HEAVEN & EARTH

by A.J. Mitchell

Disclaimer: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc. - "Stargate SG-1" is property of Jonathan Glassner & Brad Wright and MGM.

Rating: PG-14 (violence & language)

Pairings: Buffy/Xander, Willow/Tara, Jack/Sam?

Crossover: Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Stargate SG-1.

Timeline: This story takes place between the end of Season 3 and the end of Season 5 on Buffy & between "Fair Game" in Season 3 and the end of Season 4 on SG-1. - AU.

Spoilers: Anything up to the end of Season 5 on Buffy, and to the end of Season 4 on SG-1.

Summary: Due to an unexpected turn of events Xander is taken on at the SGC and assigned to SG-1. A year and a half later he must return to Sunnydale with his new teammates when it is discovered that a rogue Goa'uld is loose on Earth. - The Scoobies have made due in light of Xander's absence, but when Glory arrives and Dawn is in danger they realize that they need help. Little do any of them know just how intertwined their fates will become.

Author's Note(s): (1)I thought I'd never write a crossover, but this idea just hit me one day and before I knew it I had 5 pages of notes. (2)Thoughts in italics. (3)Joyce isn't dead here. Why? Because I say so. (4)And thanks to White Werewolf for his Phoenix Risings series that first gave me the idea for writing an SG-1 story.

Feedback: Yes, please. Feedback is most important. It nourishes me. ajmitchell2003yahoo.ca

Prologue

The Initiative - Sunnydale, California - May 16th, 2000

Willow's eyes closed as she began to recite the incantation while the other two in the circle watched her closely. "The power of the Slayer and all who wield it. Last to Ancient First. We invoke thee. Grant us thy domain of primal strength. Accept us and the powers we possess." She paused to take a breath and then continued. "Link us mind and heart with spirit joined. Let the hand encompass us. Do thy will." Reaching down Willow drew a tarot card from the deck next to her. "Spiritus... spirit." When she was done she placed the card face up on the floor in front of her and then drew the next card from the top of the deck and passed it to her right. Tara accepted her card and spoke.

"Animus... heart." Her card too was then laid on the floor. Willow drew a third card and handed it left to Giles who completed the triad.

"Sophus... mind." Once his card was placed in front of him Willow drew the final card and placed it in the centre of the circle.

"And Manus... the hand." The redheaded witch took a deep breath and pressed on to the end. "We enjoin that we may inhabit the vessel. The hand, daughter of Sineya, the first of the Ones."

Buffy rounded the last corner and found Adam leaning over a large bank of control panels his eyes focused on the black and white monitor that showed the carnage going on throughout the Initiative. "Fun, isn't it?" she asked. The hulking creature turned to face her with a smile on its patchwork face.

"I do appreciate violence."

"Good." Buffy charged at Adam and leapt up into the air to attack him, but he stopped her with a hard punch and sent her rolling along the floor. She crouched and then came to her feet, springing forward and unleashing a series of punches to the demon-cyborg's midsection. They were having no effect and finally Adam caught her fist and sent her careening into a control panel face first. As she was stunned he swung her around and threw her into the wall where she fell in a heap. As Buffy struggled to get up she could see Adam advancing, his demon arm outstretched as the skewer in it was unsheathed. She got to her feet and knew what he was going to do next. As he thrust his arm towards her, Buffy sidestepped the attack and turned to grab his arm. As she did she broke the skewer over her knee, rendering it useless. Adam tried to re-group, but he was too slow as Buffy caught him in the face with a right hook making him stumble. Buffy grinned at him. "Broke your arm." Adam grinned back, unconcerned.

"Got another," he said as he looked down to his other arm and Buffy watched in disbelief as his mechanical parts morphed into a mini gun. "I've been upgrading." Buffy started to run across the room, but Adam was quick and a split second later he had raised the gun and Buffy could feel the rounds impacting the floor behind her. She vaulted over a control panel just as bullets tore through the front missing her by only inches. Adam continued to fire into the panel as a haze of gun-smoke and showers of sparks filled the air.

"We implore thee. Admit us. Bring us to the vessel. Take us... now!" As Willow shouted the last part of the chant her head was thrown back and it was as if she was traveling with the power they were channeling. She watched as she raced along corridors, hurtling through the air as a formless essence. Giles and Tara were experiencing it too and they all saw as one as they hurtled around the last corner and saw Buffy crouched behind the control panel and then...

