"Oh come on," Buffy whined as she pulled the backpack back onto her shoulder for what felt like the umpteenth time. She suppressed a growl as the rucksack started to slip down her arm again before she jostled it with her shoulder to pull it back straight.

"Want me to take it for a bit?" Faith asked as she stopped and lent by a tree that creaked under the pressure. they'd made it out of the blast radius pretty easily, making good time between their slayer stamina and the air force guys training.

"I'm good," Buffy replied shortly as she pulled a rag of clothing from her pocket, a strip of one of her favourite shirts that was now torn beyond repair due to an accident climbing up the crater wall. Wiping the rag across her face she paused to take a look around, Jack and Sam were at the front, leading the way through the dense forest while they took the rear.

It'd been just over four hours now, no sign of any Goa'uld ships in orbit or Death Gliders swooping the area. No sign of Jaffa investigating the rubble of what was once their prize ship, just blackened trees and scorched grassland. The scorching was visibly less now though, the blackened sides of the trees where the Naquada enhanced explosion had levelled most of the area were now becoming less frequent. They'd made it out of the blast zone in the first hour, but then discovered that the damage caused by the explosion wasn't solely limited to the crater.

"We should keep moving," Jack called back after he stopped for a moment, the trip had been pretty rough on them all, without food or water rations they were all limited to what they could find in the surrounding environment, and he was sad to say that the two young girls were definitely faring better than him and Sam were.

"Hold on gramps," Faith shouted with a smirk as Buffy adjusted the bag again before jostling it on her shoulders again to get it comfy. "Good B?" She asked, waiting for Buffy to nod in return before they both started off towards Jack and Sam.

"We need to keep moving," Sam commented as they all started off again once the two slayers had caught up. "The blast radius ends about a kilometre up ahead, once we get beyond that line the radiation will drop significantly."

"Say what?" Faith practically shouted. "You never said anything about radiation, what are we talking about here? Hair falling out? Nasty skin things?"

As Faith continued ticking off things both Jack and Sam could see Buffy looking more and more panic stricken, going from running her hands through her hair quickly to agitatedly checking her arms for lesions or any other visible marks.

"Not if we get out of here," Jack said, cutting Faith off.

"He's right," Sam agreed. "The radiation should have mostly dissipated by now, there may be some lingering effects closer to ground zero, but the further we get out of the radius, the safer we'll be."

"What are we hanging around for then?" Faith barked out as she practically grabbed the bag off of Buffy and slung it over her own shoulder. "Let's get the hell out of here before we start glowing." She didn't even wait for a response from anyone before she took off in the direction they were heading at a speed that Jack couldn't dream of matching, even in his younger days. Buffy followed her barely seconds later, her face still showing the worry over her hair and skin, and the worry spurring her on to even greater speeds than Faith.

"How the hell does Xander keep up with them?" Jack asked after a moment as he started jogging after the two slayers alongside Sam.

"No idea sir," Sam replied with a smirk as she batted a vine out of her way that Jack had simply ducked under, "No idea." She whispered again in amazement as she saw the two girls finally disappear from view into the thick undergrowth of the jungle.

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"I'm afraid that's just not possible at this moment in time," General Hammond sighed as the voice over the phone repeated the line for the second time, despite his rank and official request to use the Goa'uld mothership to find out what had happened to SG1. "We still haven't figured out the controls on the ship, and the scientists on board are still trying to figure out the sensor readings, for some reason they just all lit up like a Christmas tree about half an hour ago."

"Listen here son," General Hammond paused to take a calming breath as he held the receiver of the phone tightly in his grasp. "Some of my best people are trapped on an alien world deep in Apophis' territory, now, I want to get them home as soon as possible, you can either help me or by god I'll go directly to the commander in chief and get his approval for this rescue mission." He paused again for another breath, flexing his fingers as he noticed he was gripping the receiver to tightly that his knuckles were turning white.

"One second sir," The voice returned for a moment before the line went to complete static, leaving General Hammond the distinct feeling that he was being passed up the food chain.

"Come on..." General Hammond muttered as he held the receiver, waiting for the next voice. the thoughts of what Jack and Sam, not to mention the two girls that had gone to save them, were going through were making him more anxious by the second. he'd briefly thought about contacting Xander for his assistance in retrieving SG1 and the two girls, but quickly discarded the thought after remembering how Xander had reacted to Anise during her stay. He didn't want Xander to have the impression that they would be running to him all the time for simple things, and more to the point, he didn't want to be the one that sent Xander to an alien world to find his two girls injured or worse.

"General Hammond, sir," A familiar voice returned to the receiver, breaking him out of his thoughts so fast that it took him a moment to place the voice.

"Major Davis," General Hammond smiled as he finally recognised the voice, he knew that the current liaison between the SGC and the higher ups was working on something that had kept him away from the SGC, but he didn't think it was anything to do with the Goa'uld mothership they had captured. "I didn't realize you were on board the Goa'uld mothership."

