Magical Cage 8
Rated TEEN
Jack explored the village, trusting Xander to provide cover as he investigated each house. In one he found an old woman who clutched two children to her as she babbled something Jack couldn't understand, holding a meat skewer between them as she tried to protect the kids. Jack held up his own hands palm forward as he backed off. Part of him wanted to offer assistance, but the woman wouldn't accept it from him, and the Jaffa training on the edge of town couldn't be bothered with helping these people. God, he hated Goa'uld and the worlds they had created.
At the third building, a low stone structure with windows too narrow for even a hand, Jack got lucky. Pushing the door open slowly, he saw the bars of cells inside.
"Watch my six," Jack whispered.
"Yes, sir," Xander agreed, and he fell into a defensive position with his back to the stone wall and the P90 held ready.
Jack could feel the headache pressing against the inside of his skull. Trust didn't come easy to Jack, and trusting someone who seemed to have at least two distinct personalities definitely rubbed him the wrong way. It reminded him of Tokra. It wasn't natural. But right now, he didn't have a lot of choice.
Moving slowly, he slid into the shadow and tried to decide whether this building, like so many of the others, was abandoned.
"Sir," Carter whispered as soon as Jack crept around the corner, the stone floor cold under his hand as he crouched, listening.
"Carter, all clear?" he whispered back.
"Yes, sir. But sir, this isn't our dimension," Carter answered as Jack stood up and quickly checked out the room. Two cells. Daniel and Carter in one, Teal'c in the other. Teal'c looked a little rough around the edges, but all three stood at the bars, ready to go, just as soon as Jack found a way to get them out. Cupboards stood against the opposite wall, heavy things between the few narrow slit-windows that let in a weak stream of light.
"You don't say," Jack answered as he pulled open the first cupboard, searching for keys or a pry bar. He had C-4, but he preferred to save that for when things got really sticky, and from the way this mission was going, they were going to need all the C-4 they could get their hands on. "I have even better news," Jack told them as he opened cupboard doors and searched shelves filled with medieval torture devices that he didn't even want to think about. "Ra and Apophis are still kicking around. I'm starting to wonder how many times we're going to have to kill those snake heads."
"Couldn't you show up with some good news that was actually good?" Daniel asked as Jack finally found the cupboard with SG-1's equipment. Oh yeah, Jaffa as a rule were stupid. Jack was just exceptionally grateful that Teal'c was the exception to that rule.
"I lost Spike along the way," Jack offered as good news even though he could feel guilt pull at his stomach. No choice. Choiceless. He couldn't grab the vampire, and he and Xander would not have helped anything by staying. It just would have meant the entire team was locked up in one place or another.
"What?" Daniel demanded.
"Shhh!" Jack admonished.
"What happened, sir? We tried to contact you after you clicked through to us, but there wasn't any answer on the radio." At least Carter managed to ask without sounding quite so… disapproving.
Sometimes Danny just did not understand the sacrifices required in battle, which was ironic considering that Jack had left him, and Daniel had never once held that against him. Oh, Jack had plenty of nightmares about Danny blowing up, alone, hurting, dying on Apophis' ship, but not even in their worst fight had Daniel ever suggested that Jack should have done something else.
"We found some new friends. They're called the Wraith. And even better, they eat people," Jack announced as he finally found the key in the last cupboard. Of course, in his mind, the idiots shouldn't have left one here at all, but at least now he didn't have to waste the C-4.
"Do you mean they ate Spike? Is that possible? To eat a vampire?" Daniel asked, his voice somewhere between curiosity and disgust.
"Oh, Spike's not prey to them. In fact, he thinks the Wraith may be some sort of cousin to the vampire, but when we made a break for it, Spike waded into a group of warriors to give Xander time to get away."
"Oh." Daniel dropped his eyes to the floor and Teal'c got that respectful look on his face that spoke volumes about how much Spike had just moved up in the Jaffa's estimation.
"So, he's still alive, sir?" Carter asked.
"As far as I know, he's still up there cursing at the queen."
"So are we…"
"Our priority is to get home, Daniel," Jack said firmly. Daniel crossed his arms and got that stubborn look that suggested Jack hadn't heard the end of this, but at least he didn't argue right then and there. No, Daniel would wait until later to rip him a new one.
