"So..." Sara started in a vain attempt to start a conversation. "How's school?" She asked, trying to broach on a subject that she knew would be safe ground for a little while at least before the awkward questions started.
"Alright," Xander smiled as he relaxed on the cream leather sofa with a can of soda in his hand. So far the meeting had gone alright, a few uncomfortable silences were to be expected but he knew Sara must have just as many questions for him as he did for her. "I'm doing well in art," He grinned. "I might have a shot at an internship in New York next year sometime."
"Wow," Sara smiled over at him. "I did some painting when I was younger, nothing amazing though."
"I mainly do fantasy work, you know, zombies, vampires, aliens, the usual." He smirked at Sara laughed at his subject choice.
"A nice escape from reality then?" She smiled at him as she took a sip of her own soda.
"Just a bit," He shook his head in amusement, if only she knew. "What about you then? Jack never told me what you did or anything."
"I teach," She smiled at him. "Just at the local school, Math and English."
"Huh, the two subjects I really don't get on with," Xander muttered, his brain running through conversation choices to head towards after the talk with school was over, anything safe and normal was a good bet.
"I enjoy it, we can't all have jobs in the Air Force looking at Deep Space Radar Telemetry," She smiled as Xander nearly choked on his soda. "You alright?" she asked, concerned as Xander continued to splutter soda and cough.
"Yeah," Xander patted his chest lightly to clear his windpipe. "Jack told me about that, sounds a bit boring to me." He grinned as he tried to imagine Jack behind a desk doing paperwork all day, the thought alone would bore him to tears and he was reasonably sure that Jack was the same.
--=/^\=--"Duck!" Faith shouted just before she let loose with another blast of energy from the ring that impacted the floor beneath the four Jaffa that were currently making their way towards SG1.
"Hey, watch what you're doing with that thing," Jack groused as he shielded himself from the debris that was thrown up by the explosion while trying to keep the Jaffa on the other side of the room in his sights.
"Grateful aren't you," Buffy grinned over at him while concentrating through the ring to create a bubble around Sam and Jack, Sam already looked shaky on her legs and was having trouble holding her P90 for anything longer than a couple of bursts at a time, Jack just looked like he'd just finished a four day Simpsons marathon without food or sleep but he was holding up better than Sam. "Just hold on, we'll get you out of here." She waited for the inevitable argument from Jack but was surprised when he just nodded tiredly in response. "Faith, you got a plan for getting us out of here?" Buffy shouted over, turning round just in time to see Faith using her ring to create long tendrils of energy that were simply snatching the staff weapons away from the attacking Jaffa and throwing them around.
"Me?" Faith shouted back, desperately trying to keep her concentration on the constructs so they wouldn't falter. "You're the plan girl; I'm just here to hit things." She then grimaced as she saw another large group of Jaffa coming out of the corridor they had come down where they grouped together and started firing into the clearing that was now strewn with unconscious Jaffa and rubble.
"Can't go that way then," Buffy said quietly while concentrating on keeping the shield around Jack and Sam. Quickly looking around the room she was tempted to swear when she found out that was the only way in and out of the large room they were in.
"Two minutes," Jack shouted at her, she turned to see him knelt down inside the bubble she had created and pressing his hands against the glowing green shield. "The C4," He took a deep breath before continuing. "It'll go up in one minute and fifty."
"Great," Buffy grumbled, turning to Faith who was still fighting with the Jaffa and keeping them away from SG1. She obviously hadn't heard but was still using the ring to create various whip like constructs to disarm the attacking aliens before throwing them back down the corridor. "Faith, we gotta go, like now!"
"Ready when you are B!" Faith shouted back as she aimed the ring at the ground in front of the Jaffa and shot out a stream of energy that blasted into the ground throwing rubble and shrapnel into the air to cover her as she quickly ran back to where Buffy was stood. "What's the plan then?"
"Up." Buffy said simply before turning to make sure Jack and Sam were still safe within the bubble. Sam was practically unconscious from exhaustion while Jack was simply slumped against the shield wall and watching them both with tired eyes.
"Works for me," Faith grinned. "I'll clear the way, you follow with them." Faith nodded to Buffy who nodded back in acceptance of the plan. Back in Sunnydale, Faith had been the better flyer of them, there was no jealousy in that strangely, Faith had just been better and flying and using the ring for other things in flight, Xander had explained it as the way her brain worked in contrast to the way Buffy's brain worked. While Faith was better at doing several things at once, Buffy was better at quick reactions and using the ring for defensive constructs, it was just the way they thought and reacted.
"Ok, let's go then." Buffy said with a soft smile and she watched Faith start flying slowly upwards, the rings telltale green glow enveloping her as she flew up through the large room.
"Straight up?" Faith shouted back down as she slowed for a moment to allow Buffy to catch up as she dragged the bubble behind her.
"Quickest way I can think of," Buffy shouted back.
"Works for me," Faith grinned back before stopping in the air for a moment and simply hovering as she aimed her ring up and let loose a blast of energy that rained down metal, crystal and other bits of the ships construction as the energy tore straight through the ceiling, creating a large hole as it continued up.
