Disclaimer: - See Chapter One.

Chapter Three

"Captain Carter?" O'Neill asked. It was crunch time and he knew it. Quickly looking at the others, he knew that they realised it as well. Carter turned to him. "Sir?" Were you able to put enough C – 4 around this ship to make a dent in it?" Her CO asked.
"We placed charges where they should generate secondary explosions, so, yes, sir. It should make a hell of a dent in the ship." O'Neill nodded at her. "Thank you, Captain." O'Neill could hear the reluctance in her voice as he knew that she wanted to go over the Ha'taks systems first. "Sir, given enough time, I might be able to figure out…"

"Negative, Captain. We should expect some of their reinforcements through that door any second. Stand by to detonate your charges on my order, Carter." He ordered. "Yes, sir." She replied.

"Wait!" Daniel said as he began rummaging through his gear. "Daniel, if we don't stop them now, we may never stop them." Jack said as he couldn't understand why Daniel wanted to wait but when he saw Daniel take a pack of C – 4 that he found in his vest and moved to the back of the Peltak and attached it there.
"Let's just make as big a dent as possible, okay?" Daniel said as he looked at Jack. O'Neill nodded and agreed with the Archaeologist.

Carter looked toward O'Neill. "Ready and awaiting your order, sir." She said as the Captain handed him a remote detonator. As Jack took the device from her and activated it, he looked out toward Earth again. "Okay. Well, I suppose now is the time for me to say something profound." He said as he soon pauses and thinks, but he couldn't come up with anything. "Nothing comes to mind. Let's do it." He said as he prepared to trigger the explosives.

"O'Neill! Apophis's ship approaches." Said the Shol'va, he watched as the second Ha'tak took up a position next to Klorel's vessel. Daniel follows everyone's gaze as they turned to the screen and looked at the ship. "We overheard in the Gate room he said he would re – join Klorel once they came out of the shadows."

O'Neill turned to look at Teal'c. "Teal'c, if we can knock out this ship, will it stop them?" Looking at the stoic man, Jack already knew the answer. "It will not. Apophis's vessel is equipped with defence shields. He will still be able to destroy your cities from high above, O'Neill."
Just then, a group of Jaffa could be heard from outside the doors and then SG1 heard them trying to break through the doors.

"Tell me the charges are on automatic timer." The Colonel asked as he and the others readied their weapons. "They're on automatic timer, sir." She replied as she shouldered her weapon. Teal'c readied his Zat'nik'tel as O'Neill and Daniel quickly readied their guns. "How long do we have?" He asked of the Captain. "Twenty – four hours." Jack stared at her as he registered her response, his eyes went wide as he repeated her answer, only to which Carter just reaffirmed her answer. "At the time, sir, I thought that we were still light – years from Earth." She said.

The banging had gotten louder as the Jaffa trying to break into the room had almost gotten through the doors. "Just a minute! Teal'c, work with me, buddy. Is there any other way out of here?"

"There is none, O'Neill." He replied as he and the others took cover behind the command console after O'Neill ordered them to get behind it. They saw the doors being pried open by three Jaffa and O'Neill muttered out loud to himself.
"This is turning out to be a bad day."
O'Neill opened fire as did the others; the Jaffa continued to pry the doors open wide enough for a shock grenade to be thrown into the Peltak. SG1 ceased fire before it exploded in a bright light. Their bodies seized up as their senses were violently assaulted by hypersonic frequencies and intense light before they fell unconscious.

The walk was a quiet one as the mourning teens and teacher had eventually made their way to Sunnydale General. Not even this place was spared as Xander and Jenny took in the scene they arrived upon. Paramedics were running around helping the doctors and nurses as they treated the numerous injured. Xander, still carrying Buffy's body watched as he saw a nurse he knew from his numerous visits to the hospital had treated him in the past when Tony Harris had one of his bad days.

"Nurse McCarthy!" He shouted out gaining the attention of the elderly woman; the nurse looked up at the call of her name and towards the direction it came and she saw Xander standing there. At first, she smiled at seeing the young man; he was growing up to be such a fine young man she'd always thought despite living with his parents. As she looked and moved to go over to him, she took notice of the expression on his face. Moving ever closer, she could see that he had been crying and then did she notice the girl that he was carrying as well as the three other girls that were with him.

