Author's Notes: Sorry for such a long time without an update for this story. I shall attempt to keep them more regular in the future but no promises. Any complaints, ideas, suggestions or comments please post in a review as always I will read them all and take them all seriously.
Chapter 10.
Xander stood silently beside Carolyn as Colonel O'Neill talked into his radio asking for Major Ferretti to get a truck and pull it up outside the main doors of the mansion. Xander whispered low enough to prevent his helmets microphones from automatically broadcasting his speech throughout the room. "So Cortana what else have you been able to find out about this SG-1 and the stargate?"
Up to this point she had been busy going through all the data that her clone self had managed to find about the stargate program based out of Cheyenne Mountain. "It is partly an exploration unit designed to visit alien worlds through the stargate in the hopes of acquiring advanced alien technologies to be used in the defense of Earth from hostile alien races, most notably one called the Goa'uld who seem to think of themselves as gods. To this date they have had little luck in actually acquiring any worthwhile amounts of technology that would be useful in the defense of Earth."
"Great so we have yet another enemy who wants mankind on its knee's, only this one has real weapons that can blast the Earth into a cinder from orbit." Xander muttered under his breath after Cortana displayed on his helmet HUD a picture of a standard Goa'uld warship.
"It would appear so. I know you don't want to hear this Xander but we now have a slight problem. I was created as you know to defend mankind against alien threats, this is part of my core programming, and we now have evidence of a real alien threat to mankind." Cortana started to say before being cut off by Xander.
"I know, I know. Damn I was hoping that this wouldn't come for sometime to come. For right now we're not going to make any plans set in stone, ok? When we get back to alpha base then we can hash this out till we come up with a plan to deal with both threats." Xander stated. This was another one of those small problems that had been plaguing his mind recently. Ever since he had become the Spartan he had known in the farthest reaches of his mind that the Spartan program had been created to defend mankind from all threats though the most deadly one had been deemed alien incursions not demonic and that simple probability analysis indicated that their was more than likely an alien race in this universe that could prove to be a deadly threat to mankind. He had always assumed that it would be quite a few years before that problem came to the fore but now it appeared he was going to have to make a decision soon about where the real threat lay, in the stars or here on Earth.
While they had been talking to each other Faith had been getting changed out of that ridiculous Xena style outfit back into her normal clothes that she had originally worn to the mansion before being drugged by Seth. Feeling much better to have her coat and boots back, they being one of the few gifts that she had ever gotten, she now felt more like herself and prepared to deal with the major weirdness that had become such a part of her life.
Faith came out of the bathroom in which she had been changing and walked over to where Linda was standing beside the armored figure who had identified himself only as Spartan. "So what's the plan?"
Linda wrapped an arm around Faith's shoulders and pulled her in for a half hug. "Well I think for now we'll go with these gentleman and we shall play it by ear."
Returning the half hug Faith nodded her assent for the plan. While she would have preferred getting out of this place all together she would go along with whatever Linda thought was best. Glancing over at the imposing figure in the armor she whispered to Linda. "Do you know anything about him or whatever he's supposed to be?"
"From what I remember reading, he is supposed to be the new hunter who has made an impressive impact on the underworld since his first appearance. He was supposed to be on the hellmouth from all accounts where he was doing a better job of securing it than any other hunter in recent history." Linda replied making sure to keep her voice low enough that the soldier's wouldn't over hear her. Thinking to herself Linda knew that this was the Spartan who had the council in an uproar since he usurped the Slayer's position on the hellmouth as its true guardian. In her mind he had done a better job than that fool Summers ever had, at least he didn't consort with demons and pretend one of them was his lover. The only reason the council hadn't sacked Ms Summers the instant that they had learned of her treacherous liaisons with the demon known as Angelus was that at the time she seemed to be doing a good job but her performance as of late was appalling.
Colonel O'Neill looked over at the motley group that somehow had not only managed to penetrate security on a NID terminal to learn of the existence of the stargate but had also managed to kill a Goa'uld host. General Hammond was going to shoot him when he reported this one, though he might be a little happier once they had finished cataloging all the snake-head's equipment that had been found throughout the mansion. With enough of the weapons and other tech gizmo's that had been found he might be able to bribe Hammond from having him shot on the spot.
