"It's good, you know, it feels right." Faith replied with a soppy grin on her face, it was nice that she could actually be herself with these people. They didn't expect her to be the slayer; they didn't expect her to have sex. She was just Faith, and it was nice.
"How long have you two been seeing each other for now?" O'Neill asked, now he was getting along with his son openly about everything it was nice to talk to his friends and find out a little more about him, maybe actually get the story of how he got his powers.
"Nearly six months now." Faith said with a grin.
"Wow, must have been some six months." O'Neill said with a grin that matched her own.
"It has been." Faith smiled, thinking back to that first kiss.
"What about you?" He asked, turning to Buffy.
"Known him for about two years now." Buffy said, smiling when she remembered Xander's first words to her.
"Has he always... you know, been like this?" He asked, subtlety not being one of his strong points.
"You mean a God?" Faith asked with a grin causing Buffy to laugh and Teal'c to raise his eyebrow.
"Yeah." O'Neill smiled, he was still getting used to the fact that his son was pretty much omnipotent.
"Nah, that's something new." Faith smiled, knowing where this was going.
"So he wasn't born like it then?" He asked, wondering what could have happened to give his son access to that much power.
"What has he told you?" Buffy asked cautiously as they passed round another empty corridor.
"Nothing, he said I'll find out when he's ready to talk about it." O'Neill sighed; he obviously wasn't going to learn about it here, so he'd just wait until Xander was ready to explain it to him.
"Then he'll tell you when he's ready." Buffy said with a smirk, confirming to O'Neill what he already knew.
"Come on then, Glider bay should be just round this corner." O'Neill smiled as he checked round the corridor, empty again.
"You know, for a heavily armed spaceship, I haven't seen that many aliens." Buffy commented as she walked up to the doors in front of them, causing them to open automatically.
She came face to face with a Jaffa warrior with a gold tattoo on his forehead, reacting purely on instinct she dropped the construct of a crossbow, which promptly disappeared when it hit the floor before kicking the Jaffa in the stomach with all of her strength.
O'Neill just watched in shock at the Jaffa went sailing back into the room before hitting one of the pillars and crumpling to the floor for a second, he watched, unable to do anything as Buffy dove forward as the first prime got up and started hand to hand combat with the teenage girl.
'Get out of the way, give me a clean shot', O'Neill was screaming in his mind, not wanting to actually yell or he might distract Buffy, who was doing a good job of holding her own against the first prime.
Oz was just watching calmly, he knew Buffy could take the alien down; it was just a matter of time. Sniffing slightly he paused before turning to O'Neill. "Three more coming from behind us."
"Great... wait, how'd you know that?" O'Neill paused, thankful for the heads up but curious as to how he knew that.
"Smelt them." Oz replied as he ignited the lightsaber and ducked into one of the alcoves.
"Smelt them, of course." O'Neill said before ducking in to an alcove himself.
"I'll help Buffy; you take the guys out here." Faith said before running into the room to give her sister slayer help with the big alien.
"Faith wait..." O'Neill was cut short when the doors closed with Buffy and Faith inside facing off against Apophis' latest first prime. "Damnit!"
"I am sure SlayerBuffySummers and SlayerFaith will be able to deal with the first prime O'Neill." Teal'c commented as he ducked into an alcove ready for the ambush.
"I know, I just don't like the see kids fighting battles like this." O'Neill commented as he unchecked the safely on his P90 and ducked into the opposite alcove to Teal'c.
As the Jaffa came round the corner they paused noticing a green glow on the floor coming from one of the alcoves, O'Neill heard the sounds of the two staff weapons snapping open and dove into action. Moving out of the alcove he fired off a round from his P90, catching one of the Jaffa off guard killing his instantly, the other Jaffa just turned to him, shielded by his comrade he swung his staff weapon round to face O'Neill.
Oz just stepped out of the alcove and swung his lightsaber down, cutting the staff weapon in two, millimetres from where the Jaffa was holding it. The Jaffa just looked at the stump of his staff weapon, stunned for a moment as Oz stepped back into the alcove, providing O'Neill with a clean shot as he took out the second Jaffa.