"We need some help!" He said when she had closed the distance towards the group of dishevelled costumed teens.
"Xander, are you alright? What happened? Where's Willow, isn't she with you?" She asked as she looked them all over, taking in Cordelia's appearance first, McCarthy saw the torn costume and various scratches on the girl's exposed arms and the cut above her left eye and the blood trail down the side of her face from it.
Looking at Dawn, she couldn't see any visible injuries on the girl but, she did notice the splotches of blood on her costume, her white gloves and a few splotches on her arms. Again, she could see no cuts or scratches on Dawn so she assumed that the girl had been fighting during the craziness and was able to exceptionally look after herself.
Finally she turned to look at Ms. Calendar and again she could see splotches of blood on her costume but no visible wounds so again, she assumed that Jenny was capable of taking care of herself.

Nurse McCarthy spoke to the young man as she watched him and the young girl look at the girl in Xander's arms. She saw the way the girls head listed it an unnatural way; as she scrutinised the body, McCarthy noticed that the girl didn't look like she was sleeping, she looked like… "Xander, what happened? Is she…"

With a pleading look in his eyes, Xander reminded her of all the times that he had come to be in the Emergency Room when he was a child. "Help. Please." He begged of her. The nurse had never heard him sound so desperate. She had never heard him like this before, not even when she had assisted in treating the various injuries he had been admitted into hospital with. McCarthy called for two paramedics as to bring a stretcher for Cordelia and the girl.

"Alright, Xander. We'll do what we can."

Some time had passed for O'Neill and the rest of SG1. Consciousness had returned to the CO of the Air force's flagship team, him being the third one to wake. Still feeling a little bit sore from the Jaffa shock weapon, he groaned.

"O'Neill?" The sound of Teal'c calling his name brought Jack around.

"Teal'c… Ah…" He groaned out as he opened his eyes. It was black, he blinked his eyes a few times to see if it would clear, but his lack of sight remained the same. "Teal'c, I can't see."

"I am blind as well, O'Neill. It will pass." Said Teal'c.

"What the hell was that?" Jack asked, his discomfort already easing as he wondered what the weapon that knocked him and his team out was.
"It was a Goa'uld Shock Grenade…" He started as O'Neill sat up. "Though extremely painful, its effects are only temporary. Your discomfort will fade momentarily."

"That's good to know. Any idea where we are?" Jack asked as he felt his surroundings.

"I have no doubt that we are in the Cells, O'Neill. Klorel's Jaffa placed us here to await Apophis' judgement." Teal'c said answering his CO's question.

"Yeah, bad day." Said Jack as he absorbed that tidbit of information.

"Ow!" He shouted out a second later as his hand found and roamed about Captain Carter's person. The good Captain had awoken to the feeling that she was either being assaulted while she was asleep or being searched. She didn't want to take the chance so when she felt a hand moving ever closer to her face, she had reached out a bit it. And that was when she heard the Colonel's exclamation. "God! Ow!"

"Colonel…?" She asked. "Sorry, sir, it's just so dark." She finished as she herself tried to acclimatise to her temporary blindness.

"Oh… Carter!" Jack asked. "It's all right, Captain. I like your attitude." He finished.

"It isn't dark. We're blind and we failed." Daniel said as he let them know that he too had regained consciousness. O'Neill could understand his friend's defeated tone, but he refused to give up.

"Alright, Daniel, take it easy. We've been in worse situations than this." Said Jack. Teal'c turned his head and spoke. "Not to my knowledge." He stated. Jack waited for a moment as he thought about that for a moment. It seemed to him that they had been in similar situations like this. Chulak. Cimmeria… "Thanks Teal'c." He said, not willing to argue his friends opinion on the subject.

"Right now they're getting ready to wipe out the major cities of Earth. They'll do it from orbit… Out of reach." Daniel stated. The man's experience of having already this once before was again evident in his voice.

