Faith just stood in the entrance to the cavern, her jaw hanging open in amazement at what she could see inside, even in the pale dawn light that was streaming through from behind her, it was enough to make out the shapes and lights of the treasure trove that was within.
Bracing herself and shaking off the amazement, she stepped inside slowly, cautious not to touch anything she didn't recognise, whatever technology this was, it was definitely advanced, she was no astrophysicist like Sam back at the camp, but whatever this stuff was, it looked more like something out of Star Trek than anything else, and more to the point, it definitely didn't look like the technology of the creepy Goa'uld that they had fought so far.
She'd come out of camp early for a run, maybe a bit of a patrol to make sure that everything was still safe on the alien planet they were camped out in. Slayers never did need much sleep, but Buffy seemed to be completely out for the count, so she'd gone out alone, hoping to just run off her anxiousness about sleeping out in the open on an alien planet in some far corner of the galaxy, but this, finding something like this had just elevated her adrenaline even more.
The technology really did look like something out of Star Trek, unlike the Goa'uld technology that she had seen so far, which was black, gold and pretty outrageous looking. This technology was vastly different, it was silver for a start, made out of some metal obviously, but the flat surfaces and undecorated areas were all filled with geometric lines and angles, no circles, no gold or Egyptian hieroglyphs, whatever it was, this was something completely new for her.
"What the hell?" She muttered under her breath as she walked over to where she could make out a faint yellow glow in the darkness of the cavern. "Hello? Yo, whoever that is better get their ass out here pronto!" She yelled out, readying her ring to defend herself in case it was one of the Goa'uld aliens that had survived the explosion of the Stargate.
When no response came she slowly made her way forward, deeper into the cavern, slayer eyesight was better than humans, far better, it let her see far into the cavern through the pitch black the had enveloped her as she walked. Now she could make out a larger cavern ahead, only this part of the cave was obviously man made, looking down she could see the rough rocky area underfoot had now been replaced with some sort of metal floor, a soft silver colour like the metals she had seen in the other room.
"Holy..." She trailed off as she came to a stop in the entrance way to the main cavern. All around were work benches, tools of some sort, displays that looked as if they had been turned off, and in the center of the room was a large hexagonal table, displays lit up around on each of its sides, lighting the area up in a soft blue glow.
"Sam's gonna love this." She grinned as she walked over to the main table in the middle of the room and ran her hands over it softly, jumping back when it beeped loudly in the dead silence of the cavern. Stepping back she just watched as something on the top of the table slid open, illuminating the room even more with a bright warm yellow glow that came from within. The table then hissed slightly before the object slowly came to the surface.
The object looked almost crystal in origin; a soft yellow glow came from within, bathing the table and the room with its soft light. The top and sides of the object looked like they had been made from the stained glass window, the same geometric lines that were on the technology in the previous room and all around her in this room were definitely present on this object.
"Oh man, what the hell is this thing?" She muttered to herself as she ran her fingers over the top of the glowing crystal, surprisingly it was quite warm to the touch and seemed to vibrate softly and hum in response to her touch.
"Object is a Zero Point Energy device, current charge is seventy four percent." Faith's ring responded to her rhetorical question, making her jump as the ring's mechanical voice echoed through the silence in the chamber.
"Thanks," She whispered in annoyance, she'd forgotten about that aspect of the ring and was now even more worried about how much of her limited energy she'd used up with the scan and information that she hadn't even really requested. "Huh, Zero point whatsit then," Faith shrugged; putting her hand on the object she grasped it tightly and tugged, stumbling slightly when it came free of the table quite easily.
She held the object in her hand for a moment, surprised at how it had seemed to 'die' when she took it from the table, though she could still feel warmth coming from it, the temperature was slowly dying away. "Huh, guess it only lights up when plugged in." She reasoned, hopefully as she consciously phrased her words so the ring wouldn't respond to the question.
Stepping away from the device she held the Zero Point thing carefully, conscious not to break it as she started jogging out of the caves and back to the camp. She knew Xan's dad would be pissed at her for breaking the camp rules, but she figured bringing something like this back might get him back on her good side, failing that, she could always show them where she'd got it from. She grinned at the idea of holding that piece of information to herself as she broke into a run through the forest, the sunlight now streaking above the trees and bathing the ground in warm light.
