Note: Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed this story! For the timeline, this is the chapter that coincides with the beginning of season 6 of Stargate.
Unlike the planet they went to on their previous mission, the one they arrived at the following morning was a desert planet, and when they stepped through the 'gate they found themselves surrounded by sand dunes.
"All right," Jack said. "Whadda we know about this place?"
"The initial survey shows a small civilization two clicks from here," Carter replied. "This should be fairly standard recon, sir."
"Okay. Teal'c, you take point. Summers, you've got our six." For Jack, that was a huge sign of trust.
"Okie dokie, artichokie," Buffy said, falling back behind them.
They worked their way up the nearest hill in the direction Carter indicated. The sands did give way to trees eventually, though they were somewhat sparse. The world around them was oddly silent, with no sign of bird or other animal life.
"Jack," Buffy whispered. "We've got company."
He held his hand up to stop the others, then turned to look at her quizzically. "I don't hear anything," he said.
"Listen harder," she insisted.
Jack held very still, straining to hear anything. At last he heard a rustle. "To our left?" he whispered.
She nodded. Then she hesitated again. "And our right. And behind us."
Jack sighed. "Perfect. Just once, it'd be nice if we didn't get captured."
"O'Neill, should we not attempt to return to the Stargate?" Teal'c said.
"Ah, no," Jack said, fingering his P-90 thoughtfully. "Let's try to make nice with the locals first. Maybe they're friendly." Obviously Daniel had rubbed off on him.
The men surrounding them slowly emerged from behind the trees. They wore loincloths and headdresses and looked altogether frightening.
"Or maybe not," Carter said helpfully.
"Hi," Buffy said, approaching one of the men with a grin. "Um, we're visitors from another planet. Take us to your leader."
The warrior examined her for a long time, unmoving, before abruptly turning and walking away, the others following right behind.
"Uh, I guess we follow them," Buffy said.
Jack clapped her on the shoulder. "Nice job, Summers." He pushed his P-90 up his shoulder and started walking.
They were led to a small village, the same one Carter had mentioned. It was really just a small collection of mud huts, with a fire blazing in the center. Women with painted faces and scant clothing moved around the huts, carrying some sort of vegetables and jars of water. The leader of the warriors pointed at the fire. "Go there," he ordered. "Sit."
SG-1 hesitated only a moment before obeying. Several women approached, bearing a clay bowl with some sort of herbs in it. They handed the bowl to Buffy.
"Are we…supposed to smoke this?" Carter said, staring at the small greenish leaves.
"Um," Buffy said intelligently, prodding some of the leaves with her finger.
"Excuse me," Jack said to a passing woman. "What are we supposed to do with this?" She didn't even acknowledge his presence, just kept walking. "Right, thanks," he called out.
"Perhaps the herbs are part of a guest ritual," Teal'c said.
"There were definitely some cultures in the olden days where people used to smoke herbs together as a communal activity," Buffy said tentatively.
"The olden days?" Jack repeated incredulously. "I call it the seventies."
They sat for half an hour waiting to be addressed, but nothing happened.
At last, Buffy said, "Well, it doesn't look like the villagers are going to address us unless we do something with it. Should we light it on fire?"
Jack shrugged. "You're our culture person these days, Summers. Your call."
Hesitantly, Buffy pulled a burning twig from the fire and poked it into the bowl of weed, sending up a puff of fragrant smoke. Immediately a man screamed, "Defilers!"
"Uh-oh," Carter said. They all stood quickly as the warriors approached, looking peeved.
"Look," Buffy said, dropping the herbs and stomping on them to stop the smoke. Unfortunately, the natives seemed even more furious when they saw that. "I think this was all a big—"
The leader tried to punch her, but Buffy ducked out of the way. Another tripped Jack, knocking him to the ground and making pain flare in his knee. "Why?" he ground out. "Why does this always happen?"
Teal'c moved into action, knocking the warriors away as Carter fired her P-90 into the air and then pointed it at them. They seemed seemed frightened by the noise.
"Let's make for the 'gate," Jack said. "Summers, give me a hand—Carter, dial it up. Teal'c, keep an eye out."
Buffy jerked him to his feet with enough strength that he knew she could carry him, if necessary. He leaned hard against her as they hurried away, the warriors quickly recovering and coming right on their heels. They stumbled toward the Stargate more slowly than Jack would have liked. He cursed at the pain in his leg which held them back.
