Chapter 6
Colorado Springs
"Oh, hi Jack." Daniel couldn't help but let a hint of disappointment color his voice. "No, no. I'm fine really. Hold on just a second."
He fumbled for the television remote which had slipped between the cushions on the couch. Retrieving it, he pressed the mute button then placed the remote on the coffee table.
"Sorry about that. Couldn't find the remote. So, how's Washington?"
He shifted on the couch, trying to find a more comfortable position, as Jack gave a rather brief rundown of his week.
"At least you've refrained from actually shooting somebody." Daniel snorted with ill disguised humor. "I mean, come on Jack, you knew what kind of snake pit you were getting into when you accepted this assignment."
Back in Washington, a general growled.
"Seriously, is it really that bad?"
Jack griped about annoying politicians. Daniel passed on information about Teal'c and Sam. Jack asked about Cassie. The conversation continued for a few minutes before winding down.
"Well, Jack, I'll catch up with you this weekend... I'll tell her you said hello. Bye."
Daniel hung up the telephone. He turned up the sound on the television and settled in for a long night.
Washington, DC
She had made arrangements the previous night to meet with the DC slayer for a little shop talk to be followed by some shopping. Connie's watcher was not thrilled but, as Buffy pointed out, rank did have its priveleges and as the senior slayer, she had the rank. Unfortunately, brunch had gone into overtime as Connie filled her in on the local demon hotspots and they had to forgo the shopping. Even so, she arrived at the British embassy almost ten minutes late.
She recognized the aide waiting for her in the lobby. "Sorry Mr. Pryce, my morning meeting ran a little late."
James Pryce sniffed before replying. "Miss Summers, General O'Neill is waiting and he does not appear to be a patient man."
Buffy followed him into a small conference room. A tall, distinguished man stood near the window and if she wasn't mistaken, he had just put a yo-yo in his pocket. Interesting.
"Miss Summers, General John O'Neill, United States Air Force. General O'Neill, Miss Buffy Anne Summers of the Travers Foundation. If you need anything, I will be at extension 239."
"Thank you." Buffy acknowledge. "Mr. Pryce, can you arrange for a car and driver for later this afternoon?"
"Certainly Miss."
And with that, the aide withdrew from the room, shutting the door behind him.
O'Neill made note that the little California blonde that Davis had met was not in evidence this afternoon. She was still short and blonde but now looked like a lawyer. He hated lawyers almost as much as he hated politicians.
"So Miss Summers of the Travers Foundation, would you like to tell me why we are here?"
"Because somebody at the Pentagon is looking into things that should remain buried? General, we might as well sit down this may take a while."
He waited for her to sit before picking out a chair a third of the way down the table.
"Before we begin, I'd like to apologize for being late. I had meeting this morning that lasted longer than expected." Buffy looked straight at him. "General, what I'm about to tell needs to remain in this room. The Intiative was a dangerous mistake. Try to restart it, and we will shut it down, hard."
"No one's trying to restart anything. I don't even know what the Initiative was and I've had no luck in finding anyone who did. And I don't like threats."
"It's a warning, not a threat. And the reason you are having trouble finding people to tell you about the Initiative is that almost everybody directly involved with the project is dead."
"Dead?"
"A lot of them died five years ago, most of the survivors were killed last year."
"Convenient."
"It was for certain people, like the ones that gave a green light to the project in the first place. It's so much tidier when the evidence is literally buried."
"What kind of evidence?"
"How about expiriments on your own soldiers for starters?"
"What kind of expiriments?"
"The type of expiriments that ethical scientists won't do. The Initiative had roots that can be traced back to Nazi Germany. The Germans became aware of individuals that possessed certain...attributes. These individuals were abnormally strong, healed quickly and were in general very hard to kill. They thought would be desirable to incorporate these traits into their soldiers. They captured some these individuals and tried to find out what made them tick. Some of their test subjects eventually freed themselves and killed the researchers. Unfortunately, the data from their research survived and found its way into hands of the U.S. military after the war."
Aw crap, he didn't like where this was heading. O'Neill sat up straighter.
She paused a moment before continuing. "As far as the Foundation knows, nothing was done with that research until the early 1980s when the Initiative was formed. Most of the new research was gathered by surveillance rather expirimentation and nothing much came of it until Dr. Margaret Walsh joined the project. Eventually, she was able to convince some Army bigwigs that she could create a supersoldier. By the late 1990s, she was in charge and had moved the Initiative's main base of operations to Sunnydale, California."
"Was there any particular reason for moving to Sunnydale?"