Xander simply hovered in space, the green shield preventing him from cooking from the temperatures that were outside at this distance from the sun. He'd been waiting a few hours now, constantly staring back at where he knew Earth was, where he knew by now General Hammond had managed to send various rescue workers to Sunnydale to help in the efforts in rescuing and re-homing people in the wake of Ethan's attack.
Now he was just waiting and praying for Ms Calendar to come out, like he knew she would. He'd seen her energy; it was still there, still circulating around her body, the Kryptonian energy, just as tough as the Kryptonian body that now housed it. He told her time and time again to get more sunlight, go into the upper atmosphere, fly closer to the sun, absorb as much as possible. He'd known she needed the boost, he could see it whenever he looked at her.
There should have been no way that Ethan should have been able to take her down like that, even an experienced power ring wielder would have trouble taking down a Kryptonian, let alone a novice like Ethan who had been using the power ring for a week or so.
He'd turned around really to save his eyes, the constant yellow glare of the star at this distance filled his vision, the changing patterns of golden and orange hues were giving him a headache after a while, so he'd turned away, hoping and praying that Jenny would be able to find him when she emerged, now he was just staring off into space, praying that Willow would be alright, that Giles would be able to forgive him for not being there for them, praying that Sunnydale would be able to recover and move on from this tragedy, and most of all, praying that he would be able to get this covered up. A hell of a lot of people had seen him, seen him openly using his powers to save people, that was something new, he could still feel the elation he felt when the hospital crowd had cheered him for helping them, the thought brought a soft smile to his face as he remembered how it had felt to be welcomed by the general public for what he had done.
"Wha?!?!?" He practically screamed as he felt something touch his shoulder, spinning around he brought one hand up ready to blast whatever it was into oblivion while raising his other hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the star. "Ms C?" He asked, squinting to make out the reds and blues of her costume against the massively bright sun behind her. He thought he saw her nod, almost certainly saw her mouth move in a fashion of speaking before she blushed slightly and held out her hand. "Oh, yeah, right." He grinned as he created a quick construct of a two way radio ear piece and gave her one before replicating the same attached to his ear.
"Xander, what are we doing by the sun?" Ms Calendar's voice came crystal clear over the radio and Xander let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.
"You know Ms C, I've never been happier to hear your voice." He grinned before drifting over and embracing her quickly before pulling away. "What do you remember?" He asked, wincing when he saw her reach down to her stomach, which was now showing bare due to the damage her costume had received during Ethan's violent attack.
"He... he stabbed me..." Ms Calendar stuttered out as she felt the skin of her stomach for any damage before looking up at Xander, her face full of questions.
"You're better now," Xander explained quickly. "Look, I'll explain more later, but now we've got to get back, god knows what's been going on since I've been waiting for you to make like Connor Macleod," He grinned as she shook her head in amusement at the pop culture reference. "But you're good, better than before actually; the sun should have charged you up fully, especially being submerged in it for that amount of time."
"I... I was in the sun?" She stuttered out, turning back to stare at the star behind her, not even bothering to shield her eyes from the brilliance of it.
"Yeah, like I told you, Kryptonian bodies need sunlight, or the radiation of yellow stars, something like that anyway," He shrugged. "Look, we've got a long way back, up for a little flight or do I have to carry you home as well?" He grinned as she swung back to stare at him, her face flush with embarrassment.
"I think I can manage on my own," She grinned before moving off away from the star. "I have to say though; I haven't felt this good in a long time, feels better than a six hour lay in followed by a double espresso.
"Uh, Ms C?" Xander said, calling her attention back to him. "This way," He grinned, pointing in the direction he knew Earth was currently in.
"Thanks," She grinned back towards him before flying off in the direction he had pointed, Xander close behind her as he deactivated his communications link for the moment so she wouldn't hear him laugh at her.
"Giles... what..." Willow whimpered out, she'd barely moved an inch from Oz's body since Xander had left with the lifeless body of Ms Calendar in his arms.
Giles just turned his head back to Willow, his hand still tightly gripped around the small object that had caused so much pain, so much destruction. He'd taken a few minutes just staring at the ring, marvelling at its structure, almost tempted to slide the ring on himself to see how it would feel. He could almost feel the power in the ring, the energy that was soaring through each part of it, begging to be used. Shaking his head out of his inner musings he looked at Willow and finally took stock of the situation they were in. "Willow, let's... we should move, get somewhere safe."