"Go Faith," Buffy whispered after whistling at the destruction that was still going on as the energy kept heading upwards, effectively burrowing through the entire ship going straight up.
"I got to get me one of those," Jack whispered from inside the bubble where he was slumped back and watching the show from safety.
Buffy just grinned as Faith flew straight through the hole, her fist still aimed up and tunnelling through the various levels of the ship as she flew upwards faster and faster. "Ask Xander," Buffy said with a grin as she concentrated on transmitting her voice from inside her shield to inside the shield holding Jack and Sam. "Santa might come early this year."
All she heard was a snort of laughter before the laughter turned into coughing and wheezing then turning slowly into laboured breathing. "You alright back there?" She asked as they passed through the hole and up into the tunnel Faith was creating.
"Peachy," Jack's grumpy voice came back. "Only a minute until the ship goes up, think those rings can handle that?"
"How big a bang we talking about?" Buffy shot back as she started moving faster up the tunnel.
"Big," Jack answered after a moment, there was a pause before he continued. "Very big."
"Great," Buffy muttered as she poured on some extra speed. "Faith, hurry it up, we've got about a minute until the ship goes up!" She shouted, confident that Faith could hear her through the rings.
"Great, any more pressure you want to add?" Faith's voice came back through the ring, as clear as if she was stood right next to her.
"Yeah," Buffy whispered back, pausing for a second to make sure she was blocking her voice from being heard inside the bubble that was following them. "Xander's dad, I think he needs to get to a hospital or something, like now."
"What... what's wrong?" Faith's voice came back with more than a hint of worry in the tone.
"I don't know," Buffy said back quietly. "I'm no doc, but it doesn't sound good."
Faith didn't respond, another explosion sounded above them and another rain of ship components signalled they were passing through another level, and another, as Faith sped up Buffy did too and soon she were moving faster and faster through the ship.
"We're not going to make it," Buffy whispered getting ready to focus all of her will on holding the shield around her and the bubble around Jack and Sam in place.
"Screw this," Faith shouted back through the ring. "Hold on!"
Buffy barely had time to react as an emerald shield came down and enveloped her before swooping round and securing the bubble behind her. "Faith, what..." Buffy tried to ask before she felt the inertia catch up with her. "What..." She screamed out, concentrating for a second and latching her shield onto the one outside to keep her secure.
"Just hold on!" Faith shouted back, forgoing the blast now she was just using her shield to punch through the levels of the ship, moving faster and faster the levels were becoming almost a blur now as she dragged Buffy and SG1 upwards. "Just hold on..." She whispered again and she closed her eyes and focused purely on speed and the shields, wrapping the torpedo like shield around with another layer, and another as she continued to drag them upwards.
A loud explosion signalled their time was up, the sound reached them barely a second before the light of the blast lit up the tunnel behind them, Buffy barely had time to glance behind them to see the torrent of fire blasting its way up behind them before they were enveloped, the blast spurring them on as the flames licked around the shield and lighting everything up.
--=/^\=--"It was nice meeting you anyway," Xander said simply as he stood in the doorway with Sara, there was a tension in the air as if they both didn't know what to say. They'd both been talking for a good hour or so, mostly mundane things like work and school, catching up on the past and talking about Jack mostly, safe subjects that Xander tried to keep to, away from anything that could lead her to finding anything about what he really did, or what Jack did.
"Definitely," Sara said with a smile, brushing away the beginnings of tears. "Will... will you come again?"
"You can bet on it," Xander grinned. He was just happy that she wanted to see him again, after growing up with Tony and Jessica as his parents he had an image of what he thought parents were like, Willow's parents were never around growing up so that just reinforced his image. Buffy and Joyce had shaken it slightly but then added to it when he found out about Buffy's dad and how he had treated them both. Now he had both Jack and Sara who were both proud of him and both wanted to see him, the thought of parents that not only wanted to see him and be with him, but actually cared about what he did and his life, that was something new, something he was definitely going to hold onto as tight as he could. "I'll be around; you've got my number so just call any time."
Sara simply nodded, holding the scrap of paper in her hand that had her son's number on it. He'd explained he was living with someone else, a Mr Giles and his girlfriend, but all she could think about was the fact that her son was alive and he wanted to see her again. That thought alone was bringing her close to tears of joy after all these years. "Do... do you need a lift or anything?"
"Nah, I'm good," Xander explained, not wanting to say anything more, he'd come this far without lying to her and wanted to keep it up, he'd been evasive about a few things, but this was something he wanted to keep as open as possible, and flat out lying to someone who cared about him, that was something he was forcing himself not to do. He'd had enough lies back in Sunnydale, lies had coloured his entire past. Now he was away from all of that, it was time to start fresh, time to start things as he meant to go on. "I'm staying with Jack for a bit so..."
"Right," Sara said solemnly, just another reminder that he had been with Jack before he had even thought about finding anymore about her.
"Just call sometime, I'll try and pop round if I'm around alright?" Xander said, sensing her discomfort over what he had said.
"Alright," Sara forced a smile on her face before embracing Xander in a tight hug. "Thank you," She whispered before letting the tears run down her cheek.