"Can we hurry it up, Summers?" he said.
"Do you want me to carry you, Jack?" she snapped.
The Stargate whooshed to life. Carter and Teal'c leapt through, and Buffy and Jack made their way up the stairs to the Stargate platform. Abruptly Buffy dropped Jack's arm and spun, pushing him through the 'gate as she did so. He endured the discomfort of traveling through the wormhole, then turned to see Buffy come backing through behind him.
She was holding a dart between her pinched forefinger and thumb.
"Did you just catch that?" he said.
"Maybe."
"Huh."
"Colonel O'Neill, what happened?" Hammond demanded.
"We ran into some natives, sir," Jack announced. "Then we smoked some weed and came home. Also, I'd appreciate it if Doc Frasier could take a look at my leg, as I think it's about to fall off."
Hammond accepted the report with impressive equanimity. "Medical team to the 'gate room," he said into a speaker. The SGC was quite used to that particular call, and within minutes Jack had been carted off to the infirmary.
"Ms. Summers," Hammond said, turning to Buffy. "If you'd care to debrief?"
It seemed totally unfair that Buffy's main job other than going on missions was to have to learn stuff. Still, she endured, reminding herself that these languages could come in very, very handy.
"And what does this symbol mean?" Jonas asked, gesturing to a picture of a keypad on a Goa'uld mothership.
"That's—raht," Buffy said, mostly sure. "It means, 'three.'"
He grinned. "Good. You're doing really well."
"Jonas, you learned this language in like a day," Buffy said dryly.
"I assimilate information very quickly," he replied. "It's just good genes. Anyway, I think with just a couple of weeks you'll have a very strong grasp of the basics. You've got a head start on Ancient, too, since you already know Latin."
"I just feel a little in over my head," Buffy confessed. She had to keep up a strong front whenever she was around the rest of SG-1, still feeling the need to prove herself. It was easier when she was around Jonas. "I've always been a fighter. Other people have done most of the thinking."
"Then isn't this a nice change of pace?"
"Hey guys," Carter said, popping her head into the office. "How's it going?"
"Mag'ra tan shree," Buffy grumbled.
Jonas coughed. "Uh, that means, painfully," he told Carter. "Plus another word I should never have taught her."
"Well," Carter said, "feel like going on a field trip?"
"Yes," Jonas said emphatically. "I still haven't seen the outside of your world yet. What are we going to see?"
"Do you like surprises?"
"Yes," Jonas said, just as Buffy said, "No."
Carter smirked. "You'll like this one."
"Major," Jonas said, catching her on her way out the door. "How do we know what color to wear?"
She laughed. Only after she'd left did her voice drift back down the hall, "We call each other every morning!"
They arrived in Nevada the next day.
"No way," Buffy said, staring at the sign that said Area 51. Her eyes narrowed. "Are the Roswell aliens real, too? Little green men?"
"Actually," Jack said blithely, "they're grey. We call them the Asgard."
The entire side of a building began to rise like a giant garage door, and SG-1 plus Jonas stepped inside.
"That's a space ship," Buffy said intelligently.
"The X-302," Carter said proudly. She began launching into the specifics of it, causing both Buffy and Jack to zone out. "And the fourth engine," she finished, "is able to open a hyperspace window, thanks to the naquadria Jonas gave us."
Jack climbed up to take a look inside the cockpit. "Oh, no," he said adamantly.
"What?" one of the engineers asked.
"Colonel O'Neill believes you are going to request that we test the X-302," Teal'c said in a tone that indicated that he wasn't pleased with the idea, either.
The engineer stammered and protested.
"Can I fly it?" Buffy asked, peeking at the control pad.
Jack paused. "Do you know how to fly a plane?"
"No, but how hard could it be?"
Jack coughed. "Summers, step away from the alien spacecraft."
Buffy crossed her arms and pouted.
A few days later, an unauthorized incoming wormhole drew all of SG-1 to the gateroom—including Jack, who was still in the midst of the Great Report Fiasco, and Buffy, who had learned how to conjugate verbs in Goa'uld as well as how to insult a Jaffa's mother.
"Who is it?" Jack asked.
"Getting an IDC," Harriman reported. "It's Bra'tac, sir."
"Oooh," Buffy said excitedly. "I've been wanting to meet him."
Bra'tac looked solemn, though, and when they greeted him he turned immediately to Teal'c and said, "I am sorry, Teal'c. It is Drey'ac. She is dying."