"What... what about Oz?" Willow asked in a small voice, her eyes practically begging Giles to tell her that everything was going to be alright, that this was just a dream and she would wake up from it soon.
A few hours ago they had heard helicopters, seen the lights coming from the sky that meant that relief was arriving, what the relief had been told, or who had sent them was a mystery for now though.
"Willow," Giles moved forwards and knelt down next to her, embracing her in a tight hug. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He whispered in her ear, holding her close.
Willow couldn't respond, the closeness of Giles, the hug, the words, it all made it real; all made it somehow more horrific. Until now, ever since the attack, she'd been running on autopilot, she knew Xander could fix this, even though in the back of her mind she knew that he shouldn't.
"It... it shouldn't," Willow stammered out in between sobs as she pulled away from Giles. "It shouldn't have happened like this."
Giles just looked at her as if her simple refusal to believe what had happened was the brightest thing she had ever done. "Shhh." He whispered, pulling her to her feet as he stood up. "We should go, find the others." He frowned, leading Willow away from Oz's lifeless body. They'd come back, they'd do the right thing by Oz, he hadn't been a Scooby for long, but he was a Scooby nonetheless and he deserved a funeral, a proper one.
As Giles led Willow away from the scene he failed to notice the shadows moving behind him, he didn't notice the vampire in torn clothing watching him from the bushes across the street, a feral snarl masking the angelic face that gleamed with preternatural eyes as it followed the pair from the shadows silently.
"Guys, wake up," Faith shouted as she made her way into the makeshift campsite. "Oi, come on, up and atem!" She practically screamed. "B, come on, you gotta see this."
"Faith," Jack's morning groan came from inside the shelter seconds before he stumbled out, his t-shirt and black combats crumpled from a long night in them. "You'd better have some coffee or I swear to god..." He let the threat trail off as he slumped down beside the shelter and allowed Carter and Buffy to come out of the shelter.
"B, you gotta see this, there was this cave, seriously, tons of stuff in there, alien toys and allsorts." Faith practically bounced on her feet as she told them about what she had found. "Come on, I can't wait to show you guys, it's amazing, there was this thing, I looked like a car, well, it was like a circle car, but with no wheels."
"A spaceship?" Jack asked, the prospect of finding a way off this planet now more important than the chewing out he was going to give Faith for disobeying him and exploring on her own.
"Dunno," Faith shrugged. "I grabbed this thing, ring says it's a Zero Point something or other," She shrugged again as she passed over the yellow crystalline looking object to Carter who took it gently as if it was made out of glass.
"Zero Point Energy?" Carter breathed out as she shook her head, obviously trying to shake the cobwebs away from her interrupted slumber.
"That's what the ring called it, apparently it's holding some sort of charge, dunno what the hell it is though." Faith shrugged again as she turned to Buffy, science was never her strong suit, she was more interested in how to use something, of if she could use it at all, she didn't need to know how it worked or what made it work the way it did, just how to use it and if it was broken where to get a new one from.
"Sir, this is highly advanced technology," Carter explained after exploring the object for a few moments. "I mean way up there, more advanced than the Goa'uld sir, way more." She paused for a moment running her fingers over the top of the object, noting the design on the surface. "Sir, you built one of these."
"Me Carter?" Jack looked at her in amusement. "I don't think so; I can barely program my VCR, let alone built a Zero Point whatsit."
"You did sir, remember, when the Ancient Repository of Knowledge got downloaded into your brain, you built an external power supply to the Stargate that extracted power from a localised area of subspace." Carter explained quickly.
"That was a waste of a perfectly good explanation Carter," Jack shrugged. "I don't remember any of that, I have vague memories of spouting some alien language, then waking up with the Asgard, the middle bit is a blank."
"I think this is the same thing sir," Carter explained. "It's an energy source of some sort, the same type you built to access the Asgard galaxy."
"Whoah, you mean the 'Gate can go to other galaxies as well?" Faith asked in amazement, going to other planets was one thing, other galaxies, that brought a whole new meaning to the phrase 'a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.'
"Yeah yeah," Jack waved it off. "Seven symbols for this galaxy, eight for another, though we've only been able to use that once, it takes too much power."
