Sudden changes chapter ten

Jack and his team sat down at the long table in the briefing room, the General was seated at his desk with a folder in front of him; they noticed that there were four more folders, presumably for them, ready for them to read.

They took their seats and looked at Hammond expectantly, Jack spoke up first.

"So General, what's the news?" he asked wanting to know why the General wanted the phone numbers of Rosenberg's friends.

"The President and I have decided to reveal certain information about Miss Rosenberg and her friends," Hammond informed. "They will have a better chance at finding Miss Rosenberg and her son, which is why I need the contacts."

Sam Carter gave the book to Daniel who in turn gave it to the General, he looked at the book for a few moments before closing it, taking a deep breath and letting it out. Hammond knew that SG1 would need some time to deal with the knowledge of yet another threat to Earth but they didn't have the time, neither did the two hostages.

"Eight years ago a classified Army program called 'The Initiative' was made, the program's purpose was to find and capture what we called 'Sub-terrestrials or what Miss Rosenberg and her friends called 'the Supernatural'."

"What?!" Jack exclaimed in surprise. Was the General insane?

"Sir, with all due respect I have to disagree with you, science has dis-" started Sam immediately as the scientist in her rebelled again the idea.

The supernatural didn't exist, it wasn't possible.

"I have proof, Major Carter," he said silencing her. "And I can assure you that what I'm telling you is the complete truth, from the President himself I might add."

Sam looked at her CO in puzzlement, he gave her an equally perplexed look.

But then why would a military project be made especially to catch things that didn't even exist? Jack didn't know. The 'Initiative' obviously wasn't successful in doing their job if it couldn't be done.

"And the project was a failure, right?" asked Jack. "I mean the Supernatural doesn't exist so their objective wasn't achieved."

The General sighed, "On the contrary, Colonel, the mission was going successfully for a long time." He knew it would take a long time to convince them of this information, so he gestured to the folders in front of them,

"There were also experiments made on the…um…hostiles," he continued. "The outcome of the experiments was grim to say the least."

Jack wondered if the NID were involved in this; he wouldn't be surprised if they were.

"The leader of the project was killed by an experiment that she had worked on without the knowledge of her superiors, she created a being from parts of human, demon and machine that she named ADAM."

Jack looked at the picture of ADAM and looked disgusted, "She 'named' that thing?!"

Hammond nodded grimly, "ADAM eventually woke up and the leader was killed, the creature escaped the base and rampaged around Sunnydale killing god knows how many people before a small group of demon-fighting teenagers finally stopped it for good."

Daniel couldn't stop the gasp he made as he looked at the pictures in the folder. A familiar face looked up at him from the picture, "Willow," he said stunned.

"Yes, the uh…witch of the group," informed Hammond. "She was a nineteen year old college student who fought demons."

"And her friends?" asked Daniel looking pale.

"A 'Slayer' Buffy Summers, a normal human 'Xander Harris' and an older man who they refer to as 'Giles'," the Texan informed.

Willow was a witch? Was Chris a witch too? That would be an obvious explanation as to why the NID had kidnapped them both.

"There's a possibility that Miss Rosenberg's son might also have similar abilities," said Hammond.

Sam still couldn't quite believe this, the scientist in her was aching to disprove all this information. But they didn't have the time, her 'little brother's' son was out there and so was the mother of the said child. They were more important than her need to rule out the possibility of the Supernatural.

"Needless to say," concluded General Hammond. "The project was shut down permanently and the fight was, in the President's own words, 'best left to the professionals."

Jack rubbed his tired brown eyes wearily, "The 'professionals' of course being little more than children."

Hammond nodded in agreement, "I felt the same way after I found out, Colonel."

"These 'children' as you called them risked their lives to save the men and woman of that facility and stopped the abomination created by that woman," Hammond continued. "Aside from that fact they have also saved the world as many times, if not more, than your team has."

Eyebrows rose at that, Daniel took his glasses of and said, "Woah, uh, 'saved the world'?" How could they have missed all this? It was happening right under their very noses. The irony was not lost on either of the people in the room.

Hammond grimaced slightly, "Miss Rosenberg's home town is a small town in California, barely a blip on the radar, called Sunnydale. The demon-fighters referred to the place as 'the mouth of Hell' and that is exactly what the place is; a gateway to Hell itself. Many demons and other Supernatural beings have tried to open the gateway and it goes without saying that that wouldn't be good for anyone."

Jack felt a headache coming on right behind his eyes, "Great, we got DEMONS now! As if the ever-annoying snake-heads aren't enough." Was there a even a slight possibility that that the General and the President plus the Army- nah, that's impossible there's no way that THAT many people could be insane. So much for wishful thinking.

Daniel jumped in impatiently, "General, how are we going to find Willow and Chris if we're in here doing nothing?!" How much time had they wasted? Willow and Chris were in danger and he was sitting on his ass with no way of finding them. Tara had said-

The General was saying something to him but he wasn't listening, why didn't he tell SG1 about the dream? About Tara?

"Daniel?" Jack waved a hand in front of the archaeologist's face. "Earth to Daniel."

"Tara," he said abruptly. "Willow's dead girlfriend…I uh dreamt about her…she was in my dream." Tara was really there, she existed albeit dead but she was a person who just happened to enter his dream to talk to him, to warn him-

"Daniel, what are you talking about?" asked Jack looking confused. How do you dream about a person who's real but a person you've never seen before? Oh right, this was a Hellmouth they were talking about, weirdness was overflowing here.