"Daniel, have you ever seen anything like that armor that guy is wearing?" He asked while keeping his eyes focused on the guy in said armor.
Daniel turned his gaze upon the armored figure as well. "I've never seen anything like it that I can remember but for some reason it looks familiar. When we get back to the base I'll have to research it."
"Ya, you do that." Jack said not really paying attention. "Ok, people let's get a move on. Our ride is out front waiting for us. We're all gonna take a short trip and then we'll figure out where to go from there."
The group seemed to all look at the armored figure, who nodded and began to move towards the stairs. Everyone else followed him down the stairs where the quickly moved to the main entry of the mansion. Once downstairs the small group was joined by Teal'c and Jacob Carter who were lugging Seth's body up from the basement. Even though he was dead there was still plenty that could be learned from the physiology of the goa'uld symbioate that remained inside the human host. O'Neill walked over to where Major Ferretti was attempting to move all of the former hostages slash cultists out of the mansion so that the SGC personnel could begin to strip the place of all the Goa'uld tech that seemed to be lying around.
"Major I want you to coordinate with the ATF boys on the debriefings. Get as much info as you can on Seth's dealings on Earth but try and keep it so that the ATF doesn't find out he was an alien." He said in a low voice to avoid being overheard by the few civilians who were close enough to listen in.
"Yes sir." Major Ferretti responded with a salute quickly moving to carry out his orders. Agent Hamnor was on his way back in from the field still leaving a sizeable amount of his men standing guard on the tunnel exit they found just in case but with the situation deemed over he had decided to head back on in to help with the cleanup.
Turning back to the motley band of interlopers as he was beginning to call them in his head Colonel O'Neill began trying to figure out how he was going to explain this all to General Hammond. Before he could even do anything Joseph McNally, having entered along with Jason Levinson when it seemed as if the military and ATF had things firmly under control, the father of one of the cultists spotted his daughter and rushed to pull her into a bearhug. Knowing that it would be a few minutes before those two let go of each other he just turned to the man in armor, if it was even a man. For all he knew it could be a woman, though the voice that came out of the helmet the few times he had spoken had sounded male so O'Neill decided to just go ahead and assume it was a guy underneath all that armor. "Before we try and get out of here you gonna give me anything about yourself or is this going to turn into a twenty questions deal?"
Xander turned his head to look at the Colonel who was looking very harried with all the surprises and twists that this mission had taken. Deciding to play the mysterious man routine to the hilt he merely said. "Depends on the questions. I might be willing to answer some but don't count on getting my life story."
"Figures." O'Neill muttered under his breath. He hadn't expected the guy to make it easy on them but he was somewhat surprised that guy had agreed to answer any questions at all. Hell he was surprised that he stuck around at all. With the armor and shields that he had Jack had half expected him to just bully his way right out of the building and there didn't seem to be a damn thing that he could have done to stop him if he wanted to leave.
The sound of a large truck pulling up to the front of the building alerted everyone to the fact that their ride was here. O'Neill turned to look at the armored man. "Alright, its time to go. Everyone into the truck."
Xander turned to look at Carolyn and Joseph and beckoned them forward. "I want these two to come with us Colonel. Jack looked over the two civilians who were trying to hide their interest in just what the hell was going on around here. Thinking about it for a moment Jack nodded in agreement that they could come along as well. It wasn't likely that those two would be able to shed any relevant information on who the armored man was or why he was here taking out the rogue System Lord but it wouldn't be such a bad idea to at least humor the guy till they could get back to the SGC where the hard questions would be asked. Hell it might even make him more agreeable to actually answer those questions if they let the two civvies come along for the ride.