"Daniel – " Jack started, but the Archaeologist refused to listen. "Jack, I've already been through this once before… I've already seen this before." Jack had finally had enough. "Daniel will you relax? Alright, you've been through this once before, but guess what? You survived!" Jack's voice softened a bit as he continued. "We're… Just having a bad day." He finished as he rubbed his eyes. His vision was slowly becoming clearer. It was a little fuzzy but he could definitely make out some shapes.

"Sir…" Carter started. "I think I'm starting to see something." She said as she too could make out blurred shapes. "My sight is beginning to return as well, O'Neill." Replied Teal'c.

"Now, that's what I wanted to hear." Jack said, his mood instantly improving. "Carter, if someone comes in here, you… Bite 'em in the hand."

She had to laugh at the Colonel's order; she found it a bit funny herself. "Yes, sir."

As the Jaffa watched as the Sarcophagus closed with Klorel placed inside. They were awaiting the rise of their God once more. As Klorel's First Prime approached the lone Jaffa that he saw as being responsible for his God's predicament. With the Jaffa's head hanging low, the First Prime spoke out, chastising him. "Tal Kree, shak! Pikta. Cha Kree ta."

"Forgive me, Master… I will not fail Klorel again." The First Prime readied his Zat'nik'tel. "No. You will not." He said as he fired his weapon and shot the Jaffa twice, killing the Jaffa instantly. The dead Jaffa fell to the floor at the base of the Sarcophagus, his face bore a grimace of pain as he died; dispassionately, the First Prime fired the Zat a final time at the dead body and as the discharge hit, the body disintegrated completely.

Ever since they had confirmed that the two blips that were passing Saturn were in fact Goa'uld vessels, the SGC had become even busier as General Hammond continued to oversee the current operation. Coming down the stairs, surprise registered on Hammond's face as he saw Major Samuels. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm reporting for duty, sir. I'm here to co – ordinate with the Pentagon." Samuels said. Smarm was just oozing from the man and Hammond could barely stand it. "By who's order?" He demanded.

"The Chairman of the Joint Chief's, Sir… At the request of Senator Kinsey. He tried to contact you." The Major said. Hammond looked at him as he knew that Kinsey had indeed not been trying to contact him as he had not received any message from the Senator. "Alright, maybe you can tell me why our forces haven't gone on full alert?" He asked. "If we don't get our assets moving now, they're gonna be caught on the ground."
"The current thinking at the Pentagon is to do nothing that would alert the Goa'uld we know they're there." Samuels said. Hammond looked at the man; the notion just sounded ridiculous. "Let me guess whose bright idea that was." He said; clearly knowing that it was Samuels who'd suggested it to the Joint Chiefs.

Samuels looked at his former CO, all trace of patience gone with the man. "General Hammond, may I speak freely?" He waited until Hammond gave him permission with a brief nod. "I know I seem to have lost your respect, sir, for whatever reason, but if I may say, we wouldn't be in this situation, that is, at the brink of war with the Goa'uld, if you had heeded my advice and buried the Stargate in the first place."

"Was that, 'I told you so' Colonel?" Hammond asked with a warning tone in his voice.

"I'm not here to point fingers at anyone, sir…" Samuels started; Hammond had to bite back a laugh at that. It sounded like Samuels just did and metaphorically at him and SG1. "I'm here to co – ordinate a pre – emptive strike against the Goa'uld ships... That's if the President approves. The Joint Chiefs are briefing him now."

"And what do you intend to strike with, Major? Hammond asked. "A new weapon, sir. I helped to oversee its development at Area 51 with Colonel Maybourne. Right now, two prototypes are being prepared for launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base as we speak." He said as he caught Hammond's attention with that information. "If all goes to plan, history will mark this day by two brilliant and unexplained flashes in the night sky." Samuels said.

"The world should never know how close we came to Armageddon."

Apophis looked on at the planet that for the past year had given him and few other System Lords concern. Time after time have the people of the Tau'ri insulted him personally and interfered with the Goa'ulds dominion of the galaxy. From infecting his most promising First Prime since Bra'Tac with the very notion of freedom for himself and the Jaffa people from their servitude to the Gods, to daring to attack him on the Nox homeworld, but no more! He would make sure of it, he vowed to himself that he would make the Tau'ri pay for their insolence and thereby cement his place as the Supreme Ruler of the Goa'uld for ridding the universe of the people of the First World.