"It had the one of the highest concentration of these 'special' individuals in the country. It also had one of the most clueless civilian populations on the planet."
"Clueless?"
"Anything and everything out of the ordinary was either ignored or rationalized away. People died or disappeared all of the time. The local high school had a regular obituary column. No one, and I mean no one, even noticed the soldiers in black that were running around town gathering specimens."
"Surely they noticed people disappearing?"
"Like I said, people disappeared in Sunnydale all the time. Anyway, most of the Initiative abductees were not the sort that anyone would miss."
"Street people?"
"More like sewer dwellers and I never said they were people." Buffy took a deep breath before continuing. "Most of 'special individuals' weren't human, at least not fully."
"Not human? Then what, dogs?" Aliens? He kept that last thought to himself.
"Vampires, werewolves, demons."
That did it. He rose to his feet. "Miss Summers, I do not appreciate being dragged to a meeting just to hear fairy tales. If you will excuse me, I have real business to attend to."
"Sit down General. I'm not any happier to be here than you are. We are both under orders so let's just get this over with."
O'Neill nodded stiffly and sat back down.
"The world is older than you know. Before humans, demons walked the earth. Forget the biblical tales of paradise, earth was their hell. In time, they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, for man. All that remains of the old ones are vestiges..."
"Vampires, werewolves, demons. Right."
"Okay, I admit it sounds nuts. It sounds a lot more reasonable in a tweedy British accent."
"Then why send an American college student?"
"The man in tweed has better things to do than to jet over to Washington just to convince a desk jockey to back off." This time, Buffy stood. "Damn it, I told Giles this wasn't going to work. You want proof? Fine, cancel the rest of your appointments for the day and clear tonight's calendar. I'll show you what the Initiative was messing with."
Buffy stalked over to the intercom/telephone. "Mr. Pryce, can you have that car brought around, the General and I have a few places to visit."
"You've got to be kidding."
"Right, it's all a big practical joke on the man with all the pretty ribbons on his jacket. That's why the Prime Minister called the President. It's no joke General. There are things in this world that you can't begin to imagine, so I'll show you."
"Isn't it a little early to be hunting vampires." He made a big show of checking his watch.
"We have a few stops to make first. I need to change and pick up some supplies at my hotel and you might want to change into something a little less military."
Chapter 7
Arlington, VA
"Arlington?"
"I want to visit some old friends and we've got the time." Buffy got out of the car. "Besides, you wanted to find out about the Initiative. I'll introduce you some of its members."
"They like to hang out in cemeteries?" Jack asked as they left the parking lot.
"It's part of the job description," she replied. "Vampires in particular like to hang out in them so if you're hunting vamps it pays to check out the local cemeteries."
At least it was a nice day to play hooky Jack thought, even if he was stuck with a lunatic for a companion. After all, he was under orders to be cooperative so he couldn't be blamed for missing his 5, 6 and 7 o'clock meetings today.
For the next twenty minutes they walked through grounds in silence before stopping in front of a cross bearing the name of Riley Finn.
Buffy spoke quietly. "Riley was from Iowa. He believed in mom, apple pie, and the American flag. Dr. Walsh recruited him right out of ranger school. He had no idea what he was getting into."
"If he made it through ranger school he was hardly a naïve kid."
"By most standards he wasn't. But he was a good soldier, taught to follow orders and not ask too many questions, perfect for the Initiative. He believed in the stated mission to eliminate the subterrestrial threat. When the Initiative set up shop at UCSunnydale, Riley and the rest of his unit posed as grad students. Dr. Walsh was my pysch professor, Riley was her teaching assistant. I eventually crossed paths with 'commando' Riley and wound up being recruited into the program."
"Why would they recruit, what a college freshman, into a top secret program?"
"Supposedly because of my background in things weird and/or demonic but mostly Walsh was looking for another lab rat. It didn't work out. I'm not one for blindly following orders so she sent me into an ambush with a defective weapon. I think she was looking for body parts to play with. I disappointed her by surviving. Anyway, I quit the program and Riley started to question the mission. He went AWOL after watching the 'scientists' experiment someone he knew. They used a cattle prod."
Now that brought back unpleasant memories. Jack's mind drifted back to Iraq for a moment before he processed the first part of Buffy's explanation. "Wait a sec. Body parts to play with?"
"She wanted to build a better soldier, literally. To do that, she needed parts. She started with cadavers and worked her way up to special orders. Anyway, her creation killed her and eventally took out most of the Sunnydale complex. Her project was deemed a failure. A few months later, Riley rejoined the Initiative which had gone back to its old mission statement."