101010
In the air over the Atlantic ocean Jenny Calendar also known as Janna Kalderash sat in her first class chair reviewing all of the material known about the curse placed on Angelus over a hundred years ago by her clan. The Kalderash clan had continued to maintain a watch over the torment of the demon Angelus after the spell had been placed on him to return the soul of the mortal Liam to the body that Angelus inhabited it in an attempt to keep themselves apprised of the status of said soul. This was also done with the knowledge that if Angelus was ever released again he would without a doubt attempt to take his revenge on the clan that cursed him before they could recover the long lost secrets of how to recreate the curse.
The torment that he was experiencing had been slowly lifting over the past few months. The clan's most respected and powerful mages were at a lose to explain it. If it continued to the point where the spell was actually lifted then the world would be in for a bloodbath the likes of which hadn't been seen since the time when the four vampires who made up the Scourge of Europe were all together. Also it would be extremely unlikely that they would receive any help from the Slayer seeing as she was infatuated with her demon paramour that she would in all honesty probably attempt to derail any plan to destroy Angelus if he was ever released.
"That's a crying shame now isn't it? She'll just have to either be taken out of the picture or cut out of the loop." Jenny mused to herself as she worked on translating the ancient curse into modern English. While she knew instinctively that Cortana could effortlessly translate it in seconds she was also unavailable at the moment and it was best to get a head start on the translation anyway.
Leaning back in her chair Jenny relished in the delicious pleasure of flying first class for the first time in her life. Thanks to Cortana having stripped the drug cartels of their finances that she could find through the internet it meant that she and Xander possessed an ungodly amount of disposable income in which to use for the more mundane things in life. Though it went without saying that the vast majority of the money was tied up being used in the various projects that Cortana was conducting in an attempt to increase the technological level of humanity to something approaching the level of the UNSC without sending the Earth into war. Cortana had reasoned that the Covenant or something similar must exist in this universe and that sooner or later mankind was going to run into it. Better to have a few centuries head start on weapons technology and be able to give them the asskicking that they so deserved when they showed up this time round if the Covenant actually existed and if some peaceful race of aliens appeared, well then mankind could deal with them on a nice level playing field then couldn't they.
101010
The plane was silent as it rumbled through the night sky on its trip back to Colorado Springs where a meeting that would change the course of human history would take place. Demon hunters and alien hunters sat in the passenger compartment taking quick furtive glances at each other, trying to determine exactly what the other was hiding and how to pry those secrets out of them without giving away their own. Only one man and machine knew all the secrets and for the moment he wasn't talking. Xander was too busy going over all the data that Cortana had stripped from the NID central database in an attempt to learn more about the Goa'uld and their operational patterns before the debriefing occurred at the SGC. An image of an alien that looked remarkably like that of a Roswell gray flashed across his HUD and he blinked. "What the hell is that?"
"That would be Thor, supreme commander of the Asgard fleet and according to a report by Colonel O'Neill the very reason why Earth has been included in the protected planets treaty. Namely the only reason why mankind is still alive, I say we have a lot to thank him for." Cortana replied as she reviewed all of the very limited information on the Asgard. While they were one of the original four races involved in the great Alliance they seemed to be the only ones that had continued in their role as caretakers for the younger races and that had all but ceased in the last few years. No doubt due to the fact that they were on the verge of losing their war with the replicators in their home galaxy.
"Ok, remind me to send a fruit basket next time he's in town." Xander quipped as he read all of that information displayed on his helmet screen. It was true that mankind had a debt to repay to the Asgard and Thor especially.
"Down to the important things, what are you planning on telling General Hammond about yourself? You do realize that they will not let you leave the SGC without giving them a good reason as to why you have MJOLNIR armor and UNSC style weaponry." Cortana asked as she began to create an escape plan based on the floor plans of the SGC.
"We could always try the truth. From what I've read here it seems that General Hammond and SG-1 are pretty much on the level. When they make a promise they keep it." Xander said as he thought of the possible ramifications of revealing the existence of demons and magic to the United States government.
Cortana mused it over for a few seconds. While it did appear, on paper at the least, that General Hammond and his subordinates were on the level in reality that could be another thing entirely. Also it didn't take into account that General Hammond was required to report something of this magnitude to his superiors and it went without saying that they would want to investigate further into the existence of demons and magic. "That has it's own problems. We may have to play it by ear once we arrive at the SGC but we should attempt to prevent them from either learning of my existence or the locations of our bases."