"Shh," Xander whispered back, holding her tightly before she pulled away. "I've got to go, long trip." He smiled as she nodded back. "I'll be around though," He mentally berated himself for saying the same thing over and over but wanted to reinforce the fact that he did want to see her again and would definitely be calling round again.
Sara just nodded as she watched him step out of the doorway into the sun. "I'll call you," She said with a smile as she watched him take a few steps down the path leading to her garden gate.
"I'll hold you to that," Xander grinned back as he jogged down the stone path and practically vaulted over the small wooden gate. He sent a sloppy salute back to the house as he started walking down the road and smirked as she returned it with a smile before closing the door slowly. "Just one more stop," Xander said softly as he took a calming breath before thrusting his hands into his pockets and turned down a street after looking at the signpost.
--=/^\=--"Offworld activation!" Siler shouted into the microphone as the red lights around the SGC started flashing. The gate was already spinning and locking in the chevrons to signal an inbound wormhole as General Hammond jogged down the stairs into the control room.
"SG1?" Hammond asked as he made his way quickly over to the control panel where Sgt Siler was awaiting the IDC to come through.
"No identification yet sir," Siler reported. "It could be one of the girls that went through with Teal'c though, they didn't have GDO's of their own and if they got separated from Teal'c they wouldn't have access to one."
Hammond just nodded silently at this information, procedure dictated that without a valid IDC the iris was to remain shut to prevent a foothold situation, but the thought of one of Xander's girls coming through the gate without the iris open was at the forefront of his mind now.
"Sir, receiving an IDC, its SG1" Siler reported with a smile.
"Open the gate son," Hammond said quickly with a smile as Siler pressed his hand onto the iris control panel and watched the iris retract into its casing. "It's about time," He whispered as he walked away from the control room and made his way down into the main gateroom.
"Medical staff to the gateroom!" Siler's voice echoed through the base as Hammond increased his pace to a run as he made his way into the gateroom, the thought of one of Xander's girls being injured was now spurring him on, he'd already seen Xander's temper when Anise had been scanning the girl, god knows what he would be like if one of they had been hurt or worse by the Goa'uld.
"Teal'c, what happened out there?" Hammond practically shouted has he ran into the gate room mere seconds before the emergency medical team came in from the other side. "Where are Buffy and Faith?" He continued as he watched Teal'c lift the limp body of Doctor Jackson onto the waiting medical gurney.
"We located DanielJackson in the ship, he was already unconscious," Teal'c explained stoically. "Slayer Faith and Slayer Buffy continued on to locate JackO'Neill and Colonel Carter while I returned her with DanielJackson."
"Are they alright?" Hammond asked, knowing full well the lecture he would be receiving from Jack when he returned about allowing children into a war zone.
"They were fine," Teal'c said simply. "Request permission to return to the planet to assist Slayer Faith and Slayer Buffy in retrieving SG1."
"Granted," Hammond said simply before turning to the control room. "Dial it up."
"Sir," Siler nodded back down at Hammond before dialling the address that Teal'c had just come from.
Teal'c nodded simply at General Hammond before moving to the far wall where the emergency armoury was housed in a large metal locker, opening it quickly he retrieved a staff weapon and Zan'nika'tel before returning to stand by General Hammond.
"God speed son," Hammond said simply as the sixth chevron locked in place. "Bring them home safe."
Teal'c just nodded in response as he turned to the gate and readied himself to get back in the battle.
"Chevron Seven will not lock." Siler's voice came over as the seventh chevron simply powered down instead of locking in place.
"Dial again!" Hammond shouted up where Siler was typing furiously. "Get that gate open, we've got Jack and Sam out there with two of..." He paused for a moment, remembering he wasn't in a secure area. "Ion's girls, we need that gate working."
"Working on it sir," Siler reported back as the gate started spinning again.
They all watched as the gate ran normally to the sixth chevron before simply powering down on the seventh. "Chevron seven refuses to lock sir."
"Run a diagnostic and try again," Hammond shouted back before turning to Teal'c. "Sorry son, looks like the rescue will have to wait."
Teal'c nodded silently at General Hammond before turning to the Stargate and regarding it quietly, the only reason he knew of why the gate wouldn't lock on to a known address was if the Stargate on the other side was been destroyed or was inactive for some reason. Neither of those scenarios boded well for the team that was still stuck on the other side. "I will wait here," He said simply, causing General Hammond to smile in response.
"I'll keep you appraised son," Hammond replied before he made his way back to the control room.
--=/^\=--A golden blast sent the car flying off the road and into a nearby house where it exploded in a fiery ball of destruction, sending debris all around as the man holding the yellow ring moved through the town, smirking at the destruction and chaos in his path he simply walked on, ignoring the screams of the innocent coming from within the house.
Another blast sent another car sailing into a park where it simply embedded itself in the dirt before the flames started licking around the grass where the petrol was leaking.
"Now, this is chaos!" The man shouted, sending another blast on energy into a house where it tore through the structure like a hot knife through butter. A simple golden shield protected him from the flying debris as two police cars pulled up in front of him. "Only two?" He smirked through the shield. "Why I'm almost insulted," He grinned manically as he swept his hand out in front of him in an arc, a golden construct of a dragon reared up in front of him as he watched it tear through the cars and throw the occupants around before rearing back and incinerating the black and white vehicles in a blast of fiery destruction.
