Magical Cage 3
Rated TEEN
Jack blinked awake the minute his watch vibrated against his wrist. Sam had last sentry duty, so he had expected to find her missing from the side of the cave SG-1 had commandeered, but the whole cave was empty except for Daniel whose mouth hung open, his arm thrown over his eyes even in the dim light of the cave.
When Jack tried to push himself up, he winced at the pain that lanced his arm. Oh yeah, that hurt. He sat up and worked his sore hand before grabbing his P-90 and heading out into the morning light.
"Colonel," Sam said as soon as he came out the narrow crack; she leaned against a tree and scanned the faint path they had been following last night.
"Carter," he answered. "What happened to our guests?"
"Willow said she had to use the bathroom, and she wasn't comfortable doing it around here," Sam shrugged. Jack rolled his eyes. God save them from civvies. Of course, the other option was that the three were off radioing some Goa'uld base for reinforcements.
"Daniel, wakey-wakey," Jack called into the cave. If he knew Daniel, it would take a lot more than that to get the archeologist moving. "If you aren't up in two minutes, I'm using your journal for my morning TP," he threatened.
A groan from the darkness at the far side of the cave answered.
"He'd have an aneurism if you ever did," Sam pointed out.
"Daniel Jackson would be most disturbed," Teal'c agreed as he came out of the trees.
"So, where are our guests?" Jack asked, not even doubting that Teal'c would have had the same doubts and followed the group. Sliding along the rock face, he finally stepped over the low bushes where they thinned.
"They have indeed traveled quite a distance to urinate."
"So, do we have some privacy here?"
"I believe I will hear them approach from quite a distance," Teal'c agreed.
Jack snorted a quick laugh. Yeah, they were loud. "Does anyone else think things are a little odd here?" he asked as Daniel appeared at cave mouth, his glasses hanging from one hand while he scrubbed his face with the other.
"You mean other than the part with the vampire?" Daniel asked sarcastically.
"Yes, Daniel, I mean other than the part with the vampire. Something's off, so opinions?"
"The ramifications of a universe based on the existence of magic… if it's true, it's amazing, and Willow seems to believe what she says," Carter offered. She and Willow had sat up late into the night discussing the relative power of thing-a-mah-jiggies and the similarities between magic and physics in her universe. When they'd started theorizing reasons for alternate universes with alternate rules for physics, Jack had volunteered to take watch. Jack could practically hear Sam drooling at the thought of doing a few tests, but they had to get back to Earth first.
"How strange is it that a myth, largely propagated in Medieval Europe actually exists in an alternate universe? It can't be coincidence," Daniel added.
"That's assuming he *is* a vampire. I'm about ready to start looking for the fuzzy edges of the hologram." Jack curled his fingers, trying to regain some flexibility in his injured hand.
"I do not see how vampires differ from other alien life forms."
"There's the sucking blood," Jack pointed out. Teal'c answered with a raised eyebrow.
"No, Jack, Teal'c's right. Spike represents a different life form, one that's no less probable than a Jaffa who relies on an alien symbiote for his immune system," Daniel said as he climbed over the bushes. Jack had some small measure of satisfaction that he might be old, but he still was more graceful than Daniel.
"You're the one who said that the coincidence was a little too much to be believable," Jack pointed out.
"And you're the one who volunteered to go with Xander and Spike tomorrow. If there's a chance they're not what they seem—"
"Of course there's a chance. But you and Carter need to get that wormhole open, and that means we need a distraction," Jack snapped. He hated it when Daniel questioned his orders, especially when he was already well aware that breaking up the team was dangerous. "If something happens, we don't come back here. We leave them and meet three klicks due north of the Gate. We can't take the chance that they may not be what they seem."
"Or we could just stay together." Daniel whispered that under his breath, but he didn't whisper it softly enough to avoid being heard by anyone in the group.
"Daniel."
"Jack."
"I'll blow something up, you just get the call in to home," Jack repeated his order.
"Sir, are you okay?" Carter suddenly interrupted the fight. Only then did Jack realize he'd been rubbing his sore arm.
"Just getting old, Carter."
"The black and blue hand isn't a natural part of any aging process I know," Daniel added dryly as he crossed his arms defiantly.
"Daniel, it's fine."
"Define fine," Daniel immediately shot back. .
"You're nagging, Daniel."
"Colonel O'Neill, perhaps it would be best if you rested your injury," Teal'c suggested, and Jack would be happy to take that advice if they were back on Earth, if they had SG-3 here to back them up, if he didn't have a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that things were about to go even more FUBAR.
"I'm not injured," Jack snapped instead. He flexed his bruised hand and then flinched when threads of pain burned up to his elbow. God he hated getting old. "We—"
"They approach," Teal'c interrupted, and instantly, the team quieted, their internal debates shelved as the three strangers came out of the woods, Spike and Xander obviously bickering already.
"So, kids," Jack said loud enough to interrupt the Spike and Xander floorshow. "You three head for the Gate, and the three of us will go south and look for something to blow up. That should get their attention." Jack didn't wait for any answers; he just headed back for the cave to grab his pack with the C-4.
~oO0Oo~
"So, you were going up against a god?" Jack asked as they walked under the canopy of trees. Spike had darted away into the distance for the umpteeth time, which made Jack's threat assessment alarm sound like the sirens at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, but he couldn't do much about it now without jeopardizing the mission.