"I've been here for nearly two weeks sir," Major Davis reported in his usual crisp fashion. "We stationed the mothership just outside of Mars orbit so that the Stargate on board wouldn't override the one at the SGC, but until we get a flight crew trained for this ship, the senate thought it best to have a liaison on board who could had knowledge of both alien and human practices. I was selected because of the previous work with Stargate Command."

"And I'm sure you're doing a fine job son," Hammond smiled as he thanked the gods that there was someone there that he could trust to be on his side for all of this. "Now, can we dispense with formalities and go pick up SG1?"

"I'm afraid not sir," Major Davis replied crisply with a tone of regret in his voice. "We're currently receiving information on a dangerous energy build up on Earth, the Goa'uld sensors are trying to pin it down, but so far we're having trouble translating the data."

"What sort of energy build up?" Hammond asked, SG1's current predicament pushed to the back for the moment as a more immediate thread took precedent.

"Unknown sir," Davis reported. "The energy is unlike anything in the Goa'uld database, we're currently tracking the source to somewhere in southern California, we can't narrow it down any more than that."

"Southern California?" Hammond repeated as his thoughts immediately went to Xander. "I'll see what my sources can tell me."

"Sources?" Major Davis repeated in a curious tone, he wasn't aware of any ties the SGC had to any military bases in California, in fact, the only one he was away of was an NID operation currently under construction, but they didn't even have the power generators online yet, certainly nothing capable of generating the amount of power that was being picked up by the ships sensors.

"I'll let you know as soon as I do," Hammond said abruptly before hanging up the phone. He took a deep breath before pulling the soft emerald green phone towards him and picking up the receiver. "Xander?" He started in a clear voice.

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"Tell me... Where... He... Is!" Ethan screamed out, punctuating each word by sending another bout of electricity through the bonds he was now using to hold Giles tightly in the air. his body buckled against the bonds as he screamed into the night, but the sound of his torment only served to tighten the smirk on Ethan's lips.

"I... don't know," Giles finally rasped out ones the shocks had stopped, his hair was now matted to his face with sweat and his ragged clothes were practically hanging from his body. "And even if I knew," He lifted his head up if a final act of defiance and glared at his tormentor. "I would never tell you!" He spat the last words out, a feeling of victory rushing through his body as he saw Ethan's face scrunch up with anger. "Pillock." He muttered with a smile as Ethan raised his ring again.

"You will tell me!" Ethan screamed as he used his ring to raise the bars holding Giles captive into the air, levitating himself up along with Giles so he could continue to look him in the face. "And where is your precious Slayer now? Your charge? Now it's just you and me Ripper, Sunnydale has fallen," He made a point of rotating himself around in the air to view the destruction of the town for himself, fires were still burning wildly out of control, the emergency services trapped by glowing gold constructs of dragons, demons and other such horrors brought forth from Ethan's fear twisted mind. "I will have his power, and then the world will know true chaos!" He turned back to Giles, a twisted smirk marring his face as golden energy flickered around his manic eyes.

"You can't win," Giles rasped out, his breathing becoming more laboured as he forced himself to stay conscious. From this height he could see where the two saw blades had impacted the ground, he could see the destruction they had left with cement and gravel torn up along with dirt and grass, and he could see two bodies lying on the floor, a dark almost black pool surrounding them.

"Your two students," Ethan smirked as he waved his hand out towards them. "He couldn't save them either, or your lover," His words brought back a tight face of resolve to mask over Giles' pain as he looked over towards Jenny's immobile body, the golden spike still embedded through her stomach, pinning her to the ground like some macabre street sign. "How many more people have to die Ripper? How many bodies will it take for him to intervene?" He span Giles around again, revelling in the destruction he had caused in the town, the fear that was growing throughout the entire population feeding him even now. "Or have you taught him too much?"

Giles slumped his head down in resignation as Ethan sent another charge through the bonds holding him, his body arching and writhing around.

"Is that it? Has he become just another puppet of The Council?" Ethan bellowed the words out but his tone was coloured in disbelief. "Are they holding his leash? The old edicts still in place, watch but never interfere in a Slayer's duties, is that what you're teaching him?" He spat the last at Giles in disdain.

"You always did talk too much Ethan," Giles spat back, the face of resolve now firmly set as he glared over into the crazed eyes of his captor. "Xander will stop you, and when he does, I'll be there to finish it."

"No Ripper, you won't," Ethan said, a tone of almost regret slipped in as he raised his ring one final time, an almost disinterested flick of his hand sent the bonds holding Giles flying wildly over Sunnydale. "You never could stomach true chaos." He said sadly as he turned his back on the glowing gold construct before dissolving it and letting the inertia carry Giles off to his final destination.

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Xander frowned as he walked through the graveyard, his thoughts diving from one train to another, the thought of his dead brother, the brother he never knew, the brother that was buried on the other side of the graveyard. Thoughts about his mother, his real mother, the teacher, the one with the most normal life out of his entire family. could she ever accept him, really accept what he was now? or what Giles right, was he even human anymore? he still thought of himself as human, part of the human race, but he was something more now, there was no denying that, he was something else as well.

