Chapter Two

Jack studied the landscape… a rock face rose a good forty feet into the air on one side, and thick forest blocked the view on the other. Funny how woods everywhere ended up looking remarkably like Canada.

"Kids--do we have a plan?" he asked the walkers in front of him. Teal'c cocked his head, a gesture that suggested an answer would follow, but Xander cut him off before he could start.

"Just as long as Spike's not making the plan. He's not big with the actually working-type plans."

"Hey, my bloody plans work... usually," the vampire snapped back. A bird made a warbling cry, and Jack trotted closer to the group.

"Parent-Teacher night," Xander sing-songed back.

"Knock it off!" Jack hissed, for a moment flashing back to a memory of his own son using that same tone as he beat a friend on that video game of his. Jack blinked away the memory, shoving aside the pain along with the thought of his dead son. "Not the time or place," he pointed out as he waved a P-90 toward the trees. The wind obligingly rustled the trees.

"Not like there's anyone out here to hear us, soldier boy," Spike commented as he pulled cigarettes out of a coat pocket. The vampire stared at Jack with such intensity that Jack had to force his feet to not retreat. His gut tightened, and he held his weapon even tighter even though his swollen hand gave a warning twinge. Of course, if he could believe Xander, the bullets wouldn't stop the predator watching him with sharp, blue eyes.

Willow abandoned Daniel and hurried back to the group. "Maybe that was a 'not the time and place' comment like Giles makes--you know, like 'not the time or place to annoy people who are trying to think.' You know, like the time when me and Buffy were going on about prom dresses and Giles was all, 'not the time or place, people.'" Willow angled closer to Spike, and Xander left Teal'c's side to hurry back.

"Oh hey, I remember that. Funny how girls can discuss prom dresses and world-endage at the same time. So, Blood-breath, no more demons of the edible kind around?" Xander said the millisecond Willow stopped for breath. Jack narrowed his eyes as the two humans obviously tried to distract him from Spike, which didn't make any sense since Spike was clearly the most dangerous fighter in the group. Of course, maybe they wanted to distract Spike, which implied that Spike needed distracting.

Jacked stood ground a foot from Spike who still stared back with unmitigated hatred. Willow hovered to Spike's left, and Xander stood off to the right a little ways, his hand twitching as though debating whether to physically grab the vampire.

Obviously, these three would never qualify for undercover work. In the subtle department, they ranked right up there with gao'uld, so no Jack just needed to figure out what they were hiding before Spike fed on anyone. Or at least anyone Jack cared about. The image of Sokar's Jaffa with his neck exposed and bleeding as Spike dropped his limp body... that qualified for nightmare material.

"So, you have enhanced senses?" Daniel spoke up in the silence while Sam and Teal'c simply held position, weapons down but ready. "The mythology regarding vampirism is so varied with some stories, like the original Germanic tribes, telling stories of animated corpses with subhuman intelligence all the way up through some African tries who believe the spirits of powerful gods sometimes inhabit the bodies of the dead."

Slowly, Spike turned his gaze away from Jack and toward Daniel. A cold shiver went through Jack's spine, and he squelched a sudden need to put himself between Spike and Daniel.

"Oh, I think Spike's ego is large enough without giving him delusions of godhood," Xander said with a tinny laugh, moving closer as he looked from Teal'c to Jack to Sam and back to Jack. The boy's nervous gaze, and the fact that he had stepped closer to Daniel, set off Jack's alarms. One quick glance to Teal'c and the Jaffa shifted closer to Daniel and Xander while Jack kept his weapon casually aimed in Spike's direction. Spike glanced toward Xander, crossed his arms, and returned to glowering at Jack.

"Um, not to interrupt, but weren't we looking for shelter? I was looking for shelter. Were you looking for shelter?" Willow looked to Sam on her last question, and Jack exchanged a glance with his second-in-command.

"Perhaps we should find a defensible position before it gets too much darker, sir," Carter offered.

"Yeah, wouldn't want ta be caught out here after dark seeing as how your human bodies break so easy," Spike added with a smirk.

"Okay, officially not helping," Xander complained as he stepped forward and put his hand on Spike's crossed arms.

