Sentinel Meet Guide
A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter. Eleven chapters of waiting, and finally! Also ... I am evil.
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June 20, Colorado Springs
Jon was beginning to freak out, just a little. Over the last two days, his sight and hearing had repeatedly gone completely insane. Worse, he had some sort of extremely painful rash that had spread from one arm to almost the entirety of his body. Overnight. He couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, couldn't concentrate or think. He had a migraine. He was, when he could string two thoughts together, fairly sure he was dying. Again. But the thought of trying to call the older half when his hearing was so messed up and he had the migraine from hell made him cringe.
It didn't help that there was a tiny corner of his mind that was thinking that maybe it'd be better if he did die. It wasn't like he actually had any real place in the world. He was a clone, for god's sake. That corner of his mind was usually either silent or drowned out by the far louder and more adamant parts of Jon's personality, but at the moment, he was so miserable it was louder than usual. Nearly as loud, in fact, as it had been in the wake of Charlie's death.
He swore a blue streak when he looked up ... and saw a wild animal in his apartment.
June 20, Cascade
Xander was ... edgy. To put it politely. If he didn't know better, he'd say his Hellmouth radar was going off, but that wasn't it. Something, however, was definitely going on. He'd been dreaming of the hyena the last two nights, and yesterday, he'd found himself snitching Blair's laptop and going on the 'net. When Blair caught him at it, he'd been checking out maps of Colorado ... and he had no freaking idea why. It was enough to make a guy paranoid. He was beginning to wish that Willow hadn't gone home with Giles and Angel. Not that she'd have a solution to the problem, but having her around would at least have distracted him.
And now, he couldn't seem to sit still to save his soul. Sore, still healing and out of shape be damned, he'd been pacing off and on all day, increasingly uneasy. Blair and Jim had been watching him, Blair with wide-eyed curiosity, Jim with a bit more subtlety. Xander'd caught Blair eyeing Jim more than once, as if wondering if he was picking up on whatever was driving Xander to distraction. Clearly, Jim wasn't, which hadn't helped Xander's assumption that something Hellmouthy was going on, despite being two states away from said hellmouth.
Finally, exasperated with himself, he flung himself onto his futon and glared at the ceiling for a minute or two. About five minutes later, his day was really capped off when the hyena abruptly popped in. Xander gave the thing a death-glare, and fought the urge to find somewhere to hide from it. From everything Blair had told him, that was so not going to work. They hyena stared right back and then whooped at him, the sound oddly urgent, before it turned and ran through a wall. The wall on the east side of the apartment, some part of Xander noticed.
He eyed Jim and Blair. "Ok, did you two see that?" He asked, his tone almost begging. He was still getting used to the whole spirit animal thing in general, nevermind the fact his was a freaking hyena. The gods clearly hated him.
His question was somewhat unnecessary, as both Jim and Blair were eyeing where the hyena had appeared. "Yep." Much to Xander's relief, Jim sounded nearly as disgusted as Xander felt. It helped knowing that someone else wasn't a fan of the whole spirit animal thing, even if Jim had different reasons.
"Something's up." Blair said. "I mean, you haven't been able to sit still for more than about five minutes all day." He eyed Xander for a minute, then glanced over at Jim. "You know ... I don't think you're a Sentinel, Xander." He finally said.
"Oh really? So I'm just blessed with a freaking ghost hyena that follows me around then?" Xander snarked. Not that it was even out of the realm of possibility, given his life over the last year.
"No. I just ... well, at first I assumed you'd be a Sentinel because of Jim, assuming the Sentinel thing was genetic, but either it isn't, or you didn't get it. You're acting a bit like I did, before Jim and I met, actually."
"Chief?" Jim asked, frowning slightly.
"Jim, think about it. Of all the places in the world ... literally, you know how much Naomi and I travelled ... why did I come here for college? Cascade's good, but there's quite a few places better, even just here in the States." Blair pointed out. "I bugged Naomi for over a year to bring me here." He confessed. "It was like I knew I needed to be here, but for the life of me, didn't know why. I left on expeditions a few times, but I always came back, and the months before you and I met? Someone would have had to have knocked me out to get me to leave Cascade. I never saw my wolf, but then again, I was in town with you ... and I pulled some really questionable stunts to meet you."
