Magical Cage 5
Rated TEEN
Jack rubbed his right arm. The left side had regained all feeling, so Jack suspected that the weapon was something like a zat. Unfortunately, the returning feeling in his right side meant that the throbbing pain in his hand now turned into volcanic, burning pain, and he just didn't have time for this.
"You 'bout ready to walk because I'm ready to leave your sorry arse behind," Spike commented as he paced the length of the cell. The queen had disappeared and left the soldiers to escort them back to their prison as soon as she decided Spike wasn't prey.
"I don't see you going anywhere soon. I don't see any of us going anywhere soon," Jack amended himself as he waved his hand around the cell.
"Spike, are you sure you're good to go? You still look a little green, which is different from your normal pasty white," Xander added from his corner of the cell at the back.
"Sod off."
"Oh yeah, that's convincing."
"Just wasn't prepared for her blood, is all."
"So you're not going to yak all over the floor or something, are you?" Xander asked.
"Lovely," Jack commented to the universe at large. Yeah, regurgitated blood would make this just about perfect.
"I'm not going to be bloody sick!" Spike snapped as he paced a little faster. "The blood just made me a little antsy, gave me a bit of a head rush."
"And this is different from usual… how?" Jack muttered to himself as he went back to rubbing arm and ignoring the vampire.
"What do you mean a head rush?" Xander pushed.
"She gave me a tingle, like the creepin' bugs feeling I used to get when old batface was sulkin' about somewhere, and her blood is—" Spike's voice cut off as he shook his head.
"Batface?" Jack didn't like the sound of that. He could feel his shoulders ache with tension. "Is that another type of demon?" Jack only paused slightly before actually using the word demon. Oh yeah, he was going to end up on MacKenzie's couch for sure this time.
"Same type. That's just Spike's name for the Master of the Aurelius line because, well," Xander paused and then shrugged, "he really did look like a bat."
"So, we're talking vampires?" Jack asked with a flinch. Yep, he was going to be spending lots of quality time with Dr. MacKenzie and his pet Rochart inkblots.
"Not bloody likely. I think I would have remembered meeting a vampire that looked like that. But there's somethin' about her."
"You're just lusting after tall, blue and scary," Xander said smugly.
Spike snorted. "I don't go for the sort that try to eat me after."
"Oh please," Xander snorted. "You totally go for that type."
"Look who's talking, mate. At least I never slept with anyone who tried ta lay eggs in me."
Jack let his head fall back against the wall. He thought getting locked up with Daniel was bad, but right now he'd pay for a lecture on the relative importance of something absolutely irrelevant. Besides, at least he could close his eyes around Daniel without wondering if the man was trying to find a way to screw him… or eat him.
Jack didn't have that much trust in Spike, and the small amount of trust he put in Xander was tempered both by the fact that the man seemed loyal to Spike and by the fact that the man seemed to have schizophrenia. He'd check the tree line and move from one spot of cover to the next like a pro one second, and then blunder out into the open the next. Right now, he spluttered indignantly, so Jack guessed it was the class clown's turn.
"I didn't sleep with her, and I can't believe Willow told you that story."
"I read the watcher's diaries. Seems like two or three rolls in the hay with a vengeance demon is as close as you ever got to a normal relationship."
"Hey! Ex-vengeance demon! And I have too had normal relationships, unlike some vamps who spent a hundred years trailing after loony toons lady."
That caught Jack's attention—Spike was at least a hundred years old. Damn. Spike was older than Teal'c, and yet the man still acted like he was about six. Without warning, the door snapped open, and Jack physically started back away from the unguarded opening.
"It's about time," Xander sighed as he stood up and then came over and held his hand down for Jack. For a half second, Jack felt the righteous indignity of it. He wasn't some old man that needed help to get off the floor, but as quickly as that thought came, the throb in his arm reminded him that he probably did need help. Jack just really wished his team was here to help him because the only thing that made him crankier than getting captured was getting captured and having to rely on people he didn't trust. With a sigh, Jack reached up with his left hand, and Xander pulled him up easily.
"Okay, what did I miss?" Jack asked as he winced. He followed Xander out the door and Spike was retrieving several knives from a squashed tomato looking thing set into the wall. Shit. He was really losing it if he hadn't even seen Spike throw the knives.
"Bloody stupid place to leave the lock," Spike growled.
"And for once we agree. We need to find a way out and our weapons, not necessarily in that order," Jack said as he checked out the hallway. The corridor to the eating hall hadn't looked particularly interesting, so he took a couple of steps in the opposite direction.
"Oi, wrong way," Spike hissed.
"And there's a right way?" Jack asked in frustration as he gestured toward the two ends of the corridor, which looked exactly the same.
"Yeah," Spike smirked as he then turned and started down the hallway they'd been escorted down before.
"He's just cranky," Xander apologized, and Jack clenched his teeth to keep from saying any number of other descriptions for Spike. For a second, he hesitated. He didn't trust Spike, and following someone you didn't trust never ended well, but wandering around an alien ship alone wasn't high on his list of smart things to try, either.