"Do these Wraith possess ships of advanced design, Colonel O'Neill?" Teal'c asked.
"Oh, indeed they do. Sleek looking dart-shaped things with teleporter beams," Jack agreed. "Very cool as long as you aren't getting snatched up and dragged off to the mother ship."
"Those flew by not long after we were brought in, and some time after they shoved us in here, we could hear the whistle of them fly overhead," Daniel sounded curious now, and if anything could distract Daniel from a good bout of pissiness, it was curiosity.
"The mother ship is more organic, and there was writing. It looked a little like Ancient, but the control boards would only react to Spike's touch," Jack teased the man with information.
"Ancient?" Daniel demanded, all anger at Jack leaving Spike temporarily suspended in favor of a new mystery. When it came to translating, Daniel had more patience than a saint, but Jack was very grateful that the man had a limited attention span when it came to being pissed. Of course, if Spike didn't turn up on his own, Daniel would probably still throw a fit about going back, Daniel and Xander both.
"Spike called it a demon language, and he could read big chunks of it, but there were definitely words in Ancient, or something that looked a little like Ancient," Jack agreed. "I could read individual words, nothing more."
"What words?" Daniel slung his pack over his back without even looking at it, all his attention focused on Jack. Jack had to smile at the childlike enthusiasm.
"Sir, are we just walking out there?" Sam interrupted as Jack reached out for the doorknob.
"Relax, Carter. The place is fairly well abandoned. A few Jaffa are out practicing their moves for some reason, makes them perfect targets if you ask me, but the rest of the village is pretty much gone."
Jack opened the door, and Xander still stood on watch, his body language no different from a hundred other well-trained soldiers Jack had served with over the years. From the way Daniel's eyebrows rose, he noticed the difference too.
"Still all clear," Xander offered in little more than a whisper.
"Okay, Willow is at the treeline south, south west," Jack said. "Jaffa in the field between, so we're heading east to the edge of the village, taking to the trees and circling around," Jack issued the orders. "Xander, take point."
Jack felt the eyes of his team on him, but Xander was the logical choice. He'd covered the terrain once, and unlike Jack, he had two working hands.
"Yes, sir," Xander answered without even glancing back, and then he checked the line of sight before dashing for the cover of a primitive house. He stopped in the shade, providing cover as he waited for the others to join them.
"Teal'c, cover our six," Jack ordered before he followed Xander. He had his handgun in his left hand, but racing across the open and trusting Xander to cover him, he just really hoped that the bumbling version of Xander didn't show up unexpectedly.
Despite his team's concern, they did their jobs. Xander took point through the woods, moving as easily and silently as Jack would have, which still meant a whole lot more noise than Teal'c but then Jack had learned not to compare himself with Teal'c—usually. He and Daniel followed. Jack hated being in the protected second position, but with his injury, he wasn't going to be much good in a fight. Carter followed, with Teal'c just behind her, watching for any followers.
"Thank the goddess you're back," Willow said, far too loudly considering they were in enemy territory.
"No problem. This is nothing compared to getting across the lunchroom with my lunch money without having Larry steal it," Xander joked, his own voice too loud as he shoved the P90 awkwardly back. Jack rolled his eyes at the shift.
"They're gone. They all went running, and got into this Star Trek looking ship, only it didn't look nearly as nice, it was more like my Dad's car after mom ran over the mailbox with it."
"Whoa," Jack ordered. "So all the Jaffa left?"
Willow nodded. In the distance, Jack could hear a rumble, like thunder, in the clear blue sky.
"Double time back toward the Gate. If alien ships turn up, *any* alien ships, take cover. Teal'c take point and try to avoid any Goa'uld patrols. If they're fighting over the planet, the Goa'uld will focus on the Gate even if the Wraith don't know what it is," Jack ordered curtly. Teal'c moved forward with a nod, heading into the trees. Willow just looked lost.
"Willow, we need to move," Xander said as he held out a hand to help her up from the ground."
"Moving? Okay. I can do moving."
"Carter, keep an eye on Willow," Jack ordered. He didn't need to ask her to keep an eye on Daniel as the archeologist moved into the second position behind Teal'c, heading through the trees with a little more noise than strictly necessary.
