See Chapter One for disclaimer and details. Thanks as always to everyone who has reviewed and sent feedback! Please, keep it coming. Anyway, on with the story...


Chapter Three: Historic Meetings Part Deux

Main Street, Sunnydale, California

November 26th, 1997

"Okay, we're here. Someone wanna tell me what the plan is?" Daniel asked as the van containing SG-1 came to a stop in the Espresso Pump parking lot.

"We split up, talk to the people Harris mentioned yesterday," Jack replied. "Everyone's got their names and addresses?" His team-mates nodded. "Okay, let's move out." With that, he got out of the van after checking Buffy's address; then the four members of SG-1 split up and went their separate ways.

A bit later O'Neill examined the blonde girl from his position across the street, comparing the stereotypical southern California female to the photo Sam had given him before approaching her. ( Hmm. Definitely looks like she's the person I'm after. ) "Excuse me, Miss Summers? Buffy Summers?"

Buffy turned around, and then instantly tensed up; on gut instinct, she knew this guy would be trouble of some sort. "Yeah, that's me. Who are you?"

"My name's Colonel Jack O'Neill, United States Air Force." The military officer felt rather uncomfortable in the presence of the Slayer for some reason, even though he didn't know why. "I was wondering if I could talk to you about a mutual acquaintance named Alexander Harris?"

"What? You've seen Xander!? Is he all right? Where is he?" Buffy demanded. She had been very worried about her best male friend, ever since he and Cordelia had disappeared four days ago – right after they'd indicated they were trying to break into some restricted military base.

Jack replied, "Yeah, that's the thing, I'd like to ask you-"

"Where is he?" Buffy suddenly looked at O'Neill with undisguised suspicion. "And why's an Air Force colonel interested in one of my friends?"

"Well, see, we met a few days ago-"

"Where is he?" Buffy asked for the third time. "PLEASE, tell me where he is!"

"Sorry, but I'm afraid I can't do that. It's not up to me to reveal that information."

That made the Chosen One a bit nervous. "Then who is?"

"I'm not at liberty to discuss that either. Look, if you could just tell me-"

Buffy decided to end the interview right then and there, she knew that there was nothing she could do to get the information she wanted without resorting to Slayer strength; and that would mean blowing her secret identity in a big way. "Excuse me, but I have someone I need to talk to right now."

"Hey, wait up!" But the blonde girl seemingly paid him no attention; O'Neill had to watch in surprise and annoyance as Buffy hurried back inside her house.


6305 Westminster Place, Sunnydale, California

A few minutes later

"Excuse me, are you Willow Rosenberg?" Sam asked the red-haired female teenager who had just opened the front door.

"Uh, yeah. Why?" Willow looked at the older blonde woman in surprise.

"Would you happen to know two people by the name of Xander Harris and Cordelia Chase?"

"Xander and Cordy?" Willow instinctively tensed up. "Yes, I...uh, wait, who are you? And why do you ask?"

"I'm Captain Samantha Carter, U.S. Air Force. And, ah, the reason I'm asking is because I met them a few days ago-"

"What? Where are they?!" Willow yelped the same way Buffy had just done.

A rather one-sided conversation subsequently took place, as Sam wasn't allowed to reveal that information anymore than Jack was. Finally, Willow simply slammed the door in her face when it became obvious the USAF captain wasn't going to give up anything the redhead was looking for.

( Okay, that was sort of unexpected, ) Sam thought to herself with a frown as she left the Rosenberg residence behind. ( I need to talk to the others about this. )


Apartment B, 523 Oak Park Street, Sunnydale

The same time

"Hello?" a British voice said from within the apartment after Daniel Jackson knocked on the front door.

"Ah, yes, could I possibly have a few minutes of your time please?" The door promptly opened. "Rupert Giles?" The older man in his forties nodded in the affirmative. "Hi, my name's Daniel Jackson-"

"Dr. Daniel Jackson?" Giles interrupted. "Your expertise is ancient languages, yes? I-I-I've heard of you, you once lectured at my old university. You were quite the celebrity in your field, some years after I left Oxford."

Daniel briefly looked surprised, reminded of his long-ago visit to England. "Oh, well...hey, wait a minute, you're THAT Rupert Giles? I've heard of you too; I read your paper on the Sumerians and the militaristic aspects of their culture about five years ago. It was very interesting, even though I thought you gave a bit too much credit to Sir Henry Rawlinson's 19th century theories in some parts of it."

Giles shrugged slightly, not offended in the least. "Yes, well, I also came to the same conclusion myself after some new evidence came to light a while ago." He gestured for Jackson to come in.