Teal'c hurried away to prepare to return through the stargate with Bra'tac. Only then did Bra'tac seem to notice the new addition to the team. He eyed Buffy with curiosity. Noting the direction of his gaze, Jack said, "Ah, Bra'tac, I don't think you've met Buffy Summers, the newest member of our team."
Bra'tac frowned. "Buffy Summers?" he said. "An interesting name."
Taking a page out of Teal'c's book, and remembering her lessons in Goa'uld, Buffy placed her fist over her heart and said, "Tek ma te, Bra'tac."
A slow smile crossed his craggy face. "Tek ma tek. You speak our language?"
"I'm learning," she said.
He nodded. "You are the one who was chosen to replace Daniel Jackson, then?"
"Not replace," Buffy corrected, glancing at Jack and sensing his tension. "I'm on SG-1, though."
"Buffy Summers is a most able warrior," Teal'c said somberly, appearing in the gateroom dressed in his traditional Jaffa garb. "Under other circumstances, I had looked forward to introducing you."
Buffy gave Bra'tac huge kudos for not looking doubtful at Teal'c's pronouncement about her skills. "Do you wish to accompany us?" Bra'tac asked. "We are returning for a solemn occasion, but there is no reason we cannot become acquainted with our new ally as well."
"Yes," Buffy said immediately. "I'll go. I don't even need to change!" She was wearing her BDUs, which were baggy and unfashionable but ultimately serviceable.
Jack coughed and she remembered that she was on a military base and supposed to defer to the guy in charge. Or something. "Uh, if that's okay with you, General Hammond?" she said awkwardly.
He smiled in understanding. "If you're sure, go ahead. And Teal'c, good luck."
"Thank you, General Hammond," Teal'c said.
The rebel Jaffa planet was dusty and a lot like Arizona. Buffy lagged behind Teal'c and Bra'tac, allowing them their privacy. She examined the tense lines in Teal'c's back and knew that he was far more upset by his wife's illness than he appeared. They reached a tent, but before they could go inside a smaller, skinnier version of Teal'c came out.
He glared at Teal'c. "How dare you come here?" he snarled. "My mother is dead because of you!" If looks could kill, Teal'c would be dead about now. She could tell the boy wanted to say more, but instead he spun away and stalked towards yet another forest. Teal'c hurried after him.
"Rya'c," Bra'tac told Buffy. "Teal'c's son."
"Why does he blame Teal'c?" Buffy asked, staring after her friend and his son.
"Rya'c is young, and inexperienced. He suffers from low self-confidence. He will learn."
"Should one of us go after them?" she asked uncertainly.
"I intend to," he replied. "Rya'c is my student, as Teal'c once was. I hope that the suffering he experiences today will be a lesson for him in the future. In the meantime, you may explore the camp if you wish. We will speak later."
"Yeah, go, go," Buffy said, shooing him away. "Take care of Teal'c and Rya'c. I'll be fine."
He nodded briskly before stalking away. Buffy turned more slowly back to the heart of the camp, where she found a bunch of Jaffa who seemed to be training. She wandered among them, drawing curious glances herself as she watched them go through several different katas she had never seen before. She stopped at the sparring ring, watching as two shirtless men faced off with wooden staffs, attacking each other with vicious blows, neither holding back.
She felt her concern begin to rise when one of the men hit the other hard enough to break his cheek bone, sending him to the ground. He spat blood. Instead of giving the man a chance to get up, the winner drove another blow into his spine, causing him to cry out in pain, and was aiming a final, debilitating blow at the back of the downed man's head when Buffy leapt into the ring and grabbed his staff with her bare hand, jerking it away.
"How dare you interfere, human!" the brute shouted, staring at her in rage. The man she'd protected coughed, pushing himself to his hands and knees.
"You could have killed him!" she shouted back, furious at his brutality. "You're on the same side—you should be training together, not trying to murder each other."
"You are weak, and a female," the Jaffa said, his lip curling disdainfully. "You cannot understand our ways."
"Maybe not," Buffy snapped, "but you should understand that if I see you beat on someone like that again, I'll knock some sense into you myself."
"Are you challenging me?" he asked, shocked.
"I guess I am," Buffy said, only pausing to think that that might not have been the best idea when a grin spread across his handsome face.
