SGA - Life on a Hellmouth
Almost forgot to post this...
Title: Life on a Hellmouth
Genre: SGA, bit of Buffy
Rating: PG-13 (mild violence)
Length: ~ 3,200 words
Season/Spoilers: General post-Season 2 for SGA, post-Season 5 for BtVS
Synopsis: The team gates to a world with a slightly different Slayer and Master, but some things are definitely familiar.
Author’s Notes: For the cliche_bingo entry “supernatural/vampire AU” - please note the AU part as things aren’t quite canon.
Disclaimer: I don’t own them, people with a lot of money do. I’m just borrowing them to play and making no profit from this.
~~~~~~~~~~
They got to the planet about sunset, local time. A fine mist of rain was falling and the shadows were stretching from the buildings, creating swaths of black against the golds and reds. Sheppard barely had time to comment on how tranquil and modern everything looked before several figures emerged from doorways he could barely make out, hoods of their jackets drawn close against the weather.
“What are you doing here?” one asked, voice giving her away as female and maybe in her teens.
“The correct phrasing is ‘state your business’,” another sighed. This one was male, older, taller, and apparently her guide or teacher. Then again, it was entirely possible he was just her big brother - John could only see a glimpse of their faces as they turned to bicker.
A third voice, also older and also female, made a sound of annoyance, causing both of the others to go quiet. “Regardless of what business, we need to get them inside before The Others come,” she directed, and John could hear the capitalization in her words.
“Who are these ‘Others’?” Teyla asked before he got the chance. Her people had never traded on this planet, never even heard about it until it came up in a search of the Ancient Database. It was listed as having some decent resources and the MALP showed a surprisingly advanced society dwelling there, so it fell to his team to make first contact and see if they had a potential ally in their midst.
“It’d be best for you, and us, if you didn’t find out,” the man replied, gesturing for them to follow.
They were led to a rather comfortable looking house and hustled into what appeared to be the main living area. The trio removed their jackets proving his earlier estimate correct - not a one looked over the age of twenty-five. The youngest had long dark hair and what looked to be a permanent pout as she crossed her arms and flopped down onto one of the chairs. The older girl had shockingly red hair and was chiding the youngest to let their guests sit first, which she reluctantly allowed, leaning up against a wall instead.
The man returned from darting into another room, short dark hair hanging in wet spikes and dripping into his eyes. “Had to go get our fearless leader,” he grinned. He shook out his hair a bit, spraying a less than amused Ronon in the process. He held his hand up in apology and continued, “We had plans for tonight but looks like those are going to change what with the guests and everything.”
“We’d hate to intrude,” Teyla insisted, standing and motioning towards the door. “We can leave.”
The redhead darted him a look and he shrugged. “Can’t let you do that. Before you ask, no, it’s not us holding you captive or anything,” he said, watching the way both Ronon and Teyla tensed. “It’s just not safe out there right now.”
“Take a step out that door and The Master will kill you as quickly as he’d kill us,” a new voice explained.
John turned to see yet another young woman, this one with blonde hair pulled up into some sort of ponytail-thing and a row of earrings in each ear. She was tiny, but walked in a way that displayed a casual strength he figured he’d be a fool to underestimate. He heard Rodney clear his throat as if to speak and elbowed him in the ribs to cut him off at the pass.
The new girl practically skipped up to him, eying his P-90 with a cock of her head. “Shiny!” she grinned. “What’s that do?”
“It’s a weapon,” he answered cautiously. “We only use them to protect ourselves and not to try to negotiate things to our terms or anything like that,” he tried, wincing at how lame it sounded. All these years, and they still had not come up with something better.
“Betcha it works anyway,” she commented, earning nods from the rest of her family/friends/housemates/whoever they were. She casually flipped open a trunk revealing several types of blades and what appeared to be this planet’s equivalent of crossbows amongst other items. “We don’t have anything quite so advanced, but we make do,” she told him.
She started to close it, but was stopped by Rodney leaning in and asking, “Can I?” and gesturing to some little doodad that had caught his eye.
“Be my guest,” she insisted, opening it completely again. She turned to John, obviously sizing him up as the leader of the group. “So, do you want to go through the whole boring ‘we come in peace to trade’ speech, us hedge, you hedge, and eventually we hammer out an agreement to meet to come to an agreement at a later time, or can we just break it down to basics?”