"Let's make camp. We can use the cliff face as one wall of an emergency structure. Daniel, Teal'c, find some solid branches. Carter, we can collect some smaller one for camouflage. Boots on tonight folks," Jack said as he forced himself to look away from Spike. He wished that he could avoid having them in camp, but he couldn't in good conscience turn Xander and Willow away, and he would rather have Spike somewhere close enough to keep and eye on him.

"Yeah, either that or you can just use the cave there," Spike interrupted. Jack narrowed his eyes at the vampire as he nodded toward the solid cliff face. Jack glanced toward Teal'c for some sort of conformation.

"I do not see a cave," Teal'c said quietly.

"Some demon you are. You're as bad as the humans," Spike complained as he stroke forward, passing dangerously close to Daniel who at least had the good sense to fall back as the vampire passed. With a bound that took him a good five feet into the air to clear some bushes, Spike landed close to the rock face and then disappeared into it.

"Okay, that's either a cave or fangless has picked up a few new tricks," Xander said as he shrugged and headed forward.

"Hold on. Don't leave a trail through there," Jack ordered as he headed back the way they had come to where the bushes thinned.

"You lot coming?" Spike stuck his head out, and now Jack could see the dark crack that he had thought was a discoloration in the rock was actually a deep crevasse. Even now, he couldn't see into the darkness behind Spike.

Jack clenched his teeth to avoid answering as he found a place where he could step behind the bushes without breaking through them and then follow the narrow space back to the crack.

"I shall keep watch, Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c offered as he moved toward the shadows of the trees.

"Somehow, it's not out there that has me worried," Jack whispered to himself as Xander followed his route around the bushes, Willow and then Carter after him. Oh yeah, FUBAR didn't even cover this one.

Once in the cave the crack widened and the uneven floor showed no signs of any recent animal use. Jack didn't like the idea of only one exit, but the stone should help shield them from detection, at least until they could figure out a plan to get off the planet and back to Earth. Then they'd just have the one problem.

Jack glanced toward Spike who now stood leaning against the stone smoking while staring right back at him. If Jack was really, really lucky, the NID might just take an interest. Jack immediately flinched away from that thought. No matter how much Spike raised his alarms, the man had obviously been trying to save the world, so the first option would be to send him back to whatever dimension he came from.

"Right, so this is now base camp," Jack said as the rest of the group trailed in after him. So, priority number one is the gate. Daniel, any clues?"

Daniel gave him one of his patented 'You've got to be kidding,' stares complete with looking over the top of his glasses, and Jack took that as an enthusiastic no.

"Well, Sokar only owns so many planets, so that should at least limit the possibilities."

"To about three thousand, only a dozen of which I know the symbol for," Daniel pointed out. Flopping to the ground, he pulled out his ever-present journal and flipped past a few pages.

"They must be monitoring the Gate, either that or the temple itself had some sort of monitoring equipment," Carter mused, more good news on top of old.

"I think we can assume that place will be crawling with Jaffa before nightfall," Jack agreed as he considered their situation. "Options?"

"Find a settlement or city and check for advanced weapons or a shuttle?" Daniel suggested. "If there are Jaffa here, there's a Goa'uld here, at least part time, so we should be able to find something."

"I got an idea," Spike interrupted. "Good eating, sunshine that doesn't turn me to ash, I'm all for setting up house and eattin' the wankers one at a time."

Xander backhanded Spike across the shoulder and the vampire turned and snarled. Rather than back off, Xander just crossed his arms and glared back. "Some of us have jobs to get back to," he pointed out.

"Not like it's a decent one."

"And classes," Willow added. Spike rolled his eyes.

"We could try to lure the guards away from the Gate and try to find the dialing sequence home," Carter suggested.

Jack considered both Daniel and Carter's suggestions. "Tomorrow, we try to get the Jaffa away from the Gate. If Daniel can make contact, he can send for reinforcements and the rest of us double back and head through. Teal'c and Daniel have the Gate. We need to find that address, so press fast, Daniel. Carter and I will provide a distraction."

"Bloody hell, just like soldier boys to lose their own way home. And I'm still not going through any portal that leads to soldier-boy central." Spike gave up glaring at Xander and returned to glaring at Jack. Jack didn't expect to get much sleep tonight with his guts tightening every time the vampire glared at him.