Teal'c simply stepped out of the alcove and fired his staff weapon directly into the chest of the remaining Jaffa before he could react to the slaughter of his two comrades, the blast of the staff weapon killed him instantly and the sound echoed through the corridor for a few seconds.
"You know, I wasn't sure if that thing would work or not." O'Neill said, nodding to Oz's lightsaber as he moved towards the doors.
Oz just smiled and deactivated it with a hiss.
"So how long have you been friends with Xander?" Daniel asked as they passed by another room, they'd decided to look for the main computer core first and then head to the engines after, that way they could get as much information as they could from the computer before blowing the place sky high.
"I've known him since we were two." Willow said with a smile.
"Just over two years now." Giles smiled as he checked around the corner before nodding as the group passed round, Sam firmly at their rear to make sure nothing snuck up on them.
"So Buffy and Faith are Slayers?" He asked, specifically looking at Giles this time.
"Yes, I assume you have heard of them before?" Giles asked, curious himself as to how much Daniel actually knew.
"I've come across the legend in several writings of ancient legends; 'The Slayer' was actually referenced in the uprising that was responsible for driving Ra from this planet originally." Daniel replied, happy to find someone he could actually talk about his theories with and not be ladled an idiot.
"Tak Ne." Giles said with a smile, continuing at Daniels interested expression. "She was the Slayer in Egypt around three thousand BC, the watcher diaries list her fighting against Goold demons, though now I can safely assume they were these Goa'uld demons."
"You have access to diaries from three thousand BC?" Daniel asked, awestruck with the amount of knowledge and historical texts Giles would have access to.
"Yes, the watcher diaries from that era are remarkable well preserved along with some of the slayers actual artefacts from that rebellion, it might actually be worth taking a look at them again, with the knowledge now of the Goa'uld they might prove to be something else entirely." Giles thought to himself, it had been a while since he had been in the artefact room at the Watcher headquarters, he was due a trip back to England soon anyway, maybe he would have to take a side trip.
"If I could, I'd like to take a look at some of those myself, there could be something important in them about the uprising." Daniel asked, practically drooling at the opportunity to get his hands on original accounts of the uprising that drove the Goa'uld from earth.
"I'll make the request to have the artefacts moved to my storage room in Sunnydale, that way we can go through the artefacts personally." Giles smiled at the grateful look Daniel was sending him.
"I think you broke him Giles." Willow said with a grin.
Jenny just smiled at their antics, turning round she checked the rooms near her with her x-ray vision, making sure they were alone.
"You ok?" Sam asked, noting the faraway look on her face.
"Yeah, sorry, just checking the rooms were clear." Jenny explained.
"How?" Sam asked, curious as to the extent of this woman's power, she'd seen her bend rifles and them compress them into a ball, but aside from the strength and flight, she hadn't seen much else.
"X-ray vision, don't ask me how it works because I don't know, Xander would probably be able to tell you though." Jenny explained. "Hold on, I see the engine room, two floors down."
"Can you make it on your own?" Sam asked, seeing how she took a staff blast to the chest without it even tearing her uniform, she was willing to bet that she would be the best one to send out alone for a task.
"Yeah, just place the C4 and get gone right?" Jenny asked as she took Sam's backpack off her and strapped it to her own back.
"Yes, just put in on remote detonator by flicking the switch on the side of the detonator, try and spread them out through the room as much as you can ok?" Sam explained as she watched Jenny fasten the straps tightly across her shoulders.
"Got it, anything else you want while I'm down there?" Jenny asked with a smirk before disappearing in a blue and red blur down the corridor.
"Computer room should be just ahead." Sam just smiled at the two historians and shook her head as she tried to figure out how Jenny had done what she just did.
"Great." Daniel smiled and passed round the next corner, quickly ducking back when he saw a pair of Jaffa marching towards them. "Quickly, in here." Daniel said before moving to a door on the side of the corridor and ducking inside, followed quickly by Willow, Giles then Sam.