"Yes, sir. Come on, Willow. We haven't had a chance to talk about the potential blah blahblahblah." Okay, Carter actually said words, but Jack tuned them out the minute they turned scientific. If the two came up with anything useful, she'd translate it for him.
"But," Xander protested as Carter urged Willow from his side.
"Soldier, we need to cover the six. Weapons check," he barked in his best imitation of the trainer who had scared the shit out of him as a recruit. Xander's hands went to the weapon, checking the safety, the clip, the trigger.
"Clear, sir," he answered.
"Then move out," said as he headed into the woods after Carter's back. Willow glanced back, but seeing Xander must have reassured her because she and Carter fell into whispering as they hurried through the woods. Xander walked close at Jack's back. Oh yeah, Jack just wanted this mission over.
On their first rest break, Jack tried prodding Xander about his military background, just coming right out and asking for where he'd trained. Xander looked at him blankly, but Jack exchanged a look with Carter that told him his second in command agreed with his assessment. The kid had too many covert ops moves to have picked them up from watching too much television.
On the second rest, Willow and Carter had a long discussion of mesons and k and pi, which Jack assumed was the 3.14 version and not the good old fashioned apple pie variety. Listening to Carter and Willow postulate on the possibility that magic was nothing more than an ability to excite normal particles into unstable complex particles did not improve his mood.
Finally, on the third stop, late in the day, Jack brought up the only topic that really mattered right now.
"So, we need a plan people." Jack looked around. Teal'c leaned against a tree, stoic in his lack of suggestions. Daniel had flopped down on a bit of fallen tree near Willow, rubbing one foot, his boot sitting on the ground next to him, and Jack bit back an order for Daniel to put it back on. If they came under fire…. Carter looked thoughtful as she crouched on the ground, her canteen half-way to her mouth.
"I'd help if I had my magic going, but I'm strangely magicless, and I had magic earlier." Willow said apologetically as she sat on the fallen tree near Daniel.
"Is it something from the Glory spell?" Xander asked, immediately concerned. He left his own post leaning against a tree to take a step closer. Willow shook her head as she stood up again, making gestures in the air.
"I wasn't feeling unmagicy after the spell. I opened the portal fine," she said.
"Could it have something to do with the dimensional travel or the environment?" Carter asked. "Assuming that magic is based on some sort of manipulation of energy fields—"
"Let's leave that debate for later," Jack interrupted. "And if you get your magic back, feel free to…" Jack paused and waved his own hand absentmindedly… "spell away. Meanwhile, what are our other options?"
"We need access to some sort of technology, maybe a quantum mirror," Carter mused.
"Which would necessitate visiting P3R-233," Teal'c agreed.
"But from what I got from my friendly neighborhood Jaffa, the Goa'uld control most of the universe, so randomly popping up in the middle of potentially hostile territory might not be the best plan," Jack finished. God he was too old for this shit. Too old and too sore. He let himself sink down onto a fairly flat rock that only managed to poke him in the ass in one spot.
"Indeed." Teal'c nodded.
"Okay, we obviously need allies." Daniel added. "Ones with enough technology to help us retrieve the quantum mirror and find our reality."
"Ancients?" Jack asked the group. "If someone has an Asgard generator and dialing program in their pocket, speak now or forever hold your peace," Jack quipped, but the team didn't seem amused. Jack couldn't blame them. And Willow muttering as she waved her hands like a demented conductor wasn't really helping matters. Even Xander was looking at her concerned.
Xander glanced up and saw Jack watching. He smiled crookedly. "I'm more interested in whether anyone has a candy bar in their pocket. Maybe a twinky? Heck, at this point, I'd settle for carrots. I wouldn't settle happily, but I'd settle."
The team just stopped for a half-second. Discussion of tactics simply did not get interrupted for hunger. Teal'c had one eyebrow up in surprise, and only Daniel recovered quickly enough to answer.
"I still have some of the freeze dried stuff left if you don't mind tuna and noodles that tastes like beef," he offered.
"Thanks. I'm not really big with the survival-training bug-eating bit, especially not after a round of eating bugs because Dracula did the whole thrall thing on me, and can I just say that was totally gross, but I was ready to start looking for worms I'm so hungry."
"We'll save the worms for dessert," Daniel said with a smile. "Did you say Dracula? As in the actual Dracula?"