"Very well," he said. "I accept." He stepped back, and his previous opponent, bleeding and bruised but otherwise fine, handed him his staff. Buffy kept the staff she'd taken, twirling it in her hands as she experimented with its weight. It was well-balanced and solid, much shorter than the Friar Tuck staff Giles had once taught her to use.
"You are foolish to challenge Day'cra," the man she'd defended told her, sounding concerned. "He is among the strongest of us."
"Just watch," she grinned.
Shaking his head, he stepped back. Buffy unzipped her jacket and tossed it aside, leaving her in a black t-shirt. She would have preferred to remove her boots as well, but decided against.
"When do we begi—" she said, then was cut off mid-word as Day'cra launched himself at her, much faster than Teal'c had moved the one time she sparred with him. She picked up her own pace in response, blocking his blows with her staff and feeling the shocks all the way up her arms. Physiologically he was nearly as strong as a vampire, but he was better trained in combat than most vamps were and knew how to direct his blows to maximize impact.
Like when she'd fought Teal'c, she felt herself begin to grin, becoming lost in the wonderfully free sensation of letting her instincts take over. She could be a thinker when she wanted to, but this—this was her true calling. Spinning, ducking, punching, kicking. She could have won the fight in the first exchange of blows, but did not out of respect for her opponent, who was really quite good. She could see the shock in his eyes—he had expected to lay her out with his first strike, and only now began to realize how badly he'd underestimated her.
She could hear the murmur of the Jaffa who were watching, also, and could translate enough of what they were saying to know she'd impressed them.
Growing bored, Buffy pushed herself up a notch, increasing her speed and strength and driving Dray'cra back, back, delivering punishing but not devastating blows until at last she swept his feet out from under him and placed the tip of her staff at his throat. "Yield," she commanded. He growled at her and she pushed down, just a bit. "Yield."
"I yield," he said, his eyes snapping with anger mixed with respect.
Holding him there just a moment longer, to make sure, she stepped back and offered him a hand. He took it and she hauled him to his feet.
Slow clapping drew her attention. She turned to see Bra'tac, who was watching her with great respect. "Never before have I seen such speed and strength in a human who was not host to a Goa'uld," he marveled. Beside him were Teal'c, who looked a little battered, and Rya'c, who was holding a staff weapon and staring at her as if she had two heads.
"What can I say?" Buffy grinned. "I work out."
Rya'c stared a moment longer before breaking away and running in the direction of the Stargate. Teal'c went after him.
Buffy hesitated, then moved to follow, but Bra'tac put his hand on her arm. "Let them go," he told her. "Rya'c is beginning to understand."
"Understand?"
"Yes. He is beginning to understand the terrible sacrifices his father has made to protect him," Bra'tac answered.
Buffy began to hand off her staff to one of the Jaffa who was watching, but Bra'tac said, "Wait. If you are uninjured, I would enjoy the opportunity to spar with you myself."
Buffy laughed, bending her knees and bouncing. "I thought you'd never ask." Even more Jaffa gathered around; she was willing to bet that everyone in the camp except for the sentries had come to watch.
They began to circle. Bra'tac was deceptively relaxed, seemingly unprepared; Buffy knew better.
"You are unusually restrained for one so young," he observed.
"And you're better preserved than most 130-something people I've met," she replied. "Although, my old boyfriend was over 200, and he had you beat as far as preservation goes." She paused as if to consider, and that was when Bra'tac struck.
Unlike Dray'cra, Bra'tac didn't try to win by overwhelming her with his strength or speed. Instead, he aimed for the most fragile parts of her body—her spine, face, and gut. His blows were quick and deliberate, stinging and disorienting. He struck and then retreated, struck and retreated. He was in perfect control.
Buffy stayed controlled to match him, although what she really wanted to do was unleash. She modeled her style after his own, experimenting with it. As several aches in her body could attest, in this fighting style at least she was outmatched by him.
"I may be many years your senior, Buffy Summers, but that does not mean that I am decrepit," he snapped. "The way you hold back is insulting to me."
Buffy blinked in surprise. She'd never sparred with someone who spoke to her like that before; Giles had always been patient and/or tolerant. This reminded her of behavior she had seen in old martial arts movies.
"Are you sure?"
"I am sure."
She let go. She fought as the Slayer was meant to fight. She was amazed that Bra'tac defended as well as he did; he blocked many of her strikes and managed to dodge so that most of those that landed were glancing.