Adam chambered a grenade round and launched it, causing the panel to shatter in a hail of metal shards, sparks and smoke. As the smoke began to clear Buffy rose, unharmed, from behind the ruins of the machine; her eyes glowing orange. "You can't last much longer." Adam surmised as he readied to attack again.

"We can." Buffy challenged, but it wasn't just her who spoke. The voice that was issuing forth from the Slayer was now a combination of her, Willow, Tara and Giles' voices all speaking in perfect unison. "We are forever." Buffy began to chant in Sumerian and Adam raised his gun-arm.

"Interesting." he said in a curious tone that opposed his actions. He fired directly at Buffy only to watch as the hundreds of rounds impacted on an invisible barrier causing the very air itself to ripple like water. "Very interesting." Adam begrudged as Buffy continued to chant. Switching tactics Adam loaded another grenade round and fired. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Buffy waved her hand, the grenade slowing as well until it finally stopped in mid air before reaching her and then suddenly scattering into three white doves. Adam aimed his gun-arm at her again, but with a circular motion of her hand Buffy reversed the earlier transformation and his arm was once again just an arm. Adam strode forward and tried to attack her, but she blocked every punch. When he was done she got in a few of her own sending him reeling backwards into the second control panel. As he struggled to get to his knees Buffy grabbed him by the throat and she was rewarded with the closest thing to a look of terror that Adam could muster. "But how can you...?"

"You could never hope to grasp the source of our power." She picked him up and tossed him through the air as if he was no more than a rag doll, but he managed to flip in mid-air and bounced off the control panel instead, landing on the floor. Buffy pulled him to his feet and spun him around to face her. She jumped up and bicycle kicked him until his back hit the wall. With a final push she slammed him against the reinforced concrete bunker and drove her fist inside his chest. Adam tried to force her hand back, but to no avail. Finally Buffy pulled her arm out clutching a glowing green cylinder in her hand. She paused to look at it. "But yours is right here." With a final groan Adam slumped to the ground, dead and Buffy was left alone in the control room. Slowly she spoke another incantation in Sumerian and watched as Adam's power core rose into the air and then seemed to fold in on itself until it finally vanished in a flash of light.

The rest all ran together in a kind of blur. Riley had come and they had managed to get back to 314 to find the others shaking off the effects of the spell and Spike doing his best to ingratiate himself to them once again. They had all made a break for it and tried to save as many scientists and soldiers as they could while they fended off the vampires and demons that had been set loose. After an exhausting climb back up the elevator shaft they were out and so they strode out of the frat house victorious once again.

Summers' Home - Sunnydale, California - May 17th, 2000

Buffy Summers sat on the front porch of her house and watched as the last rays of sun filtered through the clouds, turning them orange and seeming to set the sky aflame. Although it was nearly dark she wasn't thinking about vampires, or patrol routes. She wasn't thinking about Willow, or Giles, or her mother. She wasn't thinking about Riley. She wasn't even thinking about their defeat of Adam. As she gazed at the darkening sky, watching the sun slip away, Buffy was thinking about Xander Harris.

He'd been gone for almost a year now and Buffy still felt that hole in her life where he had been. She knew that Willow and Giles felt it and even to a certain extent her mother too. The thing that surprised her was how big the hole was and how after 11 months it had only gotten bigger. If she'd ever been asked, Buffy knew she would never be able to define the role that Xander had played in her life. He had never fit in any of the comfortable molds that she so readily tried to slip people into. Willow was her best female friend. Giles was her mentor and at times she almost desperately wanted to slide him into spot labeled father. Riley was, of course, her boyfriend. But try as she might Buffy had never been able to fit Xander into any one role. He almost went into the best male friend category, except that his feelings for her wouldn't allow him to go there. But why? How did that change how she felt about him? She had always told herself that it didn't, but she couldn't deny that when she first met him she'd been attracted to Xander. Honestly she didn't know how she felt about him, she never really had and that was why she could never quantify him. That didn't make it any easier to not have him around though. . Everyone thought it was a great idea for Xander to travel across America and discover himself. Even Willow, who was most worried of all, thought that it was a great opportunity. So off he went, sticking to the Southwestern states to start with and he had made it as far as Colorado when the letter came. It looked the same as any of the other letters he had sent them over the course of his journey. It arrived in a plain white envelope addressed to all of them, care of Rupert Giles. They all went over to Giles' apartment and awaited the reading of the letter. But this time it was different. Giles didn't read the letter aloud so the rest of them could hear it. He took one brief skim of the double-sided page and hurriedly handed the paper off to Willow, while he pulled out his handkerchief and began to polish his glasses with a vengeance. Buffy was pondering this when she heard a sob wrench its way out of the petite redhead. With tears in her eyes Willow gave the letter to Buffy. Upon reading it herself, she was shocked to say the least. Apparently Xander had been offered a position with the Air Force and while the reasons for said offer were not relayed in detail it was clear that the circumstances had something to do with their friends with the yellow eyes and bumpy foreheads. The position was at a base in Colorado and Xander informed them that from then on that is where he would be living, per the conditions of his employment. He said that he couldn't go into any specifics about what his new job was, or even the kind of work he was involved in, but he reassured them that it was important work in the same way that Buffy's job was important work. That part was somewhat cryptic and not like Xander at all, but they took it to mean that whatever he was doing, he was keeping other people safe. He ended by telling them that he'd miss them all terribly and that he would write and call as often as he could and if he was lucky he might even be able to visit in time.