"Hardly a challenge at all," He smirked before taking to the air as the dragon construct faded back into the ether. He paused in the air and laughed at the sight of the burning town beneath him, the sun rising behind him made the red glow of the fires even more impressive and he gazed down at the chaos. "Chaos, as ever, I am thy degenerate son." He whispered before breaking out in laughter and swooping down over the town before flying off to the west with constructs of demons and dragons glittering gold in the morning sun following him.
He knew exactly where he was heading, it had taken him months to recreate the spell he had used in Sunnydale, everything had to be perfect, the potion, the inscriptions, the chaos, it all had to be there to invoke Janus' blessing. At last it had worked, the costume of the character had been so hard to find, an original golden ring had been even harder but it was all his now, a ring that fed on fear, a ring that could be charged on fear and chaos alone, a golden ring to oppose the emerald god now in Sunnydale. He would tear the power out of the boy and watch as Ripper and the slayer's town would burn. He would have the power, he would become a true god of chaos, and the world would burn in fear.
His eyes reflected the manic personality of the ring; the golden sparks flew from his shield as he burned through the sky towards the west coast. His eyes glinting with gold in the morning sun as it rose behind him. The power would be his and the world would know true chaos, and the fear of the world would elevate him even further.
--=/^\=--Xander just sat there on the grass, the headstone of the grave in front of him signalled the loss he had never known. His brother, Charlie O'Neill, the grave was well kept and looked like it was visited regularly if the fresh flowers that had been laid on the headstone were any indication.
"I'm sorry," Xander said simply as he brushed a few loose leaves off of the grave, instinctively he knew he had nothing to be sorry about but he wished he had known, he wished he could do something, anything to alleviate the sense of loss he felt whenever Jack or Sara mentioned Charlie.
Graves weren't for the dead; Giles had always said that, the graves were put there for the living, so they had something to remember the dead by, so they had something to talk to. The grave was now just another constant reminder of the family that he was now only just beginning to feel part of.
He ran his finger around the O of O'Neill slowly and tried to picture what his life would have been like if he had known Charlie. "So young," He whispered as he took note of the date, barely six months before he had been born. Charlie would have been twenty five now, an older brother for him.
He shook his head as he stood up, laying his hand on the headstone once more as he bowed his head in respect. "I wish I could have known you," he said quietly as he created a permanent construct of a tulip and laid it next to the fresh flowers on the grave, it took a bit more concentration to make a construct permanent, but for something like this, it was worth it.
--=/^\=--"That was close," Faith whispered as she moved herself down next to Buffy, they were both hovering in the atmosphere now watching the explosions below on the planet, the main explosion had caught up with them through the tunnel they were flying up and forced them even faster like a Champaign cork flying out, the eventual force of the blast had sent them flying out of the atmosphere where only Faith's control of the ring had managed to keep them near the planet instead of flying off into space.
"Ya think?" Buffy grinned over at her through the green shields before she turned back to check on Jack and Sam, they were both unconscious now but seemed to be breathing alright, despite the fact that they were actually hanging in space on the edge of a planet's atmosphere.
"We made it, that's what counts." Faith shot back with a smile.
"Yeah," Buffy conceded the point as she nodded down to the fiery blasts that were still happening on the planet below. "Didn't think it would be that bigger bang though."
"Me neither," Faith said quietly as she watched an even bigger explosion happen on the continent where they had flown up from. "How long do you think until it'll be safe to go back down?"
"Dunno," Buffy said softly. "Doesn't look good."
"Well we kinda need to go back down," Faith explained. "I ain't got a clue where we are and the Stargate's our only ride back to earth."
"Right," Buffy nodded, not having thought about that before. "I'll wake the guys up, they might know what to do." She moved herself over to the bubble that was holding Jack and Sam before creating a larger bubble around the three of them before dissolving the one holding them separate. "Hey, wake up, come on." She muttered slapping Jack lightly on the face. "Need some help here guys."
"Wha... what is it?" Jack muttered as he slowly regained consciousness.
"You alright?" Buffy asked, waving her hand slowly in front of his face to make sure he was conscious and alert.
"I'm fine," He groused as he shakily got to his feet. "Carter, wake up," He knelt back down quickly and began to shake the blonde form of his 2IC softly to wake her up. "Where the hell are we?" He asked grumpily as he looked back up at Buffy.
"Same planet we found you on," Faith answered from outside the shield. "Only about two hundred miles up." She smirked as Jack went wide eyed before looking down at the planet beneath them.
"Right, flying without a plane, that's new." He muttered, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs as he tried to get a grip on the situation again. "What happened?"
"We were hoping you could tell us," Buffy said simply. "We found you guys, then the big bang happened and up here was the safest place, still is by the look of things." She nodded to the planet below where they could all see the explosions that were still going on; even from this height the blasts were visible.
"Ok, that was only C4, shouldn't have been that much of a bang." Jack explained as he shook Carter awake. "Come on Sam, we need a scientist here." He paused before turning to Buffy. "Are we safe up here?"