"No one's invited you," Jack pointed out. The vampire flashed into his true face, fangs flashing, and Jack fought an urge to scramble backwards away from the thing.

"Play nice," Willow interrupted them as she sat near the wall just down from Xander and Spike, dropping her chin onto her knees so that she looked about five. "And why do you need to find an address? I mean, don't you know where you want to go?"

"Where we're going… yes," Sam then jumped in. "The Stargate isn't like a mailing address. It uses the first six signs to locate a specific point in space by identifying the endpoints of three lines which intersect. So, theoretically, a planet can be reached through varying combinations of the first six symbols. However, to define a wormhole path, the last symbol must be the planet of origin."

"Which we are big with the not knowing," Willow commented with a pained expression.

"Which leaves me pressing the six coordinates that define Earth and then randomly hitting symbols until we get a connection," Daniel pointed out.

"No, it leaves you randomly hitting symbols fast," Jack corrected him.

"Sir, I'm afraid we have another problem," Sam interrupted. As much as Jack just wanted to close his ears and push through with the mission, he had too much respect for his second to ignore that apologetic expression that suggested she was about to say something he really didn't want to hear.

"Carter?"

"I think I need to go with Daniel and Teal'c. The wave distortion effect that pushed us here could have damaged the DHD, and even if the equipment is functional, I don't think we should trust any wormhole without at least a few preliminary tests."

"Carter, what part of Goa'uld stronghold are you not getting?"

"Sir, I know," Sam offered with one hand upraised as though in surrender, which was faintly ironic since nine time out of ten that gesture came right before she got her way. "Think of space like an ocean. If someone has managed to penetrate dimensional space, we might see refraction waves or distortions. We could walk into the wormhole in our universe and come out in theirs."

"Wouldn't bloody mind that by half," Spike stuck into the middle of the conversation.

"Except then we'd be in military central in our universe," Xander said softly, and all three of the newcomers went silent. Jack studied the suddenly tense body language as Spike pursed his lips and Willow gazed at the ground and Xander crossed his arms with an angry expression. Spike started pacing, and Jack had the distinct impression that the vampire wanted to rip something apart. These three might have been trying to save their world or not, but one thing Jack knew for sure... they didn't want anything to do with the military, especially not the military from their own homeworld.

"Sir, I just need to make sure that the convergence of our two universes hasn't somehow created a ripple effect that could tear the wormhole apart. Carter interrupted his thoughts. Sighing, Jack realized that Carter was right, and Carter couldn't do tests and cover Daniel's back, so that left Teal'c watching out for both of them.

"Hey--solutions are us, or me, rather. If you want distraction, I have big old piles of experience at being bait." Xander stepped forward, and Jack could see the earnest expression in the boys face. Strangely enough, he wasn't sure if his reluctance came from sending a boy into battle or his nagging distrust of the trio.

"I'll second that," Spike added as he paused in his pacing. "Boy's a bloody demon magnet. I'll go along and catch me a bit to eat." Spike looked over and flashed his true face at Jack again. Jack tightened his bruised fingers around his weapon until his hand and arm ached.

"Okay, ew," Xander complained loudly.

"Right, like you aren't disgusting when you shove half a pizza into your gob?"

"Hey, at least I don't--"

Jack whistled through his teeth--a shrill blast that immediately stopped the banter. Daniel glanced up from his journal, a faintly amused expression on his face. Spike just returned to his pacing.

"I'm not sending a kid with a rusty sword up against Sokar's Jaffa," Jack insisted. His hand had become a warm ache and he forced himself to loosen his grip.

Xander snorted. "Oh yeah, 'cause they're ever so much scarier than the Creature from the Black Lagoon swim team or Mr. Souless here trying to eat me," Xander jerked a thumb toward Spike who growled without going into his vampire face.

"Xander, maybe you should listen," Willow offered even as she ducked her head with a blush. "These guys--they're well-armed and usually we just fight things with claws, and yeah, big claws, but we're sort of out of our league with the guns because, well, they're guns."

Jack glanced over at Xander whose face had gone unnaturally bland. The boy had managed to look either embarrassed or sarcastic or defensive for the last hour, but now he just looked... absent.

