"Oh come on," Buffy grimaced as the emerald shield around them shook under another heavy barrage of staff weapon fire. Every entrance they'd come too had been heavily guarded so far; so they'd landed and tried to sneak in, only to be cornered by a heavily armed group of Jaffa. "Faith, how you holding up?" She shouted to be heard over the constant explosions of the energy blasts against her shield that was hovering about seven feet away from her between the Jaffa and herself.
"Not good, B!" Faith shouted back, she likewise had a shield up in front of her; but hers was more of a brick wall that was being slowly eroded by the constant staff weapon fire. Teal'c was beside her, swinging his staff round his body and firing off clean shots at the enemy whenever he could. "We need to get in there!" She shouted, nodding at the cave entrance behind the Jaffa.
"Bit busy trying not to get killed here!" Buffy shouted back, grimacing as an energy bolt from one of the staff weapons flew overhead.
"We need to fight back." Teal'c said calmly, his booming voice easily carrying over the noise of the attack.
"Tell me about it." Faith muttered back, her voice muffled by the constant attack. "What do you need?"
"Grenades." Teal'c's voice gave the answer as Faith's wall finally collapsed under the strain and multiple energy bolts started to rain down on their position as both Faith and Teal'c ran for the tree line for cover.
"Break it off B," Faith shouted as she saw Buffy's face contorted with concentration, her free hand gripping her other wrist as she tried to pour as much willpower as she could into the ring to keep her shield up. "Get to cover!" She concentrated for a minute as a replica of Teal'c's staff weapon shimmered into her hands.
"Now!" She shouted as she started firing in tandem with Teal'c, providing cover for Buffy as she ducked and weaved between the explosions from the energy blasts hitting the ground and impacting trees as she finally made it to the tree line.
"Grenades." Teal'c said again, dropping his staff as Buffy caught up to them, her eyes closed for a second as she concentrated again and a grenade belt appeared in Teal'c's hands. He quickly pulled one free, pulling the pin and throwing it towards the oncoming Jaffa, the three quickly ducked before the explosion threw dirt and rocks into the air, the screams of Jaffa echoed through the tree line as Teal'c threw more grenades into the oncoming enemy.
"There!" Faith shouted, instinct taking over for a second as a green knife appeared in her hands seconds before she threw it towards a Jaffa that was trying to sneak around to attack them from the rear. The knife found its target true and embedded itself in the Jaffa's chest before shimmering out of view as the Jaffa slumped to the ground.
"There will be more," Teal'c announced as he stepped out from the tree line, confident that he had eliminated the threat for the moment. "We should leave this area quickly."
"With ya there Teal'c." Buffy nodded, sweat was dripping from her brow as she allowed herself to relax for a moment, the forgotten grenade belt shimmering out of existence in Teal'c's hand. "Is it just me or..." Buffy started to ask.
"It's getting harder to use the rings." Faith finished off, knowing exactly what Buffy was thinking, she could feel it as she poured her willpower into the ring, it was getting harder and harder to make her thoughts manifest, it was even harder in combat to actually think about defence and attack at the same time. "I killed him." She stated in a low voice, her eyes staring at the dead Jaffa on the ground in the clearing.
"He would have done the same to you. Now, quickly," Teal'c broke up the thoughts. "We haven't much time before another patrol arrives."
"Wish Xander was here." Faith muttered as she jogged after Teal'c, sparing one last glance behind her at the dead body, the sight of it burning into her mind as Buffy following close behind her.
"Me too," Buffy muttered as they entered the cave.
--=/^\=--"Hold up," O'Neill whispered as they came to a corner, leaning round carefully he saw two Jaffa carrying a small shipment of weapons grade naquadah, the block itself was only the size of a DVD player but even from this distance he could see the strain it was putting on the two Jaffa's arm muscles. "It takes two of them to carry that?" He whispered as Carter looked around the corner to see what he was talking about.
"Weapons grade naquadah is extremely dense sir," Carter explained. "Do you know how many naquadah generators a block that like could power?"