Buffy walked a few feet south and stopped in front a cross for Samantha Finn. Jack followed and commented on the surnames.
"Related?"
"Married. He met Sam on a mission in South or Central America, I forget which. They were killed last year while trying to clear out a nest of S'vagara demons."
Buffy began walking again. Fifteen minutes later, they stopped at yet another grave.
"Meet Colonel Kibble, not that there is much of him here."
The cross was for a Colonel M. McNamara, US Army.
"He was in charge of the Sunnydale complex when things went to hell. He had the proof that I'm going to show you but he didn't believe. I hope you're smarter."
Buffy checked the progress of the sun in the sky. "It's time to head back. Do you keep any casual type clothes at your office or do you need to go home to change?
Washington, DC
The trip back to Washington was mostly silent as Buffy declined to answer most of the general's questions. When they arrived at the Pentagon, Buffy had stayed with the car while he went to change since there was no way was she going to voluntarily enter a military facility again. She was pleasantly surprised when the general returned. She wasn't quite sure what she had expected but this wasn't it. The uniform had given way to a blck t-shirt, a pair of slightly baggy jeans, and denim jacket. Non-conformity and self-confidence, maybe this general would "get it."
O'Neill didn't bother talking to Buffy on the way to her hotel. He headed into the hotel restaurant with the driver for a quick cup of coffee while she went to her room to change. Buffy stopped him.
"You're coming up with me. I'm not taking you out on patrol unarmed. And no, the gun you're carrying doesn't count. Bullets just piss off vamps."
He trailed after her as she crossed the lobby to the elevator. "So what type of weapons?"
"Stakes, crosses, some holy water. Clichéd, but the stuff works. Just a warning though, crosses and holy water won't kill them. They will slow most of the minions down but if we meet a master vampire they don't do much."
They arrived at her room and Buffy grabbed some clothes out of the closet. She kicked off her shoes and went into the bathroom to change.
A couple of minutes later, California Buffy exited the bathroom wearing a pair of tight black jeans and a green blouse. She grabbed her overnight bag and put it on the bed. After removing the top layers of clothes from the bag, she pulled out a cloth sack. She emptied the sack, a jumble of wooden stakes, crosses, small bottles, a couple of knives and a small crossbow fell out onto the bedspread.
"How the hell did you get all of that past security?"
"They only examine carry on closely so I checked it at the baggage counter." She refrained from mentioning the masking spell on the weapons bag.
She put on a cross and handed on to him. "Humor me."
He reluctantly put in on.
She pulled her hair back and twisted into a knot. She took two of the thinnest stakes and used them to secure the knot. Two substantially thicker stakes disappeared under her shirt, as did the daggers. She passed a stake and one of the bottles to O'Neill. He placed them in his jacket.
She put the rest of the weapons, except for the crossbow, back into the bag.
"You know how to use one of these?"
When he shook his head, she placed it back in the bag.
She sat down on the bed and put her shoes on. He couldn't believe that she was going to wear a pair of high heeled pumps.
"Okay, let's head out."
"Where are we going?"
"First stop, an abandoned warehouse that is suspected of housing a small nest of vampires." She turned out the lights and they left the room.
- - -
Buffy dismissed the embassy car once they reached the back of the warehouse. A look of relief crossed the driver's face as he pulled away.
"Just getting the civilian out of line of fire," Buffy said at O'Neill's questioning look. "It's not that far a walk and you like you're in pretty good shape."
At the back entrance, Buffy closed her eyes and reached out with her senses. Yep, Connie was right, this was a vamp nest. She opened her eyese and grabbed the door knob. It turned easily.
"Follow me and have your stake ready. Remember, if you use the holy water it will only slow them down."
"Right."
The pair entered the building. At first, it seemed deserted. As they moved further in, they began to smell something decaying.
"Guess they don't take out the trash to often," O'Neill quipped.
"Maybe we'll make an exception with you two," a figure detached itself from the shadows. Four others followed.
"I don't know, do you boys think you're up to it?"
"You think you're a challenge little girl? You and the old man?"
"Actually, I don't think you're up to taking us both on." Her hand slid into her blouse and pulled out a stake.
"Ooh, I'm scared. We know what the slayer looks like and you ain't her."
"Then this should be easy. So, do we talk or dance?"
He put on his game face and lunged towards her. She twisted out of the way and shoved the stake into his heart. He burst into dust.
O'Neill watched as the other four charged Buffy. She staked one as she kicked another in the chest, sending it sprawling towards him. O'Neill took one look at its distorted face and staked it. The dust cloud had him sneezing as if there was no tomorrow.