Sam was last in, sticking the mussel of her P90 into the door as it closed, blocking it so she could watch as the Jaffa approached.
"Daniel..." Willow asked quietly as she glanced round the room.
"Yes?" Daniel replied in the same hushed tone as he stood behind Sam with his P90 at the ready in case the Jaffa were heading for this room.
"Daniel..." Willow said again, a bit more urgency in her tone.
"Yes..." he replied again spinning round to see what the problem was. "Oh..." Willow was stood next to a Goa'uld sarcophagus, the white light glowing from the edges of the closed lid indicating it was active and someone was inside.
"I'd hazard a guess that isn't good." Giles said as he leant over to take a better look at the hieroglyphs on the top.
"It's a sarcophagus, the Goa'uld use it to heal themselves, even bring people back from the dead." Daniel whispered to Giles and Willow as he walked round the gold room, looking for any indication as to who might be inside.
"So there's someone inside this thing?" Willow asked, going a bit white at the prospect of being locked inside it.
"Apophis himself." Daniel whispered, anger colouring his voice.
"The Jaffa have stopped outside, they look to be waiting for something." Sam explained, pulling her P90 out of the door as she stepped back to take a look round the room for another exit.
"So we're locked inside a room, with guards on the outside and the head bag guy in here with us?" Willow asked as she went several shades whiter.
"I'm afraid it looks that way." Giles said as he checked the ammo clip on his pistol and chambered a round.
Willow whimpered slightly, causing Sam to look at her concerned.
"I don't suppose we could use him as a hostage to get out of here?" Giles offered.
"He's likely got a personal shield along with a hand device, easily a match for the weapons we have here." Sam explained as she looked round the room, hunting for another way out. It seemed the door they came in, which was now guarded by a contingent of Jaffa, was the only way in or out of here.
"This just keeps getting better." Willow said softly.
"O'Neill, come in." Carter said into her radio.
"What the..." O'Neill exclaimed as the door opened and he saw Buffy and Faith stood over a pile of slumped Jaffa.
"They came from over there..." Buffy said by way of explanation, nodding to a door on the far side of the glider bay.
"Let me get this straight, you two took out a first prime along with six..." O'Neill paused, doing a quick recount. "Make that eight Jaffa?"
"Uhuh." Faith grinned as she span a staff weapon round in her hand, grimacing as it scraped across the floor with a screech. "Do these things come any smaller? Cause they would be wicked at taking out vamps." Faith grinned as O'Neill grimaced at the thought and Teal'c just raised an eyebrow at the thought.
"O'Neill, Come in." Sam's voice came over the radio, interrupting whatever O'Neill was about to say.
"Receiving Carter." O'Neill said into the radio, watching as Faith and Buffy started field stripping the Jaffa and taking all the weapons they could find.
"We've got a slight problem here sir; we're trapped in a room with an active sarcophagus and a contingent of Jaffa outside the room." Sam reported over the radio causing O'Neill to raise his eyebrow, it was normally him that got into these situations, not his second in command.
"Any other way out?" O'Neill asked hopefully, now regretting the way he had split up the teams. He'd done it directly thinking that his team would take on the most combat while the 'geek squad', as he had labelled it in his head, would take on the computers and engines.
"No sir, just the one door." Sam reported with a sigh.
"Any idea who's inside?" O'Neill asked, not really wanting to hear the reply as he knew the first prime was lying on the floor unconscious at his feet.
"Apophis." Came the one word back over the radio.
"Damnit!" O'Neill yelled, shocking both of the slayers and causing Oz to raise his eyebrow, looking very much like a smaller, skinnier version of Teal'c.
"Stay where you are and find somewhere to hide if it opens, we'll be there as soon as we can, O'Neill out." Clicking the radio back to silent he fastened it back onto his pants before turning back to the slayers.
"Pretty." Buffy said, picking up a small dagger from the body of the first prime.
"Ohhh, is there another?" Faith asked, hunting round for any other blades.
"Just the one, sorry." Buffy said with a grin, twirling the blade in her hand.