"Not with one of these," Carter said simply, holding up the device.
"Great, so we have an alien battery, what does it change?" Buffy groused, still trying to wake herself up.
"It means..." Carter started to explain but was cut off by Faith.
"It means we might have a spaceship and a way to get home," Faith grinned as everyone turned to her. "I did say that right, you know, alien libratory filled with tons of toys and shit."
"Ok, breakfast first, then we go and see what Faith found, and maybe, hopefully, we might get home sometime soon, instead of waiting for help to show up." Jack explained quickly before turning to Faith. "And since you saw fit to go exploring without us, regardless of whatever you found, you can get breakfast." He smirked turning to Faith. "I think fish, since we can't have coffee."
Faith just grinned back at him. "You know, I saw some fruit on the trees near the caves where I found this doodad, looked like big oranges." She smirked as she saw everyone's eyes widen at the thought of a proper breakfast drink. "We could, you know, grab some on the way through, you know, have breakfast at the lab, might be some fancy replicator or something, you know, morning coffee or something?" She grinned as she watched Jack weigh up the options, the thought of freshly squeezed oranges obviously winning in his mind so far.
"Alright alright," He grinned, turning away from Buffy and Carter's pleading look. "We'll check out the lab first, grab some fruit on the way." Standing up he arced his back, groaning as the bones cracked in a satisfying manner. "But first I need a wash, so I'm first in the river, you three can go after." He smiled before standing up and making his way out of the campsite and towards the river. "And stay out of trouble." He shouted back, ignoring the offended retorts he heard shouted back at him.
"What happened?" Jenny asked as she slowly flew through the atmosphere towards Sunnydale, while the fires were out she could still see the level of destruction caused by the madman with the yellow ring, the same man that had tortured her and pinned her to the ground with a giant glowing construct.
"Ethan," Xander said softly, his green glow lighting up the atmosphere as he flew down beside Ms Calendar. "He was the guy with the yellow ring, the same guy who sold us all the costumes, well, you know the rest."
"But... how, that level of magic is..." Jenny started but was cut off by Xander.
"No clue, Giles' said he was a chaos mage, I guess chaos is just that little bit stronger than usual magic," He shrugged as they approached the skyline of Sunnydale, quickly dropping to the floor so they wouldn't be seen. "We should find Giles..."
"Rupert!" Jenny exclaimed. "Goddess, the last thing I remember was seeing him captured by that madman..." Jenny interrupted Xander as she looked around; they'd landed close to the school in an abandoned car park.
"I dealt with that," Xander said quickly. "He's alright, before I took you to the sun I told him to go to the park on West St, there were doctors and everyone there from evacuating the hospital."
"I'm guessing there's a story there," Jenny smiled over when Xander blushed slightly and turned away from her view. "But first thing, I think we need some clothes, I can't see people accepting costumes like this easily after the attack."
"You'd be surprised," Xander said quietly before turning back to Jenny. "Sure," He said to her face, ignoring her quizzical expression. "Come on, we're near Giles' place." Xander explained before heading down the street to the house he'd been calling home for nearly a year now.
"Xander," Giles whispered out as he walked into the hospital area, the green glowing rods sticking out of the ground were a pretty good indication that Xander had been here and had done something to help these people.
"Looks like," Willow whispered back as they both walked through the crowds, shockingly now the camp had almost doubled in size since Xander had left. There were now makeshift tents set up all around the park, taking up most of the room along with various other military trucks. "What happened here?"
"I'd hazard a guess that Xander contacted his father, maybe General Hammond and asked for assistance." Giles explained as they walked through the camp, ignoring the strange looks they were getting from people. "We should find some water, maybe a change of clothes." He commented quietly, drawing Willow's attention back to her top that was still sticky with blood.
Willow didn't say anything to that, she simply nodded and let Giles lead her through the crowds to one of the tents, they were about to go in when a voice called out for them, well, for Giles.
"Doctor Giles, Rupert!" The voice called out, stopping Giles in his tracks as he turned around and tried to place where the voice was coming from. It didn't take him long however as a man fumbled his way through the crowds towards the two, dodging and weaving his way through the medical and military personnel to the tent area. "Ah, Doctor Giles, I was hoping I would find you, ahem, sorry about the informal dress..."