"Oi, not like I'm goin' to let him go and get shot. Least, not until I get paid for services rendered," Spike veered off his paced path and ended up in front of the girl looking down. Jack watched curiously as her eyes darted over to Xander before she focused back on Spike.

"You'll keep him safe?" she asked softly.

"Standing right here, Wills. You might want to wait until I'm gone before emasculating me," Xander commented with that same dull expression. Jack watched as Daniel subtly shifted his seat so he would have a better view of the conversation. Trading a glance with Daniel, Jack realized these guys confused Daniel as much as they confused him. He found that even more disturbing since usually Daniel could get a grasp on people as soon as he met them.

"I'm not. I mean, I don't mean to.... Oh, goddess, you know what I mean." Willow looked down at the ground as she stumbled to silence.

Curiouser and curiouser. Xander had waded into a fight, taken out a Jaffa with a primitive sword, and yet the girl blushed without apologizing after implying that he couldn't be trusted to take care of himself. And now Xander's face slowly took on a defensive expression.

"Look, I'm not big with the hero-gig, but I can so do distraction," Xander argued.

"Right, and I'll snack on anyone who comes for the git," Spike shrugged. "So, you go figure out your mojo, and we'll get the demons off soldier-boys backs."

"I'm going with you two," Jack announced. He expected the incredulous expressions from his team, but the naked fury from Spike surprised him.

"Colonel?" Sam questioned. Jack looked at his second in command with his sternest expression. She didn't look impressed.

"Kids, as much fun as this little camp out has been, we need to get home. Teal'c will cover Sam and Daniel as they play with the toys. I'll go along with our newcomers and help provide distraction." Jack watched as awareness washed over his group. Sam had a masked expression; she understood that he had to put himself in this position to flush out the truth. He wouldn't put his team's safety in the hands of Xander and Spike, so that mean he would do the mission alone if he had to. Daniel, however, had a mutinous look as he opened his mouth to protest.

"Yes sir," Sam said in a firm voice as she looked right at Daniel. For a second, Daniel's mouth stayed open and then he closed it with a frown. Jack wished he had a voice that would keep Daniel from arguing, but he hadn't found one yet. Now Daniel crossed his arms over his chest as he glared from Jack to Sam, but at least the man kept his thoughts to himself.

"The gimpy soldier-boy can come along with us, but I'm not stickin' my neck out to save his old arse," Spike pointed out.

Jack scowled at both the description and the suggestion he might need saving, and Daniel went back to studying his notebook, an amused smirk not quite hidden by his journal.

"For Pete's sake, I'm not ready for a cane," Jack grouched. "First light, Daniel, Carter and Teal'c will head for the DHD. If you can't quietly take out any soldiers that remain, abandon the mission and we'll start looking for a settlement. Spike, Xander, you'll be with me."

Jack glanced toward Willow who traced figures in the dust of the cave's floor.

"Red, think soldier boys want ya to pick a team," Spike commented.

"What?" She looked around with a slightly bewildered expression, but then again, Jack wasn't sure he could trust his eyes because for a second the dirt seemed to twinkle in the sunlight despite a significant lack of sunlight in the shadow of the cave. Jack glanced over toward Sam and Daniel, but they didn't seem to have noticed.

"Um, I'm going to sit this one out--be a cave body for the day, not that I'm going to have a cave for a body, more like a home-body with more dirt," Willow offered with a shake of her head. The dazed expression slowly cleared as she smiled at her friends.

"Spike, maybe you should stay here with Willow," Xander said softly.

Jack watched as Spike paused in his pacing again, and then Spike turned toward Jack with yellowed eyes until Jack felt cold fear wrapping around his guts. Even though the punk hair looked ridiculous, Jack could see death in those eyes. More than that, he could see a repressed fury in every twitch of muscle. While he'd seen men so frustrated, so on edge that they became walking time bombs ready to commit some atrocity, he'd never felt in danger of having the fury turn on him. After long minutes, Spike finally broke eye contact and stalked over to the cave entrance. He stood in the patchwork of sunlight that filtered down through the trees as the sun set in the west.

"Red'll be fine here. I figure I'll go with you and soldier boy," Spike said to Xander while facing out of the cave. Xander nodded without answering.