Author's Notes: I meant for this chapter to be longer but I thought that I should probably post this and keep writing the rest into chapter 9. Also I have to give credit where credit is due, thanks to my friend Holyknight who has helped me by giving me ideas and telling me when I go off the deepend in my writing. Not to mention that he is the one who has written the whole Prophecy part for this story. Keep up the reviews, without them I have no way of knowing if this story is good or not. Any ideas are welcome, please no flames.

Now on with the story!

Chapter 8.

Xander slept for a good eight hours before waking up. Sleeping in the back seat of a hummer wasn't the most luxurious or comfortable place to take a nap but it did in a pinch and also let him get some rest before the upcoming mission. Some idiot thinking he was a god had a cult following him. How the hell could people who were in college, they had to have some brains to get, believe in that crap and follow him.

Ever since Waco had happened and what a disaster that was, Xander knew that most cult followings were heavily armed and fortified. Not to mention willing to die at the drop of a hat for their cause. He would have to figure out some way of entering the compound and get Carolyn out without causing a big ruckus. After she was out then he could worry about deprogramming and maybe later figure out something to do about the God wannabe.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." Cortana dryly commented as she drove the hummer through the busy traffic on the highway. It was surprisingly busy for Christmas morning for so many people to be on the road. Though that could be explained away as friends and family took to the road to meet up with loved ones to celebrate the holiday with or even to those who were unfortunate enough to have to work over the holidays.

"What time is it?" Xander managed to say while yawning. He glanced out the window to observe the scenery as they flew down the highway towards Seattle. Hopefully by the time they got there he would have a better idea of how to begin his mission to extract Carolyn McNally from this idiotic cult.

"Its noon. You slept for nearly eight hours. ETA in Seattle is two hours." Cortana replied as she began accessing communications satellites. She had decided that know was the time to begin researching this cult that they were after. To organize a good extraction they would need detailed maps of the surrounding territory and design schematics of the compound in question.

"Merry Christmas Cortana."

Cortana was shocked for a few moments before recovering. No one had ever wished her a merry Christmas before today, though to be fair the only humans that she had any meaningful contact with were the Master Chief and Dr. Halsey neither of who had celebrated this holiday. "Merry Christmas Xander."

Xander glanced back out the window; his first glance had just indicated that they were traveling pretty fast, this glance told him that they were literally zooming down the road. "Uh Cortana just how fast are we going?"

"Approximately 215 miles per hour." Cortana calmly replied as she applied more power to traction controls to keep the hummer on the road.

"215 MPH! Why the hell are you driving so fast? Damn we're gonna get pulled over for sure." Xander moaned not really thinking it all the way through.

"The chances of any police officer having the skills, and vehicle with sufficient horsepower to overtake us with only human reflexes are infinitesimal. At our speeds we'll be long gone before he even has a chance to recognize that we were even there. Now sit back and let me drive." Cortana smugly replied. To think a human could catch her, how ludicrous.

"Ya well if we do get pulled over, how bout I let you explain away the military grade ordinance in the trunk." Xander replied in turn. After thinking about it for a few seconds he really did have to agree on the fact that no cop would ever catch them at these speeds so they were safe. Though he had to argue a little just for appearances sake.

"Ya ya. I'm accessing the government's classified web to see if this cult has popped up on their radar yet. So far it's a pretty standard cult group compared to the others. The only thing that I can find that is weird is the fact that even the government spies are puzzled by the fact that this Seth guy can make his own eyes glow." Cortana said as she perused the rest of the government file on the group. It also included a complete blueprint of the mansion with the surrounding landscape.

"Glowing eyes? Is that confirmed by anyone outside of the cult group? Cause if it is then that means that either this guy knows a little about magic or we're dealing with a demon that can appear human for long periods of time."

"Its confirmed by at least a half dozen independent sources. Mostly media but it was enough to get the attention of the government agencies. I've noticed and flagged a half dozen attempts by high-level agencies in the past hour that've downloaded or viewed material from this area of the site. I believe that someone is about to attempt to break this cult up." Cortana informed him.

"Great and with their track record of breaking up cults I doubt they'll do any better this time around. We need to figure out a way of getting Carolyn out of there without drawing any attention down on us. Any ideas?" Xander asked while he reached into the cargo compartment and pulled out a M6D semi-automatic handgun to strip it down and do some field maintenance on it. Wouldn't do for your weapons to fail you on a critical moment of a mission cause you didn't clean them.

"A night insertion would allow you to use the stealth capacities of the MJOLNIR armor to get up to the main compound without being spotted. Against 20th century detection equipment you would appear to be practically invisible though if someone spots you with his or her own eyes you will be noticed. Though I don't know how your going to get her out of there without sounding an alarm."