That made Jim grin, remembering 'Doctor McKay'. At the time, it had pissed him off, but now, it was rather amusing. "So you're saying you think Xander's a guide, then?"
Blair nodded. "And I'll bet you any amount of money that his Sentinel's starting to have the senses kick in, and needs Xander. It'd explain a whole hell of a lot, and not just about the last couple of days."
Xander thought about it, and after a minute or two, decided that Blair maybe had a point. After all, Blair and Jim had told him their spirit animals had led them to Xander. Why? At first, they'd assumed because Xander was, in fact, Jim's son. But what if it had been because there was a Sentinel out there somewhere who was going to need him? Or maybe a bit of both? Besides, Xander rather liked the idea of not having super senses. From what he'd seen of Jim, it sucked royally. "So ... how in hell do we find them?" He wanted to know.
"You were staring at maps of Colorado yesterday." Blair pointed out. "We can start there. I'll bet he's there. It'll just be a matter of somehow further narrowing the search area."
That worked for Xander. Five minutes later, he had Blair's laptop again, and was staring at maps once more. It wasn't until that evening that they finally managed to narrow things down to the general area of Denver, though Xander was sure Denver wasn't their destination. Wherever they were going, it was relatively close to there, though. Xander kept looking to the south of Denver, too, so they figured it was south of there. It was a good start, all things considered. Blair opined that they might be looking at Colorado Springs, as the nearest large city to Denver. It was about seventy miles away, which wasn't all that far ... maybe an hour's drive. At worst, since Xander was so sure they weren't headed for Denver, they could start at Colorado Springs and spread out from there if it proved not to be the place.
Xander was surprised that they were so willing to just go with this. But then again, they'd been dealing with weird stuff for about as long as he had, hadn't they? So it made a certain degree of sense. He was just grateful beyond words that Jim wasn't freaking out. It made a very, very nice change from Tony and Jessica, who either ran him down verbally, beat the crap out of him, or ignored him. Sometimes all three in rapid succession. It was weird as hell having an adult in his life that cared about him.
Figuring out the general area they needed to go seemed to ease a bit of the need to be there. At least enough so that Xander, while still obsessed with it, could sit still and concentrate on other things again. It probably also helped that they spent the evening talking over plans to get to Colorado Springs and start looking. Jim had managed to book them a flight tomorrow evening, even, which helped immensely. That night, he dreamed again. But this time, it was a bit different.
June 20, Colorado Springs.
A leopard. He had a freaking leopard in his apartment. Jon stared at the thing, wishing he had his P-90. Or a zat. Hell, even a staff weapon'd be nice. Leopard. What the hell! It stood there in the middle of his living room and stared at him, unblinking and unmoving for several long moments.
Then things got worse. A honking great hyena came running in. Through a wall. The leopard turned and headbutted the hyena in greeting. The hyena licked the leopard's face, which made the leopard give it a slightly disgusted look. There was so much wrong with this scenario Jon didn't even know where to start. Hell, he was still stuck on the whole 'leopard in my living room' part of the problem. The rest of it was just not really registering. It didn't help that he could barely think. He thumped his head against the nearest hard surface, more than half hoping the additional pain would make him pass out. No such luck of course. Though it apparently was enough to make the leopard and the hyena go away, much to his relief.
And then things got even worse. In between one breath and the next, the apartment dropped away, and ...
He was suddenly in the African savannah, staring at the leopard again. It was up a tree, and not looking any too good, its coat ragged and shabby looking, it was entirely too thin, and had a pained expression on its face. Which kind of echoed how he felt, to be sure. Before Jon could do more than register the leopard's presence, he heard a distinctive whoop in the distance, and then the leopard lifted its head and gave a grating call.
Xander's Dream
The hyena was galloping now, a sense of urgency driving it on. Xander raced along behind it, barely paying any attention to their surroundings. He had a feeling the hyena was leading him towards a patch of trees in the distance. It whooped, announcing its imminent arrival. A few moments later, there was a loud, grating, growling chuff from the direction of the trees. And then they were at the trees, and the hyena wove through them briefly before skidding to a stop at the base of one of them.