He pressed on, concentrating on his body, ignoring everything else around him, reality was far from structured as far as he was concerned, he could see the atoms bonding the grass together, the molecules that created the bark on the trees, it was beautiful to watch, then beyond that, the subatomic, and further down. It was all just energy, ready to be manipulated and twisted into whatever form needed, it was perfect, he could just get lost in the swirls of colour if he allowed himself to, but not now, now his brain was deliberately blocking the details out, letting him focus on his thoughts.

looking around for a moment to check he was alone, he smiled to himself softly before launching himself into the air in a blast of emerald energy, the trail he left behind streaking straight up into the clouds as he soared into the lower atmosphere. here he just paused, hanging in the air surrounded by a soft green glow. he could see the entire city from here, hell, the entire state. all those people, oblivious to the dangers all around them, oblivious to the supernatural threats that lurked in the night all around them, oblivious to the dangers from beyond the stars.

His mind drifted back to what General Hammond had said to him, just do what you can, the rest will take care of itself. He'd done the best he could, keeping earth safe, keeping Buffy and Faith safe. they could take care of the supernatural, with the rings he had given them, he had ensured both slayers would have a long life to do whatever they wanted. and SG1, his father and his team, they could take care of the threats from above, from the way his father had described it, they had already been doing fine for well over four years before he'd even met his father.

So where did that leave him? just to watch, step in if he was needed? or was there something else, something else he could be doing to help, some other place to find for himself.

he was forcefully broken out of his musings when he felt the familiar sensation of someone trying to contact him, it took less than a picosecond for him to identify who and transfer the voice directly into his mind.

"Xander?" General Hammond's voice came clearly through despite the distance or means of connection.

"General," Xander smiled as he relaxed in the air, General Hammond had become more than a friend lately, with his help in figuring out what to do with the Green Lantern ring in his possession, the same type of ring that Buffy and Faith now wielded, he was more like an uncle figure, a trusted advisor. "What's up?"

"Xander," General Hammond repeated as he tried to word this as delicately as he could. "We may have a problem."

"Problem?" Xander straightened up tightly as all sorts of thoughts filtered through his brain, was his dad alright? was there another alien attack? "What sort of problem?"

"The Goa'uld ship, the one you handed to us," General Hammond took a moment to take a deep breath. "It's been picking up some strange readings from you."

"Me?" Xander quipped, using his powers to check himself over to make sure he wasn't doing anything subconsciously again. "Don't think so, I haven't really been doing much lately."

"Well, the sensor data has pointed to an extremely dangerous amount of energy being discharged, and you're the only one I can think of with that amount of power at their disposal." General Hammond explained how he had come to this conclusion, drawing a concerned look from Xander.

"It's not from me," Xander said firmly. "I've been with my mom most of the day, then... just walking." He hesitated over telling General Hammond about visiting his brothers grave, deciding on keeping it to himself for the moment, no need to risk it getting back to his father and opening old wounds.

"Are you saying you're not in Sunnydale then son?" General Hammond's voice nearly broke with panic as he tried to put the pieces together.

"The readings were from Sunnydale?" Xander said in shock. "I'll check it out," He said before closing the connection and launching himself towards Sunnydale, he was barely outside the city limits of Colorado Springs when he broke Mach One, Mach four as he passed into Utah, the air scorching in his wake as he pushed himself up to Mach 8 as he blasted over Flagstaff towards Los Angeles, Mach 11 as he raced around Long Beach and over the water towards Sunnydale, his speed pulling up a wake of water behind him as he sped over the ocean towards Sunnydale, the town getting closer and closer, the details of the destruction becoming more and more visible as the burning fires lit up the darkened town.

Slowing himself down considerably he pulled himself to a stop in the air, hovering above Sunnydale, a look of horror on his face as he saw the destruction, then he almost dropped out of the air in shock, down below he could see a fire truck, the occupants pale with terror as a glowing gold dragon batted the truck around like it was a toy.

"What the hell," He muttered in shock as instinct took over, dropping himself down to the ground he fired a well aimed blast at the dragon, cautious to aim it to that if it was just an illusion he would pass clean through without impacting the fire truck or any surrounding buildings. The aim was true however as he burnt into the dragon's stomach causing it to disappear in a flicker of golden energy.

Whipped his costume up around him in a blaze of emerald fire, complete with mask this time, he walked confidently towards the fire truck, a quick scan of the truck showed no serious damage as he lifted it up in a field of green energy and placed it neatly on the road. "Are you all alright?" He asked, cautious to keep his voice from breaking as he smiled at the men inside the truck.

When they just nodded mutely he walked over and opened the door slowly. "Is everyone alright in there?" To this he finally got a muted response of "Yeah," coupled with people nodding their heads slowly, their eyes still gripped with fear as they stared at him.

"I'm here to help," He said firmly. "Get to the fires, I'll do what I can to help out."

Three of the men seemed mollified by this but were still staring at him in shock. "The... The school," One of the men said, his voice still shaky after everything he had seen. "They're all around the school, some guy, he's doing it... somehow."