"How about if I give them a diversion or something else to focus their attention on. If I cut the power or set off a few low level explosions on the opposite side of the compound that could draw a few people away while I make my break with Carolyn." Xander mused as he continued the field stripping the handgun.

Cortana brought up the map on the computer screen built into the dashboard. A series of schematics flashed by as she weighed the possibilities and came to a conclusion. "The best area for you to lay charges would be along the northern fence line. There is a small shed twenty meters inside the compound that seems to control the electrical lines and sewage. If you plant charges there you are bound to draw attention and that would give you your opening though it is impossible to say for how long."

"Alright then that's what we'll do. Now I just need to lay my hands on some military grade explosive's to get the right effect without destroying too much." Xander commented as he reassembled the handgun and reached behind himself to grab another one to strip and maintain.

"Look in the cargo compartment again. I loaded a few items of my own a few days ago that I thought might come in handy."

Xander leaned over and saw in a small unassuming box what looked suspiciously like modeling clay. "Uh Cortana is that what I think it is?"

"C12 high grade military explosives. That should be sufficient to cause a distraction large enough to get you in and out."

"Cortana that would not only destroy the shed but probably take out everything within 20 feet of it. I want a distraction not a crater."

"Then use a smaller amount of explosive. If you want a large scale explosion then you use more this is not like sci-fi where you have variable level weaponry, this was designed and built to be an extremely deadly explosive that could punch through damn near any type of armor."

"Ya ya, fine so I'll use a small amount. We have to wait for nightfall and then we'll make our move. ETA to the cult compound?"

"Approximately 2 hours to Seattle and half an hour to the compounds outer perimeter. Nightfall is in seven hours. We shall arrive in plenty of time to begin observations of the compound to get a better look at it."

After this the two warriors fell into a comfortable silence as each prepared in their own way for the upcoming battle. They silently reviewed tactics and strategies that could be useful to extract someone from a fortified position with the most probable chance of survival and mostly they did this to pass the time.

1010101010101010

Linda rolled over in bed pulling her pillow up over her head in an attempt to drown out the incessant beeping of her alarm clock. By all the gods in heaven and hell that was the worst invention of mankind she thought. Finally loosing the battle of wits to the evil device she got up and slapped the off switch.

Linda walked over to the master bath to take a shower and get ready for the day. Today was Christmas and hopefully it would go well enough that Faith would have a good day and build some happy memories to replace the ones of hardship and despair that she had faced over the past few years.

After getting dressed and ready for the chaos of gift opening to come Linda walked down towards Faith's room. As she was almost there she suddenly remembered the necklace that Faith had gotten her as a gift, she quickly went back to her room and put it on. Once again she walked down to Faith's room. Raised her hand and began knocking on the door hoping to wake the dark slayer up.

"Faith its nearly 10 o'clock. Time to get up."

"Go away I'm sleeping." Came the mumbled reply.

"C'mon Faith you can't sleep the entire day away. Still more presents to open."

Faith's reply started out the same as her last but quickly cut off once the knowledge of more presents to come sunk into her sleep addled brain. "Give me a few minutes to get a shower and I'll be right down." With that she was off like a rocket bouncing around her room grabbing things that she needed to start the day right, new clothes to wear and shampoo and junk for her shower.

Linda smirked to herself as she heard Faith racing around her room. Thinking to herself to be that young again and have that level of energy in the morning would be wondrous. Walking downstairs Linda went to the kitchen to prepare a large breakfast for her and the dark slayer. With the amount of food that Faith could put away in one sitting it had forced her to go to the grocery store almost three times a week to stock up on Faith's favorite foods.

Just as she was about to turn on the stove to cook up some eggs she saw sitting by her purse a small black crystal that had not been there last night. Almost instantly she recognized it as a spell communications crystal that could be magically inspelled to hold a message for a specific person. The council used these almost exclusively when they needed to send important information without the possibility of it being intercepted by mundane methods.

Picking up the crystal Linda spoke. "The Council is Eternal." The same code phrase was placed within every crystal but the crystals were keyed to the specific recipient to insure that no outsider got their hands on the council's messages. 'Bunch of pompous asses'

A small image of one of the top Watchers appeared above the crystal. Quentin Travers was expected to become the head of the Tribunal within the next few years but until then he was head of the Field Watchers and as such was her boss. "Field Watcher Pryce. We have recently uncovered new evidence that the demonic entity responsible for the death of Slayer Kendra is now residing in a small town just north of Seattle. You and your charge, Slayer Lehane, will go and dispatch this creature back to the demon dimension from which it spawned. Since the demon lives so far away and there is now a chance of interference by American federal agencies we have decided to allow you to use magical means of travel to teleport to a Council safe house. Information to help you will be at the safe house when you arrive. This mission takes priority over all others; after it is completed you will travel with your Slayer to the hellmouth where you shall stay to defend it. Good day Field Watcher Pryce."