"Oh yeah. Glorificus. She of the fluffy hair and seriously bad attitude. Since she still pulled these godly powers of regeneration and immortality from the dimension that gave her the godly pink slip, we did the whole attacking from two fronts thing."
A bird exploded out of a bush with a raucous cry, and Xander's eyes sharply scanned the forest, completely at odds with the odd, don't-mind-me-I'm-the-village-idiot babbling.
"What about getting official help?" Jack asked as he eyed a stand of dead trees standing in a circle with stick fingers pointing up in the air. A bit of C4 for a bang, some flash powder and a dozen trees turning raging forest fire just might catch someone's attention. With the damp ground under his boots, the fire couldn't even hope to get started anywhere else.
"Officially… vampires and gods don't exist, only they kinda do in a covert secret-base sort of—"
"Oy!" Spike interrupted. "It's not like he's really interested; he's just pumping you for information, ya ninny."
"He's already figured out the whole 'vampires exist' secret, so I'm not seeing the harm in swapping stories. No pumping necessary."
"'Course, if he picks your brain, he'll probably just get hot air."
"Hey!"
"Bloody hell, can we just soddin' blow something up and get the show on the road? I'm sick of this do-gooding shit and I'm ready to grab a bite to eat. So get with the explosions and luring my meal to me." Spike smiled and Jack watched with cold revulsion as the teeth stretched into sharp fangs.
"So, you don't normally—" Jack didn't even have a chance to finish.
"Wot? Save the great unwashed like these sorry sods do every night of their wasted lives? Act like the do-gooding but tortured soul from some bodice-ripper romance like that wanker Angel? Bloody hell no!"
That's when Jack made the connection, and he could only blame the pain of his hand for distracting him from the obvious. Spike had told Willow he wouldn't let Xander get killed until he got his money.
"A mercenary." Jack said quietly, all his internal alarms ringing. Mercenaries promised the sun and stars on a silver platter and then sank a knife as deep as they could into your back. At this point, Jack wasn't sure what he disliked more on general grounds, vampires or mercs.
"Yeah, but Spike's not so bad once you get past the accent and the attitude and the really crude comments," Xander broke in. Spike flipped two fingers in his general direction.
"He helped keep the world from getting sucked into a hell dimension by this demon called Acathla," Xander continued.
"I'd been drinking that night."
"And he fought against these Vahrall who almost opened a hell portal."
"Bored," Spike dismissed it.
"You didn't take Adam up on the offer to—"
"I wouldn't have believed a word out of his mouth," Spike cut Xander off sharply, and Jack wouldn't have thought anything about it except Xander immediately began to turn red.
"I didn't, I mean, you know I wouldn't…" Xander mumbled.
"Bloody hell. I'm evil to the core so just stop before I rip your tongue out," Spike hissed as he narrowed his eyes dangerously, but the expression that made Jack's guts twist just seemed to embarrass Xander as he focused on staring at the ground. Of course, Jack got the feeling the boy was safe, and Jack didn't assume the same was true of himself or his team. "I'm in this for the money and the blood, so blow something up," Spike ordered as he turned a yellow gaze toward Jack.
Jack tightened his hand on his weapon, his instincts screaming on more levels than Jack could even process, and it bothered him that just a little part of him felt like a rabbit spotted by the big bad wolf. "Let's get the charges set, then," Jack said as calmly as he could. He had to ignore the crawling feeling up his back as he headed toward the dead trees."
"Fuck, what is that sound?" Spike complained as he slapped his hands over his ears.
"You're having hallucinations, fangless," Xander complained, but he moved toward the trunk of a large tree, pulling Spike with him even as the vampire shook his head like a wet dog and stared up at the sky. Jack trotted over to a place where one tree had fallen against its neighbor, making a small niche. He scanned the sky, weapon ready, even as Xander did the same with his sword clutched in his hand.
In the distance, he could hear a faint whistle that swelled and faded. He shot Xander a confused look, but the boy just crouched low, and now Spike hovered over him, growling toward the sky. Jack reached up and clicked his radio three times without saying anything. He waited for some response, but nothing came back to him. Either the kids couldn't answer or something had already happened.
"I would have been happy to be wrong this time," Jack griped to the universe in general as a triangle shaped plane came screaming through the air. Two more followed on a slightly different path. Jack glanced toward the two fighters at the base of the other tree, and Xander was now on his knees between the tree and Spike who snarled fiercely.
Jack hesitated. His team needed him, but he just didn't get the feeling that Spike and Xander were part of this new development. "Shit," Jack cursed as he realized he couldn't leave them without even a gun to defend themselves.
Jack scoped out the territory and darted toward the cover of a tree with drooping branches not more than ten feet from where Spike now cursed with more enthusiasm than Jack had heard since he did two weeks with the 800 Naval Air Squadron. The scream of engines warned him of the ships' return, and he threw himself to the ground. Above, a long thin nose merged into a fatter body with short, stubby wings near the back, and the design wasn't anything like Goa'uld or even Asgard ships Jack had ever seen. He waited until the ship screeched past.
"Move out, get toward the denser trees," Jack bellowed. Spike reached down and grabbed Xander by the back of his shirt, hauling him to his feet. Jack spotted a better piece of cover—a butter knife shaped rock under wide branches of another tree. Jack dashed toward it, but half way there, a shimmering light enveloped him, and then he simply vanished.