"Uh, no." O'Neill muttered with a shrug, watching the two Jaffa move out of view.
"A lot." Carter said, not bothering to calculate the exact numbers for him.
"I'll get it." Daniel offered.
"Sweet," O'Neill grinned. "We'll plant the C4, back here in, what, five minutes?"
"That should give us plenty of time," Carter agreed as Daniel nodded and disappeared in a blur of movement.
"That's just cool." O'Neill grinned before he took off in the same fashion, followed by Carter as the moved round the corridors of the Goa'uld ship towards the main coolant system.
"Whoah," Carter muttered as they came to a stop, her head was a bit cloudy now and she was finding it hard to concentrate, the blur of the surrounding walls as she moved so fast wasn't helping much either. "Is it hot in here?" She asked as O'Neill came to a stop beside her.
"Little bit, you alright?" He asked, looking around to check there were no Jaffa patrols in the area.
"I'll be alright," Carter said, taking her cap off and wiping her forehead. "The force shield should be somewhere around here." She muttered, walking off slowly down a corridor, her arms stretched out in front of her to feel where the force shield would be so she didn't walk straight into it.
"I'm worried about Xander." O'Neill said, seemingly out of the blue as he walked up next to Carter. "He's too young, he shouldn't be doing all... well, what he's doing."
Carter paused, actually trying to clear her head and think about what Colonel O'Neill was saying. "I don't think he's going to stop sir, he's more like you than you realize."
"What's that supposed to mean?" O'Neill asked, confused at the direction the conversation had taken.
"Well, he has the power to help people, if you were in his shoes and someone told you you were too young to fight, would you stop?" Carter posed the question, watching for a moment as O'Neill thought it over.
"Guess not." O'Neill muttered. "It's just... he should be in high school, having fun, not worrying about aliens and demons and all that."
"It's his life sir." Carter pointed out, jumping back as her hand found the force shield as it flickered across the hallway with an eerie blue glow. "Found it."
"Right, heads up." O'Neill grinned as he took a few steps back and then blurred through the shield as fast as he could. "Glad that worked." He muttered as he came to a stop on the other side, turning round he nodded to Carter who joined him with a blur of speed. "Whoa!" He gasped, looking up at the immense cooling structure that seemed to go up as far as the eye could see, carrying large pipes and a soft pool of blue liquid ripped under the walkway they were currently stood on. "They don't do anything small, do they?"
"This chamber supplies coolant to the entire ship sir, once we blow this, we have maybe ten minutes before the entire ship goes." Carter explained, pulling several C4 charges out of her backpack.
"Set the charges, five minutes." O'Neill said, pulling three C4 charges out of his own pack.
"That gives us fifteen minutes to get back to the gate." Carter said with a nod as she set the timers.
"Whatever," O'Neill muttered, taking off with a blur to plant the charges around what looked to be vital systems and pipes.
--=/^\=--"This way." Teal'c said as he led Buffy and Faith through the winding golden corridors of the Goa'uld ship.
"Not loving the decor," Buffy muttered, glancing at the heavy gold inlay on the walls surround them.
"Just screams tacky, evil overlord." Faith grinned as they ducked round a corridor to keep out of sight as a Jaffa patrol passed by a corridor ahead of them, their heavy boots signifying their presence long before they were in view. "Guess the alien's don't have Jimmy Choo's." Faith grinned as Buffy stifled a giggle, while Teal'c just looked on at the two stoically.
"We should head this way," Teal'c said, nodding down a corridor to his left. "It will most likely lead us to the main coolant chamber where we will find Colonel O'Neill and the others."
"Right behind ya, T." Faith said with a nod as Teal'c moved off down the corridor quietly.
"You alright?" Buffy whispered to Faith as they both moved through the corridors as quietly as they could, both of them keeping their eyes sharp for any alien activity.
"It's just..." Faith faltered as she tried to put her feelings into words. "I killed that man."
"He would not have hesitated to kill you." Teal'c said, announcing the fact that his hearing was better than most peoples, if not on slayer levels. "You did the right thing, take comfort in that Slayer Faith."