"Willow's dead girlfriend, Tara, talked to me," he said. "She said that the NID had planned to use Chris as a weapon against the Goa'uld, and that Willow would lose control again…but 'lose control' of what exactly?"

The General went pale, "Dr Jackson, if what you're saying is true-

"It is," Daniel reassured quickly, eyes wide and intense. What did the General know?

The General swallowed hard, "Information was sent to the President about five years ago about Miss Rosenberg and the recent death of her girlfriend, Tara Maclay. Footage was shown of Miss Rosenberg after her girlfriend's murder." He sighed. "It wasn't good, neither was she for a while."

"On the footage Miss Rosenberg looked every bit of the evil that she and her friends had been fighting, she completely ransacked the town presumably looking for the murderer responsible for Miss Maclay's death. It seemed that Miss Rosenberg had lost control of her magic and well...the suspect of the murder hasn't been seen since."

Jack covered his face with his hands, migraine being a pain in the- head, and muttered, "Oy." How many other surprises would they have to deal with? Willow was on their side again, right?

Sam shook her head slightly, "So, you're saying that Willow could lose control again?" of course she would, her son was in danger, the results wouldn't be pretty.

"Her girlfriend was murdered and the murderer hasn't been seen since," said Jack. "We all know where that SOB is now- how much angrier will she be if Chris gets hurt?"

Daniel frowned, "She'll lose control again, just like last time."

The General stood up, "Hopefully it won't come to that, now I've got to make some calls." Hopefully the witch's friends will be able to handle this.

Then he looked confused, "Dr Jackson, is there any particular reason why Tara Maclay would warn you?" He was glad that he'd already known of the Supernatural before this discussion, he wouldn't have been able to believe this otherwise.

Daniel looked at Jack questioningly, should he tell Hammond? Jack nodded.

He pulled the photo of Willow and Chris out of his pocket and gave it to the General, "Look at the dates on the back…

Meanwhile in Sunnydale a few hours later

Buffy bunched up her fists before raising them and punching the big, padded bag hanging from the ceiling in the training area which was situated in the basement of the Magic Box, which had been rebuilt by Xander and his buddies from the construction business over three years ago. Giles and Anya were the store owners just like they were before Giles went back to England six years previous only to return when Willow had gone off the deep end.

The blonde Slayer smiled contentedly as she remembered Xander's beaming grin almost two years ago when he and Anya had decided to give their relationship another go; after promising his girlfriend that he'd tell her if he was having second thoughts about the relationship they had slowly and steadily grew to trust one and other again. Anya knew the reason why Xander had freaked out on their wedding five years ago; that the trauma of his abusive childhood hadn't left him and that he was afraid that he'd hurt Anya and become like his father.

After years of therapy from a friendly psychologist and support from his friends he'd started to trust himself and break free from his parents and the shadows of his former life with them; he was still visiting the psychologist quite frequently.

After four years of therapy Xander had waited for the right moment to pop 'the question' and yesterday they had both announced that they were getting married, grinned again at the memory and bounced on her toes before taking another swing at the punch bag. Then she frowned, she hadn't been able to tell Willow and Chris about the news, she'd phoned them a few hours ago but no one answered; maybe they were out doing something.

She turned to Giles who was watching her beat up the bag and said, "I'm going to phone Will again." Hopefully this time she'll answer or Buffy would really start worrying. After her mentor nodded she jogged up the steps to the door out of the training room.

She closed the door behind her and made a beeline for the phone and was surprised to see Xander already holding the receiver and was obviously about to dial the phone number; he saw her, "Will still hasn't answered the phone." The worry was written all over his face, in his eyes as well as his voice as he stood near Anya who was on the other side of the counter and looking through the money; though her blue eyes were flickering over to them quite a lot in concern.

The dark-haired man put the receiver back down not finishing the sequence of numbers, "She could just be out, I hope she's just out- maybe we should call Clem." Or maybe Spike though he wouldn't bet on him being home.

He was about to grab the receiver to call Clem when she phone rang loudly, he grinned in relief, "See, she's fine." That had to be his best friend on the other end of the line.

He picked it up and said, "Hey Will, where've you been-

Then he frowned in confusion, he turned to Buffy, "It's the President," gaping slightly in shock he listened.

Buffy's eyebrows were in danger of disappearing into her hairline, "The President?" What would the President want with them?

"Willow…what are you talking about?" he asked.

Buffy moved closer to Xander and so did Anya, what was going on?

"What-" he muttered in disbelief. "We talked to her a few days ago, how could-

"Military? It's the Initiative isn't it?" he growled angrily. "Why do you people always mess with stuff you don't understand!?" The President had just told him that a group of soldiers had kidnapped Willow and Chris, the soldiers were given the orders by an organization close to the Military.

"So no one knows where they are?" he asked looking increasingly upset. "Oh we'll find them, then there's going to be hell to pay."

He slammed the phone down and ignored his fiancé and friend's curious and worried looks, "Willow and Chris have been kidnapped by the Military, the President and the 'good-guys' of the military can't find them."

"I'll set up the locator spell," said Giles making them jump. "We'll find them."

Buffy nodded stiffly, how long had Willow and Chris been with those bastards? If they hurt a hair on either of their heads the military would never find all the body parts.

"I can't believe the Military would be stupid enough to get involved in this again," snarled Buffy lividly.

"What if Willow and Chris are really hurt?" said Xander quietly.

"If they are," started the Slayer. "Then whoever's behind this will wish they'd never existed."