Gateway to Change

Hunting for a demon in Washington DC leads Riley Finn into a foothold situation very different than he's ever experienced before. Flung into a world of ray guns and aliens, Finn will be remade as the leader of SG-3. World 703 in the Crisis of Infinite Scoobies.

I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Stargate. They belong to Joss Whedon and MGM, I think... This chapter contains spoilers for the SG-1 episode 'Foothold'.

Chapter I: Foothold Situation

Major Riley Finn had been trying to put Sunnydale and Buffy behind him for quite some time. He wasn't particularly proud of how he'd acted before he finally left, but he was certainly glad that he had. He was man enough to admit that he simply couldn't be in a relationship where he wasn't the strong one sometimes. It wasn't that he had a problem with strong women were great. It just would have occasionally been nice to be the strong one for once. Buffy had, without even intending to, made him feel like a powerless weakling. He had to leave before he truly developed a complex. Frankly the Initiative had screwed him up more than enough.

It was about a month after leaving Sunnydale that Riley had happened upon something shady that he wasn't expecting. He was in DC on business, supposedly to try and hunt down a Karnak demon that had been sighted in Washington. It was considered a one-man job and so he'd been sent in alone. He hadn't even left the airport when he dropped the mission like a hot potato. Just a jet was taking off, he saw two men in civilian attire, though obviously military given the area, shift. In their place, just for a fraction of a second, were two demons.

It was so brief he thought he might have hallucinated. Riley considered for a long moment and then began tailing them. He simply couldn't chance that he'd been wrong by killing them, but he also couldn't lose them. If he was right, then to members of the military, at least, were compromised.

His covert surveillance of the two provided more evidence to Finn's mind. If these really were two soldiers, then their situational awareness was crap. Again he hesitated. It was an unfortunate fact that the military had people who were essentially desk jockeys. The two could be them. It was the café, spitting distance from NID Headquarters no less, that provided him with more evidence. A blonde woman whose very presence gave the appearance of a hyper-vigilant soldier was sitting with a slimy-looking Air Force guy who could only be NID.

Fin nearly snorted as the blonde harangued the Air Force Colonel, Maybourne apparently, for being an idiot and ignoring her foothold declaration. The moron had apparently breached procedure and brought in the very people the woman believed to be compromised. Finn smiled. Her certainty regarding a foothold situation bolstered the evidence of his own eyes. Oh yes. This was definitely a pair of demons.

Finn scanned the café and quickly concluded that a takedown there was out of the question. There were simply too many witnesses… too many innocent bystanders as well… He simply listened covertly to the conversation as the demons and the idiot managed to convince the woman to go back to the SGC with them. It was bad for her, but it offered Finn the opportunity to get them isolated from the civvies. He backed off and went for his car.

Samantha Carter was beginning to feel her frustration boiling over. She still couldn't believe that Maybourne had called the SGC when she had claimed a foothold situation had compromised her chain of command. The SGC dealt with aliens on a regular basis. A foothold by them was a terrifyingly legitimate threat.

She had to credit the aliens though. If she hadn't been fully certain that they were lying, she would have doubted her own story. They were very smooth. And now she was on the tarmac, heading towards Maybourne's plane and then into the lion's den. She shuddered at the thought of her and Maybourne going in there alone. At least before she'd had Teal'c to back her up. Now all she had was an aging NID colonel with questionable judgement.

"Colonel Maybourne, sir. It's good to finally meet you." Confused by the sudden interruption of her thoughts, Carter turned to see a handsome man in civilian attire approaching Maybourne with a casual smile and his hand held out in preparation for a handshake. Apparently this guy hadn't met Maybourne and thought he might be a nice guy. Poor sap.

The good colonel was apparently just as confused as she was, since he questioned the man, even as they shook hands. "Do I know you, son?"

The man smiled ruefully. "Not as yet, sir. I'm Major Riley Finn, USMC. I'm on assignment for the DRI here in DC and I'd hoped to talk to you about the local situation."

Maybourne apparently recognised something important in that odd spiel, but Sam could honestly say she didn't know the acronym DRI from a hole in the ground. "I'm sorry, son. I'd like to help you, but I've got a priority tasking that I've got to deal with here. Perhaps I can refer you to Lieutenant Colonel Simmons as the NID. I think he might have a hand free at the moment."

The brunet major smiled benignly. "Really, sir? It just seemed to me that our taskings might have crossed."

Maybourne stiffened at that and Sam couldn't really blame him. Was this Finn implying he knew about the SGC. "What exactly do you think you know about my tasking, Major?" Harry's voice was ice cold.

Finn's smile never wavered. "Only what I see in front of me, sir." And the major lashed a side kick into the kneecap of Colonel O'Neill's doppelganger and held a gun on Daniel's. "I think you might be right about that foothold you described, Ma'am." Finn spoke cooly to Sam "I caught sight of these two…" He gestured to the captured doppelgangers, "on the tarmac and their images wavered for a moment. They're definitely not who they seem to be. I'm not sure what kind of demons they are, but they're certainly not human."

Sam blinked in confusion. "Demons? They're not…"

Maybourne cut her off. "Major Carter is not in the know, Major Finn. She has a different MOS* then you. That being said, these two are not what you believe them to be."

The brunet shook his head determinedly. "I know what I saw, Colonel. Those two are not human."

Maybourne finally conceded Sam's earlier point, much to her relief. "That's as may be, Major, but they are not what you believe them to be, either."

Finn's face could have been carved from a block of granite. "Then they are something else that can shapeshift and has apparently infiltrated a US Military Base. The SGC, wasn't it?"

Sam felt her face flame. Maybe Maybourne had been the teensiest bit right about her being a bit off her game, but between getting drugged and having been up for far too many hours straight, she should get a little slack.

Maybourne appeared to consider for a long while, taking in the two apparent humans that she and Finn now had in custody. The two still looked like Jack and Daniel, but apparently Finn's corroboration was shaking Maybourne's certainty in his position. "All right, let's get these two on the plane. Finn, you're with us. You're about to be read into something else that's ridiculously top secret. We'll sort out the red tape later.

I'll bet half of you thought I could only write Xander Harris. Well... let's find out if you're right. Welcome to World 703 of what will eventually be the Crisis of Infinite Scoobies. I hope you enjoy.

Jasper