"Doesn't really help T." Faith muttered with a shrug as they passed round another corner where two Jaffa were lying on the floor unconscious. "What gives?" Faith asked as she crouched down to see in the two aliens were dead or alive.
"I am unsure," Teal'c answered as he looked at the unconscious Jaffa before looking around the area in case there were any clues as to what happened here. "I believe we are on the right level however, as it is more than likely that Colonel O'Neill and the rest of the team are responsible for this situation."
"Yeah," Buffy agreed as she stared down at the aliens, they didn't look that different from humans now that she had a chance to look at them up close when she wasn't fighting for her life. "They can't be far then."
"Indeed." Teal'c agreed as he motioned for them to carry on through the corridors.
--=/^\=--Xander frowned to himself as he walked through the park, he knew where he was going but his mind was racing at a hundred miles an hour with thoughts of what he was going to say, how he was going to do this properly. He couldn't just show up and blurt everything out of the blue, that was just asking for trouble. It had to be done subtly and in a way that wouldn't get him or Jack into trouble.
After spending some time on the outskirts of the solar system he realised that he needed to do this, taking his frustrations out on some harmless asteroids helped for a while but it just brought his real feelings to the surface. Ever since he had had a proper talk with Jack about what happened and why he had ended up in Sunnydale with his 'parents' he had wondered about this.
Of course Jack wouldn't understand, well he would, but he would insist on being there and that would just make everything even more uncomfortable for everyone involved, especially as this needed to be done delicately. Given that he wasn't the most delicate of people when it came to the social niceties, something he had definitely inherited from Jack, he thought it best if he did this alone, that way he couldn't blame anyone else if he screwed this up.
He took a final deep breath as he walked up the gravel path to the old house, admiring the well tended gardens for a second before he realized he was just putting off the inevitable and forced himself to take the final few steps towards the front door before rapping his knuckles on it loudly.
As he heard someone walking towards the door from inside the building he frowned, thinking about what he was wearing, jeans and t-shirt. Was this sort of thing acceptable for the meeting that was about to happen he wondered, should he have worn a suit or brought a gift. He vaguely toyed with the idea of just running, or teleporting out so that he could just do it another time, sometime when he was more prepared, some time when he was more ready for what was about to happen.
As the door opened his breath caught in his throat as the woman pulled it aside to look at him. She was a bit shorter than he was, with short blonde hair and dark hazel eyes. "Can I help you?" She asked with a smile.
"Um, yeah, Sara O'Neill?" He asked hesitantly, hoping to get this right. He knew who she was of course, a quick scan with his powers certified the fact.
"Yes," She stated wearily. "What can I do for you?"
"Sorry," He grinned bashfully. "Xander, I know this might be a bit weird..." He started with a grin as he introduced himself.
"Alexander?" She asked breathlessly as she looked at him, her quiet affirmation catching him off guard as he just looked at her and nodded. "How... but..."
"It's complicated." He smiled at her as he thrust his hands into his pockets and shrugged. "I just... I don't know, wanted to talk or something..." He trailed off as he saw her looking him up and down, almost appraising him.
"Jack..." She started before rubbing her face with her hands and shaking her head. "Does... does Jack know you're here? Does he know?"
Xander shook his head slowly. "No, he's not the most subtle person, besides; I wanted to do this myself."
"But he... he knows?" She asked, still holding onto the door where Xander could see her hand gripping it so tightly her knuckles were turning white.
"He knows," Xander nodded slowly. "I just... look, I don't know, I just wanted to talk... this was a mistake... I'm sorry." He shook his head softly, damning himself for doing this so quickly without thinking it through first. As he turned to walk back down the path he felt a hand on his shoulder, holding him softly in place as Sara came out of the house and stood on the step behind him.
"Don't go..." she said softly as he turned round to look at her. She had the same hazel eyes as he did, a soft chocolate brown. "How... how long?"