"Guess I forgot to tell you not to lean in when you stake them." Buffy was surrounded by dust piles. "So, do you believe in vampires yet?"
"Very fun..." O'Neill let loose with another violent sneeze.
Buffy snickered.
"No giggling, miss. That's an..." He sneezed again.
"Come on, let's get out of here before you sneeze the building down."
A couple of minutes later, O'Neill finally stopped sneezing.
"Okay, vampires are real. How does this tie into the Iniative? Since they go poof when you kill them, I'm guessing that they aren't of much use as body parts."
"No, but they did make good test subjects for behavior modification chips. She put an anti-violence chip into one vampire."
"Well, that actually sounds like a good idea."
"Just because you can't physically hurt people doesn't mean that you still can't do a lot of damage. Besides, it's one thing to stake a vamp, but to starve it to death, that's just cruel."
"So, if they weren't using vampires for body parts..."
"Demons and human cadavers. You ready for the next lesson?"
"Another warehouse?"
"Nope, a demon bar over on the next block." She started walking.
"Demon bar. Of course," he muttered as he hurried to catch up with her. She walked pretty fast for somebody with such short legs.
The establishment was fairly noisy when they entered it. Most of the patrons looked human but a few were most definitely not. The orange one with horns looked like an escapee from the cantina scene in Star Wars.
Buffy was walking over to the bar when the bartender looked up. O'Neill watched as the man's face went dead white.
"Listen, I don't want any trouble."
"Not here to cause trouble. Just doing a little sightseeing with my friend." She indicated O'Neill with a shrug.
"Didn't know you were back in the states."
"Moved back a couple of months ago." She took a seat. "We'll have coffee. I'll have mine black. O'Neill, how do you like yours?"
"Black will be fine."
Willie poured some into a couple of mugs and placed them on the bar.
"Have you been in Washington long?"
"Moved here a couple of months after Sunnydale. I thought about going to LA but decided it was better for my health out here. Sorry to hear about Angel and Spike though."
"They made their choices."
"Yeah, guess they did."
The conversation ended as a disturbance erupted in the background.
"Slayer."
Buffy turned to O'Neill. "Duty calls. Stay here. Willie, if anything happens to him..."
"I'll get him out of here if it goes bad."
Buffy got off her chair and moved towards a mountain of a man. O'Neill got up to follow her.
"There's no need. The Slayer can take Ornag."
"The Slayer?"
The bar started to clear out.
"Guess your not the new watcher then. She's a vampire slayer. Until a few years ago, she was The Slayer, the Chosen One. The witch activated all of the others at the battle of Sunnydale. Now she's one of many. But she's the oldest and the best."
They hear a loud crash from the back.
"The oldest? She's twenty-four."
"Most slayers die before they turn twenty. Of course, Buffy's died a couple of times that I know of. She just doesn't stay dead. So, you two dating?"
O'Neill had been watching Buffy pummel the mountain but Willie's non-sequitor caused him to look at the bartender.
"Don't you think I'm a bit old to be dating her?"
"Other than Riley, Buffy likes older guys. Shoot, Spike was a least twice your age and as for Angel..." Willie stuttered to a halt.
"I've given up dating older men." Buffy's voice came from behind O'Neill. "Willie, you've got a mess to clean up."
"Is he dead?"
"No, just really, really bloody. Might attract vampires."
Willie grabbed a towel and a mop left the bar.
"Ready to go?"
"Sure, Slayer. So, you do this often?"
9. Chapter 8
*Washington, DC*
"Do what often? Stake vampires? Hang out in demon bars? Get into bar fights?" Buffy asked as she and the general headed back toward her hotel.
"How about all of the above?"
"Occasionally. Used to. Not so much anymore. I've moved to a nice, quiet town."
"Colorado Springs."
"Someone's been busy," she acknowledged. "The main attraction was UCCS but the lack of 'night life' was a definite plus."
"If you were rating towns by 'night life,' how would you rate Colorado Springs?"
"On a scale of one to ten? It would probably rate a two. I've staked a couple of out-of-town vamps but haven't come across a nest yet. The local demon population is pretty harmless. The live and let live type. Now my old hometown, that was a solid ten."
"Vampires in every cemetery?"
"And in the abandoned mansions, the warehouses, the sewer system."
"Sewer system?"
"Between the sewers and the other tunnels under Sunnydale, a vamp could get just about anywhere in town without catching any rays."
"Aren't they supposed to be asleep during the day?"