"Do I know you?" Giles asked, looking the man up and down to see if there was anything about him that would stand out to give his memory a jog, there was something about him that was ringing bells in his memory, but for the life of him he couldn't place it at the moment.
"I do apologise," The man said with a self deprecating smile. "Wesley Wyndam-Price the third," Wesley introduced himself, offering his hand out for Giles to shake. "I was sent by The Council, though I doubt they envisioned these sorts of circumstances upon my arrival."
"No doubt," Giles said shortly, looking the man over once again. "The Council you say?" He frowned when the man nodded. "I assume you have the necessary papers to prove who you say you are?" Giles nodded in acceptance when Wesley assured him that he did have the Council Documents with him, though they were currently in his bag on the other side of the medical compound. "Well, in that case, might I introduce Willow Rosenberg, currently a student of Sunnydale High School, and a most promising witch if I'm not mistaken." He smiled as he stepped away to let Willow wave shyly towards the other Watcher.
"What, I mean to say, what happened here, some sort of demon attack?" Wesley asked after looking around to make sure they were out of earshot of anyone who would overhear their conversation.
"I'm afraid it's a tad more complicated than that," Giles said smoothly before taking his glasses off to clean them. "A chaos mage, one I used to know in fact, is responsible for the destruction you see."
"A chaos mage?" Wesley looked taken aback by this information for a second before he seemed to compose himself. "I see, and I trust the Slayer has taken care of this individual?"
"He has been neutralized," Giles informed Wesley, though not wanted to explain to Wesley about Xander just yet, he was also unsure about where Buffy and Faith were, and why they were not around during Ethan's attack.
"Good," Wesley nodded. "I assume either Slayer Summers or Slayer Lehane are patrolling the area before reporting their findings back to us?"
"Back to me you mean." Giles said coldly, staring into Wesley's eyes.
"Of course, Slayer Summers naturally will report to you, as she has been for nearly three years I believe," Wesley smiled over at Giles before continuing. "Though I am here to take direct control of Slayer Lehane's training and patrol regime, the council decided that one Watcher was not enough for two Slayers."
"And they sent you?" Giles asked in disbelief, the man before him couldn't have looked over twenty five, his swept back hair and immaculate shave were at odds with his seemingly casual attire, though that could have just been out of necessity in the situation he had arrived in.
"Faith's not going to like that," Willow said quietly, causing both men to turn to her. She paused before clearing her throat and continuing. "I mean, remember how long it took her to trust you Giles, Faith doesn't like change, or she just doesn't like things..."
"I assure you Miss Rosenberg, I am quite capable of handling Slayer Lehane's training, I am a fully trained Watcher." Wesley protested in arrogance.
"Have you ever even staked a Vampire before?" Willow asked, smiling softly as Wesley seemed to falter.
"Of course, it's part of Watcher training to dispose of vampires in controlled tests." Wesley explained after regaining his bluster.
"Controlled situations," Giles practically scoffed. "You're in no danger of finding those here Wesley," He frowned before looking around. "This area looks safe, and I'm sure that there are more pressing matters we should attend to."
"Indeed," Wesley nodded, full of bluster again before he turned to Giles. "We should find Slayer Summers and Slayer Lehane, organise a full patrol of the Hellmouth in case some demonic entities decide to try and take advantage of the chaos." He seemed to pause for a moment before faltering. "Oh, and you will fill me in on the details of the sorcerer who saved these people, Ion I believe he called himself. Is he an ally of the Slayers, or another wild card on the Hellmouth that has yet to be dealt with?"HeHe
"He... he saved these people?" Giles stuttered out, spinning around to face Wesley.
"In front of everyone?" Willow asked in amazement.
"Indeed, I saw it with my own eyes, flying down and recuing people from the burning building, why, it looked like something out of a childish comic, I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes." Wesley explained, a bit hurt that his account of events was being taken into question.
"Yes yes, I believe that he saved these people," Giles waved away the hurt look on Wesley's face. "What I meant to say was, he had been seen saving these people?"
"Oh, yes, he was quite, what is the word the Americans use, yes, flashy about it. No subtlety in the use of his magic's, in fact, I'd go as far as to say he was almost advertising his presence to all around." Wesley informed Willow and Giles before starting back on his walk out of the park. "Are you two coming? We do have work to do."