He blinked at her forthrightness, but recovered quickly. Well, quickly enough to ask, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but are you even authorized to make any deals?”
She looked taken aback for a moment, turning towards the other two women with a pout. “They never believe me,” she sighed. Turning back to him, she said, “One - yes. Two - I’m older than I look. Three - I’m actually the one in charge of this little group here, unless you want to talk to The Master who, seeing how you’ve been here, will more than likely take you out before you can even get close to him. Four - I had a four but now I can’t remember it.”
“We have stuff to trade,” the redhead helpfully supplied. “Or, you know, at least know where to get it, especially if you’re liking the modules like what the guy with the bigger module is playing with right now.”
John turned to see Rodney pawing at what looked to be an Ancient data pad, his own laptop out and categorizing what he had found. “McKay...” he sighed.
“It’s definitely Ancient,” Rodney reported, as if it lighting in his hands had not been a sign. “Looks like it’s been reused for crop reports and village manifests and such, but some of the original data is still there. If nothing else, it might give us an idea if any of the stuff we want is still here or if it’s been used up in the past thousand years or so.”
The redhead hustled over next to him, face lit up in obvious anticipation. “You can work it?” she asked. Rolling her eyes at herself, she quickly amended to, “Of course you can work it, but you can actually see what was originally there? We’ve been trying, but with no success. Can you show me how you did it? There’s a ton of these at the library which, if we can get there, you could access for, like, forever.”
The blonde gave John a look that spoke volumes about geeks getting their geek on, but less than subtlety segued to, “Which brings us to... Yeah, we have, or more accurately had, a library, that’s chock full of all sorts of boring stuff as well as some nifty screens that let you play cool games and run all sorts of simulations and such. Unfortunately...”
“The Master?” Ronon guessed.
“We haven’t been able to get in there in ages,” the younger girl sighed.
“We can barely go out to get food or the ever important clothing or hygiene products without a fight anymore,” the man said in commiseration.
“Speaking of which, I’m starving,” she finished, looking pointedly at the blonde.
The house was nice, but looked like it had seen better days. John would not doubt food was in short supply given the few run down fields they had passed on their mad rush inside.
Teyla pulled a power bar out of her vest pocket and offered it to the girl, who promptly made a face and asked, “Is this like a ration bar?”
“I assure you, they are quite edible,” Teyla told her. “We have more, if you need them. Perhaps we can discuss a trade of food supplies for access to this library of yours.”
The girl still looked weary, but dutifully took a bite when the redhead pointedly said, “Sweetie, play along and be polite. We’ll see if we can get you something more in a bit.”
The blonde started speaking again. “Food for modules seems like a deal, though better weapons would be, well, better,” she admitted. “Give us a sec to talk it over?” she asked, motioning to the others.
After the three had dutifully followed her to the other room, John turned to face his own team. “What do you think?”
“I think we should take this Master guy out if given the chance,” Ronon replied, crossing his arms in front of him. “If he’s stopping kids from eating, taking away their learning and making them hide in their houses, he can’t be good news.” John quietly agreed, but decided to wait for the others’ opinions before making any final decision.
“I think we should wait and see if Buffy and the Scoobies can even get us to this library to see if it’s worth it first,” McKay shrugged, still playing with his data pad.
“Rodney...” John warned, knowing it was to no avail.
“What?” his friend countered. “You were thinking it too.” And, okay, so he was right. They still had not learned the formal names of the quartet they might be working with, which was odd, but it might be one of those cultural things Teyla was always telling him about. Regardless, if he started thinking of them like that now, there was no way he’d remember their actual names when he finally learned them.
“Are the pads worth anything?” he asked instead.
Rodney nodded. “This one alone has plenty of info on the planet. If it’s part of some greater Ancient library, I’d say it’s definitely worth some food, if not staking this Master guy they keep going on about.”
John shook his head. “This is not the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so stop with the jokes; at least until we’re out of range and they can’t hear us.”
“Is that the show Cadman was watching?” Ronon asked. “They do kinda look like ‘em,” he shrugged.
Rodney gave him a look that screamed, “See!” but instead just commented, “I’m just saying, don’t be surprised if you see wrinkly foreheads and pointy teeth before this is all over.”
Sheppard ignored him from long years of practice. “Teyla, what’s your take?”
She put down the ornamental blade she had picked up from the trunk and spared a glance towards the other room. “Even if they cannot provide us with a library of the Ancients, we should offer humanitarian aide if possible.”