"Do you go to bed as soon as the sun goes down? Anyhow, they weren't the only things down there. Some of the more conspicuous demons prefer to stay out of sight so they tend to stay underground in populated areas."
"How many other places are that bad?"
"Luckily very few, most places are pretty quiet, like Colorado Springs. Sunnydale was built on top of a hellmouth, sort of a portal to a demon dimension. It acted as a magnet for all things bad."
"Past tense?"
The pair came to a stop at an intersection. Since several other people were already there waiting for the signal to change, Buffy didn't answer right away. When the "WALK" signal flashed, she and the general quickly crossed the street, putting some distance between themselves and the others.
"We closed down the hellmouth permanently a couple of years ago."
"So, not an earthquake?"
"Not really, more of a mystic-quake."
"And who would 'we' be? The Traverse Foundation or the Council?"
As they neared a particularly well-lit area, O'Neill caught a glimpse of smile on her face.
"At the time I wasn't part of the Travers Foundation. Quinton Travers and I had long history of not playing well together. And the Council, lets just say that they were pretty much out of commission at that point."
"Not going tell me."
She recognized that it was a statement and not a question but she answered anyway. "Nope. It's a need to know kinda thing and you don't need to know."
O'Neill tried another tack. "Okay, how did you get involved with this? And what are you?"
"Willie told you, I'm a slayer or more precisely, a vampire slayer. How did I get involved?" The slight smile vanished as if had never been there. "Destiny, fate, genetics, really bad luck, take your pick. Thousands of years ago, some wizards used magic to create the first slayer. She was given the power to fight the vampires and the demons that roamed the earth. When she fell, another girl was chosen. I was fifteen when I was chosen."
"For crying out loud," O'Neill sputtered. "Fifteen?"
"Slayers are always called young, usually around fourteen or fifteen. There are records of some being called even younger, the youngest that I'm aware of was almost eleven. The only qualifier seems to be that they've at least hit puberty."
O'Neill mulled this over. When added to Willie's comments about a witch activating the slayers at Sunnydale, a very unpleasant picture began to emerge.
"Willie said something about most slayers dying before they turn twenty."
"Most only lasted a year or two, so if you were called at fifteen, chances were pretty good that you would long dead by twenty."
"You're over twenty."
"And I didn't make it to seventeen."
"Huh?"
"I drowned when I was sixteen. A master vamp did a major nibble and while I was in shock he pushed me into a pool of water face down. Some friends found me and did the CPR thing. We thought it was just another near miss until a new slayer arrived in town."
"You have a lot of near misses?"
"Occupational hazard. The other team plays for keeps. In addition the the run of the mill beat downs, I've been drugged and left for demon chow, stabbed with my own stake, nearly drained by another master vamp, and shot."
Despite the warm September night, Jack saw her shiver.
"The new slayers, the ones the witch activated?"
"Willie talks too much. Most of them are still alive but there are always casualties." She sighed as an image of Dawn's friend Amanda crossed her mind's eye. "Slayers are the front line in an unending war. Right now, the odds are better than they've ever been but we still lose people."
"You lose children." Children who were not that much older than his dead son.
"We inherited the system, we didn't create it."
"But you changed it didn't you? You found a way to activate all of them," he charged.
"Yes. We, I, found a way.
"Why?"
"That unending war? We were losing big time. Something happened a couple of years earlier that upset the balance between good and evil. Potential slayers were being hunted down and killed in an attempt to destroy the slayer line. Once the last slayer was dead, the big bad was going to open the hellmouth wide and there wouldn't have been a damn thing anyone could done about it. Humanity would have been wiped out. Activating the potentials was our best chance to save the world and it was the only way to save any of them. As Potentials, they weren't any stronger or faster than any other teenager. As Slayers, they had a fighting chance."
"You couldn't undo it afterwards?"
She shook her head. "Once a Slayer, always a Slayer."
"They're just children, little girls."
"Not anymore. They are Slayers." Buffy turned her head towards the general. "Don't stop, we've got company."
"Wondering when you would notice."
"They aren't vamps or demons."
"So, just muggers?"
"Yeah, or gangbangers unfortunately. Vamps I can kill, these I have to take down without causing major damage."
"Make that we have to take down," he corrected. "And I think moderate damage is probably in order."
Colorado Springs
The waiting had been killing him. He had a brief respite when he finally drifted to sleep around three in the afternoon. He was still sleeping when Cassie let herself into his apartment.
Cassie shook her head in exasperation when she found him, still in yesterday's clothes, asleep on the couch. Her mom and Uncle Jack were right. He really did need a keeper.