"We've got to go, the geek's are in trouble." O'Neill said, shocking Buffy and Faith out of their search. "Set the C4 on radio instead of timer like this," He pulled out a block of C4 from his pack and showed the girls quickly before attaching it to the nearest Glider engine. "Got it?"
"Got it." Faith and Buffy said as Oz just nodded.
"Try and space them out." O'Neill said as he handed the C4 round and watched as Buffy and Faith ran down separate gantries' at speeds that would probably throw his knees and hip out of joint. "How do they do that?" he asked, glancing to Oz with a grin.
"Slayers." Was Oz's one word reply as he set off down the middle gantry.
"Slayers... right..." O'Neill smiled; he still wasn't used to dealing with kids who could fight well enough to take down a first prime and eight more Jaffa on their own. They'd be hell on wheels if they actually had some military training. He grinned as the thought of Buffy and Faith in air force uniforms flashed across his imagination, and then putting them through basic... nah, it's never work... but it would be fun to watch he admitted.
Teal'c just started retrieving C4 from his own backpack and walking round the edge of the glider bay, placing the C4 strategically on the wall near systems he knew were vital. It took them about five minutes to cover the entire bay, but by the end O'Neill was happy that when they blew, it would be a hell of an explosion.
"Right, let's go and rescue the geeks." O'Neill said with a grin, smiling as Buffy grabbed a staff weapon and held it next to her, even though it towered over her by several feet.
"Ok, we just need to hang tight; O'Neill's group will be here soon to help us get out of here." Sam explained to the group who were all looking at the sarcophagus cautiously.
"Who's Apophis then?" Willow asked Daniel, she'd heard the anger when he said that name before.
"He took my wife, put a Goa'uld inside her." Daniel said, keeping his voice as low and emotionless as possible even though he wanted nothing more than to open the sarcophagus and unload his P90 into Apophis' chest.
"Is she..." Willow let the question trail off, not wanting to actually voice her thoughts.
"She's dead. Teal'c killed her to save my life." Daniel admitted, finally having overcome the fact that one of his best friends had killed his wife.
"Oh goddess, I'm sorry." Willow said, horrified that such a thing would have happened.
"Thank you." Daniel let a small smile grace his features before a click came from the sarcophagus, startling them all and causing them to watch as the light went out from inside.
"That isn't good right?" Willow asked as Sam and Daniel readied their P90's ready for the sarcophagus to open.
"Get behind us." Daniel whispered to Willow and Giles, who promptly moved behind him and Sam.
With another soft click the sarcophagus opened, the lid of it splitting in two down the middle and sliding to each side. Willow and Giles just backed up so they were against the far wall, staying as far as they could away from the being inside. As Apophis rose, Sam took her chance and fired on him as he was rising to an upright position, the bullets impacted harmlessly against a shimmering golden shield a few inches from his body. There was a smirk on Apophis' face as he turned to face the four humans.
"Jaffa, Kree." Apophis yelled, his voice inhuman and distorted. The doors opened and the Jaffa entered to surround the group.
"Nope, not good." Willow said softly, looking wide eyed at the smirking alien as his eyes flashed white. "Not good at all."
"The sarcophagus room should be just ahead O'Neill." Teal'c said as the team ran though the corridor as fast as they could, Buffy and Faith pulled ahead every so often but paused at every corridor to make sure it was safe for the rest of them.
"Just here, on the right." O'Neill shouted so that Buffy and Faith could have their fun with any Jaffa that were waiting, he watched, half amused and half horrified as Buffy and Faith immediately ran into the open door where Apophis and his contingent of Jaffa were waiting.
He ran as fast he could, watching as Teal'c and Oz pulled away from him at speeds he could only match in his youth. Oz ignited his lightsaber mid stride as he turned the corner into the room where Buffy and Faith had just run.
"Huh," Was the only word that came from the room as O'Neill approached it. "Didn't expect that."
"What?" O'Neill said as he finally turned the corner a few steps behind Teal'c, P90 at the ready and expecting to walk into a clusterfuck.
"Um, are you sure we got the right room?" Faith asked, motioning to the empty room.