"This is amazing," Sam breathed out as she slowly walked into the lab. "This actually explains a lot."
"Huh?" Jack turned to her, his eyes begging for an explanation here as he fearfully held his hands tightly behind his back, he remembered the last time they had run into Ancient technology, the only way they had been able to fix is was with help from the Asgard, unfortunately the Asgard were now fully engaged in their war with the Replicators, so counting on them for help if this went pair shaped would be a little hit or miss.
"Well sir, look at it, Apophis must have discovered this libratory in Sokar's territory when he took it over, that would explain why he chose this site to build his new advanced war ship." Carter explained, glancing around at all the technology around her. "I believe that Apophis was using Ancient technology to enhance his shields, possibly weapons, he chose this site for a reason sir, and I'll bet good money that he's not about to give it up without a fight."
"So the bad guy's returning for his toys?" Faith said simply, boiling the conversation down to the important elements that she could understand.
"Yes," Carter nodded emphatically. "And if I was him, I'd bring a full army with me to take this planet back, he won't want technology like this to fall into the hands of another system lord, Ancient technology would give any system lord a significant lead over the others, technology, knowledge, sir, these were the builders of the Stargate's, their database could be invaluable to us."
"Only one problem Carter," Jack nodded, accepting that this really was a treasure trove of her wildest dreams. "We don't have a way of getting it home, no Stargate, the ring twins over there can't do it," Jack grinned as he nodded at Buffy and Faith. "So unless we have a third option, which I'm not seeing here, I don't see any other alternative."
"So this stuff is advanced then?" Buffy asked, staring around at the shiny silver technology that was all around them.
"Extremely," Jack nodded his head. "And don't touch anything; we haven't got a clue what any of this stuff is, or what it does. The last time we encountered left over Ancient technology, I ended up with a head full of crazy stuff that would have killed me."
"Not fun then," Buffy said softly as she pulled her hands back from the table in the middle of the room.
"Definitely not," Jack agreed. "Whatever this stuff is, I say we just blow it to hell and get out of here, we don't want to risk another 'download'," He paused as he made quote marks in the air around the word. "And I definitely don't want a snake getting hold of this stuff."
"We can't just blow it up sir," Carter objected. "This is the single largest cache of Ancient technology we have come across; just imagine what we could learn from it, the breakthroughs..."
"And I'm sure Apophis is saying exactly the same thing," Jack cut her off. "This stuff is far too dangerous to leave leaving around for some snake head to use against us. We should take what we can, if anything, then blow the rest sky high."
"This stuff is really that dangerous?" Faith asked, looking around at all the Star Trek style gadgets and gizmos that were lying on workbenches half assembled, or half disassembled if Sam was right.
"We don't know," Carter interrupted, turning to Faith. "The technology here could be invaluable in building a long term defence against the Goa'uld, or it could be technology that we just can't backward engineer, the Ancients were so far ahead of us, technologically speaking, that a lot of their science and maths is still not completely understood."
"Right, so it could be a big ass bomb," Faith smirked. "Or a microwave oven, we won't know until we take it apart or turn it on."
"Exactly," Both Carter and Jack agreed at the same time.
"So what's with the doodah that Faith found?" Buffy asked, nodding at the yellow stained glass looking object that the younger Slayer was still holding.
"Came up from over here," Faith explained as she nodded over to the octagonal table in the middle of the room before walking over to it. "Guess I pressed something by accident, it just popped up in the middle."
Carter followed Faith's gaze over to the table before walking over and running her hand hesitantly over the top of it, noting the geometric patterns that curved and intersected over the smooth surface.
"Yeah, right there," Faith nodded to the hole where Carter's fingers were now running around. "It just came up, it was glowing like hell when it first appeared, but stopped when I took it out."
"Some sort of recharging device maybe," Carter mused out loud as she looked at the table first at then the module in Faith's hands. "Or maybe even a device to create the modules in the first place."
"Dunno," Faith shrugged. "But that's not the cool stuff." She grinned as everyone turned to face her with quizzical expressions. "Check this out." She smiled as she walked back into the main cavern over to the circular type craft she had seen before.
"A space ship?" Jack mused quietly. "Little on the small side ain't it?"