"Agreed and also we don't give out any names that they can trace back to Sunnydale. That includes Jenny, Buffy, Giles, Joyce, Oz, and Willow. It might take them time to find them but if we give them a name they'll keep at it until they do and I rather not have them find out anything that they don't need to know."
"Understood." Cortana absently replied as she shunted a miniscule portion of power to transmit new orders to the hummer which was currently enroute to Colorado Springs where it would be available to intercept them if needed. Also it could serve as an escape vehicle if they had to fight their way out of the SGC for whatever reason.
The remainder of the plane ride was spent in silence as each group kept to itself and merely sat back in the seats staring at the other group.
101010
Getting into the SGC now was much more easier than it had once been with the new secondary tunnel system that had been constructed once the President had green lighted the expansion of the project. It had been deemed necessary to dig a new vehicle access tunnel from the surface down to the SGC to allow armor, mobile artillery pieces and troop transport vehicles access to the motor pool level that was being dug out adjacent to the gate room in anticipation of those vehicles being used in off world missions. Also it made it much easier to get supplies and personnel into the facility without having to go through NORAD security and then having to face the much tougher and restrictive SGC security. Though that wasn't to say that they new tunnel didn't have its own security built it, every hundred feet there was an access blast door that by itself was sufficient to seal off the surface access way unless you were willing to go through the effort of blasting through them.
The SGC had been expanded to include many new levels that were being slowly filled with equipment slated to be transported off world where it would be used to build a colony to insure the continuation of the human race and the fight against the Goa'uld system lords would continue with an actual chance of success. From every branch of the military, navy, air force, marines, army and even from the civilian agencies people with the needed security clearance were slowly being culled and brought through to the SGC where they were given one last final checkup and then sent off to the Alpha site on the other side of the galaxy. It was in a region that according to the limited data that the SG teams had been able to secure proved to be remarkably empty of alien races or Goa'uld slave worlds. Meaning that it was the perfect place to hid an off world colony and a place to begin construction of the first of Earth's new defense fleet. For the moment it was mostly comprised of ships stolen from the System Lords but plans were under way to design and construct purely Terran based warships that would be able to go toe to toe with a Ha'tak class mothership in combat.
After landing at a nearby air field specifically slated to be used by the SGC since it might at times need a location that was secure enough to land small spacecraft, like a Tok'ra cargo ship, or in cases like this when it was transporting SG teams back to base and didn't want to risk them being seen by anyone who wasn't cleared to know about the things that went on down below NORAD, everyone was moved to a waiting transport vehicle which would take them the rest of the way into the mountain fortress. All in all it took nearly forty minutes to pass through all the security check points which were between them and entrance to the SGC.
101010
Colonel O'Neill having gone on ahead to prepare General Hammond for the meeting that was about to occur stepped into his superiors office. "Colonel, how did the mission go?"
"It went as well as expected, sir." Came the cryptic reply.
Hammond leaned back in his chair and put down the pen that he had been using to full out the days duty reports. It looked like once again SG-1 had been sent out on what seemed to be a simple mission and had now brought a problem back with them. "Out with it Colonel. What exactly went wrong this time?"
"We ran into trouble when we encountered a group of ATF agents conducting a surveillance operation on Seth and were about to attempt to take him into custody." O'Neill began to recite the list of problems that had plagued this operation. It was quite a long and extensive list that encompassed the entirety of the mission and the reason why they had come back from Seth's compound with five people in tow.
"Let me get this straight Colonel. You agreed to let them enter one of the most heavily defended, highly classified and best kept secret base on this planet and to top it off you allowed them to keep possession of all the weapons that they currently had on their person. What were you thinking?" General Hammond boomed out as his voice rose in power over the course of his speech.