Now almost a year had passed, but he still hadn't managed to come back and see them and his letters were few and far between. Not that they had ever been that much to speak of in the first place. Due to the nature of his new position (whatever it was) he was sworn to secrecy and since his work seemed to take up most of his time there was never much he could put in his letters to them. They knew that he was okay and that he was happy. Buffy supposed that was enough. It would have to be. Still she couldn't help but miss him and the little selfish corner of herself said that she'd be better off if she didn't. She sometimes got the impression that Riley was jealous of her Xander-shaped friend. She couldn't figure out why. Xander wasn't even in the same state anymore and she hadn't talked to him for months; there was nothing to get jealous about. Buffy didn't know what she would have done without Riley. He understood her in a way that no one had since Angel. He knew about both sides of her life and was actively involved in both. He was kind and caring; maybe a little insensitive at times, but then so was she. The most important thing was that being with him gave her a sense of normalcy that she would have otherwise lacked. Being in a caring, committed relationship was the most normal thing in either of their lives and they both needed that. It seemed that they were perfect for each other. So why Riley's seeming jealousy? And why did Buffy feel miserable most of the time?

She shook her head and looked up again. The sun had set and the stars were staring to emerge from the blackness of the night. Woolgathering again, Buffy, her mother's voice chided her from inside her head. As she gave one final look upwards, this time towards the full moon that hung over her head, she picked up her bag and headed off across town to meet Riley for patrol.

Chapter 1

Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado - July 10th, 1999

"Welcome home, SG-1. We'll debrief in one hour." General Hammond's voice boomed over the intercom in the gateroom. As the four figures walked down the ramp, Colonel Jack O'Neill turned to look back at the rest of his team.

"Well that was a fun trip."

"Jack, the telemetry the MALP sent back showed that the ecosystem had evolved to survive in a nocturnal state." Daniel reminded him.

"Yeah, well it never said anything about it being dark 22 hours a day." He turned forward again and gestured upwards towards the surface. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I could do with some sunlight right about now."

"I too would benefit from seeing the sun." Teal'c acceded.

"Well I could do with a shower my- whoa!" Carter blurted out as she was knocked aside. Jack turned around in time to see a dark shape rushing down the ramp towards him just as the wormhole dissipated. In the control room General Hammond saw it too.

"Seal off the gateroom!" he ordered. Sam was getting to her feet while Daniel was helping Teal'c up, leaving Jack to deal with the mysterious figure. He tried to block its path, but only succeeded in being thrown across the room into the wall. As the unknown intruder reached the door Sam opened fire and hit it squarely in the back. With only a snarl of pain the gate-crasher continued on and disappeared from their sight. By the time the team reached the hallway the dark presence was gone. The General ordered the entire facility locked down and hurried down to the gateroom. "What was that, Colonel?"

"No idea, sir." Jack replied, still winded from his fall.

"It must've come through the gate after us, sir." Carter theorized.

"Did you see any sign of inhabitants on the planet?"

"We did not, General Hammond." Teal'c replied.

"Whatever it was must have been close by, watching us and then came through the gate before it closed." Daniel said.

"Well it sure was fast enough to do that." Jack confirmed as he rubbed the back of his head where he'd hit the wall. Suddenly the intercom blared to life and Sergeant Davis' voice filled the room.

"Sir, the front gate just reported in. The intruder broke through our guards before they had a chance to lock down the main doors. He's gone sir." Hammond cursed and strode out of the embarkation room with SG-1 following behind him. When they reached the control room Davis handed the General the phone.

