A/N: Hey people, I ahve just noticed that apparently all the little line breaks I had put in aren't transfered, so you'll have to make do with the big ones for now. I'll probably change them to smaller ones alter, but for now... enjoy!
Oh and as usual, I don't own the characters - except the guard and some of his other 'friends'. They're mine.
Chapter 9
Buffy sneezed as they emerged out into the clearing. Grabbing at the still form of a still unconscious Doctor Jackson, she managed to stop him slipping off her shoulder and gently laid him down as she sniffed and wiped her nose. Behind her, Spike chuckled as he stepped out of the breach. He smiled at her as she sneezed again and set the bags down, a chuckle breaking out when she found she couldn't stop. When she finally got it under control, he was watching her with a fond look.
"You know, if you're allergic to something out here then maybe we should get inside rather than hanging around. You'll catch a cold."
Buffy glared at him and then down at Daniel as he winced and began to wake up. She pulled a face at him and crouched down next to him. Then yanked him upright and heading quickly towards the house. She wanted to get him in and underground before he woke up. Giles was going to be angry enough at her for bringing another person back with them; she didn't want to make it worse by being outside the wards when he found out. And if Daniel saw the way in or out it would be even worse. Besides, once they got him inside they could search him and make sure all possible bugs were dumped far, far away…
See how quick the SGC could find them when they were searching Italy…
Janet stared at the results on the screen. When the blood sample had been rushed to her with a message saying that it was from the kidnapper who claimed to be Jack's daughter, she had felt pleased that they were finally getting somewhere. With a blood sample she could get a DNA sample and try to match it on the database. From there they would be able to identify who she was and where she was from. After that it would be a simple matter to locate her and then Dawn. That was the theory. In practise, things were a bit different. For a start, the blood sample did have a match on the database. It matched Dawn's blood sample. That was not good news.
Now she had to figure out a way to tell Jack that the big issue everyone had been carefully avoiding needed to be confronted. She had to tell him that he could no longer continue operating under the belief that this 'Anne' was mad. She was his daughter and if that was true… Janet had a very bad feeling. She swallowed as she thought back to what Anne had said to Spike after Dawn was safely gone.
'I found out that a bunch of monks stole my DNA to create a human form to hide something capable of destroying universes.'
Janet bit her lip. If the girl was correct, then Dawn was technically 'Anne's' clone. That matched the evidence in front of her. That in turn gave her other claims more credibility. After all, it wasn't the first time that the people at the SGC had found their memories adjusted. There was after all that incident on the planet Oannes. She bit her lip for a second thinking, before printing off a copy of her results. She hoped that it was nothing… but everything had to be checked. If Dawn really was a plant…
Sam swallowed as she looked at the phone. The General had called for a meeting. With Daniel's kidnapping and the incident at Jack's house, he had decided that they needed to get everyone together again and find out what they knew. But first, she had to call the Colonel and Teal'c. They needed to know about the meeting… and they needed to know about Daniel.
"Colonel?"
She winced at the sharp tone as he responded and bit a lip before getting out, "I know, sir… Daniel called my phone. I'm sorry, sir, but you're not going to find a trail."
"They have some sort of transportation system, sir. The phone was just cut off as they were talking."
She bit her lip, the painful feeling in her chest increasing. "Sir, I have a transcript here of what I heard… We're lucky that I had a word document open when they called. I was able to transcribe as they talked." She paused for a second. "You can see it at the meeting General Hammond has called, sir. He wants you, Teal'c, and Major Castleman here, ASAP. He's particularly disturbed about the strange aliens you captured. Apparently we have a leak and the NID are all over us on this."
Sam moved the phone away from her ear as she heard the Colonel cursing loudly. She waited until he had stopped and took a deep breath, but before she could tell him the rest of the information, he cut her off. She shook her head and saved her work, printing off a couple of copies of the transcript. She would meet the others in briefing room.
Daniel woke feeling as if he had one of the worst hangovers in history. It didn't help that there was a really bright light directly above him, causing him to blink as his eyes watered. A soft hand touched his brow and then the light disappeared leaving him blinking in the sudden gloomy light. He winced and closed his eyes tightly shut as the memories came flooding back.
"Well he seems to be OK physically. We won't know if his mind's been damaged for a bit." A voice came to his left. "What were you thinking taking that sort of risk?"
There was a snort. "He was listening in," the voice that belonged to Spike commented. "What? Did you want me to kill him? I thought you lot didn't kill humans."
There was a snort from Daniel's right. "No. And why did you go back to Colorado anyway? There are countless places you could have got stuff for Dawn."