Wincing from the thunderous volume that his superior had managed to put out. Colonel O'Neill attempted to defend his actions. "Sir, I didn't really have a lot of options. If I attempted to take them into custody it would have resulted in a bloodbath. The armored man not only had enough firepower to fight his way out of the compound but was also in possession of energy shielding that negated the usefulness of our zat's. Not to mention the fallout that would have occurred if any of the ATF boys had managed to get a good look at him while he was leaving. At the time it seemed like the most sensible option and it might actually gain us something in the long run, uh sir."
"Where are they now?" Hammond asked as he pinched the bridge of his nose. It was going to be one of those days, he just knew it. "They should be coming into the briefing room in a few moments."
"Well this should be one of the more interesting meetings that I've ever attended. Is there anything else that I should know before we go meet them, anything else that you promised them already?" Hammond asked as he stood.
"Uh, that they would be free to go after the debriefing."
'Why me?' Hammond thought to himself. Why was he the one that had to clean up after the disasters that SG-1 created? They had the most experience, the best luck out of all of the teams created for the use by the SGC but they seemed to be the ones that were always in it up to their necks and for some reason they always seemed to come out on top but one of these days they wouldn't and he didn't relish being the one to have to sort out that mess when it finally arrived.
101010
Xander stood silently in his armor looking out through the briefing room window at the view of the stargate. It was one thing to look at the pictures from the NID database, it was quite another to actually look upon the ancient device with his own eyes. Something about the ring spoke to him on a deeper level, of times long forgotten and of powers that had once shaped mankind's destiny. "Impressive."
Cortana easily agreed with him on that point. A device capable of interstellar, hell intergalactic travel that could connect distance planets together much like a railroad station. To be able to step through the gate on one planet and appear on another on the other side of the galaxy, it would be one of the ultimate methods of transporting troops around the galaxy. Though it did have the normal drawbacks consistent with bottleneck defenses. You might know where the enemy had to come through to get here but you never knew when he was coming or in what strength.
Faith, Linda, Carolyn and Joseph merely stood near the table not truly understanding the importance of the stargate but understanding that with the level of security that they had seen on the way in that it was more than likely extremely important. Linda was attempting to figure out where she had seen something resembling the ring before. More than likely from one of the older texts that were kept in the council's vaults but for the life of her she couldn't remember anything pertaining to the ring.
The remaining members of SG-1 along with Jacob Carter stood on one side of the conference table waiting for Colonel O'Neill and General Hammond to arrive. They didn't have to wait very long before the office door and the two senior officers emerged to take their places near the head of the table.
"Everyone be seated." Hammond ordered as he sat at the head of the table. SG-1 took their places along one side of the table and the unknowns each took a seat on the opposite side with the large armored man sitting the closest to Hammond. The chair he sat in groaned audibly as he sat down telling everyone in the room that he was either a very heavy man or his armor weighed a lot.
"I am General George Hammond commanding officer of this facility and to my right is Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, Dr. Daniel Jackson, Teal'c and General Jacob Carter." Hammond said then waving a hand towards the armored man hoping for at least a name or even a title with which to refer to him.
"Spartan." Was the only reply from the armored figure and it didn't get any better as it went down the line.
"Watcher." "Slayer"
The last two who were obvious civilians looked at each other and then sent questioning glances towards the Spartan obviously looking for guidance on what to give for a name. Spartan for his part turned to look at them for a moment and then said. "Carolyn and Joseph McNally. You would've been able to find out their information easily enough so there isn't any point in hiding their identities."
"Well then lets get down to business. Care to explain why you were present at that compound?"
"I was sent on a rescue mission in order to extract Carolyn from the cult. At the time I was unaware of the mind altering drug being used to insure that all members of the cult were totally obedient to its leader." Spartan offered.
"And the rest of you?" Hammond asked as he looked at the two women who had identified themselves as 'Watcher' and 'Slayer'.
"We were sent in order to remove Seth from power. He had killed our previous operative and it was decided to better insure success to send two agents this time instead of the previous one." Watcher said as she looked directly into General Hammond's eyes.
"And why exactly were you interested in Seth in the first place?" Daniel asked as he looked over the motley bunch. Something in the back of his head was screaming at him about the armored that it was something that he had seen before but for right now he couldn't place it.