Nothing could stop him, he believed. His victory was all but assured. His attention towards Earth was drawn to the sound of the Ring Transporter activating; turning around he saw Klorel's First Prime appear. "Kel Klorel?" He asked. "Your son was struck down by the humans on Klorel's vessel."

"He has been placed in his Sarcophagus?" Apophis asked. His 'divinity' as a God making it seem as if he already knew this. "He has my Lord, but his wounds at the human's weapons were great. It will take time to revive him." The Jaffa told him.

"What of the humans?" Asked the God. "I thought to wait until Klorel had risen…" The Jaffa started. "No! Execute them now!" Apophis interrupted; his anger at O'Neill and SG1 driving him on. "They will pay with their lives for attacking my son."

"I will see to it myself." Said the First Prime before he triggered the recall device for the Ring Transporter aboard Klorel's Ha'tak and returned to the ship. As the false God watched the Jaffa depart, he soon turned back towards the Peltak and moved to the console; he was approached by a Jaffa and was given a status update. "My Lord, we hold our position. The humans of this world still send no challenge."

"Yet they find their way to my son. We will attack them when my son has risen again. The Tau'ri shall pay a hundredfold for their defiance."

"Kel'sha, Apophis." Said the Jaffa.

Xander watched as Cordelia was wheeled off by an Orderly, finally being seen to, her bitching and moaning must've had something to do with it, Xander had thought. If only to stop her incessant whining, he thought sourly and then he wondered again where the sudden feeling of anger was coming from, because he was literally a minute away from breaking her neck when an Orderly had taken her away. Taking a breath, he willed himself to calm down and wondered what was taking Jenny and Dawn so long. The teacher had taken Dawn to get something to eat from the vending machine after the nurses and doctors had taken Buffy's body from them. Dawn had gone off being led away by Jenny, sullen and ignoring everything that was going on around her.

They had been asked by Nurse McCarthy what had happened to them, Dawn had nearly broke down again, clearly not wanting to remember any of it. It was left to Xander and Jenny to answer her questions as Cordelia claimed she was in too much pain with her legs and the cut above her eye to answer anything, snarking as she told the nurse so, and Dawn was nearly catatonic. After ten minutes of questioning by the nurse, she had told Xander that she'd call Dawn's mother and let her know that she was here. She didn't say anything about calling his parents and that was how he wanted it.

Something tickled him at the back on his mind as he felt something brush against his lower back.
That was the fourth time in the last fifteen minutes that he'd felt like he was missing something. 'What the hell is that?' He asked himself as he looked down and watched the supposedly fake brown fuzzy tail twitch.

He had his answer. "What the fuck?!" He whispered as he watched the tail twitch again before he reached down and touched it, held it and then dropped it as his eyes went wide. He felt warmth from it! He felt actual body heat from the damned thing, and the sensation registered from the numerous bundles of nerves in the sensitive body part all the way up to his brain that he was grasping it and really feeling it. What was once just a furry brown belt that had tied around his waist around the back of the battle vest he wore with just two strips of Velcro was real.

It was actually real. The fucking thing was actually real! He was so close to freaking out right now. First Buffy, now this… "Xander?" He looked up and saw Jenny and Dawn had returned. Jenny had her hands full of food as did Dawn who looked at him curiously. The young girl looked as if she had somewhat improved, as much as she could under the current situation since McCarthy had left them and Jenny had taken her to get something to eat.

"Xander, are you…" Trailed off as she saw his tail twitch again and she figured that Xander had finally clued into the fact that he wasn't quite human anymore. She was still working it out herself and she hadn't even told Dawn yet, but she knew that she should and soon. In the meantime though, she wanted to pre – empt Xander's impending meltdown. "Dawn, have a seat while I have a word with Xander. Okay, Sweetie?"