"Maybe it's a shuttle," Buffy said as she walked around to the front of the craft where there was what looked like a pane of glass cut into the metal of the ship, allowing for passengers and crew to see out of it. "Can't really see inside though, it's too dark in here." She pressed against the glass with her face, cupping her hands around her eyes to see if she could see anything more inside without the light from the cavern reflecting into her eyes. "What the hell?" She jumped back as a hissing sound came from the craft.
"It wasn't me!" Jack shouted back as he jumped away from the back of the craft.
"Actually, I think it was sir," Carter explained as she watched the entire back section of the craft lower down to a ramp. "There must have been some access panel or a hidden button that you inadvertently touched."
"Fine," Jack groused as he poked his head around the edges of the craft to take a look inside. It was pretty spacious at the back, room for four, maybe six people with equipment. Then there was a door that he assumed went into the control section of the ship, seeing as he couldn't see any controls or buttons from here, he felt reasonably good in that assumption.
"Stand back gramps," Faith said with a smirk, moving past Jack so that she could move into the craft. "I got this one."
"I don't think so," Jack muttered back, moving to intercept Faith into the ship but was blocked by her simply holding out her hand on his chest, to him it felt like walking into a brick wall though he could see she barely even braced herself against the floor.
"You're the guy in charge here right?" Faith explained as she held Jack in place. "If anything bad happens in here, Blondie and Buffy will need you to get them home."
"Carter can manage fine without me," Jack said simply, refusing to budge from his stance.
"And what's Xan going to do if anything happens in here?" Faith challenged him again as he glared at her. "No offence gramps, but Xan's a lot scarier than you, and I for one don't want him pissed at me because you got hurt out here."
"Then you shouldn't go in either," Jack countered her argument. "I've seen how Xander looks at you, like you're the love of his life or something." Jack smirked at Faith's face showing pure shock at his words. "Like you hadn't noticed, he'd go to hell and back for you, and I'm sure you'd do the same for him." He smiled when Faith nodded slightly, the shock now gone from her face as she thought about how Xander really made her feel. "Well, I ain't gonna be the one to tell him you got fried by some alien doodad, so you can wait back there," He smirked, using Faith's hesitation as a distraction as he simply walked by her and pressed his hand to the door at the end of the back compartment.
"Hey!" Faith shouted as she shook her head, clearing the thoughts that were bouncing around in there when she saw Jack about to enter the other room of the ship. "What the hell?" She muttered, watching as the ship seemed to come to life as Jack walked into the cockpit area. "Whoa," She breathed out, walking into the cockpit and sitting down in the chair next to the one Jack had taken. "Beats the hell out of Xan's X-box at home." She grinned, looking at all the lights around the consoles that were now lit up and functioning.
"Sir, what did you press?" Carter asked, storming forward into the ship with Buffy in tow.
"Wasn't me!" Jack shot back, holding his hands up in mock surrender as he grinned. "Faith'll back me up, I just walked it and it all lit up."
"Yeah," Faith agreed, swinging her seat around so she could see Buffy and Carter. "It's like it knew we were here, so it just turned itself on."
"Like the Ancient Repository back on P3R-272," Carter explained, remembering how the Ancient device hadn't worked for Teal'c. "That would explain why Apophis hasn't used any of this technology yet, it doesn't work for the Goa'uld. Just like the Repository of Knowledge wouldn't work for Teal'c, only you or Daniel."
"Anti-badguy tech," Faith grinned. "Liking these Ancients more and more."
"You and me both," Jack grinned, placing his hands on the 'dashboard' in front of him and causing a hum to vibrate through the entire shuttle. "Whoah," He whispered out, feeling the shuttle respond to his tense movements.
"Sir, do you think you could fly this thing?" Carter asked, looking at the complicated controls. The text now scrolling across the screen was definitely Ancient, and so far Daniel had been the only one she knew of that could successfully translate it into English.
"Maybe," Jack answered honestly, running his fingers over the dashboard before gripping the two sticks that look like they had been carved out of some sort of crystal. "How hard can it be?" He grinned as his fingers played over the sticks, causing the shuttle to shift slightly in place.
"Right, so we've got a way off this planet," Faith grinned. "Let's get gone then." She smiled, settling down in the seat and swinging it back towards the main window.
"One second sir," Carter said, walking back out of the craft. "There's a lot of technology here, we should try and take what we can, keep as much of it out of Apophis' hands as possible." She didn't mention the fact that she was practically drooling at the thought of getting some of the Ancient technology back to her lab.