"Daniel, rise and shine."
"What," he slurred.
"Rise and shine. How late did you stay up this time?"
"Um, what time is it?" he asked as he sat up.
"What difference does that make? You pulled an all-nighter again. You're supposed to take it easy. Brightman's going to be pissed."
"Only if she finds out. You're not going to tell her, are you?"
Cassie giggled at the poor lost puppy look on his face.
"I will if it happens again."
"It won't. I promise."
"Right." She plopped down on other end of the couch. "So, why were you up so late? History Channel tick you off again?"
"No. I was waiting for a phone call."
"Uncle Jack?"
"No. The letter you found was from the daughter of an old friend. I was trying to get in contact with her but she had just left on a business trip. Her sister said she would pass a message on for me if she could."
"And that was so important that you stayed up all night hoping to she'd call you? You do have a telephone in your bedroom you know." She leaned forward. "What's the real story?"
The telephone rang.
Chapter 9
Colorado Springs
Daniel answered the phone before the second ring. "Dr. Jackson..."
Cassie slouched back on her end of the couch and waited. Was this the mysterious phone call? Daniel's next words dispelled that hope.
"Can't Satterfield handle the translation?"
Daniel ditching work? Damn, she had to find out what was going on with that letter.
"Fine Sam. When will the car be here?" He hung up the phone.
"Daniel?"
"SG-9 just brought back some scrolls that the General wants translated ASAP. Satterfield is unavailable so he got Brightman to okay my coming in." He stood up and headed into his bedroom for some clean clothes.
"I can wait for the call if you'd like."
"No that's okay. I'll call Dawn before I leave and let her know that I'll be out for a while."
Cassie smiled as the bedroom door closed. So, the sister's name is Dawn. It wasn't much but at least it was a start.
Washington, DC
"Well, that was fun." He surveyed the crumpled bodies surrounding them. The altercation had been short, lasting only a minute or so before the five muggers kissed the pavement.
She looked at her companion with more than a little approval. She had deliberately hung back in the brief fight to see what her companion was made of. For an old guy of the human variety, his skills were more than impressive. He had to have close to thirty years on Riley but Buffy thought that the general could have taken her former boyfriend in a fair, or not so fair, fight. "Guessing you weren't always a desk jockey."
"Just for the last two years. And you know, you could have been a bit more helpful here."
"True," Buffy agreed, unrepentant. "So, kicked upstairs?"
"For my sins."
"And still missing the action?"
"Yeah. It used to be a whole lot simpler. See the bad guys, kill the bad guys. I'm not allowed to shoot the paperwork and shooting the bean counters and politicians would only create more paperwork."
"I feel your pain." At his incredulous look, she elaborated. "For almost eight years I was just a Slayer and then the old Council went buh-bye. The last two years we've been picking up the pieces. I got stuck with rebuilding the European branch."
"Miss the action too?"
"Not really, well sometimes. By the time Sunnydale was destroyed, action girl was just about actioned out. I went from active slaying to approving purchase orders and playing nursemaid to a bunch of newbie watchers and baby-slayers. What I really missed was the lack of responsibility. Before, it was just save the world and keep my family and friends safe. I had my sister with me but my friends were spread out over the globe. I couldn't even try to keep them safe. It's not that they aren't capable, they are. It's just," she shrugged.
The general nodded.
One of the muggers began to moan as he regained consciousness.
O'Neill reached into his pocket for his cell phone. As he started to punch in some numbers, Buffy asked "911?"
He nodded.
"Do you have to?"
"You have a problem with the police?"
"Not exactly, I just don't need the attention."
"Well we can't leave them here."
"Why not?" She pouted. "It's not like they're going to freeze out here or something."
He didn't budge.
She gave in. "Fine, make the call, just as long as I get to play the damsel in distress saved by the big, strong man."
"Cute Summers."
Colorado Springs
Dawn was sprawled on the couch watching CNN when the telephone rang.
"Summer residence...hold on just a sec, let me turn down the volume." She fiddled with the control and jumped as the volume spiked before she found the mute button. "So, how's Washington? When are you coming home? Why haven't you called Dr. Jackson yet?"
She adjusted the pillow behind her head as Buffy filled her in.
"You should have called him earlier. He got called back to work for some project that his boss said wouldn't wait...No, he didn't know he'd get home but he said he'd call when he did...So, what's the general like?...No way, seriously? A hottie? You have so got to get over this older man phase...Yeah, yeah, I know, just admiring the workmanship, yada yada. Guess it's a good thing Giles didn't send Faith."