"He was here." Teal'c said, nodding to the empty sarcophagus in the center of the room.
"So were they." O'Neill commented as he walked over to the sarcophagus and picked up a flattened round from a P90. "No blood though, must have had his shield up."
"So where are they?" Buffy asked with a hint of panic in her voice.
"Apophis would have taken them for questioning. He will be curious about RupertGiles and WillowRosenberg as he has not encountered them before." Teal'c informed the group.
"So? Where did he take them?" Faith asked impatiently.
"He would have taken them to the control room where he could question them in front of the Jaffa to show his superiority over them." Teal'c said in a matter of fact tone.
"Will he hurt them?" Oz demanded, his cool facade dropping for a moment.
"He will." Teal'c said.
"Right, let's go and show this snake not to mess with the scoobies." Faith said as a predatory grin slipped across her face.
O'Neill just groaned, this meant they were heading right into the lion's den, grimacing at the thought he pulled his hand down his face slowly.
"Hey, which way to the control room?" Faith asked, pausing at the door.
"Where is the Shol'va Teal'c?" Apophis demanded again before backhanding Sam across the face.
Sam just took it, spitting out some blood before looking up at Apophis defiantly.
"Maybe you do not care about your own pain, what about the pain of others." Apophis stated, his unearthly voice reverberating through the room and causing Willow to shiver slightly.
Sam could only watch as Apophis raised his hand with a hand device strapped to it in front of Willow's face, she'd seen what it did to people, she'd experienced the pain of it herself, there was no way a sixteen year old girl should have to be put through that. She almost breathed a sigh of relief when he passed over Willow and raised his hand in front of Giles face.
"You will tell me of the new weapon the Tau'ree possess." Apophis demanded.
"I don't know what you're talking..." Giles was cut off as Apophis let loose a stream on energy into his forehead from the hand device, causing him to scream in agony.
"He doesn't know anything!" Willow screamed as she watched Giles writhe about in pain.
"Be silent in front of your God!" Apophis spat at her as he stopped the torture and let Giles slip into unconsciousness.
"You're not a God..." A voice came from behind Apophis causing him to spin round in anger. "Hell, you barely even rate as a man."
"Who dares?" Apophis shouted in anger as he raised his hand device to throw a wave to energy at the intruder.
"You know, I was going to just watch and let my friends handle this themselves, but you're too big of an asshole not to take out myself." Xander grinned at the furious look on Apophis' face as he walked across the room, emerald flames licking around his body and power shining from his eyes. "When you raised that thing to Willow I was tempted to take it away from you then, including the hand it's on."
"Jaffa, Kree!" Apophis shouted, causing all the Jaffa in the command room to fire their staff weapons at Xander.
Willow winced slightly as the bolts of energy impacted into Xander's form, exploding as they hit his body and covering the area in smoke.
"Kree." Apophis said with a smirk as he looked on at the cloud of smoke where Xander was standing.
"Can we get some ventilation in here please? This can't be good for my lungs." Xander said with an exaggerated cough as he walked out from the thick cloud of smoke and waved his hand in front of his face.
"What are you?" Apophis demanded as he watched Xander walk towards him.
"I'm the protector of Earth, that planet there." Xander said with a flourish as he pointed out the window to Earth. "I was quite happy to stand back, and let them protect themselves. I was only going to step in if you started destroying things from orbit. I was going to let you leave this solar system in peace." Xander said the last with an air of finality in his voice.
"And how are you going to stop me?" Apophis said with a sneer. "I am a God!" He roared at Xander, raising his hand up and firing a stream of energy directly at him.
Xander just stood there and let the energy wash over him like a soft breeze. He held his hands out, inspecting them for a minute before looking down at his chest with a smirk. "That's your attack?" he said with a grin, waving his hand and teleporting all of the Jaffa from the bridge back to their home worlds. "You are a snake, a parasite that likes to play at god." With a flash he destroyed the bonds holding Sam, Willow, Daniel and Giles in place.
"You have no idea what true power is." Xander waved his hand again and the rest of the ships outside disappeared.