His team had reached an agreement around the same time Buf- the blonde and her group had reached their own. The quartet returned and started gathering gear from the trunk. “We’ll take you there, but you better stay close. You obviously have the blood of the Ancestors if you can work the module, so you should be able to get in on your own if we’re delayed. You run, you get in, we handle everything else,” she announced.
“You want to go tonight? Right now?” he confirmed with surprise.
“The sooner you get your stuff, the sooner we get ours, right? ‘Cause, quite frankly, little sis isn’t the only one getting hungry right now,” she said very matter of fact. She grabbed one of the crossbow-like things and loaded an arrow as she cocked her head to the side. “Unless, of course, you’re afraid?” she asked, batting her eyes in full mockery.
“It’s not far,” the redhead assured them, stashing away almost more knives than Ronon.
John raised his eyebrows and looked to his team. It didn’t look like they had much of a choice - if the kids wanted to go risk their lives for the chance of food, he couldn’t let them go alone. “Let’s do it then,” he agreed.
The guy of the group lifted the edge of one of the heavy curtains and peered out through a boarded up window. “Looks like the coast is clear,” he said, grabbing both a blade and a crossbow of his own.
A new voice called down from the top of a set of stairs along the far wall. “You going out?” she asked. John looked up to see a brunette he as resolutely not going to call Cordelia poised to come down.
Buf- the blonde, walked over to the base of the steps and replied, “We’re going to see if we can get into the library one last time. There’s potential foodage in the deal.”
The other woman nodded. “He’s not doing well, see if you can bring something back tonight?”
“We can also provide some basic medicines if you need,” Teyla offered.
“We’ll take what we can get,” the blonde said, not quite looking at her, apparently past being proud. Shouting back up at the new arrival, she said, “Keep the others in, no need to risk them in this. If we get something, we’ll bring it back.”
The other woman nodded and disappeared again. There was the slight sound of creaking floorboards above and John asked, “Just how many of you are there?”
Like most of the answers so far, this one was seriously lacking. “Enough,” she shrugged. She then stalked over to the door and ordered, “Let’s go!”
They had only made it the equivalent of a block before figures started coming out of the shadows. John shook his head; he should have known this would not go off without a hitch. He readied his weapon but refused to fire just yet. So far no one had attacked him or his team, and he’d like to keep it that way.
“Getting bold, aren’t you?” the largest of the new group asked. He was male and definitely huge, wearing a leather coat that John could see Ronon coveting if he had the chance. The rain did not seem to bother him though, given his size, John doubted much did.
Sheppard felt the little blonde thing at his side and spared a glance at her. “Let me guess,” he said, pausing as she aimed her crossbow. “That would be the Master?”
“Got it in one,” she smiled without humor. She fired and reloaded faster than he could even flip the safety off his P-90, frowning as the Master guy seemed to either dodge or deflect everything coming at him.
“Get them to the library!” the blonde yelled, pushing Sheppard to her right. He slid slightly in the growing mud but managed to maintain his balance before he felt a grip on his arm and saw the youngest of the group tug him towards the others.
Feeling the surreality of it all, and noticing she was armed with only blades, really big blades, but still, he asked, “What, no crossbow?” even as he ran after her.
She smiled sheepishly over her shoulder before darting around a corner. “Long story, but I’m pretty much never allowed to touch one ever again.”
His eyes grew wide as he commented, “I don’t think I want to know.”
She nodded. “It’s for the best, really.”
They had apparently reached their destination as a larger building loomed ahead. The redhead and the guy were pushing his team behind them, despite their protests.
“It needs the blood of the Ancients to open it,” the redhead shouted, tossing a knife at someone who dared to get too close. She hit her mark surprisingly well.
It was better lit here, even in the rain, and John noticed that, thankfully, no, the people chasing after them did not have pointy teeth or deformed faces. They, in fact, looked like farmers and school teachers and were tanned and worn from the futile fields. They were also armed solely with really big blades and what looked to be wooden stakes.
He suddenly had a very bad feeling about this. “Rodney, don’t,” he called, turning in time to see the scientist freeze with his hand above the keypad.
“What? Why?” McKay protested, turning around but staying under the shelter of the slightly sagging overhang. “Evil people chasing us. Only kids protecting us. Nice secure building behind us. I’m not seeing a problem here.”