"Harder!" he said, a pleased gleam in his eye. "You have greater strength—use it!"
Spurred by his command, she moved even faster, finally slipping through his defenses to strike his symbiote pouch hard enough to double him over; she used the other end of the staff to strike him in the face and her feet to sweep his legs out from under him.
He laughed from his position on the ground. "Good," he said. "Very good. You are no mere human."
She helped pull him to his feet, and reflected that she was doing that a lot for Jaffa these days. "No," she agreed. "I'm the Slayer."
"Slayer," he repeated, sounding out the unfamiliar word in his mouth. He nodded. "It suits you." He placed his hand on her arm. "Come," he said. "Let us rejoin Teal'c and Rya'c."
They passed through several ranks of Jaffa, all of whom bowed towards them as they walked. "They do you great honor, Slayer," Bra'tac said. "You have proven yourself, to all of us. Any Jaffa here would be glad to follow you into battle." He stiffened beside her, and she looked up to see Teal'c, Rya'c, and an unknown hurrying toward them. "Perhaps we will do battle together earlier than I had thought." He raised his voice. "Teal'c! What has transpired?"
"Earth is under attack!" Teal'c shouted. "My'rac tells us that Anubis has invented a device that causes one Stargate to attack another. We must find a way to help them."
"There are only four worlds Anubis holds from which he might be staging this attack," Bra'tac said. "The world we cannot access will be the one from which the attack is originating."
"I'm coming," Buffy said.
He shot her a look as if she'd said something stupid. "Of course you are," he said. "Hopefully I can remember all of the sequences needed to reach Anubis' planets."
Fortunately, Bra'tac had a mind like a steel trap, and it only took a few minutes to figure out which 'gate was occupied. They used a cargo ship to fly to the planet, which took several hours.
Buffy took the opportunity to introduce herself to Teal'c's son.
"Hey Rya'c," she said, feeling Teal'c's eyes on her. "I'm Buffy."
"Buffy," he repeated, staring at her. "That is a strange name."
"I get that a lot," she said. "It's nice to meet you. I've heard…nothing about you. You know, this is my first time in a spaceship."
Rya'c's eyes widened. "Truly?"
"Well, I guess it's the second, if you count the mothership," she mused. "But that never took off, so I don't think it counts."
"I have flown in space crafts such as these many times," Rya'c said, a little smug.
Buffy smiled patiently. "Well, I didn't even know the Stargate existed until a little over a week ago," she said. "It's been an interesting week."
"You are on my father's team?" he asked curiously.
"Yes. I'm new. We've only been on two missions together—I guess this makes three."
"You are young to go on missions," Rya'c said. She might have been offended, except that his voice was respectful.
"Hey, I'm older than you are, pal," Buffy retorted. "And don't you dare say I'm small, or I'll have to smack you around." She smiled to show she was joking.
"This is my first battle," Rya'c said. He looked at his father, who seemed deep in conversation with Bra'tac. Lowering his voice, he added, "I am…anxious."
"There's no shame in that," she said, fiddling with Mr. Pointy. She carried the stake everywhere these days, more as a good luck charm than a weapon. She saw Rya'c stare in confusion at the stick, and put it away. "I'm sure Teal'c is often afraid."
"He said that he has been," Rya'c said, his voice hushed. "I did not believe him."
"Believe it, buddy," Buffy said.
"And you, Slayer?" Rya'c asked. "Have you ever been afraid?"
"Me?" Buffy laughed. "All the time."
He crossed his arms. "I do not believe you," he said. "I have seen the way you fight. You defeated Master Bra'tac easily! You can have no fear."
"You're so wrong, Rya'c," she told him. "I think I've spent more of my life afraid than not." Seeing that he looked unconvinced, she said, "When I was sixteen, someone—someone that I trusted—told me that I had to fight a monster. And he told me that if I did, I would die."
"The man was wrong," Rya'c said simply. "A warrior such as yourself would not shy away from battle, and yet you are still alive."
Buffy shook her head. "No," she said, more sharply than she intended. "You're right, I did go fight him anyway. But only after I swore that I wouldn't. I tried to take the easy way out. I was—I was so afraid, that I was ready to let a monster loose to go after my friends, my family, the whole town, maybe the whole world, just because I didn't want to die."
"What changed your mind?" he asked intently.