"Good plan," Jack said, nodding his head in agreement. Anything that kept the snakes from getting their grubby hands on Ancient technology was good with him, especially if it meant he got a cool new toy out of the deal. "Grab what you can," He nodded to Carter before turning to Buffy. "See if you can help her, nothing too heavy though, we don't know how much this thing can lift."
"Sir," Carter nodded in affirmative before she left the craft. Buffy just simply shrugged before following after her, her eyes still wandering around the dark cave anxiously as they started to gather bits and pieces of equipment that looked useful.
"This... this is awful." Jenny gasped out as she followed Xander down the streets of Sunnydale, the destruction of the town evident all around them. Thankfully the destruction and fires seemed to be limited to the major parts of the town, the hospital, town hall, mayor's office. Even now she could see the smoke coming from the general direction of the school, but now helicopters and jeeps carrying medical and relief supplies from the military were buzzing around the area.
Xander just nodded in response, he couldn't believe he hadn't been here in time to stop this, the destruction, the chaos; it was almost palatable in the air, though now it was tinged with something else, the sound of hope. Xander swung his head around, catching a familiar sound in the air, though he couldn't see anything when he looked.
"What is it?" Jenny asked, turning to look at where Xander was now glaring.
"I thought..." Xander trailed off, shaking his head slightly. "Nah, must just be more worn out than I thought." He could have sworn he heard a snarl coming from the darkness behind him, the same almost sarcastic sound that he had heard from Angelus when he was fighting Buffy, but that just wasn't possible, Angelus was in hell, he knew, he had sent him there himself.
"Come on, we should find Rupert and the rest." Jenny stated firmly, now taking the lead and leading Xander down the road towards the school.
"Giles won't be there," Xander said firmly, stopping once he realised where Jenny was leading him. "I told him... god, when I found you, when Ethan had attacked..." He paused, going pale as the memories of what he had seen came flooding back. "They're at the medical park, I told Giles to take Willow there after I took care of the hospital."
"Willow..." Jenny gasped out; the memories of her fight with Ethan now flooding back thick and fast. "Is she alright? What about Rupert, Oz?"
"Giles is fine, so's Willow," Xander explained, looking away from Jenny and down at the floor. "Oz... I couldn't help him."
"Oh god," Jenny whispered out, thinking what must be going through Xander's mind right now. "You weren't there, you couldn't have helped."
"I should have been there," Xander shot back at her. "I could have stopped this, stopped all of this." He shouted, waving his arms around to indicate the current state of the town. "Ethan did this because he wanted me; if I would have been here then Oz would still be alive."
"You know this?" Jenny shouted back at him, moving right up to him so she was basically staring right in his face. "Ethan might have killed Oz even if you had been here, or Willow, or Giles. If he'd kept you occupied than you might not even have been able to save me." She whispered the last out, not wanting to think about how close she'd actually come to dying.
"I just wish..." Xander trailed off, his thoughts racing at a thousand miles an hour as he tried to figure out exactly what it was that he was wishing for.
"Don't," Jenny said calmly. "We can only control the events that we participate in, don't wish to change things that have already happened, no one can control those." She paused, looking at Xander and remembering exactly who, or what he was now. "No one should control those, time is a dangerous thing Xander, it has its own rules, its own lords and people who protect the timeline, even you can't face down the Lords of Time and survive."
"I should have been able to save him," Xander whispered out, thinking about what Jenny had said about the Lords of Time and filing it away to ask Giles about later.
"But you weren't," Jenny said firmly. "Neither were Buffy or Faith, no one could save him, it might have just been his time." She finished quietly. "Where are Buffy and Faith, with Rupert and Willow?"
"No," Xander explained. "They're still with my dad in Colorado Springs; I didn't want them to see this." He said, not wanting to argue about his thoughts anymore, he'd made the choice to deliberately concentrate on this situation himself, that way if he was 'outed' to the public, then it was only his concern, not Buffy and Faith's as well.
"You should get them," Jenny said as she started walking again. "If nothing else, Willow is going to need her friends, especially now." She finished quietly as she walked off down the road, intent on now finding Rupert and allowing Xander to make up his own mind about what he had to do, she had confident however that he would make the right choice.