"Thanks," Xander said firmly as he shut the door and turned to face the direction of the school. "Yellow constructs..." He paused as he lifted himself into the air. "Sinestro," He said finally as his brain tried to work out how the comic character had made it into reality, had someone else dressed as Sinestro that Halloween night? but then why hadn't he seen anything before, glowing gold constructs were even harder to miss than his green ones, but then where?

His train of thought was cut off as his eyes caught something moving through the air, something flying over the town shining with a sickly yellow. "Sinestro," He narrowed his eyes as he took off towards the object, he'd sort out the how's and why's later, first he had to stop this madness, and then he had to worry about all the people that had seen him. "So much for a low profile," he muttered as he approached the flying construct, he was barely half a mile away when the golden shimmer simply disappeared, leaving a man flying through the air uncontrollably heading towards one of the few buildings that had been so far undamaged.

"Oh god," He shouted in shock as his brain caught up with what he was seeing and identified the flying body, it was Giles, his clothes torn and bloody and his hair ragged and drenched with sweat. "Hold on G-man!" He shouted as he put a burst of speed on, creating a construct of a fishing net as he went he quickly stretched the construct to enormous proportions as he came to a stop and simply fished Giles out of the air. "Giles, come on, what happened?" He asked, his voice close to breaking with panic as he saw the shape his mentor was in.

"Ethan," Giles broken voice managed to rasp out. "It's Ethan," He coughed loudly, a wet sickly sound that racked his body with shudders.

"Hold on G-man, I'll get you to a hospital," Xander said firmly, intent on not letting on more person die when he could help it.

"No," Giles rasped out again. "Stop him," He forced himself over to look Xander in the eye. "Stop him, you're the only one that can."

"Giles..." Xander tried to argue but was cut off once again.

"For once..." He paused, coughing again before he wiped his hand over his mouth, smearing blood and sweat over his chin and cheeks. "Do what I say and stop him before he hurts anyone else."

Xander stared at him for a long moment before nodding and lowing the net to the ground before sending it back to wherever his constructs came from. "I'll come back," Xander said firmly as he helped Giles onto a bench where he simply flopped against the wooden back. "I'll fix this." He said, gritting his teeth as he turned towards the school. "Just hold on," He said finally before he took off into the air towards the school.

"Ethan!" He bellowed, his voice carrying all the rage he could muster as he flew towards the school as fast as he could, his body now lighting up the area as emerald flames licked around his uniform, dark green sparks flashing behind him as he soared towards his target. "Ethan!" He bellowed again, his hands now crackling with energy as he forced himself on, the thought of the upcoming battle forefront in his mind as he carried himself on over destroyed houses and burning cars.

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"Alright campers, time to set up base," Jack barked out. they'd passed through the scorched area of the jungle now and after finding an area with a river running though decided that this would be the best place to camp up for the night. the dark was slowly creeping in now, making the alien environment seem that much more inhospitable but the two slayers were still taking it in their stride.

"Ok boss," Faith smirked as she snapped off a sloppy salute before dropping the holdall carrying the Naquada with a thud onto the mossy ground.

"Well, it's not a five star hotel," Buffy muttered as she looked around. "But I guess it'll do." She grinned over as Sam rolled her eyes at her.

"We'll need shelter sir, I can't be certain, but I'd be willing to bet that we're a bit further from the star of this solar system than earth is, maybe around Mars orbit." Sam explained drawing blank looks from the slayers as Jack nodded in his assessment.

"You mean stars, plural," Jack noted, nodding to the horizon where the two suns were slowly setting behind a mountain.

This time it was Sam's turn to be taken by surprise as she turned to the horizon, surely enough there were two stars slowly setting, a bright yellow star and a smaller red one. "My mistake sir, stars, it must be a binary system, that's how this planet can support a thriving ecosystem despite being so far away from the center."

"Ok, for those that don't speak scientist," Faith muttered, waiting for an explanation, she could see the two stars but aside from that, most of the other details coming from the two Air Force members were going straight over her head, a quick glance at Buffy told her that she was feeling exactly the same.

"We're further out of the solar system than earth is," Jack explained. "The two suns produce enough heat during the day for plants and wildlife, but it's going to get cold when the suns go down, very cold."

"How cold?" Buffy asked, now staring at the horizon where the yellow star was now slowly disappearing from view.

"Very cold," Jack repeated with a 'duh' look. "Below zero definitely."

"We'll need a fire, something else to keep us warm as well, BDU's are designed to protect the body in most environments," Sam explained, tugging at her black uniform. "But they won't keep all the cold out."

"Right, firewood first," Jack grinned, setting a plan into motion, years of black ops training and survival SEER courses had more than prepared him for this sort of situation. "We'll also need food, water shouldn't be a problem, and some sort of cover."

"Hunting and gathering then," Faith commented drawing a slow smile from Jack. "I'll do the hunting," She grinned. "You ok with the firewood B?"

"Done and done," Buffy smiled back.

"Then we'll get a shelter sorted," Jack nodded at Sam. "Try and stay close, we don't want to get separated here, and I don't know what sort of things will come out at night."