Both Xander and Jon
Jon did a triple take when the hyena raced into view, and quickly slid behind another tree, the better to watch without being seen. Behind the hyena was a boy, about fifteen or sixteen by the look of him, with dark, shaggy hair and dark eyes.
Xander glanced around as he pulled to a stop by the hyena. He didn't see anything right away ... at least, not until it occurred to him to look up. If this had been real, he'dve had a heart attack, because about five or ten feet almost directly over his head, there was a rather ragged, unhappy looking leopard. The hyena at his feet whooped, and reared up against the tree, front paws braced on the bark. After a moment, it dropped back to all fours, and then paced around the tree before repeating its actions. Then it dropped its nose to the ground, snuffling audibly for a few moments before it walked off, nose still to the ground. It stopped at a nearby tree and gave a distinctly gleeful-sounding cackle. Xander snorted in amusement and wandered over.
"What'd you find?" He asked. He got a rather unexpected answer when a teenage boy about his age warily stepped out from behind the tree. He had light brown/blonde hair, and brown eyes that carried a seriousness most teenagers didn't have.
"What the hell's going on?" The other kid asked.
Xander grinned. "I'm not completely sure, but I've got a fair idea. This guy belongs to me. And that leopard, I'm guessing, belongs to you. If Blair's right, you're a Sentinel."
"What the hell's a Sentinel?" Jon wanted to know.
"Somebody who has majorly enhanced senses." Xander said, opting for the briefest, simplest explanation. "And if he." Xander pointed to the leopard. "Is any indication, I'm betting you're in trouble at the moment."
Jon grimaced. "Something like that." He wasn't about to admit the kid was right. Not when he had no idea if this was real, or something cooked up by Loki or some particularly demented Goa'uld. "What's your name, anyway?" He wanted to know.
"Xander. What's yours?"
"Jon."
"Where are you?"
There was no way in hell Jon was going to answer that one. He gave Xander a rather hostile glare. Xander rolled his eyes. "Look, we'll find you. You're in trouble. Help's on the way. Just try to hold on until we get there, all right?"
Jon
And before Jon could answer, the savannah melted away, and he was back to standing in his living room, probably looking like a complete idiot. What in the name of hell had that been? Unfortunately, before he could even begin to come up with an answer, his hearing spiked again, dropping him to his knees, arms wrapped defensively around his head.
June 21, Cascade
Xander, injuries be damned, almost catapulted out of bed as he woke from the dream. "Shit. Shit." He got to his feet and headed for the door, only to forcibly stop himself. "Double shit. This is bad." Something in him was all but screaming at him to get to Colorado, right now. It was very disconcerting. And alarming. He threw a look at the clock and swore viciously. It was barely four in the morning ... he had about twelve hours to wait before their flight. Even worse, driving there would take twice as long. He was going to go completely insane before they got there, and they still had to actually find Jon, though with any luck the hyena and/or the leopard would lead the way, like the jaguar and wolf had done for Jim and Blair. At least he had a first name, and a face, to put to the person they were trying to find, if the dream hadn't been so much smoke and mirrors.
Thankfully, Blair was very much a morning person, and he came out into the living room around five am, which meant Xander'd only had an hour to drive himself nuts alone. Blair got one good look at his face and gave him a sympathetic look. "Want me to find out if we can get an earlier flight?" He asked.
Xander nodded. "Please. Had another dream last night. Only this time, I saw him. He's got a leopard. Which doesn't look too good. Didn't find out much, but he did tell me his name was Jon."
Blair's eyebrows headed for his hairline, even as he hurried into the kitchen to start breakfast. "Ok, want to give me the long version?" he asked.
So Xander did, and by the time he'd wound down, breakfast was mostly ready and Jim was awake and moving, though not downstairs yet. Once the food was cooked, Blair immediately headed for the phone and his laptop, to see if there were any earlier flights, and if so, whether or not they could exchange tickets. Much to Xander's relief, they could, though there was a tradeoff. There was a ten am flight ... but it landed in Denver, not Colorado Springs. Still, even with the additional drive time, they'd be cutting at least four hours off the original time it would have taken just to get to Colorado Springs, so that was of the good.