Sheppard turned to where their newfound friends were forming an effective barrier between the approaching crowd and themselves. They had made it here with very little problems, all told, and there was no reason any of the four of them couldn’t have done this at any time in the past. “You need someone with the Ancient gene to open this for you, don’t you?” he asked.
“We need the blood of the Ancients,” the redhead confirmed. She spun around to face him and yes, there was the disfigurement and pointy teeth. “One way, or another,” she finished with a rather frightening grin.
As if that was not confirmation enough, one of the villagers, a tall lanky thing with long black hair and a flowing gauzy dress, had ventured closer and chucked a stake at the trio. It landed squarely in the youngest woman’s chest and she scattered into a cloud of ashes.
“That is so not right,” Rodney whimpered, bringing his P-90 up into a defensive position.
The guy from the group started firing crossbow bolts into the crowd, having taken on a decided lisp as he screamed, “You just killed the Slayer’s little sister; how do you think she’s going to take that?”
“Not very well, actually,” the blonde replied, far closer than John had assumed. She grabbed the nearest body, which, of course, was that of the woman who had killed her sister, and confirmed all doubts as she ripped the woman’s throat open with her newly pointed teeth.
He used the distraction for all it was worth, spraying a round of bullets into the two left between his team and possible safety. The redhead doubled over, clutching at her stomach and shooting him a look of utter betrayal behind her disfigured face. “That’s not fair,” she pouted.
The guy had gone down, but was quickly up again, dragging her towards the security of the blonde who was making incredibly short work out of the crowd. Seeing their out, John motioned his team to make a run for the Gate. A few more short burst of gunfire were needed to fully shake off their followers, but things appeared clear by the time the Gate loomed ahead of them.
Rodney glared sullenly as he typed in the address that would lead them home, swiping angrily at the drops of water falling into his eyes. “That’s it,” he panted, hitting the last glyph. “I am never believing anything I see on television ever again.” He hit the center crystal, bathing the entire area in a glowing blue light.
John watched his team disappear into the rippling puddle, firing off a few more shots for posterity’s sake, and was forced to agree. Just before he stepped through himself, he idly wondered if Cadman still had the DVDs.
~~~~~~~~~~
Feedback is always welcomed.
Title: Life on a Hellmouth
Genre: SGA, bit of Buffy
Rating: PG-13 (mild violence)
Length: ~ 3,200 words
Season/Spoilers: General post-Season 2 for SGA, post-Season 5 for BtVS
Synopsis: The team gates to a world with a slightly different Slayer and Master, but some things are definitely familiar.
Author’s Notes: For the cliche_bingo entry “supernatural/vampire AU” - please note the AU part as things aren’t quite canon.
Disclaimer: I don’t own them, people with a lot of money do. I’m just borrowing them to play and making no profit from this.
~~~~~~~~~~
They got to the planet about sunset, local time. A fine mist of rain was falling and the shadows were stretching from the buildings, creating swaths of black against the golds and reds. Sheppard barely had time to comment on how tranquil and modern everything looked before several figures emerged from doorways he could barely make out, hoods of their jackets drawn close against the weather.
“What are you doing here?” one asked, voice giving her away as female and maybe in her teens.
“The correct phrasing is ‘state your business’,” another sighed. This one was male, older, taller, and apparently her guide or teacher. Then again, it was entirely possible he was just her big brother - John could only see a glimpse of their faces as they turned to bicker.
A third voice, also older and also female, made a sound of annoyance, causing both of the others to go quiet. “Regardless of what business, we need to get them inside before The Others come,” she directed, and John could hear the capitalization in her words.
“Who are these ‘Others’?” Teyla asked before he got the chance. Her people had never traded on this planet, never even heard about it until it came up in a search of the Ancient Database. It was listed as having some decent resources and the MALP showed a surprisingly advanced society dwelling there, so it fell to his team to make first contact and see if they had a potential ally in their midst.
“It’d be best for you, and us, if you didn’t find out,” the man replied, gesturing for them to follow.
They were led to a rather comfortable looking house and hustled into what appeared to be the main living area. The trio removed their jackets proving his earlier estimate correct - not a one looked over the age of twenty-five. The youngest had long dark hair and what looked to be a permanent pout as she crossed her arms and flopped down onto one of the chairs. The older girl had shockingly red hair and was chiding the youngest to let their guests sit first, which she reluctantly allowed, leaning up against a wall instead.