"Oh, no we answered one of your questions now its time for you to do the same." Slayer piped in for the first time since giving her moniker. "I want to know what those funky ass ray guns of yours are and why those two are setting of my slaydar." She said while pointing at Jacob and Teal'c.
"Maybe its time we all came clean. I see no way out of this for all of us without revealing everything, or nearly everything for that matter." Spartan said as he stood and moved toward the briefing room window. "This goes against my better judgment but from what I've been able to learn about this facility and its mandate from the NID database is that its command staff is trustworthy and that they keep their word."
"That might mean something to you but what about us?" Watcher countered as she stood to move across from him. Hammond looked at the two who were glaring at each other. Well one glaring and the other merely standing there looking back, it was impossible to tell what facial expressions the Spartan was making being the faceshield of his armor. Obviously they were the two in charge or at least with the most knowledge of what exactly was going on around here.
"We don't really have a lot of choices now do we? If you want you don't have to reveal anything that you know but for now I think its time for at least one of us to come clean." Spartan argued.
Cortana was wondering at the change in tactics by Xander. This was a wide breach from the plan that they had put together before they arrived at the SGC. "Xander what are you doing?"
"They have the best interest of the human race in mind and they're doing their best to insure the survival of mankind. I think it's about time that they learn of the other war that's being fought here on Earth."
Reaching up Spartan grasped his helmet with one hand and slowly pulled it off to reveal a human face that looked about twenty years old. "My name is Alexander Harris and I am a demon hunter." The whole room went completely silent as they looked at this young man.
The silence was broken when first Major Carter and then Dr Jackson said in near unison. "Demons don't exist."
"Why, just because you've never seen one doesn't mean that they don't exist." Xander replied as he set his helmet down on the table. He was taking an extremely large risk by revealing his true identity but from the reports on SG-1 it seemed like they were trustworthy enough to be given this information. "I've been fighting them for nearly two years now and I can state quite clearly that demons do exist and that the majority of them want the complete destruction of mankind, much like the Goa'uld in fact."
"What sort of proof do you have that demons exist?" Hammond asked as he tried to absorb this new information.
"I have recorded visuals in my helmets computer system that shows the results of some of my hunts, would that suffice for now?"
"That would do for now but I would like it if you could offer up some more tangible bits of evidence." Hammond said as he motioned for SG-1 to sit back down and remain quiet. Hitting the button on the table that controlled the projection screen he motioned for Alexander to show them his visual records of his so called 'demons'. For the next few minutes the room was quiet as everyone stared at the screen absorbing the information displayed as it showed images of combat in areas ranging from graveyards to underground tunnels that were filled with beings that belonged in horror movies not real life. Both Linda and Faith already knew of the existence of demons but even they were surprised at the number of kills that Alexander had managed to wrack up in such a short amount of time. By Linda's best guess he had just shown them records of him eliminating at least seventy-two different demons, most of whom were described in the council's books as extremely dangerous.
Joseph and Carolyn starred in mute horror at the screen. Xander had told them both nearly two years ago the truth about what had happened to Jessie but here for the first time was proof that they could see for their own eyes about what went on in Sunnydale after dark. Here was proof that the town that they lived in was actually Hell's doorstep and that creatures of myth and legend walked its streets randomly slaughtering any human they came across.
The reactions from SG-1 were no better as they looked upon creatures that were out of the very worst nightmares of humanity and while it could be that some of the images could have been doctored or faked it just seemed too realistic.
"So now you know my secret and why I wished to keep my identity a secret." Alexander said as he sat back down in his chair extremely carefully to prevent it from collapsing under the weight of his armor.
Major Carter even after seeing all the images on screen was adamant in her refusal to buy into the belief that creatures known as demons walked the Earth. "It's not true; those could be faked or false images. Hell I've seen images like those at the movie theatre, you haven't shown us anything that couldn't be falsified by other means."
Sighing to himself Xander retorted. "What would it take to make you believe in the existence of demons?"