Colorado Springs
The minute they landed in Colorado Springs, Xander got treated to a repeat of how Jim and Blair found him, only this time it was the hyena and the leopard leading the way.
"This is so freaky." Xander groused. "I mean, seriously. We're following ghost animals. Anyone ever finds out about this, we're going to be due for a long, long stay in a padded room."
That made Blair snicker, though he did agree ... this sort of thing would definitely raise eyebrows. Jim just shot Xander a commiserating look through their rental's rearview mirror. Finally, the hyena and leopard stopped in front of an old two-story house that had been subdivided into apartments. The leopard dashed up the wooden stairs on the side of the house that led up to what had once been the attic, and the three men followed. Xander knocked on the door when they reached it ... but there was no response.
"Maybe he's not home?" Xander asked, then frowned. "Or we've got the wrong place. Or this is some sort of cosmic hoax." Those last two options had the hyena, sitting at his feet, giving him a dirty look.
At that point, the leopard (who had disappeared into the house) stuck its head back through the door and gave a distinctly alarmed-sounding cry, before pulling back into the apartment.
"Somehow, I don't think that's the case." Jim said, eyeing the door. They could always break in, but that was going to be fun to explain later, either if the guy really wasn't home or if they had to call the emergency squad. Then again ... Jim knew just how bad things could get, when the senses went out of control. Hell, more than once, he'd have ended up dead if it wasn't for Blair, simply because he zoned at a really, really, really bad time. If there was such a thing as a good time to zone, that is.
"Head back down the stairs a bit. I'm going to get the door open." Jim told them. Whatever else, he wasn't about to leave a fellow Sentinel locked up somewhere in dire straits. They'd figure out how to explain things later, if it came to that.
Xander and Blair both backed off down the steps a bit, and Jim tested the door. Fortunately, it didn't seem to be especially sturdy, and he was a big guy. Better still, it didn't look like the deadbolt was engaged, just the knob lock. A couple good hits with his shoulder and the lock gave, allowing the door to swing inwards.
It was instantly clear that, whatever else may be going on, this was definitely the home of a Sentinel in distress. The window shades were all down, and several of the windows had blankets dangling over the curtain rods, a haphazard attempt at further blocking any light coming through. There was a bucket that bore remnants of bleach and water from a recent attempt at scrubbing out the scents in the apartment, and Jim winced. That attempt had probably just made things worse ... bleach reeked, even to normal senses. Clothes were scattered everywhere, a sign the Sentinel's sense of touch was in as bad of shape as his sight and smell. Jim'd gone through everything he owned trying to find something he could tolerate against his skin once or twice when his senses had re-awoken just before he met Blair.
To Xander, the place mostly looked like a regular bachelor's apartment. Clothes scattered everywhere, blankets on the window ... none of it had the same connotations for him as it did for Jim. He glanced around, and, not seeing anyone, headed for one of the doors off the living room. It turned out to be the kitchen, nearly as messy as the living room, but as devoid of unknown people as the living room had been. Xander immediately headed for the next door. Bathroom. The third door proved to be the bedroom.
Xander didn't immediately see anyone in the room, and might have left, despite the near-compulsion to find Jon, if it hadn't been for the leopard sitting at the foot of the bed, looking worried. Xander decided to check the far side of the bed ... and found a kid that looked a lot like what the 'Jon' guy in his dream had looked like. And he was seeing a lot more of the other teen than he'd ever expected to.
He was curled up in a tight ball, arms over his head, wearing nothing but a pair of silk boxers and he looked like complete shit. There was some sort of painful-looking rash scattered all over his arms and back and legs. He was also completely unresponsive. Xander swore softly and dropped to his knees, throwing one arm around the other teen and mentally blessing Blair. Blair, once it'd been clear that Xander was probably a Guide, had given Xander 'Guide 101', which basically was a primer on the basics of how to work with and help a Sentinel.