The man returned from darting into another room, short dark hair hanging in wet spikes and dripping into his eyes. “Had to go get our fearless leader,” he grinned. He shook out his hair a bit, spraying a less than amused Ronon in the process. He held his hand up in apology and continued, “We had plans for tonight but looks like those are going to change what with the guests and everything.”
“We’d hate to intrude,” Teyla insisted, standing and motioning towards the door. “We can leave.”
The redhead darted him a look and he shrugged. “Can’t let you do that. Before you ask, no, it’s not us holding you captive or anything,” he said, watching the way both Ronon and Teyla tensed. “It’s just not safe out there right now.”
“Take a step out that door and The Master will kill you as quickly as he’d kill us,” a new voice explained.
John turned to see yet another young woman, this one with blonde hair pulled up into some sort of ponytail-thing and a row of earrings in each ear. She was tiny, but walked in a way that displayed a casual strength he figured he’d be a fool to underestimate. He heard Rodney clear his throat as if to speak and elbowed him in the ribs to cut him off at the pass.
The new girl practically skipped up to him, eying his P-90 with a cock of her head. “Shiny!” she grinned. “What’s that do?”
“It’s a weapon,” he answered cautiously. “We only use them to protect ourselves and not to try to negotiate things to our terms or anything like that,” he tried, wincing at how lame it sounded. All these years, and they still had not come up with something better.
“Betcha it works anyway,” she commented, earning nods from the rest of her family/friends/housemates/whoever they were. She casually flipped open a trunk revealing several types of blades and what appeared to be this planet’s equivalent of crossbows amongst other items. “We don’t have anything quite so advanced, but we make do,” she told him.
She started to close it, but was stopped by Rodney leaning in and asking, “Can I?” and gesturing to some little doodad that had caught his eye.
“Be my guest,” she insisted, opening it completely again. She turned to John, obviously sizing him up as the leader of the group. “So, do you want to go through the whole boring ‘we come in peace to trade’ speech, us hedge, you hedge, and eventually we hammer out an agreement to meet to come to an agreement at a later time, or can we just break it down to basics?”
He blinked at her forthrightness, but recovered quickly. Well, quickly enough to ask, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but are you even authorized to make any deals?”
She looked taken aback for a moment, turning towards the other two women with a pout. “They never believe me,” she sighed. Turning back to him, she said, “One - yes. Two - I’m older than I look. Three - I’m actually the one in charge of this little group here, unless you want to talk to The Master who, seeing how you’ve been here, will more than likely take you out before you can even get close to him. Four - I had a four but now I can’t remember it.”
“We have stuff to trade,” the redhead helpfully supplied. “Or, you know, at least know where to get it, especially if you’re liking the modules like what the guy with the bigger module is playing with right now.”
John turned to see Rodney pawing at what looked to be an Ancient data pad, his own laptop out and categorizing what he had found. “McKay...” he sighed.
“It’s definitely Ancient,” Rodney reported, as if it lighting in his hands had not been a sign. “Looks like it’s been reused for crop reports and village manifests and such, but some of the original data is still there. If nothing else, it might give us an idea if any of the stuff we want is still here or if it’s been used up in the past thousand years or so.”
The redhead hustled over next to him, face lit up in obvious anticipation. “You can work it?” she asked. Rolling her eyes at herself, she quickly amended to, “Of course you can work it, but you can actually see what was originally there? We’ve been trying, but with no success. Can you show me how you did it? There’s a ton of these at the library which, if we can get there, you could access for, like, forever.”
The blonde gave John a look that spoke volumes about geeks getting their geek on, but less than subtlety segued to, “Which brings us to... Yeah, we have, or more accurately had, a library, that’s chock full of all sorts of boring stuff as well as some nifty screens that let you play cool games and run all sorts of simulations and such. Unfortunately...”
“The Master?” Ronon guessed.
“We haven’t been able to get in there in ages,” the younger girl sighed.
“We can barely go out to get food or the ever important clothing or hygiene products without a fight anymore,” the man said in commiseration.
“Speaking of which, I’m starving,” she finished, looking pointedly at the blonde.
The house was nice, but looked like it had seen better days. John would not doubt food was in short supply given the few run down fields they had passed on their mad rush inside.
Teyla pulled a power bar out of her vest pocket and offered it to the girl, who promptly made a face and asked, “Is this like a ration bar?”