"…Okay." The young girl mumbled as she moved towards the chair. The next thing that she said knocked the two of them for a loop. "But if you're going to talk about how the three of us aren't normal anymore, then could you please fucking tell me whose head it was I pulverised before? And why I am feeling so fucking angry? And fucking strong? And the fact that I have the memories of a homicidal twenty – something alien woman in my head?" Dawn said with a dangerous glint in her eye that was directed right at them. Could it be that Dawn was looking for something to hurt and that she might take her frustration out on the two of them?
Suddenly Jenny had an urge to activate her Scouter and get a reading on Dawn's current power level… And see if she had anything to worry about, but if the look that Dawn was giving her and Xander was any indication, then better safe than sorry, eh?
It's always the quiet ones that surprise ya, ain't it?

Silence reigned as Xander and Jenny listened to Dawn. Small, tiny, young Dawn Summers who had quite just surprised the hell out of them with the amount of profanity she'd just spouted. But that wasn't the worst of it.

"DAWN SUMMERS! WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU LEARN LANGUAGE LIKE THAT?!"

Dawn suddenly realised what she just said as Hurricane Joyce, Matriarch of the family Summers, touched down and heard her eleven – and – a – half year old daughter swearing up a shit storm like a Sailor… Or a Saiyan.
Joyce ran up to them as Dawn got up from her seat and turned to face her mom; regardless of her filthy mouth, Joyce still embraced her and looked her over. "Mommy…" Dawn started. Joyce stood as she lifted her suddenly very heavy daughter up and held her again; nearly pulling a muscle in her back as she did it mind, but it was her daughter and she could see that Dawn was hurting. Forget her discomfort; her Dawn was all that mattered.

'Her costume didn't look that heavy.' Joyce thought as she tried to rationalise why her daughter suddenly weighed nearly twice as much as she was previously. She turned a hard stare towards Xander and Jenny, waiting for an explanation. Dawn had buried her head into the crook of Joyce's neck and wrapped her arms and legs around her mother.

"Will someone tell me what the hell happened to my daughter? And where is Buffy?" Momma Summers commanded of the two.

*BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEEEP!*

The sudden sound startled all four of them for a moment before Jenny, Dawn and Xander had registered surprise on their faces when they had turned their attention to the Scouter's each still had adorned on their faces. Taken by surprise as the Scouter's sprang into life, the three Neo – Saiyans quickly interpreted the information that appeared on the differently coloured lenses as Jenny realised that the Scouter's had been set into Long – Range Passive Scan Mode and she then wondered how the hell she knew that.

"What was that sound?" Joyce asked as Dawn pulled away from her mom and tried to get down; Joyce took the hint and lowered Dawn to the ground and watched as her youngest walked over to the others. "Dawn?" She asked but she was ignored as Dawn spoke to Xander and Jenny.

"Is this right?" She asked as the Scouter's had finished discerning the readings a second later. "Is this real?" She repeated. Looking at Xander as her man – sized crush also couldn't believe what he was looking at; Dawn turned to Jenny, seeing that Xander wouldn't be of any help to answer her question. The display on the Scouters showed a yellow coloured circular sphere with two smaller blips just above it and various numbers that she knew was the actual distance that the two blips were from Earth, displayed in an alien language that she suddenly knew she understood.

"It can't be." Jenny said as she took the device off of her left ear and looked at it, she turned the Scouter around in her hand and scrutinised it from all sides, hoping, just hoping that it was all a bad joke.
Looking real and actually being real are two very different things she posited to herself as she attempted to rationalise this turn of events… And failed to do so. She placed the Scouter back on over her ear and looked at the tiny coloured display and its readings. Joyce looked on confused as the three of them whispered amongst themselves.

"So, this is real then? Because, if these readings are real, there's two Spaceships up there orbiting Earth. Is that what these readings are saying?" Xander asked clearly freaked. Jenny and Dawn looked at him and he saw the surprised looks on their faces and he slumped his shoulders in resignation. "Great…" He said to himself more than to the others. "When it rains, it pours."

"Excuse me…" Said Hurricane Joyce, an angry look on her face. "But will one of you tell me what the hell is going on right now and where the hell is Buffy?"

Oh, she was ready to go off.