The lessons were coming in handy right about now. With no way of knowing what Jon had zoned on ... or if that was even the problem ... he could have spiked, which was a different problem, or just have retreated into unconsciousness to get away from his out of control senses, Xander just tried to monopolize as many of Jon's senses as he could. He started babbling a mile a minute about anything that came into his head, and deliberately laid his hand gently over Jon's nose and mouth, hoping that it would either muffle the scents Jon was already having to deal with, or at the least it would provide something new that he'd want to figure out and thus be pulled towards consciousness. Sight he couldn't manage at the moment, as Jon had his eyes clamped closed. Still, three of the five wasn't bad.
Jon's POV
In retrospect ... the bleach had been a very, very bad idea. Not that Jon was actually capable of thinking that one through at the moment. After the dream, completely weirded out, he'd spent a few hours stalking through his apartment, getting thoroughly frustrated by whatever was going on. He'd decided the place needed some cleaning to get rid of the stench ... and that had been, pretty much, the beginning of the end. His senses, as uncomfortable as they were before that, had gone completely off the scale in the space of about five minutes. He'd ended up tearing his clothes off to get away from at least some small shred of the agonizing pain. A pair of silk boxers he'd gotten himself mostly as a private, and very bitter joke (like anyone was ever going to see them? Hah.) proved to be the only things he could even begin to tolerate wearing.
Then some idiot had driven by and laid on the horn. That had been the last thing that Jon was aware of. Until now. It was the scent that reached him first, close and strong and smelling of ... well, things Jon didn't yet know how to identify. Whatever the combination was, it was ... oddly soothing. Reassuring. If he'd been at all coherent, he'dve balked at that thought, but at the moment his higher brain functions were distinctly absent. He liked that smell. He wanted to know where it was coming from.
And as Jon slowly began to pull out of the zone, his other senses reported in. There was something draped across his back, and warmth and pressure all along one side of his body. Something was draped over his nose, too, and as Jon began to come back to consciousness, he instinctively tried to shake it off, old demons rearing their heads briefly, but unable to completely take over with him in the shape he was in. Still, it was enough to pull him further awake, wanting and needing to know who'd captured him this time, and where he was at. It was at that point that two more things registered ... a steady, swift-paced thump-thump very close to his right ear, and, laid over that, a voice, talking fast but in a quiet, reassuring tone. Jon managed to peel his eyes open a slit, tensing and groaning against the sudden return of his vision combined with the fact that the pain was beginning to make itself known again, though it was, to his delight and surprise, somewhat muted from earlier. Maybe he hadn't been captured after all. Might just be the older half and crew, though he didn't recognize the voice. A nurse, then, maybe? If the older half'd found him curled in a ball on the floor, the first stop would have been the SG infirmary.
And now that he was actually thinking things through again, the words pouring out of the person next to him began to make sense. Mostly, it was various exhortations to 'come back' and/or let the other person know he wasn't unconscious anymore. He settled for a low groan, which had the effect of instantly changing the patter of talk.
General POV
Xander wasn't sure how long he knelt there, one arm over the other teen and saying pretty much anything that came into his head before he felt the other guy take a sudden, deep breath. Xander had to fight down the urge to whoop in relief, and immediately shifted to encouraging the guy to wake up. A few moments later, the guy shook his head, like he was trying to dislodge Xander's hand. It took another minute or two, but then the guy groaned. Xander grinned widely. Yeah, he was in pain, but he was also, thanks be, not zoning anymore. At least, Xander didn't think so.
"Hey there. I know this has to suck, big time, but don't worry. We'll get it figured." Xander grinned. "At least I know what the heck's going on, and better yet, we've got backup." That brought the other guy's head up, and he blinked owlishly at Xander. "My name's Xander. We met last night. Well, sort of. Weird dream about a hyena and a leopard? Ring any bells?"
Jon grimaced. "Yeah." His voice was little more than a whisper. "M'Jon."
"Nice to finally meet you in person, Jon. Now let's see if we can't do something to get your senses under control. Once you're not reeling and in agony, I'll make with the 'splainy. I want you to think of an instrument panel you're really, really familiar with ... something you can picture in your head without having to think about it that has at least five dials."