"Did you get a look at which way he went?... Okay, good. ... No stay there in case it decides to come back and double the guard on every access point." He hung up the handset and turned to the premiere team of the SGC. "Alright, I want you to go after him and I want... whatever it is brought back here. Use any means necessary."

"Yes, sir." Jack turned to Carter as they rushed down the stairs towards the armory. "Obviously bullets don't stop this thing, so we load up with Zats and I'll take the other staff weapon." The newly-appointed Major nodded, so O'Neill called back over his shoulder, "Let's move out people!"

Xander Harris fumbled with the road map as he tried to keep his eyes on the road, or as much of the road as his headlights illuminated. "This is something they should have taught us in school," he griped, "map folding 101." From what he could tell, in the near pitch black of the night, he was driving along a mostly disused secondary highway, which explained the lack of street lights. He passed a sign a little while back that had read CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN - 5 MILES and from what little he could figure out from the map he knew there was a military base around there somewhere. Finally he gave up and just balled up the map and threw it in the backseat, which was already littered with fast food containers, coffee cups and candy bar wrappers. He sighed and tried to focus on the road ahead of him.

His road trip of self discovery was not going quite the way he had planned. Now three weeks in and he hadn't discovered much, except that he could change a flat tire and was pretty good at stretching out in the front seat to catch a few minutes of sleep. The entire trip was almost derailed in Oxnard when he thought the car was going to break down on him and leave him stranded there. Luckily it was just a minor problem, easily fixed and after just a night he was on his way again. Now he found himself in Colorado and if he wanted to go any further he was going to have to find some work for a few days and make some traveling money. He yawned and rubbed his eyes with his free hand, trying to fight off the weariness that kept politely asking to be let in. He started to reach back for the map again in the hopes of finding a secluded spot to stop and get a few hours of sleep when a shape descended from the air above and landed heavily on the front of the car. The vehicle came to a screeching halt as the force of the impact crushed the hood and mangled the engine beyond recognition. "What the hell?!" Xander cried out as he instinctively slammed on the brakes which stopped the car from rolling and pitched the shadowy unknown mass off into the woods. Xander scrambled out of the car, flashlight in hand to examine the extent of the damage and he cursed when he saw the state of the engine. Hearing a noise behind him he turned towards the woods expecting to see a bear, or some similar animal, but he took a step back when he saw the pair of yellow eyes shining in the darkness. In an instant the creature was upon him, fangs barred, full game-face on. There was no doubt about it. It was a vampire. Silently thanking whatever higher power existed that his time fighting with Buffy had taught him a thing or two, Xander dropped down in a crouch and used his leverage to push the vampire off him. The flashlight clattered to the ground and threw its high-powered beam across the road, casting a muted glow on the scene unfolding before it. Contrary to Buffy's, or anyone else in the group's, perception Xander could actually hold his own quite well against any vampire in a fight and therefore could best almost any normal human if it came to that. So as the vampire attacked the young man countered and blocked, keeping the demon off-balance, causing it to lose what little concentration it may have had. Xander noticed that this vampire seemed different from the ones he'd encountered in Sunnydale. There wasn't any of the normal verbal sparing, none of the back and forth of pithy lines. In fact other than grunts and growls the vampire didn't seem to make any sounds at all. As he stepped back to avoid a fierce swipe at his face, Xander took a brief moment to really look at his opponent. It looked like any other vampire he had ever seen, pretty much anyway. The ridges on its forehead were more pronounced and its fangs seemed larger. Its hair was long, dirty and unkempt and it wore only the merest tatters of what once must have been a shirt and pants. Finally there was the way it moved. Not standing upright at all, but crouching the entire time and darting from one side to the other. It reminded Xander more of an animal than anything else and that's when he realized that was exactly what he was looking at. A feral vampire. He had come across the term in one of Giles' books, during one of their late night research sessions on Angelus. Apparently if a vampire didn't feed regularly it would revert back to the demonic equivalent of a Neanderthal-like state. What was puzzling now was that, as dirty and disheveled as the vampire was, it was obvious that it had been feeding on a regular basis. So based on what Xander knew there was no reason for it to have gone feral at all. But as the vampire lashed out at his head with its claw-like fingers again, he realized that now was not the time to be pondering that particular fact.

The Humvee rolled along through the night while Jack squinted, trying to pick his way along the dark road. "Do you see anything yet, Daniel?" The doctor of archeology turned towards his friend and raised the night-vision goggles to the top of his head.