"He can do that?" Sam whispered to Willow, her eyes wide with shock.
Willow just nodded numbly, she was just starting to realize just how powerful Xander was now.
"Let me make myself perfectly clear. You will leave this solar system and you will tell every other snake out there that earth is under my protection. The next time I see you, or any of your ships coming to earth, I will show no mercy." Xander waved his hand a third time and in a bright green flash O'Neill, Teal'c, Buffy, Faith, Oz and Jenny appeared in the room next to him.
"You have a chance to live, what do you say?" Xander turned back to Apophis, his words dripping with power, the soft tone they were said with making the threat even more palpable.
"You dare to order your God?" Apophis shouted, raising his hand again and readying to fire another energy blast in Xander's direction.
Xander didn't give him chance however, as soon as Apophis had raised his arm he had created a lightsaber construct in his own hand, as Apophis prepared to fire an energy blast at him he ignited the blade and swung it round.
As the energy blast flowed over him he swung down the blade, severing Apophis' arm at the shoulder, the plasma blade cauterising the wound instantly. "Last chance." Xander said, his tone daring Apophis to try anything else.
Everyone else was just looking on in shock, they knew Xander had a short fuse when it came to his friends and family, but to do something like this for them was unheard of.
"Xander, let him go." Jenny said, walking over to him and placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Why? He's killed hundreds, if not thousands, maybe millions of people. Anyone? Does he deserve to live?" Xander asked, looking at each of the group in turn.
"We're not assassins Xander, we don't kill like this, and even if we were, it wouldn't be you that did it." O'Neill said, placing his hand on Xander's arm gently and pushing it down slowly so the lightsaber was pointed to the floor.
"Just go." Xander said, and with a wave of his hand teleported Apophis and all the Jaffa on the ship back to Apophis home world.
"That's gross." Willow was the first one to say something after a short awkward silence.
"What?" Xander asked, confused at the direction the conversation had taken.
Willow just nodded to the dismembered arm on the floor, even though there was no blood from the cauterised would, it was still disconcerting to see a severed arm on the floor between them.
"Um, what are you going to do about the ship?" O'Neill asked is his most hopeful tone.
"You want it?" Xander asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Do we want it? A ship with a full complement of gliders and hyperspace drive? Hell yes we want it." O'Neill was practically shouting with joy, he'd finally got his ship. This would put a lot of minds at rest back at the pentagon.
"Giles..." Willow said, smiling as Giles started to regain consciousness.
"Is he alright?" O'Neill asked as Sam checked his vision and pulse.
"Nothing a good night's rest won't cure, I'd like to get him checked over by Janet though, just to be sure." Sam said with a smile.
"This is going to be a hell of a report." O'Neill said with a grin as he thought of Hammonds face when he told him that they had a mothership. "And we've still got to get you all to sign some paperwork about this all."
"Do we have to?" Buffy and Faith practically whined in sync.
"I'm afraid so." Daniel said sympathetically, he remembered how much paperwork he had to fill in on returning from Abydos; least of all was getting his status changed back from deceased.
"Xander, any chance you can..." O'Neill waved his fingers at him. "You know, back to the SGC? We'll leave this puppy in orbit by the moon."
"Sure." Xander said with a smile, turning round to take one last glance at the earth. "It's nice up here isn't it?"
"Sure is son, sure is." O'Neill smiled, putting arm round his sons shoulder and thanking whatever god's were listening that they had found each other, and were working for the same cause, just on different fronts.
"Is Giles going to be ok?" Buffy asked as she sat down at the briefing room table with the rest of the Scooby gang.
"He'll be fine; Janet is just keeping him in for observation to make sure the hand device didn't screw up anything vital." O'Neill explained, having spent a lot of time in the infirmary himself he could explain the doctor's procedures better than most of the nurses on staff.
"Cool." Faith said with a smile, she'd come to think of Giles as an almost father figure now, the way he treated her and Xander was like a father should, like Jack treated Xander.
"I'm sorry it got that far up there guys, I should have stepped in sooner but I..." Xander trailed off, not sure how to put what he was feeling into words.