"Looks like it," Buffy responded with a shrug. "Don't ask me how we're breathing or anything though because I ain't got a clue."
"The shields do it," Faith butted in. "Xan said the shields create oxygen for us as well as keep the warmth in, as long at the ring is working then we're safe."
"As long as the ring is working?" Jack shot back with a raised eyebrow.
"Well we've never been this far away from Xander before," Faith explained with a shrug. "He's like a battery for the rings, the way he explained it was the rings are like light bulbs, as long as they're connected to a power supply they work, but take them away and the only have a certain amount of juice left."
"And you didn't think of this before we ended up in space?" Jack smirked back as he stood up helping Carter get to her feet shakily. "How much 'juice' have you got left then?" He asked as he lent against the shield and forced himself not to look down at the planet below.
"Um..." Faith shrugged as she looked at the ring. "Ring, what's your power level?"
"Power level at twelve percent." The ring responded causing everyone to turn at look at Faith's ring.
"Aw crap," Faith whistled. "Not good."
"What's my power level?" Buffy asked, bringing her ring up for everyone to look at.
"Power level at eighteen percent." Buffy's ring responded causing her to go wide eyed at the ring.
"Definitely not good," Jack shook his head, now they had another problem on their hands, having power like the rings gave was definitely a step up for Earth, but if the rings fell into the wrong hands or if Apophis managed to hotwire them somehow... the thought didn't even bare thinking about.
"Where are we?" Sam asked as she looked around, obviously trying to get her bearings like Jack had done.
"Outer atmosphere of Apophis' planet," Jack said with a grin. "Seems the boom was a bit bigger than we intended."
Sam's eyes went wide at this information as she looked down at the planet below. "The armbands..."
"Down there," Buffy said simply. "Want to go get them?" She smirked as Sam just shook her head silently in response.
"The explosion shouldn't have been that big, the reactor of the ship was... oh god," She paused turning to Jack. "The reactor was housed in Naquada, we should have seen that."
"For the people that don't speak science," Faith motioned for her to continue.
"Naquada is the stuff the gate's made out of, put it with a bomb and you get a bigger bang." Jack explained.
"How big?" Buffy asked, her eyes immediately going to the planet below where the explosions were still going on.
"Big," Sam explained in one word, "If the explosion was big enough, it could have hit the Stargate, if that exploded then... big."
"Right, worst case scenario, we're stuck out here without a Stargate." Jack summed it up for everyone.
"So where's the nearest planet with another Gate we can use?" Faith asked, wanting to know every escape option she had before making a plan.
"I have no idea," Sam said simply. "It could be light years away, maybe more, without a Stargate or a ship, we're stuck here."
"Great," Buffy muttered quietly as she sank down onto the floor of her shield. "Any more bad news?"
"I think that sums it up," Jack said with a grin. "So, we need a Stargate or a ship, can those rings help with that?"
Buffy just turned to look at Faith before shrugging, they only had limited power between them, and something as big as a spaceship was nothing they had ever tried before, let alone a working one that could get them back to earth.
"I wouldn't know where to start," Faith was the first one to speak, breaking the silence with her voice that spoke of defeat.
"I don't think we've got the power for a space ship, let alone a Stargate." Buffy explained. "Little things yes, a space ship? We'd need Xander for that."
"Right, that's that plan out the window then. Tell you what, let's take a closer look at the planet first, maybe the gate was just buried or something, we clean it up then head home, how does that sound?" Jack grinned when everyone nodded. "Ok campers; take us back to the planet. The sooner we get down there the less power the rings are using on the shields. Time to see what's the what." He paused as Buffy stood back up and nodded firmly at him. "Engage." He grinned over at her as she started moving the bubble back down through the atmosphere of the planet.
--=/^\=--"Sir," Siler announced his presence as he knocked on the door of General Hammond's office.
"Yes, what is it?" Hammond asked as he put down the paperwork he had been working on he was now forcing himself to do anything that would keep his mind off what could have happened on the planet with SG1, Buffy and Faith.
"We've finished the gate diagnostic run sir, everything appears to be working. As a test run we contacted the Alpha site successfully, it appears we are only unable to connect to P4X-992." Siler explained the findings quickly.
"So the Gate on the other side has been disabled somehow." Hammond mused as he tried to rack his brain for a solution to this matter. "Thank you, that will be all." He dismissed Siler before picking up the phone on his desk and dialling the third programmed number. "General Hammond for SpaceCOM." He announced as the other side picked up the phone. "We'll need that ship sooner than expected."
--=/^\=--Xander simply sat in the cemetery on a bench enjoying the sunlight, it was rare for him to have some peace and quiet like this so he was taking the time to actually mediate and think back to all the things that had changed in the past year or so. Ever since he had received these powers things had started to get better, his family, his friends, finding he could help protect the people he cared about instead of sitting on the sidelines and watching people get hurt.
Now he could actually make a difference as long as he kept in control, that was the worst thing about these powers, as the thought of Kendra kept reminding him, if he lost control, even for an instant, people he cared about could be hurt or worse. It always came down to a trade off for him, he wanted to do the right thing, to fix everything, but he had to leave room for everyone to make their own choices, to make their own mistakes, if he took the choices away from people then he was no better than any other dictator.