"It was Slayer's idea." Spike answered. "The good Doctor's awake by the way. You might want to move him into Dawn's room."
Daniel frowned and opened his eyes, glancing curiously around the place. If they knew he was awake they wouldn't say anything they didn't want to hear. He hoped they hadn't searched him - although if they thought there was a possibility of brain damage… then there was a possibility he had lost his memory. And if he pretended he had lost his memory it might get actually him some more information. "Where am I? What happened?"
A young man with messy dark hair looked him over critically, his eyes suspicious. "What was the last thing you remember?"
Daniel frowned. "Um… I was just giving a talk… It was something to do with the pyramids, I think…"
Mister Messy Hair narrowed his eyes. "And you remember nothing after that?"
Daniel shook his head, pretending to think really hard. "Nothing."
The red head, who Daniel assumed had been checking him over for injuries, shook her head and sighed. "Don't worry. You'll have to stay with us for a few days while we arrange transport or something. I'm afraid we don't have a phone or any signal here, but when the postman makes his next visit we'll get him to give you a lift to the nearest town."
Daniel nodded doing his best to keep an innocent look on his face. "Sure… but um… why are we underground?"
The red head gave him a small smile. "We're in the middle of the outback - you know in Australia. We have to stay in these caves until after dusk then we can go out again. Otherwise it's just too hot."
Daniel nodded, giving a small smile back, before raising a hand up to clutch at his head. That WAS a good cover story - and it explained why he couldn't go out and the strange reddish rock in the wall. He looked down, clutching at his head as he thought furiously about what to do next. He needed to look around, find out where Dawn was and then see if he could find the way out. He also needed to contact the SGC and tell them where they were… He so hoped that they hadn't taken his cell phone.
Dawn glared at the glowing stones covering the entrance to her room. She hadn't seen what had happened - she had been made to sit with 'Tony' pointing a crossbow at her until they were done, but she didn't mind too much. After all, she had a plan. She just had to wait until things quietened down and they stopped checking on her so often. Her plan wouldn't work if she didn't have at least half an hour. She did not want to risk getting caught and moved…
Buffy grinned as she stepped out into Italy. She had dashed back to drop off the various electric and other possible gizmos Xander had uncovered when he searched their guest and looked down at the bag in her hand. She felt a faint sense of satisfaction at how she had managed to avoid Giles' lecture for another hour or two. Casually walking along the street, looking for all the world like an American tourist, she casually dumped the full carrier bag into a large bin.
Ten minutes later she was more than half way back to Scotland and debating her strategy on how exactly she could survive the coming lecture without having her ears go numb.
Giles smiled absentmindedly at the young man he was escorting around. They were sticking to the middle layer of caves of course, they didn't want him meeting Dawn yet, but at the same time Giles was careful to keep the man away from anything that might lead to an exit. He sighed in his head as he thought about the mess his Slayer had stirred up. If only she hadn't gone back to that town then none of this would have happened…
"So tell me, Doctor Jackson, what are your theories on the pyramids. You mentioned you were giving a talk about something along those lines?"
"Well, it all sounds a bit silly now I come to think about it, but I believed then that the pyramids were far older than anyone had theorized before. Also, there were some indications that all the ancient cultures were linked…"
Giles nodded along as the Doctor Jackson explained his theories, his mind fitting the facts and evidence Daniel brought up with what he knew of demons from that period. It was surprisingly accurate, and he was not liking the picture that he was drawing up. All the journals said there had been something off with the majority of religions around the Egyptian period… but he hadn't thought… Aliens couldn't be… He really needed to get Willow to take another look at those files…
The instant the SGC communications centre picked up the signal from the bug in Daniel's cell again, a number of things happened at once. The signal was tracked along a number of streets to near a small café. The nearest satellite began to turn to try and gain an image of whoever was nearby the signal in question. The officer on duty sent an airman to inform the General and the rest of SG1 the news.
Only when those three things were done did the officer pick up the phone and call the NID contact number he had been given. They would want to know of the new developments and see if they could get the Colonel's daughter first - or at least find out what was going on with the strange aliens and why they were so focused on fighting over her. The Colonel's other daughter would be a big catch too. The officer wasn't sure why they were so interested in the young woman called Slayer, but he knew that the group was looking for a way to get control of her and at least one of the other members of her team.
That didn't bother the officer though. The NID could have the civilians for all he cared as long as they kept paying him the money and left his family alone. And maybe finding out what was going on would be enough to distract them for a week or two and they wouldn't be too interested in what he skipped over in his reports. Maybe then he wouldn't feel so guilty about betraying his co-workers…
