dying. My body is broken."

"Oh come on," he said with false cheeriness. "A week in the infirmary, a chewing out from the ol' Doc, some happy pills and you'll be champing at the bit to kick a little Goa'uld butt."

Teal'c shook his head slowly. "My symbiote is dying, O'Neill. And I did not so much hit the console as the console hit me. Into me." His hand came up, wet with fresh blood. "I am dying," he said again and this time his voice was much weaker. "O'Neill. You... must tell Ry'ac... what we have done..." One hand came up to grasp Jack's in a wrist to wrist clasp. "It... has been... an honour... to fight... by your side... We have... accomplished... many things... I die... knowing... that I have... done... much..." His voice was very weak now as he struggled to speak. "I die... free..."

Jack looked down sadly, feeling the weakening grip of his friend. Then he gently reached out and placed the Jaffa's hand on his motionless chest. "Catch you on the flip side, big guy." Hearing the sound of running feet he looked up to see Carter, Daniel and Finn run in and stop dead at the scene in front of them.

"Is he..." Carter said as she waved her blaster at Harris.

"Yeah," said Jack, "He's dead. Took Teal'c with him though. Rayne got Harris." He winced as he tried to stand and Carter hurried over to help him up. "Oh, god damn it! Bust my leg up when Darth Harris there threw me through the air with the greatest of unease." He looked down at the body of his friend. "Teal'c smashed his lightsabre. Saved us all."

Carter brushed away her tears. "Maybe we can get the Asgard over and have Thor revive him?"

"Yeah, maybe. If we get out of here in one piece that is. What's our status?"

"When everything went up it had a big impact. I think a fuel line blew somewhere. Walsh and the main body of the Initiative are dead. Maybourne's taken command of the others, but they're having trouble fighting the fires. We're cut off here. All the clones are dead and the power's going to be out soon once the emergency back ups run out of fuel. Angel took a blaster bolt to the chest. He's dead. Oz, and the others are looking for another way out, but it doesn't look good."

"Story of our freaking lives." He looked up as Daniel straightened up from bending over Rayne. "Jenny!" he called and the woman limped wearily through . Then she stared and darted forwards.

"Ethan!" she cried, crumpling to her knees. "Ethan..."

Jack looked over tiredly and then caught Daniel's look. "Oh crap. Is he...?"

Daniel nodded slowly. "Yeah. Won't be long now."

Carter helped him over slowly to the crumpled body of the chaos mage, whose head was now being cradled by the weeping Jenny Calendar. Rayne opened his eyes slowly and looked up at her.

"Damn," he wheezed, "I did... something good... didn't I? Typical..."

Jenny nodded, tears running down her face. "Afraid you did. But you made up the balance. You took him out. Evened things up."

He nodded slowly and then coughed wetly, letting a trickle of red blood run out of the side of his mouth. "Tell Ripper... I did the... right thing... coped... against my nature... worth it... worth it... put the balance back...he's gone. He's gone... I... put... him... out... like... I... brought... him... in..."

The chaos mage's eyes went dull and Jenny let out a wail of dismay and hugged his head to her.

Something exploded out in the corridor and the heat level climbed rapidly. Jack looked at Carter and sketched a quick salute. "Good to serve with you, Major. Daniel."

"Same here sir."

"You too Jack."

The flames licked higher.


"You fool!" shouted the vengeance demon. "What makes you think that her world is any better?"

Rupert Giles stood in one corner of the shattered caravan, holding the amulet in one hand and a blaster in the other. Jenny's face filled his mind, filled the very core of his being. They might have done it, for all he knew. But he couldn't take any chances. There was too much at stake. Getting the demon here had been bad enough – she had been mad with anger but he'd matched her, just. Jenny. How he loved her. And how he was about to lose her. Something rumbled far away and he wondered what the final butcher's bill was, who was dead by now. Everything hung in the balance.

"It... has... to be!" The blaster came down and his finger tightened on the trigger. A red blast blew the amulet to pieces.

The world went dark.


Xander paused in bafflement as he laid a hand on the suddenly human figure in front of him, who was staring at him in extreme confusion. Then he asked the most obvious question: "What the hell just happened?"

Buffy looked over his shoulder. "What? Nice shoes, there."