With that the image of Travers vanished in a small puff of smoke. The crystal's black color faded to a smoky gray which indicated that the crystal had been inspelled to send a message back that it had been accessed, so it looks like she couldn't just say that she ever got the damn thing.

"Well it can wait till after breakfast at least. Now where did I leave that frying pan." Linda started cooking up some eggs and toast for Faith, who just loved to have eggs in the morning. As she was putting the eggs onto a plate and just finishing up with the toast a fresh faced Faith bounded into the kitchen with her limitless energy.

"Morning Linda, what's happening today?" Faith asked as she plunked herself down at the table.

"Well after breakfast we'll open the rest of the gifts and then we'll go from there. How does that sound?"

"That's cool." Faith replied before settling back into her eating. Breakfast was always an extremely important meal to her. Ever since she could remember her and her mother would get up and eat a good meal together in the morning. It didn't matter what kind of night or day she had had, Gwen had always made time in the morning for her baby girl.

After breakfast the two of them found themselves back in the living room sitting beside the large Christmas tree that Linda had bought. Underneath were a few presents for each of them from the other, though Faith didn't know it yet but Linda's grandparents had sent a few gifts also to her. Linda picked up the first gift and handed it over to Faith. "Here why don't you start with this one."

"Ok." Faith looked at the label. "To Faith Love Linda." She then ripped the wrapping paper off to see half a dozen new CD's that she had been wanting. "Thanks! I've been wanting these ones."

The dark slayer picked up a clumsily wrapped package and passed it over to Linda. "This is for you."

"Thank you Faith." Linda read the label and for a moment her heart skipped a beat when she saw that it said Love Faith. Hopefully it meant that Faith was coming to accept her as a mother figure and maybe, just maybe someday down the road she would accept her as a step-mother. Unwrapping the present she saw that it was a set of three books. "The deeds of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. I've heard of her, she's supposed to be an extremely good author. Thank you Faith I'll enjoy reading these."

The gift giving went on for a good twenty minutes, mostly gift certificates and even a few gag gifts from one to the other since though they had been living together for awhile they were still feeling their way into the others life.

Linda still couldn't believe Faith had gotten her Tantric Sex Oil, it had too have been one of the funniest gifts that she had received in her life. "Ok Faith only one was last gift to go. My grandmother sent this over, she thought that you might like it but sometimes she's a little weird in what she gives so don't think to heavily into it." Linda said as she passed over the rather large parcel.

Faith looked a little nervous after that. Most people's parents or grandparents had always looked down on her, she had been the kid that mom's told their kids to avoid and not to play with. Now here was Linda's own grandmother sending her a gift for Christmas.

On the label it said To Faith Merry Christmas Love Great-Grammy. It seemed weird to her, she had never known her own grandmother or great-grandmother, both of them having died before she was born, but it felt nice that someone out there was willing to take the title and call her her great-granddaughter. She carefully unwrapped the present to find herself holding a large white box, opening it up and she was shocked to see what was inside it waiting for her.

"Well what did my grandmother get you Faith?" Linda asked as she waited patiently. Her grandmother could be a little eccentric at times, but she remembered a few nights ago when she had picked up the present from the post office and she had seen that tag. Hopefully it would help Faith realize that she really was wanted and welcome here.

"Um it's a leather coat and some boots. There beautiful!" Faith exclaimed as she pulled them out of the box. The boots were knee high black leather boots with a few exotic symbols pressed into the leather. The coat was a long black leather duster that would probably come down to about her ankles and had the same matching symbols as the boots.

"Did she get the right sizes?" Linda asked as she ran her hands over the leather of the boots. They were high quality and she could tell from looking at the symbols that they weren't just decoration, they had the feeling of magic and power.

Faith pulled the boots on over her pants leg; they fit like they were made just for her. The coat fell to just above her ankles giving her a dangerous look. It was awesome, the dangerous look that Faith had been shooting for dissolved quickly with the insanely large smile on her face.

Linda grabbed her camera to take a few shots, as Faith posed making herself look both dangerous and like a kid at the same time. "It looks very good on you Faith. Now I know you want to listen to your CD's but we got a mission to take care of then first."

Faith quickly settled down upon hearing about a mission, though she didn't take the coat and boots off. "So whats the mission, what demon thing do I gotta slay today?"

"The Slayer before you tried to kill this creature but she was sadly killed during the fight. Every few decades this thing sets up shop in some small town pretending to be a god and getting a group of followers ready to die for him. The Council has found him in a town just north of Seattle. He goes by the name of Seth. Now the reason that Kendra, the slayer before you, failed is that we didn't know that he had started using magic to defend himself and he also wears some sort of body armor."

"So I go for a head shot, he'll die just like any other demon." Faith exclaimed already picturing herself avenging her sister slayer.

