Chapter 21

When Daniel and Sam had entered the room where Mr. Giles was waiting, they hadn't expected him to not react to their entrance at all. Instead, he seemed to be gazing thoughtfully at the wall and only turned to look at them when Daniel cleared his throat politely. He seemed startled for a second, and Sam noticed that his pupils seemed slightly dilated as if he had been looking into a bright light, before turning to them instead.

"Doctor Jackson and Captain Carter, I would say it is a pleasure to meet you but, quite frankly, under the current conditions I would have to say it is not."

Daniel sighed, taking a seat on the opposite side of the table from their 'guest'. "Mr Giles, we were hoping you could answer some questions for us…"

'Mr Giles' looked amused. "You must know that the chances of me answering anything of more importance than my preferred beverage are rather slim, particularly when you take into account your treatment of my companions and me."

Sam blinked. "Considering that you kidnapped the daughter of an Air Force Colonel, have hacked into US government files and shown that you have advanced technology at your disposal… you don't like the way we've treated you?"

Giles turned to look at her, a small smile on his face. "I and the children were quite ready to come quietly. There was no need to knock us out. Also, I tend to look poorly on anyone that tries to run tests on any of my charges. The last people to do that found that they did not like the consequences."

"That military group you've been involved in?" Daniel asked causally, "We saw a reference about that, but not many details."

"You wouldn't. The Government likes to cover up their mistakes, particularly ones that require a retired librarian, two college students, a carpenter and a soldier who went AWOL to fix them. Still, that wouldn't have been necessary if they had listened to the various warnings and advice people kept offering."

"Oh?" Daniel commented, leaning back. "What happened?"

Giles let out a short bitter laugh, "Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do, Doctor Jackson. However, in answer to your question, the military decided to disregard the information offered by an organization which had been studying the details of that particular field for the past millennia. They also attempted to eliminate Buffy because she asked too many questions about their intentions and succeeded in torturing one of the then current members of our group. It was a shocking example of military arrogance and something that almost upset the natural balance that prevents open war between humans and the other inhabitants of this planet - a war that no species could survive without horrendous losses."

"Is that why you didn't tell us what was happening? You know about the Stargate, so you must have known we'd be more likely to listen to you if you'd come to us... especially as you'd be able to offer proof." Sam asked curiously. It was the one thing that bothered her the most. How could they have just dismissed the SGC when they had gone through their files and learned how much experience and knowledge they had? After all, it wasn't as if they would have turned Dawn in. They protected their own - the incident with Teal'c should prove that.

"We didn't tell you what was happening because we were out of time. Had there not been that to consider, we would quite happily have gone through official channels… or as official as you can get in our line of work. As it is, there is still not time. Even if we tried to explain you would not have accepted it, you are too scientifically minded and we do not have the patience to phrase everything that needs to be said in a way that you would accept."

"How can you say that when you haven't had tried?" Sam protested, ignoring the way Daniel was shifting uneasily. "We deal with aliens - what could be more shocking than that?"

Giles blinked and shook his head. "I understand you are a scientist Captain, but really you should know better than to tempt Murphy like that." He paused for a second, a small smile on his lips. "As for what we have to say, I place my faith in Buffy. No doubt she will happily explain our terms should you choose to ask her - this is her 'show' as you might say."

For a second, Daniel and Sam stared at the man, taking in his clear dismissal. Then, sharing a glance, the pair stood and headed towards the door. It was clear they weren't going to get anything more out of him, but they had gotten some information. That stuff about the military interacting with them before sounded particularly useful… after all, it meant that someone must have heard of the group so maybe there was chance they could still get answers.

-

Dawn forced herself to remain sitting up straight and glared harder at the woman / man / thing in front of her. It was dressed in a brown style robe and looked a bit like a picture she'd seen when she was younger. It had been of the troll that hides under a bridge, and she could remember the little head that stuck out as the goat tried to cross. She'd thought it was ugly then too. Now however, she had to put up with them fussing around, trying to get her anointed and dressed in their stupid medieval dress thing…

"Now what's all the fuss about?"

Dawn spun around to see the first human being since she had woken up. She stepped back, noting the way that the mini troll things were bowing down and muttering stuff about… Goddess. They were calling her a goddess. Maybe this was the Hell God thing that was mentioned, the Goa'uld that believed she was this Key! Dawn felt a deep anger well up, unlike anything she'd felt before and leapt at the woman, intent only on inflicting pain.

Three seconds later, she was intent only on the pain as she went flying into a wall. Curling in on herself, she clutched at her arm, momentarily forgetting where she was in the sharp pain that was coming from her elbow.

"Now that really wasn't nice."