"Uh, thank you." Daniel stepped into the apartment, passing the vampire test without even knowing it. "Ah, if I might ask, what do you think of pre-dynastic Egyptian culture and their pantheon of deities?"


Main Street, Sunnydale, California

Later that day

"So, what did you learn?" O'Neill asked Carter as she joined him at the rendezvous point.

Sam shrugged, "Not much, sir. I mean, Miss Rosenberg certainly seemed to be very worried about Mr. Harris, maybe a bit too much so for just a missing friend."

Jack nodded his head. "Mine acted the same way. Ah, here comes Teal'c, let's see if he got anything useful from his guy. So what's the story, T?" O'Neill asked as the tall Jaffa joined the other two.

"I was unable to locate anyone by the name of 'Angel'," Teal'c reported.

"Terrific," Jack grumbled. "Okay, Daniel...uh, where's Daniel?"

Sam replied, "He went to talk to Mr. Giles, sir, remember? The dossier on him said that the man's an expert on ancient mythology, in fact he's almost a peer and colleague of Daniel's-"

"WHAT!?" Jack yelled. "Oh, geez it Carter! You let the space monkey go off to talk to someone who's probably just as much of a geek chatterbox as he is? Come on, we're gonna have to go find Daniel ourselves. Otherwise, a month's wages says he won't surface for a whole day, maybe even two."


Apartment B, 523 Oak Park Street, Sunnydale

Not long after sundown

Giles and Daniel were completely absorbed in their 'riveting' conversation, when there was a loud knock on the front door. Neither the Englishman nor the American heard it, just as they hadn't noticed Buffy and Willow's phone calls earlier on, and they continued talking for a while longer. Then the door suddenly shook under the impact of a much heavier pounding.

Rupert got up to answer it, and was surprised to find two Air Force officers and a tall black gentleman standing outside his home. "Ah, can I help you?"

"Yeah. Is there a Dr. Jackson in the house?"

"Jack!" Daniel quickly joined the others at the door upon hearing O'Neill's voice. He looked apologetic as he said, "Sorry, I-I guess I sorta lost track of time. See, I've just been discussing ancient Etruscan legends with Rupert here..."

Jack desperately waved his hands to stop the incoming flow of information. "Daniel! I honestly don't want to know, okay?" He turned to Giles, "May we come in?"

Rupert gestured without issuing a direct invitation, and so Jack, Sam and Teal'c entered the condo. The Englishman then said, "May I ask what this is about?"

"First, let us introduce ourselves. I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill, this is Captain Samantha Carter, Daniel you've already met – and this is Murray," Jack gestured to Teal'c, using a convenient alias for the Jaffa. "Now, do you know two people named Alexander Lavelle Harris and Cordelia Rose Chase?"

"You – you're holding Xander and Cordelia prisoner, aren't you?" Giles suddenly leapt to conclusions.

"No, we're not," Daniel replied truthfully. "We'd just like some information from you and some other people they mentioned recently-"

At that moment, Buffy and Willow burst into the apartment as Angel followed at a slower pace, the Slayer almost yanking the door off its hinges. "GILES! We so need to talk-" Miss Summers started to say, when she caught sight of the people from Colorado.

"Where's Xander?!" Willow almost shouted the question, before she looked rather embarrassed at her own outburst.

"We don't know," Sam replied, after getting the nod from her commanding officer. "For the moment, we have utterly no idea. So, what can you tell us about someone named 'Angel'?"

"I'm Angel. What's it to you?" the ensouled vampire asked, a flinty look appearing in his eyes. He still wasn't back at one hundred percent after the two vampires named Spike and Drusilla had almost sacrificed him in an unholy ceremony a few weeks ago, but he was much better now than after those first agony-filled days when he'd almost ended up dust.

"Do you know Xander Harris and Cordelia Chase?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Angel replied. "Unfortunately," he then muttered to himself, too low for anyone apart from Buffy to hear him.

"Do you know why they went to Colorado recently?" Jack asked the ensouled vamp.

"Okay, you know what? Someone has to say it, so it may as well be our side," Willow said to SG-1. "You guys, you're here about Lantesh and Jolinar, aren't you? This little visit, it has to do with the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld, right?"

The facial expressions on the members of SG-1 changed immediately. "It seems that XanderHarris did not deceive us with regard to that part of his information," Teal'c said, taking off his cap and letting the Sunnydalians see the golden tattoo on his forehead.

"That mark, I-I've seen it somewhere before..." Giles frowned, trying to recall where. Then he snapped his fingers, "Of course! That's the emblem of Apophis, the ancient Egyptian serpent god, isn't it?"