Giles had explained this to him many times over now, that he was now here just to keep the peace so to speak, while it was now his battle against the vampires, demons and aliens, he couldn't do it alone, he had to let humanity make its own way.
That was the bit that Giles' had said that hurt the most, he didn't show it at the time but he knew what Giles was saying was right, it was just the way he worded things now, whether it was intentional or not, he was outside of humanity now, something new, something else. Did that make him better than humanity or just a caretaker for the planet he grew up on; those were the thoughts that continually bombarded him as he tried to sleep at nights now.
The problem was that he was still trying to find his own place in the world, the vampires and demons, they were Buffy and Faith's territory, the slayers were built to handle these sort of things and using his power to dust a vampire was so overkill it was the equivalent of using a nuclear bomb to remove an ant hill. The same could be said with the aliens and his dad, space, the Stargate's, all of that, they were his dad's area of expertise, his dad along with SG1, they could handle things up there, they had done for the past god knows how many years, so where did that leave him.
It just felt like he was continually searching to find his place, to find somewhere he could fight the good fight, but every time he thought he'd found something it came up short. So here he was, just meditating, allowing humanity to get on with their lives in peace. He stepped in from time to time, but now it was just them, he was actually forcing himself not to monitor everything that was happening, forcing himself to concentrate just on him, just on where he was and what was happening around him.
The leaves falling off the tree's all around him, the grass growing underneath his feet, the hundred or so various insects and birds that were living in the graveyard, the cat that was silently prowling around the long grass in the shadowed area, these were the things that he was concentrating on. As Giles had told him, concentrate on the small things and everything else will take care of itself, he hoped that was the case.
Occasionally his thoughts drifted back to Sara, his mother, and the conversation they had just had, all the things that had been said, all the time they had lost. He'd make up for it, maybe he'd manage to bring Sara and Jack closer together, but not yet, now he had to get to know her on his own, and for her to get to know him without his powers. Everyone else he cared about knew about him and he could see it in their eyes, how they treated him, like they knew he could do all these amazing things and were just thinking about what he could do for them. It wasn't always like that though, it was just distracting knowing that everyone knew about him and were constantly on edge because of it. Sara was the exception, she didn't expect anything from him, she just wanted him to be himself, no godly expectations of keeping the planet safe or keeping the forces of darkness at bay, no thoughts about him protecting the slayer or keeping his dad and SG1 safe. She just wanted him to be him, her son, and that was the best thing in the world for him at the moment, it kept him grounded, reminded him that even though he had all these powers he was still someone's son, at least someone still thought of him as human.
--=/^\=--"Over there!" Sam pointed out as Buffy carried the bubble down to the planet and swooped over the fires towards where she was pointing. "That's where the Stargate was, I'm sure of it."
"You're sure Carter?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow as they moved closer to the area she was pointing at.
"Whoa..." Faith was the first to verbalise the amazement as she passed over the ridge of dirt and rubble ahead of Buffy. "Not good." She muttered as she looked down, there definitely wasn't a Stargate here anymore; there wasn't much of anything there anymore. The entire valley looked like once giant scorched crater with various smaller pits around it that were still smouldering with small fires.
"Guess the Stargate blew as well then." Buffy said in a small voice as she moved them through the skies to the centre of the crater, as they moved closer to the middle they could all see the ground was smoothened to an almost glassy surface, there was no life here, no trees, no grass, no sign of anything hospitable. The air outside was still thick with smoke and dust that almost obscured the twin suns that the planet was orbiting.
"That would be my guess," Jack replied breathlessly as he looked at the level of destruction that was all around them. "Carter? Any more ideas?"
Sam simply looked at him before shaking her head. "I'm sorry sir, but without an active Stargate we're stuck here."
"I'm putting us down, hold on." Buffy said calmly as she moved to the centre of the crater and set the bubble containing Jack and Sam down gently before dissolving it and setting down herself and getting rid of her own shield. "We still need to conserve power, especially if the bad guys come back."
"Good idea B," Faith nodded as she settled on the ground behind Buffy and took her own shield down. "Do we have any plan? I mean, aside from waiting here and growing old I mean?"
"No supplies, no shelter, no communications. We don't have much in the way of anything." Sam explained.
"What about this?" Buffy asked, taking off the backpack that she had picked up from Daniel's unconscious body and dropped it on the floor with a bang. "Feels pretty heavy so I guess it isn't food and stuff."
"Naquada," Sam explained as she opened the backpack to take a look inside, "Weapons grade, we use it in reactors as a power source."
"Great, so we have a ton of useless metal and not much else." Faith sunk to the floor and tried to get comfortable. "Any other ideas?"
"We wait," Jack said smugly. "Hammond knows where we are and he must have tried dialling the gate by now. He'll figure out the gate was destroyed and send someone to investigate."
"The ship Xander gave us!" Carter finally latched on to Jack's idea. "They have the coordinates for this planet and a working mothership with hyper drive."
"So we can expect a rescue then?" Buffy asked, latching on to any faint glimmer of hope. "'Cause that would be of the good."
