Chapter 21 - Blue Genes Disclaimer: I own neither Buffy, nor Roswell, nor SG-1. The characters and worlds of these are the property of their respective owners. I have created only the plot.
Killing the two UberVamps had given everybody at Scooby Central a well-needed boost of morale. The Potentials were more willing to put their faith in Buffy and the others to protect them now that they'd shown they could handle an UberVamp. Or two, even.
More potentials showed up during the next week. They were overflowing Slayer Central, so a call was put in to Liz, who persuaded Heimdall to allow some of the potentials to crash in the Moon Base.
Dawn told the Scoobs what she and Daniel had talked about. Willow was very intrigued by the clues and the mystery, so she had Dawn go up there for a massive battery of tests. The Asgard scanners were able to measure right down to the quarks that made up her atoms. Dawn's DNA wasn't really different from baseline human, although she was a carrier of both the Ancient gene and what they'd dubbed the Furling gene. They did however find an anomaly on the cellular level. Her cells seemed to have a construct consisting of an extra Golgi apparatus fused with its own mitochondrion.
"How is that even possible?" Carter asked, examining the scan. "These readings are correct?" she asked the Asgard.
"We took skin samples and blood samples from several different locations throughout her body. Every cell we tested: skin, blood, hair, even nail clippings, contain examples of this phenomenon.
Dawn bit her lip. "But what does it mean... Oh god, I'm some sort of mutant freak..."
Carter considered this. "No. I don't know what function these constructs perform, but they don't seem to have affected you in any adverse way. Medical is not my department, though."
"Phew," Dawn said, visibly relieved.
Willow brightened. "Maybe... maybe it's related to our Furling genes?"
"Well, we can test that theory easily enough," Carter said. "Dawn can use magic. If this is the biology required for magical potential, then you should have them, too."
Loki continued to examine Dawn's complete bio-readout, apart from the rest of the group. He had seen and was investigating something completely different.
"Well, let's get a scan of me then!" Willow bounced.
Heimdall ran Willow over to the scanning device. Even the Asgard computers required some time to process and analyze a person's complete quantum make-up, so wild theories were bounced around among the humans for a while while they waited. Heimdall said nothing, but watched the conversation with amused interest. After a minute or two, their speculation was broken by a small grey alien with a logical inconsistency.
"Hmm." Loki suddenly said.
"What's wrong, Loki?" Liz asked.
"I have found something of an anomaly in Dawn's age."
"Well, I mean, that's probably expected. She was created by magic three years ago," Willow said.
"Curious. That does match somewhat, but is not completely consistent with my readings." the small grey alien replied.
"What do you mean?" Dawn asked. She remembered her conversation with Daniel and what Oma had said.
"Her genetic age is what one would expect... sixteen point-four-seven-three-three years."
"That's about right, I guess," Dawn said, counting out the months and days, which seemed to match somewhat with her birthday. "What's so weird about that?"
"Your carbon-age is three point six-two-six-four years."
"Yeah, that's when we expect that the monks made me." Dawn said.
"Again, this is not inconsistent. We find this inconsistency in our clones, as well. However, I am unable to discern what the significance of the other number."
"Other number?" Carter asked. "What other number?"
"Her quantum age is twenty-three point two-oh-eight-two years."
Dawn shouted out an expletive in Sumerian.
"How does that work? Shouldn't her quantum age be the same as her carbon date?" Willow asked.
"Yes," Carter replied. "It should."
Xander and Isabel were snuggled on the couch. They were watching a movie of some kind on TV, not really paying attention to it, but content to just sit with one another in the dark in the TV's inconsistent glow. Isabel's fingers were partially entwined with the fingers of one of Xander's hands, and they sat in silence like that, playing with one another's fingers, until Xander finally opened his mouth.
"This thing..."
"Xander, stop," Isabel interrupted.
"No. Let me say this," Xander pleaded. "I've got to get this out. This thing between us... I don't know what it is. I don't know if I'm just your rebound guy, or if I'm Mr. Right, or Mr. Right Now, but I want you to know that..." Xander paused to gather himself. He took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then let it out. Turning his dark eyes on hers, he held her gaze, brushing her cheek with a caress. "I love you.I haven't known you that long, but I already feel like a part of you."
She looked at him seriously for a minute, the tension palpable. He added, "I don't hold any delusions of being your heart. I'll settle for a spleen maybe. Or one of the removable parts like a Gall Bladder or Appendix...Mph!"
He was cut off as Isabel, very suddenly, jumped up and kissed him. Thoroughly. Xander thought he'd never been so really, truly, good and kissed. "Shut up, you dolt. I love you too. Ugh! I can't believe you didn't already know that!"
"I can't read your mind," Xander said.
"Haven't you flashed?" Isabel asked, looking surprised.
"Sorry, no.. closest I ever came was a speedo when I joined the swim team this one time..."
"No, I mean, when Liz and Max make out, they get flashes... visions of one anothers' lives. Michael and Maria have noticed it too."