"You are correct, RupertGiles," Teal'c inclined his head slightly. "He is also a Goa'uld, one of the false gods to whom I once owed my allegiance."

"Amazing," the Watcher said, staring thoughtfully at the black man for a moment before looking around at the others. Last week, everyone had initially been full of disbelief at the idea that aliens were as real as demons and vampires, but now there was corroborative proof of it. Giles then said to Teal'c, "So, so you're not human, are you? You're a – what did those two call it – a Jaffa?"

"Indeed," Teal'c nodded. He lifted his clothes to reveal his X-shaped abdominal pouch – and all the members of Team Slayer grimaced when the slimy prim'ta briefly emerged, before the Jaffa lowered his clothes once more. "And my name is not Murray, it is actually Teal'c."

"Okay, priorities, people! Like, where's Xander? And Cordelia as well, while we're at it?" Buffy demanded.

"All right, fine. When last we saw them, the Tok'ra using them as hosts left Earth to rejoin their people. If they have other hosts available, then those two should be home soon," Daniel replied.

"Oh, thank goodness," Willow almost slumped over with relief.

Giles asked, "So, then, all the things Lantesh and Jolinar mentioned, s-such as the war between the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld – err, that's still going on?"

Jack shrugged, "Yeah, but Earth isn't anywhere near the front lines...we're off in a forgotten little corner of the galaxy."

"And this, this Chappa'ai, it really does exist? It creates a portal to other worlds, across interstellar distance?" Giles suddenly looked as awed as he had the day when the two Tok'ra had told him about that.

"We call it the Stargate, but yeah," Daniel nodded.

"Uh, people? Before we get into that any further, we need to know who else knows about all this. Please," Jack said politely, glancing in Buffy's direction.

"No one, a-apart from those of us here in this room," Giles gestured to himself, Angel and the two female teens.

"Good. All right, I'd say that once all of you have signed our nondisclosure agreement forms, then we can get out of your hair," Jack said in satisfaction.

"I'm not a member of the Army," Buffy said, ignoring Jack's immediate correction about his branch of the military, "and I don't plan on joining the Army either." She glared when O'Neill opened his mouth to correct her again, continuing before he could speak.

"Xander and Cordelia aren't in the ARMY either," Buffy told him, narrowing her eyes as she childishly emphasized the name. "They learned about this stuff from those Toker Ha thingies, and told us. They never had anything to do with your little secret 'club'," the Slayer continued, making air quotes and rolling her eyes as if a secret government program was nothing more than a few kids playing pretend in their parents' basement. "So I'm not signing anything, and you can be darn sure that I'll tell whoever I want to tell about this!"

Miss Summers frowned then, as she came to a sudden realization. "I need some more friends...'cause I don't have anyone to tell, do I?" She then glared at a smirking Jack. "Yet!"

Giles exhaled irritably. Diplomacy was obviously lost on his charge, as yet. "Be that as it may," he told Buffy with a long-suffering look, before turning back to the newcomers, "Buffy is underage, as is Willow. The, err, legal issue is somewhat murky without directly involving their parents, who know nothing about this."

"And there's no point in me signing anything, because I don't officially exist," Angel spoke up.

"Oh, but it's okay! He's not gonna tell anyone the big secret, 'cause Angel's a vampire," Willow said reassuringly.

"An urkek'taur?" Teal'c demanded immediately, his normally-impassive face actually showing emotion for once as he glared at Angel.

"A what now?" Jack looked confused, ignoring the whole 'vampire' thing for the moment – as he was sure he must have misheard Willow, or it was some teenage slang term he didn't understand, or something.

"Kek – that translates to, uh, 'weak', doesn't it?" Jackson turned to Teal'c for clarification.

"Or 'dead'. For a Jaffa, there is no difference in meaning," Teal'c stated emotionlessly, having gotten himself back under control by now.

"So urkek'taur...that means 'not-dead' or, or 'un-dead' human?" Daniel asked in surprise.

"What?" Sam had a disbelieving look on her face, which had been present ever since she'd heard the word 'vampire'.

"Yes. And according to the stories I have heard from descendants of the Jaffa who once served Ra on this planet, the urkek'taur are evil, sadistic creatures who like nothing more than to kill and drain their victims of blood," Teal'c replied, still engaged in a staring contest with Angel.

"Well, Angel's different! He's got a soul," Buffy defended her beloved angrily.

As Jack and Sam stared at each other, Daniel cocked his head slightly. "You're a vampire with a soul? As in, an Anne Rice type of vampire?" he asked Angel curiously.