"There were other, less dangerous monsters. They killed a bunch of kids I knew, and my friend found the bodies. She was…destroyed. Devestated. And I knew that I couldn't just do nothing. So I went after the monster, and he killed me. Not much, and not for long—he just hit me and left me to drown in a pool of water. My friends came along and resuscitated me."
"How did you kill the monster?" Buffy recognized the look in Rya'c's eyes now. Hero worship. He didn't doubt that she had defeated the monster in the end.
"I got back up, and I did what I had to do," Buffy said simply. "That wasn't the first time I was scared, and it definitely wasn't the last. I think it was the most scared I've ever been, though. For my own life, that is. I can't tell you how scared I am whenever I think of the things my little sister is going to have to face in the world."
Rya'c nodded thoughtfully. "You are strong, and brave," he said.
"Yes, she is," Bra'tac said. Buffy flushed as she realized that Teal'c and Bra'tac had been listening. "We approach the planet."
Buffy looked past him, out the view screen, and stared at the enormous planet that was now in their sights.
"Go over the plan again, will ya?" she said.
Bra'tac looked at Teal'c. "She talks much like O'Neill. Has the Slayer been spending too much time in that hassak's company?"
Buffy blinked. "I thought you liked Jack," she said.
Teal'c crooked a hint of a smile. "Master Bra'tac does indeed like Colonel O'Neill. He also enjoys putting O'Neill off guard."
"Well, Bra'tac, I'll have you know that I've always talked like this," Buffy said, miffed at the accusation that she'd stolen her speech patterns from Jack. "Now—the plan?"
"We will touch down in a copse of trees. Then the four of us will attempt to ambush the Jaffa operating the device, destroy the device, and save the Taur'i."
Buffy waited. "That's it?"
"Yes."
"That's the plan."
"Yes."
"What if something goes wrong?"
"Well, as O'Neill would say, we will cross that bridge when we come to it."
Twenty minutes later, crouching besides Rya'c, who'd taken a blast to the shoulder, Buffy was seriously doubting Bra'tac's planning skills.
"What's the plan now, Bra'tac?" she hissed, bending low to stay out of sight.
"The plan is unchanged," he said, though he was beginning to sound worried. "We have lost the benefit of surprise, but still may be able to overcome the Jaffa around the device."
"Rya'c will stay here," Teal'c announced.
"What?" Rya'c protested. "But father, I am prepared to die."
Teal'c put his hand on Rya'c's shoulder. "But I am not prepared for you to die," he said.
"I'll stay here too," Buffy said. At the Jaffa's surprised glances, she said, "One more person's not going to make the difference in your attack, and if I'm right you're going to need backup. I'll stick with Rya'c."
They considered for a long moment before nodding. "Watch over my son, Buffy Summers," Teal'c said, meeting her eyes directly.
"I will," she promised.
She and Rya'c watched over the rise as Teal'c and Bra'tac approached the device. It was an enormous circle of energy, with a long ray of blue energy directed straight at the stargate. The two Jaffa moved stealthily forward, their staff weapons at the ready.
"My father is a skilled warrior," Rya'c said, sounding almost surprised.
"Yes, he is," Buffy said. "He should be a great role model for you." Then, "Oh, no."
"What is it?"
"Two Jaffa patrols converging on them," she said.
"I don't see anything," Rya'c replied.
"Trust me. I've got really good eyesight."
"What do we do?"
Buffy thought. "This is a Goa'uld base," she mused aloud. "There must be some kind of big weapons around here, right?"
"I—don't know," Rya'c said uncertainly. She understood his hesitation—his lack of confidence in himself—but this wasn't the time for it.
"Think, Rya'c! Time is kind of of the essence here," she said. "Who knows how long we have until the Earth 'gate explodes, or Teal'c and Bra'tac are killed?"
"The gliders!" he said.
"Gliders? You mean those Star Warsy spaceships?"
"Gliders are fighter crafts," Rya'c said. "I do not know this Star Wars."
"Where would the gliders be? Lead the way, Rya'c!"
Bra'tac was beginning to wonder whether his own planning skills were indeed in need of some improvement. He and Teal'c were now in the hands of Anubis' Jaffa, which meant that they could do nothing to save Earth from the attack upon it. He could only hope that Buffy Summers and Rya'c were safe and would find some way to save themselves.
A Jaffa approached. "Sholva," he spat. "Some of the Jaffa at the gate survived. I know there were two more. Tell me—where are the girl and the boy?"