"He probably spotted something, and he's just being a dick by not saying what. He does that," Xander said as he took a step toward Spike, still looking back toward Jack.
"That'd be one word for it," Jack agreed as he started after the vampire. Xander sighed, the relief visible as he trotted after Spike's black coat.
Spike stopped outside of another door, this one thick with tiny strands that almost completely covered the entrance. Spike touched something in the wall, and tall, thin letters scrolled across a smooth membrane.
"Okay, either that's not English, or someone hit me on the head really hard," Xander said as he peered over Spike's shoulder. Jack had to bite back an order for the boy to not leave his back so exposed.
"It's demon ya ninny," Spike answered absentmindedly as he touched a word and the alien letters shifted, a new set running across the screen.
"No duh."
"Can you read it?" Jack interrupted their argument as he watched the corridor. When they got back to the rest of SG-1, Jack was going to apologize to Daniel for ever suggesting that the man talked too much. Compared to Xander and Spike, Daniel was downright laconic.
"Course I can," Spike immediately said as he touched another letter. "Some," he then added. "Looks like it might be Suvolte, but some of these don't make much sense."
"How about looking for anything that says 'Exit'?" Xander suggested.
Spike just growled.
"We're running low on time," Jack warned.
"You're not helpin', so just bloody shut your gob," Spike snapped.
"Xander, keep an eye out for Wraith," Jack said as he nudged the man on the back.
"Oh, yeah," Xander said as his eyes immediately snapped up to the corridor on the far side. "Spike, can I borrow a knife?"
Spike pulled a knife out of an inner pocket of his coat without looking away from the screen. "If ya get demon guts on it, you clean it this time," he complained. Xander took the knife and moved to the far side of Spike, knife held at his side where a Wraith wouldn't spot it right away.
"Have another one of those for me?" Jack asked, his hatred of being unarmed outweighing his hatred of having to ask for a weapon.
"No." Spike tapped another word. Jack glanced over as Xander held his knife out handle first. Jack reached up to take it, his right hand throbbing at the movement, purple and green bruising decorating the swollen flesh. Jack quickly transferred it to his left hand.
"Hey Spike, can I borrow a knife?" Xander asked the vampire again.
"Bloody—" Spike cut himself off as he grabbed another knife out of his coat and thrust it toward Xander just a little too energetically for safety. Xander took it and flashed Jack a triumphant grin before going back to guarding his side of the corridor.
"'Bout soddin' time," Spike announced triumphantly as the door slid open. He strode in without even checking for enemy, but at least Xander held position and backed toward the door carefully.
Inside was some sort of storeroom with the same not quite smooth surfaces of the ship continued here. Jack had seen a lot of ships, but never before had he seen these uneven angles or curves in a ship. And this ship looked nothing like the sleek fighters in the air when Jack had lost consciousness.
"Told you," Spike announced triumphantly, and Jack turned to see the vampire holding up the P90.
"Come to momma," Jack said affectionately as he reached out to take the weapon. Spike pulled it back at the last second, and Jack felt his guts tighten.
"Right. Are you even going to be able to hold it?" Spike demanded. Jack glared, but he didn't answer. He wasn't sure that Spike would give him the weapon even if he could. Mercs weren't trustworthy, and everything Spike did just reinforced that he was a merc through and through.
"Can you fire one of these?" Spike asked Xander.
"P90. 900 rounds per minute, 50 rounds in a clip, 200 meter range. That's a beauty," Xander said in something that came close to awe, and Jack's guts tightened more at the return of the competent-Xander.
"I'll take that as a yes. So, the toy's yours pet, but if you shoot me with this one by accident, I'm ripping out your throat by accident," Spike warned.
"As if." Xander shrugged off the threat as he took the weapon.
"But Jack, if you really want it…" Xander turned to Jack uncertainly.
"Bloody hell, no. If we're going to be fightin' demons, we need the weapons, and he won't even be able to bloody fire it with that gimp arm," Spike interrupted as he stepped between them, but Xander still looked toward Jack.
"Keep it. Just point it down when you carry, and the safety is below the trigger," Jack advised. Spike pulled Jack's handgun out of a storage crate, and Jack slipped the knife away before holding out his left hand. "That I *will* take," he insisted. Spike looked at him for a long second before handing the gun over.
Jack moved back into position to watch the open door with his weapon in hand. He would have felt a lot more reassured by its weight if he hadn't known that Xander shot Spike without even hurting him. But until they got off this ship, Spike and his ability to read the alien language was their best bet, so he ignored the growing itch between his shoulder blades.
"Next stop, the sweepers," Spike said as he strode past Jack on this way to the door.
"The what?" Xander asked as he followed. One hand rested comfortably on the end of Jack's weapon, and the other curled around the grip. Put the boy in a uniform, and Jack wouldn't be able to tell him from any other soldier who'd spent years of his life wandering around with a gun on his hip. Obviously Daniel never got so comfortable with his weapon, but even Carter, who was a soldier through and through, didn't carry her weapon with such ease.
"The ships. They're meant to sweep up people for the Wraith to eat. Now me, I prefer the hunt. Chasin' the prey down or luring them with a smile is half the fun," Spike said as he glanced over his shoulder and smiled.