"Ugh, please! You wouldn't believe how many undead fanboys I've met over the past two years who've called themselves Lestat," Buffy groaned.

"I'm sorry, but are we actually having a serious conversation with vampires in it?" Sam demanded. "I mean, this is ridiculous! There's no such thing as vampires!"

"Show her," the Chosen One told her boyfriend, prompting Angel to go into his demon face.

"WHOA!!" Jack jumped back, automatically reaching for a handgun. He suddenly decided that maybe all this wasn't a joke or whatever after all. "Daniel?"

"This is incredible," Daniel breathed, drinking in the sight. "The yellow eyes, the fangs, the ridged forehead – all exactly like the ancient texts describe...you really are a vampire, aren't you?"

"Yeah. And I'm the Slayer," Buffy decided to confess that part as well, much to the chagrin of her Watcher.

"The what?" Sam asked in confusion, still reeling from the sight of the demonic visage in front of her. She looked over at Teal'c, who was still poised to slay the vampire before him at the slightest provocation. The Jaffa couldn't help it; his kind and the walking dead were natural enemies.

"Slayer, comma, the," Miss Summers said impatiently in reply to Sam's question. "She who hangs out in cemeteries a lot, fighting all the evil things that go bump in the night?"

"What?" Jack demanded.

"I believe, O'Neill, that RupertGiles would be the best person to direct such questions to," Teal'c told him. "He is to these people what DanielJackson is to us."

"Uh, thanks Teal'c," Daniel said, staring at the Jaffa. "I think..."

"Yeah, go ahead Giles. We all know how much you love doing this part," Buffy said with a small grin.

"Yes, thank you, Buffy," the Watcher sent her a frosty stare before refocusing on SG-1. "Um, very well. A-a-according to the books available to us, over fifty thousand years ago the last pure demon to leave this reality fed off a human, and mixed its blood with his. He became a human form possessed by the demon, the first vampire – which according to some legends was called a Turok-Han. Anyway, he-he bit one victim and then another and another, spreading the plague far and wide; so now the vampires walk the Earth, feeding...killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out and the Old Ones to return."

"Animals? Old Ones?" Daniel asked with an air of intellectual fascination.

Giles started to polish his glasses. "This world is a lot older than I suspect you and your friends know, Dr. Jackson. A-and contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons, demons held dominion over the Earth. They made it their home, their...their Hell. But in time, they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, o-or in other words – mankind. All that remains nowadays of the original pure demons called the Old Ones are vestiges; certain creatures, certain magicks-"

"Demons? Magic?" Sam demanded in disbelief. She just couldn't accept anything of what she was hearing from this man; it totally flew in the face of everything she believed in.

"Xander and Cordy didn't tell you guys about that?" Willow asked in surprise. She then did a new trick she had learned lately from one of the books Giles had forbidden her to examine yet, levitating a pencil and making it rotate in the air.

"How the-?" Carter just gaped as she watched the show. The woman then automatically looked around to see if there was any advanced technology present to account for this display – but there was nothing Sam could see that could be doing this. "That's, that's not possible! It's a violation of every scientific law that I know of!"

"Magic isn't a science, Captain Carter," Giles spoke up with a slight frown in Willow's direction at her eager demonstration of how she'd disregarded his quite specific instructions. "It's something where scientific laws simply don't apply, you see – it's a-a-a phenomenon with its own rules regarding cause and effect. H-how else do you think humans ever managed to, to drive the Old Ones out of this reality in the first place?"

"Okay, so you wanna run this 'Slayer' thing past me again?" O'Neill said to the Scoobies, deciding to change the subject.

"For as long as there have been vampires, there's also been the Slayer. In every generation, there is one girl in all the world with the strength and skill to fight them, a-a Chosen One selected by the higher powers to, to stop the spread of their evil," Giles lectured the SG-1 team.

"Namely, little old me," Buffy said with another small grin.

"You?" Jack asked automatically.

"Higher powers?" Teal'c asked, while Sam just shook her head again.

Everyone started speaking at the same time, and it quickly became impossible to get a word in edgeways. It was almost as bad as Sunnydale High's model U.N., at least in some respects. Eventually O'Neill shared a look with Carter, before he let out a piercing whistle in order to put an end to it.

"Everyone, be quiet!" Jack ordered the two groups in his best command voice. "We're getting off-topic here."

"Yes, uh, what was the topic again? I, I have to admit, I've rather lost track..." Giles trailed off.

"Xander and Cordy," Willow said emphatically. "And when they're going to come home, already!"