"Sure thing," Jack grinned. "I'm guessing General Hammond already notified SpaceCOM of the situation and what's happened, it'll just be a matter of time before the ship gets here."
"How long then?" Faith asked in amusement, already planning on finding some nice sunny beach on the other side of the planet to wait for the rescue.
"Carter?" Jack asked as he came up blank on the calculations needed to figure out the distance of this planet to earth and how fast the mothership could travel in hyperspace.
"I..." Sam paused as she tried to figure it out. "Maybe a week sir," She finally answered after a few minutes of silence. "Five days if they really push the engines. We're quite a way into the main core of the galaxy sir, deep inside Apophis' territory, or what used to be Sokar's territory. Even with a rescue coming we should expect Apophis to send someone to figure out what happened to his ship."
"Great," Buffy muttered as she sank down next to Faith. "A week..."
"Look on the bright side B, no school." Faith grinned over at her.
"Can't you two just contact Xander or something, you know, use the rings as a phone or something." Jack asked, pointing at the ring that Buffy was now considering.
"Um..." Buffy shrugged turning to Faith. "I've never used it like that, how did you use it before?"
"Just asked it to call you," Faith shrugged as she lifted up the ring and considered it. "Think it'll work?"
"Sir, the power it would take to transmit audio from here back to earth, especially a real time conversation would be staggering, I'd recommend waiting for the rescue ship to arrive and use the ring's power only as a last resort in case we have more Goa'uld trouble. The rings are currently the only weapons we have." Sam voiced her opinion as Jack looked thoughtfully at the two girls that were now holding the most powerful weapons he had ever seen.
"Agreed," Jack nodded as he thought the situation though fully, getting home with Xander's help would definitely be easier than hanging around for a week or so, but then if it didn't work then they would be stuck deep in enemy territory without any way to defend themselves. "We'll hold up here and wait for rescue."
"Can we at least find somewhere more comfortable then?" Faith complained as she stood up and dusted herself off. "A little beach, fresh water, you know, the little things." She grinned as Jack nodded at her.
"It would be a good idea to move away from this area sir," Carter explained. "If Apophis does send someone to investigate, they'll certainly look around the most damaged areas first for an explanation as to what happened."
"Yeah," Jack nodded thoughtfully. "We'll also need food and clean water," He immediately ran down a list of everything they would need, thankful that black op's missions in the past had trained him for situations like this. "Ok, stow the gear, we'll head west as most of the destruction seems to be towards the east."
"Agreed sir," Carter nodded, thinking back to the destruction she had seen on the planet's surface as Buffy had brought them down through the atmosphere. "I thought I saw a river maybe fifty or so miles away, if we hurry we could make it before nightfall."
"Sounds like a plan," Faith nodded as she stood up and slug the backpack over her shoulders, ignoring the wide eyed looks that Jack and Sam were giving her. "Guessing we're walking then." She grinned as Jack nodded silently at her. "Let's go then."
Without another word she started moving off in the direction Sam had pointed, Jack and Sam following close behind with Buffy taking up the rear. Climbing out of the crater would be quite an effort, especially without the rings or any specialised climbing gear, at least they could use the rings for little things, Faith thought. Just nothing major in case they actually needed the rings to defend themselves.
--=/^\=--"Come out, come out wherever you are!" Ethan shouted as he sent another golden blast of energy into the school in front of him, tearing straight through one of the walls and causing small explosions to shatter the windows around him.
He'd been in Sunnydale for nearly an hour now and so far no one had come to oppose him, no sight of that damned Ion character or the Slayer. No Ripper or anyone, just chaos and fear spreading all around him.
"Come on!" He shouted as he raised himself up and sent another blast into the school, pointless destruction was fun and had its place in creating chaos, but it was no fun without someone to watch or opposed him, of course, once he had ripped the power out of Ion and taken the mantle for himself, there would be no one left to oppose him, chaos would reign supreme and he would be the god of chaos itself.
"Ethan." The word carried through the air with so much power it caused him to spin in the air and glare down at the person responsible, it hadn't been a shout, just the tone in which his name had been spoken that filled the word with malice.
"Ripper, like the new look?" He grinned as he span in the air, showing the area in golden sparks of energy. He could see Ripper stood there with three others, but none of them were the teenager than he had given the Ion costume to. "Where's Ion?" He asked as he lowered himself to the ground. "Tell me and I'll leave the town standing."
"Not here," Giles said firmly. "You shouldn't have come back." He said with a smirk, his eyes sparkling in a manner that said that he knew something Ethan didn't.
"Yeah, well, I didn't want you to feel like I was ignoring you," He laughed as he saw the two teenagers shrink back behind Ripper and the woman. "Where's the slayer then?"
"Away from you," Giles said, stepping forward and moving his hand away from where it had been placed on the woman's arm. "What happened to you Ethan, you were never the sort for this level of destruction."
"People change Ripper," Ethan smirked down. "Can't you feel it, the fear, the chaos, it's all around, this town stinks of it, the fear is embedded in the ground, saturating everything. This town was built on fear, you know it, and I can see it."