Washington, DC
Buffy smirked. "I don't know. Somehow, I think she might have met her match...Not that way, at least I don't think so. I'm mean he's fit and all, but...She'd have mussed up Col. Davis though...That's the guy O'Neill sent to airport to pick me up...Watch it, brat. Anyhow, you should have seen his face when I asked him about where the mall was... Yep, blonde California ditz."
She rolled onto her stomach and waited for her sister to stop laughing before changing the subject.
"So, he got called back to work?...Well, its probably for the best. This is going to be awkward enough without doing it by telephone...I've got an early morning meeting with the general and then an 11 a.m. flight home...Yeah, my date's still on, good thing I don't need much sleep...Okay, maybe I do need some sleep but get your mind out of the gutter little sis...And you wonder why I haven't introduced you to Jay yet. Ever think that I might be protecting him from you?"
Colorado Springs
"So, how's the translation going?" Sam stood in the doorway to Daniel's office.
"What?" The startled archaeologist looked up. "Oh, hi Sam."
"The translation?"
"Almost done. I think the general's going to be disappointed though." He sat up and stretched. "Apparently the locals had been using the Stargate as a trade route. So unless General Landry is looking for a supplier of hak'ni or blith stone, and I don't have any idea what either of those things are, the information is pretty useless other that providing some new gate addresses."
"New addresses?"
"I think so. Here, take a look."
"I'll take your word for it." She cleared off a chair and sat down. "I really wanted to speak to you about something else."
"It's gone through then?"
"As of 0800 tomorrow, SG-1 is officially disbanded. Teal'c will be staying on Dakara for now and I've been transfered to Area 51. You've been assigned to the Daedalus. It will be departing for Atlantis in ten days."
Chapter 10
Colorado Springs
The Daedalus. Atlantis.
He had denied a place on the expedition to the Pegasus galaxy the previous year. He was still annoyed with Jack about that, even if he never found conclusive proof that Jack had engineered it. His friend had been just too damned happy that his favorite archaeologist would being staying in the Milky Way galaxy. He would have given almost anything to go last year and had spent the last few months trying to wrangle a spot on the Daedalus.
Why hadn't Jack given him the heads-up that he being reassigned? As Head of Homeworld Security, Jack would have been notified even if he weren't actively involved in personnel assignments. Could it be that Jack was still trying to ground him?
Of course, he had to beg off. He couldn't go even if it meant a kind of professional suicide. The cost had just become too great. He wasn't Nick. Dr. Nicholas Ballard had abandoned his grandson. His grandfather's choice would not be his.
"Daniel?" Sam was concerned as she watched as series of emotions played over her friend's face. "Earth to Dr. Jackson."
"Sorry Sam. Just thinking." He brought himself to the present. "So, you'll be heading to Area 51?"
"I'm replacing their current head of off-world research."
"I guess congratulations are in order."
"Why thank you Dr. Jackson. Now, what's up? I expected you to a least a little bit excited with your new assignment."
"Actually, I've been having second thoughts."
"Since when? You've been trying to get to Atlantis ever since we discovered the coordinates."
"I know. It's just that maybe it's not where I need to be right now."
"Well, that would make a certain general happy."
"It would, wouldn't it?"
Washington, DC
It was five minute to seven the next morning when General O'Neill arrived at the British embassy for his second meeting with the representative from the Travers Foundation and the mysterious Council. Mr. Pryce escorted him to the same conference room that had been used the previous day. This time, he was not the first to arrive.
Buffy greeted him with a chipper "Morning General sir."
"Good morning Miss Summers. If you will excuse us Mr. Pryce?"
"Yes, of course. A car is waiting to take Miss Summers to the airport when you are finished." He closed the door on his way out.
"A bit stuffy isn't he?"
"I think it's genetic. Want a scone? Tea? I got them to include coffee," she gestured to refreshments set at the far end of the table. "Not sure if it's the British genes or the Watcher ones though."
"Watcher ones?" He poured himself a cup and sat down.
Buffy took a sip of her coffee before continuing. "Watchers tend to be a bit pompous, all about 'sacred duty'; even the ones not born into a Watcher family. His cousin was my third Watcher. Took himself and his position way too seriously."
"How many Watchers have you had?"
"Three. A vamp killed my first one, my second was fired by the Council for disobeying orders. Wes lasted until graduation day."
"That would be the one at the exploding high school."
"What can I say? Mayor turned into a giant snake and tried to eat the class of '99. On a positive note, he did eat our troll of a principal."