"Fine by me," Faith nodded, strangely accepting the leader role that Jack had set upon himself, he knew what to do and the best way to do it, so she just accepted it and followed, which was strange because it wasn't really in her nature to follow orders blindly. "Food coming up." With that said she simply jogged off into the undergrowth.

"Right, firewood," Buffy nodded, "I can do that," She grinned before following after Faith.

Firewood was pretty easy to locate thankfully, being in a jungle it was simply a matter of finding loose branches and bits for them to use. pretty soon she had amassed a large pile of wood that was dry enough to burn, a few log sized branches later and she was on her way to carry it all back to the campsite.

unfortunately, Faith wasn't having such an easy time locating something to eat for the group, any wild life that she had seen was either too small or quickly scurried out of view into some dark hidey hole away from her as soon as she had spotted it. "Ugh," Faith groaned as she missed another small rodent looking creature. "Come on, we're on an alien planet for god's sake," She grumbled looking to the sky which was getting darker by the minute. "Where's the alien life?" Bending down she fetched the makeshift spear that she had acquired on her way into the jungle, it wasn't really a spear, more like a long sturdy thin branch that she had snapped the end off of, turning it into a quite nasty looking point.

"Uh... Faith!" Faith span back up to see Buffy staring over at her, one hand carrying a hefty pile of firewood and the other pointing out to a space about three foot above her head. risking the knowledge that she really didn't want to know what had freaked out Buffy like that, she craned her neck around to see what she was staring at.

Above her was a snake, though that didn't do it justice, it was thick, probably thicker in girth that Teal'c's arms were. it had most of its body coiled around a branch but was slowly moving its head through the air towards her with an open mouth.

"I hate snakes!" Faith whispered as she stared up at the monstrous python like creature. flexing her arm she tightened her grip around the spear and slowly turned around, never taking her eyes off the slowly moving creature. She ignored the loud crash of wood, instinct taking over as the sound of quiet footsteps came from behind her, she's been working with Buffy for nearly a year now, so she was used to the sound of her breathing, the pace of the footsteps. "Ready B?" She whispered as she stared up into the eyes of the snake.

"Ready," Buffy whispered back from about two feet from her left.

risking a quick glance over she saw that Buffy has armed herself with a large branch, obviously one of the ones that she had gathered for firewood, it wasn't sharpened like the one she was holding, but it would do enough for defence. flicking her eyes back to the serpent she voiced the one thing that was worrying her. "Think it's poisonous?"

"With those fangs?" Buffy whispered back. "Don't care, but it ain't coming anywhere near me!"

"Here goes, on three," She paused as she caught Buffy nodding in her peripheral vision. "One... Two..." As she said three she lunged at the snake, her left hand quickly shooting out and grabbing the snake just behind its neck to keep it's freedom limited. Buffy was next to her barely a second later, her hand grabbing the snakes body a foot or so further down than her own. pulling on the head sharply she aimed the spear and let momentum do the rest.

"Ugh," Buffy winced as a blood splash from the snake washed up over her top and jeans. "You're getting my dry cleaning bill." She grumbled as she pulled her hand away from the snake, the momentum of Faith's yank on the snakes head had done the job quite effectively, while most of its body was still wrapped around the tree branch, it's head had been impaled on the spear, the head of the spear had gone straight into the mouth where it had been ready to strike, embedding itself about two or three feet into its neck.

"So, snake steaks for dinner," Faith grinned as she pushed the spear further in, twisting it to make sure that it was firmly embedded in the thick muscle of the snake's body.

"Yum," Buffy muttered dryly, sending a glare to Faith. "You can take that back, I'll wash up and meet you there." She nodded to the large pile of logs and branches before pulling at her clothes where they were sticking to her body with drying blood.

"Don't go too far," Faith nodded. "You heard Xander's dad, not unless you want him to come and find you taking a bath," she grinned as Buffy sent another glare her way. Grinning back to her she pulled the snake's body sharply, snapping the branch that it was wrapped around and causing it to fall to the floor with a sickening thud. "See you back there," She nodded over to where Buffy was already heading towards the river a dozen yards or so upstream from where they had set up camp.

Wrapping the snake tightly around her spear she impaled the base of the spear firmly into the ground so it could free stand while she looked at the pile of logs. "There's got to be an easier way of doing this," She muttered, looking at her ring for a second before discarding the idea, the rings were for emergency use only, while there had been no sightings of the aliens so far, that was no guarantee that there wouldn't be any before rescue came, and with limited power they had to conserve energy as much as possible. walking over to a tree she felt around the bark, smiling when her hands came across a vine that was loose enough to pull down.

Grabbing it firmly she pulled tentatively, happy when it came loose she quickly flicked it up and pulled the loose vine to the floor before walking back to the pile of logs. They were quickly tied up in a loose knot, the end of the vine trailing towards her as she wrapped it around her wrist. pulling the spear free from the floor she started back towards base camp, dragging the pile of logs and branches behind her through the jungle undergrowth.

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"What are you doing back here Ethan?" Xander asked in a firm tone of voice as he hovered in the air in front of Ethan, his emerald glow seemingly at opposites with Ethan's golden glow which encompassed their surroundings.

