Chapter Text
"This is boring. We should've been in Atlantis, and not here twiddling our thumbs."
Dawn gazed at her sister and the other two Slayers. They had been on four separate missions when they had been abruptly informed to return to the Alpha Site due to a severe storm hitting Lantea. They had been the only teams off-world at the time, and had been informed that everyone else had been evacuated to Manaria. They'd been told to stay there until further notice.
Genevieve gave her a put-upon look, "We can't fight a storm, and none of us knows the system well enough to be helpful with searching for a way to save Atlantis. It's either stay here or gate to Manaria, where literally everyone else is probably stepping on a lot of local toes.
The youngest Summers' sister made a face. "We'll stay here."
"Not that there is much of anything here," Buffy commented. "It isn't even a real Alpha Site, just the one most likely to become one unless something deadly or unfortunate is already here."
It had a hidden weapons cache and a small amount of tin boxes of mystery food, and three bottles of water. Hardly worthy of being a fallback, but better than nothing. So, they had walked to a clearing Dr. Weir had informed them of. It had a fire pit and a cave nearby that bore signs of people using it as a temporary shelter for a long time.
"Hopefully, we won't have to stay long," Dr. Martinez, the scientist on Alexis' team, said into the silence. "Between these provisions and what little we have with us, we won't last long unless we either hunt or gate somewhere."
"We will ration what food and water we have. If we haven't heard back from Atlantis or Manaria in 48 hours, we'll try the City and then Manaria. If both fail, we'll go to Athos." The words came from Sergeant Webster, Genevieve's team leader.
They agreed, and then Buffy spoke up. "We're here, let's explore. We should use the time we have here wisely."
After a discussion, Buffy's team and Genevieve's team each picked a direction and started walking. Meaning the remaining teams would check out the immediate area around the Stargate.
Six hours later, all 12 of them ran through the Stargate and exited on Athos.
Dawn looked around at everyone in confusion, her heart beating rapidly against her ribcage. "What happened?"
Davis, a Lieutenant on Genevieve's team, was the first to catch his breath. "There's a huge swarm of some kind of insect or birds back there. We accidentally bumped into a bush they were in, and they tried to attack us. Clancy got bitten by whatever they are."
Clancy's arm had already begun to swell and looked red.
"Um," Alexis looked around. "I think this would be a good time to just gate to Manaria. Clancy needs medical aid we can't provide, and Dr. Beckett is on that planet."
Everyone agreed, and off they went.
By the time they were finally allowed to return to Atlantis, Clancy had a shiny white bandage on his arm, and everyone else was just ready to return home.