"Your principal was a troll?"
"Sort of. You know the type, never got a date in high school and spent the rest of his life making everybody else miserable. Anyway, after Wes got out of the hospital, he quit the Council and did the 'rogue demon hunter' thing for a few months."
"There's such a thing as a rogue demon hunter?"
"Freelancers, mercenaries. Apparently there's good money it, not that Wes was doing for the cash."
"Do I even want to know?"
"Probably not. Ignorance is bliss."
"Until the demons show up for the party."
"True."
"So tell me more about this party."
"It's your classic good vs. evil thing. This world may not be a paradise but if the other side wins we get hell on earth and that's assuming there's an earth left. Luckily, most vamps and demons aren't actually interested in destroying the world. A vampire once described humans as Happy Meals with legs and the way things stand now there's a lot food out there. End of the world means Mickey D's closes up shop for good, so only the Big Bads are into ending the world. The average vamp or demon is interested killing, mayhem, torture, but not world endage. Some have even been known to join the good guys to take down the baddie of the day."
"Then why not have the military involved?"
"I think you know the answer to that. Remember the Initiative? They almost managed to engineer their own very special apocalypse by trying to literally combine soldiers and demons. And if they had actually succeeded in creating a supersoldier, how long do you think it would have been before they for they unleashed their new weapon on a more conventional enemy? Second, do you really think you can keep the supernatural a secret if you join the party? You'll have mass hysteria and witch hunts once people are forced to acknowledge the monsters under the bed. Ever been to a witch burning? I don't recommend them. And finally, the most important reason is that you'll eventually need to use magic."
"And I suppose we can't," he asked.
"With time and aptitude it's possible, it's more like you shouldn't. Think of it as playing with a cross between heroin and a nuke. It's addictive and dangerous."
"But not for the Travers Foundation or Council," he glared at her. They were beginning to sound a lot like the Tollan and the Tok'ra.
"Even for us, maybe even especially for us. It's very easy to go over to the other side. Almost every magic user I have ever known has at least dabbled in black magic. My best friend went from being a shy, sweet girl to something way scarier than a nest of vamps. She was self-taught and had lots of aptitude. You know about the road to hell being paved with good intentions? She started with protection charms and location spells before moving on to animal sacrifice and raising the dead. When her lover quarreled with her about the excessive and frivolous use of magic, she fixed the problem by erasing Tara's memory of the fight. She was eventually placed in the mystical equivalent of a rehab center but not before she nearly 'nuked' the planet."
"You're not reassuring me."
Buffy ran her fingers through her hair in frustration, wrecking her hairstyle in the process."Okay, how many nations have nukes and how many more nations want to get them? The UN keeps an eye on them and tries to stop them. Now imagine a nuclear arms race that doesn't need an industrial complex to build the bomb."
"If its that easy, why hasn't it happened already?"
"We try not to leave the instruction manuals where people can find them. The scrolls and books you would need are usually written in dead or demon languages and most of them are accounted for. And as I said earlier, you do need to have an aptitude for it which most people fortunately do not have."
"So, no military involvement."
"No direct involvement," she corrected. "The Council has had arrangements with various governments over the millenia."
"The British."
"For the last few centuries, others before that. Empires have their uses. Members of Council families are scattered through the bureaucracy but other than that, knowledge of the Council is highly restricted. The Royal Family, the Prime Minister, other than that, it's pretty much need to know."
"Are you proposing the same thing here?"
"No. We did some research into the backers of the Initiative. One of them was former Vice President Kinsey so you'll understand that we have no reason to trust this administration."
"I'll have to tell President Hayes something."
"I know but no one else. Make sure all the recording devices are turned off."
"What do we get in return?"
"Fewer American casualties if we can operate without interference."
"Is that a threat or a statement of fact?"
"If we don't have to worry about the government getting in the way we stand a better chance of doing our job."
P5X-249
SG-9 took cover about half a click from the local stargate. Once again, a supposedly deserted planet was less than unoccupied.
"Tell me again why we trust To'kra intel?"
"What's wrong Grogan? 'Fraid your going to miss your hot date this weekend?" Lt. Astor picked off the first Jaffa to enter the clearing.
"Just because you can't get a date," he paused to fire at the next two Jaffa, "doesn't mean the rest of the world doesn't."
"Will you two idiots just keep shooting the Jaffa instead of worrying about your social lives?"
A small chorus of "yes, sirs" were followed by yet more gunfire. A few minutes later, Major Carmichael gave the all clear and his team headed back towards the stargate.
NEXT