"I don't think there is anything that you can show us that would make us believe. Anything that can be produced on your helmets displays could have also been faked." She responded with the mantra in her head going full tilt. 'Demons are not real, demons are not real. It is scientifically impossible for demons to exist.'
"Then you're just being stubborn. As I've already said simply because you haven't encountered a demonic being before doesn't make them any less real. There have been tens of thousands of demon hunters throughout history who have given their lives in a valiant effort to insure humanity exists and you sit here and say demons don't exist." Xander stated. "How can you presume to know everything about the Earth, it holds secrets that to this day stump the best the world has to offer and you have the sheer gall to say that since you have never seen it, it can't possibly exist."
With that the room seemed to sit back in stalemate. Xander sat on one side who already knew of the existence of creatures that were natural enemies of mankind and who could only be described as demonic while the other side was stacked with the military minded who refused to believe in the truth of something that they could not see. Thinking that there was no way he was going to ever convince the military that demons actually existed Xander was worried that now that he had revealed his true identity to them that they would either just toss him in the slammer till he died or they would attempt to covertly keep informants on him at all times to keep track of what he did after he left the SGC assuming that he was allowed to leave in the first place.
A low pitched hum filled the air and at the opposite end of the table from General Hammond appeared the small form of Thor, sitting in his throne like chair.
"What the hell is that!" Shouted Faith as she saw what to her eyes looked like a demon appearing out of thin air. 'And they say they don't believe in demons, for fucks sake they have one right here in front of them!'
SG-1, Jacob and General Hammond all winced at the tone that Faith had just used when she reacted to Thor's arrival.
"I am Thor, supreme commander of the Asgard fleet." Thor stated calmly. Over the many millennia of his contact with the more primitive members of the human race he had grown quite accustomed to those types of reactions from humans not accustomed to meeting with the Asgard race.
"Fleet! Demons have fleets!" Faith looked very worried and confused at the same time. Turning to look at Linda who she hoped would have the answers to explain this situation to her because she had no clue as to what the hell was going on but to her dismay she saw the same confusion spread across her watcher's face.
The answer came from Alexander Harris, the Spartan, who responded before the SGC personnel could get over their shock of how Slayer had reacted to Thor's appearance. "Thor isn't a demon; he's a member of an alien race known as the Asgard."
"Oh."
"So whatcha doing back here Thor, I would have thought you'd be back home long before now?" Jack asked trying to return the meeting back to some semblance of order.
"I have returned in order to determine if your people's leaders are prepared to begin the negotiations." Thor responded absently.
General Hammond fielded this one. "We should have a special negotiator arrive within the next few hours to begin the negotiations which are really a formality considering that according to the President we will accept the treaty with the Asgard."
"That is most relieving to hear General Hammond." Thor replied while he turned his gaze to the side of the table which contained a few humans who had reacted far differently than those in the employ of the SGC that he had encountered before. Jack having seen that Thor was curious about the others gave the introductions. "Uh this is Alexander Harris also known as 'Spartan' a self styled 'demon hunter' and Watcher, Slayer, and Carolyn and Joseph McNally."
"I did not expect to encounter demon hunters at Stargate Command." Thor replied resting his gaze on the armor that the one known as Spartan wore. It appeared to be far in advance of what he had seen of Human's technological capabilities.
Daniel was the one to pick up the tone in Thor's voice. From the way he said demon hunters, he acts like he's met them before. "Uh Thor, do you mean to tell us that you've spoken with demon hunters before?" He asked in shock.
"No, I have not met them before. I have merely been informed of their existence from tales passed down from the Asgard who helped the Ancients in their war with the demons who infested their homeworld many millennia ago."
That quickly put a crimp into the arguments that demons didn't exist. If the Asgard, currently one of the most powerful and knowledgeable races in existence and known to Earth knew of the existence of demons then it must be true. Major Carter's mantra was quickly shattered with this revelation but her keen mind was attempting to find some other possible explanation for the existence of demons but so far she wasn't able to come up with anything that was even remotely scientifically plausible.