Xander frowned. "I can't honestly say I've noticed that. Which, frankly, makes me feel very inadequate."
Isabel laughed a little at his self-deprecating joke, and realized that she'd never had a flash with him, either.
It was a little unsettling, and both of them were quiet for a long time.
Ba'al had secured a cadre of fully human slaves in one of his raids on Anubis' territory. Thirteen of them were now hung naked in a circle around the Seal on Samakrah. Strange symbols had been drawn on them all in their own blood. Ba'al spoke his words, "Fakushk'a gramathra..." a wicked knife on a metal arm lowered from the ceiling, between all the sacrifices. Suddenly, a click was heard, and the knife revolved in a circle, slashing the bellies of all of the poor human 'cattle' hanging up.
Drusilla/the First smiled. "It smells like Christmas morning..."
Ba'al smiled arrogantly as the blood ran down onto the Seal. It quickly covered the Seal completely. Ba'al spoke the next line of the spell. "Lak'rana Urin romakra, Samakrah..." as he continued to chant, the blood began to be absorbed into the Seal, and the wicked looking horned goat covering the seal began to glow. The ground began to rumble, and the sound of gas being released made the cavern roar.
Drusilla/the First ran her hands down her body as she bathed in the putrid presence of the opening Hellmouth. "Oh, it's been SO long... This is the best birthday ever!"
"Curak 'Sama! Libkhan Fe'hli UNAK!" Ba'al screamed.
Drusilla/the First fell down and rolled on the ground screaming in pleasure. She continued this while Ba'al continued to chant, and a palpable feeling of power built up in the room. It was almost as though the spaces between the air molecules were being filled in with a malignant energy, and beginning to burst.
When the ritual was finished, she looked up at Ba'al and smiled wickedly. "That was fun."
Ba'al surveyed his handiwork. The bodies had all been consumed. With them had disappeared the Seal.
For the first time in millions of years, there was a Hellmouth completely open in this dimension.
"Oooh," Dawn said, suddenly dizzy. She started to slump down in her chair, and Willow and Sam immediately looked concerned.
"Sweetie, are you OK?" Willow asked.
"I don't feel so good, all of a sudden," Dawn murmured. "Dizzy, sleepy... drained."
"Maybe you should lie down," Sam said, pointing her to the medical exam table.
Willow conjured up a pillow for her, and laid her head down on it. They were very worried, and then about ten minutes later, Dawn suddenly shot straight up. "It's open!" she shouted.
"Man, this has been a breeze since the UberVamps were dusted," Kennedy had said to Buffy earlier that night. She'd been taking the Potentials on patrols with her for a week now. It had been quiet, and Buffy didn't like it. After all, she knew that when Sunnydale got quiet it was usually because the Big Bad was planning something.
Still, it was difficult not to be happy that they hadn't seen hide nor hair of the First or UberVamps since the big fight.
At first, she'd been so proud of them for beating the two Turok-han. Now though, she was getting more and more antsy. The thought about it as she lay down in bed. She was tired from sparring all night with each of the potentials. Spike had come to be helpful with them as a training partner, but even so, there were so many of them and just the two of them able to approximate the kind of speed and strength that the Potentials would be dealing with out in the field.
Buffy's dreams were pleasant, her mother had made her pancakes, Dawn was being bratty, and her father had kissed her goodbye on his way out to work. Buffy sat at the breakfast bar talking with her mother as she chowed down on her pancakes. None of her family had ever heard of the Slayer, and she was the most popular cheerleader at Hemery High.
"How'd you feel about some more," Joyce said.
"Thanks, mom," Buffy replied happily. "I love your pancakes. Can't get enough of 'em."
"I didn't mean more pancakes," Joyce/the First said. "You don't even know how much trouble you're in,"
Buffy's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"
"You all feel like you've won a major battle. You don't even get it. Let me show you." Joyce/the First grabbed Buffy by the hand.
Buffy was startled. "You... how can you touch me? You're incorporated."
"This is a dream, Buffy. I can do whatever I want here. Come along," the evil replied. The scene blurred away, replaced by the black of space, as stars whizzed by faster than lightning. A sphere grew in their vision. It was half light, half dark. They seemed to float around toward the dark side, as the planet (for that was what it was) grew ever and ever larger. In the space of a second that seemed to last forever, they were standing in a dark cave with a wide hole in the ground. "In we go," Joyce/the First said, pushing Buffy in.
What came next shook Buffy to the core. Under the hole was a vast cavern. In this cavern she saw UberVamps. A sea of them; there seemed to be no end. As far as her eyes could see, there were more, and more, all slobbering and grunting and skulking around in a massive throng.
"Do you get it now?" Joyce/the First said. "You are so dead. You can't fight this. Stop trying."
Buffy gulped. Looking out again over the limitless sea of Turok-han, she thought the First might be right.
Suddenly, Buffy woke up in a cold sweat in her bedroom. "Oh god," she whispered, "we are so dead."