"A bit of chaos, a bit of fear," Ethan smirked. "Didn't Ripper tell you, or that's right, old Ripper can't tell you anything anymore."

"He's fine," Xander said firmly, causing Ethan to stare at him in surprise. "Which is more than I can say for you." Darting to the left quickly he dove out of the way of the emerald battering ram which he had posed behind him, unfortunately Ethan was more than prepared for this with a glowing golden buzz saw which cut the construct clean in half.

"Are you sure you're in the right business," Ethan shouted over, creating a dozen or so constructs of what looked like demonic flying monkey's around him before sending them soaring towards Xander. "You could rule this town, a god among men, you could rival Janus himself!"

"Well, facing down people like you does have its perks," Xander quipped as he launched several energy balls towards the flying monkey's, the clash of coloured energy flashing body sets of constructs out of existence." He grinned as Ethan covered his eyes from the flash of light before flying towards him as fast as he could and tackling him out of the air before pushing him off into a building. "Can't remember ever being at a loss for words either," He grinned as he watched Ethan stumble to his feet from the blast.

"You can't defeat me," Ethan shouted up, launching himself off the floor and into the air again. "The fear of this town, I can feel it feeding me, feeding the ring, once I've absorbed your power then I will rival Janus, and take his power for myself."

"You're crazy," Xander shook his head as he created a solid shield in front of him to block an energy blast Ethan had sent his way. "It's the ring, it's changing you," He shouted down. he could remember how the ring worked in the comics, feeding on a person's fears and twisting them. Ethan had somehow created a composite ring, a ring that was both of the yellow rings from the comics, one that fed on fear and one that fed on his own emerald power, using his own constructs to power his golden ones.

"It's released me!" Ethan shouted back, sending another energy blast towards Xander. "I can feel it, the fear, the chaos, this town is soaked in it, the mayor made sure of it!"

"Wha..." Xander started, the moment of distraction was all Ethan needed however as he sent two energy blasts at the same towards Xander, one directly aimed at the shield, the other arcing round and catching him in the side.

"You don't have the power to face me!" Ethan shouted as the energy blast sent Xander sailing into a building where his impact sent a cloud of rocks and dust into the air before tumbling to the floor. "This town feeds me, makes me stronger, you don't have the power in you to match that."

"You should have read up on the rings Ethan!" Xander shouted as he launched himself towards Ethan, catching him clean in the stomach with his shoulder, his arm wrapping tightly around Ethan's back as he gripped him tightly as they both flew straight upwards into the atmosphere. "It's not about power," He screamed as they reached the upper atmosphere, letting go of Ethan he let the momentum carry him away from his body before he pulled out a construct of a baseball bat and caught Ethan directly in the stomach with it. "It's about willpower!"

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"General," Major Davis frowned as he checked the ear piece was firmly attached to his head as he stared out the window towards Earth. With the energy build up in California getting higher and higher, they had moved the mothership closer to Earth in an attempt to fine-tune their sensors to find out exactly what they were dealing with. just as they had passed the moon the sensors had picked up another energy signature, one that made the previous one look like a Duracell batter in comparison to a nuclear power plant. "I'm not sure what is going on down there, but..." He trailed off as a bright yellow and green flash exploded in high orbit above earth. "What the hell was that?" He shouted out towards a group of technicians that were still staring at the window in awe. "I want the sensor readings for that... explosion, catalogued and in my hands in 5 minutes!" The technicians obviously knew the time for gawking was over as they all practically ran to their stations and started work.

"Major Davis, what in the nine hells is going on up there?" General Hammond bellowed over the comm line.

"I don't know sir," Davis reported back as he stared out of the window where smaller flashes of emerald green and golden yellow were still occurring just outside the atmosphere of earth. "There's been some sort of explosion, not on the ship sir, outside. there are still smaller explosions sir, some sort of energy clashing against something else."

"Energy?" General Hammond replied with a pained tone in his voice. "Major, would this energy be bright green by any chance?"

"Yes sir, one of them anyway," Davis replied, not bothering to ask how General Hammond knew that. "The other is bright yellow."

"Stand down," General Hammond ordered over the line. "I don't know about the yellow energy, but the green one is an ally."

"Ally sir?" Davis replied, his tone one of pure puzzlement. "I know all the allies of earth sir, the only ties we currently have are with the Tok'ra, and they don't have energy weapons like this. This is like nothing I've ever seen before sir."

"I'll brief you when you return planet side," Hammond explained, his tone stating that he was not willing to argue on this matter. "The emerald energy belongs to Ion, an ambassador, if he contacts you, just follow his orders as if they were my own, you got that son?"

"Loud and clear sir," Davis frowned but complied with the orders. "Should we target the yellow energy sir?"

Hammond paused over the line, he was in no position to judge what was going on up there, if they interfered they could just get in Xander's way, but then he could have taken the fight outside of earth's atmosphere because he knew that the ship was up there waiting to assist him.

"General, what are your orders?" Davis asked again.

"Use your best judgement," General Hammond replied after another pause. "Don't get in the way, but if you can help, do whatever you can."