"So now what?" Xander asked. He had placed nearly all of his cards on the table and it was now up to the SGC to determine how things went from there. Hopefully if they lived up to their reputation they would allow him and the others to leave in peace but if needed he could fight his way out of the facility, though the chances of taking causalities along the way were high especially for those amongst the group who had no training in combat situations namely Carolyn and Joseph the two that he had originally come to save.
"I will contact the president and determine a suitable course of action. If what you say is true about the threat these demons pose to mankind then it might be time for the US military to get involved." General Hammond began.
Xander cut in. "If you're thinking of actually using normal soldiers in the fight against demons, think again. Most demon races that are hostile to man are naturally stronger, more resilient and have more knowledge in the ways of magical and demonic artifacts. Using common everyday soldiers will do nothing more than increase the body count and if they're turned into vampires cause a lot of problems."
"Well that what do you suggest we do? I am certainly not going to sit by idle when I know of a threat to the security of the United States and for that matter to the very survival of the human race."
"If you're going to involve yourselves in the fight then you should at the very least use Special Forces or similarly trained units. They should at least be able to hold their own against demons for the most part."
"We'll take that under consideration and I will pass your recommendation along to the President and the Joint Chiefs." General Hammond said as he stood to head towards his office, presumably to place a call to the President of the United States. Xander sat back in his chair, still being careful to not fully place the weight of the armor on the chair knowing that it would snap like a twig under the weight and waited. Apparently this meeting was going into extra innings. With the possibility of involvement by the United States military in the war against demonkind it meant that a few things were going to have to change. He could no longer afford to operate merely from the shadows he would have to take a more open stance and at least attempt to coordinate his assaults on demon nests with the military units that would most likely be assigned to the hellmouth. If the government took his advice to heart then at least he would be working with the best of the best which would make it easier but there were still a lot of things that could go wrong and he still hadn't received any guarantee that he and the others would be let go, which was somewhat unsettling but hopefully that would be addressed once General Hammond returned.
101010
Coming to Cordelia instantly knew that something was drastically wrong. For one thing the last thing that she could remember was that she had been heading to the library to return an overdue book, a rarity in the Sunnydale high school library seeing as how its shelves were stuffed to the brim with books on demon races and ancient prophecies instead of books that any teenager would actually want to read, and the after that it all went dark. Shaking her head to clear in an attempt to get rid of the pain that was flaring from the back portion of her skull she looked around the room she found herself in and noticed two things that sent shivers of fear up her spine, one she was chained to a large stone table and the second, she was naked.
Struggling in terror Cordelia attempted to free herself from the chains that shackled her to the table but whoever had chained her up had done his job extremely well. There was barely any slack in them and even if there was she doubted that she would have been able to force her way free, it wasn't like she had the strength needed to break the iron chains anyway.
Hearing the sounds of footsteps coming closer she shut her eyes trying to pretend like she was asleep hoping that she could either catch her captors off guard or they would leave her alone if they thought she wasn't awake.
"Might as well open those eyes luv, I can hear your heart racing from here." Came a distinct British voice. Opening her eyes she stared in horror at the image of Spike standing in the open doorway in his trademark outfit. Standing beside him was Drusilla the insane vampire seer who was considered extremely dangerous according to the book she read on them in the library during one of the few research sessions she attended.
The two master vampires strode into the room and moved to flank Cordelia standing on either side of her while she struggled again in vain to find someway, anyway out of this room.
"Now that you're awake I think its time we had a little fun time together don't you?" Spike said as he let his eyes roam over her nude body.
Before she could even think of screaming or even pleading for her life she saw something that for a moment filled her with hope but was quickly snuffed out. Angel walked into the room and stood at the end of the stone table near her feet. In his hands was a fireplace poker that was glowing red hot at the tip.
"I think its time you screamed." Angelus said as he held the tip of the poker to the sole of her foot while she screamed in pain and attempted to move her foot away from the searing pain of the poker. He held it there till the flesh seemed to start to melt and char slightly.
"Don't pass out on us now; it's going to be a long day." Angelus laughed as he switched the poker to her other foot.