"Nothing yet, Jack, but for all we know this thing could be hiding in the forest, or halfway to Colorado Springs by now."

"Well do me favour and keep looking. It's around here somewhere."

"How can you be sure of that, O'Neill?" Teal'c asked, looking up from the work he was doing on his staff weapon.

"Oh, just call it a hunch." The Jaffa, raised his eyebrow in a questioning manner.

"A hunch?"

"Not now, Teal'c." Jack dismissed. Suddenly around the next bend the Humvee's headlights illuminated a car stopped in the middle of the road and in front of that two figures obviously engaged in a fight for their lives. Jack stopped the vehicle and hopped out, followed by Carter, Daniel and Teal'c.

"That's the creature, sir." Carter said, pointing out the low crouched figure.

"We have to do something, Jack." Daniel told him. "That thing could kill whoever it's fighting." O'Neill tightened his grip on the staff weapon, but made no move to use it. Daniel saw this and exclaimed, "Jack!"

"We can't do anything right now, Daniel. I don't want to risk hitting the kid if we fire on that thing." A look of understanding came over the doctor's face and he nodded.

Meanwhile the fight went on with the creature and the young man circling each other, each one trying to gain the upper hand. O'Neill noticed that each time the thing went to attack the man blocked it and then kept his distance, waiting for his own chance to strike and finally it came. The creature reared back to leap forward in what certainly would be a killing blow, exposing itself at the same time. In a flash the young man reached into his back pocket for an object and before the beast could protect itself he jammed it into its chest. What happened next was simply unbelievable, even for the likes of SG-1. The thing staggered back only a few steps and then its body seemed to disintegrate into dust which then exploded in a burst of air and settled on the ground. The team stood there in shock; Jack and Sam's eyes opened wide while Daniel's mouth hung open and Teal'c looked on impassively as ever. The young man dusted himself off and slipped his weapon back into his pocket before he looked up and noticed finally that he was not alone. "Uh... hi," he grinned sheepishly. Jack blinked and managed to recover the power of speech.

"What the hell is going on around here?" The young man continued to grin and shrugged his shoulders for emphasis before he spoke again.

"I don't suppose you'd believe that this was all just a hallucination?" O'Neill shook his head. "Okay, then let's start with, 'Hi, I'm Xander Harris.'"

Cheyenne Mountain Complex - Colorado - July 11th, 1999

Xander stared at the steel re-enforced door, painted battleship grey, and then at the concrete walls of the room that he had been held in for the last twelve hours. He was told that, officially, he was a guest of the Cheyenne Mountain facility, but he felt more like their prisoner. He had been fed what passed for a standard military meal brought to him by a man in fatigues and when he had asked to go to the little boy's room he had been accompanied by two armed guards. Not into the washroom of course, because that would have been a violation of his personal rights. Unlike being held underground in, what appears to be, a very secret Air Force compound against my will and without any explanation whatsoever, he thought sarcastically. Just as he was about to lie back down on the cot and examine the ceiling tiles again, the door opened and the bald, Black man Xander had seen earlier on the road came in; followed, of course by more armed guards. "Come with me." he said in a deep, rich baritone voice. Xander had long since given up asking questions of his would-be jailers, so instead he simply followed the man while the guards followed him in turn. He was led down a series of nearly identical hallways and finally he was ushered into what looked like a large conference room. Xander was fairly certain that it was a briefing room, but he held his tongue until he could figure out what was going on. At the far end of the table sat the three other people he had met out on the road and a fourth who was undoubtedly in charge. Xander's soldier memories told him as much, because stars meant a general no matter what branch of the military you were in... well except for the Navy. The soldiers that had escorted him in stood at attention behind him while the other man went and sat with the others. Xander was beginning to feel very nervous and he was sure he was about to start perspiring when the general spoke. "Have a seat." The warm, slightly worn Texas drawl put Xander at ease and he did as he was asked. "Son, my name is General Hammond and I'm the commander of this operation. I'm sure you've got questions about why we've kept you here and I'll try and answer them to the best of my ability." Xander let out an internal sigh of relief; finally he was getting somewhere. "But first we'd like you to answer some of our questions." Of course there had to be a catch. The young man shrugged nonchalantly,

"Sure, what would you like to know?" As if in answer to his question the blonde-haired woman, whose nameplate identified her as Major Carter, flipped open a manila folder and began to read.