"Hey we're all alright; we made it and got these guys a cool spaceship out of it. Looks like a win win situation to me." Faith smiled, she knew how hard it was for Xander to step in like that, he'd always been so sure about not overusing his powers and letting people handle their own problems.
"I just didn't want to see you guys get hurt." Xander explained.
"I know, and thank you." Daniel said, his eyes showing the gratitude that couldn't be said.
"I don't want to step in and start solving everyone's problems, but on the other side I don't want to see anyone get hurt because of what I didn't do." Xander tried to explain his predicament again.
"It sounds like you've got a lot of thinking to do son." General Hammond smiled at Xander, he'd caused so much paperwork and hassle at the SGC, but had also saved the entire planet and given them a mothership on a silver platter.
"What should I do?" Xander asked, facing General Hammond directly.
"I can't tell you that, I don't see the world as you do." Hammond tried to imagine what everything must look like to the young boy sitting at the table in combats and t-shirt; it was a far cry from how he looked when he was wearing his uniform.
"Would you like to?" Xander asked, an idea forming in his head.
"What?" Hammond asked, unsure of what the young man was offering here.
"Would you like to see the world, as I do, just for a minute or two?" Xander repeated the offer.
"To help you make this decision?" Hammond clarified, smiling when Xander nodded at him. "Why not."
As soon as the words had left Hammonds lips a green flash engulfed them both and they were gone.
"Where did he take him?" O'Neill asked, curious to find out what Xander was actually going to show Hammond.
"Knowing Xander, anywhere." Faith said with a grin.
"Is that...?" Hammond couldn't even find the words to explain what he was feeling or seeing. He knew he was safe, he could feel something solid under his feet, even though when he looked down there was nothing but open space and stars glittering in the distance.
"That's us." Xander smiled.
"Our entire..." Hammond could barely speak; the sheer size of what he was seeing dwarfed anything he had ever seen before.
"Our galaxy. We're a few million light years away from it now, watching it spin." Xander smiled, pointing over to the distance. "There's Andromeda and over there in the distance is Pegasus, but this one, this one's all ours."
Hammond just stood; slack jawed at what he was being shown. The galaxy had always been such a huge place for him, with thousands, if not millions of stargate's to explore, but this... this was amazing.
"The galaxy doesn't seem like such a large place anymore does it?" Xander smiled, quickly creating a green bench for them to sit on.
"It's so small." General Hammond finally said, ignoring how stupid he must sound.
"It is, I can go out further if you like, show you how many galaxies there really are out there." Xander smiled as Hammond shook his head quickly.
"I'm fine just here." Hammond said, sitting down and starting to come more at ease with the situation.
"I see it every day like this, every minute of every day. I can glance up and tell you how many stars there are in the sky, or look down and tell you how many atoms are dancing on your fingernail. It's all the same to me." Xander let that sink in before finishing. "I look up and I see the Goa'uld attacking everyone, I see war's being fought on other worlds, destroying entire continents, but I don't know what to do. Should I step in and stop them? Or let them make their own way?"
"You could stop them? Stop a world war?" Hammond asked, now starting to get his head around what sort of power the young man was dealing with here.
"Easily, or I could use this..." Xander paused for a second; holding out his hand as a green flash appeared in it and a small green ring appeared. "This ring, this small piece of jewellery is the most powerful weapon ever conceived. It can shatter atoms with a thought, or propel you into hyperspace to travel between planets at your whim. All it needs is to be charged, something I can do with a thought."
Hammond didn't know what to say, a small ring, something so innocuous could be so deadly.
"Would that be right? To bring about the Green Lanterns to this galaxy?" Xander asked, now seriously contemplating the thought as he slipped the ring onto his finger.
"How many? One? A hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand patrolling the galaxy, keeping worlds safe from the Goa'uld?" Xander asked, almost demanded to know the answer.
"One ring could defeat the Goa'uld?" Hammond asked, now quite afraid of the ring that was perched on the young man's finger.