"Not anymore," Giles said firmly. "Now it's built on hope."
"Hope?" Ethan laughed. "Is that your defence?"
"No," The woman stepped forwards. "I am." She said firmly as she walked forwards away from the rest of the group.
"I'm sorry; I didn't get your name?" Ethan stated politely as he moved himself down to hover in front of the brunette that was now glaring at him.
"I'm surprised you don't remember me," She said calmly as she walked closer to him. "You're the one that sold me the costume; you're the one that turned me into this."
"Costume?" Ethan muttered, taken aback by this new information, he'd sold plenty of costumes that night but she didn't stand out as anyone that had bought anything of significance from him. "And you got the memories of the night, how charming." He smirked as he looked back to see Giles and the two teenagers practically laughing at him. "What's so funny?" He spat over at them as he turned his attention from the brunette.
"Oh you're so going to get your ass kicked," The redhead said with a smile and a hint of a giggle as the male teen stood beside her, nodding mutely.
"What?" He spat back, confused as to what she thought she could actually do to him while he was wearing the ring he had enchanted. Whatever his next thought was going to be was immediately swept from his mind as the brunette moved in a blur almost faster than he could see and caught him in the chest with a punch than felt like he had been hit by a Mack truck.
The punch landed squarely on target and sent Ethan flying backwards into a house, his shield protecting him from the damage as the force of the punch punched him clean though the house and out into the garden behind where he was almost embedded in the soil.
"Giles, get out of here, you two too!" Jenny ordered as she took to the skies, the golden sparks coming from behind the house immediately told her that the fight wasn't over by a long shot. "Get Xander," She shouted as she saw them start to move away from the battle zone. "Tell him there's another..." She didn't get to see anymore as a golden blast of energy punched her out of the sky and blasted her away from the group, the sheer force of the blast pushing her several blocks over from where she had started.
"Willow, what ring is that?" Giles asked as he ran for cover, pushing Willow and Oz in front of him to protect them from the carnage going on.
"It's... it's a yellow ring, Sinestro's ring. It twists people... the fear, it gets inside them..." Willow stuttered out, her eyes showing the fear that the very idea of the yellow ring on earth created. "We have to get Xander, Ms Calendar can't handle this."
"It's equal to the rings Xander gave Buffy and Faith then?" Giles asked as he craned his neck upwards to see if he could see the fighting still going on.
"Uhuh," Willow nodded as she ducked into an alcove with Oz. "It's weird though, it runs on fear not willpower," Willow shook her head, obviously trying to remember things from the comics. "Sinestro had one; he was Green Lantern's nemesis, well, one of the Green Lantern's anyway."
"The one Xander turned into I assume?" Giles asked, wincing as he heard another explosion coming from a few streets over.
"No," Willow crouched down as the building they were hiding next to shook from the force of the explosions happening. "Another one, Hal Jordan, he was supposed to be the greatest Green Lantern. The yellow ring charges itself by fighting a green lantern, without it it only has a set charge."
"So he wants to charge the ring off of Xander," Giles mused.
"With the charge he could get off Xander, he'd be..." Willow was cut off by the building behind her shaking violently, another loud explosion caught their attention as something was thrown into the building followed by another golden blast the practically destroyed the wall they were standing by.
By the time they had run for cover the entire street was lit up with a sickly golden energy that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. Giles was the first one to spot the man standing in the middle of the street, his form glowing brightly with the same yellow light, a construct of a rack was laid out in front of him with Jenny's unconscious body on it.
"Jenny," Giles gasped out as he noticed her limp form, he'd been so used to her being invulnerable, with so many people telling him that she couldn't be hurt by anything, and now to see her lying on the glowing yellow rack, the sickly yellow glow of the ropes holding her in place as blood dripped from her face and stomach through her torn clothing.
Willow and Oz stared open mouthed at the special as Ethan pointed at Giles before motioning for him to come and join him in the street.
"Giles don't..." Willow whispered as Giles started walking slowly into the light. "It's a trap!" She whispered again more forcefully.
"My dear," Ethan shouted back with a smirk. "Of course it's a trap."
Giles barely had time to duck the two giant circular saw blades that were sent flying in his direction; he hit the ground with a force that nearly knocked the wind out of him. He laid there, waiting for the blades to come back and finish him off, fervent prayers for Xander to come and help in the battle and worry for Jenny were the only things running through his mind as he heard Willow's scream.
He rolled over just in time to see the two blades fix on their new target and blast towards the two teens before exploding into the ground with a sickening thud that spoke of finality.
"And now, we are alone." Ethan said calmly as he started walking towards Giles, he waved his hand and a giant glowing yellow spike appeared above Jenny, hanging for a moment before speeding down and impaling her through the stomach and pinning her to the ground. As he walked closer his golden ring sent out sparks of energy from his shield which scattered on the asphalt below, his eyes glowing with golden malice as he stepped closer to his target.
"Jenny... Willow..." Giles whispered as he looked over at the scene of destruction around him, tears already rolling down his cheek at the sight of his lover pinned to the road barely thirty feet away from him.
"Now that's fear!" Ethan shouted as he raised his arm and pointed the ring at Giles.