"Harris, Alexander L. Born: April 12th, 1981. Parents: Anthony & Jessica Harris. Current Residence: Sunnydale, California. Grade Point Average: 2.3 -"

"Whoa! Let's just stop right there before you start telling everyone my measurements, shall we?" Xander interrupted. Carter stopped in mid-sentence and looked up slightly shocked. "How is it you guys already know so much about me?"

"We're the Air Force, Junior." the older man said. Xander couldn't read his nameplate, but he recalled Carter addressing him as Colonel as they made their way back in the Humvee. Seeing that no more answer than that was forthcoming, Xander just nodded. After a brief silence General Hammond spoke again.

"What we'd like to know is, what exactly happened out there?" Xander paused for a moment. He was temped to lie to them, because it would be easier than having to explain what actually happened. He knew though that trained military officers would see through that in a second, so what was the point? He'd just have to tell them the truth and all the facts relevant to the truth. He sighed and looked up at the assembled group before him.

"The first thing you need to understand is that there is more to this world than you know. More than you could possible imagine, but it's all true." He tried to gauge their reactions, but could find nothing in their faces that told him anything. He took one last deep breath and began. "Vampires are real..."

An hour later he was done reciting his tale. He hadn't given away any specifics to his so-called hosts, but he did tell them everything they needed to know to understand what they had seen. Vampires were real. Demons were real. Magic was real. Understandably they were all stunned and for several moments silence reigned in the briefing room. Finally the Colonel spoke.

"That is the biggest pile of horse-hooey I've ever heard!"

"Colonel!" Hammond reprimanded.

"Oh, come on, Sir. That's absolutely ridiculous! None of it could possibly, ever be -"

"Actually, Sir, it could explain a lot." Carter offered.

"What?"

"Well, think of all the unexplainable things we've come across on missions. If all this is true it would go a long way to explaining some of what we've encountered. Especially the creature that escaped from here tonight." Xander sat up a little straighter in his chair.

"It came from here?" he asked incredulously. Totally ignoring him the Colonel fired back at the Major.

"This is crazy! You can't believe this guy?"

"Jack, after everything we've seen, how is this so hard to fathom?" the younger man in the glasses asked.

"Oh, Daniel not you too?"

"Mr. Harris here seems to have a wealth of knowledge that I think could be very useful to us."

"So do I, Sir." Carter spoke up. The Colonel, Jack, was about at his wits end it seemed and almost ready to start tearing his hair out in frustration. He whirled around in his chair,

"General!"

"Colonel O'Neill, I think this is something you and I should discuss in private." Then he stood up and led the way out of the room into an adjacent office. Jack followed. Xander was left alone with Carter, Daniel and the bald man. Nervously he tented his fingers and tried not to dart his eyes around the room. Suddenly he found Daniel at his side.

"So, uh, exactly how to these vampires differ to the various myths that have been recorded?" Xander managed a shaky smile and slowly filled the man in, to the best of his knowledge. He also told him that there was in fact a wealth of knowledge on the subject contained in several ancient volumes that most scholars regarded as nothing more than mythology and folklore. Daniel was beginning to make a list of these when Hammond and Jack re-entered the room. Xander immediately stood at attention when the senior officers came in. They both gave him a look and then the General proceeded to speak.

"After much consideration and despite the protests of Colonel O'Neill I have decided that this situation is not one we can afford to ignore, especially after recent events." Jack stood in the corner with a sour look on his face as if trying to will the General to change his mind. "Therefore as the commanding officer of this facility I would like to extend the offer to take you on as a part of our program, pending the agreement of the United States Air Force and the President. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for your answer immediately due to the nature of the work we do here we'd need to escort you off-base right away if you're not interested." For possibly the first time in his life Xander Harris was speechless. He had left Sunnydale on an excursion to explore his options and find himself and now he was being offered a job with the U.S. Air Force. He knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and that it would never come around again. So he did the only thing he could do.

"I would be honored to accept, General Hammond." The General came over and shook his hand. Then he found it was being shook by Daniel and Carter as well. He found himself saying, "This is just the tip of the iceberg you won't believe what else is out there." Suddenly a siren sounded and a whirring noise filled the room. A voice came over the intercom, "Off-world activation." The grey metal shutters that covered the windows of the briefing room began to rise and Xander was faced with an awe-inspiring sight. A large stone ring sat in the middle of the room below, its centre rippling with some strange energy. Then suddenly figures began to emerge from it, making their way down a ramp to the floor below.

"Oh, I think we'd believe almost anything." Jack said snidely from the corner. Xander continued to stare out the window.

"Mr. Harris, welcome to Stargate Command."

To Be Continued...