"Okay, enough with the disturbo comments." Xander didn't stop when Spike did and nearly collided with the vampire who had activated another screen in front of another tightly woven door. But he recovered from his inept moment by moving so that his back was to the opposite wall where he scanned the corridor like a pro, P90 held ready.
"Whoa," Jack said as a familiar symbol flashed on the screen. He reached over and touched the Y looking symbol at the front of the word Daniel had traced onto the front of one of his journals. Jack had spent weeks staring at that as Daniel sat and filled the journal by the light of various campfires on various worlds. "That means 'man,'" he said as he traced the lighted characters. The screen didn't change, but when Spike reached up and touched it with his long finger, the skin yellowed with nicotine and the nail painted with chipped, black paint, the screen flashed to a new set of characters.
"Seems like it means prey," Spike said after a second.
"Okay, I'm thinking that's not of the good. Any luck finding anything that means 'exit'?" Xander asked without taking his eyes from the corridor.
"Maybe," Spike agreed as he touched a new set of symbols. The door swirled open.
Jack took up a position near the door as Xander wandered into the large hanger with his mouth hanging open.
"Wow, this is so much cooler than the bad guys we normally get to fight what with the lack of caves, slime, or brain-numbing stink. Okay, there's some stink, but at least it's not of the brain-numbing variety, which is so much of the better than normal," Xander breathed as he stared at the row of darts. Jack gritted his teeth and thanked god that the Wraith weren't big on guards. "But as cool as this is, and this is pretty cool, I am not getting into one of these if you're driving."
"I'm the one who can bloody read the language."
"And you're the one who can't figure out the washing machine when the instructions are printed right inside the lid, so I repeat, I will not be getting into anything you're driving," Xander said as he crossed his arms defiantly, knocking the end of the P90 and making it stick out awkwardly. Xander uncrossed his arms and grabbed at the weapon.
"Unless one of you is a pilot, I think I'll take that job," Jack interrupted as Spike opened his mouth to argue.
"Wot? You read Suvolte?"
"No, but I recognized a couple of words," Jack pointed out as he nodded toward the wall where Spike's touch had brought up a series of words. Never before had he actually appreciated the months he'd been stuck in a time loop learning the ancients' language, but at least now some of the symbols looked familiar. "So, you point out what I need to know, and I can fly us out of here."
"I'm voting for his plan," Xander threw in.
"Like I give a shite whose plan you like," Spike snorted, "besides, these things seem to work for me, and not you lot." Spike tapped the screen and a new set of symbols appeared.
"If the plane's controls won't work for me, then we'll have to find a back up plan," Jack admitted, "but right now, give me a quick run down on what I need to know." For a second, Spike narrowed his eyes dangerously. The vampire looked over toward Xander, and then back before he sighed.
"Fine. I'm only saying this rot once," he snapped as he started jabbing the screen and explaining various symbols for thrust, altitude, and some sort of ray that seemed to scoop people up. After the world's fastest tutorial, Spike punched the screen off as he started for the line of darts.
Spike took the first dart, so Jack went for the second, climbing up into it before pulling up the controls. He whispered a quick 'thank you' to the universe when everything seemed to work. Xander still stood near the panel, looking from one ship to the other.
"So, guys, is there room in one of those for—" Xander broke off as the door opened. Jack grabbed for his gun, but Xander just froze, the P90 banging his hip as he finally started scrambling backwards.
Before Jack could even get his weapon aimed, a masked Wraith backhanded Xander and sent him crashing into the wall before he collapsed to the ground. When Spike leaped into the fight, Jack could only see the black coat leap forward before one Wraith went flying in the opposite direction from Xander, and the second went down in a tangled heap with Spike.
Xander struggled to his knees, pulling the P90 up and firing at the Wraith that Spike had thrown to the side. Spike leapt up, but the Wraith warrior on the floor grabbed his knee and pulled him right back down so that Xander stood there with the P90 pointed at the fighting pair without firing.
A new Wraith appeared in the open doorway, his long white hair swaying as he came to a sudden stop. Xander backed up fast, the P90 still pointed at the danger, but he didn't fire with Spike in the line of fire.
"Get the bloody hell out of here," Spike snarled as he launched himself at the new Wraith just as it brought up its weapon. That left the Wraith on the floor free to grab at his own weapon.
Okay, no more time to wait. Jack closed the Wraith ship as he started the launch sequence. He had no doubt that Xander would stand and fight next to Spike until the end, so Jack didn't give him a choice. Finding the controls for the transportation device the Wraith used to scoop up their prey, Jack targeted Xander. One push of a button, and Xander was either safely stored or Jack had just turned him into a cloud of floating atoms… one or the other. Jack went to target Spike, but the vampire darted between the Wraith as one turned a weapon toward him, and now a warning light blinked on the edge of Jack's display.
One Wraith turned toward the ship, and a weapon fired, light dancing on the blue wall above the screen. Right, the vampire was on his own to grab another plane. Making up his mind, Jack launched the ship, and he could only hope that he remembered Spike's instructions about landing because they didn't have much choice now.