Teal'c was just about to snarl back at him when there was a sudden roar from overhead. They all looked up to see two gliders swoop into view—one being flown competently, firing first in their general direction and then at the device. The second, Bra'tac realized, must have been flown by the Slayer, and rolled and twirled drunkenly, firing randomly in every direction.
"Rya'c," Teal'c said, grinning fiercely.
They took advantage of their captors' surprise to knock them out, and watched as the Stargate-destroying device exploded in a shower of sparks and electricity.
Rya'c landed his glider neatly and leapt out of the cockpit, looking like he'd just single handedly saved the world. Buffy's glider, on the other hand, zoomed towards them at a dangerous speed, swerved at the last minute to avoid hitting them, and crashed into a tent, taking out a couple of surprised Jaffa, skidding a good ways with the tent wrapped around it before finally coming to a halt.
The three Jaffa ran toward it, concerned for their small but powerful friend. They slowed in relief when the cockpit slid open and Buffy stuck her head out, dazed but otherwise unharmed. She leapt from the cockpit to the ground, blinking rapidly.
"Thank God flying a glider is nothing like driving a car," she pronounced, stumbling a little.
"Indeed," Teal'c said. "For if you drove a car as you fly a glider, Buffy Summers, pedestrians in Colorado Springs would be in grave danger."
Buffy squinted. "Was that a joke? One of those Jaffa jokes? Because I've been warned about those." When Teal'c just stared, she added, "Because I thought I flew pretty well. I think I took out at least a couple of the prongs of that device thingy—"
"Those were trees."
"Oh."
"I believe we should leave this planet," Bra'tac said. "We must travel to Earth and ascertain whether we were too late. The flight will take several days."
Their cargo ship was undamaged, and they took flight almost immediately.
"Do me a favor, will ya?" Buffy asked the three Jaffa. "Can we speak in Goa'uld for the rest of the flight? I hear immersion is a good way to learn a language."
Bra'tac smiled. "Kem shol naht," he said, bowing with a fist over his heart.
Buffy blinked. "What?"
Three days later, Buffy was just about ready to start killing people. Don't get her wrong, she loved the three Jaffa men like brothers—or something—but there was only so much stoic, warrior-brother time she could take before she blew. Especially since they'd taken her Goa'uld-only request seriously, and as a result she could only understand about a quarter of what they were saying.
Plus, she'd gone past stinky and was now beginning to smell putrid.
"We are approaching Earth's atmosphere," Bra'tac reported in Goa'uld.
"Thank God," Buffy breathed.
He smiled tolerantly before activating the ship's radio. "Hammond of Texas, can you hear me?"
There was a pause before Hammond's voice came through. "Master Bra'tac, is that you?"
"It is. I have Teal'c, Rya'c, and Buffy Summers with me. We have destroyed the device Anubis was attempting to use to destroy your Stargate."
"Not a moment too soon, either," Hammond said. They could hear the grin in his voice. "We were about thirty seconds from sending our Stargate out into deep space to blow up and leasing the second Stargate from the Russians. I'll look forward to your debrief."
They landed not long after and were quickly brought into the SGC, where they were greeted by Hammond, Frasier, Carter, Jack, and Jonas.
"Summers!" Jack exclaimed happily, spreading his arms wide. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"What'd I do?"
"Oh, just kept me from flying the X-302 through an unstable wormhole to who-knows-where with a Stargate on the verge of being blown up—I think that's the technical term, right Carter?"
Carter smiled. "Yes sir. Blown up."
"Also, the Russians were being real pains in my butt—sorry, General—and I'm pretty sure they were about to demand something ridiculous in exchange for using their Stargate, like having one of their people on SG-1 or adding borscht to the mess hall's weekly menu."
"The real thanks go to Rya'c," Buffy said, clapping him on the right shoulder as Teal'c put a proud hand on his left. "He's the one who figured out how to destroy the device, I just gave him a boost. Plus, if it'd been just me flying the gliders, well…you'd probably be dead by now."
"Rya'c," Jack said, surprised. He smiled at the young Jaffa. "Well done, son," he said, shaking Rya'c's hand.
"And now," Buffy announced, to everyone and no one, "I'm going to take a shower." When Frasier stepped forward, no doubt to insist on performing an examination, Buffy glowered. "Stop me if you dare."
Napoleonic power monger though she was, Frasier got out of the way.