That was easy enough. The first thing that jumped into Jon's mind was the instrument panel for his favorite jet, back when he'd still been a pilot. "Got one."
"Now, mark six of the dials. One for sight, one for sound, one for smell, one for touch, one for taste, and one for pain." Blair had taught Jim to use just five dials, but Xander was going to go with six ... after all, no matter what sense was going wonky, it was damn hard to think when your pain level was through the roof, and reducing that first would make it easier to wrestle the senses back under control.
"Now imagine where your senses are on those dials. Right about now, I'm betting they're way, way into the red zone." That got Xander a nod. "Now comes the tricky part. I want you to grab the dial for pain, and force it back down. You need to really picture it, believe it's happening."
Jon scowled, but went along with it. If it worked and got him out of this hell, he'd be willing to french-kiss Anise/Freya, nevermind pretending to mentally play with instrument controls. It took him a few minutes, with Xander giving quiet encouragement the whole time, but finally, he managed to get a 'handle' on the dial, and, wonder of wonders, the pain began to receed. He let out a long, relieved sigh and sagged, ending up leaning on Xander a good bit.
"Hah. That got it, evidently. Feeling better?" Xander asked.
"Yeah. Now what?"
"Now do the same for the other five, one by one."
It took Jon the better part of half an hour to get the dials back to something like normal, but he managed it. He had the feeling that they weren't going to stay where he put them, though ... at least, not for long. He could all but feel his senses trying to slip their new leashes. Still, it was a huge relief to have his senses back within normal parameters. Of course, at that point, he very belatedly realized he was essentially naked, and clinging to another teenaged boy. He squawked and lunged away from Xander, snatching up the first piece of clothing that came to hand and scrambling into it, cursing inventively all the while. Xander manfully refrained from laughing at him, though his expression was highly amused.
"When you're done getting dressed, c'mon out into the living room. My dad and his friend are out there. We'll explain what the heck's going on."
June 21, Cheyenne Mountain.
No one had heard from or seen the Mini-Me since the start of summer. This news irritated the hell out of Jack for a number of reasons, the least of which being that it dealt with the mini-me. All the weird shit that had happened to SG-1 over the years, and he was still trying to get his head around having a teenaged clone of himself running around. The only thing screwier than this had been Daniel's ascension and return.
That mini-me had been out of contact for weeks, but it had only been noticed in the last few days had him wanting to kick some ass. Inattention like that got people killed. Worse, it'd taken them this long to decide that he needed to be notified. He growled. By now, there'd be little to no trace of what happened to mini-me. Still, he had to try.
He stomped into Daniel's office. "Yo, Daniel. Gear up. Mini-me's gone missing." Jack told him. "You know where Teal'c's at?" While Jack knew the Jaffa was on base somewhere, it could be any of a number of places. Daniel and Sam were far easier to find. Check their offices, and in Sam's case, her lab. There was a better than ninety percent chance he'd find them there.
"I think he went down to the gym to spar. Want me to go get him?" Daniel offered, immediately beginning to put what he'd been working on away. After so many years, he'd become attuned to Jack's moods, and Jack was not a happy camper at the moment. The quicker they got on the move, the better.
"Yeah. I'll get Sam. Meetcha on the surface in twenty." Jack said, then turned and headed off for Sam's territory.
Half an hour later, they were in Jack's truck and headed for the apartment the Air Force subsidized for the mini-me, all four of them armed, though not as heavily as Jack would have liked, and neither he nor Sam were in uniform, so as not to alarm the locals with the sight of two soldiers with guns running around the streets.
When they got there, there was a strange SUV in front of the house, but Jack initially didn't pay it any mind ... after all, the mini was old enough to get a license, and definitely knew how to drive. Then it registered that it was awfully new for a teenager's pocketbook, even Air Force funded, and he glared at it for a minute, before heading for the stairs. Partway up, he realized the apartment's front door was a little ajar, and showing signs of having been forced. Shit. He pulled his gun and signaled the others to do likewise, and then slipped up the stairs as quietly as he could. A few more steps, and he heard voices. He cursed mentally, and then signaled the others again.
He and Teal'c hit the door first, slamming it back against the wall with a bang, guns already starting to track for targets.