“I assure you, they are quite edible,” Teyla told her. “We have more, if you need them. Perhaps we can discuss a trade of food supplies for access to this library of yours.”
The girl still looked weary, but dutifully took a bite when the redhead pointedly said, “Sweetie, play along and be polite. We’ll see if we can get you something more in a bit.”
The blonde started speaking again. “Food for modules seems like a deal, though better weapons would be, well, better,” she admitted. “Give us a sec to talk it over?” she asked, motioning to the others.
After the three had dutifully followed her to the other room, John turned to face his own team. “What do you think?”
“I think we should take this Master guy out if given the chance,” Ronon replied, crossing his arms in front of him. “If he’s stopping kids from eating, taking away their learning and making them hide in their houses, he can’t be good news.” John quietly agreed, but decided to wait for the others’ opinions before making any final decision.
“I think we should wait and see if Buffy and the Scoobies can even get us to this library to see if it’s worth it first,” McKay shrugged, still playing with his data pad.
“Rodney...” John warned, knowing it was to no avail.
“What?” his friend countered. “You were thinking it too.” And, okay, so he was right. They still had not learned the formal names of the quartet they might be working with, which was odd, but it might be one of those cultural things Teyla was always telling him about. Regardless, if he started thinking of them like that now, there was no way he’d remember their actual names when he finally learned them.
“Are the pads worth anything?” he asked instead.
Rodney nodded. “This one alone has plenty of info on the planet. If it’s part of some greater Ancient library, I’d say it’s definitely worth some food, if not staking this Master guy they keep going on about.”
John shook his head. “This is not the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so stop with the jokes; at least until we’re out of range and they can’t hear us.”
“Is that the show Cadman was watching?” Ronon asked. “They do kinda look like ‘em,” he shrugged.
Rodney gave him a look that screamed, “See!” but instead just commented, “I’m just saying, don’t be surprised if you see wrinkly foreheads and pointy teeth before this is all over.”
Sheppard ignored him from long years of practice. “Teyla, what’s your take?”
She put down the ornamental blade she had picked up from the trunk and spared a glance towards the other room. “Even if they cannot provide us with a library of the Ancients, we should offer humanitarian aide if possible.”
His team had reached an agreement around the same time Buf- the blonde and her group had reached their own. The quartet returned and started gathering gear from the trunk. “We’ll take you there, but you better stay close. You obviously have the blood of the Ancestors if you can work the module, so you should be able to get in on your own if we’re delayed. You run, you get in, we handle everything else,” she announced.
“You want to go tonight? Right now?” he confirmed with surprise.
“The sooner you get your stuff, the sooner we get ours, right? ‘Cause, quite frankly, little sis isn’t the only one getting hungry right now,” she said very matter of fact. She grabbed one of the crossbow-like things and loaded an arrow as she cocked her head to the side. “Unless, of course, you’re afraid?” she asked, batting her eyes in full mockery.
“It’s not far,” the redhead assured them, stashing away almost more knives than Ronon.
John raised his eyebrows and looked to his team. It didn’t look like they had much of a choice - if the kids wanted to go risk their lives for the chance of food, he couldn’t let them go alone. “Let’s do it then,” he agreed.
The guy of the group lifted the edge of one of the heavy curtains and peered out through a boarded up window. “Looks like the coast is clear,” he said, grabbing both a blade and a crossbow of his own.
A new voice called down from the top of a set of stairs along the far wall. “You going out?” she asked. John looked up to see a brunette he as resolutely not going to call Cordelia poised to come down.
Buf- the blonde, walked over to the base of the steps and replied, “We’re going to see if we can get into the library one last time. There’s potential foodage in the deal.”
The other woman nodded. “He’s not doing well, see if you can bring something back tonight?”
“We can also provide some basic medicines if you need,” Teyla offered.
“We’ll take what we can get,” the blonde said, not quite looking at her, apparently past being proud. Shouting back up at the new arrival, she said, “Keep the others in, no need to risk them in this. If we get something, we’ll bring it back.”
The other woman nodded and disappeared again. There was the slight sound of creaking floorboards above and John asked, “Just how many of you are there?”
Like most of the answers so far, this one was seriously lacking. “Enough,” she shrugged. She then stalked over to the door and ordered, “Let’s go!”