"Easily, and it's a decimal of a fraction of a percentage compared to the power I posses. So, what would you have me do?" Xander asked, now curious as to what General Hammond thought, now that he knew everything and had seen how he saw the galaxy.
"I don't know." General Hammond admitted finally.
"And here we are, back where we started." Xander said with a grin. "I want to help, I want to keep the earth safe, but where does it stop? One planet or ten planets? One solar system or one galaxy? Where do I draw the line?"
"You know, my father always said; don't worry about what you can't do. Just worry about the things you do do." Hammond said with a smile. "Start with one, one planet, one ring and work from there."
"It could work?" Xander said hopefully.
"It might, but if it doesn't you can always fix it." Hammond smiled at the way Xander laughed at that.
"I can at that." Xander grinned and took of the ring, holding it for a second he felt the power flash through him before charging the ring to full capacity.
"Can we go back now? I'm getting dizzy just watching it swirl round like that." Hammond asked, his voice full of good natured humour.
"Sure, thanks." Xander smiled softly at the man who had helped his father through so much, and had now helped him make the most difficult decision he had ever had to make.
In a flash of green light they were gone, leaving nothing behind to show their presence in the space between galaxies.
"Wondered how long you two would be." O'Neill smiled as the green flash appeared in the room signalling that Xander and the general were back.
"General Hammond Sir, are you alright?" Sam asked, glancing at the generals wide eyed look with concern. "What did you show him?"
"I'm sure he'll tell you, when he's ready." Xander said with a grin. "Faith, Buffy, I want you two to have these, but don't put them on yet."
Keeping the original ring held tightly in his left hand, he copied the entire ring and made two copies, perfect down to the atomic detail on the top. Scanning them quickly he was satisfied with his work and held them out for Buffy and Faith to take.
"But isn't this..." Faith reached up only to find the ring around her neck was gone. "What happened to it?"
"It was part of what I wanted to ask the general about." Xander answered, smiling as Faith held it in her hand softly.
"But... Willow... she told me what these things can do." Buffy said, almost afraid of the ring she was being offered.
"Buffy, this isn't going to make things easier. I won't lie to you, I'm asking you to help defend earth, not just from the supernatural, but from everything now." Xander explained with a reassuring smile.
"It can do everything Willow said it can do?" Buffy asked wide eyed.
"And more." Xander said, smiling when she finally accepted the ring and closed her hand around it. "I want you guys to have this as well..." Closing his eyes he concentrated for a second before a bright green flash appeared on the desk before subsiding and leaving a bright green phone there, pretty much the same as the red one on the other side of the desk, but this one didn't have any buttons on it.
"This will contact you?" Hammond guessed, smiling when Xander nodded.
"It will contact me, or if I'm not around Buffy or Faith, whichever's nearest." Xander explained. "That was I'll always know you can get hold of us if you need us."
"That's a weight of my mind." Hammond said with a smile, holding out his hand to shake Xander's firmly. "Thank you." He said, looking directly into Xander's eyes to show how much what he had seen meant to him.
"Just call us if you need us." Xander said with a grin.
"The same goes for you guys, you really helped us out there, if you ever need anything just call." O'Neill said with a grin, slapping Xander on the shoulder.
"Seconded." Daniel said.
"Same here." Sam agreed.
"Indeed." Teal'c said with a glint in his eye.
"I guess we'd better be off then, don't want to leave Sunnydale unprotected for too long, never know what's happening there." Xander grinned; he'd been keeping an eye on Sunnydale the entire time, nothing but a few fledglings that he had dusted quickly.
"What about Mr Giles?" Daniel asked.
"Call us when he's fine to go, I'll come and get him." Xander said with a smile. "Well, until next time." With a wave from everyone the group disappeared in a flash of green light.
"You're son is quite the extraordinary man." Hammond said to O'Neill as he sat down in his chair again.
"He is at that." O'Neill agreed with a smile. "So, what did he show you?"
Hammond just laughed softly before answering with two words. "Another viewpoint."
AN: wow... that was a long chapter to write...
Hope everyone's still enjoying this as much as I am :D
M