"You have Dracula in your world? 'Cause I don't mind telling you, he's a real asshole, so avoid him if at all possible."
"We have a fictional character named Dracula based on a historical leader named Vlad."
"Yeah, we have that one too, but then there's the real Dracula, and you've never met a guy who needed a hair stylist quite so much."
"If we're done critiquing hair, maybe we can discuss how not to get back to our own universes," Jack suggested.
"The Nox," Daniel said out of nowhere.
"Ah Danny, we'll turn you into a military strategist yet," Jack smiled.
"Do you think they'd help?" Carter asked, and Jack glared at his second in command. They had a potential plan, so why couldn't she just him bask in a potential way out of this FUBAR shit for two seconds.
"They have the technology to resist the Goa'uld." Daniel said, but he didn't sound overly enthusiastic.
"And last I checked, they weren't very good at sharing it. Funny how the people with the toys just don't share well," Jack agreed. Shit, he really didn't want to agree on this one, but the Nox weren't likely to go out of their way to help.
"But if we're truly out of our universe, they may see helping us as putting the world back in order," Daniel added after a minute of oppressive silence.
"I'll take that as a 'maybe.' So, tomorrow, we move in on the Stargate and hope that the Wraith and Sokar's guys are too busy trying to kill each other to notice us." Okay, they had a plan. Not a good plan, but Jack had actually gone on ops with worse ones, and he was still alive and kicking.
"OH!" Willow gasped, and they all turned. In the air in front of her hovered a pair of interlocking triangles glowing orange with what looked like fire. Willow traced around the figure, and her finger opened a new line of fire around the symbols, completing a bright circle that lingered in the air.
Jack blinked, and then glanced over toward Daniel just to make sure that he wasn't the only one seeing this. Daniel was scrambling to pull out his notebook, so yep, the man not only saw it but intended to write it down in his notebook. For Daniel's sake, Jack really hoped that Dr. MacKenzie never got his psychoanalyzing little hands on that journal or he would have Danny finding pretty pictures in inkblots for the next year.
"Oh, oh, oh," Willow said as she brought her hands together, her face a wide smile of joy even as sweat gathered at her hairline, individual drops slowly creeping down her forehead and cheeks as she threw her head back and chanted something very Daniel-like before the symbol flickered and the collapsed into itself, becoming a bright point of light hovering in the air before blinking out of existence.
Well fuck. Jack felt the headache start in the back of his head and creep forward with cold fingers into his brain. He was too old to deal with this shit. Too. Damn. Old.
"Tell me that wasn't some 'bring the evil here,' spell, Will," Xander said, and Jack felt his guts tightened. Oh no. She wouldn't.
"Just a general protection spell," Willow muttered. She started to wobble, and before Jack could take more than one step, Xander darted forward, grabbing the redhead by the waist as he supported her weight.
"Hey, no collapsing on me. That's in the rulebook," he said softly, and she clung to his arm as he helped her to a tree and slowly lowered her to the ground.
"That's amazing," Carter breathed. "How do you control the energy? The entropic forces on that concentration of an energy field must be amazing."
"What? That little old spell?" Willow joked weakly, but her face was white under the sweat.
"Okay, Will, this is Xander putting down his foot. See the foot putting down? No more magic until you don't go all clammy and sweaty when you do it. This is so not normal." Xander knelt in the pine needles next to her, brushing her hair back from her face as she clutched his arm.
"I'm not feeling so well. It's like something else was tugging at the power, trying to pull my magic out of me," Willow said as she closed her eyes and let her head rest on the tree.
"Okay kids, this is as far as we're going today," Jack said as their rest turned into camp. None of them were strong enough to carry Willow, and she wouldn't make more than a few steps before she collapsed again.
"Teal'c, you wanna help me set up some shelters?" Jack asked as he looked around the woods. Low branches and fallen wood could make a nice shelter or two, and would still be nearly invisible from the air.
"Indeed," Teal'c agreed as he started off into the trees. Jack followed, his brain still trying to deal with fire floating in the air. Magic. Oh yeah, he was definitely too old for this shit. Repress and forget, he told himself. Repress and forget. Unfortunately, he just didn't dare do either until he got his people home. Then, he had plans with a big bottle of scotch. Scotch and Simpsons. There wasn't a problem in the world that couldn't be solved by scotch and Simpsons.