"Will do sir, Excalibur out." Davis signed off, taking the head set off and placing it back on the communications desk before he strode over to the centre of the bridge. "Battle stations," He shouted, causing a flurry of action all around him as people made their way to their designated stations and the civilian technicians cleared the vital areas. "Shields up, approach the energy slowly, we don't want to spook him."

"Him sir?" The officer in control of the helm asked, looking around to see Major Davis' face.

"Him," Davis repeated. "The green energy belongs to an ally apparently," Davis shrugged as he could see the control officer was as confused as he was. "General Hammond's orders are to help if we can, but not to get in the way."

"Aye sir, bringing us around." The helm officer nodded as he turned back to his station.

"I hope your right George," Davis muttered as he sat down in the captains seat, the golden furnishings and red drapes long since gone. "I really do," He muttered finally before turning to the weapons console. "Weapons hot, keep a lock on the yellow energy, but do not fire unless fired upon."

"Aye sir," The weapons officer responded as he touched a few panels and they lit up in various different colours.

"Slow and steady," Davis ordered the helmsman. "Keep our distance, this energy is more powerful than anything we have on earth, you've all seen the sensor logs, keep our distance until we're asked to help."

"Sir," The helms man nodded in return. "Distance at ten thousand kilometres and holding."

"Hold here," Davis nodded. "Get whatever sensor readings you can, keep an eye on the distance, back up if they need the room."

"Aye sir, answering all stop and performing passive scan now sir," The technician to his left reported crisply before turning back to his station. "Two life signs sir, human from what I can tell."

"Get me all the information you can," Davis frowned as he tried to think what sort of alien race had this much power and was an ally to earth, the only ones that came to mind were the Asgard, but they certainly wouldn't register as human to the ships sensors. "What the hell are they?" He muttered as he leaned forwards to get a better view of the fight going on outside.

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"Think ya got enough wood there?" Jack quipped as he stopped in his quest to tie some branches together in a tent-esque nature to provide cover for the group.

"Hey, you asked for wood, you never said how much," Faith quipped back as she dropped the vine and left the pile of wood next to the campsite. "Think this'll do for food?" She asked, nodding to the spear where the large snake was now tightly wrapped around the length of wood and its tail knotted at the bottom to prevent it sliding off.

"You killed a snake," Jack said, eying the giant serpent with a raised eyebrow. "You killed a giant snake for food."

"Yeah, and the problem is?" She challenged, raising her eyebrow to match Jack's.

"Nothing," He grinned, "Works for me, Carter, snake fillet good for you?" He smirked as she rolled her eyebrows at him while concentrating on the tent. "Where's Buffy?" He asked, turning back to Faith before glancing around looking for the other Slayer.

"Went to wash up," Faith said simply. "Killing snakes is a bit messier than vamps."

"Good thing too," Jack nodded. "We want to eat it, not grit the road with it." He grinned as Faith rolled her eyes much in the same way Sam had moments earlier. "You get the fire started, we'll finish up here."

"Sure thing," Faith nodded as she pulled over a set of smaller branches from the pile. "Got any paper?" She asked, staring at Jack first and then Sam.

"Use dried leaves, then two twigs to start a fire," Jack explained before moving over to where she was sat. "This one and..." He paused, fishing out a smaller twig to use as a pivot. "This will do, just rub them as fast as you can to create friction, it should spark over to the leaves after that, don't smother it though."

"Right," Faith nodded. "And I was just going to use this," She grinned, fishing her Zippo out of her pocket. "Run out of smokes a while back though and I don't think the empty packet will be enough to catch the wood."

"Smart ass," Jack grinned at her. "Stuff it full of dried leaves, then use it to catch the smaller twigs on fire, work from there."

"Gotcha," Faith grinned as she started building a small pile of smaller twigs and dried leaves, making sure to leave a hole big enough for her to fit the empty pack of cigarettes underneath when she'd done. "Hey B, all set?" She shouted over as she saw Buffy approaching the campsite from upriver.

"Good," Jack nodded when he saw her. "We're doing the tent, Faith's dealing with the fire, you can deal with snakey over there." He pointed to the spear which was now stuck in the ground, proudly displaying the dead snake to all.

"Deal with it?" Buffy repeated, unsure as to what Jack wanted her to do with it.

"Yeah, deal with it." Jack repeated. "We can't eat it like that, so take it off the spear and cut it into manageable sizes."

"No way," Buffy shook her head violently. "I've just cleaned up, I'll do the tent, you can cut up the snake thing."

"She did help kill it sir, it's only fair." Sam explained with a small smile.

"Yeah," Faith jumped in with a smirk as she noticed Jack starting to squirm under the stare of the two women. "We killed it, you can skin it."

"Fine," Jack gave in finally. "we'll take it in turns though, tomorrow it's your turn to skin something Carter." He smirked as Sam blanched slightly. "Maybe these two can kill you a boar or something," He grinned as he fished the spear out of the ground and threw it on the floor so he could start untying the snake from it. "Or maybe some sort of big spider thing." He almost burst into laughter then as the colour drained from both Buffy and Faith.