Little did Willow know, that that day would not arrive as quickly as she would have either hoped or liked.


The planet eventually known as P34-353J, many thousands of light-years from Earth

The same time

The Tok'ra were in a huge rush to evacuate their base on this world, before the forces of Apophis located them.

It had all started with a meeting Xander and Cordelia had attended with the Tok'ra High Council; the symbiotes known as Garshaw, Selmak, Delek, Per'sus, Ren'al, and last but not least, Cordesh. During that meeting, Cordesh had been unmasked as a Goa'uld spy, thanks to some snooping by Cordelia and Jolinar; they had found a small ball-like device within the Councillor's quarters.

Something that none of the Tok'ra were supposed to have, as the long-range visual communications system was not secure from detection by the Goa'uld. Thus, the meeting had quickly broken up as a furiously cursing Cordesh was dragged away to his richly deserved fate.

"Jolinar! We must hurry," the female host for Selmak named Saroosh said as she joined the younger Tok'ra. "Where is Lantesh?"

"He and Xander are taking care of Cordesh, as far as I know," Jolinar replied, setting a crystal to destroy the tunnel she had just passed through. "Why are you still here? You should have gone through the Chappa'ai with the others before now."

"There are still some on the High Council who are uncomfortable with the fact that neither your host, nor that of your mate, have chosen to fully blend with yourself and Lantesh," Selmak admitted. "I volunteered to stay behind to assuage their concerns."

"How kind of you," Jolinar said sarcastically as they headed for the Stargate. "And perhaps the Council also wants you to search us before we go through the Chappa'ai – merely in the interests of security, of course?"

Both Saroosh and Selmak said nothing, their embarrassment obvious to the queen bee of Sunnydale High and her symbiote. Not long after, they met up with Xander/Lantesh – and after all traces of the Tok'ra base were gone, they all stepped through the Stargate and vanished.

Not long afterwards, Selmak sought out the two teenagers within the newly established base. "I wish to apologize if the Council's actions have caused offence," the old woman said regretfully. "In truth, I suspect that what Lantesh and Jolinar said at the recent meeting holds some merit; the Tok'ra have changed a great deal over the past seventy years."

"Well, that's pretty obvious to everyone within the sighted community," Cordelia said acidly.

"Personally, though, I'd say it doesn't really matter; on account of you people are all doomed anyway," Xander said to Selmak bluntly. "I mean – for over two thousand years you've been running and hiding, ever since that guy Ra started up his blood hunt for you. In all that time, you haven't gotten anywhere trying to come up with a weapon of mass destruction to kill off the bad guys, have you? There hasn't been a single Goa'uld to defect to your side in the last two centuries either, so the System Lords can afford to wait. In the end, all the Tok'ra will be dead – of old age, if nothing else – and without the six billion people of Earth on your side, it'll mean the entire galaxy becoming enslaved. Sooner rather than later."

Saroosh sighed, "If this is about establishing an alliance with the Tau'ri again, then you know perfectly well how the Council believes that they are too primitive to be of any use to us!"

"They could not even prevent Hathor from escaping their custody, is this not so?" Selmak asked.

"Sure, but let's just forget how that Cordesh guy made fools out of everyone around here for God only knows how long! I swear, you people can be arrogant and stupid enough to make my friend Harmony look good by comparison!" Cordelia ranted.

"Cordy..." Xander groaned at her tactlessness. "We've got more important things to worry about right now, okay?"

"Indeed. There is much for all of us to do," Selmak nodded. "I will see you both later." With that, she left.

"What are those people, deficient?!" Cordelia exploded angrily, ignoring Jolinar's requests for her to calm down.

"Cordelia..." Xander started to say.

"Xander, we nearly got killed on that stupid planet whilst we were in contact with the SGC people on Earth, and they initially thought that what happened was OUR fault?"

"Cordelia..."

"Talk about trying to cover up your feelings of inadequacy, already!"

"Cordelia!" Xander said loudly.

"WHAT?"

"You're giving me a headache! So will you PLEASE give it a rest?" Xander demanded.

"MAKE ME!!" the buxom brunette shouted at him, her eyes blazing.

Just like what had happened in Buffy's basement all those weeks ago, their feelings could no longer be trapped within the prison of propriety; so Xander took Cordelia in his arms and started kissing the hell out of her, in order to shut her up.

This time, it was Lantesh and Jolinar who simply shrugged and decided to go with the flow – enjoying themselves immensely, as well as moving their hosts' bodies to somewhere more private for their pleasure not to be interrupted anytime soon.

TBC...