Dawn looked up, blinking back tears at the voice. The woman was speaking, but it wasn't in the strange double tones that Sam's dad made when he visited. It was in a normal voice. That wasn't right.

"Here I am coming to see you, and you attack me! I mean talk about ungrateful…" She walked over and picked Dawn up by her injured arm, almost causing her to pass out from the pain. Dragging her over to a nearby chair, she put Dawn in it and stood pouting down at her. "Don't you want to have your real life back? Be free again?"

Right then the only thing Dawn wanted was her Dad and Janet to take away the pain. "What are you going on about?"

The lady blinked, a small slightly evil smile spreading across her face. "You mean to tell me that no ones told you? That they've tried to keep what you really are a secret? But that's great! It's the perfect way to spend your last five hours - telling you all about what you really are…" She hesitated and the leaned forward, smiling evilly. "You see your story starts with a bunch of monks in a little abbey. They were the Guardians of the Key, a source of power capable of tearing down all the walls between dimensions…"

-

Willow tilted her head to examine the corridor. She could sense the others; Xander and Anya were stuck in a room a couple of meters to her left while Giles was too her right. Buffy though, Buffy was down stairs. Chewing on her lip thoughtfully, Willow decided that it would be best to check in with their unofficial group leader and maybe reset up the telepathy spell. That way if her friends got into any trouble it would be easier for them to call her.

-

In the briefing room, Jack, Teal'c and the General waited for Sam and Daniel to head up. They had just finished explaining Buffy's terms to General Hammond and just as predicted, General Hammond was not happy. The SGC was a top secret government program with a lot of resources… putting it in the hands of a teenager, even one with the abilities that Doctor Jackson had mentioned, did not sit right.

"Colonel, what do you think of all this?"

Jack grimaced. "Well sir, as far as I can tell she's the leader of their little group and she knows a lot about what's going on and as much as I hate to say it, she has a point."

General Hammond blinked. Colonel O'Neill agreeing with her, even if it was only a little bit, was not what he had expected. "Oh?"

"She obviously knows what she's doing and what we do, but she thinks the two things are different enough for us to be out of our depth… and when you look at how the things that were at the battle were mostly immune to guns and zats, then she might have a point."

General Hammond hesitated, fiddling with a pen in his pocket. "Very well, we'll see what Captain Carter and Doctor Jackson found out from Mr Giles before going over how far we are willing to accept her demands."

"Demands?"

The room's occupants turned to see Doctor Jackson had just come down the stairs with Captain Carter just behind him. He'd obviously caught the end of their exchange and wanted to know what he had missed.

"Well Danny, it seems Buffy wants us to hand control of this operation to her and her people, take 'everything' that she says as fact and basically do what she says when she says it. Did I leave anything out, T?"

"I do not believe you did O'Neill, however I must point out that she also requested that if she tells us to 'back off' then we must do so under her terms."

George Hammond sat back, "Nevertheless, those are her terms. What did Mr Giles say?"

Daniel sighed and shared a look with Sam who answered the General's question. "Well, Rupert Giles did give us some more information on the military group they were involved in, sir. He also implied that because of the work we do with aliens we'd be less likely to accept what they work with. The most shocking bit was how he told us quite firmly that he would follow Buffy in this. Now I get what he meant."

Daniel nodded, "There were a couple of other things, though, that indicate good reason for him and his group to have a good level of distrust with the military. Not only did he assume that we were running tests on his 'charges', but he claimed that the previous group disregarded their warnings as well as attempting to torture and/or kill them. He stated that point more than once and it looks like they view the military as being a group or people who refuse to listen to reason and tend to screw up a lot, and like to pick fights."

"Ouch," Jack commented. "I don't suppose they'll make an exception because we're air force?"

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "You don't think they've already made concessions? They're offering to let us help them, basically volunteering to work with a group they don't trust and, despite everything, they haven't done anything hostile to us."

Jack rolled his eyes. "No, they've treated us like children. We can't be trusted to know what's going on. We wouldn't understand what they do despite the fact we deal with aliens everyday. Everything would be much easier if we just stayed out of their business."

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "You know we've been so busy trying to find them and get Dawn back that we're forgetting a few things."

General Hammond decided that was the time to interfere. "Like what, Doctor?"

"Well for a start, what would have happened if they hadn't stepped in when they did? Who would have gotten to Dawn first? Then there is the issue that, although we know that we're looking at a potential foothold and a bunch of cultists after Dawn, we're going after the people who have only expressed a desire to keep Dawn safe."

Sam blinked. "All the leads we could find were on them so we practically ignored the other two groups…"

"…because we couldn't find any information." Daniel finished. "Looking at what we know, the people locked in the holding room aren't the threat. The people who presumably have Dawn now are."