"Spiders?" Buffy asked, her eyes flicking around the floor now agitatedly.

"Alien bugs?" Faith asked, now working even faster to build the fire but watching the wood carefully in case there were any bugs or spiders crawling about in them.

"Why not?" Jack grinned as he finished untying the snake and hefted it over his shoulder and wrapped the rest of its body around his arm so he could carry it like a loop of rope. "We've seen some pretty big bugs on planets before, flying ones, there was this bee thing one time, nearly as big as a car!"

"You're kidding!" Faith shouted out, staring at Sam for confirmation.

"Afraid not," Sam shook her head slowly. "It infected Teal'c with some sort of egg sack, it's barb was about the size of that spear." She nodded at the blood soaked spear that Jack had left on the floor.

"I hate bugs," Buffy groaned as she moved over to help Sam, Faith just stayed quiet, building her fire and setting aside some large branches to use as torches in case there were any giant flying bugs on the planet that would come out in the night.

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"You've got the power," Xander grimaced as he ducked around another energy blast Ethan sent his way before swinging round and landing a right hook which collided with Ethan's energy shield, half a second later he had a bright green construct of a wall to pin Ethan against. "You just haven't got the imagination to use it!" He shouted as he surrounded Ethan and the wall in an energy bubble.

"I'll show you!" Ethan screamed, his eyes flashing with the manic gold glow, his fists glowed with the same golden sheen for a second before the emerald bubble exploded outwards with several blasts of golden energy. "I've got enough to deal with you, and..." He broke off, his face a picture of pure shock as he looked out into the distance.

"Yeah," Xander grinned before pressing the advantage. "Them," He launched himself forward, catching Ethan off guard as he surrounded himself and Ethan in a giant energy bubble. "Unlike you, I've got friends to help." He shouted as he landed on the floor of the bubble, righting himself momentarily before pressing on and pulling Ethan into a swift knee to the stomach. "Now we do this my way, no rings," He shouted as he grabbed Ethan's fist and twisted, causing Ethan to shout out in pain. "Just me and you," He finished off as he twisted firmly causing Ethan to fall to his knees as he pulled the ring off of Ethan's finger.

"Please... wait..." Ethan gasped out. "I couldn't... it wasn't me..." He explained breathlessly as he held his other hand up in a gesture of surrender.

"I watched you," Xander said, holding the ring tightly in his hand. "It was all you, you almost destroyed Sunnydale."

"But..." Ethan started, trying to worm his arm free from Xander's grasp.

"No buts, it's over," Xander said sharply before lashing out in a fast punch to Ethan's head that caused him to fall to the floor unconscious, he held on to Ethan's fist for several seconds before letting it go and letting Ethan slump to the floor fully.

"Thanks guys," Xander waved over to the Goa'uld mothership, transmitting his image to the bridge where he could see in his mind the reactions of the people there. "He's one of mine, I've got a lot of clearing up to do though."

"Is everything ok Mr Ion?" Davis asked, a bit shocked after the image of Xander in full uniform had appeared in a pale green hologram on the bridge of the ship. "General Hammond told us to hang back unless needed."

"I'm good," Xander nodded. "Tell him thanks."

"What are you going to do with him?" Davis asked, nodding to the unconscious body next to Ion's feet.

"Don't know," Xander said slowly. "He's a terrorist, caused a lot of damage down there," He paused, nodding down to the earth.

"We could take him," Davis explained. "We've got a brig here, we'll transfer him to the SGC as soon as possible."

"That'll work," Xander said, teleporting Ethan directly to the bridge where Davis jumped back from the emerald flash of light that signalled the arrival of the unconscious body. "Keep a man on him at all times, he's dangerous, I've taken his weapon but he's still dangerous enough. Treat him like a Goa'uld, two armed guards at all times, and don't let him have anything not approved by General Hammond, doesn't matter how innocent it looks, I'll give him a list."

"Will do sir," Davis nodded over at two airmen who came over briskly and lifted Ethan's unconscious body up where they held him firm by his shoulders.

"Thanks a lot," Xander nodded at Davis as he watched the two airmen drag Ethan's body off the bridge. "I don't think I know you yet."

"No sir," Davis shook his head. "Major Paul Davis, liaison to the SGC."

"Ahh, explains a lot," Xander grinned. "Tell General Hammond I'll pop in sometime to see how you're doing, he can get in contact with me if you need anything."

"Thank you sir," Davis smiled. "Happy to be of service."

"See you around," Xander quipped before snapping off a quick salute and dissipating the image from his mind and the bridge of the ship. the smile on his face didn't last long as the memory of what Sunnydale looked like came back to his mind. "Now to fix this," He frowned as the bubble around him disappeared. he stared down at the bright yellow ring in his hand for a moment before gripping it tightly, he'd have to figure out something to do with it, somewhere to put it where it wouldn't cause any more trouble, but first he had to deal with the fallout of his battle. he took one last look at the mothership that was now moving back towards Mars orbit before he launched himself back into earth's atmosphere and aimed himself towards Sunnydale.

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