They had only made it the equivalent of a block before figures started coming out of the shadows. John shook his head; he should have known this would not go off without a hitch. He readied his weapon but refused to fire just yet. So far no one had attacked him or his team, and he’d like to keep it that way.
“Getting bold, aren’t you?” the largest of the new group asked. He was male and definitely huge, wearing a leather coat that John could see Ronon coveting if he had the chance. The rain did not seem to bother him though, given his size, John doubted much did.
Sheppard felt the little blonde thing at his side and spared a glance at her. “Let me guess,” he said, pausing as she aimed her crossbow. “That would be the Master?”
“Got it in one,” she smiled without humor. She fired and reloaded faster than he could even flip the safety off his P-90, frowning as the Master guy seemed to either dodge or deflect everything coming at him.
“Get them to the library!” the blonde yelled, pushing Sheppard to her right. He slid slightly in the growing mud but managed to maintain his balance before he felt a grip on his arm and saw the youngest of the group tug him towards the others.
Feeling the surreality of it all, and noticing she was armed with only blades, really big blades, but still, he asked, “What, no crossbow?” even as he ran after her.
She smiled sheepishly over her shoulder before darting around a corner. “Long story, but I’m pretty much never allowed to touch one ever again.”
His eyes grew wide as he commented, “I don’t think I want to know.”
She nodded. “It’s for the best, really.”
They had apparently reached their destination as a larger building loomed ahead. The redhead and the guy were pushing his team behind them, despite their protests.
“It needs the blood of the Ancients to open it,” the redhead shouted, tossing a knife at someone who dared to get too close. She hit her mark surprisingly well.
It was better lit here, even in the rain, and John noticed that, thankfully, no, the people chasing after them did not have pointy teeth or deformed faces. They, in fact, looked like farmers and school teachers and were tanned and worn from the futile fields. They were also armed solely with really big blades and what looked to be wooden stakes.
He suddenly had a very bad feeling about this. “Rodney, don’t,” he called, turning in time to see the scientist freeze with his hand above the keypad.
“What? Why?” McKay protested, turning around but staying under the shelter of the slightly sagging overhang. “Evil people chasing us. Only kids protecting us. Nice secure building behind us. I’m not seeing a problem here.”
Sheppard turned to where their newfound friends were forming an effective barrier between the approaching crowd and themselves. They had made it here with very little problems, all told, and there was no reason any of the four of them couldn’t have done this at any time in the past. “You need someone with the Ancient gene to open this for you, don’t you?” he asked.
“We need the blood of the Ancients,” the redhead confirmed. She spun around to face him and yes, there was the disfigurement and pointy teeth. “One way, or another,” she finished with a rather frightening grin.
As if that was not confirmation enough, one of the villagers, a tall lanky thing with long black hair and a flowing gauzy dress, had ventured closer and chucked a stake at the trio. It landed squarely in the youngest woman’s chest and she scattered into a cloud of ashes.
“That is so not right,” Rodney whimpered, bringing his P-90 up into a defensive position.
The guy from the group started firing crossbow bolts into the crowd, having taken on a decided lisp as he screamed, “You just killed the Slayer’s little sister; how do you think she’s going to take that?”
“Not very well, actually,” the blonde replied, far closer than John had assumed. She grabbed the nearest body, which, of course, was that of the woman who had killed her sister, and confirmed all doubts as she ripped the woman’s throat open with her newly pointed teeth.
He used the distraction for all it was worth, spraying a round of bullets into the two left between his team and possible safety. The redhead doubled over, clutching at her stomach and shooting him a look of utter betrayal behind her disfigured face. “That’s not fair,” she pouted.
The guy had gone down, but was quickly up again, dragging her towards the security of the blonde who was making incredibly short work out of the crowd. Seeing their out, John motioned his team to make a run for the Gate. A few more short burst of gunfire were needed to fully shake off their followers, but things appeared clear by the time the Gate loomed ahead of them.
Rodney glared sullenly as he typed in the address that would lead them home, swiping angrily at the drops of water falling into his eyes. “That’s it,” he panted, hitting the last glyph. “I am never believing anything I see on television ever again.” He hit the center crystal, bathing the entire area in a glowing blue light.
John watched his team disappear into the rippling puddle, firing off a few more shots for posterity’s sake, and was forced to agree. Just before he stepped through himself, he idly wondered if Cadman still had the DVDs.
~~~~~~~~~~
Feedback is always welcomed.