"It took years," Xander said quickly as he tried to think up ways to get around this. He knew what she was asking, how long it had taken him to find her and Jack, but he couldn't tell her how he really did it. She'd never understand it only took him a few minutes to track down a genetic match using his powers.
"I can imagine, Jack isn't the easiest person to find if he doesn't want to be..." She trailed off, obviously painful memories coming to the surface. "Did he... did he tell you about Charlie?" She almost choked on the words; it had been over eighteen years now but the pain of losing her first son hadn't lessened.
"He told me," Xander said softly. "I'm sorry."
She nodded slowly before pulling Xander into a tight hug and finally letting the tears come as he held on to her only son, the son that Jack had convinced her to give up, the son that had finally made his own way back to her. "Why... why did you come?" She asked, pulling away from him and wiping her eyes dry, not wanting to ruin this first moment with her son with tears.
"I... I don't know," Xander answered honestly, he didn't to be honest. He just felt like this was something he had to do, having Jack back as his father was great, but there was still something missing. He knew Jack and Sara were divorced, Jack had told him that much, but there was still so much to be said and he just wanted to be here, just to talk to Sara.
"Do... do you want a drink or anything?" She asked, stepping back and motioning hesitantly for him to follow her inside the house.
"That'd be nice," He smiled at her before following her through and closing the front door behind him.
--=/^\=--"Daniel?" Buffy said breathlessly as she stopped dead as she came round a corner to see a body lying on the floor, his glasses were lying a few feet from his head where he had fallen and there was a large duffle bag lying next to him.
"Doctor J?" Faith asked as she jogged over and checked his pulse. "He's alive, barely, guy's burning up!" She stated to Teal'c as she felt his forehead.
"Alien dodah's come off as well," Buffy noted as she walked over and picked up the arm band and threw it away from his body.
"We must hurry, Jaffa patrol this corridor regularly." Teal'c informed them as he handed his staff to Buffy and scooped Daniel up in his arms, carrying the smaller man easily as the two slayers watched.
"Take him back to the 'gate, we'll get the rest of them." Buffy said firmly as Teal'c looked at her for a moment before nodding while Faith reached down and pocketed Daniel's glasses from where they had fallen.
"I'll bring it back T," Faith grinned as she hefted the staff and tested its weight. "What's in the bag?" She asked as she watched Teal'c move silently away from them back towards the exit.
"Dunno," Buffy shrugged, picking up the bag and testing it for weight. "Guess it's important to Daniel though," Throwing the bag over her shoulder she quickly adjusted the straps to tighten around her smaller frame before looking at the T-junction ahead of them. "Left or right?" She asked as they both walked slowly down the corridor.
"Left!" They both said at the same time as they turned to hear what sounded like a sci-fi ray gun going off further away from them. They both shared a grin, smiling at each other's uniforms as their rings both glowed reflecting their anticipation of the coming battle. The grin still held on their faces as they jogged down the corridor towards the sound of fighting where they could now hear gun fire along with the strange alien sounded weapons.
--=/^\=--"Wh... what do... do you wa... want?" The bank clerk stuttered out in fear as he watched the man stalk towards him.
"Oh, a bit of this, a bit of that," The man in the mask smirked, his English accent making his voice even more threatening than the tone that was dripping with malice. "And chaos, and fear," He grinned, baring his teeth as he brought his fist up to show the ring that was perched on his middle finger. "We can't forget chaos!" He shouted as the ring burst into life, golden creatures and demons shimmering out of nowhere around the bank clerk as the customers screamed and started running for the doors.
"Do... don't hurt me..." The clerk stammered out as he watched the man stalk towards him.
The man didn't reply however, he just bared his teeth in a fearsome grin as he continued to walk through the crowd. He got right up in the clerks face before responding with a smirk as he placed his hand on the clerks shoulder. "Are you afraid of a little chaos?" He whispered in the man's ear before pushing him back against the wall and holding his fist out towards the clerk.
The last thing the clerk ever saw was a bright golden flash as the wall crumbled around him and creatures from his nightmares started crawling out of the rubble.