"Faith guns probably won't work if he's using magic to shield himself. We'll have to get close and then try and take him out hand to hand." Linda said while sending a small prayer heavenward as she always did when she gave Faith a mission. One of these days that prayer wouldn't be answered and Faith wouldn't return but until then she was damn well going to do everything in her power to make sure that was along time off.

"Oh, well we got a couple of days to come up with something. Its going to take us that long to get there." Faith replied as she ran her fingers lightly up the side of the leather boots. They felt so soft and hard at the same time.

"Actually we're to take him out tonight. We're going to teleport from here to one of the Council's safehouses up in Seattle and drive the rest of the way. So we should go pack up our weapons and anything else you want to take with you. After this mission is over we'll be heading for Sunnydale to guard the Hellmouth." Linda explained.

"Oh, guess I should get packing." With that Faith left the room to go pack her things, though Linda noticed that she kept the coat and boots on. With a tiny smile she whispered a thanks to her eccentric grandmother who always seemed to know what to do.

An hour later the two of them were packed and ready to go. Faith having lugged damn near everything that she owned and crammed it into four very large suitcases, Linda was much more frugal in her packing though she knew that in a few days a couple of her Council buddies would come by to pack up the rest of her stuff to send to a house in Sunnydale.

Linda led Faith into the basement where the rune symbols that allowed mass teleportation were imbedded into the concrete walls. They glowed with power that had slowly been harnessed over the years drawn in from the magic that emanated from the earth itself.

"Stand inside the circle Faith and close your eyes. Teleporting is very unsettling the first time." Linda said as she helped put all the luggage in the circle with them. She then chanted the activation phrase in ancient Latin. The runes glowed brighter and with a swirl of red and black light they were taken from Boston to Seattle. It was a gut wrenching experience.

"Oh god I think I'm gonna be sick." Faith moaned as she tried desperately to keep her breakfast down. Linda silently agreed with that statement, no matter how many times she used that spell it always felt like you were being turned inside out.

As Faith got herself back to normal Linda was already moving to make sure the protection spells that were placed on the house were still intact and functioning. After checking that she grabbed a small manila folder with information on the compound of the cult that Seth was leading. "Ok we got our intell. I'll let you read it over while we drive up to Johnstown, that's the town that he's holed up in now. It seems that he's holding some sort of rally in town; we should try and see if we can join in on the rally. That would probably be our best way of getting into the compound without getting caught." Linda suggested.

Faith just nodded, not trusting herself to not puke if she opened her mouth just yet. Picking up the luggage she followed Linda up to the garage. Putting everything in the back of the SUV she hopped into the vehicle and Linda drove out of the garage on their way to Johnstown.

10101010101010101010

At a nearby Air Force base the C-130 that the SGC's teams had been riding in was just pulling up to a warehouse. All three teams disembarked, walking down the ramp to find the vehicles they had requested were already there and fully loaded with the equipment that they needed.

Colonel O'Neill roared over the sounds of the Hercules's propellers. "Alright the target is located in a town called Johnstown north of here, SG-1 in the first jeep, SG-2 in the second and SG-3 your in the third. This is a low profile operation; avoid any civilian involvement if possible. This snakehead may or may not have some high-tech toys lying around but we can't be sure of that so be on guard. We will wait till nightfall before making our way into his compound. Further orders to follow when were on site. Let's move out campers."

With that O'Neill turned and jumped into the drivers seat of the first large SUV jeep. The rest of the soldiers following suite into the respective vehicles, once everyone was loaded up they quickly put the small convoy into gear and drove off the base heading for the highway.

Major Carter grabbed her laptop, accessing the governments classified net on the Seth cult looking for any information that they might have missed or anything that might just recently been added. She was trying to keep busy and not think about the changes that she had seen come over Colonel O'Neill on this mission.

He had always acted the part of the goof, downplaying his intelligence, and generally made a pain in the ass of himself to any Goa'uld that they met on other worlds. She knew that he had to be smarter that what he let on, cause you couldn't rise to the rank of Colonel without a few degree's but sometimes it was hard to tell where the act began and where it ended.

The Prophecy continued.

"The Young Squire, doubtful of her Fate was chosen for the Valkyrie"
"She will defer to the Protector for wisdom of the War's Arts."
"Her true call will be from the Arts of the Old Ones. "
"She will become the Overseer of the Last Forge of War

The Childs of the Hardworking Stars will give great boons for refuge upon Love's Domain"
"Beware of the Fool, why he will harm all, unless the Holder of Thunder gives
to the Childs of Malkuth the most great and terrible gift"

"A Spirit not born of Nature will guard the Heir of two Old Bloodlines"
"She will show the Razor of the Southern Lands's Man to the Childs of the Hardworking Stars"
"Once the Protector finds the Called One, the Thunder Holder will take them to the Crypt of the Old Ones"